We press too close in church and mart
To keep a dream or grave apart.
MRS. BROWNING.
The world-old phenomenon of the contact of diverse races of men is to have new exemplification during the new century. Indeed, the characteristic of our age is the contact of European civilization with the world's undeveloped peoples. Whatever we may say of the results of such contact in the past, it certainly forms a chapter in human action not pleasant to look back upon. War, murder, slavery, extermination1, and debauchery,—this has again and again been the result of carrying civilization and the blessed gospel to the isles2 of the sea and the heathen without the law. Nor does it altogether satisfy the conscience of the modern world to be told complacently3 that all this has been right and proper, the fated triumph of strength over weakness, of righteousness over evil, of superiors over inferiors. It would certainly be soothing4 if one could readily believe all this; and yet there are too many ugly facts for everything to be thus easily explained away. We feel and know that there are many delicate differences in race psychology5, numberless changes that our crude social measurements are not yet able to follow minutely, which explain much of history and social development. At the same time, too, we know that these considerations have never adequately explained or excused the triumph of brute6 force and cunning over weakness and innocence7.
It is, then, the strife8 of all honorable men of the twentieth century to see that in the future competition of races the survival of the fittest shall mean the triumph of the good, the beautiful, and the true; that we may be able to preserve for future civilization all that is really fine and noble and strong, and not continue to put a premium9 on greed and impudence10 and cruelty. To bring this hope to fruition, we are compelled daily to turn more and more to a conscientious11 study of the phenomena12 of race-contact,—to a study frank and fair, and not falsified and colored by our wishes or our fears. And we have in the South as fine a field for such a study as the world affords,—a field, to be sure, which the average American scientist deems somewhat beneath his dignity, and which the average man who is not a scientist knows all about, but nevertheless a line of study which by reason of the enormous race complications with which God seems about to punish this nation must increasingly claim our sober attention, study, and thought, we must ask, what are the actual relations of whites and blacks in the South? and we must be answered, not by apology or fault-finding, but by a plain, unvarnished tale.
In the civilized14 life of to-day the contact of men and their relations to each other fall in a few main lines of action and communication: there is, first, the physical proximity15 of home and dwelling16-places, the way in which neighborhoods group themselves, and the contiguity17 of neighborhoods. Secondly18, and in our age chiefest, there are the economic relations,—the methods by which individuals cooperate for earning a living, for the mutual19 satisfaction of wants, for the production of wealth. Next, there are the political relations, the cooperation in social control, in group government, in laying and paying the burden of taxation20. In the fourth place there are the less tangible21 but highly important forms of intellectual contact and commerce, the interchange of ideas through conversation and conference, through periodicals and libraries; and, above all, the gradual formation for each community of that curious tertium quid which we call public opinion. Closely allied22 with this come the various forms of social contact in everyday life, in travel, in theatres, in house gatherings23, in marrying and giving in marriage. Finally, there are the varying forms of religious enterprise, of moral teaching and benevolent24 endeavor. These are the principal ways in which men living in the same communities are brought into contact with each other. It is my present task, therefore, to indicate, from my point of view, how the black race in the South meet and mingle25 with the whites in these matters of everyday life.
First, as to physical dwelling. It is usually possible to draw in nearly every Southern community a physical color-line on the map, on the one side of which whites dwell and on the other Negroes. The winding26 and intricacy of the geographical27 color-line varies, of course, in different communities. I know some towns where a straight line drawn28 through the middle of the main street separates nine-tenths of the whites from nine-tenths of the blacks. In other towns the older settlement of whites has been encircled by a broad band of blacks; in still other cases little settlements or nuclei29 of blacks have sprung up amid surrounding whites. Usually in cities each street has its distinctive30 color, and only now and then do the colors meet in close proximity. Even in the country something of this segregation31 is manifest in the smaller areas, and of course in the larger phenomena of the Black Belt.
All this segregation by color is largely independent of that natural clustering by social grades common to all communities. A Negro slum may be in dangerous proximity to a white residence quarter, while it is quite common to find a white slum planted in the heart of a respectable Negro district. One thing, however, seldom occurs: the best of the whites and the best of the Negroes almost never live in anything like close proximity. It thus happens that in nearly every Southern town and city, both whites and blacks see commonly the worst of each other. This is a vast change from the situation in the past, when, through the close contact of master and house-servant in the patriarchal big house, one found the best of both races in close contact and sympathy, while at the same time the squalor and dull round of toil32 among the field-hands was removed from the sight and hearing of the family. One can easily see how a person who saw slavery thus from his father's parlors33, and sees freedom on the streets of a great city, fails to grasp or comprehend the whole of the new picture. On the other hand, the settled belief of the mass of the Negroes that the Southern white people do not have the black man's best interests at heart has been intensified34 in later years by this continual daily contact of the better class of blacks with the worst representatives of the white race.
Coming now to the economic relations of the races, we are on ground made familiar by study, much discussion, and no little philanthropic effort. And yet with all this there are many essential elements in the cooperation of Negroes and whites for work and wealth that are too readily overlooked or not thoroughly35 understood. The average American can easily conceive of a rich land awaiting development and filled with black laborers37. To him the Southern problem is simply that of making efficient workingmen out of this material, by giving them the requisite39 technical skill and the help of invested capital. The problem, however, is by no means as simple as this, from the obvious fact that these workingmen have been trained for centuries as slaves. They exhibit, therefore, all the advantages and defects of such training; they are willing and good-natured, but not self-reliant, provident40, or careful. If now the economic development of the South is to be pushed to the verge41 of exploitation, as seems probable, then we have a mass of workingmen thrown into relentless42 competition with the workingmen of the world, but handicapped by a training the very opposite to that of the modern self-reliant democratic laborer36. What the black laborer needs is careful personal guidance, group leadership of men with hearts in their bosoms43, to train them to foresight44, carefulness, and honesty. Nor does it require any fine-spun theories of racial differences to prove the necessity of such group training after the brains of the race have been knocked out by two hundred and fifty years of assiduous education in submission45, carelessness, and stealing. After Emancipation46, it was the plain duty of some one to assume this group leadership and training of the Negro laborer. I will not stop here to inquire whose duty it was—whether that of the white ex-master who had profited by unpaid47 toil, or the Northern philanthropist whose persistence48 brought on the crisis, or the National Government whose edict freed the bondmen; I will not stop to ask whose duty it was, but I insist it was the duty of some one to see that these workingmen were not left alone and unguided, without capital, without land, without skill, without economic organization, without even the bald protection of law, order, and decency49,—left in a great land, not to settle down to slow and careful internal development, but destined50 to be thrown almost immediately into relentless and sharp competition with the best of modern workingmen under an economic system where every participant is fighting for himself, and too often utterly51 regardless of the rights or welfare of his neighbor.
