NEGRO IMMORALITY
In connection with Negro criminality it seems pertinent to say something of Negro immorality. Two of the Negro’s most prominent characteristics are the utter lack of chastity and complete ignorance of veracity.
The Negro’s sexual laxity, considered so immoral or even criminal in the white man’s civilization, may have been all but a virtue in the
habitat of his origin. There nature developed in him intense sexual passions to offset his high death rate. Then, too, the economic influences which fostered a family life among other peoples were mostly lacking in tropical Africa as nature provided abundantly without effort on the part of man.
Although the regulations adopted by masters for the control of the Negroes during slavery times may have served as a check upon their natural sexual propensities, however, since emancipation they have been under no such restraint and as a consequence they have possibly almost reverted to what must have been their primitive promiscuity. Huffman says that in 1894 more than one-fourth of the colored births in the city of Washington were illegitimate. Many prominent Negroes admit that above ninety per cent of both sexes are unchaste. A negro may be a pillar in the church and at the same time the father of a dozen illegitimate children by as many mothers.
Another Negro failing is lying. One can believe neither layman nor minister, neither criminal nor saint among them. One may occasionally find a truthful Negro,—just as he may find a virtuous or an honest one. Undoubtedly both honest and truthful was the Negro,—an elder in the church,—who refused to partake of the Lord’s Supper,
because, as he said, the flour the bread was made of had been stolen.
Some benevolently-inclined men and many religious zealots thought that religion and education was the “Open Sesame” by means of which the “salvation” of the Negro was to come. So they sent him money to build churches and to found great schools. Many, however, are now finding that though the Negro may have religion he has no morality; and that too often his education makes him unwilling to do what he can do and wish to do that for which he is unfitted or for which there is no demand. At present who can tell whether he is going forward or backward. Some one has said that there is going on side by side in the Negro people a minimum of progress with a maximum of regress.
However, the Negro takes great pride in his church, and in his way is intensely religious. The late Booker T. Washington said:
“Of these millions of black people there is only a very small percentage that does not have formal or informal connection with some church.”
It is, indeed, likely that more than one-half of the male Negro adults are actual members of church, while not more than one in four or five
white male adults have such connection. Notwithstanding such a showing, religion does not seem to have any controlling influence over the life and character of the Negro.
Nevertheless, the Negro enjoys his religion, for he is an emotional animal. It is the emotional element in religion that appeals to him and makes his face to shine. The promise of never-ending pleasure in a world to come may be but faintly comprehended by him, but the fear of a far off punishment deters him but little from crime. He is the optimist of the human race, and lives in the eternal present. He has no sorrows from the past, and no care except for the immediate future. He keeps without effort or intention two injunctions of Scripture: “Visit the sick,” and “have no care for to-morrow.”
He goes to camp meetings or revivals, sings, prays, and shouts until the small hours of the night. He may think he thus pays the Lord His due, even though the next day, if he works at all, he sleeps on the plow-handle, or with half-closed eyes cuts up the tobacco or the cotton.
However, he may be free from the painful necessity to work the next day, if his wife or mother should have just returned from a white neighbor with an “apronful,” even if he did not visit some
tempting smoke-house or hen-roost on the way home from his religious revelry.
How can Negro criminality and immorality be lessened? The answer is not easy, and what follows is merely suggestive. Up to the present, what little the Negro has accomplished, in most part has been due to the white blood he has received, or to white direction and sympathy. The Negro is woefully lacking in initiative and persistence. He would be greatly benefited by some sort of probationary oversight. If the Filipinos are not fit for self-government collectively, much less the Negro individually. A great part of them are no more fit to profit by their freedom than so many children. Nothing so promotes health of body and strength of character as regular and persistent industry. To the Negro should be preached the “gospel of salvation” through work. Somehow get him to work six days in the week, instead of working two and loafing four, as many now do. Industrial schools such as Hampton and Tuskegee meet a great need but they touch but few.
If the States had the power to train or even to enforce habits of industry and thrift upon the shiftless, idle, and vicious Negroes it would undoubtedly result in measureless benefit to both white and black. Liberty should not be made
a “fetish.” If the Negro has rights that should not be abridged, so have the white people rights and lives that should not be endangered. The law-abiding many have the right to protection from the criminal few—actual or incipient. With the adoption of some such scheme the Negro might gradually cease to be a menace to the white race.
Again, so often the Negro leaders of the Negro race are merely blind leaders of the blind,—entirely lacking in breadth of view, often discouraging in their race what they should encourage and encouraging what they should discourage as the following quotation may indicate:
“‘Make lynching a Federal crime, and stop turning the murderers over to local authorities who are in sympathy with them,’ demanded Dr. W. T. Vernon, of Memphis, Tenn., before 15,000 Negroes, who were celebrating the twenty-fifth quadrennial Conference of the African M. E. Church in Convention Hall, Broad street and Allegheny Avenue, yesterday.”[99:24]
Such talk as this serves to promote Negro crime. If instead of Negro leaders writing articles for magazines and Negro papers, in sermons in Negro churches, and in addresses before
Negro conventions denouncing the whites for protecting themselves against Negro crime in their own way, could realize that it is not so much the black skin as what sort of man the black skin covers, that counts, would demonstrate to their black brothers that they themselves are the sinners rather than the sinned against, that they are the transgressors rather than otherwise, they might accomplish much toward lessening Negro crime. If such leaders would use their influence to the utmost to make their race as law-abiding as the whites, and should bring it about, it is hardly likely that then they would need to complain that their race is imposed upon. But if they were, at least, there would be more force in their complaint. But so long as the Negro race commits its present amount of crime, the complaint against unfair treatment is more than childish.
FOOTNOTES:
[76:1] Both Tables I and II have reference to penetentiaries, no account being taken of other penal institutions. The calculations are based upon the census of 1910 and penitentiary reports of the same year, or thereabouts, but some prison statistics for other years are also given.
[77:2] Some State penitentiary reports give the number of prisoners on hand at a certain time, others simply those committed during a period of time, while a few reports give both items.
[81:3] My statistics are based on the census of 1910. The Special Report of the Prison Inspector of Alabama for the year ending September 30, 1914, and the returns of the county jails of Connecticut for the same period. As the white population of Connecticut increased about 225,000 during the previous decade, while the Negroes slightly decreased, I added 70,000 to the white population of 1910 to offset the increase of whites during the three or four years between 1910 and 1914. But as both races increased in Alabama I use the 1910 census for that State.
[81:4] In proportion to their respective population, of course.
[81:5] In order to avoid repetition, unless otherwise indicated, when one white to four Negroes or any such ratio is mentioned, the meaning is this: I divide the white population of the state by the white prisoners for the number of white people to each white prisoner, and divide the Negro population of the State for the number of Negroes to each Negro prisoner, and then divide the white prisoners by the Negro to get the ratio of Negro prisoners to the white.
[85:7] I made no effort to find these. I give here only a few of those taken from Baltimore Sun, Baltimore American, and refer mainly to Maryland, Virginia, and Delaware. What may be true in these States as regards Negro criminality, is likely to be found intensified farther south.
[86:8] Baltimore Sun, Jan. 6, 1910.
[86:9] Baltimore News, Oct. 20, 1916.
[87:10] Baltimore Sun, Aug. 4, 1915.
[87:11] Ibid., April 8, 1910.
[87:12] Ibid., Sept. 12, 1917.
[88:13] Baltimore American, Feb. 18, 1913.
[88:14] Baltimore Sun, Jan. 8, 1917.
[88:15] Ibid., Feb. 21, 1917.
[89:16] Baltimore Weekly Herald, July 8, 1909.
[89:17] Baltimore Sun, Aug. 15, 1914.
[90:18] Cambridge (Md.) Record, Sept. 12, 1913.
[90:19] Baltimore Sun, March 30, 1910.
[91:20] Baltimore Sun, Aug. 10, 1915.
[91:21] Ibid., Sept. 7, 1915.
[91:22] Cambridge (Md.) Record, Aug. 25, 1913.
[94:23] Methodist Protestant, July 28, 1909.
[99:24] Philadelphia Record, May 8, 1916.
CHAPTER V
SEGREGATION OF THE NEGRO
It is hardly to be questioned that since the Civil War the white man and the Negro have been drawing farther and farther apart. Religious teachers, political adventurers, and fortune hunters gave the first great impetus to the movement. The teachers, however, misguided, may have been sincere in their efforts to benefit the Negro; but the carpet-baggers had in mind only personal aggrandizement.
This political separation of the Negroes from the Southern whites was the entering wedge that split asunder the ties that had bound the two races together. Otherwise the Negroes might have divided with the whites between two or more political parties. This would have resulted greatly to their advantage for each party would have bid for their vote.
Upon the passing of the carpet-bag administrations, however, the Negroes lost most of their political importance. Since then it has been further
reduced until it is now almost a negligible quantity.
During the Reconstruction period, the attitude of the Negroes served to alienate their former masters, who undoubtedly would have otherwise been their best friends. Between most of the Negroes and the poor whites of the South, there had always existed a feeling of mutual dislike if not contempt. After the War great numbers of the latter secured wealth and influence. Their dislike of the Negro, however, has increased rather than abated.
