The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1901-11-05
EDUCATION AND EQUALITY.

All because President Roosevelt en-
tertained at dinner Booker T. Washing
ton. the negro president of a negro
school in Alabama, there is raging
storm which threatens to eclipse that
which blows about his policy of APP
pointing good men, whether or not they
are negroes, to office in the south.
There are many foolish things being
said during this war, things which had
better be left unsaid, but through 1t all
there is a current of understanding OF
the position of the negro, which prom
ises in the end to result in the solution
of the race problem OF the South.
While this truly great worker for the
uplifting of his people was at the table
OF Theodore Roosevelt another negro
laborer in the same field the presi-
dent of school, was quoted in the
great journals OF the East as saying
that the hope Of the negro was that
he might maintain his identity and
through education reach a position of
racial Importance which would be Inn
possible IL there should be any partial
amalgamation. He adjurel his people
to not struggle for social equality.
which must result in bitterness but
to make n place for themselves and so
fill II that they would be respected and
live peaceful lives.
1t is the close of the second generation
since the negro question wrought for
the division of the people, and there
fore there may be a calm view taken
of the future and the way in which
the later generations will view the negro
in the life of the republic. No back
ward step ever will mark the Ameri-
can republic. The political equality
which was given to this race by the
American people cannot be taken from
them. But the difference in their social
status, as in connection with the white
people, Is as marked today as 1t was
forty years ago.
| 1t would be safe to say that of the
majority of the negroes of the United
States today not one-half ever strive for
social equality with the whites. Men
and women there are of that race who
are as delicate of feeling as any Of their
| fairskinned brethren or sisters. They
feel the slight Of the withdrawn gar
ment, the implied contamination, as
deeply, even more than did their parents
| the lash. They are the equals of the
whitest and bluest blooded in feeling
but there must be worn away by gem
erations the touch of the social differ
ence which grew from years of servi-
tude and mastery. This feeling is not
entirely of one side. In the normally
constituted of the one race it Is as
finely felt as in the same specimen of
! the other.
In the city of Washington there is
a
most perfectly organized society. Of the
hundred thousand negroes of the Capt.
tai city worship. Into that edifice,
which is an ornament To the city, there
go each Sabbath hundreds Of negroes
whose aim in life is to so live that they
may respect themselves and be re.
spected by their neighbours. Yet whit,
person Is made to feel actually uncom.
Portable If by chance he wanders into
that church. There Is a sense of self
suficiency among those we'll groomec
and wellbred negroes which renders
them a society apart as we'll from thu
whites as from the ignorant and evi
of their own race. And of this class o
the race in that city there has neve
, been a criminal, nor any trouble as t
4, the fourteenth amendment
1t Is from the pushing, talking assert
i've negro that the race suffers. TIL
u Washingtons spend their lives in uplift
l Ing. They leave their people the bet
: ter for their lives and labor. The PER-
j Carsons are OF another kind and the
create feeling of repulson, for tina
tribute which Is wrung from an unwill
ing people, whether of place or posi-
]. ton. Is paid in the coin Of i'll will. Tn
negro who has forced himself into tn
I hotel or cafe under threat OF the law
has found his service too i'll for com
fort, aBd the people upon whom he ha
0 forced his society never forget the In
= truson.
a The hope for the South is education
I The people will be advanced on
\ through the cultivation OF the mass q
e the population, and until they hav
r come to realize that this is their onl
y hope. until they abandon their effort I
& wrest recognition which is withheld
h from ancient prejudice, rather com
Il polling II by personal attainment, Their
: will be a race question and the Anglo
Saxon will not be the one who suffers
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