davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
The Appeal. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. ;) 1889-19??, 1921-11-26
$2.4o PER YEAR

schools and segregated cities. Expe-
rience has taught US that jimcrow
schools mean poorly equipped and in
efficient schools and segregated dis
tricts are always undesirable and neg
lected districts. How could the idea
Of our oneness as American citizens
prevail if we insist on complete d.
vergence socially and racially?
In reference to the right Of fran
chise the President says, "Let the
black man vote when he is fit to vote,
prohibit the white man voting when
he is unfit to vote" Who is to be
the Judge of the black mans fitness
to vote? In nearly every Southern
state they have been judging or pre-
Judging the colored mans fitness to
vote and that is the reason for his
disfranchisement today.
And finally, the President admon-
ished us not to initiate the American
white man. We quite agree that the
colored man should not initiate the
white man in his lynchings,
and burnings at the stake and his
other notorious practices. But we do
believe that if there is any good in
the American white man, the Jap, the
Hindu, or what not, we
should initiate that good. Civiliza-
ton has only progressed in that way
We should therefore not strive to be,
as the President suggests, the best
possible black man or the best pos
sible white man, but we should strive
to be the best possible MAN.
The Appeal. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. ;) 1889-19??, 1921-11-26
. The President in Alabama.
(From the Richmond Planet. !

President Harding says that there
must be such education among the
colored people as will enable them to
develop their own leaders, capable of
understanding and sympathizing with
such differentiation between the races
! as he has ggested-leaders who will
inspire the race with proper ideals of
i race pride, Of national pride, of an
honorable destiny, an important par
ticipation in the universal effort for
advancement of humanity as a whole.
This kind of education has been in
operation for nearly half a century.
We are dumbfounded to learn that
the President of the United States did
not know it. The Southland is full
of this kind of leaders. DR.. Booker
T. Washington did his part in devel-
.oping this kind of leadership. In
later years he realized that he had
gone too far to the extent of elimi-
mating the principles of manhood,
without which no race can rise to the
full height of American citizen.
He declared that the race problem
was one noticeable in Africa, in South
America, in the South Seas and of
the world. Just how it can be prob
lem in Africa, the home of the Black
Man is an amusing situation and a
most interesting one. If the black
people belong there, what are the
white people doing in the land of the
Ethiopian But then this is raising
another question. It seems to US that
President Harding might have cited
quotations from that Holy Bible upon
which he took his oath of office and
he would have found therein funda-
mental principles, the observance of
which will settle all problems, racial
and otherwise.
The foregoing is an excerpt from a
three-column editorial in the Planet,
Richmond, Va, edited by Hon. John
Mitchell, Jr., which lis too long to
print in full.
The Appeal. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. ;) 1889-19??, 1921-11-26
coIored Man American, That's All.

rom Cne HOfJlanQ \Ore.) llmeS.)
The Presidents logic is poor and
his own words destroy his speech and
lead him into a vicious circle.
TO work out a greater success in
the South, blacks and whites must
forget divergence in things social
and racial" and relegate to the trash
pile the bugaboo as eternal and I'M
escapable difference. There can be
no two brands of civilization in this
country.
Three hundred years of contact
with the white man has made the
colored man in this country what he
is. He has nothing he can claim by
divine right but his color. He has i'm
bibed the white mans blood, religion,
manners, customs, and has adapted
himself to the requirements of a white
civilization and is an absolute coun-
terpart. So long as the colored man
lives under American customs, he
cannot be anything but American.
The Appeal. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. ;) 1889-19??, 1921-11-26
s. MINI. SATURDAY. NOVEMBER 26. 1921

