Franklin's paper the statesman., 1912-02-10


can OF culture finds he is an anomaly:
finds that he is sharing and participating
in culture that is his only by right of
acquisition and not by right Of inher-
itance
To be mindful of the distinction does not
necessarily make the civilization and cul-
ture we propose to claim and share any
the less ours. but it does make 1t ours in
different way. This is the contention
that with the proper approach and reser-
vations the frank admission that we par
ticipate in an alieS culture justifes US in
a certain historic ana actual pride of ac-
QUESTION in having made our own what
was In the beginning not ours. Further.
such an admission should enable us by
way of contrast to realize nationally our
own position. our own derivations and al
legiances, and to help US to build up in
addition a tradition worthy of our united
loyalties.
Instead. therefore, OF belittling US the
great contrast of Aryan culture should
make it more meaningful to be a Negro
The Negroes attitude toward his past has
hitherto been a sentimental and mistaken
one. There are grave dangers and difb
culties in achieving a new attitude but a
new one must bs achieved. We might in
time succeed in getting the first slave
ship into a historical perspective. which
you'd make It a spiritual Mayhower of
hYNdom from the handicaps of a tropical
attitude which would insist upon the full
and remotest tradition of the race. As
patriot the American is satisfied to go
back as far as the Mayhower, but as
scholar he is forced to go back a little
farther We have then the phenomenon
OF Anglo-Saxon tradition, Anglo-Saxon
civilization, Aryan cuture 1t should be
indeed 1t must be-the same with us. The
American Negro must in time change his
attitude toward the past. The stamp of
the abolitionist experience and appeal is
still upon us. 1t deserves to be an indeli-
BILE memory. But the sentimental ties
which bind us to the abolitionist period of
our history must not be allowed to con
troll our historical attitudes. genera
tion that has not lived through such
time can never be expected to care for
race history in exactly the same way. AL
ready the younger generation Is lapsing
from that sentimental attitude and it is
well. since. the attitude which freed us
physically will never free US mentally. 1t
binds US fast to what is, after all, only
one period in the race life. 1t keeps us
from the dispassionate. the scholarly, at
titude toward history. 1t chains us to
main in the vicious circle of early Amer
lean isolation. the hopeessly Quixotic
whim of people that wishes to begin
history all over again. We cannot afford
to let our regard for our immediate past
blind us to the remote racial past, past
which stands in need of patient and pains
taking scholarship to recover, but even
more perhaps in need of n worthier his
torical attitude to accept it.
American thought and scholarship are in
process of broadening out in the name of
culture, and for the sake of tradition a
period of reconstructive scholarship is be-
ginning. period that will retrieve the
necessary damage of the democratic Sc
cession. This is being done that the
American of culture need not have to pay
ha hity1 roriCa nf f,-f tIf,, fA- ht ,,,l
ture. Our situation is parallel Our in
voluntary transportation is analogous to
the colonial Americans voluntary revolu-
ton. We must like him. go back to claim
as tradition and culture all We have
broken with government and authority.
There Is for US no alternative to turning
back toward an African and racial past.
But such a course need no more interfere
with our entering into the full heritage
OF liberal education than race loyalty
to Anglo-Saxon civilization interferes with
American patriotism.
America. standing, 1t does. for the
common ownership Of the utilities of CIV
fliZation, cannot stand for the amalgama-
tion OF cultures America at all events
Is not sure of her own mental nationality
and behind the traditional uniformites of
American life and thought it is significant
to find certain latent racial traits and
traditions In process of development and
assertion. The fear that the acknowleug-
ment OF the birth claim to ideas under
mines the republican claims to free insti-
tutions, the fear that sense for race his
tory and tradition shuts one out from an
impersonal and moro inclusive participa-
tion in general history and culture. can
only be INDUCED by those who misunder-
stand the trend of American institutions
Indeed, freed from national responsible
ties and governmental ambitions racial
pretensions are free in this country to de-
velop without opposition or misconstruc-
ton. Certainly America has offered this
to other races. Not only have certain
Irish ambitions and hopes impossible of
realization elsewhere been realized in this
country. but their realiza tion while con-
tributory largely and patriotically to the
sum total Of American achievement, has
reacted upon the whole status and welfare
OF that race in its native home. The Jew
ish communism in this country further
has contributed to it's racial life the world
over and stands today as the champion of
some OF its most significant reform move
ments America affords the unique possi-
bliity OF race life and propaganda exist
ing without contradicting national and
patriotic loyalties and responsibilities.
The historical dilemma OF the American
Negro Is a great culture problem 1t Is
also great American problem. Its solu-
ton Will prove or disprove whether or not
culture by adoption is possible and wheth-
er a race can exist within a nation with
out disrupting the nation contradictinH
itself. If we accept the burden OF being
an experiment In this land Of experiment
1t Is because We have additional reasons.
These additional reasons are the desire to
solve our own problems, to convert in
Vidious distinctions into others rational
and respected.