Evening star., 1934-02-11


Burroughs, Laurence c. Jones. The list
could be extended, and it is list OF
men and women that for actual achieve
ment in education pioneering and public
service would stand comparison with
any similar list the country can muster.
The desire of the Negro to acquire
knowledge and his ability to assimilate
It constitute the corner stone of all
that the race has reared since emanci-
patton. Had the Negro lacked either
this urge or this capacity he would not
have advanced or even held his own.
And it is doubtful if the South could
have come up out of the chaos left
by the Civil War had its one-third
black population slipped backward and
downward instead of pressing forward
and upward. Civilization in the South
might not have proven able to carry
such burden.
RY EMANCIPATION the Negro was
made legally free. Later, by con-
stitutional amendments, he was made
legally voter. slip of paper was
placed in his hand and he was told
to exercise his rights of citizenship.
This period in which the freed men
began to exercise the right of suffrage
has come to be recorded by nearly all
contemporary historians and accepted
as constituting the most shameful page
in United States history. That is more
than exaggeration; there are in it
elements of resentment and chagrin.
It is true that during reconstruction
many stupid, ruffianly, dishonest and
corrupt things were done by those in
office-and not by good deal were all
the Office holders Negroes. But it Is
also true that some meritorious things
were done; for instance, it was the leg
islators of that period who inaugurated
and founded the public school systems
of the Southern States, the most urgent
demand for free schools coming from
the Negroes.
The political rights that had been
conferred on the Negro had nothing
real and solid to support them; they
merely hung on the letter OF the law
and could not withstand the assaults
successfully made on them by means of
intimidation, violence, fraud and quasi
legal expedients BY the beginning OF
the present century the Negro had in
effect been disfranchised throughout
the "solid South" and was confronted
with the task of regaining, mainly
through his own efforts, his lost status.
He has gone about this task with in
telligence and determination. In addi-
tion to qualifying himself more fully
for the rights and privileges OF citizen
ship, he has taken his case into the
courts This fight in the courts goes
back a long way. When the Negro in
ne South was being deprived of the
tie he more than once went to the
lpreme Court of the United States.
e went relying on that section of the
-ourteenth amendment which says:
Il. All persons born or naturaliZed in
the United States, and subject to the
Jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the
United States and of the State wherein
they reside. No State shall make or
enforce any law which shall abridge the
privileges or immunities of citizens of
the United States, nor shall any State
deprive any person of life, liberty, or
property without due process of law,
nor deny to any person within its juris-
diction the equal protection of the laws"
And on that section of the fifteenth
amendment which says:
81. The right of the citizens of the
United States to vote shall not be denied
or abridged by the United States or
by any State on account of race, color,