The Conquest of Racial Prejudice

Charles S. Johnson

1936

Chapter 8 in A Preface to Racial Understanding (p. 160-192).
Friendship Press. New York, NY.

Race problems are so familiar to most Americans that it is usual to assume that they arise out of fundamental instincts and are inevitable. A little reflection, however, will reveal that there can be "race problems" whether the question of race is involved or not. For example, before the Civil War the non-property-holding whites of the South, called "poor white trash," "crackers," or "clay eaters," were regarded by the landed gentry as innately inferior, although they came frequently from the same racial stock.

We often hear individuals ascribe to race certain failings which are universal. The ordinary man on the street, with little knowledge of history and less of anthropology and biology, nevertheless feels himself perfectly competent to pass a judgment on an individual which is based upon racial prejudices. On the other hand, there are those who are unwittingly gracious to individuals until informed of their racial connection. A fundamental racial instinct should not depend upon chance belief and other people's opinions!

There is, however, a deep-lying human trait which expresses itself in those situations commonly recognized as racial. When two groups with different backgrounds come together, there is, almost always, a conflict of interests. In the case of the Negroes in America, the conditions which governed their first relations with the white population were rigidly prescribed and firmly fixed. They were to be a permanently subordinate group, serving wholly the interests of the stronger group. All the social institutions, the laws, and the general public opinion were rooted in this assumption. There was no race problem during slavery, because there was no serious questioning of this fixed relationship on the part of either the slave or the slave owning class. Slavery is the most "efficient" form of accommodation between two dissimilar peoples. But slavery is today so abhorrent to enlightened societies that it is no longer tolerated as a social institution. Moreover, slavery would be economically disastrous in a machine civilization, even though many persons continue to enjoy the personal thrill of commanding other people's lives and exploiting their labor.

A race problem developed for the first time when the fixed social position of the Negro slave was changed by his emancipation. So long as complete subordination, even in a theoretical state of freedom, is never challenged, a race problem can be escaped. But citizenship brings demands for education, sound health, security, and self-support, demands which in turn mean competition for work and the chance to earn a living. At every step in the new freedom of the Negroes new conditions and new problems had to be met, and for these there were no such ready-made and final solutions as slavery provided. At each step new adjustments and compromises had to be worked out between the group seeking to dominate, to maintain a fixed sphere, and the group seeking to increase its citizenship privileges by getting "out of its place." So long as this continues there will be a race problem.

It is, perhaps, because our form of government, in principle at least, is democratic, that so many conflicts arise between what every citizen has the right to expect, and what it is deemed expedient for the Negro citizen to have. Their former status as slaves, together with a habit of thinking about them as permanent inferiors, no doubt have considerable influence upon present-day race relations.

Assimilation Versus Repatriation

Back of most of the problems is a reluctance, for one reason or another, to consider assimilation as desirable. The question of assimilation, whether cultural or biological, is one about which the layman knows actually very little, but this does not prevent him from having strong opinions on the matter. At any rate, these circumstances have contributed to the thinking of those persons who feel it incumbent upon them to control these relations rationally.

The first important racial philosophy of action to be formulated under the new circumstances brought about by emancipation was the quite drastic one of expulsion. This expulsion did not always carry the implication of violence. Always the economic demand for Negro workers tended to modify such political expedients as were suggested, and where this factor was not present it was most often preferred that the separation should be brought about by mutual consent. Colonization thus came to express the most satisfying solution of the race problem.

The idea of the repatriation of the Negro population in Africa first appeared with the spread of abolition sentiment before the Civil War. In a short while there developed a great variety of proposals, and from a wide range of inspirations. Interestingly enough, the most determined programs for the colonization of Negroes arose in the North, along with the philosophy of political integration which provided the chief arguments for the abolitionists. There did not exist unanimity on the issue of political integration even among the staunch abolitionists.

Two distinct motives, however, were back of the programs for Negro colonization. One of these was the desire that Negroes should find a new environment, free from the social handicaps of America, in which they could develop to manhood's stature unhampered. Another was the more calculating concern of some of the early statesmen for getting rid of them. Although seeking the same objective, the distinction in motive would more appropriately brand the former as colonization and the latter as deportation. The Negroes themselves were divided in their own philosophy regarding colonization as a solution of their problems.

Movements for Better Race Relations

In the South, notably, the opposing philosophies on the race question became more articulate. One group, which tended to regard the existing role of the Negro as fixed and natural, saw no reason for disturbing this order of things. The other group, which recognized the serious handicaps of the Negro and the anomaly of the existence of such a class in a democracy, felt conscience-bound to bring about some improvement in Negro status. They believed that this could be done without serious violence to the accepted policy of racial separation. This latter group, however, were seriously handicapped in carrying out their benevolent intentions. The smallest gesture of practical concern for social justice promptly exposed them to the charge of encouraging social equality. Because this phrase was so highly charged emotionally, its very vagueness contributed to its terror; for it included anything from intermarriage to a deluge of barbarism and racial disintegration. Such a charge, then, was usually sufficient to cast the threat of social ostracism.

