May 27, 1938

BEARERS OF GIFTS TO AMERICA - James Weldon Johnson

Douglass High School-Oklahoma City, Okla. Commencement Address

One of the most discouraging thoughts that can come to the citizens of our country
is that the American experiment in democracy is not yet proven. After one hundred
sixty years, if we look at it not through the magnifying lenses of inflated patriot-
ism, but in the clear light of fact, we see that it is still in the experimental
stage.

A hundred years ago -- fifty years ago -- there was practically no doubt in the minds of American citizens about the success and destiny of the democratic idea as it was here laid down and being worked out. The soul of Walt Whitman's poetry is the ideal expression of that idea and a hymning of its oncoming realization.

Today we are not so sanguine. There is doubt. Among some there is despair.

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There are many in these times of stress who are willing to throw the democratic idea overboard if only they might gain a greater degree of material security. Among the larger nations of the world, those that are more or less desperately clinging to the democratic idea are in the minority. Three of the great nations of Europe and a number of the lesser ones have as the result of revolutionary movements taken refuge in dictatorships. Democracy is on the decline.

Today thinkers and writers in America are seriously discussing the question as to whether or not the United States is headed for fascist dictatorship. Some venture to declare that is the only way out. Certainly, it may be a way out -- but out into what? It seems clear beyond doubt that a study of history and an examination of the situation in Europe and other parts of the world show conclusively that such a step would amount to nothing less than the selling of our birthright for a literal mess

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of pottage.

However faulty may have been the achievements in the realization of basic equality, the guarantee of common liberty, and the maintainence of individual freedom, a study of history and a sound analysis of the present situation make it evident that if America is worth saving, it is worth saving only for democracy.

It is apparent that shaken faith in democracy is in a great measure due to the forgetfulness or ignorance of the fact that the elements and the benefits connoted by the term "liberty" are never static; they are always in flux. They do not remain fixed simply because they have been won; they must constantly be re-won. There can be no respite from the constant effort of re-winning liberty that has already been won.

There come times when this unremitting struggle wears down the individual, wears

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down whole nations, and they grow willing, even impatient to do anything to escape it. At such times they will hand over their responsibilities to any power that will promise them surcease. They will eagerly trade the abstractions of liberty for such tangibles as a feeling of material security and an easing of the responsibility for gaining it. We grow tired, and seek for a panacea. There is no panacea.

Another reason for the losing of faith in democracy is that men grow to think of
democracy as a form of government. In this manner we get formalized democracy,
just as in a similar manner we get formalized religion. Democracy is not a form of
government, it is a way of thought and deed, a way of life. Democracy is not contained
in a party label or platform or in the designations of the officers of government or
in a code of laws or in a constitution, however, much revered. Democracy must exist
in the minds and hearts of the citizens.

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There may be a high degree of democracy under the form of a monarchy, and a total lack of it under the form of a republic.

The world today is much concerned with the idea of revolution in forms of government as a means of bettering the conditions of humanity. What the world needs today for humanity's good is not so much a change in forms of government as a change in the hearts of men. (Expand a lifting of the level) If we never get that change, no matter what the form of government the condition of humanity will not be essentially bettered.

Here in the United States the situation is unique. The prospects for full realization of democracy would seem to be brighter than in any other country; for here the democratic idea is the original and traditional one. The United States did not have to go through the long and slow historical process toward the democratic idea; it did not have to struggle through a thousand years toward that idea;

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it was founded upon that idea full blown. On the cornerstone of the foundation were inscribed the words: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness". No other great nation in the world has had such a beginning.

And even that inscription has come in for doubt and ridicule. Many small-minded men have laughed at the founders of the republic for making so unsound and absurd a statement as all men are created equal. But that declaration of the founding fathers (Jefferson) contains a profound truth. Certainly, the founders did not intend to say that all men are equal in height or weight or strength or even in mental and moral capacities. But that all men are or ought to be equal in the rights to Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.