| Give the black people economic an
| political equality but social equalit,
never, quoth the President. Thunder
GUS applause followed, black peopl
flew into hysterical ecstacies. Tn
black people being enveloped in
pathetic pail of ignorance could no
appreciate the sinister and insidiou
meaning Of what the President hat
just said. Whatever social equalit.
means it is allowed to all other PEG
pie; it should not be denied to us. Il
the denial Of social equality means the
denial of inter-marriage of whites
and blacks, it means that white mer
can seduce our daughters and sisters
and we cannot compel the scoundrels
to marry them because these thieves
of virtue are placed upon higher So
cial plane than the wretched, helpless
women whom they have defled and
ruined. If social equality means in
termingling of races and indiscrimi-
nate association, and that as Mr..
Harding says is impossible, we can
expect no equality in politics and
economics.
From various sources petitions have
been sent to the President begging
that no black people be appointed into
political positions which puts white
people under their control; and no
appointments have been made as yet
which prove recognition on the basis
of voting strength. Political equality
is thus denied because of the ines
capable social connection. Imagine a
black man as governor of a state or
a r ha ~
This cannot be as long as America
stamps the sign Of social leprosy upon
the backs of all black men. Po-
litical equality without social equality
is joke and means nothing.
How can we expect to receive eco
nonaic equality and opportunity when
social equality is denied? Nobody
wants to work side by side with his
inferior. The white man will not al
low his black brother to advance be-
cause of his intrinsic value as long as
he is regarded as a social inferior.
How can we expect to become officials
IN large concerns when the social in
tolerance Of America and men like
Harding prevent it?
1t is regretted that Mr.. Harding
pronounced such a terrible sentence
upon us. It is more regretted that
the poor, ignorant black people saw
but >darkly through what it would
mean. Ignorance is indeed a curse,
but cowardice and weakness is the
great curse of the black people. Some
have been heard to say that President
Harding said more than some others.
It is the old reactionary Uncle Tom
doct4 ine-a half loaf is better than
no loaf at all. Yet there are some
black men, some real men left, thank
God who want liberty, unqualified
liberty or deatht. The "Ides of
March" have come and havoc indeed
has been wrought. Beware of the
"Ides Of March,"
The Appeal. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. ;) 1889-19??, 1921-11-26
The President Has Spoken.
(From the Denver Starr

The first utterance by the Presi-
dent on the status of the Negro in
America comes at a time when 81
lence is no longer endured and upon
subject wholly uncalled for. 'Twere
better that he remained in Washing
ton and kept silent than to advocate
any form Of un-Americanism. The
colored man has suffered enough from
the so-called friends of the Republi-
can Party (?). Whey does the Presi-
dent of the United States advocate
social equality as a cause to the black
man, when 8 millions of the white
mans amalgamated sons and daugh-
tiers make up one-eighth the popula-
ton of this country? If the colored
woman was good enough to give birth
to their children she ought to be good
enough to marry them.
Why did the Supreme Court uphold
jimcrow laws Of the South? Was
that social equality? Why do depart
ments at Washington discriminate
and segregate the colored employees?
Is that social equality? Why dodge
the issue? Why do, the lily-whites Re-
publicans bar colored men and women
from voting? Is that social equality?
Why doesn't President Harding en-
ploy colored men to positions they
have held since 1865? Is that social
equality?
Thousands of our sons lay asleep
upon the torn bosom of France who
died for this country Of justice that
you portray as a barrier to the So
cial life of our race.
We will stand ready to defend our
race in the sunshine of whose society
we are ever happy. We want equal
ity that is given every other citizen
under the Constitution. We will &C.
cept nothing less.
The President has spoken. Let the
historians write: "Failed.",
The Appeal. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. ;) 1889-19??, 1921-11-26
deliberate judgment Of mankind and
ask verdict.
Race Needs Unlimited Vision.
attorney Walter M. Farmer in tn
! Cl,s

/
Chicago Broadax.)
What right has the President OF
any other official, speaking in his off
cial capacity to give advice and tc
fix metes and bounds within which a
certain group of American citizens
must strive and aspire?
The race in its struggle upward is
not IN need Of BARRIERS but of uh-
limited vision, of room for expansion,
of friendly atmosphere, in which to
act, without restrictions or limita-
lions, arbitrarily set by the fiat of
unjust discrimination. Nor does the
race stand in need of SO much adj
vice gratuitously given.
We had expected the President to
suggest that the colored man strive
to become the best possible American
citizen. Why should he strive to be
the chest possible black man ?o Why
should the worth of American citi-
zenship be limited by racial lines or
the color of mans skin?
The President wants the colored
group to stand apart, pursuing it's
own inherited traditions, preserving
it's own race purity and race pride.
The suggestions amount to having
nation within nation. This is not
only impossible, but undesirable and
the President in advocating such an
anomalous position has placed himself
in a very embarrassing attitude to
say the least. The colored group
wishes to enjoy every right, every
privilege and every immunity that
belongs to American citizenship.
The Appeal. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. ;) 1889-19??, 1921-11-26