Thus, the Negroes began to feel the lack of that sympathy, consideration, and direction from the whites to which they had been accustomed. Therefore, whether consciously or unconsciously, they turned to leaders of their own color more readily, and this has gradually developed a feeling of race solidarity. However, this should not be an unmixed evil.
Again, in many parts of the South, the industrial development of the past thirty years has furthered segregation in that section by drawing the whites to the towns and cities. But Negroes have also turned to the cities in great numbers notwithstanding the fact that the industrial enterprises of the cities usually hold out but little if any inducements to such migration. This has given rise to
the agitation for the segregation of the races in the cities whether voluntary or by legal enactment. While this is more pronounced in the South it has also spread to the North and West.
One of the most noteworthy examples of voluntary segregation is to be found in New York City:
“In one district of New York City a Negro population equal in numbers to the inhabitants of Dallas, Texas, or Springfield, Mass., lives, works, and pursues its ideals almost as a separate entity from the great surrounding metropolis. Here the Negro merchants ply their trade; Negro professional men follow their various vocations; their children are educated; the poor, sick, and the orphan of their race is cared for; churches, newspapers, and books flourish heedless of those outside this Negro community who resent its presence in a white city.”[103:1]
Indeed, in many parts of the country the Negroes have separated themselves from the whites by founding small communities of their own. In almost any state, villages and towns populated and governed almost exclusively by Negroes may be found. A few of the more important are: Buxton, Iowa, 1000 whites and 4000 Negroes;
Brooklyn, Illinois, 1600 Negroes; Balor, Oklahoma, 3000; Plateau, Alabama, 1500; Mound Bayou, Mississippi, 700.[104:2]
In addition, there are almost an unlimited number of what may be termed Negro settlements scattered over the country. Such is Petersburg, on a railroad two miles from Hurlock, Maryland, which may serve as an example. It consists of about twenty-five houses and lots or little farms, altogether embracing about one hundred acres. These are mostly owned by the Negroes who live on them. They bought these little tracts several years ago when the land was considered almost worthless as it was so sandy and poor. The men till their lots and occasionally work by the day for some of the surrounding white farmers. In season, the women and children and some of the men as well go elsewhere to pick berries. In the late summer all have employment at home for about two months furnished by a white cannery, near. Altogether it seems to be a very contented community. Each Negro is his own boss and can work when it suits him and stop when he pleases. To make such a living as satisfies him he need work scarcely half of his time. This just suits Negro inclinations and consequently Petersburg is a little paradise for the Negro.
However, the segregation of the Negro is not yet universal. In some towns and cities as well both North and South they are more or less scattered. In the City of Washington they are found practically everywhere. In most cities they occupy the most undesirable parts—such as any low muddy places or narrow alleys. In some small cities of the South, while there may be a well defined Negro section, nearly every well-to-do family has a Negro servant family in the back yard. La Grange, Georgia, is an example.
But in the greater number of towns and cities the Negro section and the white section have been clearly defined for years. Cambridge, Maryland,—a city of about 5000 whites and 2000 Negroes,—is of that sort. All the Negroes live in the Southwest section except two or three families that live in a kind of alley near the bridge which connects East Cambridge with the main part of the city. One sees but few Negroes on any white street, not even on the main business street except Saturdays when they do their shopping. But on the street just west of the main business street and parallel with it, the business street of the Negro section, only a few whites are ever to be seen but it is always black with Negroes. Here are Negro grocery stores, a drug store, barber shops, theater, schools, and churches. Very
few mulattoes are in evidence for the Negroes are nearly all of pure blood. One never hears of any serious trouble between the Negroes and whites of Cambridge for they live in comparative harmony with one another. At East New Market in the same county, a railroad separates the white from the Negro section of the town, while at Vienna, eleven miles distant, the Negro section is several hundred yards from the white part of the town.
Although Negroes constitute about one-third of the population of the Eastern Shore of Maryland, they have not become sufficiently numerous as farmers as to cause much injury to farm land or to farming interests, whether by careless and indifferent farming or by making the country districts undesirable to white people as places of residence. Most of the Negroes in the country districts are used by the white farmers as farm hands. Negroes are seldom able to rent the better grade farms while those owned by them are usually small and poor. As a consequence most of the land on the Eastern Shore is in a high state of cultivation and the farmers prosperous and contented.
In most parts of the farther South, however, except Texas and Oklahoma, and the Piedmont and mountain sections, the whites have allowed the
Negroes to gain such a foothold in the country districts that they are now the greatest obstacles to agricultural progress. The South is just beginning to realize the true condition of things.
Indeed, already in North Carolina an agitation has begun for the segregation of the Negro in the rural districts. If this could be accomplished in all parts of the South it would be a wonderful boon to that section. Not only would it to a great extent free the white women from fear of attack by Negroes but this would serve to attract to the South thrifty and ambitious farmers from other parts of the country. A more satisfactory social life could be developed in the rural districts. Adequate schools and churches could better be maintained, not only for the white race but for the Negroes as well. As a consequence both races would be benefited.
With the exception of the establishment in the South of separate schools for the whites and the Negroes, only in comparatively recent years has segregation been brought about by law. More than twenty years ago, however, a few Southern States had laws providing for segregation in railroad travel and now almost every Southern State has such a law. In some, Maryland for example, the law also applies to passenger steamboats. A certain section of the boat is given to the Negroes.
Both races have now become so accustomed to these laws that they are generally taken as a matter of course.
Lately many Southern cities have passed ordinances extending the principle of segregation in travel, to street cars. Mobile, Alabama, however, as early as 1902 had such an ordinance in force. As it was one of the first, and but slightly different from those in force in other cities, the main part is quoted here, as follows:
“All persons or corporations, operating street railroads in the city of Mobile or within its police jurisdiction shall provide seats for the white people and Negroes when there are white people and Negroes on the same car by requiring the conductor or other employe in charge of the car or cars to assign to passengers to seats in all the cars, or when the car is divided into two compartments in each compartment, in such manner as to separate the white people from the Negroes, by seating the white people in the front seats and the Negroes in the rear as they enter the car, but in the event such order of seating might cause inconvenience to those who are already properly seated, the conductor or other employee, in charge of the car, may use his discretion in seating passengers, but in such manner that no white person and Negro
must be placed, or seated, in the same section, or compartment arranged for two passengers: Provided, That Negro nurses having in charge white children, or sick or infirm white persons, may be assigned to seats among the white people.”[109:3]
The conductor is also given the authority of police officer to enforce the law.
The form of segregation which is receiving most attention in the South at present, however, is the effort of various cities,—great and small,—to provide by law, for (as nearly as possible) distinct residential sections for the two races. This question was first agitated in Baltimore in 1809. A segregation law was passed but it was soon pronounced invalid by the courts. In 1911, another such ordinance was put in force but it, too, was declared void, first by the Criminal Court of Baltimore, and later by the Maryland Court of Appeals. The latter Court, however, maintained that the city has the right to pass a segregation law. I quote the following words of the court:
“This Court is of the opinion that the Mayor and City Council of Baltimore may, in the exercise of its police power, validly pass an ordinance for the segregation of the white and colored races
without conflicting with the Constitution of the United States or of the State of Maryland.”[110:4]
Very soon after this, another ordinance was passed. It has now been in operation about four years (1917). However, the Maryland Court of Appeals is holding a case sub curia, awaiting a decision of the United States Supreme Court in a case testing the validity of the segregation law of Louisville.[110:4a]
In 1912 the Virginia Legislature enacted a law for the purpose, it seems, of encouraging the cities and towns of that State to segregate the whites and the Negroes. Richmond, however, had already passed a segregation ordinance in 1911. It is as follows:
“That it shall be unlawful for any white person to occupy as a residence or to establish and maintain as a place of public assembly, any house upon any street or alley between two adjacent streets in which a greater number of houses are occupied as residences by colored people than are occupied as residences by white people.
“That it shall be unlawful for any colored person to occupy as a residence or to establish and maintain as a place of public assembly any house
upon any street or alley between two adjacent streets on which a greater number of houses are occupied as residences by white people than are occupied as residences by colored people.
“That no person shall construct or locate on any block or square on which there is at that time no residence any house or other building intended to be used as a residence without declaring in his application for a permit to build whether the house or building so to be constructed is designed to be occupied by white or colored people, and the Building Inspector of the city of Richmond shall not issue any permit in such case unless the applicant complies with the provisions of this section.
“That nothing in this ordinance shall affect the location of residences made previous to the approval of this ordinance, and nothing herein shall be so construed as to prevent the occupation of residences by white or colored servants or employes on the square or block on which they are so employed.