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The prospects for the realization of democracy would seem brighter in the United States than in any other country -- yet at the same time the United States is also unique in another situation. A situation involving potentialities for the development of democracy in the truest sense, and also involving the possibility of democracy's utter defeat.

This situation grows out of the fact that the United States as a nation is made up of many groups. Some of the groups that go into the making of our national family are racially distinct. Among all the groups there are varying degrees of difference in historical and cultural backgrounds. These various groups are not subject peoples or colonials -- They are according to the letter of the law, equal citizens, and they dwell not outside the strictly national limits but within the midst. Nevertheless, certain of these groups are in the complete sense of the term, minority groups; socially,

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politically, and in, at least one case, economically and industrially.

Here at once we have a contradiction between the ideal and the practice, that stultifies the proud boasts we often make. And this contradiction constitutes not only a wrong to the minorities but also a danger to the majority -- for it may be set down as axiomatic that the Republic cannot actually have any more real democracy than it accords and guarantees to its least advantaged citizens. That is a mathematical certainty.

And from that axiom is deduced the truth that the Negro stands as the test of democracy in America. He stands as the test on every level of our national life. And on each level the element of racial conflict is like a sword that cuts both ways. On one level Negro Americans are denied the basic guarantees of law and civilized society, and on that same level the main body of Americans responsible for that denial

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is debased and brutalized, a double standard of justice is established, and the whole
structure of law is weakened. On another level Negro Americans are denied a fair
chance to earn their bread, and American workers are faced with the utter impossibility
of winning their cause while barring out black labor. On still another level Negro
Americans in certain states are denied the common rights of citizenship, and in those
states there is no actual political freedom for the average white citizen.

Now I am not trying to sweep away this situation with an epigram. The situation is
real, it is concrete, it is difficult. It is one that has to be met and dealt with.
The difficulty comes not merely in getting men to see the truth, but in getting them
to act in accordance with it.

Let us take a view from another angle. Here we have this heterogeneous citizenry,
made up of all these various and varying groups. Let us consider the situation as one

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that makes the United States a testing ground for the practice of democracy. Let us consider it as a laboratory from which may be derived all the elemental qualities that must go into the making of a real democratic state, as a training ground on which may be gained strength in the civilizing qualities of tolerance, open-mindedness, understanding, and intelligent regard and respect on the part of each group for the rights of every other group; in a word, as a training ground where, _because of the difficulties to be overcome_, there might be developed a stronger sense of right and justice and good will between and among men than anywhere else in the world.

There is, of course, more than one approach to the task of bringing into being the suggestion here outlined. There is the economic approach, the ethical approach, the religious approach. Yet it seems reasonable to say that no approach is surer than the fostering of a knowledge and recognition among all the groups of the elements of

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merit possessed by each.

It has always been easy to spread a knowledge of the elements of demerit. Often these elements have no actual existence, except as unexamined and accepted stereotypes. A knowledge of the veritable elements of merit will be of greater value and of greater interest.

And this brings me to the subject of my talk: Bearers of Gifts to America.

For America is rich because each of the groups that go into her making is a berer of gifts. Our original cultural pattern - Puritan in New England and Cavalier in the South - was English. But the original pattern has been modified, added to, and changed by each new group until the general culture and civilization of America is today a fusion of all these influences.

The Negro American, like the other groups is a berer of gifts. And so in the brief time in which I have to speak to you I present him not in the guise in which

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he is traditionally presented, as only a receiver; I present him as a giver, as a bearer of gifts.

The Negro in our country has for so long a time been thought of merely as a receiver, a beneficiary, even as a burden and a liability, that the idea of his being a giver, a helper, an element of value in the nation, comes to many as almost a shock. This is because many Americans have without inquiry accepted a stereotype, the stereotype of the Negro as just a beggar under the nation's table, waiting to be thrown the crumbs of civilization or, at best, as a sort of neutral mass to be molded into this shape or that. The easily-found-out truth is that the Negro has long been a giver as well as a receiver, a creator as well as a creature; that he is and has long been a vital force in the making of America.

We may be segregated, Jim-Crowed, and discriminated against, but despite all the points of separateness, there is no way to subtract or extract us from American life.

