Let one imagine the existence of a Federal statute—waiving the question of its constitutionality—prohibiting States from legalizing race distinctions, so that all public places of amusement, accommodation, and instruction would be, so far as the law could make them, open to all persons, regardless of race. Such a measure, far from effecting its purpose, would doubtless be the beginning of extensive race discriminations. Once abolish separate hotel accommodations and the white race, wherever it is in the majority, would monopolize every hotel, leaving other races either to walk the streets or to find accommodations in private houses. Were separate street car accommodations forbidden in cities where there is a fairly large percentage of Negroes, if any passenger were forced to stand or be crowded off the car altogether, it would be the Negro. Were separate schools not permitted, Negro children might possibly be excluded from schools altogether in defiance of the law; but even if admitted, their interests, if different from those of the more numerous race, would have to be sacrificed. A further review of race distinctions now legally recognized would only more fully substantiate the conclusion that, with race feeling as it is, if such distinctions were not recognized and enforced, the stronger race would naturally appropriate the best for itself and leave the weaker race to fare as it could.
On the other hand, let one imagine that the same laws recognizing race distinctions as now exist in the South obtained in all communities where two races are nearly equal in numbers. Suppose, for instance, that separate hotels were permitted in all cities which receive an appreciable number of Negro travelers. Respectable Negroes might then secure comfortable entertainment in hotels provided for their race and thus escape the inconvenience and humiliation of being denied admission to hotels maintained exclusively for white persons. If separate schools were provided, Negro children would be free to pursue, unhampered by requirements prescribed for the more developed race and unembittered by continuous manifestations of race prejudice, a curriculum especially adapted to their own needs. Wherever separate railroad and street car accommodations were provided, a Negro might enter the car or compartment reserved for his race and go his way in peace, unmolested by the thoughtless or vicious of the other race. The result, therefore, of the honest enforcement of race distinctions would be to the advantage of the weaker race.
OBLITERATION OF RACE DISCRIMINATIONS
The people of the different sections and races, instead of inquiring into the truth or falsity of such a conclusion, have been agitating the theoretical right and wrong of race distinctions. Meanwhile, indications are that legalized race distinctions have been unfairly enforced. For instance, statutes require that equal accommodations be given Negro passengers in public conveyances; yet, while people have been debating the constitutionality and justification of the “Jim Crow” laws, railroad companies have been compelling Negroes to occupy uncomfortable and unsanitary coaches and waiting-rooms, and this though Negroes paid the same fare as white passengers. Furthermore, while they have been arguing the constitutionality of the suffrage laws of the South, white registrars have been putting unfair tests to Negro applicants for registration, and by so doing have made the laws a tool by which to work injustice to the Negro. While, finally, they have been strenuously discussing the school laws, Negro children have been suffering from, not only inadequate but, in many cases, improper training by ignorant Negro teachers.
In suggesting the benefits that would accrue to the weaker race from legalized race distinctions, it is assumed that such distinctions would apply only in communities in which two races live side by side in something like equal numbers. The white people of the South should recognize the inexpediency of requiring separate schools, separate railroad and street cars, separate hotels, and separate accommodations in general for the colored races in most places outside the South where they constitute, in many instances, not more than one-tenth of the total population. The white people in the places last mentioned should recognize that it would be equally unwise to crowd together white and colored races in schools, public conveyances, hotels, theatres, and other public places in the South. Colored people everywhere should realize that a race distinction is not necessarily a badge of racial inferiority, but may be simply a natural result of racial differentiation. Race distinctions may, therefore, have a very appropriate place in communities where, as has been said before, two races are about equal in numbers, at least where there are enough of the subordinate race to arouse in the dominant a feeling of race consciousness.
Where, under the above view, race distinctions are justifiable, and are enacted into law, the people of all races should unite in demanding that the laws be fairly applied. If, for instance, the presence of sufficient Negroes make it advisable to separate the races in public conveyances, the white people should unite with them in demanding that they be given equal accommodations. The Negro who has paid a first-class fare is entitled to coaches and waiting-rooms as sanitary, comfortable, and convenient as those provided for white persons paying the same fare. With separate schools provided, they should insist that each race be given an equal opportunity to get the sort of training it most needs to do its work. This training may be different. The Southern Education Association[[776]] in session at Lexington, Kentucky, said: “On account of economic and psychological differences in the two races we believe there should be a difference in the courses of study and methods of teaching, and that there should be such an adjustment of school curricula as shall meet the evident needs of Negro youth.” If it is true that the Negro child needs a different sort of training from the white, then it is a discrimination to give him the training peculiarly suited to the child of the other race. People may demand for the two races equal educational opportunities, and at the same time advocate different courses of study and methods of teaching.
In States which have added new qualifications for suffrage, both races may demand their impartial application. A Negro public spirited enough to pay his taxes, with education enough to read and write, or thrifty enough to accumulate the required amount of property should be allowed to register and vote as freely as a white man with similar qualifications. A white registrar who discriminates against a Negro applicant, by setting for him more difficult tests than are set for white applicants, is doing an injustice to the white people equally as great as that done to the Negroes. John B. Knox,[[777]] President of the Alabama Constitutional Convention of 1901, said at that time: “If we would have white supremacy, we must establish it by law—not by force or fraud. If you teach your boy that it is right to buy a vote, it is an easy step for him to learn to use money to bribe or corrupt officials or trustees of any class. If you teach your boy that it is right to steal a vote, it is an easy step for him to believe that it is right to steal whatever he may need or greatly desire.” Speaking from the standpoint of the Negro, Dr. Booker T. Washington[[778]] said: “As a rule, I believe in universal, free suffrage, but I believe that in the South we are confronted with peculiar conditions that justify the protection of the ballot in many of the States, for a while at least, either by an educational test, a property test, or by both combined; but whatever tests are required, they should be made to apply with equal and exact justice to both races.” All people, white and black, should unite, not to secure the repeal of the suffrage laws, but to secure their enforcement with absolute impartiality.
The welfare of both races—and this conclusion applies equally to the other non-Caucasian races—requires the recognition of race distinctions and the obliteration of race discriminations. The races should be separated wherever race friction might result from their enforced association. The white race cannot attain its highest development when continually venting its spite upon the less fortunate race. Nor, indeed, can the Negro race reach its highest development when continually subjected to the oppressions of the more fortunate race.
Such a recognition of race distinctions and such an obliteration of race discriminations as are here advocated constitute principles by which all people, of every section and of every race, may stand and labor for the promotion of good feeling between all sections and harmony between all races.