For we must never forget that the economic system of the South to-day which has succeeded the old regime is not the same system as that of the old industrial North, of England, or of France, with their trade-unions, their restrictive laws, their written and unwritten commercial customs, and their long experience. It is, rather, a copy of that England of the early nineteenth century, before the factory acts,—the England that wrung52 pity from thinkers and fired the wrath53 of Carlyle. The rod of empire that passed from the hands of Southern gentlemen in 1865, partly by force, partly by their own petulance54, has never returned to them. Rather it has passed to those men who have come to take charge of the industrial exploitation of the New South,—the sons of poor whites fired with a new thirst for wealth and power, thrifty56 and avaricious57 Yankees, and unscrupulous immigrants. Into the hands of these men the Southern laborers, white and black, have fallen; and this to their sorrow. For the laborers as such, there is in these new captains of industry neither love nor hate, neither sympathy nor romance; it is a cold question of dollars and dividends58. Under such a system all labor38 is bound to suffer. Even the white laborers are not yet intelligent, thrifty, and well trained enough to maintain themselves against the powerful inroads of organized capital. The results among them, even, are long hours of toil, low wages, child labor, and lack of protection against usury59 and cheating. But among the black laborers all this is aggravated60, first, by a race prejudice which varies from a doubt and distrust among the best element of whites to a frenzied61 hatred62 among the worst; and, secondly, it is aggravated, as I have said before, by the wretched economic heritage of the freedmen from slavery. With this training it is difficult for the freedman to learn to grasp the opportunities already opened to him, and the new opportunities are seldom given him, but go by favor to the whites.
Left by the best elements of the South with little protection or oversight63, he has been made in law and custom the victim of the worst and most unscrupulous men in each community. The crop-lien system which is depopulating the fields of the South is not simply the result of shiftlessness on the part of Negroes, but is also the result of cunningly devised laws as to mortgages, liens64, and misdemeanors, which can be made by conscienceless men to entrap65 and snare66 the unwary until escape is impossible, further toil a farce67, and protest a crime. I have seen, in the Black Belt of Georgia, an ignorant, honest Negro buy and pay for a farm in installments68 three separate times, and then in the face of law and decency the enterprising American who sold it to him pocketed the money and deed and left the black man landless, to labor on his own land at thirty cents a day. I have seen a black farmer fall in debt to a white storekeeper, and that storekeeper go to his farm and strip it of every single marketable article,—mules, ploughs, stored crops, tools, furniture, bedding, clocks, looking-glass,—and all this without a sheriff or officer, in the face of the law for homestead exemptions69, and without rendering70 to a single responsible person any account or reckoning. And such proceedings71 can happen, and will happen, in any community where a class of ignorant toilers are placed by custom and race-prejudice beyond the pale of sympathy and race-brotherhood. So long as the best elements of a community do not feel in duty bound to protect and train and care for the weaker members of their group, they leave them to be preyed72 upon by these swindlers and rascals73.
This unfortunate economic situation does not mean the hindrance74 of all advance in the black South, or the absence of a class of black landlords and mechanics who, in spite of disadvantages, are accumulating property and making good citizens. But it does mean that this class is not nearly so large as a fairer economic system might easily make it, that those who survive in the competition are handicapped so as to accomplish much less than they deserve to, and that, above all, the personnel of the successful class is left to chance and accident, and not to any intelligent culling75 or reasonable methods of selection. As a remedy for this, there is but one possible procedure. We must accept some of the race prejudice in the South as a fact,—deplorable in its intensity76, unfortunate in results, and dangerous for the future, but nevertheless a hard fact which only time can efface77. We cannot hope, then, in this generation, or for several generations, that the mass of the whites can be brought to assume that close sympathetic and self-sacrificing leadership of the blacks which their present situation so eloquently78 demands. Such leadership, such social teaching and example, must come from the blacks themselves. For some time men doubted as to whether the Negro could develop such leaders; but to-day no one seriously disputes the capability79 of individual Negroes to assimilate the culture and common sense of modern civilization, and to pass it on, to some extent at least, to their fellows. If this is true, then here is the path out of the economic situation, and here is the imperative80 demand for trained Negro leaders of character and intelligence,—men of skill, men of light and leading, college-bred men, black captains of industry, and missionaries81 of culture; men who thoroughly comprehend and know modern civilization, and can take hold of Negro communities and raise and train them by force of precept82 and example, deep sympathy, and the inspiration of common blood and ideals. But if such men are to be effective they must have some power,—they must be backed by the best public opinion of these communities, and able to wield83 for their objects and aims such weapons as the experience of the world has taught are indispensable to human progress.
Of such weapons the greatest, perhaps, in the modern world is the power of the ballot84; and this brings me to a consideration of the third form of contact between whites and blacks in the South,—political activity.