“Every person, either by himself or through his agent, violating, or any agent for another violating any one or more of the provisions of this ordinance shall be liable to a fine of not less than $100 nor more than $200, recoverable before the police justice of the city of Richmond, and, in the discretion of the police justice, such person may, in addition
thereto, be confined in the city jail not less than 30 nor more than 90 days.”[112:5]
Some of the principal reasons for the demand for the segregation of the two races in towns and cities are given in the Preamble to the Virginia law of 1912 as follows:
“Whereas the preservation of the public morals, public health, and public order, in the cities and towns of this Commonwealth is endangered by the residence of white and colored people in close proximity to one another: therefore, be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia,” etc.
The effect upon public order of the “close proximity” of the two races may best be shown by the following quotations:
“Having occasion to ride on the Guilford Avenue car last week, going down town, there were 10 or 12 Negro men in their dirty working clothes. On one seat there were two of them; the other 8 or 10 had each of them a separate bench. Refined handsomely dressed women entering the car had to stand or sit beside one of these dirty Negroes.
I am not an enemy to the race. I believe they should have as good accommodations as we have, but they should be to themselves.”[113:6]
“I prefer rubbing elbows with them (Negro guano factory laborers) to riding with the so-called respectable Negroes on the Preston Street and other cross-town lines. On the Preston street line in particular conditions have become so unbearable that the writer, who formerly used this line to reach his place of business, has been obliged to adopt a more circuitous route, which takes fully twice as long.
“On this line respectable white people and white women especially, are subjected to every species of affront and insult, which they cannot resent without risk of being drawn into a dispute, in which no decent person cares to be involved. The Negroes realize this and it emboldens them still further.”[113:7]
“Residents in the 1300 block, Myrtle Avenue were greatly excited yesterday by a colored family moving into 1334 during the morning. The block is occupied by white people and this is the first intrusion by Negroes.”[113:8]
“Angered because a colored family had moved into house No. 128 Patapsco Avenue, a crowd of about 100 residents of Pimplico gathered before the dwelling last night and battered it with sticks and stones until every window pane was smashed, valuable chandeliers demolished and plaster knocked in great clouds from the walls.”[114:9]
“About 150 determined white men gathered early yesterday evening at a house on Mattfeld Avenue near Falls road, and camped on the grounds until a Negro family of two men and three women and two children living in the house left. . . . After the Negroes had found a place the men scattered. . . . No violence or cruelty was meant toward the Negro family, but that the neighborhood was determined to show that it was white and meant to stay white.”[114:10]
Indeed, objections are often made to the location of Negro churches, schools or Y. M. C. A.’s in or near white neighborhoods. The following newspaper headings may be sufficient to indicate the situation:
“Relay [Md.] Objects to Negro College,”[114:11] “Mount Washington Up in Arms Over the Plan
to Locate Morgan College [Negro] There,”[115:12] “Lafayette Square Protests Against Putting a Colored School On Its Borders.”[115:13]
Nor is this attitude toward the Negro confined to the South. If the North had as many Negroes in proportion to its population as the South, the feeling there would be just as acute. The following quotations so indicate:
“Boston, March 23.—Refusing to associate with Dr. Melissa Thompson, a Negress of North Carolina, who has been appointed a physician in the maternity department of the New England Hospital for Women and Children in Roxbury, five young white women doctors sent in their resignation.”[115:14]
“Boston, Sept. 8.—Here where years ago a mob of exclusive Back Bay residents stormed the old courthouse to free a Negro from his Southern master, descendants of the Back Bay rescuers to-day are fighting against serving as election supervisors with a Negro, whose appointment became known Wednesday.”[115:15]
“Ithaca, N. Y., March 28.—The petition of more than 200 women in Cornell University against the admission of [Negro] women into the only dormitory in the University has been forwarded to President Schurman.”[116:16]
“New York, July 2.—Twenty teachers, about half the staff at Public School No. 125, in Wooster Street, Manhattan—have applied for transfers, owing to the assignment by the Board of Education of William L. Burkley (mulatto) as head of the school.”[116:17]
“Burlington, Vermont, dislikes the idea of having the Tenth Cavalry at Fort Ethan Allen. The Tenth happens to be a colored regiment and the prospect of having 1200 Negro soldiers within three miles of the city is greatly exciting many of the people of Burlington.”[116:18]
“Akron, Ohio, August 13.—A serious race riot may take place if notices posted on the homes of North Side Negroes last night by members of a citizens’ ‘Vigilance league’ in that section of the city, who have warned the Negroes that unless
they sell their property and leave that section of the city, they will be forcibly evicted from their homes, which are also threatened with destruction.
“Members of the ‘Vigilance league’ declare to-day that the Negroes are practicing a form of blackmail by buying property in the fashionable residence district of North Hill, which they occupy until their white neighbors pay an exorbitant price for their property to get rid of them.
“They say several instances of this kind have been recorded recently and feeling against the Negroes reached a high pitch at a secret meeting held last night. The public have taken every precaution to guard against a serious outbreak.
“The Negroes have been given one week in which to sell their property and leave that section of the city by the ‘Vigilance league.’”[117:19]
“Bellville, Ill., Oct. 7.—Ten of the 13 Negroes who have been on trial here for a week, charged with the murder of Detective Samuel Coppedge on the morning of July 2, which precipitated the East St. Louis, Ill., race riots were convicted to-day and sentenced to 14 years in the penitentiary. Three were acquitted.”[117:20]
“York, Pa., Aug. 20.—Dr. George W. Bowles, a Negro physician, has started a movement here for the segregation of his race. Bowles believes that Negroes would be better taken care of if in one part of the town. Now the blacks are housed in the alleys and few are permitted to rent houses on the main streets.”[118:21]
A few such Negro leaders as Dr. Bowles, just mentioned, seem to appreciate the advantages of segregation for the Negro, and for both races. Others, however, object to segregation because to their minds, it is a denial of social equality with the white race, or that they are deprived of the best living conditions. If the Negro had the proper race pride he would welcome the opportunity to live among his own race. He would delight in the companionship of those of his kind. Among the Negroes would develop grades of society as among white people. Indeed, already in Baltimore Druid Hill Avenue and other streets have become a sort of aristocratic section for the Negroes. Those who have money have the opportunity to live among their own race in the best manner possible.
Other races are so proud of their traditional grandeur or present attainments as to claim
superiority and exclusiveness. But the Negro has such little race pride that were it possible every Negro man would have a white wife and every Negro woman a white husband. Many Negro leaders are so lacking in race esteem as to seize every opportunity to force themselves into the society of other races. And although they possess a strong sense of their rights they are usually found unmindful of attendant obligations.
The great mass of Negroes, however, soon accommodate themselves to segregation regulations, whether for schools, railways, or for the residential sections of cities and seem to care but little about the question of equality. It is only when stirred up by the unwise of their own race, or by some sentimental, if well-meaning, but shallow-thinking whites, who have lived far removed from association with Negroes, that they manifest much interest in such matters.
In association among races, unless there is some strong cementing influence to counteract it, friction is likely to occur between them in proportion to racial difference. And so long as racial antipathy shall exist—and practical minded men see no signs of an end of it in the near future—regulations for the promotion of harmony should be encouraged by both whites and blacks.
It would be almost as reasonable to expect an
idiot and a genius to find a common ground of association as to expect it of a white man and a Negro. For in both races there is a failure to recognize that consciousness of kind which is the basis of all pleasant association. Indeed, even the subdivisions of the white race show a strong preference each for those of his own division. An Italian prefers to associate with an Italian; a German, with Germans; and a Jew, with Jews.
So, in the last analysis, the most potent reason for the segregation of the whites and the Negroes is their unlikeness. For they are antipodal in the extreme: the nadir and zenith of peoples. This dissimilarity cannot be removed by soap and water, time, charity, education, or culture. After all these it will yet remain.
Another reason for segregation is the criminality and immorality of the Negro race. Even if it would benefit a few Negroes or satisfy their vanity to travel with whites or to live on the same street with them is little reason why the comfort, property values, health and morals of the whites should be endangered thereby. The better elements of society have rights as well as the worst and the majority should receive consideration as well as the minority. It is in strict accord with sound ethical principles that laws should aim to level up rather than to level down.
Again, the susceptibility of the Negro to disease is another very potent reason for segregation laws. The Negro’s manner of living since his emancipation—irregular in every way, sometimes half-starved—together with their immoral habits, have so weakened the constitutions of a great part of them that they easily become victims to disease.
According to the Washington Post (March 3, 1917) of 20,000 Negroes who had lately arrived in Philadelphia from the South 1000 were ill with pneumonia and tuberculosis, of whom 700 were said to be dying.
The “Negro Year Book” for 1914-15 makes the statement that 450,000 Negroes in the South are seriously ill all the time, and that 600,000 of the present Negro population will die of tuberculosis. When one recalls that thirty-five years ago tuberculosis among Negroes was scarcely heard of, he may the better appreciate the full force of the above statement in regard to tuberculosis among Negroes.
In a letter calling a conference in Baltimore to consider better housing conditions for the Negro, Mayor Preston said:
“The insanitary housing of many of our colored people and the congestion within the area in
which they reside are developing breeding for disease. The condition is a serious menace to the general health of the city. It threatens to become in the future a matter of such gravity as to challenge the thoughtful consideration of our entire community. . . .
