The Denver star., 1914-01-10
:.erk Deninu iLo :

C.erk DenInu 40 ~..-
how competent he may be. There is
not street railway that dares to put
Negro to work on one of its cars.
The everyday story of a Negro hunting
a house in which to live is filed with
burning humiliation and injustice. And
yet the Negro of pure African blood
is rare: many of them are almost
white-oppressed with white mems
brains. cursed with white mems
hearts, hopelessly consumed with white
mems ideals and aspirations.
Il ask you this afternoon to put
yourselves and your families in the
place of an honest. respectable Negro
with his own wife and little children.
To do that you will have to crush ous
all the strongest yearnings and highest
longings of your hearts. Then see
what dismal place you have made OF
it. Think for a minute that your little
children. no matter how wise they may
become or how good they shall remain
must never hope for public esteem OF
general honor. What incentive remains
behind your darkened lives?
when we complain of the Negro we
should remember that one cannot
measure the capabilities of, race by
its lowest members. but by the attain
ments of its very highest. We have
Free to do what? To become 4 porter
in saloon or Il waiter in dining
car Which was better. the drugged
contentment Of the slave or the hope
less, endless humiliation and burning
subjection OF the freedman? If the
Negro may not use his education it is
cruelty to educate him. If he may
not use his freedom it was a crime to
set him free.
Still he has progressed wonderfully.
The general social and intellectual con-
dition of the American Negro in the
north today is vastly superior to that
of the white inha bitant of any civil
iized country in the seventeenth cen
trry. Yet three generations ago he
was a slave. a chattel. thing. Not
withstanding this. it was essential to
slavery that the slave should fee him
self physically and mentally slave.
Generation after generation this idea
was ground into his soul. Let the
general community today unit in its
estimate us to any of US. and I'M
perceptiby we will sink or rise to the
limits of that estimate. Ii we brutalize
IA man we have no right to complain
when he acts like brute. To begin
making a man respectable We must
commence respecting him. To keep
him honorable it, is often necessary to
honor him.
DO you realize that in spite Of this
handicap there are Negro homes in
Chicago. and not Il few of them. the
equals in actual refinement to almost
any white mans? Have you consid
cred that there are working in this
republic black men. and not few.
in the various professions that are the
equals intellectually and in many cases
the superiors of their competitors?
One of the best lawyers in Chicago is
a Negro. and il rich man bes''ieS ? The
polite learning of the ages IS familiar
to him. He loves the best pictures
and knows the finest music but he
may not tieLe one meal in any decent
restaurant. suppose that man We're
to come in here today and sit mt the
table with us. DO you care to analyze
your feelings toward him: And yet
the bishop on his silken chair. the
splendid old pope on his ancient
throne is not nearer to Gods great
care and affections than this world ex,
lied Negro. SO embittered ias this
man grown against his country and
even against his own race HAT there
is no light left in the world for him
All this through no fault OF his own
mind you, not because of ANYTHING he
has done to us. but because Of what
God did to him. The only light way
for you to judge man is for you to
put yourself in his place. l'ut your
self in that mans place. HE prob
lem is not dying out Every year II
increases in intensity.
"In 1890 there were less than SOOOV
Negroes in this country; in $3.50 more
than 100000: today every tenth per
son in this republic is n Negro. ant
his ratio of increase during the last
decade was II per cent. They will tel
you in the south they have settled the
Negro problem They have not yel
begun to realize its awful importance
to them. Terrorism never yet settled
anything permanently. Only cold
tho+ Tho Ne1rO's