In the attitude of the American mind toward Negro suffrage85 can be traced with unusual accuracy the prevalent conceptions of government. In the fifties we were near enough the echoes of the French Revolution to believe pretty thoroughly in universal suffrage. We argued, as we thought then rather logically, that no social class was so good, so true, and so disinterested86 as to be trusted wholly with the political destiny of its neighbors; that in every state the best arbiters87 of their own welfare are the persons directly affected88; consequently that it is only by arming every hand with a ballot,—with the right to have a voice in the policy of the state,—that the greatest good to the greatest number could be attained89. To be sure, there were objections to these arguments, but we thought we had answered them tersely90 and convincingly; if some one complained of the ignorance of voters, we answered, "Educate them." If another complained of their venality92, we replied, "Disfranchise them or put them in jail." And, finally, to the men who feared demagogues and the natural perversity94 of some human beings we insisted that time and bitter experience would teach the most hardheaded. It was at this time that the question of Negro suffrage in the South was raised. Here was a defenceless people suddenly made free. How were they to be protected from those who did not believe in their freedom and were determined95 to thwart96 it? Not by force, said the North; not by government guardianship97, said the South; then by the ballot, the sole and legitimate98 defence of a free people, said the Common Sense of the Nation. No one thought, at the time, that the ex-slaves could use the ballot intelligently or very effectively; but they did think that the possession of so great power by a great class in the nation would compel their fellows to educate this class to its intelligent use.
Meantime, new thoughts came to the nation: the inevitable99 period of moral retrogression and political trickery that ever follows in the wake of war overtook us. So flagrant became the political scandals that reputable men began to leave politics alone, and politics consequently became disreputable. Men began to pride themselves on having nothing to do with their own government, and to agree tacitly with those who regarded public office as a private perquisite100. In this state of mind it became easy to wink101 at the suppression of the Negro vote in the South, and to advise self-respecting Negroes to leave politics entirely102 alone. The decent and reputable citizens of the North who neglected their own civic103 duties grew hilarious104 over the exaggerated importance with which the Negro regarded the franchise93. Thus it easily happened that more and more the better class of Negroes followed the advice from abroad and the pressure from home, and took no further interest in politics, leaving to the careless and the venal91 of their race the exercise of their rights as voters. The black vote that still remained was not trained and educated, but further debauched by open and unblushing bribery106, or force and fraud; until the Negro voter was thoroughly inoculated107 with the idea that politics was a method of private gain by disreputable means.
And finally, now, to-day, when we are awakening108 to the fact that the perpetuity of republican institutions on this continent depends on the purification of the ballot, the civic training of voters, and the raising of voting to the plane of a solemn duty which a patriotic109 citizen neglects to his peril110 and to the peril of his children's children,—in this day, when we are striving for a renaissance111 of civic virtue112, what are we going to say to the black voter of the South? Are we going to tell him still that politics is a disreputable and useless form of human activity? Are we going to induce the best class of Negroes to take less and less interest in government, and to give up their right to take such an interest, without a protest? I am not saying a word against all legitimate efforts to purge113 the ballot of ignorance, pauperism114, and crime. But few have pretended that the present movement for disfranchisement in the South is for such a purpose; it has been plainly and frankly115 declared in nearly every case that the object of the disfranchising laws is the elimination116 of the black man from politics.
Now, is this a minor117 matter which has no influence on the main question of the industrial and intellectual development of the Negro? Can we establish a mass of black laborers and artisans and landholders in the South who, by law and public opinion, have absolutely no voice in shaping the laws under which they live and work? Can the modern organization of industry, assuming as it does free democratic government and the power and ability of the laboring118 classes to compel respect for their welfare,—can this system be carried out in the South when half its laboring force is voiceless in the public councils and powerless in its own defence? To-day the black man of the South has almost nothing to say as to how much he shall be taxed, or how those taxes shall be expended119; as to who shall execute the laws, and how they shall do it; as to who shall make the laws, and how they shall be made. It is pitiable that frantic120 efforts must be made at critical times to get law-makers in some States even to listen to the respectful presentation of the black man's side of a current controversy121. Daily the Negro is coming more and more to look upon law and justice, not as protecting safeguards, but as sources of humiliation122 and oppression. The laws are made by men who have little interest in him; they are executed by men who have absolutely no motive123 for treating the black people with courtesy or consideration; and, finally, the accused law-breaker is tried, not by his peers, but too often by men who would rather punish ten innocent Negroes than let one guilty one escape.
I should be the last one to deny the patent weaknesses and shortcomings of the Negro people; I should be the last to withhold125 sympathy from the white South in its efforts to solve its intricate social problems. I freely acknowledged that it is possible, and sometimes best, that a partially126 undeveloped people should be ruled by the best of their stronger and better neighbors for their own good, until such time as they can start and fight the world's battles alone. I have already pointed127 out how sorely in need of such economic and spiritual guidance the emancipated128 Negro was, and I am quite willing to admit that if the representatives of the best white Southern public opinion were the ruling and guiding powers in the South to-day the conditions indicated would be fairly well fulfilled. But the point I have insisted upon and now emphasize again, is that the best opinion of the South to-day is not the ruling opinion. That to leave the Negro helpless and without a ballot to-day is to leave him not to the guidance of the best, but rather to the exploitation and debauchment of the worst; that this is no truer of the South than of the North,—of the North than of Europe: in any land, in any country under modern free competition, to lay any class of weak and despised people, be they white, black, or blue, at the political mercy of their stronger, richer, and more resourceful fellows, is a temptation which human nature seldom has withstood and seldom will withstand.
