The broad ax., 1914-04-18
SEGREGATION.
Is It Based On 1nfsriOrity7

4 Il Based On Inferiority7
One of the hoary-headed theories of
the White South propOunds the absO-
Lutte mental inferiority of the COlOred
people. It is interesting to contem-
plate the fate of these theories as the
world progresses. In its progress the
theories of today are the discards of to-
morrow. Out Of the ashes Of old specu-
lati0ns rises the new theory, only to
meet in most cases, the unhappy fate
Of its luekless predecessor.
Such was the fate Of that theory &C
eording to which the brother-in-blaek
could not be taught to read and write.
It was wonderful with what pertinaeity
Shareholders ~elung to this ridiculous
idea even after they discovered num-
bers Of slaves who could both read and
write.
It is not difficult, in view Of this
theory to which some benighted Louis
lana people still cling, to appreciate
the deepseated, pOignant-ehagrin OF
educator Congressman Aswell from that
State of darkness, Louisiana, who was
forced to witness the unspeakable hui
initiation of having some school chill
dren from his State defeated ignomini-
ously in q spelling contest held few
years ago at the meeting of the N. E.
A. In Cleveland.
According to a later theory the
White South "knew" that a Colored
child could not possibly learn math-
ematics, and this too in spite of the
fact that hundreds Of Colored boys were
finishing in preparatory schools for ad-
mission to first class colleges all over
the country.
II took the publication Of q Greek
grammar by a COlOred man to explode
the Southern theory that Colored stu
dent could not possibly comprehend q
Greek root.
The old theory that no White woman
could be the mother Of black mans
child and live through the ordeal failed
to deter the White women Of the South
Of preferring Black eonsorts, and 30
miseegenation laws have been enlisted
for this purpose.
Fort Pillow, Petersburg, and q hun
dred other battle fields, exploded the
theory that one White man could put
q hundred Blacks to fight; for now
one reason given for asking for in
creases in Southern city police forces
Is that five or six policeman are fire.
quently necessary to arrest q Black
Desperate who is many times only .
sixteen year old boy; while every one
knows that It requires q mob Of q
''thousand representative citizens" to
lynch one miserably helpless COlored
suspect.
vardaman's assertion, which no one
but YardamAn believes, that COlored
men, who could read and write fuently
at fifteen forget it all at thirty is .
terrible reelection on the census emu
merations Of the South who reported
. sixty per cent. reduction in the Hit
eraey Of the COlored people.
In addition to the explosion Of these
theories and many other similar ones,
there is the positive evidence that Col
ored applicants pass the same civil
service tests, and in Mississippi far out
strip their White competitors; pass the
same teachers, bar and medicine, ex-
aminations; meet the same college en-
trance requirements; lead university
and college classes, often in eompeti-
ton with White Students, from whom
they frequently win prizes and scholar
ships; make places on debating and
athletic teams and even win world
Championships in vazious ferns Of sth-
letie sports.
Their poetry and fiction are read and
admired; their music Is rendered the
wide world over; their paintings and
sculptor win prizes and medals; and
their inventions are IN 1se everywhere.
Surely s1eh record, to say nothing
Of the past, preslades the possibility
Of a0nyicting the descendants Of Ham
Of the charge e mental infsriority.-
ne Afso-Amsriean Ledger, Baltimoro,
Nd Aptl Il, 1914