Gains were made, however, by the group of individuals who, as a practical expression of Christian principles, sought social justice through good will. Negroes began to make adjustment to various measures of segregation which permitted more or less peaceful existence so long as they accepted the position in the community vaguely described as "their place." It was not until the beginning of the twentieth century, however, that public opinion permitted the full development of programs based upon a philosophy of improving race relations, and upon the cultural development of the Negro race. They began almost simultaneously in the South and in the North.

The first organization in the South which set out boldly to make the race problem a major part of its program was the Commission on Southern Race Questions, organized in 1912 by Dr. James H. Dillard, then of New Orleans. It drew its support from religious bodies and educational institutions and at first addressed itself more to the sympathetic study of these problems than to direct action. The Southern Sociological Conference, which came later, drafted a set of resolutions embodying certain new social convictions on the acute issues of race. These resolutions dealt with a wide list of injustices so gross and so obvious as to defy any challenge.

Four Agencies of Interracial Cooperation

These first pioneering organizations have now ceased to function, but their duties and policies have been taken over and expanded in other important organizations which are active today. The four organizations whose programs are primarily concerned with the race issues are (1) The National Urban League, (2) The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, (3) The Southern Commission on Interracial Cooperation, and (4) The Department of Race Relations of the Federal Council of Churches of Christ in America. Three of these organizations have their headquarters in the North and one in the South, although all of them are active to some extent in both sections. Their membership is composed of persons of both races. The oldest of these is the National Urban League, which was one of the first to establish an interracial board of control.

1. In 1910 the Committee for Improving the Industrial Condition of Negroes in New York City and the League for the Protection of Colored Women united to form the Committee on Urban Conditions among Negroes in the City of New York. The following year a more unified organization was formed and given the name, National League on Urban Conditions among Negroes. From its inception the Urban League has recognized and tentatively accepted existing social alignments and has elected to work primarily with the Negro in an effort to improve his social and economic status within the social structure. With such program it has thus avoided serious clashes with the community mores, has drawn the support of influential white leaders, and has secured the aid of industry itself, notably in the North, in improving the character and position of Negro workers.

Urban Leagues are now established in Northern and Southern cities. The organization reached the peak of its service during the large-scale migration of Southern Negroes to Northern industrial centers shortly after the outbreak of the World War. It made itself responsible for adjusting the acute social problems incident to this precipitous urbanization and took as its motto of service, "Not alms, but opportunity." Its program has been focused mainly on the economic problem, but a wide range of social activities, such as provision of better housing and recreational facilities, has been included. Its work has been confined to urban centers and mainly to the larger cities, which are in the North. While it has accepted the philosophy of internal improvement and group development for the Negro population, its aspirations and programs for Negroes have been such as to make them indistinguishable from the aspirations of American citizens generally. This latter policy has occasionally brought the organization into conflict with certain elements of Southern sentiment. The official organ of the Urban League is the monthly magazine, Opportunity.

2. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, with headquarters in New York, is one of the major organizations whose program is based frankly upon the philosophy of political and cultural assimilation. It was organized in New York City in May, 1910, and represents a merger of two groups formed a few years earlier. One of these was the Niagara Movement, inaugurated in 1905 by a group of Negro leaders who sought to make known their grievances and their desires for full citizenship status. The policy of this association, being based upon the principles established in the Constitution and its amendments, has been more aggressive than any other of these interracial bodies. In seeking to obtain for Negroes their legal rights and civic privileges, it has been necessary to combat public opinion and uncontrolled lawlessness, to carry on a persistent campaign of propaganda for Negro rights, and to seek redress of legal irregularities before the Supreme Court of the United States. It has been responsible for establishing some important legal safeguards for Negroes and for focusing the attention of the country on the public crime of lynching. Because of its motivating philosophy and program the N.A.A.C.P. has been unpopular in the South, where these policies run counter to the mores of the section. The bulk of its white membership has been in the North and East. One indication of changing mores, however, has been the increasing acceptance of its policies and the increase in its membership within the South. Its official organ is The Crisis, a monthly periodical.

3. The Commission on Interracial Cooperation, with headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia, is the one outstanding organization in the South working to improve race relations. Its membership is Southern. It has worked for social justice and improved living conditions for Negroes, and has vigorously sought to bring about a more agreeable adjustment between the white and Negro populations in an area in which the traditional pattern demanded social segregation.