Moreover, the political status of the Negro in the South is closely connected with the question of Negro crime. There can be no doubt that crime among Negroes has sensibly increased in the last thirty years, and that there has appeared in the slums of great cities a distinct criminal class among the blacks. In explaining this unfortunate development, we must note two things: (1) that the inevitable result of Emancipation was to increase crime and criminals, and (2) that the police system of the South was primarily designed to control slaves. As to the first point, we must not forget that under a strict slave system there can scarcely be such a thing as crime. But when these variously constituted human particles are suddenly thrown broadcast on the sea of life, some swim, some sink, and some hang suspended, to be forced up or down by the chance currents of a busy hurrying world. So great an economic and social revolution as swept the South in '63 meant a weeding out among the Negroes of the incompetents129 and vicious, the beginning of a differentiation130 of social grades. Now a rising group of people are not lifted bodily from the ground like an inert131 solid mass, but rather stretch upward like a living plant with its roots still clinging in the mould. The appearance, therefore, of the Negro criminal was a phenomenon to be awaited; and while it causes anxiety, it should not occasion surprise.
Here again the hope for the future depended peculiarly on careful and delicate dealing133 with these criminals. Their offences at first were those of laziness, carelessness, and impulse, rather than of malignity134 or ungoverned viciousness. Such misdemeanors needed discriminating135 treatment, firm but reformatory, with no hint of injustice136, and full proof of guilt124. For such dealing with criminals, white or black, the South had no machinery137, no adequate jails or reformatories; its police system was arranged to deal with blacks alone, and tacitly assumed that every white man was ipso facto a member of that police. Thus grew up a double system of justice, which erred138 on the white side by undue139 leniency140 and the practical immunity141 of red-handed criminals, and erred on the black side by undue severity, injustice, and lack of discrimination. For, as I have said, the police system of the South was originally designed to keep track of all Negroes, not simply of criminals; and when the Negroes were freed and the whole South was convinced of the impossibility of free Negro labor, the first and almost universal device was to use the courts as a means of reenslaving the blacks. It was not then a question of crime, but rather one of color, that settled a man's conviction on almost any charge. Thus Negroes came to look upon courts as instruments of injustice and oppression, and upon those convicted in them as martyrs142 and victims.
When, now, the real Negro criminal appeared, and instead of petty stealing and vagrancy143 we began to have highway robbery, burglary, murder, and rape144, there was a curious effect on both sides the color-line: the Negroes refused to believe the evidence of white witnesses or the fairness of white juries, so that the greatest deterrent145 to crime, the public opinion of one's own social caste, was lost, and the criminal was looked upon as crucified rather than hanged. On the other hand, the whites, used to being careless as to the guilt or innocence of accused Negroes, were swept in moments of passion beyond law, reason, and decency. Such a situation is bound to increase crime, and has increased it. To natural viciousness and vagrancy are being daily added motives146 of revolt and revenge which stir up all the latent savagery147 of both races and make peaceful attention to economic development often impossible.
But the chief problem in any community cursed with crime is not the punishment of the criminals, but the preventing of the young from being trained to crime. And here again the peculiar132 conditions of the South have prevented proper precautions. I have seen twelve-year-old boys working in chains on the public streets of Atlanta, directly in front of the schools, in company with old and hardened criminals; and this indiscriminate mingling148 of men and women and children makes the chain-gangs perfect schools of crime and debauchery. The struggle for reformatories, which has gone on in Virginia, Georgia, and other States, is the one encouraging sign of the awakening of some communities to the suicidal results of this policy.
It is the public schools, however, which can be made, outside the homes, the greatest means of training decent self-respecting citizens. We have been so hotly engaged recently in discussing trade-schools and the higher education that the pitiable plight150 of the public-school system in the South has almost dropped from view. Of every five dollars spent for public education in the State of Georgia, the white schools get four dollars and the Negro one dollar; and even then the white public-school system, save in the cities, is bad and cries for reform. If this is true of the whites, what of the blacks? I am becoming more and more convinced, as I look upon the system of common-school training in the South, that the national government must soon step in and aid popular education in some way. To-day it has been only by the most strenuous151 efforts on the part of the thinking men of the South that the Negro's share of the school fund has not been cut down to a pittance152 in some half-dozen States; and that movement not only is not dead, but in many communities is gaining strength. What in the name of reason does this nation expect of a people, poorly trained and hard pressed in severe economic competition, without political rights, and with ludicrously inadequate153 common-school facilities? What can it expect but crime and listlessness, offset154 here and there by the dogged struggles of the fortunate and more determined who are themselves buoyed155 by the hope that in due time the country will come to its senses?
I have thus far sought to make clear the physical, economic, and political relations of the Negroes and whites in the South, as I have conceived them, including, for the reasons set forth156, crime and education. But after all that has been said on these more tangible matters of human contact, there still remains157 a part essential to a proper description of the South which it is difficult to describe or fix in terms easily understood by strangers. It is, in fine, the atmosphere of the land, the thought and feeling, the thousand and one little actions which go to make up life. In any community or nation it is these little things which are most elusive158 to the grasp and yet most essential to any clear conception of the group life taken as a whole. What is thus true of all communities is peculiarly true of the South, where, outside of written history and outside of printed law, there has been going on for a generation as deep a storm and stress of human souls, as intense a ferment159 of feeling, as intricate a writhing160 of spirit, as ever a people experienced. Within and without the sombre veil of color vast social forces have been at work,—efforts for human betterment, movements toward disintegration161 and despair, tragedies and comedies in social and economic life, and a swaying and lifting and sinking of human hearts which have made this land a land of mingled162 sorrow and joy, of change and excitement and unrest.
