Rev. H. H. Proctor, pastor of the First Congregational Church, Atlanta, said: “What is needed is not to change the name of the people, but the people of the name. Make the term so honorable that men will consider it an honor to be called a Negro.”
Rev. Walter H. Brooks, pastor of the Nineteenth Street Baptist Church, Washington, wrote: “The black people of America have but to augment their efforts in lives of self-elevation and culture, and men will cease to reproach us by any name whatever.”
Finally, Charles W. Anderson, Collector of Internal Revenue, New York, said: “I am, therefore, inclined to favor the use of ‘Negro,’ partly because to drop it would expose me to the charge of being ashamed of my race (and I hate any man who is ashamed of the race from which he sprung), and partly because I know that no name or term can confer or withhold relative rank in this life. All races and men must win equality of rating and status for themselves.”
One is safe in concluding that the word “Negro” (with the capital “N”) will eventually be applied to the black man in America. White people are distinctly in favor of it: what Negroes now object to it do so because of its corrupt form, “Nigger.” As the Negro shows his ability to develop into a respectable and useful citizen, contemptuous epithets will be dropped by all save the thoughtless and vicious, and “Negro” will be recognized as the race name.
NOTES
[8]. “Following the Colour Line,” p. 151.
[9]. Ibid., p. 151.
[10]. “Up From Slavery,” p. 2.
[11]. Art. XIII, sec. 11.
[12]. Code, 1867, p. 94; Code, 1876, p. 187, sec. 2; Code, 1886, I, p. 56, sec. 2; Code, 1896, I, p. 112, sec. 2.