This organization came into existence immediately after the World War, when the South was disturbed, on the one hand, over the threatened social problems incident to the return of Negro soldiers and, on the other hand, over the economic threat involved in the draining off of Southern Negro workers for Northern industry. This general state of mind made possible for the first time the rapid expansion of a program of racial betterment long cherished by a few of the advanced social minds of the section. The commission, under the able direction of Dr. Will W. Alexander, began its program with such indisputable issues as mob violence; the gross municipal neglect which leads to disease and excessive mortality among the Negroes; legal injustices, arbitrary violence, and exploitation. Gradually it approached problems of racial etiquette, advocated joint service on committees dealing with these problems, and expanded its program of public education through the press. Still later, as it became recognized as an agency more to be respected for its social value than feared as a menace to the best of the social tradition, it was able to deal effectively with the question of lynching, the tenancy evil, and local official misdealings with Negroes. It has been able successfully to oppose the Ku Klux Klan, which, in its policy, represents in grossest form the philosophy of complete and fixed subordination of the Negro, in every phase of his life. The Interracial Commission has been criticized at times by certain other groups both for going too far and for not going far enough. Working within the mores, it has consistently pursued a policy of change which has not been too radical to weaken seriously its influence within its region.

4. The Federal Council of the Churches of Christ in America organized in 1922 its Commission on the Church and Race Relations, now known as the Department of Race Relations. Its purpose was "to foster through the churches of America interracial fellowship and cooperative action in accord with the ideals of Jesus Christ." The organization set for itself the broad task of removing old evils in the interracial situation in America, preventing new evils from developing, and integrating the Negro in American life. Actual programs have included sponsoring two national and numerous local interracial conferences, annual race relations programs in churches, and activities aimed at promoting economic and civic justice. It has been especially active in the campaign against lynchings, and early interested itself in the Negro tenant farmer in the cotton belt. These programs, directed from the New York headquarters, are given application through state and local church federations and denominational agencies.

The Y.M.C.A. And the Y.W.C.A.

The Young Men's Christian Association and the Young Women's Christian Association have interracial programs. In the main these programs consist of providing for the establishment of branch organizations for Negroes in cities with populations large enough to support them. Even in New York and Chicago there are separate Negro branches, although Negroes are not specifically barred from participation in the activities of the central association.

The interracial activities have generally been of an educational nature: encouraging joint conferences where race problems are discussed; presenting Negro speakers; and attempting to promote more amicable relations between the two groups. The type of work done by the local branches varies according to the community in which the association is located, since the membership is drawn from populations which reflect local prejudices and attitudes.

The Young Men's Christian Association has in its national as well as its local organizations a separate structure for its work with Negroes. It aims at decentralization of control. The Young Women's Christian Association, on the other hand, has no separate Negro division in its national office, but has Negroes on both the National Board and the staff. Its local units are separated, with white and Negro field secretaries. While there are attempts by these organizations to improve race relations within their general membership through publicity and conferences, the principal work of the branches is to carry out a general program of character building, with the race problem as an incidental feature.

Interracial Activities of Mission Agencies

The interracial work of the church missionary societies, discussed more fully in another chapter, is concentrated very largely in the South and is confined for the most part to educational ventures and to social work. Most of the church bodies support, or contribute to the support of, Negro colleges. Differences in these Negro schools reflect, in certain respects, the policies of the churches behind them. The social work has been carried on by the women's organizations of the churches, and the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, has been conspicuous in this field. They have established and maintained settlement houses and provided personnel from their number for actual service. The settlements provide recreation and social work in Southern cities where these programs are greatly needed. Such activities, while not attacking directly the basic race problems, do make a fuller life for Negroes and provide advantages for underprivileged communities which would otherwise be wholly lacking.

The Roman Catholic Church in America has evinced a continuing interest in the welfare of the Negroes, largely as a means of making proselytes. Under the Catholic Board for Mission Work among Colored People, schools are maintained and some social work carried on among the two hundred thousand or more Negro communicants. A journal, The Interracial Review, serves as an organ of general public information and guidance on the racial issue.

Movements Among Negroes

Apart from organizations of bi-racial composition devoted to the task of improving race relations and Negro status in the United States, there have been movements among Negroes themselves. These have been, in most instances, loosely organized and short lived. An example of such a movement has been the sporadic attempts of Negro groups to escape the tradition of their local areas by migration. The best known of migration leaders was Pap Singleton, who led large numbers of Negroes from Mississippi, Tennessee, and Georgia to Kansas in 1879. The Negro migrations of 1918 and 1922-23 were more or less leaderless and were of more directly economic motivation.

