The advocate. [volume] (Charleston, W. Va.) 1901-1913, 1910-10-06

cation has been SO successful that in
the Southern South, the Negro pub
!lc schools are worse than they were
hfteen years ago, and in the border
states they have not made reasonable
advance. Not only this, but the sup
port given to Negro private schools
mas been growing smaller and small
Ter While the Negro secondary
SCHOOLS supported by the states have
had their curriculum progressively
cheapened and spoiled in nearly
every Instance. Discrimination in
civil rights has gone so far that the
battle against it has apparently been
given up, even in the North, and we
face today continually an opinion
among our own people that the wave
of prejudice against Negroes in the
United States is inevitable and that
there is no use fighting it.
Now, while l think it is perfectly
true that the advance Of the Negro
race can be claimed as due to no
other hand, it seems to me certain
that the policy Of trying to make
friends with the enemies Of the Ne
gro race, Of surrendering ground to
them, Of yielding without protest or
argument has undoubtedly been res
ponslble for a great many Of the
calamities which are threatening us.
think it is perfectly true that if
there had been no such philosophy
formulated we should have had to
meet reaction from the sentimental
ism of the War period, we would
have had to meet widespread dis
iranchisement, attack upon our civil
rights and attack upon the educa-
ton Of our children; but I cannot
believe that such movement could
have triumphed with the ease with
which it has had it been met on our
part not by submission and surrend-
er, but by thoughtful, dogged and
persistent and unwavering opposi-
ton.
! wonder if many of you will be-
lieve me when I say that the greatest
and on the whole most unbearable
argument that has been brought
against my attitude in the last ten
years has been the assertion which
have met time and time again that
/ am practically the only Negro in
the United States who objects to
present conditions; that I and
small group of personal friends are
protesting and making a good deal
Of noise about ACKNOWLEDGMENT,
civil rights and the cWrtailment OF
education, while, as matter of fact,
not only are the great mass of the
colored people satisfied with their
condition, but the real leaders of the
race are also satisfied; that they are
making no protest, that they are to
use the current phrase "Optimists'',
and on the whole are well-satisfed
with conditions as they now exist.
l know, as you know, that it is
perfectly false. / know, as You
know, that Of the educated, think
ing colored people, nine out of ten.
demand precisely the things which I
have been trying to demand, but the
thing that eXasperates me is that
when | seel; to prove this to doubling
people who come to me for Informal
ton I find it exceedingly difficult
to DO so. If send them for personal
interviews to colored people, these
colored people have their glib Of
contentment ready. They are sure
that the Negro has advanced, and
that the white man is going to give
them their rights, while they sit still
to receive them. If ! refer them to
the Negro newspapers, will find in
their columns today almost no
stra1ght-out protest against present
conditions. Personal inuendos, fac
tlonal~ fights, petty -jealousies and
social dOings practically fill them. If
] refer to the speeches and the doings
OF our leading men, ! find Doctor
Washington in Europe assuring
the world that all is we'll in
the United States, and again and
again men among us Of education and
ability meekly and silently submit
ting to humiliation and insult such
as no man ought to bear without
protest. All Of which fatty contra
diets my assertion that the Negroes