Friction between the races : causes and cure Read online

  Friction Between

  The Races

  Causes and Cure Issued by

  National Public Welfare League Memphis, Tennessee Copyrighted 1930

  by SUTTON E. GRIGGS Memphis, Tennessee

  FRICTION BETWEEN THE RACES

  CAUSES AND CURE

  By Sutton E. Griggs

  America Acts Nobly

  The people of the United States abolished slavery at a stupendous cost in money, property and lives; bestowed upon the freed men the privileges of citizenship; undertook the great task of their education; freed Cuba from the rule of Spain; fed starving Belgium during the World War; asked not a dollar as a reward for decisive action in that, greatest of all human struggles, and tried nobly to drive alcohol from the borders of the nation.

  Negro Worth

  The Negroes of the United States were industrious and peaceable as slaves; loyal to the white women and children of the South while the men fought for a victory which would have caused their further enslavement; courageous in battle; faithful to their emancipators; seekers for light, and makers of a record for progress said to be unsurpassed in human history.

  Signs of Friction

  In the South the lines of separation between the races are everywhere apparent. In the North the feeling of separation is very intense though manifesting itself in different ways. For example, in the South separate schools for the two races are created by law, while in the North it is done by the moving of white people from districts into which the colored people have moved. For example, there are but a very few white students in Wendell Phillips High School in Chicago.

  It is said that white parents living in districts with large number of Negroes make a practice of sending their children to schools which are not attended by many Negro children. The desire of white people in the North to be separated from the colored people can be judged by the fact that they have sacrificed millions of dollars ingested in residences in fleeing from neighborhoods because of the influx of colored people.

  Prof. Kelly Miller, of Howard University, says, "The evil genius of race prejudice is nation wide and race deep." The Philadelphia Tribune which for nearly a half century has been the mouthpiece of the colored people of the "city of brotherly love," had this to say editorially in commenting upon Decoration Day: "The customs which are contrary to human brotherhood and equality; which permit human beings to be burned alive; which send black Gold Star Mothers on separate ships; which cause a large group of citizens to doubt the existence of God; which breed hatred which make the Stars and Stripes a symbol of white supremacy, make the real spirit of Decoration Day a hollow mockery,"

  There is ample evidence that race prejudice is fast spreading. Mr. J. A. Rogers in the American Mercury says: "Recently in London at the home of a friend I consorted a scrap book with clippings from the English press on the Negro. They read like extracts from the Ku Klux Klan publications, or the pronouncements of Southern Congressmen. Talk with an English Negro long enough and he will tell you that if it were not for some Englishwomen he would not be able to stay in England. Here are the exact words of one of them said to me which I give because it is typical of the feelings of many: "If it were not for white women we'd die. That is the absolute truth. The men would massacre us though the Negro is a terrible fighter.

  The Topeka Daily Capital says: "Ex-Governor Hoch, after traveling from one side of the country to the other, filling Chautauqua engagements and observing conditions as he travels, gives it as his opinion that the prejudice against the colored race is increasing all over the North. No matter how well educated or well behaved a colored man may be, he is apt to be denied admittance to public gatherings where whites are congregated. He is practically barred from the white churches. Hardly a hotel in the country will afford him entertainment. Labor unions shut their doors against him and his children, and to the ordinary observer his case seems to be growing more hopeless every day."

  Prof. E. B. Renter, of the University of Iowa, says: "The problem takes an added importance because it is one of the relatively permanent facts of American life. There is no present evidence to indicate that the problem will pass or become of less importance in the near future. On the contrary, there is every indication that it will become a more acute and more important one."

  Prof. Wm. McDougall, of Harvard University, calls the American race problem the nation's 'most distressing problem; one that if not boldly dealt with, may prove a lasting and increasing danger to the health and even to the very life of the nation."

  The Fundamental Causes

  Let us now consider the cause of race prejudice. It is an unvarying law of nature to adapt things and beings to their environments. Races living under different environments have developed different characteristics. Prof. Chas. A. Elwood says, "The various races of mankind have had therefore, a common origin, but having developed in different geographical areas they each present certain peculiar racial traits adapting each to the environment in which it developed. The perfection of the electric light came about as a result of Edison's acceptance of the law of adaptation. He found a plant that nearly suited his purpose. Knowing that nature had made changes in this plant to meet conditions he sent an investigator to search for the plant modified to an extent to suit his need; and the investigator found it.

  The two races having existed under different environments for thousands of years met on the American continent and each began to hammer away unconsciously to change the other, and each has succeeded to some extent. Mr. Smuts, ex-premier of the Union of South Africa says the American Negro is wholly different from his South African brother. Prof. Carl G. Jung, the Swiss psychologist says, "I am convinced that some American peculiarities can be traced to the Negro directly, while others result from compensatory defenses against his laxity." Segregation and obstacles in the way of voting are among the "compensatory defenses." The ostracism of the colored people is an effort to keep from being made over.