(Pickens incident)

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The Negro is an integral part of American life. He has helped to make America the America it is. Even if he tried, it would be impossible for him to remain only a neutral mass or an inert factor. Indeed, America would not be precisely the America it is except for the influences the Negro has brought to bear in its making. Of necessity he must be a force in American life, either for good or for ill. How would it go for us?

The phrase "for good or for ill" connotes those passive influences which the Negro has weeded involuntarily and in spite of himself. Let us think what it has meant in the forming of the character of the American people for them to have yielded for three hundred years to the temptation to practice injustice, wrong, and brutality upon a minority within their midst. Only one other great nation in the world today has a similar situation, and that is Germany.

Or consider an American community in which a lone Negro is chained to a stake,

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tortured, baptized with gasoline, and burned to a crisp before a crowd of American men, women, and children - then try to balance the sufferings of the wretched victim against the degradation of that community, and you begin to get at the appalling effects of these passive influences. And they also have gone in to help make America precisely the America that it is. On This Day - Black America's birthday, white America alone;

Our active and spontaneous gifts to America are many and varied. Those that are material in value are so obvious that they can hardly be overlooked. There is, for example, the contribution of labor. Negroes had an important share in the pioneer work done with ax and plow.

One whole section of the country is today a land of roads and railroads, of farms and gardens, of fruits and harvests, largely through the work done by Black labor. But there are other contributions that are less obvious but equally valuable, which have not yet been as fully realized or recognized. These are contributions not of material

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but of artistic and cultural values, the contributions that have gone in to help
make up our common cultural store.

Some twenty years ago I published the following statement:

"The only things artistic that have sprung from American soil, permeated American life, and been acknowledged the world over as being distinctively American have been the creations of Negro Americans".

This statement, naturally, aroused both comment and controversy. One of the mildest objections brought against it was that it disparaged the work of the other groups in the national family. Of this there was no intention. I could not overlook the fact that the art creations of the aboriginal Indians sprang from American soil; but there remained the distinction that they have never permeated American life or been universally considered as being characteristic of American life. Nor could I overlook the fact that the white groups had worked on

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a higher plane of conscious skill and perfection; but in their case remained the
distinction that their work was based mainly on European patterns.

Several years ago I revised the original statement. I revised it so as to
include among those things artistic that had sprung from American soil -- and
been universally acknowledged as distinctively American -- skyscraper architect-
ure.

The things artistic implied in the statement mentioned were the major folk-art creations of Negro Americans:

Those who are students of folk art know that it has a high intrinsic value of
its own and a beauty that is complete in itself. They know further that a fine
folk art is a reservoir of material for the individual conscious artist. And they
will agree more or less that every people that has produced a distinctive national

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art has been a people that has possessed a rich folk art. It is a commonplace to say that the masterpieces of Greek literature are at bottom the folk tales of the Greek people transmuted and retold by their supreme poets and playwrights.

Dancing is a beautiful and vital art in Russia because among the Russian people dancing is a fine folk art. Compare the vivid Russian ballet with the formalized French ballet.

Now when we look for the chief examples and the bulk of folk art in the United States where must we turn? We must turn to the Negro. Because of the limits of time I shall only mention -- and that very briefly -- the four major creations:

1. The sacred songs

2. The secular music

3. The folk tales

4. The dances

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The sacred songs of the Negro Americans are known as the spirituals. In their texts these songs voice the primitive Christian sentiments - sorrow, love, faith, hope, triumph. Musically they cover a wide scope, ranging from the wierdly sweet, as in "Swing Low Sweet Chariot" to the majestically strong, as in "Go Down Moses".

The spirituals make up America's greatest body of folk songs, songs unsurpassed among the folk songs of the world, and unequalled in the poignancy of their beauty. They are a recognized element in our national music. They are known throughout Europe, and are not unknown throughout the rest of the world. In this country they have exerted a definite musical and social influence. It is not an overstatement to say that this noble body of music constitutes the finest single distinctive artistic creation America has to offer the world.