Shortly after the World War there arose another Negro movement which proved one of the most dramatic in the recent history of this race. This movement was organized as the United Negro Improvement Association, under the leadership of Marcus Garvey, a West Indian. It was, in its external organization, a colonization scheme which sought to accomplish for Negroes escape from America to a haven in Africa where they could develop an independent state. Although fantastic and impossible as a program, it drew into its ranks large groups of Negroes who had long been thwarted and disillusioned in their struggle for status.

The membership of the association came largely from the Negro masses of the North and South, and, while it did little towards finding its territorial haven, the movement provided a psychological escape for these masses from their troubles, and ministered to broken egos and long-suppressed desires for expression. The movement provided colorful uniforms, parades, meetings and regular periods of indulgence in a glamorous dream of establishing a great Black Republic. The public laughed at the Knights of the Nile, the Dukes of Uganda, the Black Cross Nurses, and the Black Star Steamship Line, created by the "Provisional President of Africa," but these extravagant fancies lost much of their humor as a mounting and menacing racial solidarity spread from the parent body in America to the West Indies and to the natives of Africa. Their leader was arrested for promising too much through the mails. He was sent to prison, and after a few years the movement collapsed.

Other similar movements have developed since, but without the glamour and success of the United Negro Improvement Association. The Pan-African Congress, organized and for a period directed by the brilliant scholar and writer, Dr. W. E. Burghardt Du Bois, formerly editor of The Crisis, was the intellectual counterpart of the Garvey movement. It sought intellectual union and spiritual solidarity of the darker races throughout the world. The fourth Pan-African Congress met in New York City in 1927. One of the less notable of these movements was the Alaskan Colonization Branch of the United Congo Improvement Association, Incorporated, which had for a brief time headquarters in Cleveland, Ohio. Another is the "49th State" movement, sponsored by a group of young Negroes in Chicago. Still another is the African Reconstruction Association, which looks again wistfully to Africa. All of these have been chiefly emotional and sentimental safety valves, with little prospect of actual consummation. They have, however, made it increasingly clear that the race issue, if it is ever to find comfortable solution, will have to be worked out in the United States.

Realism and Understanding

In consideration of actual approaches to racial problems in America, it is important that there be awareness of the wide variety of patterns of relations in the United States with equally varied backgrounds and traditions. Not only science but realism is essential if there is to be sufficient understanding to permit control. The orthodoxy of the South on the question of the Negro, whether morally wrong or right, is held in varying forms with all of the conviction and intensity and reality of morality itself. These beliefs change slowly and are scarcely, if at all, affected by factual contradiction or argument. The conclusions of anthropology, however sound, may not always be impressive. Such attitudes are a natural and logical expression of a culture, and, as anthropologists themselves agree, cultures change slowly; but they do change, and by processes which can be understood.

Race Problems and Attitudes

It may be useful to identify some of the racial attitudes and dogmas which so largely control relations. If these attitudes are grouped it will be noted that they tend to sift down to a few broad assumptions, accepted as so true as not to be questioned. First, there is the assumption that Negroes are mentally and morally inferior and that this difference, being innate, cannot be changed easily, if at all. Then there is the assumption that Negroes represent a backward culture and are constitutionally incapable of fully taking on European culture. It is also firmly believed that race consciousness, which includes fundamental antipathies, is a matter of instinct and as such is not learned. This is accompanied by the conviction that the incorporation of Negroes into the basic American culture carries the threat of weakening this culture.

These basic assumptions are most firmly held by those who have least studied the questions involved, and they vary in intensity among individuals and groups. They are, nevertheless, very real considerations and, because of their persistence and force, frequently prevent the first steps of action dictated by simple impulses to social justice. Where a course of behavior based upon these assumptions is well defined, any violation of the orthodoxy, even in the interest of a Christian principle, can provoke, as one man phrased it, "a scandal of public disapproval." There are phrases like "social equality," "the Negro's place," and "race intermingling," which, by their very vagueness, are freighted with high emotional content. Many sensitive individuals feel embarrassment over social injustices which they observe, but they hesitate to interfere lest they but create new problems of racial adjustment and control. The usual reaction is to make oneself believe that what exists as current practice, although wrong as an ultimate policy, is excusable as an immediate expedient.

Fear plays an important rôle, although it is usually denied that fear enters into these considerations. There is, however, fear of loss of security, fear of loss of status or group prestige, and myriad nameless fears. Seldom are the real motives back of group attitudes stated. They do not sound rational or civil. It is simpler to place a taboo on the discussion of such matters, or better still, to give these underlying motives other and more respectable labels. In the end separate group sentiments and antagonisms develop unmodified by personal experiences, and stagnant convictions persist.