“The high death rate in Baltimore is occasioned by the high mortality among the colored people. The death rate from tuberculosis alone is three and a half colored to one white.”[122:22]
The Health Department, in a bulletin issued about the same time, showed that the death-rate per thousand of the Negro population of Baltimore was 33.96, while that of the white population was but 16.91. What is true of Baltimore is more or less true elsewhere.
It is needless to consider other reasons for segregation laws, the three given; viz., to lessen friction, to check criminality and immorality, and to prevent the spread of disease, are sufficient warrant for segregation laws of whatever kind.
FOOTNOTES:
[103:1] The Outlook, Dec. 23, 1914.
[104:2] “Negro Year Book,” 1914-1915.
[109:3] Code of Mobile, 1907, p. 330.
[110:4] Baltimore Sun, Aug. 6, 1913.
[110:4a] Found void by U. S. Supreme Court, Nov. 5, 1917.
[112:5] Baltimore Sun, Aug. 8, 1913.
[113:6] Letter to Baltimore Sun, March 11, 1914.
[113:7] Ibid., Aug. 18, 1913.
[113:8] Baltimore Sun, Aug. 22, 1913.
[114:9] Baltimore American, Sept. 21, 1911.
[114:10] Baltimore Sun, May 19, 1916.
[114:11] Ibid., January 13, 1914.
[115:12] Baltimore Sun, August 26, 1913.
[115:13] Ibid., Aug. 14, 1915.
[115:14] Ibid., March 24, 1911.
[115:15] Baltimore American, Sept. 9, 1911.
[116:16] Washington Times, March, 28, 1911.
[116:17] Baltimore Sun, July 3, 1909.
[116:18] Democrat and News, Cambridge, Md., Sept. 3, 1909.
[117:19] Baltimore American, Aug. 14, 1913.
[117:20] The Philadelphia Record, Oct. 8, 1917.
[118:21] Baltimore Sun, Aug. 21, 1913.
[122:22] Baltimore Sun, Feb. 20, 1917.
CHAPTER VI
NEGRO WEALTH OR POVERTY,—WHICH?
The statement sometimes made that in 1865 the Negro was a landless and penniless race is far from the truth. Some slaves had property that they had secured through opportunities given them by their owners. No doubt free Negroes secured at least a small share of the public domain. Many slaves upon being given freedom by benevolent masters, were also given money or property at the same time.
Cases of this sort were frequent during slavery times. Several such instances are given in the Staunton (Va.) Democrat during 1846-1848. Such cases as the following were not uncommon:
“A Negro man named Lerr; age about 35 years; a slave for life $700.” “A negro man named Jacob; age about 24; a slave from life—$600.”[123:1]
These were two items in an inventory of the estate Phillip B. Saddler returned to the Orphans’ Court of Baltimore in 1860.
Even The Liberator mentions some cases of the kind. For example:
A man in Kentucky willed to his slaves, whom he made free, horses, wagons, farming implements, and $4,000. Another, also in Kentucky, freed a Negro family of four, purchased an excellent farm for them, paying fifty dollars an acre, and in addition gave them a wagon, a pair of mules and a quantity of provisions. These are given merely as examples of what was constantly taking place.[124:2]
Indeed, there were many rich free Negroes in the South at the time of the Civil War. Although there is abundant evidence that the free Negroes, as a rule, were an indolent, thriftless, and even vicious class, some of them, no doubt on account of the reënforcement of white blood in their veins, were industrious and prosperous.
At Charleston, S. C., alone in 1860, there were 355 free Negroes who paid taxes.[124:3] Of these 226 owned real estate valued at $1,000 or more, each.
Some of them had $10,000 to $40,000 worth of property. Altogether they had almost $1,000,000 worth.
In Louisiana also, as might be expected, there were many wealthy free Negroes. Most of these were descended from the French and the Spanish planters and their Negro slaves. One free Negro family of Louisiana was said to be the richest Negro family in the United States before the War, having property valued at several hundred thousand dollars.[125:4] Frederick Law Olmsted, who traveled through the State about 1855, was told that some of the free Negroes owned property worth $400,000 or $500,000, which included some of the best sugar and cotton plantations. Indeed, all over the country might have been found free Negroes with more or less property. The greater part of it, no doubt, had been given them by white masters or white relatives.
In reference to the amount of property held by Negroes at the time of the Civil War, William H. Thomas, a Negro writer, says:
“We have no trustworthy data by which to measure the wealth of those residing in the North, though it is known to have been considerable;
but in the South, where separate racial statistics were kept, the value of property owned by free Negroes was between $35,000,000 and $40,000,000.”
In 1860, there were in the neighborhood of 250,000 free Negroes in the South and around 225,000 in the North. Then, if the free Negroes of the South had nearly $40,000,000 it would seem a fair estimate that in both sections the free Negroes had at least $60,000,000. Taking this for granted, as money at six per cent compounded, annually, doubles every twelve and one-half years, the $60,000,000 at interest until the present (1917) would have amounted to about $960,000,000. If the 10,000,000 Negroes of the country at present had as large amount of property in proportion, as the less than 500,000 free Negroes of 1860, they would be worth more than $1,200,000,000.
However, in 1903, it was estimated by a committee of the American Economic Association that all the taxable property in the United States owned by Negroes in 1900 amounted to only $300,000,000. The $60,000,000 at six per cent would have amounted to about $400,000,000 by that time.
In 1913, in an address before the Negro Business
League which met in Philadelphia, Booker T. Washington said that Negroes pay taxes on $700,000,000 worth of property. Many other students of the Negro question both black and white have placed about the same estimate upon Negro holdings. Even if true, the amount would be about $200,000,000 less than the $60,000,000 at interest to the same time.
Now, assuming that Negroes actually owned $700,000,000 worth of property in 1913, what does it signify? The value of all property in the United States is now estimated at almost $250,000,000,000. Now, suppose that it was $210,000,000,000 in 1913, this would be just three hundred times the estimated value of Negro property at the time. In other words, 10,000,000 negroes owned one three-hundredth as much as 90,000,000 whites. Thus one white man on an average would have as much as thirty-two Negroes.
Even were it true that the Negro race began with nothing after the War, likely thousands of white men who became millionaires had just such a start. One such white man, especially, is, no doubt, worth as much as the 10,000,000 Negroes claim to be, even though he has given to charity almost half as much more.
Indeed, the $700,000,000 in question is but little
more than two-thirds as much as the whites in the United States, according to the Chicago Tribune,[128:5] gave to charity during 1916. Again, the $700,000,000 lacks nearly $200,000,000 of being equal to the taxable basis of Baltimore. It would be difficult to secure statistics in reference to the matter, but there could be little doubt that the first immigrants to the United States after the Civil War, including the descendents of such to the number of 10,000,000,—immigrants who came with practically nothing, no money in the majority of instances and ignorant,—now are worth many times $700,000,000.
The $700,000,000 may also be considered from another point of view: The “Negro Year Book,” 1913 credits the Negro with $700,000,000 worth of property and speaks glowingly about the increase of the previous ten years. The statement is made that farm land and buildings owned by the Negro increased from $69,639,426 in 1900 to $273,506,665 in 1910, and that during the same period the total value of Negro farm property, including live stock, and implements and machinery increased from $177,408,688 to $492,898,216.
Now, the Census shows that in 1900 Negroes
owned 13,770,801 acres of land entire and 2,205,297 acres in part. If their share of the land owned in part were half, then, the Negroes had in possession 14,873,449 acres. In 1910, they owned 15,961,506 acres entire and 3,114,957 acres in part. Allowing them the same share of that held in part as for 1900, gives them in 1910, 17,518,984 acres. However, only about two-fifths of the land owned by Negroes is arable, the larger part being woodland, swamp, rough and stony land, much of which is almost valueless.
According to the “Negro Year Book,” Negro farm land and buildings increased in value from $7.98 an acre in 1900 to $17.40 an acre in 1910.[129:6] If this is true; the value of the Negro lands and buildings in 1900 was $118,690,124 instead of $69,639,426; and in 1910, $304,830,032 instead of $273,506,665.
Again, Negroes operated in 1910, 893,370 farms while but 241,221 of these were owned or partly owned by them. An idea of the value of the farm stock on these farms, and the Negroes’ lack of thrift as well, may be had from a statement made before the Negro Conference at Tuskegee Institute in 1915:
“An investigation has shown that there are 20,000 farms of Negroes on which there are no cattle of any kind; 27,000 on which there are no hogs; 200,000 on which no poultry is raised; 140,000 on which no corn is grown; on 750,000 farms of Negroes no oats are grown; on 550,000 farms no sweet potatoes are grown, and on 200,000 farms of Negroes there are no gardens of any sort.”[130:7]
According to the Census, however, on farms operated by Negroes, farm implements and machinery increased from $18,859,757 in 1900 to $34,178,052 by 1910, while live stock increased in value from $84,936,215 to $184,896,771. Adding to these amounts for 1910 the above sum of $304,830,032 for Negro lands and buildings a total of $523,904,855 is obtained for 1910 instead of $492,898,216, which is the Negro Year
Book estimate.[131:8] So here credit may be given the Negro for the larger amount.