fundamental, eternal and n unescap-
| able difference between the races
To do so would be to challenge God
and Christianity. It is a distinct de-
parture from the ideals of the found
ers Of the Republic who declared that
"all men are created equal and en-
dowed by their Creator with certain
inalienable rights, among them life,
liberty and the pursuit Of happiness -
- After his argument in favor of a
distinct place for the black and col
ored people, Mr.. Harding tells us that
the lone thing we must most sedu-
lous(y- avoid is the development of
group and class organizations in this
country" He argued against the very
thing which he has previously argued
for. There are just as many differ
ences between the individuals of any
one race as their are between the peo-
idea Of race differentiation in any
form in the law, in the functions of
the government, and in public asso-
citation is contrary to just concept
OF a democracy in which all men are
presumed to be equal, and is repug-
nant to the highest ideals of the
Christians God, who is declared to
have made of one blood all nations
Of men. If Mr.. Harding is right,
God is wrong.
If Mr.. Harding had had the time
to study the question and he had
studied it with an open mind he would
have found that in France, Spain and
Portugal, there have never been any
racial hatreds founded on the color Of
the skin and the same is true of South
and Central America. In these coun-
tries, unhampered by class and color
distinctions colored men have risen to
the highest places in every branch of
human endeavor. There are more
full-blooded Negroes in Brazil than
in the United States; and, counting
the mixed-blood population of black,
Indian and white, and the pure whites,
the population totals over 3O,OO0,OOO
who live together in perfect harmony,
without any public differentiation of
race. There are no social barriers
whatever in Brazil and it is COM
'plete refutation of the idea that there
must be social bars between the men
and women who are citizens of a
country.
eColor differentiation means the as
tendency Of one caste and the degra-
dalton of the other. Social equality
does not necessarily mean amalgama-
ton. That should be a matter for
individuals to determine. During the
coming disarmament parley, the Japa-
nese will be treated with the greatest
social consideration. They will be
-wined and dined and received at every
social function, meeting people whc in
their hearts hold hatred toward them,
and in spite Of all the social mingling
it is safe to say that not single
marriage will result.
In a democracy like ours, all men,
whether they are black or white, red,
yellow or brown, should meet in all
human relationships without racial
differentiations-simply as AMERI-
CANS.
The Appeal. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. ;) 1889-19??, 1921-11-26
Complete Surrender to LiIy-White.
(From the Independent, Atlanta, Ga.)

(FrOm the Independent, Atlanta, ia.
! ct will not appoint any colored men
to Office in the South. Sink or swim,
survive or perish, live or die, shall
stand by this position"
Is that in keeping with his great
utterances Of political equality at
Birmingham On the contrary does
it not contradict that policy
The President has made complete
surrender to the ily-whites who have
moved heaven and earth to eliminate
the Negro from party councils. He
has placed the leadership in the hands
of such men as Bascom Slemp Of Vir-
ginia. Colored men were driven out
Of the Republican convention by or
der Of SSlemp. On July 26, G. B. Mil
Her, Joe Keeling and Houston were
delegated to come to Georgia and re
move the regular Republican state
central committee and put new com
mittee in charge because the Presi-
dent said there must be white leader
ship without regard to regularity
and the rules of the party.
We again ask, does this comporl
with the Presidents demand for no.
litieal equalitv as advocated at Biz.
naingham We submit this to The
The Appeal. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. ;) 1889-19??, 1921-11-26
Faith FaIters, Hope FaIters.'
(From the Chicago Whip.)