Attention has been called earlier to the fact that changes in economic patterns may carry along with them certain broad changes in social and race relations. It is well to recognize that many of the present assumptions regarding Negroes had their origin in historical situations plausible enough to warrant them. The situations have changed more rapidly than the early assumptions based upon them. For example, the high illiteracy of Negroes in slavery, the irregular social habits which were a part of the institution, the devices for self-entertainment where avenues for cultural development were systematically cut off, could quite easily lend a semblance of truth to the casual assumption that their minds were dull and different, their morals loose, and their standards hopelessly depraved.

A pertinent example of the persistence of these old patterns appears in a contrast of the approved etiquette of race relations under slavery and the current definition of the Negro's place in society. The etiquette of slavery prescribed that it was not correct to use the title "Mr." or "Mrs." or "Miss" in addressing a slave. A pronounced courtesy was expected of the slave, and was, accordingly, the rule. Shaking hands was taboo, and when it did occur the slave could lighten the strain by first deprecatingly wiping his hands on his clothing. The "black mammy," who was a privileged character, kissed the children even after they were grown. The title of "captain" was conferred on all white men with whom the slave was unacquainted. Negro men whose advanced age and loyalty prompted some distinction from the younger ones or from strange "boys" were given the courtesy title of "uncle," and the older Negro women were called "aunt." No slave sat in the presence of the master or mistress and, if outdoors, none talked without removing his hat. Slaves ate in the kitchen, even out of the same frying pan in which the master's food was cooked, but no exchange of places was possible either in or out of the presence of one another. A place of honor at a funeral was given to house servants. In church slaves were seated in the gallery, if there was one, or they might have special services. Slaves were named after biblical, historical and mythological characters. Entering and leaving buildings, boats, or trains, the slave followed the master.

The list of social conventions under slavery could be expanded at great length, but the point is that these observances of the etiquette of slavery are still more or less expected of Negroes who are no longer slaves. Thus a Negro is considered out of rôle when for any reason this age-old and archaic tradition is violated. As with other traditions good or bad, violation carries the threat of loss of status, and this is most deeply resented by those least certain about their own status. The "smart Negro" is simply one who takes a different conception of himself from that defined by the tradition. In North Carolina one of the most prominent Negroes in America was attacked by a soft-drink dispenser because he ordered a soft drink to be consumed in the store. Serious personal conflicts may arise from trivial incidents. In response to this some Negroes employ a protective device of excessive flattery of whites and depreciation of themselves, to insure tolerance and security in a community. Other Negroes refer to them contemptuously as "uncle Toms."

The Passing of a Great Tradition

Despite the strength of tradition and a firm belief in many quarters in its utility, it is becoming increasingly clear that in clinging to outworn concepts in the field of race, backwardness is encouraged in other fields. This may be illustrated in a surprising number of ways. The racial tradition has had an unfortunate influence upon the development of social science, upon the principles of law observance and enforcement, upon art and letters, upon public education, upon public manners, and upon the practice of the Christian principle of brotherhood.

One need only note, for example, the early literature in the field of anthropology and sociology to be made aware of the extent to which the judgments of students were warped in the past by popular estimates of the mentality of the so-called backward races. In the field of psychology, until very recently students have reported great differences in innate mental, emotional and moral qualities. Eugenics became confused in a fog of political considerations regarding superior and inferior races. Other students have spent years seeking to find race differences in muscle systems, brain weights, and head forms. Although present-day anthropologists now insist that "there are no sure evidences of real racial differences in mental traits," the layman continues to think and act on the old assumptions.

In the field of labor, race consciousness has proved a serious handicap. The policy of exclusion of Negroes from labor organizations has weakened the effectiveness of these organizations and made impossible anything approaching a united labor policy. In making Negroes the underdogs of industry, labor reflects the same reckless callousness to human values which it has so loudly protested. There is scarcely any wonder that the emancipation of labor should mean to many American workers emancipation from labor, or that a common struggle for the privileges guaranteed by democracy should degenerate into a snobbish class struggle among workers themselves, aligning skilled workers against unskilled workers, and white laborers against black laborers. On such a shaky foundation it was inevitable that labor should lose faith even in itself without knowing why, when strength was most needed, and that membership in its organizations should decline.

In the matter of law observance and enforcement a truly serious situation is threatened for our most important democratic institutions. Respect for law cannot be encouraged where exceptions are condoned because of race. Thoughtful citizens have cause for concern over the state of affairs when the lynching of a Negro can be dismissed as no crime because it was "the will of the people." Injustice may begin with the Negro and escape censure, but the damage to the principles of justice can spread to weaken the entire structure of the courts. A colored boy in Vicksburg, Mississippi, stole a bicycle and was given five years at hard labor. A white boy, tried on the same day, was given two years for stealing $1,900. In Houston, Texas, a white waiter was fined $25 for illicitly selling liquor to soldiers. Four Negroes were fined $225 each by the same judge for the same offense. A white man in a Southern state who shot a Negro was given a nominal fine for discharging firearms within the city limits. The wisdom of Booker T. Washington's observation that it is difficult to hold a Negro in the ditch without staying there with him has striking pertinence.