Again, according to the Census of 1910, Negroes owned around 220,000 homes other than farm homes. No estimate as to their value is given. Although $400 each is undoubtedly a high valuation they may be roughly estimated at that. This amounts to $88,000,000. Booker T. Washington claimed for Negroes just before his death, 43,000 business interests.[131:9] The observation of the writer is that Negro business interests average much less than $1000 each. Indeed, great numbers not more than $100 or $200 each. However, if they average $1000 each they amount to $43,000,000.
By adding the three items: $523,904,855, the
value of Negro farm property; $88,000,000, Negro-owned homes other than farm homes; and $43,000,000, the value of the Negro business interests; a grand total of $654,904,855 is obtained. Thus it would appear that in 1913 Negroes might have had around $700,000,000 worth of property in their possession.
Naturally the next question that comes to mind is this: How much does the Negro owe?
Scarcely without exception the white man is his creditor, consequently what the Negro owes is to be subtracted from the amount of his possessions.
According to the Census of 1910, something like 65,000 Negro farms and 50,000 Negro-owned homes have mortgages or similar encumbrances against them. It is unlikely that this is true to any large extent except as regards the more valuable Negro properties. If the average farm mortgage is $500 and the average home mortgage $300 both together will amount to $47,500,000. It is reasonable to suppose also that the 43,000 business interests owe at least $15,000,000.
Again, while more than 150,000 Negro farms and about as many more Negro homes were reported by the census as free of encumbrance, nevertheless, it is not unlikely that they owe a large amount of money in notes, bills, etc. Nor need it be forgotten that often Negro tenants owe their
landlords fully as much as the entire value of such tenant’s personal property.[133:10] Many Negroes in one way or another owe about as much as they are worth. This is undoubtedly true of some white men, also, but the point is, what Negroes owe they owe to white men. A well-to-do farmer told the writer a few years ago that he held various kinds of small claims to the amount of more than $4000 against the Negroes of his community. So, $50,000,000 should not be an excessive estimate for such Negro liabilities.
By adding these various items; $47,500,000 in mortgages and liens against Negro farms and homes; $15,000,000 against Negro business interests; and $50,000,000 against Negro farm owners, home owners, tenants, etc., gives a grand total of $112,500,000. Subtracting this from $654,904,855, which was found to be the value of Negro property, leaves $542,404,855 as the value of Negro property when debts are paid.
Again, in regard to the statement above that Negro farm property increased in value from $222,485,096 in 1900 to $523,904,855 in 1910 one may need to be reminded that live stock and land about doubled in money value during this
time and that by 1913 they had more than doubled. This was due mainly to the wonderful increase in the output of gold mines thus making money cheaper. With this depreciation in the value of money the Negro, of course, had nothing to do.
Except for this, it is unlikely that the $222,485,096 the valuation of Negro farm property in 1900 would have increased to more than $265,000,000 in 1910 instead of $523,904,855. For during the time the Negro added but 2,645,535 acres which may be valued at $21,000,000. The remaining $23,000,000 being sufficient to allow for the improvement of the land, if any, and any actual increase of cattle and farm machinery. Now, subtracting $265,000,000 from $523,904,855 leaves $258,904,855 which was due to rise in price rather than to effort on the part of the Negro. Again, subtracting the $258,904,855 from $542,404,855, the value of all Negro property after their debts were paid, leaves $283,500,000 which, except for the circumstances over which the Negro had no influence, would have been the actual wealth of the Negro about 1913, instead of $700,000,000 as claimed.
Of this amount, no doubt, quite a large part was given to individual Negroes by whites for one reason or another. I have already adverted to the fact that during slavery times Negroes often
received both money and property from kind-hearted masters, along with their freedom. How much has been given them since emancipation would be hard to determine. Only a short while ago, indeed, the New York Tribune mentioned a white woman who had left her Negro maid $12,000 in cash, and other valuables in addition.[135:11]
Moreover, it has been estimated, that of the $28,496,946, the value of plant equipment and endowment of Negro private schools, five-sixths was contributed by whites and only one-sixth by Negroes.[135:12] During the years 1912 and 1913 white people gave nearly $2,000,000 towards Negro education.[135:13] Nor does there appear to be any falling off in the white man’s gifts to Negro schools. In the early part of the year 1917, the Rockefeller Foundation appropriated to American schools and colleges $575,200, of which $197,000, several times their share, was given to Negro schools.[135:14] In addition, Federal and State institutions for the higher education of the Negro have an income about $1,000,000 and property valued at $6,000,000.[135:15] Nor is this all, no doubt, Southern whites
have contributed several times as much to Negro education by taxation as has been given otherwise.
Again, the amount of money and lands that the Negro secured during the reconstruction period might be an interesting subject for investigation. The Negro legislator had the same privilege as the white one to sell his vote and influence. Nor could there be little doubt that he failed to use the opportunity. The following story is credited to Senator Z. B. Vance of North Carolina:[136:16]
A Negro member of the North Carolina legislature was found chuckling to himself over a pile of money which he was counting. “What amuses you so?” he was asked. “Well, boss,” he replied, grinning from ear to ear, “I’s been sold in my life ’leven times, an’ fo’ de Lord, dis is de fust time I eber got de money.”
During the Reconstruction period taxes became so oppressive that thousands and thousands of farms and plantations were sold at auction for taxes. In some places land became almost valueless. It is hardly to be doubted that many Negroes who got easy money through politics at this time failed to use some of it in the purchase of land.
Now, what is the reason for the poverty of the Negro? Indeed, from the foregoing it must appear that poverty is a more appropriate word to use in such connection than wealth. The answer is not far to seek. It is the natural result of the Negro character, disposition, and training. The following letter is suggestive:
“ . . . ‘I have done my work practically the whole summer with the exception of a few weeks that I had a trifling no account Negro, and even then I had to do the best portion of it in order to get them to accomplish anything. When they would wash and iron, those days I did everything else and they helped a little with the ironing, for if I didn’t they would never get through. They [Negroes] are absolutely worthless, and if I didn’t have small children I wouldn’t let one light within a mile of me. . . .”[137:17]
A Negro who worked in the strawberry section of Delaware told the writer a few years ago that although he usually worked in the daytime he roved about every night. It happened that once, when he had been carousing as usual on the night before, that he was put to harrowing strawberries.
About three o’clock in the afternoon the overseer came along and found that he was harrowing up the strawberries from one end of the row to the other,—he was so sleepy. The overseer simply told him to put his horse in the stable and go to bed, which he did. As he got some sleep, when night came he was out again for a great part of the night; and so on.
As a laborer, the Negro is not so satisfactory as formerly. The old-time Negro, trained in slavery to work, has about passed away and his successor is far less efficient and faithful to duty. Lately, large numbers of Negro laborers have shown a tendency to leave the farms for work on railroads, in sawmills, and in the cities, large numbers migrating to the cities of the North. They like to work in crowds and this often results in making more work for the police.
From the good wages Negro laborers have received for several years, many of the more far-sighted have saved enough to buy little homes. A few of the more ambitious may continue to save, but far the greater part are then perfectly satisfied and settle down to a life of ease and contentment. By raising a hog or two, a few chickens, some garden vegetables, and, with a day’s work now and then, they pass their time in a way suited to their indifferent nature.
A concrete example may be of interest. A pure Negro, about thirty-five years of age, a few years ago, purchased about half an acre of land on the bank of a “branch” near a small village in Maryland. For a few dollars he bought an old discarded house about one hundred and fifty yards away, and with the aid of neighbors moved it on his lot. It is doubtful if both the lot, and the house (after being moved and repaired) cost him more than one hundred dollars.
This Negro has been living in it for years and seems perfectly contented. His family consists of himself, wife and three daughters eleven to seventeen years of age. The surrounding country is one of the best tomato growing sections in the United States and during about six weeks of the tomato season tomato pickers are in great demand and make good wages. During this time the Negro man and his family usually work hard; for they pick by the basket and make in the neighborhood of two hundred dollars. This is practically their year’s work. The remainder of the year they do but little. They have a garden, pigs, and chickens. It would be an easy matter for this family to get ahead in the world; but they prefer the easy life of comparative idleness,—for this was their incentive to secure a home.
This is also one of the main reasons, no doubt,
for the great increase in Negro tenant farmers, especially that of share tenants. The latter class increased about thirty-six per cent between 1900 and 1910. Many of these seldom work a full day at a time. As they usually put off cultivating a crop to the last moment, if a wet season happens to set in, it is soon greatly damaged by a growth of grass. As a tenant farmer, the Negro realizes that he is more independent, his time is his own, and that he can usually work when he pleases. A great part of his time is given to various Negro recreations,—such as visiting, riding and driving, crap-shooting, preaching, attending revivals, and camp-meetings.
