The Omaha guide., 1935-08-10
WILLED AND UNVEILED FACTORS IN THE
RACE PROGRAM
July II, 1885
Special to VINE Omaha Guide By kelly Miller

In my last release / spoke of the solution of the
race problem by silence as cOntrasted to the solution
BY conscientious effort and agitation. Since recon
%struction times both of these types of effort have
been in operation. Negro leaders through individual
effort and organized endeavor have sought to direct
the life of the race, but in spite of it all the present
trend is retrograde and no satisfactory outcome IS
in sight. This is the conclusion arrived at by DIR.
Dubois, who for forty years has been the foremost
exponent for the doctrine Of rectification Of racial
affairs by protes. and agitation The National As
ISOLATION for the Advancement Of Colored People
for the last quarter of a century has typified the
spirit of agitation and protest and has directed the
organized effort of the race in this behalf. This
militant organization has undoubtedly accomplished
sundry incidental results Of considerable racial val
ue and advantage; but comprehensively it has not
been able to remove a single obstacle against which
il directed its energies or yet to point out a plain
path Of procedure for the future. Its energies have
been directed against jim crow cars, disfranchise-
ment, separate schools, segregation ,%lynching, and
various forms of industrial and economic discrimi-
nation. And yet not a single jim crow car has been
taken from the tracks, disfranchisement to all in
tent and purpose, is as rampant as ever, segregation
Is all but complete, l~ynching proceeds according to
its own savage viii, separate schools are extending
N~orthward and Westward, legal and civil discrimi-
nation have become the established vogue of FEEDER
al and state government, organizations and indivl
duals. mother words, the race problem in all its es-
sential features remains unbudged. l do not mean to
say that conditions might not have been worse had
not the NAACP and like organized and industrial
effort exerted themselves during the past fifty
years. They have at least kept alive the spirit Of pro-
test.
In the mean time the racial life has been impel-
led, in the main, by unwilled forces. The influx of
Negro population into the North was unwiled and
unpurposed by any individual or organization, it
was the inevitable result of uncontrolled conditions.
The shifting of political power from South to North
came as the Incidental result Of the shift Of popula-
ton. A million Negroes were thrust into Northern
industry as an incidental outcome of the World
War, and they were thrust out again as soon as the
war was over. The development of machinery has
produced an impasse in the industrial world. AS a
result millions of workmen are thrown out of employ.
ment, incidentally the negro becomes the chief vic
tim Of this displacement. The Negroes place in the
life Of the nation is conditioned upon the relative
scarcity Of unskilled labor. Where this type Of labor
is abundant, the Negro is cheap, where it is scarce
AN II d Ii -NCSIO Is CuCdp GOOdN III UOlu LnD
North and the South because there is no scarcity of
the type Of labor which he is qualified to perform.
The invention Of the cotton gin made the Negro in
dispensable in the cotton growing industry of the
South, but the loom excluded him from the textile
industry. The invention of a successful cotton pick
er would exclude him from the cotton growing in
duStry and make him as industrially unnecessary in
the South as he is in the North. All of this is the re-
salt Of unwilled factors over which the Negro has
no control.
Race prejudice is the outstanding factor il the
race problem IN America. and indeed. in the world.
We have not yet found any agency that can effec-
lively grapple with this evil passion or seriously
modify its malignant manifestations. try ever so
hard- Thus the Negro stands in the face Of destiny
like an infant crying in the night, and cry he must.
The theolcgians used to discuss the relative part
played by predestination and free will in human
destiny. Although we have changed the Technology
We are still confronted by these two factors of which
social evolution is the joint outcome. We hear much
Id this day and time about social planning which
must depend upon social foreknowledge and the
power to control foreseen factors
NO one Is able to forsee or foretell the destiny Of
the Negro IN the Western world, and therefore all
racial planning must be haphazard and uncertain.
but II we cannot see the distant scene. we can at
leaSt guide and guard the immediate step. After all.
human concern is with duty, not with destiny. Each
INDIVIDUAL should perform the duty which is vouch-
\ sa1eo TO nm without reference to its affect upon III
Innate destiny. The prophet sits on the wall and sees
the dust OF danger on the far distant horizon and