The centre of this spiritual turmoil163 has ever been the millions of black freedmen and their sons, whose destiny is so fatefully bound up with that of the nation. And yet the casual observer visiting the South sees at first little of this. He notes the growing frequency of dark faces as he rides along,—but otherwise the days slip lazily on, the sun shines, and this little world seems as happy and contented164 as other worlds he has visited. Indeed, on the question of questions—the Negro problem—he hears so little that there almost seems to be a conspiracy165 of silence; the morning papers seldom mention it, and then usually in a far-fetched academic way, and indeed almost every one seems to forget and ignore the darker half of the land, until the astonished visitor is inclined to ask if after all there IS any problem here. But if he lingers long enough there comes the awakening: perhaps in a sudden whirl of passion which leaves him gasping166 at its bitter intensity; more likely in a gradually dawning sense of things he had not at first noticed. Slowly but surely his eyes begin to catch the shadows of the color-line: here he meets crowds of Negroes and whites; then he is suddenly aware that he cannot discover a single dark face; or again at the close of a day's wandering he may find himself in some strange assembly, where all faces are tinged167 brown or black, and where he has the vague, uncomfortable feeling of the stranger. He realizes at last that silently, resistlessly, the world about flows by him in two great streams: they ripple168 on in the same sunshine, they approach and mingle their waters in seeming carelessness,—then they divide and flow wide apart. It is done quietly; no mistakes are made, or if one occurs, the swift arm of the law and of public opinion swings down for a moment, as when the other day a black man and a white woman were arrested for talking together on Whitehall Street in Atlanta.
Now if one notices carefully one will see that between these two worlds, despite much physical contact and daily intermingling, there is almost no community of intellectual life or point of transference where the thoughts and feelings of one race can come into direct contact and sympathy with the thoughts and feelings of the other. Before and directly after the war, when all the best of the Negroes were domestic servants in the best of the white families, there were bonds of intimacy169, affection, and sometimes blood relationship, between the races. They lived in the same home, shared in the family life, often attended the same church, and talked and conversed170 with each other. But the increasing civilization of the Negro since then has naturally meant the development of higher classes: there are increasing numbers of ministers, teachers, physicians, merchants, mechanics, and independent farmers, who by nature and training are the aristocracy and leaders of the blacks. Between them, however, and the best element of the whites, there is little or no intellectual commerce. They go to separate churches, they live in separate sections, they are strictly171 separated in all public gatherings, they travel separately, and they are beginning to read different papers and books. To most libraries, lectures, concerts, and museums, Negroes are either not admitted at all, or on terms peculiarly galling172 to the pride of the very classes who might otherwise be attracted. The daily paper chronicles the doings of the black world from afar with no great regard for accuracy; and so on, throughout the category of means for intellectual communication,—schools, conferences, efforts for social betterment, and the like,—it is usually true that the very representatives of the two races, who for mutual benefit and the welfare of the land ought to be in complete understanding and sympathy, are so far strangers that one side thinks all whites are narrow and prejudiced, and the other thinks educated Negroes dangerous and insolent173. Moreover, in a land where the tyranny of public opinion and the intolerance of criticism is for obvious historical reasons so strong as in the South, such a situation is extremely difficult to correct. The white man, as well as the Negro, is bound and barred by the color-line, and many a scheme of friendliness174 and philanthropy, of broad-minded sympathy and generous fellowship between the two has dropped still-born because some busybody has forced the color-question to the front and brought the tremendous force of unwritten law against the innovators.
It is hardly necessary for me to add very much in regard to the social contact between the races. Nothing has come to replace that finer sympathy and love between some masters and house servants which the radical175 and more uncompromising drawing of the color-line in recent years has caused almost completely to disappear. In a world where it means so much to take a man by the hand and sit beside him, to look frankly into his eyes and feel his heart beating with red blood; in a world where a social cigar or a cup of tea together means more than legislative176 halls and magazine articles and speeches,—one can imagine the consequences of the almost utter absence of such social amenities177 between estranged178 races, whose separation extends even to parks and streetcars.
Here there can be none of that social going down to the people,—the opening of heart and hand of the best to the worst, in generous acknowledgment of a common humanity and a common destiny. On the other hand, in matters of simple almsgiving, where there can be no question of social contact, and in the succor179 of the aged149 and sick, the South, as if stirred by a feeling of its unfortunate limitations, is generous to a fault. The black beggar is never turned away without a good deal more than a crust, and a call for help for the unfortunate meets quick response. I remember, one cold winter, in Atlanta, when I refrained from contributing to a public relief fund lest Negroes should be discriminated180 against, I afterward181 inquired of a friend: "Were any black people receiving aid?" "Why," said he, "they were all black."
And yet this does not touch the kernel182 of the problem. Human advancement183 is not a mere184 question of almsgiving, but rather of sympathy and cooperation among classes who would scorn charity. And here is a land where, in the higher walks of life, in all the higher striving for the good and noble and true, the color-line comes to separate natural friends and coworkers; while at the bottom of the social group, in the saloon, the gambling-hell, and the brothel, that same line wavers and disappears.
I have sought to paint an average picture of real relations between the sons of master and man in the South. I have not glossed185 over matters for policy's sake, for I fear we have already gone too far in that sort of thing. On the other hand, I have sincerely sought to let no unfair exaggerations creep in. I do not doubt that in some Southern communities conditions are better than those I have indicated; while I am no less certain that in other communities they are far worse.
Nor does the paradox186 and danger of this situation fail to interest and perplex the best conscience of the South. Deeply religious and intensely democratic as are the mass of the whites, they feel acutely the false position in which the Negro problems place them. Such an essentially187 honest-hearted and generous people cannot cite the caste-levelling precepts188 of Christianity, or believe in equality of opportunity for all men, without coming to feel more and more with each generation that the present drawing of the color-line is a flat contradiction to their beliefs and professions. But just as often as they come to this point, the present social condition of the Negro stands as a menace and a portent189 before even the most open-minded: if there were nothing to charge against the Negro but his blackness or other physical peculiarities190, they argue, the problem would be comparatively simple; but what can we say to his ignorance, shiftlessness, poverty, and crime? can a self-respecting group hold anything but the least possible fellowship with such persons and survive? and shall we let a mawkish191 sentiment sweep away the culture of our fathers or the hope of our children? The argument so put is of great strength, but it is not a whit13 stronger than the argument of thinking Negroes: granted, they reply, that the condition of our masses is bad; there is certainly on the one hand adequate historical cause for this, and unmistakable evidence that no small number have, in spite of tremendous disadvantages, risen to the level of American civilization. And when, by proscription192 and prejudice, these same Negroes are classed with and treated like the lowest of their people, simply because they are Negroes, such a policy not only discourages thrift55 and intelligence among black men, but puts a direct premium on the very things you complain of,—inefficiency and crime. Draw lines of crime, of incompetency193, of vice105, as tightly and uncompromisingly as you will, for these things must be proscribed194; but a color-line not only does not accomplish this purpose, but thwarts195 it.