So the cause of the Negro’s failure to secure a reasonable share of wealth is not lack of opportunity,—for (at least, in the South) he has every opportunity that he could wish in order to do so,—but rather to his racial traits or characteristics,—some of which are: a happy-go-lucky disposition, indolence, shiftlessness, laziness, indifference, lack of mental stamina and ambition, and strong criminal tendencies.
FOOTNOTES:
[123:1] Baltimore Sun, Dec. 18, 1909.
[124:2] Liberator, Jan. 20, 1854, and Nov. 9, 1860.
[124:3] Ibid., May 11, 1860; E. Collins, “Memories of the Southern States,” p. 44.
[125:4] Liberator, March 18, 1859. Also, Olmsted, “Seaboard Slave States,” pp. 633-640.
[128:5] The Chicago Tribune, Dec. 30, 1916, gives a list of gifts to charity during 1916 as near $1,000,000,000.
[129:6] According to the census, “The average value of farm property per acre was $27.01 for farms operated by Negroes in 1910 as compared with $13.08 for 1900, and $47.72 for farms operated by whites in 1910.” There was no indication whether all land or merely arable land is meant. About three-fourths of the farms operated by Negroes are rented. Observation convinces me that farms owned by Negroes are not more than half so valuable an acre on the average as the land rented by them, for from necessity they buy the least valuable land. This being true, Negro lands in 1900 could not have been worth more than $6.00 an acre and about $13.00 in 1910. However, in making any calculations as to the value of Negro lands and property, I will take the Negro Year Book estimate and apply it to all Negro land.
[130:7] Scott and Stowe, “Booker T. Washington,” p. 171.
[131:8] The estimate of $7.98 an acre in 1900, and $17.40 an acre in 1910, according to the “Negro Year Book” mentioned above, is undoubtedly too high by at least one-third, but I use it so as to give them the advantage rather than otherwise. I know a body of 1,300 acres of land in my own county, Dorchester, Md., consisting of some cleared land, woodland and brushland, which a real estate man told me could be bought at five dollars an acre. This is such land as the Negro usually buys. Only a short distance from the body of land mentioned in this note land is valued at from twenty-five to one hundred dollars an acre.
[131:9] Among the Negro business interests are 64 banks which are often mentioned in Negro speeches. It seems, however, that two of them have failed. The total capital of these banks is said to be $1,500,000. In striking contrast are the 27,000 white banks with $2,162,900,000 capital. Petersburg, Negro settlement in Md., mentioned above, has two Negro stores with hardly $100 worth of goods, each.
[133:10] I make no mention of the little personal property often not taxed many poorer Negroes possess, for the reason that usually such Negroes owe retail store keepers even more than their little property would sell for.
[135:11] New York Tribune, Jan. 25, 1917.
[135:12] “Negro Education,” Government Printing Office, 1917, Vol. I, p. 8.
[135:13] U. S. Educational Report, 1914, Vol. I, pp. 612-13.
[135:14] Baltimore Sun, Jan. 30, 1917.
[135:15] “Negro Education,” Government Printing Office, 1917, Vol. I, p. 12.
[136:16] James Ford Rhodes, “History of United States,” Vol. VI, p. 305.
[137:17] Quotation from a letter shown to the writer, which was written by a woman in Richmond.
CHAPTER VII
THE FUTURE OF THE NEGRO
Many solutions of the Negro problem have been proposed. Men so gifted with imagination that they do not find it necessary to consider either logic or facts, over and again, in a single speech or magazine article, have solved it to their individual satisfaction. Such proposed solutions are usually no less preposterous than visionary. With these I have nothing to do. As elsewhere in this study, so also here, I consider only what seems to have a firm basis of fact.
However, in passing, I may be pardoned, if I have the temerity to suggest the following, which, although seemingly fanciful, yet may have sufficient ground in reason as to merit some consideration: If about 100,000 square miles of territory on the Gulf of Mexico, embracing, say, Louisiana east of the Mississippi River, excepting New Orleans,—the southern part of Mississippi and Alabama, the part of Florida south of Alabama, and a small part of southwest Georgia, were set apart as a State or States to which all the Negroes in
other parts of the country be encouraged or obliged to migrate, it might result in great good to both races.
Something like half the population of this section are Negroes, while the whites that are here are mostly in the towns and cities. The area suggested is more than that of New York and Pennsylvania combined. There would be room for all Negroes in the country for generations to come. As the Negro states would be members of the Union, with representatives and senators in Congress, the Negroes would have an opportunity under the Federal Government to develop a political and social world of their own removed from the overshadowing presence of the white man. If the Negro showed himself unable to develop the power of local self-government under such an arrangement, his case would be absolutely hopeless. However, there are so many difficulties in the way and so many objections that might be made that no one need either hope or fear that any such thing will ever be undertaken.
But somewhat more in keeping with common sense and prevalent ideas is the proposal that Negroes be encouraged to distribute themselves equally over the country; thus relieving the South of its burden of Negro population. If such an equalization of the Negro population could be
carried out, the Negro then being everywhere few in numbers to the whites, could the better be held to the white man’s standard of conduct. Not only so, but the Negro would have an opportunity to absorb the white man’s civilization more quickly, if ever. In addition, the race question would cease to be sectional, and laws mutually advantageous to both races could then be passed.
Before going further, even at the risk of digressing,—for it is a matter of justice to the Negro,—it should be said in favor of the Negro that even though he is the most alien race among us, no question as to his patriotism is ever raised. He has fought in all our great wars and has shown himself patriotic to the core.
A day or two after President Wilson had made his German War address before Congress, the writer happened by the Star bulletin board in Washington, and noticed a German talking to a big burly Negro against war with Germany. He pointed to the bulletin board and told him not to believe anything he saw there for it was all lies made in London. The Negro seemed to listen in a half-disgusted sort of way, but as he started off he was understood to say:
“I wish I was with some colored soldiers in Europe. We would show the Germans how to fight.”
The Negro has no kindred country to look to, so he is undivided in his allegiance. This cannot be said of all other races among us,—not of the Japanese and Chinese who seek admission at our Pacific shores. Like the Negro they cannot be assimilated by our people. In numbers, however, they would constitute a much more dangerous element to our welfare and safety than the Negro. Japan is almost abreast of our civilization and the western nations are doing their best to train China to be an antagonist worthy of their steel, should she ever have cause to cross swords with them. Large numbers of Chinese and Japanese would not only add to our race problems but would increase our chances for friction with their home governments. In addition they might constitute a reverse army of the enemy in our midst in case of war. But no such danger need be feared from the presence of the Negro.
I have just adverted to the fact that the yellow race and the black are not easily assimilated with the white race. It may be well that it is so. To the normal white man amalgamation with these races is almost unthinkable. Nevertheless, there are a few misguided individuals who surely have either a mental or a moral twist who persist in joining together that which nature has put asunder.
A few years ago, a minister sent the following telegram to the Governor of California:[145:1]
“I have just married a Japanese to an American and have done more for God and Uncle Sam than the alien land bill will do in 1000 years.”
It is not the ungodly that cause the suffering in the world so much as the bigoted if well-intentioned fools. Self-elected good people can usually be counted on to cause a lot of mischief. If those who set themselves up as leaders and ethical teachers would but first make sure that they were possessed of at least a fair amount of common sense!
In a recent Methodist Conference at Roanoke, Virginia, the statement was made that the records of some churches in Massachusetts show that in the previous year “17 per cent of the marriages were those in which Negro men married white women or white men married Negro women.”[145:2] This is the more remarkable when account is taken of the very small Negro population of that State.
It is even sometimes asserted that the Negro would bring to the white race some qualities which would tend toward the development of a more perfect man. But such an idea has no basis in fact. The following quotation is to the point:
“We have ample experience to go upon in South America, in the West Indies, in the Southern States themselves. The mulatto exists and has existed for generations, not in hundreds or thousands, but in millions; in what respect has he proved himself the superior of the pure Spaniard, or Portuguese, or Anglo-Saxon? Does South American history bear testimony to his political competence? Have his achievements in science, in literature, in music, been superior to the un-Africanized peoples? Or waiving the question of superiority, has he ever in these domains, produced meritorious work in any fair proportion to his numbers? I do not say that it is impossible to make out a sort of case for him, by the ransacking of records and the employment of a very indefinite standard of values. But I do most emphatically say that no conspicuous or undeniable advantage has resulted from the blending of bloods, such as can or ought to counteract the instinctive repugnance of the South.”[146:3]
It is said that an investigation of 2200 Negro authors showed that nearly all of them come from the mixed stock.[146:4] How many of these would take
first, second, or even third rank in the literary world? It is needless to answer. Indeed, Negroes and mulattoes have been toilers in the United States for generations but who ever heard of an important labor saving instrument invented by them? The same abilities or characteristics which would make a white man only locally important would make a Negro or a mulatto famous. There were thousands upon thousands of white men intellectually and otherwise superior to Booker T. Washington who gained but little recognition, but because he was a negro, or rather mulatto, Washington’s abilities stood out in striking relief. Mulattoes ought to furnish the leaders of the Negro race for the best white blood runs in the veins of some of them. Although mulattoes may furnish the Negro leaders, there can be no doubt that they also furnish far beyond their share of the vicious and the criminal elements of the race as well.
