It has always been considered unwise in the circles in which I moved for whites and blacks to associate socially. I first became conscious of a race difference when a very small child—about three years of age.
Booker T. Washington, Cable, Dunbar, southerners and northerners who have traveled in the South are probably best fitted to speak for Negroes. I do inquire of both Negroes and whites for information. The only Negroes I know are working people. Robert Jackson, alderman, and Ed. Green, lawyer. Booker T. Washington's successor. I have read one Negro paper. It was insistent in a very fair way on the political rights of the Negro. Good. Lynchings, lying, stealing, and the attacking of little girls are the subject of discussion that most frequently lead to the Negro, and these occur principally among men who have seen Negroes socially and women who have hired them.
As a solution I would colonize them in Africa, and if they objected I would use all peaceable means to force them to go.
Regarding the propositions: Their education should be increased and the demands produced by education met.
Prejudice has its basis in race repulsion. Unless the isolation is African colonization, there will be group prejudices.
Every man or group should demand and get complete justice.
D—
I assume that it is a fact recognized by science that Negroes are so different from whites that the two races cannot be amalgamated. This fact interposes a barrier to social relationships. I share in the general dislike of Negroes as neighbors or traveling companions on the street cars. The white race is responsible for the existence of the Negro problem in America, and must submit patiently to the penalty for many years to come. Lincoln's second inaugural is the best expression of this thought. The Negro race is extraordinarily docile and easy to handle. If surrounded by good living conditions and given a proper education they would be good citizens. The progress of their race since slavery, considering their many handicaps, has been very creditable. The prejudice against them is probably the most deep-seated of all American prejudices, and must be reckoned with as one of the great factors in the problem.
In my opinion they are characterized by distinctly inferior mentality, deficient moral sense, shiftlessness, good nature, and a happy disposition. I have in mind no special facts, authorities or sources of information on which I base my opinions. I do, however, recognize the bearing of Christianity on the problem, and find it impossible to formulate a viewpoint which I can reconcile with the demands of Christianity.
We had a Negro family chauffeur some years ago who misconducted himself so seriously as to have caused a very considerable increase in the family prejudice against the race. If he had been an Irish man our prejudice against him would not have extended to his race. As a child I had no contacts with Negroes, excepting one or two fellow-pupils in public schools of whom I saw very little, and a few servants in the neighborhood who were of the old-fashioned type, of pleasant memory.