In the face of two such arguments, the future of the South depends on the ability of the representatives of these opposing views to see and appreciate and sympathize with each other's position,—for the Negro to realize more deeply than he does at present the need of uplifting the masses of his people, for the white people to realize more vividly196 than they have yet done the deadening and disastrous197 effect of a color-prejudice that classes Phillis Wheatley and Sam Hose in the same despised class.
It is not enough for the Negroes to declare that color-prejudice is the sole cause of their social condition, nor for the white South to reply that their social condition is the main cause of prejudice. They both act as reciprocal cause and effect, and a change in neither alone will bring the desired effect. Both must change, or neither can improve to any great extent. The Negro cannot stand the present reactionary198 tendencies and unreasoning drawing of the color-line indefinitely without discouragement and retrogression. And the condition of the Negro is ever the excuse for further discrimination. Only by a union of intelligence and sympathy across the color-line in this critical period of the Republic shall justice and right triumph,
"That mind and soul according well,
May make one music as before,
But vaster."
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1
extermination
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| n.消灭，根绝 | |
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isles
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| 岛( isle的名词复数 ) | |
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complacently
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| adv. 满足地, 自满地, 沾沾自喜地 | |
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soothing
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| adj.慰藉的；使人宽心的；镇静的 | |
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psychology
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| n.心理，心理学，心理状态 | |
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brute
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| n.野兽，兽性 | |
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innocence
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| n.无罪；天真；无害 | |
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strife
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| n.争吵，冲突，倾轧，竞争 | |
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premium
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| n.加付款；赠品；adj.高级的；售价高的 | |
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impudence
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| n.厚颜无耻；冒失；无礼 | |
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conscientious
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| adj.审慎正直的，认真的，本着良心的 | |
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phenomena
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| n.现象 | |
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whit
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| n.一点，丝毫 | |
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civilized
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| a.有教养的，文雅的 | |
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proximity
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| n.接近，邻近 | |
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dwelling
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| n.住宅，住所，寓所 | |
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contiguity
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| n.邻近，接壤 | |
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18
secondly
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| adv.第二，其次 | |
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19
mutual
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| adj.相互的，彼此的；共同的，共有的 | |
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20
taxation
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| n.征税，税收，税金 | |
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21
tangible
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| adj.有形的，可触摸的，确凿的，实际的 | |
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22
allied
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| adj.协约国的；同盟国的 | |
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gatherings
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| 聚集( gathering的名词复数 )； 收集； 采集； 搜集 | |
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benevolent
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| adj.仁慈的，乐善好施的 | |
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mingle
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| vt.使混合，使相混；vi.混合起来；相交往 | |
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winding
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| n.绕，缠，绕组，线圈 | |
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geographical
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| adj.地理的；地区(性)的 | |
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drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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29
nuclei
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| n.核 | |
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distinctive
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| adj.特别的，有特色的，与众不同的 | |
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31
segregation
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| n.隔离，种族隔离 | |
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32
toil
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| vi.辛劳工作，艰难地行动；n.苦工，难事 | |
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33
parlors
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| 客厅( parlor的名词复数 )； 起居室； （旅馆中的）休息室； （通常用来构成合成词）店 | |
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34
intensified
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| v.（使）增强， （使）加剧( intensify的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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thoroughly
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| adv.完全地，彻底地，十足地 | |
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laborer
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| n.劳动者，劳工 | |
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laborers
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| n.体力劳动者，工人( laborer的名词复数 )；（熟练工人的）辅助工 | |
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38
labor
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| n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦 | |
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39
requisite
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| adj.需要的，必不可少的；n.必需品 | |
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40
provident
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| adj.为将来做准备的，有先见之明的 | |
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41
verge
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| n.边，边缘；v.接近，濒临 | |
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42
relentless
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| adj.残酷的，不留情的，无怜悯心的 | |
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43
bosoms
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| 胸部( bosom的名词复数 )； 胸怀； 女衣胸部（或胸襟）； 和爱护自己的人在一起的情形 | |
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44
foresight
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| n.先见之明，深谋远虑 | |
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45
submission
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| n.服从，投降；温顺，谦虚；提出 | |
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46
emancipation
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| n.（从束缚、支配下）解放 | |
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47
unpaid
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| adj.未付款的，无报酬的 | |
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48
persistence
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| n.坚持，持续，存留 | |
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49
decency
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| n.体面，得体，合宜，正派，庄重 | |
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50
destined
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| adj.命中注定的；(for)以…为目的地的 | |
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51
utterly
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| adv.完全地，绝对地 | |
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52
wrung
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| 绞( wring的过去式和过去分词 )； 握紧（尤指别人的手）； 把（湿衣服）拧干； 绞掉（水） | |
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53
wrath
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| n.愤怒，愤慨，暴怒 | |
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54
petulance
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| n.发脾气，生气，易怒，暴躁，性急 | |
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55
thrift
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| adj.节约，节俭；n.节俭，节约 | |
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56
thrifty
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| adj.节俭的；兴旺的；健壮的 | |
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57
avaricious
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| adj.贪婪的，贪心的 | |
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58
dividends
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| 红利( dividend的名词复数 )； 股息； 被除数； （足球彩票的）彩金 | |
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59
usury
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| n.高利贷 | |
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60
aggravated
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| 使恶化( aggravate的过去式和过去分词 )； 使更严重； 激怒； 使恼火 | |
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61
frenzied
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| a.激怒的；疯狂的 | |
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62
hatred
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| n.憎恶，憎恨，仇恨 | |