The secular music covers a wider and more varied range than the spirituals. It

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comprises songs of the plantation, of play and love, satirical songs, dance
songs, work songs, ragtime music, the blues, and modern jazz. The arresting
fact about the secular music is that it has been completely taken over into Amer-
ican music. The spirituals are still Negro folk songs, but the secular music is
no longer racial; it has become national. Its various elements have been combined,
fused, developed, and sophisticated, and Negro secular music is today American
popular music, an inherent and pervading part of American life.

Before it was fully taken over, Negro secular music had a strong influence on
music in America. Stephen Foster, born in Pittsburgh, wrote while he lived there
a number of songs that may be called "white" songs, all of which are wholly for-
gotten. But during the years he lived in Cincinnati he came under the influence
of the plantation songs sung by the slaves in Kentucky, just across the river.

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Out of that experience he fashioned what he called his "Ethiopian songs," and those are the songs that made his name immortal, the songs through which he established the first school of American music, a school that was unrivaled for more than a half century and is still cherished by America at large.

It may seem paradoxical that three songs that enjoy a quasi-official recognition in the South should all bear the stamp of Negro influence and inspiration, and that one of them should actually be the work of a Negro. The three songs are: "My Old Kentucky Home", "Carry Me Back to Old Virginny", and "Dixie".

"Carry Me Back to Old Virginny" was written by James Bland, a Negro. "Dixie is virtually the national song of the South, but its stirring effects are felt whenever it is sung. Read the original words of "Dixie" and compare them with the words of the Negro satirical plantation songs, and the question of whence came Dan Emmett's inspiration is settled.

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The folk tales are the animal stories that for generations were told to the children of the plantation, both black and white. They were collected and published by Joel Chandler Harris under the title of *Uncle Remus*, and have taken their place in the folklore literature of the world. Uncle Remus is more than a collection of animal stories; more than a depository of plantation humor, wit and philosophy; the tales constitute a play, a drama, with a hero. And who is the hero of this play? Is it Br'er B'ar with his powerful paws, or Br'er Wolf with his keen fangs, or Br'er Fox with all his cunning? No, it is the most defenseless of the animals, little Br'er Rabbit. I need not point out why Uncle Remus makes Br'er Rabbit his hero.

If you will turn to your Uncle Remus again, note how the element of suspense

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rises and falls and rises again as we follow the course of the hero. And note
too the subtlety and skill with which the old man extricates Br'er Rabbit
from his most desperate situations with Br'er Bear, Br'er Wolf, and Br'er Fox.

In a manner these folk tales also have been taken over. They have been
diluted, made infantile, written in straight English, and served through the
afternoon papers to the children of the country as "Popular Bedtime Stories".

It may be too much to say that there is a folk art of dancing in America.
But it can be said that the popular forms of dancing in this country are direct-
ly derived from the Negro dances. The mode of dancing practiced today by
Americans in their homes, at parties, and in night clubs is the result of an
epochal change that took place less than twentyfive years ago. In that change
the formal and precise dances -- dances of foreign origin such as the waltz,

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the quadrille, the lancers, the polka, etc. - were suddenly dropped, and the
rhythmical movements that had long been the Negro mode were taken up. Dancing
was no longer according to rule, no longer in sets; each pair of dancers ex-
pressed their own response to the stimuli of the music. The new style of danc-
ing spread rapidly over the United States, then to Europe, and finally to the
capital cities of the Orient.

Negro influences revolutionized the style of dancing on the American stage
long before they had that effect on social dancing. For many years Negro dance
after Negro dance has been taken and adapted to the American theater; so that
practically all the dancing seen on the stage or on the screen bears the unmis-
takable stamp of the Negro.

It may be noted that of these four major folk-art contributions, the two

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lighter ones, the secular music and the dances, have been completely taken over
and made an integral part of our national life; while the two more serious
contributions, the spirituals and the folklore have been left practically in
their folk state. Nevertheless, serious composers are coming to realize that
the spirituals are a rich and almost unexplored mine of material; that in them
may be found themes rooted in our cultural subsoil and possessing the vital
spark; and that these may be made a part of the foundation of the greater Amer-
ican music of the future.

