The Appeal. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. ;) 1889-19??, 1921-12-03
Comments on Presidents Southern Speeches
President Harding and Social Equality
From the Crisis

President Harding and Social Equality
From the Crisis.)
For fifty years we who, pro and
con, have discussed the Negro prob
lem, have been skulking behind
phrase saSocial Equality" Today
President Harding's speech, like sud-
den thunder in blue skies, ends the
hiding and drives us all into the clear
light of truth.
We had our excuses perhaps in the
past: about every problem Of human
relations turks a penumbra of
shadowing possibilities, which we
would not discuss. It seems unnec-
sary, inappropriate, beside the point.
And SO defenders Of the higher train
ing OF women have hesitated to ex-
plore sex freedom for females; and
lovers Of democracy have declined to
consider the possibility of the masses
voting their own wages. 1t is not
that we have denied the ensuing prob
lens that shadow our main object,
but we have said with certain
truth: Sufficient unto the present
tangle is the obvious evil thereof. Let
US follow the clear light and after
ward turn to other darknesses.
But sometimes this becomes sud-
denly impossible. Sometimes the So
considered minor problem is so tre-
mendousy and insistent that it leaps
to the fore and demands examination
and honest facing. This is particu-
lraly SO when we have not simply
ignored the problem but have DELHI
erately and cynically lied about it.
denied it, and said not that "Sociaj
Equality" was not a pertinent and
pressing problem; but rather that it
was no problem at all.
The Birmingham Speech.
And now comes president Hard
ing's Birmingham speech when I'M
Willingly or deliberately the President
brings the crisis. We may no longer
dodge nor hesitate. We must all
black or white, Northerner or South
erner, stand in the light and speak
plain words.
The President must not for a mo-
nent be blamed because, when in
vited to the semi-centennial of a great
Southern city Of industry, he talked
of the Negro instead Of the results
of profitable mining. There is but
one subject in. the South. The South
erners themselves can speak no other,
think no other, act no other. The
eternal and inevitable Southern topic
is and has been and will be the Black
Man.
Moreover, the President laid down
three theses with which no American
can disagree without degree of self
qualification almost inconceivable,
namely:
1. The Negro must vote on the
same terms that white folk vote.
2. The Negro must be educated
8. The Negro must have economic
justice.
The sensitive may note that the
President qualified these demands
somewhat, even dangerously, and yet
they stand out so clearly in his speech
that he must be credited with mean
ing to give them their real signif-
canoe. And in this the President
made Drawer, clearer utterance
than Theodore Roosevelt ever dared
to make or than William Taft or
William Mckinley ever dreamed of.
For this let US give him every ounce
of credit he deserves.
Social Equality.
But President Harding did not
stop here. Indeed he did not begin
here. Either because he had no ade-
ouate view of the end of the fatal
path he was treading or because, in
his desire to placte the white South,
he was careless of consequences, he
put first on his program Of racial
settlement statement which could
have been understood and was under
stood and we fear was intended to
be understood to pledge the nation,
the Negra race and the world to a
doctrine so utterly inadmissible in the
twentieth century, in a republic of
free citizens and in an age of hui
nlanity that one stands aghast at the
motives and the reasons for the pro-
nouncement.
It may to some seem that this
statement is overdrawn. Some puz-
lied persons may say: But Negroes
themselves have told me that they
repudiate "Social Equality and
amalgamation of race; in fact, right
here at Birmingham, Negro applause
Of the President was audible. .
All this does not minimize-rathe1
it emphasizes the grave crisis pre-
cipitated by the Presidents speech
1t emphasizes the. fact Of our menta.
skulking or transparent and delib,
crate dishonesty in dealing with the
Negro.
Social equality may mean two
things. The obvious and clear mean
ing is the right Of human being tt
accept companionship with his fel.
low on terms Of equal and reciprocal
courtesy. In this sense the term is
understood and defended by modern
men. It has not been denied by any
civilized man since the French Revo.
luton It is the foundation of de-
mocracy and to bring it into being
the world went through revolution
war, murder and hell.
But there is another narrow, silt
ed and unreal meaning, that is some
times dragged from these words
namely: Social equality is the RICH
to demand private social companion
ship with another. !
Or to put it more simply: TIL,
real meaning of "social equality j
eligibility to association with men
and the forced and illogical meaning
| is the right to demand private asso
citation with any particular person
Such demand as the latter is IDIOT
and was never made by any san
person; while on the contrary, for an,
person to admit that his character i
such that he is physically and moral
| " unfit to talk or travel or eat will
his fellow men, or that he has no de
sire to associate with docort- ,,aonln