Intelligence stands aghast, Patriot
ism trembles, Faith totters, Hope
falters, and the finer sensibilities of
the black men are shocked and
stunned for the "Ides of March" have
come. From the lips of Warren G..
Harding, Republican President of the
United States, words have fallen
whose effect are as destructive and
deadly as the poisonous germs which
flew from Pandora's Inflated box.
President Harding has brought the
"Ides Of March" upon US and accord
ing to his expressed dictum we are
doomed eternally to be race of
slaves and scullions.
The speech of Mr.. Harding's upon
the race issues delivered in Birming-
ham, Ala, during the late days Of
October nineteen hundred and twenty
one sealed and stamped policy which
relegates the black people of America
to conditions which are abhorrent, re-
pugnant and disgusting to any soul
which yearns and burns for liberty,
absolute and unqualified Out of
great jargon Of words and scram-
bled melee Of incoherent thought a
few ideas can culled and gar
nered. These ideas taken collectively
institute an insidious and dangerous
propaganda which leaves the black
man in precarious condition indeed.
He said that it is "a question Of
recognizing fundamental, eternal and
unacceptable differences" He has en-
couched himself in infinite egotism
and has even scared into the realms
of eternitv The black man is atnr-
nally and everlastingly different. from
all other people, no culture can make,
exaH him, no deeds of valour can ele-
vate him, no stroke of evolution can
raise him; according to Mr.. Harding,
neither time nor eternity nor even
God Almighty in all His Majestic
Power can wipe out the color line.
What the eternal differences are we
cannot understand. Mr.. Harding
knows no more Of what the future
holds than we. It strikes us, how
ever, that he has not formed his opin-
ions upon scientific knowledge but
upon prejudices.
Racial amalgamation there cannot
bethis is another one of the Presi.
dents astounding assertions. Franz
lBoaz, one Of the greatest anthropolo.
glsts in the world, has declared that {
q few centuries hence swarthy rae.
Twill be inlAmerica in place of tn.
! whites and blacks. The amalgama
ton OF races has gone on through
the ages and the powers and petit.
! preiudices of mere man have beel
unable to check it, but alas-iit mus
not be-Harding says is mustn't.
The Appeal. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. ;) 1889-19??, 1921-11-26
President Harding and the Colored
American.

(From the Boston Guardian.)
In regard to President Harding's
speech at Birmingham, Ala, on
Wednesday Of this week, October 26
1921, we would say to this Republi-
can President that persons of color
born in the United States of America
most Of whose parents and grandpar-
ents and great-grandparents were
born in the U. S. A. See no reason
why they should be expected to be
willing to be simply black people and
not fully and wholly Americans, any
more than Jews born here are expect.
ed to be willing to be simply Jews
Irish simply Irish. Italians simply
Italians, and so on with the NAM
race varieties here.
The Appeal. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. ;) 1889-19??, 1921-11-26
Condemns Presidents Conception OF
American Citizenship.

(From the Afro-American, BALTIMORE
President Harding's Birmingham
speech is being criticised by colored
people because it promises the col
ored race too little and by the white
people because it promises too much.
The ten thousand colored people
who listened to the President appeal
for political and educational equal
ity for them, cheered because they
know that their own state disfran-
chises them by the thousands and
robs them of millions of dollars of
school funds. His twenty thousand
white hearers were correspondingly
silent. 49, .@- ....
On the other hand President Hard
ing subscribed to the white South's
view of "social equality" which
means intermarriage laws, jimcrow
offices for colored people and discrim-
nation at every point Of contact be-
tween the two races. Carried out to
it's logical conclusion the President
would sanction a separate school for
the hundred colored families in Ban
gor Me-, separate cars for the Boston
subways and a disruption of the
Methodist Episcopal church.
It comes, with poor grace from a
President of the United States to
thunder Grace amalgamation, there
cannot be-" and close his eyes to mil.
lions Of mulattoes in this country who
represent the lust of the white race
We ardently believe with the Presi.
dent that colored people should di-
vide their votes, but we should have
preferred to hear him say so before
his election rather than after it.
The Afro-American admires the
Presidents courage, believes in his
sincerity, but condemns his concep.
ton Of American citizenship, his igno.
rance of the history of civilization
and his bad taste.
The Appeal. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. ;) 1889-19??, 1921-11-26
Great Danger in Things Said.
(James Weldon Johnson in New Yorl
r. -. 700 -


