It is probably true that prejudice is based on fear, a result of the abuse of female slaves by the whites in slavery time, and the resultant desire on the part of a few Negroes engendered during the reconstruction period by the carpet-baggers, to have social equality. I have discussed this subject of "social equality" with intelligent, fine Negroes, and believe they meant what they said when they assured me that among decent Negroes there is no more desire for this than there is among the white people. I feel that it is a bugaboo, useful in increasing fear and prejudice against the Negro.
By segregation, I did not mean isolation, but the natural grouping together of Negroes under wholesome conditions, but which permitted their contact through employment, through meetings for the common good, with the dominant race.
Even a minority has the right to expect and demand justice in opportunity to develop industrial, social and spiritual growth. I recognize that education of both whites and blacks is necessary to overcome fear and prejudice and make this possible.
J—
My opinion, which is still open to conviction, is that the Negro race overlaps the white race throughout the bulk of the frequency curves of distribution of intelligence of the two races; but the average of the Negro race is probably lower than that of the white race, and among the extreme varieties the Negroes probably go lower and the whites higher than the similar varieties of the other race. This refers to distribution of inherent capacity. But I believe that many of them are modifiable and differ only in their average distribution from similar qualities in whites. Also that certain distinguishing traits may be so adjusted to the circumstances under which Negroes are educated and employed as to be distinctly advantageous, both to themselves and to society.
Aside from my conversation with southerners, I have made a special study of the Negro problem in connection with my undergraduate work, and again at the University of Pennsylvania. I am familiar with a number of worth-while sources which can be listed on request. I lived for four winters in St. Louis, where I saw a great many Negroes, but knew none. Some excitement was caused there by an instructor inviting a mulatto school principal to address our sociology class. There was no protest here in Evanston. I also passed through the South, and stopped twice at New Orleans.
As a child in Portland, Oregon, I had two Negro nurses. At the age of perhaps seven or eight years, one of my nurses returned for a visit, and I was teased by companions for kissing her. That was my first consciousness of a racial difference.
My authorities and sources of importance are the N.A.A.C.P., Urban League, the Race Relations Commission, and certain Negroes. I might also mention the two Spingarns and Mr. Roger Baldwin. I know C. S. Johnson, T. Arnold Hill and the colored members of the Commission, together with the union leaders whom I heard. W. E. B. Du Bois, Haynes, Dr. Roman, J. W. Johnson, T. A. Hill, I regard as leaders among the Negroes.
I read the Crisis, and occasional newspapers. The Crisis is good except the fiction; the newspapers are rather poor.
Race relations, mob action, venereal disease, and housing questions lead to discussion of the Negro.