The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1916-08-12
WALKER ARTICLE2
Topeka Minister in Second
Treatise ON American Negro.
Segregation Is Denial of Pro-
gress, He Declares.
.COLORED AMERICAN RIDICULED
Attitude of White From TOler.
ance to Absolute Hatred.
Despite Handicap Negro Has
D.oL-4-I G42H DacuI&C
COLORED AMERICAN RIDICULED
Despite Handicap Negro Has
Produced Good Results.
BY THE REV. GEO. GILBERT
WALKER, M. A.

ton or denial of opportunity to work
out happiness and progress. A group
| is segregated when its rights to en-
gage in trades, professions. to enjoy
public amusements and utilities, to
/ attend and use public institutions and
organizations, on an equal footing
with any other group, are withheld
| Such segregation is due to pressure
exerted by the dominant group. 1t
is a resultant of the feeling attitudes
| assumed by the white toward the
| colored American. 1t can have no
| justification, save in the more or less
emphatic racial differentiations of the
| colored American; and such justifica-
ton is no justification at all.
| There is a sort of segregation, the
resultant of forces actuating groups
| or strata, which places certain per-
sons or groups or strata in certain en-
| vironments, and without certain other
environments Ignorance, vice, pow
erty, intelligence, virtue, wealth, for
example, each has It's community of
interests, which are exclusive of I'M
| like OF opposite factors. This is a
purely natural segregation. But when
the poor become rich. they enter the
| rich class. When the ignorant be-
come intelligent, they enter the in
| telligent class. When the vicious be-
| come good, they enter the good class
This is due to the fact that there are
no artificial barriers between these
classes. Such segregation is due to
temporary conditions, merely, and not
to any false standards of race partic-
| ularitieS.s E.ss e. fH '-H
Colored American Stunned.
With the colored American 1t is al
together different. Intelligence will
not put him where the Intelligent Of
the dominant people are; neither will
wealth or goodness. He is conceived
as a pariah, and ridicu1ed, ostracized
Stunned as thing to be avoided,
merely because he Is colored and not
| white. Men or groups may rise above
| may be rated according to fitness,
ability, character. But no man or
| group may rise above such environ
| ment, when it Is the result of an I'M
meaning prejudice. Physical racial
characteristics are not indicative of
need no apology With regard to
complexion and the like, one race is
no better than another The things
that count, and the only things that
| count, are ability, industry, character.
Any order of things In which these are
not considered basic, and in which
they are not the real standards of
value in adjustment, is q hopeless con-
dition for both dominant and those
| further down. The dominant become
coarse, unjust, retrograde; the others
become careless and respondent, be-
life, as far as those opportunities are
in the hands of the dominant group.
The colored American Is carfca-
tured ridiculed, lampooned. He Is
avoided, Stunned, ostracized. He is
| condemned, scorned, disdained. The
general attitude of the white toward
the colored American ranges from
good-natured tolerance to absolute
hatred Such a condition of things
does not make for the development of
strong-willed, self-respecting, agrees
sive people No people in the world 8
history have Iabored under so great a
weight of prejudice, a prejudice based
lin nothing save unimportant physical
characteristics.
! Participate in Life.
No group or individual ever rose from
q condition of things made solely for
the purspose of keeping that group or
individual down. Isolated examples
to the contrary merely emphasize the
truth of the generalization. What is
necessary for one people, is necessary
for any other people. How can it be
| expected that the colored American
raise his children to be intelligent, pro-
gressive, and Of strong personal char
| acter, when from the time they are
born they bear about them the mark
which indicates that they are to be
deliberately denied q share in the life
| of the community? ~ @i1= tiis
Men attain success only through
full, free, and active participation In
the spheres of life in which their
| work may place them Men become
scholars by contact and by having the
| opportunity to engage in the life OF
| scholarship on a par with other scho1-
ars. Men become financially and in
dustrially independent only by first
having the opportunity to engage in
commerce and industry on the same
plane with all others. How can the
colored American produce bankers
engineers, architects, etc, when he is
not permitted to enjoy equal oppor-
tunity with all others in these spheres
of life? He may have as much ABILITY
as anyone else; but unless he is able
to use his ability, he cannot be ex-
pected to measure up, in the last
analysis, with those who have been
working for generations.
| He is not granted opportunity
simply and solely because he is a col
ored man. Not only is he shut out
from the race of life, but he is blamed
and scoffed at because he has not pro-
duced big results in the departments
of life to which he is denied admit
lance. Such a combination of nom
sense and blindness would be laugh
liable and pitiable, were 1t not for the
relegated to the twilight of civiliza-
ton and progress because of it. There
can be no equality of rights says DR..
| Kelly Miller of Howard university,
when identity of rights are denied. .
And again, THE man who cannot pro-
tect himself will become the victim of
every issue when his interests are sep
arated from those of the community
at large. If there were Two standards
of coinage, of the same weight and
fineness, only that the one set of coins
must forever circulate among negroes
land the other among white people, the
black mans coin would Immediately
Idepreciate in comparison. The arity
could only be maintained by free in
terchangeability. This is absolutely
self evident. The standards of civ
ilization can never be maintained
either internally OF externally, by a
group, when that group is segregated
land thus put aside from those very