It is to the great credit of the church that the most effective mass condemnation of lynching has come from its members. The Federal Council of Churches has kept the public aware of this evil, and individual churches and denominations have put themselves on record as opposing this practice in the name of humanity and the Christian ideal of justice and morality. In the Congressional hearings on the Costigan-Wagner bills, the most vigorous testimony was offered by church groups. Mrs. Jessie Daniel Ames of the Southern Commission on Interracial Cooperation has, as her chief allies in the fight against lynching, several thousand church women throughout the South, who have the courage of their faith to brave public opinion in the determined effort to end the evil.

Literature and art have been regarded as free worlds, but, as everyone knows, there are definite patterns apart from artistic merit which must be followed to be accepted by the public, and, consequently, by the publishers. These patterns take the form of stereotypes which enable the man in the street to recognize the type. The Negroes have had sound reason for objecting to being represented by certain stereotypes which publishers assure them are the only ones which the public will accept. Fortunately this restriction has been breaking down in recent years.

The cause of American education has been influenced by race sentiment. A question which delayed compulsory education in the South for many years, as indeed it delayed woman suffrage, concerned the inclusion of Negroes in this privilege. When it was eventually accepted, the compulsory aspect was, except in a few conscientious communities, simply ignored. The states least able to support education are bound by the tradition wastefully to maintain two sets of schools and, further, to balance the difference by diverting to one group of children, in such communities, a part of what belongs to another. Horace Mann Bond makes a very incisive comment on the practice in many states of so administering the funds for education that white schools get more and Negro schools get less than they are entitled to on the basis of a fair per capita distribution. He says that in such states the Negro child is the white child's surest asset in education.

The social amenities are greatly distorted by the race tradition. There is no more socially grotesque situation than that of a normally gracious personality forced to show rudeness to an individual of another group, merely to maintain a set of conventions. It is even more tragic when some gentlemen and scholars and even religious leaders find it impossible to accord simple titles of respect where such respect is earned; when taboos which do not have even the frail support of snobbishness can dictate discourteous social behavior; and when children are taught prejudices and even hatred which they would not otherwise feel.

The Christian church in America has not escaped the effect of race sentiments. Although much of the social reformation has been at the instance of religiously inspired individuals, there are churches which so adhere to the customs of the community as to ignore obvious social injustices in some instances and even give moral support to these injustices. Hopefully, social Christianity today places a stamp of censure upon laggards even of its own order, and the most vigorous religious bodies are finding a way of expressing their Christianity by work with their immediate neighbors.

The purpose of democracy is the minimizing of injustices and the universalizing of its gains. It may appear at this stage that any practical effort to make possible a fuller life for underprivileged groups would go against nature or would take ages for accomplishment. But human nature is plastic and social customs are mutable. In the midst of our present setting it is difficult to believe that our habits of thinking and our actions were radically different in the very recent past, and it is even more difficult to imagine that they can be different in the future. The fact that human nature is plastic and responds to social change is the one great hope which inspires the step-by-step progress of race relations.

In spite of the persistence of many old and strongly held views of race, it is possible to see changes. It is difficult now, for example, to take seriously the beliefs which were current only a few years ago and which molded and prompted behavior and all our social relations. In the field of religion we no longer burn witches. In the field of medicine we no longer cure asthma with the lungs of foxes, or find healing power in the moss from the skull of a person violently killed. We no longer keep women out of colleges on the conviction that their brains are incapable of absorbing the higher learning.

We no longer believe with Dr. Van Evrie, an early physician writing on subjects dealing with the Negro, that because of the sloping angle of the Negro's head, as compared with the broad forehead of the white race, any attempt to educate the Negro would have the effect of destroying his center of gravity, rendering him incapable of walking upright.

Dr. S. A. Cartwright, of Louisiana, one of the most eminent of the physicians of seventy-five years ago, "demonstrated" that tuberculosis was "par excellence a disease of the white race, and that Negroes were incapable of it, because it was a disease of the master race and not of the slave race, known by an active hæmatosis,... by the energy of the intellect, vivid imagination, and an indomitable will and love of freedom." Early ethnologists held that the Negro affords a point at which man and beast most nearly approach each other. We no longer hear arguments regarding slavery as a natural state of the Negro, or that God inflicted subjection on women as a punishment for the sin of Eve, and on Negroes as punishment for the act of their ancestor, Ham, the son of Noah, who saw his father unattired and intoxicated. These convictions, once held with a passionate fervor, are for the most part museum pieces now, and it is difficult to believe that they were ever taken seriously.

