PROPER PLACE OF RACE DISTINCTIONS
Assuming that it is possible to formulate a platform deserving the approval of all races, it is appropriate for a student of any phase of race relations to suggest a plank for it. A student in the special field of race distinctions in American law may endeavor to show the place that such legal distinctions properly hold, bearing in mind all the while that the whole issue springs out of race consciousness as it actually exists to-day, not as it should be or as it may be in the distant future.
Let one imagine the existence of a Federal statute—waiving the question of its constitutionality—prohibiting States from legalizing race distinctions, so that all public places of amusement, accommodation, and instruction would be, so far as the law could make them, open to all persons, regardless of race. Such a measure, far from effecting its purpose, would doubtless be the beginning of extensive race discriminations. Once abolish separate hotel accommodations and the white race, wherever it is in the majority, would monopolize every hotel, leaving other races either to walk the streets or to find accommodations in private houses. Were separate street car accommodations forbidden in cities where there is a fairly large percentage of Negroes, if any passenger were forced to stand or be crowded off the car altogether, it would be the Negro. Were separate schools not permitted, Negro children might possibly be excluded from schools altogether in defiance of the law; but even if admitted, their interests, if different from those of the more numerous race, would have to be sacrificed. A further review of race distinctions now legally recognized would only more fully substantiate the conclusion that, with race feeling as it is, if such distinctions were not recognized and enforced, the stronger race would naturally appropriate the best for itself and leave the weaker race to fare as it could.
On the other hand, let one imagine that the same laws recognizing race distinctions as now exist in the South obtained in all communities where two races are nearly equal in numbers. Suppose, for instance, that separate hotels were permitted in all cities which receive an appreciable number of Negro travelers. Respectable Negroes might then secure comfortable entertainment in hotels provided for their race and thus escape the inconvenience and humiliation of being denied admission to hotels maintained exclusively for white persons. If separate schools were provided, Negro children would be free to pursue, unhampered by requirements prescribed for the more developed race and unembittered by continuous manifestations of race prejudice, a curriculum especially adapted to their own needs. Wherever separate railroad and street car accommodations were provided, a Negro might enter the car or compartment reserved for his race and go his way in peace, unmolested by the thoughtless or vicious of the other race. The result, therefore, of the honest enforcement of race distinctions would be to the advantage of the weaker race.