St. Paul recorder. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1934-2000, 1944-03-31
The Negro: Americas Dilemma

after the racial crises that marked
the end of the First World War.
The war destroyed many illusions,
among them the comfortable one
chat the Negro problem was a
wholly Southern problem. The great
Negro migration northward con-
tinued into the twenties, and areas
which had had no race problem
were suddenly faced with one-with
che mask of simplicity torn away.
Laissez-talre was outmoded. OPP
perfume accommodation was not
enough. Promises and threats were
not enough. Unrest among Negroes
mad risen to dam-smashing levels,
for "urbanization and mobility are
Inimical to the additionally peace
full and innocent accommodation of
rural Southern Negroes" Moreover,
the blazoned slogans of the war
made the whites place a higher
value on democracy" All this was
potential good. Whereas most of
the earlier studies of the Negro
problem had been conducted in the
South for the South under the in
fuence of the South's pattern Of
racial thinking, now the North had
reason to be interested. Park, Bur-
CESS, Boas, Reuter- inspired new re-
search, put forth new points of
view. Thinkers led the way direct
ly to a clarifying rehabilitation of
the American creed. This revival
ization of the American creed is
one horn of the dilemma.
But in general the American deed
remained what it had been-keep-
ing the Negro in his place in the
South, general indifference in the
North. Scientific study had settled
nothing. Men knew now-even in
telligent Southern men-that Ne
gro inferiority was myth. They
knew that to relate the Negro prob
lem to its background in the ethos
made that problem amenable to al
leviating change. But they pre-
tended not to know. Ignorance was
convenient. 1t excused the Ameri-
can deed. 1t hid the other horn of
the dilemma so effectively that
America did not know she was
in a dilemma. The other horn is
moralistic.
Once, notably from the 1905
down to the Civil War, men argued
the Negro question on strictly
moral grounds. Slavery was right
or wrong. For every Thomas Coop
er and Thomas Dew in the South
there was Henry Beecher and a
William Garrison in the North.
They Cancelled each other out. The
moral argument was won for the
North in the Civil War. 1t was
won for the South in the defeat
of Reconstruction. By the last dec
ade of the century the theological
bastions were no longer seriously
assailed. The North shrugged it's
shoulders and went on consoling
itself "by comparing the favorable
treatment of Negroes in the North
with that of the South" The South
also shrugged its shoulders, mean
while asserting right and left that
the Negro was doomed both socially
and physically, one because of the
other. By the turn of the century
there was a comfortable stalemate
on the moral issues. That stalemate
has not been ended until now.
But with Gunnar Myrdal's book
soberly plugging away at the issues
and exposing the facts, there can no
longer be stalemate. AS a scholar,
DR.. Myrdal is heavily balanced on
the side of comprehensive morality.
AS European, he has no Ameri-
can sensibilities to protect. He hits
hard with fact and he hits hard with
Interpretation. In this time of
momentous redefnition and change,
America is free to choose whether
the Negro shall remain her liability
or become her opportunity" It is
a moral choice, and it is "fate-
full not only for America itself but
for all mankind" Either the Ameri-
can creed must prevail and the
world sustain its hope in democracy,
or the American deed must prevail
and the faith in human goodness
be destroyed. There is nothing else
to choose. The American Negro
problem is a problem in the heart
of the American.