Some Next Steps

It is not enough merely to wait watchfully for time's slow solution of social ills. Despite the vital role which economics plays in altering the sentiments of people, the personal factor >in itself can also contribute to change and improvement in the economic basis of race problems. There are steps that can be taken immediately to correct old evils. The accumulation of these steps cannot fail to have their effect in remaking a tradition which controls so much of individual behavior.

Race relations, in an ultimate sense, are personal relations, and changes in relations may be expected to follow changed personal experiences. Despite the highly artificial character of many of the interracial gatherings, such gatherings do occasionally provide a first crude basis for meeting and getting acquainted.

There is a possibility that the race problem cannot be approached directly; that the best results may come not through formal agreements or through compromise between extreme positions, but through the unplanned by-products—the silent spread of friendships from casual contacts in other than a deliberate attempt to improve interracial friendship. It is certain that the spread of sentiments across the line of race can be salutary in individual cases. This assumes, however, a willingness to extend personally to those individuals of like interests who happen to differ in color the unstrained and unaffected graces of friendship, confidence and respect. Such spontaneous behavior, against the weight of tradition, cannot be expected to develop immediately on any large scale. For many years yet there will be usefulness in those programs which aim at making possible interracial contacts and from these contacts more thorough knowledge of the life of individuals in the separate groups.

It is always difficult to reduce broad principles to concrete examples which are applicable over a wide range of specific situations. Nevertheless, it is one of the most insistent demands of groups and individuals who are motivated to some kind of social service, that they be provided specific suggestions of things to do, both as examples of what can be done and of what has been successfully accomplished. In the spirit of meeting this elementary demand, some practical interests and activities are noted.

It is necessary for the person who wishes to live and work intelligently in this challenging world, to know the present facts of race relations as these are expressed in the conventions, public practices, and the institutions of a community. Although an ambitious enterprise to undertake, it would be desirable to know something about the status of Negroes in relation to the industrial life of a given locality, the extent of mortality among them, and the degree to which they share the public provisions for the safeguarding of health. It would be useful to know something about their living conditions and the problem of finding good and beautiful homes; their record of crime and their treatment in the courts; their chances for recreation and wholesome amusement so essential to sound health and morals.

Increased knowledge of these local situations would doubtless lead to practical opportunities for constructive action and would give confidence and inspiration to any appeals that might be made for social justice. More exact information would help to remove the discussion of race from the universe of passion and sentimentality and give a truer perspective of the problem. If this is done, it is possible that the prevailing estimates of Negro character, mentality and morality, for example, would not have to rest so heavily upon the chance contact with a Negro domestic or even upon the crime reports which, almost alone among matters involving Negroes, have sufficient news value for publication in the daily press of the nation.

At the base of most of the social problems of the Negroes is the problem of work. Anyone who has given the least thought to this question must have observed that in the majority of cases the relation of Negroes to their employers, their opportunities for advancement and for an adequate wage, and often their relations with their white fellow workers, are very largely a matter of the attitude of employers. Human nature is not so unchangeable as it is usually assumed to be. As often as simple economic advantage, in the form of larger profits, has operated to set a pattern of tolerance in an industrial plant, just so often can the altered attitude of employers, as a result of the direct or indirect influence of respected citizens, bring about tolerance and a fair chance for Negro workers. Such a situation is not exclusively to the advantage of the Negroes so aided. Increased opportunity and earnings for them means increased buying power which, in turn, benefits business generally. Moreover, the lifting of the level of these Negro workers removes from white workers the penalty of competition which keeps their own living standards low.

Some Successful Precedents

Drawing upon the experiences of groups which have been successful in constructively altering the old patterns of race relations in various localities, these projects may be noted as types of possible and useful activity:

