There seems to be in this man's mind absolutely no conception of the tremendous, increasing, unswerving development of the Negro. To him all aspiration, unrest, and complaints of black folk are conspiracies of whites. For the blacks he has no program, no vision, except that they stay where they have always been, growing more content with "Jim-Crow" cars, lynching and disfranchisement.
It is inconceivable to the mentality of this section of the white South that such a program is absolutely impossible. That if, in the end, the price we must pay for aspiration to modern manhood is death, and death in the most horrible form of public torture and burning like that in Florida, if to live we must die, then the South will have us to kill. Any man who does not prefer death to slavery is not worth freedom....
The black man must vote. Every Southerner with brains knows this. The Negro is awaiting his enfranchisement with greater patience than the South has any right to expect. But he will not wait forever. If he sees gathering signs of sanity—a willingness to let the intelligent and thrifty vote, an honest effort to establish law and order and overthrow the rule of the mob, a desire to substitute honest industrial conditions in place of the organized and entrenched theft of black wealth upon which southern industry is based today—such a program, tardy and slow and inadequate though it be, may count on the infinite patience and long suffering of Ethiopia.
4. RACE CONSCIOUSNESS
Ancient Order of Ethiopian Princes:[83]
To My Kinsmen.—In a broad sense, the words "Negro" and "Nigger" have no historical significance. They are used synonymously in the white man's dictionary. "Negro" is a pure Spanish word meaning "black." The word "Negro," therefore, may be descriptive of a race, but not the name of it. In reality "Negro" is an alias, or nickname applied to us originally, in much the same contemptuous spirit as the black boy is called "Rastus" or "Sambo."
The white man writes his history for us to study, makes his scenario with his heroes and heroines for us to admire, and supplies our newspapers. Through these instrumentalities he almost entirely controls our thought.
Remember that "a word is the sign of an idea." The kind of an "idea" that the "sign" stands for depends upon our teaching. If we associate a word, then, with a noble or degraded idea, we have been taught to do so.
You can easily prove this by experimenting with certain words for yourself. After repeating each word tell what your idea is and what you see: (1) Roman, (2) Paradise, (3) Statesmen, (4) General. Is the idea or picture you get degraded? No. The White Press, history, reel and teacher have taken care of that.
Now take the following words: (1) Lynched, (2) Jim Crow, (3) Disfranchised, (4) Negro.