  Prof. Jung further says, "To our sub-conscious minds contact with the primitives recalls not only our childhood, but also our pre-history; and with the German races this means a harking back of only about twelve hundred years. The barbarous man in us is still wonderfully strong and he easily yields to the lure of his youthful memories. Therefore he needs very definite defenses. The Latin peoples, being older don't need to be so much on their guard; hence their attitude is different from that of the Nordics *** Since the Negro lives within your cities and even your houses, he also lives within your skin subconsciously." Prof. E. B. Renter, of the University of Iowa, says, "To the extent that the Negro people differ fundamentally from the white people in their temperamental characteristics, the differences will express themselves in a modification of the cultural characteristics of the society to the extent that the members of the temperamentally divergent group are permitted to participate freely in the group life . . . They oppose such participation on the ground that it would inevitably mean an Africanization of American culture."

  How the Colored People Can Affect the Situation

  Let us now take note of the serious manner in which the colored people of the United States have exacted a telling influence upon American life even though in the minority. The world has gone forward through the breaking of precedents regarded as sacred. The removal of the authority of the King of England from America and the substitution of a presidency constituted the breaking of a precedent. In 1912 the white people of the United States seemed to be about ready to break a precedent to give a third term in the presidency to that great character, the late Theodore Roosevelt. There were approximately 7,609,942 members of the Republican" party. Of this number a ma
jority of 643,309 deduct that Colonel Roosevelt be given a third term as President of the United States, as shown by the election ret turns. A minority of the white members of this party desired for Wm. H. Taft to have the nomination. In the convention that did the nominating this white minority joined hands with a majority of the Negro delegates to the convention and nominated Taft. The white majority did not respect this action, disrupted the party and brought about the overwhelming defeat of Taft. William Jennings Bryan lacked but about six percent of being elected to the presidency of the United States. The colored people constitute about ten per cent of the nation's population, and they were almost solidly against Bryan's election. It may be, then, that the majority sense of the white people favored Bryan for the presidency.

  Again, the white children of the South in their most impressionable period have had to press up through Negro social heredity. In view of the manner in which the lives of the two races were entwined in the South during slavery it is no surprise that two hundred and fifty years of such contact gave the white people of the South the divisive attitude which resulted in the Civil War, predominately an effort at division.

  We now cite a possibility. Texas is the largest state in the world's greatest nation. Something wonderful can come out of this great aggregation if it maintains unity. It is possible for it to divide and become five different states. When Texas was admitted to the Union it was granted that power. The unity of the State, therefore, depends solely upon the spirit of unity of the people. The Negro Baptists of the State some years ago had one state convention. It later broke into five fragments. If allowed free expression in the life of the State, would the Negro Baptists of Texas tend to split it?

  Every night the American people have an example of the possibilities growing out of contact with Negro attitudes. In a sketch of Amos and Andy we have this statement, "Freeman F. Gosden comes direct from the South and has a natural Southern accent." He was reared with a Negro lad who was taken into his home. This lad, Snowball, succeeded in injecting some of his traits into his white companion. Mr. Gosden's biographer says of him, "We even find Snowball's traits in Amos himself." Mr. Gosden, who is Amos, is not only acting the part of a Negro, but has had the traits of his Negro companion imbedded in his nature, which in this case has proven to be a fine and profitable thing.

  Voluntary Cooperation

  1. We are now to note some differences between attitudes prevailing in the two races and to point out things which are feared by the conscious or the sub-conscious minds of the American people. No enduring society, whether of insects, animals, or of human beings, can be found in the absence of the seconding tendency, the innate tendency of one being to go voluntarily to the aid of another seen to be engaged with a task of common interest too great for his individual strength. We do not refer merely to the fact of the working together of two individuals. Two horses work together, it is true, but they must be hitched together. They will come together when trained but will perform no service whatever with a fellow horse except that which they are trained to perform. It is wholly different with the ant. It goes voluntarily and unfailingly to the aid of its fellow. A society is prosperous to the extent that its members possess this trait.

  The two races have been compared intellectually, physically and otherwise. We are now to compare them with respect to voluntary cooperation. Prof. Jung says of the American white people, "When you find a good man, you generally support him and push him on until at last he is liable to collapse from sheer exhaustion, success, and triumph. It is done in every family, where ambitious mothers lead boys on with the idea that they must be heroes of some sort. You find it in the factory, where the whole system is designed to get the best man into the best place. And again in the school, where every child is trained to be brave, courageous, efficient, and a "good sport"--in short, a hero."

  Contrast this with the usual experience of Negroes. Practically every Negro who has won unusual distinction in America is one who has been discovered by some white people or persons and put conspicuously before the world. This was true of Frederick Douglas, Booker T. Washington, Paul Lawrence Dunbar, Roland Hayes, William Pickens and so forth. As the white people touch only the fringe of Negro life it is no doubt a fact that there are numbers of undiscovered Negroes who are left to drown, so to speak, in the sea of obscurity.