1. Encouraging and aiding participation of Negro groups in the work of such organizations as the Parent-Teacher Associations, Young Men's Christian Associations, Young Women's Christian Associations, Leagues of Women Voters, Better Government Leagues, and similar organizations.
2. Work with local administrative officials to secure the inclusion of Negroes in public provisions for education, health, recreation and work.
3. Urging the broadening of the study of race problems in high school and college courses on sociology. In this connection should be mentioned the recommendation of field work projects, under competent direction, in the race or interracial field, and the use of white and Negro lecturers of high grade and sound understanding. The Phelps-Stokes Fellowship Studies at the University of Virginia and the University of Georgia are excellent examples of the usefulness of this type of special programs.
4. Wide dissemination of literature which can help acquaint the general public with the correctable handicaps, as well as the striking evidences of the cultural development, of the Negro.
5. Planning to insure the inclusion of Negroes in the cultural and economic advantages provided by the local community, whether these take the form of cooperatives or forums, musical programs or lectures.
6. Making provision for the discussion of Negro welfare in local committees and an equitable share in the measures developed for the relief of the underprivileged.
7. Cooperation with local librarians to the extent of recommending or securing for general reading a useful selection of books of poetry, novels and problem discussions dealing with the Negro.
8. Work with organizations of labor to insure the inclusion of Negro workers, as sound economic and labor policy.
9. Correction of injurious misstatements in the press.
10. Active and pointed condemnation of such public crimes as mob violence and lynching, the prostitution of the courts in response to racial prejudice, and the economic exploitation of defenseless minorities, not merely in the interest of these minorities but in the interest of the morality of the nation itself.
11. Encouragement of constructive experiences, such as musical programs, poetry reading, and folk plays which utilize Negro talent and racial experience.
12. Creation of actual occasions for meeting, and the participation of Negro individuals in public affairs which have no specific relation to race problems as such.

This list could be continued, but only as evidences of the resourcefulness of individuals and groups of various communities, who have allowed their professed concern for social justice and a Christian way of life to find expression in practical action.

Mutuality of Obligations

The obligation to find a constructive basis for race relations does not lie wholly on one side of the line of race. In the desire of Negroes for improved status, for the same opportunities and privileges of American citizenship shared by the rest of the population, they also have an obligation for self-improvement and for an equal measure of service. To this end the work of the Federated Colored Women's Clubs, with a membership of more than a hundred thousand, and other similar organizations, has been notable and inspiring. Moreover, the experience of the Negro race itself over recent years has altered perspectives for them, and, on the deepening fringes of this advancing group, created new minds, new personalities, and new leadership for the years to follow.

Social and economic changes, and the constant pressure in our society for change, are occasions for the outbursts of racial prejudice. The wholesome desire for individual development and group progress conflicts all too frequently with an orthodox desire to keep the Negroes "in their place." In an age of rapid change this place is changing more rapidly than the orthodoxy. The margins of this cultural development of the Negro group are yet very uneven, but it can be said that their development has materially exceeded the external social devices for aiding their incorporation into American life.

The New Negro Point of View

On the part of the emancipated Negro, there has been a loss of much of that sensitiveness which once blinded Negroes to themselves and to their surroundings at the same time that it injured their capacity for an accurate appraisal of themselves and their condition. There has been a more frank and less embarrassed acceptance of the fact of race and difference, but with the growing conviction that the difference has no vital and inherent meaning. There has been a willingness to seek out the hidden beauties of Negro life, and a result of this has been the stimulation of new curiosities among Negroes about themselves and the attachment of more charm to their own lives. There has been a more dispassionate recognition of the facts of Negro life and there have been certain admissions of racial weaknesses, based on the philosophy that if one is not truthful about his faults, which can be seen, he will not be believed when he speaks about his virtues, which are not always apparent on the surface. There is less apology for race and the purely social implications of race status. There is more confident self-expression and a deeper sharing of the whole culture of America.

The essence of the problem of race relations is change, and in this modern age change is constant, rapid and profound. Our physical world, our technological structure, our economic structure, our social institutions themselves are in constant process of change. Only in a stagnant society can we expect fixed and unalterable social relations, and a democracy is least of all political structures bound by unyielding conventions. Race problems may be expected to reflect the deep-lying and obscure changes in the society itself. New philosophies will appear as each new step of advance is accomplished, and, along with increased insights and understanding, new programs will be set up to implement these philosophies.

Of greatest concern to those who seek to deal justly and honestly in these affairs will be the assurance that their principles of action are as high as the example set by the faith which they profess. The whole history of mankind, says one philosopher, is the history of human endeavor to attain justice in this life. Indeed, it is the highest moral aim of men. A sound principle of action, thus, could well be: "Respect thy neighbor as thyself, even if thou canst not love him, and do not permit that he or thyself be treated with disrespect."

In the field of race relations, it is not so important that there should be envisaged exact solutions, for there will inevitably be differences of opinions. Solutions of situations for which there are so few precedents must necessarily be speculative, and speculation can often go too far afield. But it is important that there should be principles guiding these relationships, and that these principles should be high. Once Dr. Wallace Buttrick said of Booker T. Washington: "He early learned that one contributes best to the progress of human civilization by doing the next thing"; and along with this sound and practical philosophy goes another bit of wisdom from an old African proverb: "If you know well the beginning, the end will not trouble you much."