The Appeal. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. ;) 1889-19??, 1916-01-22
farms in the southern states of q
value of $1,O83,658,351.

farms in the southern states of q
value of $1,0S3,658,351.
1--WE are called criminal class and
yet the same United States census
shows that among the ten million of |
Negroes in the United States 1885,
wv more than one out of every three, |
are members of some religious organ
ization.
That of that number 2,211.172 are
Baptlst with church property valued at
va ,8l3,089. And that 889,71O are
Methodist with church property valued
at $19,580,232.
These figures prove that the race
is advancing rapidly, despite the fact
that we are commonly said to be an
ignorant and criminal race.
The main reason why the white man
dlsregards, in his estimates of Negro
life, the extraordinary progress of a
large and growing section of the race.
and for the fixing of his attention al
most entirely upon it's less desirable
members is that the latter are the
Negroes most prominent in their dailv
lives and the display head lines in the
newspapers. The Associated Press of
the country features in bold type the
Negro criminal, and passes unnoticed
many OF the cOmmendable achieve
ments OF that class of Negroes who,
bearing the burden of their disadvan-
tages, are struggling onward and up-
ward in the march of civilization and
accomplishing those things which
make better men and women and con.
sequently better citizens of them.
AS the Negro gains in culture and
efficiency, in his struggle for a COM
petence, he withdraws into a world
OF his own, world which lies all
about the white man, yet whose exist
ence they rarely suspect. The ineffi-
clients OF the race, the handicapped, the
ambitious, the physically and NOR
ally degenerate-all these remain in
that economic morass which you re.
gard as purely racial; and from that
class is drawn the notorious Negro,
the worthless Negro and the Jail bird
This kind of Negro attracts your at.
tentlon, but as fast as a Negro rises
out OF that class he disappears from
your field of vision for as the Negro
rises higher in intellectual and in
dustrial levels in most of the sections
OF this country he is by segregation
pushed out of your lives and denied
the right to compete with the white
man.
The situation of the American Negro
is pitiful in the extreme. He is much
like an orphan. So different from all
! other races of people in America for
they have powerful governments back
or them, save the Jews, and the Jews,
being Gods chosen people, are able
to take care of themselves-and most
OF the American dollars. But we have
no place to turn for help.
The white boy sets out upon his ca
reer with 100 voices to hail and urge
him on. His race is with him, bearing
him up in it's sympathies and in it's
achievements as the ocean lifts the
ship on it's bosom. The Negro boy
begins the ascent with his race a
drag upon him. The weight of the
whole mass he must lift 1t he finds
some voices to encourage him, there
are more voices to sheer and bid him
keep Ibis place." All the way up
there are those who contest his right
to rise; and he knows that if at last
ne shall succeed in standing upon the
higher range of attainment he will be
in an atmosphere that is chilly indeed.
But If there be dignity in bearing the
cross; it it is true that the better re-
wards of life are designed for those
who overcome, then surely great credit
| is due such Negroes as Booker T.
Washington, Fred Douglass and hun
dreds OF other sturdy ones who,
against unparalleled odds have pushed
their way, who have climbed often
with bleeding fingers and bruised
| feet to the topmost round of the lad
der of success.
All we, as Negroes, want is a fair
chance. We do not ask favors now.
We just want liberty to be ourselves,
to be permitted to stand upon our own
legs. If we can maneuver the farm,
dig the mines and run to the engine;
if we can plead the case and treat the
sick; if we can mould our thoughts
in exquisits beauty and real power in
verse or on canvas; if we can be the
statesmen and the leader of men-that
there be no hindrance placed to the
exercise of these talents.
We do not ask that social equality
which brings me into your home or
you into mine without regard to your
feelings or mine, for we realize as
does every sensible man that social
equality is an Individual right. But
we do want industrial equality-the
opportunity to work on fair terms and
to enjoy to the fullest extent the har-
vest of our labor. And educational
equality-the opportunity to learn and
to appropriate the truth, which right
fully belongs, like the air, to all.
The white people of the North, en-
crossed in their business and every
day life have no conception of the
persistency displayed by the white
people of the South, led by Vardaman,
Tillman, John Sharp Williams, Hefflin,
Thomas Dixon and others, in perse-
cutting the Negro and curtailing his
rights. 1t was Senator Tillman who
said, we've cheated the niggers,
we've threatened them, we've MUIR
dered them, now we are going to dis
franchise them" And through the
passage, by the various southern
states, of the laws known as the Edu-
cational Test with the understand
ing" clause, and the "Grandfather"
clause, the Negroes of the South have
been disfranchised for the past ten to
twenty years. But, thank God, through
the recent decision of the United
States Supreme Court these laws have
been declared unconstitutional and if
southern ingenuity and prejudice can
not find another way to rob my people
Of their franchise they will soon enjoy
the right to vote as well as to pay
taxes.
Josiah Royce, of Harvard one of the
leading psychologists of our time,
ma6a an elaborate rt,,dv If thic mot