St. Paul recorder. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1934-2000, 1956-05-25
70 Mercury ArfieI0i
George Schuyler Says
American Negro Has No
Desire To Turn White

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who once boasted that they knew
the Negro"
This soildarity IL no sudden
growth stimulated by Commu-
nists. although Reds have sought
10 exploit H. Over a century and a
quarter ago. Negroes held their
first conference in Philadelphia
with delegates from distant
places. In 1927 two educated col
ored men. one a college graduate,
founded the first Negro newspaper
Freedoms Journal The unvary-
Ing theme Of all subsequent gath
erings has been full and immediate
citizenship rights under the Con-
stltutlon. There was lively contro-
voray between those who wished
despondently 10 emigrate 10 some
black Zion and those opposed TO
leaving what they regarded as
their native land. Emancipation
put an end 10 that debate.
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The powerful campaign 10 ter
rorize and virtually re-enslave the
Negro after the Civil War reached
lis peak between 1890 and 1910,
when lynching, contract labor,
jim-crow laws. job bias and dis
reimbursement did not ennoble the
white folks in the Negroes opin-
ion. This opinion solldified and
conferred on common goal and a
strategy TO achieve II.
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Early In The century when lyn-
chings occurred thrice weekly, the |
Niagara Movement was formed to
do something about It. In rapid |
succession there followed the Me-
gro Business League, the National
Association for tho Advancement |
OF Colored People, the National
Urban League, Negro Health
Week and the Association for the
study OF Negro Life and History |
which published the Journal OF Me-
gro History.
Before this. the Negro Church,
now Boosting ten million members.
grew out OF revolt against racial
segregation In white churches. II |
was literally born with the Repub-
lie since the first church was
launched by Richard Allen In Phil.
adelphia In 1887. As early as 1920,
the African Methodist Episcopal
Church had missions In Christie
Plies Haiti and In West Africa. |
The early churches provided Ne
groes with a meeting place and
forum, They established schools.
every group IL based on the In
stitutions II has established, and
there In no desire among Negroes
20 abandon so noble a tradition.
They have pride in what they have
wrought.
The goal is not TO be white, but
to be free In a white world. The
Negro does not regard himself as
an alien after over three centuries
OF residence and sacrifice. The
superstition that the Negro il
eager for liquidation as a group Is
groundless. He Is not painting TO
associate intimately with whites
as such. nor Is he avid TO submerge
through intermarriage.
Even where laws do not prevent
them, II is difficult to find mix
ed" couples, In the entire country |
there are less than $4,000.
In a mulu-racial nation there
win always be clandostine and |
extra legal sex relations, and II |
the greatest romances are those
fraught with the greatest dangers. |
then there Is much untapped liter
airy material In the United States.
There are more Madame Butter |
nys here than In Japan.
For better or for worse. two |
distinct, centripctal and cndoga- |
nous societies have evolved in |
America They seem TO be as mu- /
tually exclusive as the Walloons /
and F1emings in Belgium. the
Moslems and HinduS In India, or
the Jews and Arabs In Morocco.
Both now have a vested interest |
In their integrity, Few whites I
want TO be black and few Negroes |
yearn TO be white, There will al
ways be necessary measure OF |
cooperation and hason between |
them for the common good OF all, |
but the idealists' vision of an ul- |
innate racial Melting Pot Is, 20 |
say the least, dim and remote.
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