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63
oversight
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| n.勘漏，失察，疏忽 | |
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64
liens
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| n.留置权，扣押权( lien的名词复数 ) | |
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65
entrap
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| v.以网或陷阱捕捉，使陷入圈套 | |
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66
snare
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| n.陷阱，诱惑，圈套；（去除息肉或者肿瘤的）勒除器；响弦，小军鼓；vt.以陷阱捕获，诱惑 | |
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67
farce
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| n.闹剧，笑剧，滑稽戏；胡闹 | |
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68
installments
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| 部分( installment的名词复数 ) | |
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69
exemptions
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| n.（义务等的）免除( exemption的名词复数 )；免（税）；（收入中的）免税额 | |
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70
rendering
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| n.表现，描写 | |
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71
proceedings
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| n.进程，过程，议程；诉讼(程序)；公报 | |
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72
preyed
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| v.掠食( prey的过去式和过去分词 )；掠食；折磨；（人）靠欺诈为生 | |
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73
rascals
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| 流氓( rascal的名词复数 )； 无赖； （开玩笑说法）淘气的人（尤指小孩）； 恶作剧的人 | |
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74
hindrance
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| n.妨碍，障碍 | |
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75
culling
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| n.选择，大批物品中剔出劣质货v.挑选，剔除( cull的现在分词 ) | |
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76
intensity
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| n.强烈，剧烈；强度；烈度 | |
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77
efface
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| v.擦掉，抹去 | |
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78
eloquently
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| adv. 雄辩地(有口才地, 富于表情地) | |
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79
capability
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| n.能力；才能；(pl)可发展的能力或特性等 | |
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80
imperative
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| n.命令，需要；规则；祈使语气；adj.强制的；紧急的 | |
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81
missionaries
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| n.传教士( missionary的名词复数 ) | |
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82
precept
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| n.戒律；格言 | |
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83
wield
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| vt.行使，运用，支配；挥，使用(武器等) | |
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84
ballot
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| n.（不记名）投票，投票总数，投票权；vi.投票 | |
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85
suffrage
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| n.投票，选举权，参政权 | |
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86
disinterested
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| adj.不关心的，不感兴趣的 | |
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87
arbiters
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| 仲裁人，裁决者( arbiter的名词复数 ) | |
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88
affected
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| adj.不自然的，假装的 | |
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89
attained
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| （通常经过努力）实现( attain的过去式和过去分词 )； 达到； 获得； 达到（某年龄、水平、状况） | |
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90
tersely
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| adv. 简捷地, 简要地 | |
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91
venal
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| adj.唯利是图的，贪脏枉法的 | |
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92
venality
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| n.贪赃枉法，腐败 | |
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93
franchise
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| n.特许，特权，专营权，特许权 | |
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94
perversity
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| n.任性；刚愎自用 | |
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95
determined
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| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
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96
thwart
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| v.阻挠，妨碍，反对；adj.横(断的) | |
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97
guardianship
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| n. 监护, 保护, 守护 | |
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98
legitimate
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| adj.合法的，合理的，合乎逻辑的；v.使合法 | |
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inevitable
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| adj.不可避免的，必然发生的 | |
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100
perquisite
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| n.固定津贴，福利 | |
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101
wink
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| n.眨眼，使眼色，瞬间；v.眨眼，使眼色，闪烁 | |
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102
entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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103
civic
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| adj.城市的，都市的，市民的，公民的 | |
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104
hilarious
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| adj.充满笑声的，欢闹的；[反]depressed | |
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105
vice
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| n.坏事；恶习；[pl.]台钳，老虎钳；adj.副的 | |
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106
bribery
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| n.贿络行为，行贿，受贿 | |
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107
inoculated
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| v.给…做预防注射( inoculate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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108
awakening
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| n.觉醒，醒悟 adj.觉醒中的；唤醒的 | |
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109
patriotic
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| adj.爱国的，有爱国心的 | |
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110
peril
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| n.(严重的)危险；危险的事物 | |
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renaissance
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| n.复活，复兴，文艺复兴 | |
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112
virtue
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| n.德行，美德；贞操；优点；功效，效力 | |
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113
purge
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| n.整肃，清除，泻药，净化；vt.净化，清除，摆脱；vi.清除，通便，腹泻，变得清洁 | |
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114
pauperism
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| n.有被救济的资格，贫困 | |
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115
frankly
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| adv.坦白地，直率地；坦率地说 | |
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116
elimination
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| n.排除，消除，消灭 | |
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117
minor
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| adj.较小(少)的，较次要的；n.辅修学科；vi.辅修 | |
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118
laboring
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| n.劳动，操劳v.努力争取(for)( labor的现在分词 )；苦干；详细分析；（指引擎）缓慢而困难地运转 | |
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119
expended
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| v.花费( expend的过去式和过去分词 )；使用（钱等）做某事；用光；耗尽 | |
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120
frantic
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| adj.狂乱的，错乱的，激昂的 | |
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121
controversy
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| n.争论，辩论，争吵 | |
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122
humiliation
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| n.羞辱 | |
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123
motive
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| n.动机，目的；adv.发动的，运动的 | |
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124
guilt
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| n.犯罪；内疚；过失，罪责 | |
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125
withhold
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| v.拒绝，不给；使停止，阻挡 | |
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126
partially
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| adv.部分地，从某些方面讲 | |
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127
pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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128
emancipated
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| adj.被解放的，不受约束的v.解放某人（尤指摆脱政治、法律或社会的束缚）( emancipate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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129
incompetents
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| n.无能力的，不称职的，不胜任的( incompetent的名词复数 ) | |
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130
differentiation
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| n.区别，区分 | |
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131
inert