The folklore will furnish some material for our literature. I myself went
back to the religious folklore in writing "God's Trombones".

I have dwelt upon these major folk-art creations because they demonstrate

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the creative powers of the *mass*, and set forth the artistic contributions that Negro Americans have made as a *group*. Credit for them cannot be lessened by any arguments about "exceptional individuals". They exemplify the creative powers of the Negro as a race.

A number of minor folk-art contributions will need to be omitted - such as the contribution of Negro humor, which is a component OF our literature. The contribution to the art of cooking - and the influence upon the spoken speech of the whole of the Deep South.

Nor is it possible within the limitations of time to speak of the achievements, artistic or otherwise, of individual Negroes. To attempt to do so within a small compass would be little more than a cataloging of names in history, in literature, in art, on the musical stage, on the theatrical stage, and, not the least, in athletics. A list of creditable length could be made of those who

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have made valuable contributions in scholarship and scientific research.

Several of these names are known and recognized in the world of scholars and
scientists.

I wish to mention just one more contribution made by the Negro American
group - its spiritual contribution. I do not doubt that the day will come
when the fortitude with which we have met almost overwhelming odds, and the
courage with which we have struggled forward, in spite of towering difficulties,
will be held up as an example to all American youth.

This hasty summary will, I trust, point the fact that the Negro is not, as
he is generally regarded, merely a beggar, a burden, a liability, but that he
is an active force in the building up of America's greatness, and a contributor
to America's common cultural store.

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If all the groups that make up our national family are measured by this kind
of scale, we shall have taken a long step toward converting the difficulties
of the racial situation in the United States into a triumph of actual democracy.
Out of it will come the mutual respect that will transcend in effectiveness any
amount of mere pleas for justice and tolerance.

In order, however, to bring this about, each group must know its own points
of merit, and strive to have all the other groups know them.

As to ourselves, do we know our own points of merit? On the whole we do
not. Do we know anything about our African cultural background? Generally
speaking, we do not. A study of that background would give our youth a new and

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higher sense of racial self-respect, and disprove entirely the theory of innate
race inferiority.

Do we even know our American historical background? The fact is, there is
hardly an important page of American history that can be fully and truthfully
written with reference to the Negro as a contributing factor. Is this fact
known by our youth as a whole? It is not.

It is pathetically true that there are thousands of Negro youth in our
schools and colleges who have never read the life of Frederick Douglass or of
Booker T. Washington; to whom Nat Turner and Denmark Vesey and Sojourner Truth
and Harriet Tubman are not even names.

These young people have nothing to stand on. They have no ground under
their feet. It is idle to talk to them about race pride when they know of
nothing of which to be proud. Race pride cannot be pumped into them artificially,

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it must spring naturally from their knowledge of all that is best in racial
history, and must rest upon a resulting faith in the strength and capacities
of the race. Without this knowledge and faith they are suspended, and when the
forces of prejudice strike them they have nothing to fall back on. This know-
ledge and faith will serve them as a sustaining force. Such pride of race as
this will not make them lesser but better American citizens. It will not tend
to separate them from the national life but will make them a stronger component
part of it.

And now, especially those who are going out from this school, I do not
wish you to feel from what I have said that race is all or even the major part
of life. Regardless of how large it sometimes looms, it is, in fact, only a

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minor part of life.

The greatest problem that you will have to deal with lies within you your-
self -- the problem which transcends all differences of race or color or con-
dition -- the problem of your own intellectual and moral development. The
answer to that problem lies within the individual, and no external power can
prevent him from working it out successfully.

The greater and deeper meanings of life come not from without but from within.

Walt Whitman states this truth in lines of magic poetry:

"All architecture is what you do to it when you look upon it.
Did you think it was in the white or gray stone?
Or in the lines of the arches and cornices?
All music is what awakes from you when you are reminded by the instruments.
It is not the violins and the cornets,
It is not the oboe nor the beating drums,