The Atlanta constitution. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1885-19??, 1903-05-04

to reverse or change this decreed sentl-
ment If the public heart or the private
Judgment In this particular, there is
no more possibility for Booker T. Wash
ington, or his counterpart, than it is for
the most degraded of the black people.
The negro must abide the present status,
ground Nothing is clearer than the po-
tentiaI fact that negroes will never enjoy
the some privileges of citizenship as guar
anteed to the white people, and be-
uueathed to their children. | cannot see,
neither does it accord with experience
and philosophy, how a race or people
can reach or fulfill the best and noblest
ends of society without the possibility
of attaining unto that degree OF exalted
citizenship which the state has to give.
No race white or black. can operate the
functions of true manhood when the
legitimate instruments of achievements
are cut off. In short, | see no chance
for the black man to be anything in the
south but a mere social scavenger and
political Scallawag and therefore can
not be wrought into the social compact.
1t is assumed by northern philanthropists
and by the leaders of the negro race
with few eXceptions) that whenever ne
eroes are prepared for the privileges of
citizenship it would be given upon grounds
of merit and fitness; that such would
be given as matter of justice and fair
play. This is the faith. and apparently
the logical assumption, which inspired
the philanthropsts of the north to give
millions of money for the higher educa-
ton of negroes but this can never BRING
him to the privileges of the best citizen
ship or allow him to be equal to the
white people in civil life. 1t is not so
vet and can never be. until the Ethiopion
change his skin. or the leopard his spots.
The racial problem is not new. With
us it may be somewhat new in it's present
phases but its pivotal elements and
fundamentals are as old as those peculiar
traits of racial character that distn-
guiShes one from another. If these are
not God-given or decreed to be so by
the Almighty yet they must be consid-
cred as enduring fixtures, and regarded
as no small factors in the racial problem.
Although this should never be d cause
for Injustice or unfair dealings, yet it
is a mighty part of the prodigious whole
EX-presidcnt Cleveland Vibrated the cen
trail chord in this VeXed question when he
said: "As friends of tie negroes fully
believing in the possibility of his I'm
proVemcnt and advancement and sincere
Iy and confidently laborng to that end
it is folly for us to ignore the Importance
OF the ungrudginS cooperation on the part
of the white people of the south In this
work Labor as we viii, those who do
the lifting Of the weight must be those
who stand next TO it. This cooperation
cannot tc forced, nor can it be gained
by gratUitOusly running counter to firmly
fixed and tenaCiously held southern IDEAS
or even prejudiceS. The phrase even
preiudiceS" a. once takes US to the seat
OF the disease and gives us an X-raY
view of the largest part of the racial
complications. How far the black race
exercises prejudice toward the white PEG
pie we cannot safely say. because that
race has never had the chance to show
It. That the negro race has prejudice we
do not d0uGt. on the other hand, the
white people-many in the north as well
as in the SOuth-haVe degree of preju
dice that amounts to Intolerance and
disdain; so much so that It threatens