  At Geneva, Illinois, there is a home for delinquent, dependent girls. The girls of all races are sent to this home and all go to school together, but they live in cottages set apart for different groups. Irish, German, Jewish, and Negro girls, for example, live separately in racial groups. A person who visited this home says that Jewish girls and those of the Catholic faith have better equipped homes than the other girls. This is due in a measure to a superior seconding spirit possessed by some of the groups, which provide more attractive homes.

  We give here an editorial from the Memphis Commercial Appeal, a leading newspaper in the South, showing the widespread presence of the seconding attitude in white Americans and an article in the Pittsburgh Courier, a leading Negro newspaper of the North, complaining about the almost total absence of the seconding spirit among the Negroes of the North:

  Problems of a Miss

  Crowned the beauty queen of the universe, Miss Dorothy Dell Goff, of New Orleans, finds that her exquisitely chiseled head lies a bit uneasily. She is torn between conflicting emotions as she looks over the offers from stage and movie magnificoes to exploit her pulchritude.

  This is the penalty for beauty and celebrity in a land that loves to do homage to its heroes and heroines.

  Miss Goff is only beginning to have her worries. She has yet to contend with the face cream people who crave testimonials and the chewing gum agents who crave photographs and slogans.

  In most cases the worries are forgotten by the canny celebrity. Either he takes the line of least resistance and gets rich quick or he scorns the world and writes a book.

  Band Greets Dorothy--Home Town The Out to Welcome Miss Universe

  New Orleans, Aug. 9. (AP)--The music of tile local American Legion Post's drum and bugle corps, the screeching of police sirens and the sustained cheers of a throng of people tonight greeted Miss Dorothy Dell Goff as she returned home from the international pageant of pulchritude at Galveston, where she was crowned "Miss Universe."

  A delegation headed by Mayor Semmes Walmsey welcomed the 17-year-old high school girl.--Memphis Commercial Appeal.

  Compare the foregoing editorial and news item with the following article appearing in a leading Negro news paper.

  Declare Negroes Not Loyal to Their Actors

  New York, Aug. 7--Producers who make shows with Negro performers, however large or small in numbers, believing that Negroes will patronize it chiefly because of its Negroid make-up--are learning some new points on Negro loyalty. They see that Negroes are conspicuous by their absence. They have many empty seats even in the $1.00 section of expensive shows. There arise no loud huzzas for the star in the cast--nor the fancy dress and drilled ensemble, "What's wrong?" they ask. We-ve even given hundreds of dollars worth of advertising to the Negro papers--yet the people stay away.

  Managers Ask Questions

  Your people don't seem to like this show Chappy-- I wonder what's wrong--the papers and the whole world claim that our show is the best of the century--and we have nothing but Negro actors of the best--yet your people stay away. Just look around and you don't see three of your race here. These were the words of Mr. Robbey, publicity staff representative of Green Pastures. A search by one revealed one Negro besides myself in a crowded theater. The same line of talk was handed me by the Biltmore Theater owner in his office when "Make Me Know It" opened. The play closed after a week, when the producers who fought to keep it opened, believed they had a fighting chance if given 100 per cent support by the New York Negro public. It was Brock Pemberton's publicity director who almost tearfully exclaimed--why don't your people come to see "Goin' Home?" We have Tom Mosely doing an important lead i
n a great drama.

  But the Negroes stayed away. Then there was "Great Day," "Porgy," "Harlem" and "Appearances." All except the lad named employing many Negroes and paying salaries that no single or group of Negro business or professional had seen fit to offer even as an inducement for the propagation of art. Money given for ads in Negro weeklies is called thrown away, as it is claimed by New York managers to be a non-drawing element. I am told that some theatrical managers give Negro papers an ad in the city out of fairness to the employed actors-- knowing that the Negroes won't come anyway.--Pittsburgh Courier.

  Effects of the Non-Seconding Attitudes

  1. It relegates the more modest person to the rear, there being no seconder to bring him to the front.

  2. It stifles reform movements in that men hesitate to move out, fearing that they will not be seconded.

  3. It makes general leadership difficult as it is effective only when there is a tendency to second readily.

  4. It causes a group of non-seconders to suffer in comparison with other groups.

  5. He who goes to the front without assistance and over opposition feels no debt of gratitude.

  Self-Renunciation

  2. The female beetle is the lowliest of the earth's creatures to practice self-renunciation and is the lowliest to have an enduring social structure. Starting thus, nature no where permits an enduring society in the absence of an attitude of self-renunciation. Benjamin Kidd in the Science of Power shows very forcibly the part which self-renunciation has played in social evolution. It has long been one of the marvels of mankind why the Negroes have not developed greater and more enduring social structures. Strange to say abnormal human beings throw a clear light on this subject. We now show how this can be done.