It may be pertinent in this connection, however, to observe that in the South the two races have been gradually drawing apart, amalgamation or miscegenation is becoming more and more repugnant, the conditions which favored it do not obtain to anything like the extent as formerly, as a consequence the mixing between the whites and the blacks is rapidly lessening. Although the census shows an increase in the number of mulattoes
from decade to decade, the increase is mainly due to the mixing of mulattoes with pure Negroes.
Some students of the subject, who seemingly are more familiar with the conditions in the North and the border States than with those of the farther South, sometimes estimate from one-third to one-half of the Negroes in the United States to be mulattoes. This, I am confident, is a mistake. I was reared in a border State, have spent some time in the North as well as in several Southern States, and have been in many of the leading cities of the South. My observation leads me to believe that the Census, in this respect, is more nearly correct than any other source of information.
The Agents of the Census, in 1910, were instructed to “report as ‘black’ all persons who were evidently full blood Negroes and as ‘mulattoes’ all other persons having some proportion or perceptible trace of Negro blood.” Accordingly in a population of 9,928,000 Negroes in the United States there were found to be 2,050,000 mulattoes, 20.9 per cent, or a little more than one-fifth.
By geographic divisions the percentage of mulattoes among the Negroes was as follows: New England, 33.4 per cent; Middle Atlantic States, 19.6; East North Central, 33.2; West North Central, 28.7; South Atlantic, 20.8; East South
Central, 19.1; West South Central, 20.1; Mountain, 28.6; and Pacific States, 34.7.
Of the Northern States, Michigan took first place, with 47 per cent of mulattoes among her Negroes. Maine was next, with 45.9; and Wisconsin third, with 39.4. Those with the smallest percentage were Wyoming, 13.1 per cent; New Jersey, 15.8; and Pennsylvania, 19.2. The Southern States having the largest percentage were, Virginia, 33.2 per cent; West Virginia, 32.5; and Missouri, 28.4 per cent. A large number of States in the South had a small percentage of mulattoes among their Negroes: Maryland, 18.6 per cent; Georgia, 17.3; Mississippi, 16.9; Alabama, 16.7; South Carolina, 16.1; Florida, 16.0; Delaware, 11.9; and the Eastern Shore of Maryland which borders Delaware on two sides, had only 11.1 per cent, or one mulatto to every nine Negroes; thus the Eastern Shore has the distinction of having fewer mulattoes in proportion to its Negro population than any other section. It is therefore evident that in the North the proportion of mulattoes among the Negroes is from about one-fifth to almost one-half; while in the South the proportion ranges from above one-eighth to about one-third. In the States where the bulk of the Negro population is found it is only about one-sixth. With slight exceptions, it seems to be true
that the fewer to the white population the more mulattoes there are in proportion to the number of the Negroes.
Indeed, may it not be true that the much larger proportional number of mulattoes among the Negroes of the North in no small measure accounts for the greater proportional amount of crime among the Negroes of the North? So it would appear that the amalgamation or miscegenation of the whites and the Negroes is not a leveling up but rather a leveling down process; at best nothing otherwise than building up the Negro by lowering the white. So no greater nor more fearful calamity could befall the white race in America than that the Negro should lose his identity through being absorbed by this great division of the Anglo-Saxon race.
Again, many optimistic white men have thought that the Negro could be raised to the white man’s level by means of the training and culture that comes through the study of books. To these education for the Negro has been a watchword. To a large extent Southern whites have been in sympathy with the education of the Negro. Indeed, many years ago, contrary to what one not familiar with the South might suppose, a prominent man in North Carolina in seeking a congressional nomination on a platform hostile to Negro education
failed even to carry his home county. And efforts to restrict the amount appropriated to Negro schools to the part of the school taxes paid by Negroes have failed.
Since 1870 the South has spent on Negro education around $230,000,000 and is now appropriating for that purpose near $10,000,000, annually. It is doubtful if the Negro contributes in taxes even half the amount spent on his public schools. In 1912, according to the Educational Report of that State, North Carolina spent $436,480.08 for Negro teachers and Negro school buildings, of which the Negro contributed in taxes for schools $190,378.81, or a little more than two-fifths. Texas spends not far from $2,000,000 a year on Negro schools, and Georgia about $850,000. The District of Columbia, indeed, spends more per capita on Negro pupils than on whites. However, this is a notable exception.
There are also more than six hundred private and denominational schools of secondary and college grade in the United States for the higher education of the Negro. The property of these is valued at about $28,500,000.[151:5] From 1865 to 1917 about $65,000,000 has been contributed to Negro education in the South through various religious and philanthropic organizations.
But notwithstanding the fact that the illiteracy of the Negro race had been reduced by 1910 to about thirty-three per cent, there is a widespread feeling of disappointment in Negro education. Not that it has made the Negro more criminal as has sometimes been said, however, this is not yet well determined, but rather that it has failed to make him a greater producer, or to aid him to adjust himself to economic conditions. Instead of firing him with the desire to do more and better work, too often he quits it altogether.
As a teacher or a preacher the Negro has a wide field for his race needs him and the State and the Church pay him. But as a doctor, lawyer, or other professional, poverty and pauperism (the condition of the greater part of the Negro race) militate against them. In addition, the Negro has not yet sufficient confidence in the professional skill of those of his own race as to cause him to employ them exclusively.
There is a growing conviction in the South that the first aim of Negro education should be to fit the Negro for the opportunities of his social and industrial environment. Also that it should endeavor to strengthen his will power, in order that he may overcome his constitutional inertia; and that it should give him a knowledge of sanitary living, thus preventing disease.
In the South Carolina Public School Report for 1915, the State Superintendent of Schools has this to say:
“The Negro is here and is here to stay. He cannot remain ignorant without injury to himself, his white neighbors and to the Commonwealth. His training should fit him for the work that is open to him. . . . While industrial education is needed for both races it is especially desirable for the Negro.
“The money now expended for Negro education is largely wasted. Can we afford longer to allow this large element in our population to follow their present practices and remain in their present condition?”
Such schools as Hampton Institute and Tuskegee have fairly well demonstrated that industrial education is at least a good thing for the Negro. In these and other such schools thousands have been given an inspiration for a higher plane of living. Indeed, it is claimed that very seldom is any graduate of these two schools convicted of crime:[153:6] The influence of Tuskegee on the Negro in a material way may be appreciated by the statement that in 1881 when the school was opened in
Macon County, Alabama, not more than fifty or sixty Negroes in the county owned land, but in 1910, 503 Negroes in the county owned 61,689 acres, “probably the largest amount of land owned by the Negroes of any county in the United States.”[154:7]
If a few Negro industrial schools make such a good showing, then why not multiply the number? Indeed, it is yet too early for either the Negro or his friends to indulge in too much optimism in regard to the matter. For while it may be true in general that whatever is done in behalf of a lower element in a society benefits the whole society, at the same time, it needs to be borne in mind that to the extent that it is done to the cost or by the neglect of a more homogeneous and wholesome element in the society or if it in any way militates against such element it is a questionable proceeding.
What if the industrial education of the Negro should be found to conflict with the interests of the white laborer or skilled worker? Does any one suppose that it is the purpose of the South so to educate the Negro (or even allow him to be so educated) as to enable him to take the bread from the white man’s mouth? And does any one suppose that the laboring white man of the arrogant
and aggressive Anglo-Saxon race will stand tamely by with folded arms while there is danger of its being done?
This is the central point of the whole situation. But in the South the contest between these two conflicting interests is not yet, as the demand for labor skilled or unskilled is too great. The Negro has had and can have all the work he wants and more for the asking; indeed, often his labor is anxiously solicited. How long this will continue no one knows, positively. However, when the population of the country reaches 150,000,000 or 200,000,000 then labor will likely be as plentiful here as it is now in Europe. Then, the labor of the Negro will hardly be solicited, rather otherwise. The white man’s sympathetic attitude toward the Negroes’ many shortcomings is fast passing. When the Negro is required to measure up to the white man’s standard and is found wanting, what remains for him?
Furthermore, the Negro might as well get fully in mind that, although the white man sometimes may win without merit (yet often fails to win even though deserving to do so), for the Negro himself, even though merit may not win, without it he will have absolutely no show. He must be not only as well adapted to an occupation, or qualified for it, as a white man but better.
Until lately those especially interested in the welfare of the Negro might have entertained the hope that he would hold his place in his customary occupations or even make them in great part his very own. This would have been a kind of segregation to occupation analogous to his segregation as regards residence and at least as advantageous to him. But in hardly more than one occupation is such the case. As a porter he seems to have the field practically to himself, and as hod-carrier he is in demand. But as a barber he has fast been losing ground. The Negro as a waiter takes more pride in his occupation and is more polite and obliging than the white man of the waiter class but he is even being displaced in this work. Even as a farm laborer, for which service he has been trained for generations, he is losing his grip. “Too slow, unreliable, inefficient” are some of the counts against him.