. If the things which Mr.. Harding
demanded for the colored man can be
achieved in the South and in the
United States, while at the same
time the race, either voluntarily or
involuntarily, is solidifed into COM
pletely separate and distinct element
in the nation, an element considered
either too different or too xinferior for
common human association with the
rest, it will entail the working of a
miracle. Such thing has not come
to pass in the whole history of the
h~r1an race.
1t seems that in developing his
speech President Harding inadver-
tently betrays the illogic of such a
superstition. Following the very par
agraph in whichahe stresses the per-
manent and eternal difference be-
tween the races, which must be fos-
tered rather than diminished, he
makes the following statement:
"The one thing we must sedulously
avoid is the development of group
and class organizations in this coun-
try. There has been a time when we
heard too much about the labor vote
the business vote, the Irish vote, the
scandinavian vote, the Italian vote
and so on. But the demagogues who
would array class against class and
group against group have fortunately
found little to reward their efforts.
That is because, despite the dema-
gogues, the idea Of our oneness as
Americans has risen superior to every
appeal to mere class and group
We hope the net result of the Pres
ident's speech will be good, but
THERE IS GREAT DANGER IN
SOME THINGS HE SAID. .
The Appeal. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. ;) 1889-19??, 1921-11-26
President Harding Runs True to Form.

(From the Philadelphia American.)
President Harding, in his address at
the semi-centennial in Birmingham,
Ala, on Wednesday last, nobly sus-
tanned his unenviable reputation as a
discreet follower Of sectional senti-
ment. When he addressed an audi
ence in Ohio some time ago, he in
sisted that the colored citizen should
be given the equal protection of the
law in the exercise of his rights as
such. In Alabama, he claimed that
there could and should be no such
thing as social equality between the
races. Not one word is he reported
as uttering in favor of equal protec-
ton of the >law, the enforcement of
the Federal Constitution, nor against
lynching or the roasting of human be-
ings at the stake. He did not even
ask the moral support of his audi
tors for the passage of the anti
lynching bill now before Congress.
About all of these important things,
he was absolutely silent-and why?
The President knew that such matters
as enforcing the law against murder,
mob violence, peonage and the right
of suffrage were unpopular subjects
w NAoNN0o al VIC SOUCll, ISllSS, uS
journeyed all the way to Birmingham,
Ala, to tell the folks down there that
| social equality between the races were
impossible. Good news and glad It'd
ings, we fancy, peace on earth and
good will to all white men in the
South. The ,Pfesident's mental ba-
rometer is unerring in pussyfooting
on the race question. We do not
agree with the President that our
ideal should be the best possible black
man, nor the best possible white man,
nor an imitation of such; but rather
the best possible man stripped of both
qualifications. If the President had
discussed the race question from the
| standpoint Of equality before the law,
the equal protection of the law, equal
civil and political rights and one
standard Of citizenship to be support
ed and maintained by the law
throughout the nation, he would have
delivered a message to the people of
the country and those of Alabama in
particular, that would have been well
worth the effort.
The Appeal. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. ;) 1889-19??, 1921-11-26
"cannot Have Political Equality if
Social Interiors;"
(From the Chicago Enterprise.)

(Fron the Chicago Enterprise.)
In the first place the President says
that the colored man should not as
pire for social equality. In answer
to that statement we wish to say that
If the colored man does not aspire
for social equality he must accept and
be satisfied with social inequality.
Social inequality would mean that the
colored man is either on a social plane
above the white man or on a plane
beneath him. If the former were
true, the white man would aspire to
be on the same plane with the colored
man, so it follows that when Hard
ing says that the colored man should
not aspire for social equality, he
means that the colored man occupies
and should continue to occupy an in
ferior social position. We wish fur
ther to suggest that while the Presi-
dent says that the colored man should
have political and economic equality
| it would be impossible to have either
If he were regarded as social in
ferior.
| Again the President says, "Racial
amalgamation there cannot be-" Evi.
Identity Mr.. Harding did not have on
his glasses when this statement was
made, because he could have seer
plenty Of it in his audience. And il
might not be too harsh to say that the
white man has been enjoying the so.
cial equality at night which he objects
to us having during the day. In fact
during the Presidential campaign, il
was rumored that Mr.. Harding him
III i. L. -