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| adj.无活动能力的，惰性的；迟钝的 | |
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132
peculiar
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| adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的 | |
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133
dealing
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| n.经商方法，待人态度 | |
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134
malignity
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| n.极度的恶意，恶毒；（病的）恶性 | |
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135
discriminating
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| a.有辨别能力的 | |
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136
injustice
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| n.非正义，不公正，不公平，侵犯（别人的）权利 | |
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137
machinery
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| n.(总称)机械，机器；机构 | |
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138
erred
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| 犯错误，做错事( err的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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139
undue
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| adj.过分的；不适当的；未到期的 | |
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140
leniency
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| n.宽大（不严厉） | |
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141
immunity
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| n.优惠；免除；豁免，豁免权 | |
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142
martyrs
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| n.martyr的复数形式；烈士( martyr的名词复数 )；殉道者；殉教者；乞怜者（向人诉苦以博取同情） | |
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143
vagrancy
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| （说话的，思想的）游移不定； 漂泊； 流浪； 离题 | |
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144
rape
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| n.抢夺，掠夺，强奸；vt.掠夺，抢夺，强奸 | |
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145
deterrent
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| n.阻碍物，制止物；adj.威慑的，遏制的 | |
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146
motives
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| n.动机，目的( motive的名词复数 ) | |
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147
savagery
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| n.野性 | |
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148
mingling
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| adj.混合的 | |
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149
aged
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| adj.年老的，陈年的 | |
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150
plight
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| n.困境，境况，誓约，艰难；vt.宣誓，保证，约定 | |
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151
strenuous
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| adj.奋发的，使劲的；紧张的；热烈的，狂热的 | |
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152
pittance
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| n.微薄的薪水，少量 | |
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153
inadequate
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| adj.(for,to)不充足的，不适当的 | |
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154
offset
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| n.分支，补偿；v.抵消，补偿 | |
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155
buoyed
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| v.使浮起( buoy的过去式和过去分词 )；支持；为…设浮标；振奋…的精神 | |
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156
forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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157
remains
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| n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹 | |
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158
elusive
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| adj.难以表达(捉摸)的；令人困惑的；逃避的 | |
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159
ferment
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| vt.使发酵；n./vt.（使）激动，（使）动乱 | |
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160
writhing
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| （因极度痛苦而）扭动或翻滚( writhe的现在分词 ) | |
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161
disintegration
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| n.分散，解体 | |
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162
mingled
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| 混合，混入( mingle的过去式和过去分词 )； 混进，与…交往[联系] | |
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163
turmoil
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| n.骚乱，混乱，动乱 | |
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164
contented
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| adj.满意的，安心的，知足的 | |
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165
conspiracy
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| n.阴谋，密谋，共谋 | |
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166
gasping
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| adj. 气喘的, 痉挛的 动词gasp的现在分词 | |
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167
tinged
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| v.（使）发丁丁声( ting的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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168
ripple
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| n.涟波，涟漪，波纹，粗钢梳；vt.使...起涟漪，使起波纹； vi.呈波浪状，起伏前进 | |
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169
intimacy
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| n.熟悉，亲密，密切关系，亲昵的言行 | |
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170
conversed
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| v.交谈，谈话( converse的过去式 ) | |
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171
strictly
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| adv.严厉地，严格地；严密地 | |
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172
galling
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| adj.难堪的,使烦恼的,使焦躁的 | |
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173
insolent
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| adj.傲慢的，无理的 | |
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174
friendliness
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| n.友谊，亲切，亲密 | |
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175
radical
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| n.激进份子，原子团，根号；adj.根本的，激进的，彻底的 | |
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176
legislative
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| n.立法机构，立法权；adj.立法的，有立法权的 | |
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177
amenities
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| n.令人愉快的事物；礼仪；礼节；便利设施；礼仪( amenity的名词复数 )；便利设施；（环境等的）舒适；（性情等的）愉快 | |
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178
estranged
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| adj.疏远的，分离的 | |
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179
succor
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| n.援助，帮助；v.给予帮助 | |
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180
discriminated
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| 分别，辨别，区分( discriminate的过去式和过去分词 )； 歧视，有差别地对待 | |
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181
afterward
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| adv.后来；以后 | |
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182
kernel
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| n.(果实的)核，仁；(问题)的中心，核心 | |
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183
advancement
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| n.前进，促进，提升 | |
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184
mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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185
glossed
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| v.注解( gloss的过去式和过去分词 )；掩饰（错误）；粉饰；把…搪塞过去 | |
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186
paradox
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| n.似乎矛盾却正确的说法；自相矛盾的人(物) | |
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187
essentially
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| adv.本质上，实质上，基本上 | |
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188
precepts
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| n.规诫，戒律，箴言( precept的名词复数 ) | |
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189
portent
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| n.预兆；恶兆；怪事 | |
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190
peculiarities
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| n. 特质, 特性, 怪癖, 古怪 | |
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191
mawkish
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| adj.多愁善感的的；无味的 | |
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192
proscription
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| n.禁止，剥夺权利 | |
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193
incompetency
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| n.无能力，不适当 | |
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194
proscribed
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| v.正式宣布（某事物）有危险或被禁止( proscribe的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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195
thwarts
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| 阻挠( thwart的第三人称单数 )； 使受挫折； 挫败； 横过 | |
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196
vividly
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| adv.清楚地，鲜明地，生动地 | |
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197
disastrous
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| adj.灾难性的，造成灾害的；极坏的，很糟的 | |
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198
reactionary
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| n.反动者，反动主义者；adj.反动的，反动主义的，反对改革的 | |
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