The idea that prevails outside the South that Negroes do practically all the work on Southern farms is far from the truth. More than half of the cotton crop is raised by white labor,—in Texas, three-fourths or more. Even in sugar and rice fields white labor is getting common.[156:8] Often, indeed, a farmer will not employ a Negro if he can get a white man.
Indeed, the Negro farm laborer and the Negro farmer are the greatest stumbling-blocks in the way of the agricultural development of the South. Were it possible to remove from the South at least three-fourths of these and replace them with whites whether native or foreign there can be no doubt that the production of Southern farms would be wonderfully increased. It is an injury to the South and to society as a whole that the Negro has under his control even as much land as at present. When his “slipshod” farming gives place to more scientific and businesslike methods there will be more farm products for distribution.
The inefficiency of the Negro as a farmer is strikingly shown by a study of the conditions in several Mississippi counties:
“Lowdnes County with three Negroes to one white man, having 21,972 blacks and 7121 whites, requires 3.15 acres to make a bale of cotton, while James County, with three whites to one negro, having 13,156 whites and 4,670 blacks, requires 1.98 acres to make a bale. The farm lands of Jones county are valued in the census reports at $2.85 per acre and the farm lands of Lowdnes County at $9.83 an acre. Yet the poor lands of Jones County under intelligent cultivation produced nearly
twice as much per acre as the rich lands of Lowdnes County when cultivated mostly by Negroes . . . in every comparison made between a white county and a black one the black was the most fertile, yet the white was nearly twice as productive.”[158:9]
Such a poor showing for the Negro almost persuades one that he deserves to be supplanted by whites in farm work and in farming, even if he should not be. At present the South holds out unequaled attractions in the way of climate, rich soil, and cheap lands, to those of other sections of the country who may be seeking farm homes. And there can be little doubt that with the passing of the free public lands the tide of immigration in the near future will set in that direction, in spite of the presence of the Negro. Then what will become of the Negro when he shall have to compete with the thrifty hard-working Poles, Bohemians, and native Americans from the North and the West? Will he be simply pushed aside and left to gravitate to a still lower level? Nothing will save him unless he soon wonderfully changes in habits and disposition. So the Negro may as well look forward to the time when he will be
supplanted in these occupations to which he thinks himself so well adapted and in which he thinks himself so well fortified,—those of farm laborer and farmer.
Finally, may not the unquestioned physical deterioration of the Negro since his emancipation as shown by his susceptibility to disease together with his high death rate portend the ultimate practical extinction of the race in the United States? During slavery times the Negro was fairly well fed and usually worked according to set regulations. Evidently such food and training had no little to do with developing a sound body, and disciplined his mind to some extent as well.[159:10]
According to De Bow, the mortality of the free Negroes before the War was a hundred per cent greater than that of the slaves. It even appears that the death of the Negroes in the South at that time was less than that of the whites. In Charleston, S. C., the average death-rate from 1822 to 1861 was 25.98 a thousand for whites and 24.05
for Negroes. About the same was true of some other cities. From 1865 to 1894, however, the average death-rate at Charleston was 26.77 a thousand for whites and 43.29 for Negroes.[160:11] No doubt the slight increase of the death rate among the whites was due to the rapid increase among the Negroes as the whites necessarily came more or less in contact with the Negroes.
Indeed, very significant in this connection, is the statement made in the “Negro Year Book” (1914-15) that an average of 450,000 Negroes in the South are seriously ill all the time, and that 600,000 of the present population will die of tuberculosis.
The Census shows that both pneumonia and tuberculosis are diseases very fatal to Negroes. And strange as it may now seem, in slavery times Negroes were thought to be practically immune from tuberculosis. Indeed, it is said that, about 1882-3, there was exhibited at a clinic in Charleston, S. C., what was supposed to have been the second case of tuberculosis ever found among Negroes.[160:12] This is very remarkable, if true.
In each city of the following list of twelve is given the number of times more deaths that
occurred from tuberculosis among Negroes in 1910, according to the Census, than among whites: Providence, 1.82; Richmond, 2.05; Boston, 2.46; Atlanta, 2.48; New York, 2.64; New Orleans, 2.70; Memphis, 2.80; Philadelphia 3.00; Baltimore, 3.14; Washington, 3.34; Charleston, S. C., 3.55. It may be noticed that more than three and one-half times as many Negroes as whites died of tuberculosis in Charleston. The comparative statistics for pneumonia differ not very much from those of tuberculosis.
However, the ratio of death-rate from combined causes is much lower than this. The average death rate a thousand in eight Northern States in 1910 was 21.9 for Negroes and 15.1 for whites; while the average for two Southern States was 23.7 for Negroes and 15.2 for whites. In ten Northern cities it was 23.64 for Negroes and 15.99 for whites; for the same number of cities in the South it was 30.60 for Negroes and 17.22 for whites.[161:13] Again, in thirty-three Northern cities the death rate among Negroes was 25.1 a
thousand and 15.7 among whites, while in twenty-four Southern cities the death-rate was 29.6 for Negroes and 16.9 for whites. For the fifty-seven cities together, 27.8 for Negroes and 15.9 for whites.[162:14] Thus, it is seen that the death rate among Negroes is not far from twice as great as among whites, but contrary to the general impression it is less in the North than in the South.
Moreover, statistics show that the Negro is not increasing in this country as fast in proportion as is the white man. Indeed, he seems to be falling behind in his own percentage of increase. Between 1890 and 1900 his increase was 1,345,318 but from 1900 to 1910 it was only 993,769. Again, the percentage of Negroes in the population of the country decreased from 19.03 per cent in 1810 to 10.69 per cent in 1910, and from 14.13 per cent in 1860 to 10.69 per cent in 1910. In other words, while the whites increased nearly three and one-half (3.4) times between 1860 and 1910, the Negro increased only two and two-tenths (2.2) times.
That this difference between the increase of the two races was not due to the immigration of whites is shown by the fact that from 1800 to 1840 when there was scarcely any immigration of whites the population of the country increased more than
three and a fifth (3.21) times, while from 1870 to 1910, an equal number of years, when immigration was almost at its height, the increase was only a little more than two and a third (2.38) times. Again, during the fifty years, 1790 to 1840, it increased four and a third (4.34) times; also, between 1810 and 1860 it increased in the same ratio (4.34); while for the fifty years from 1860 to 1910 it increased only something more than two and three-fourths (2.86) times.
Indeed, it is said that “the Southern States, which have received practically no immigrants since the Civil War, have increased their population as rapidly as the Northern States; that is, the increase of population among the Southern whites has been equal to the Northern increase assisted by immigration.”[163:15]
While these facts may not be sufficient evidence that the Negro will finally become extinct in this country, nevertheless, it is impossible for one to escape the conclusion that as the years go by the members of his race will become fewer and fewer in proportion to the whole population. As this comes about the Negro will gradually cease to be such a problem, as at present.
FOOTNOTES:
[145:1] Baltimore American, May 23, 1913.
[145:2] Baltimore Sun, March 30, 1917.
[146:3] William Archer, in McClure’s, July, 1909.
[146:4] C. A. Ellwood, “Sociology and Modern Social Problems,” p. 241.
[151:5] Negro Education (Government Report), Vol. I, p. 8.
[153:6] “Education and Crime,” South Atlantic Monthly, January, 1917.
[154:7] Scott and Stowe, “Life of Booker T. Washington,” p. 176.
[156:8] Year Book, Dept. of Agriculture, 1910, p. 193.
[158:9] Quoted by A. H. Stone in “American Race Problem,” pp. 177-8, from J. C. Hardy, “The South’s Supremacy in Cotton Growing,” p. 9.
[159:10] “There were imported in the British West Indies 4,000,000 Negro slaves and when they were manumitted there were 800,000. Into the Southern States 400,000 were imported and there were before the war 4,000,000; this decrease in the former and increase in the latter are strong facts. The climate influence was on the side of the West Indies. There must have been a very different treatment.”—Charleston (S. C.) Mercury, Nov. 23, 1863. Quoted by it from a London paper, written by an Englishwoman who had spent a short time in the South.
[160:11] R. W. Woolley, Pearson’s Magazine, Feb., 1910, p. 210, quoting Drs. Seale, Harris and W. C. Woodward.
[160:12] Report of Board of Prison Inspectors of Alabama, Sept., 1910-1914, p. 45.
[161:13] Northern States: Me., Mass., Mich., N. J., N. Y., O., Pa., and R. I.; Southern: Md. and N. C. These were the only Southern States mentioned in this connection in the census. Northern cities: New Haven, Boston, Detroit, Atlantic City, Trenton, Cleveland, Springfield, Philadelphia, Chicago, and Kansas City; Southern: Washington, Baltimore, Wilmington, N. C., Mobile, Atlanta, Savannah, New Orleans, Memphis, Charleston, S. C., and Richmond.
[162:14] Department of Commerce Bulletin 129, p. 44.
[163:15] C. A. Ellwood: “Sociology and Modern Social Problems,” p. 212.
The text has been preserved as originally printed.