BEARERS OF GIFTS TO AMERICA

Chicago University, Feb. 9, 1936

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 patriotism, 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. There are many in these times of stress who are willing to

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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.

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 situa-
tion in Europe and other parts of the world show conclusively that such

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a step would amount to nothing less than the selling of our birthright
for a literal mess of potage.

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

It is apparent that shaken faith in democracy is in 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 indi-

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vidual, wears down groups of men, wears 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.

Perhaps we are closer to this point in the United States than we are aware of.

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

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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.

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 essential-ly bettered.

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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 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

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that declaration of the funding fathers 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.

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

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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, 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. A mathematical certainty.

(The Negro the Test -- Result of the double standard applied to the

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enforcement of law. America deludes itself when it thinks—>

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, (etc.) Let us consider the situation as one that makes the United States a supreme testing ground for the practice of democracy. Let us consider this country 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 might be gained strength in the civilized and civilizing qualities of tolerance, open-mindedness, understanding, and intelligent regard and respect on

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the part of each group and individual for the rights of every other
group and individual. In a word -- a training ground where, because of
the difficulties to be overcome, there might be developed a stronger
and higher sense of Right and Justice and Goodwill between and among
men than anywhere else in the world. This is the hopeful, the inspira-
tional aspect of the situation.

There is, of course, more than one way of approach to this vital task.
(Name other approaches, economic, ethic, religious) But the one approach
that I shall suggest to you this morning (evening) brings us to the
subject of my talk -- "Bearers of Gifts to America".

I believe that one of the strongest forces in bringing about the
accomplishment of the task will spring from a knowledge and recognition
on the part of all the groups of the elements of merit possessed by each.
It has always been easy to spread a knowledge of the elements of demerit.
(Expand -- stereotypes)

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But the elements of merit are more useful and beneficial, and, I think
will be found to be more interesting. //Brings me to the Cultural approach.

For America is rich because each of these groups is a bearer of gifts.
Our original cultural pattern, Puritan in New England and Cavalier in the
south, was English; but that original pattern has been modified, added
to and changed by the other groups until the general culture and civili-
zation of America is today a fusion of all these influences that have
borne upon it.

Time would not allow, nor does the occasion demand that I list the
contributions made by each of these groups. (But at this service on
Race Relations Sunday it is proper to speak of the contributions of
the Negro Americans; for they, like the others, have come bearing gifts;)

And so I present the Negro American not in the guise in which he is
traditionally presented, as a receiver only; I present him as a giver.

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He has long been and still is a giver of important contributions that have gone into our common cultural store. These contributions have been gifts of not only material values, but of artistic and spiritual values.

I present him not as he is commonly thought of, as only neutral material -- material to be shaped and moulded. The Negro has, as all the other groups, been shaped and moulded, but it must not be overlooked that at the same time he has been a potent force in the shaping and moulding of America. He is not neutral material, and it is not possible that he could be.

It may be startling to think that America would not and could not be precisely the America it is, except for the influences that the Negro has exerted upon it, both active and passive. We are going to talk for

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the next few minutes about the active influences, but let me at least
call attention to the passive influences, for they are not generally
realized.

It is disturbing to contemplate the passive influences which the
Negro has involuntarily wielded in the making of American civilization.
Think what it has meant in the forming of our character as a nation for
the dominant majority to have had for three hundred years the temptation
coupled with the opportunity to practice wrong, injustice, and brutality
upon a defenseless minority dwelling in its midst. Probably only one
other great nation today has a similar combination of circumstances.-Germany.

I should like to make this point a bit more graphic. Think of a
community in which a thousand American men, women, and children, women
with babies in their arms and women with babies in their wombs, look on
while a human being is chained to a stake, tortured in the most barbarous

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manner, baptized with gasoline, set afire, and burned to a crisp. Then
balance the momentary sufferings of the wretched victim against the
degredation of that whole community, and you begin to get at the
apalling effects of the passive influences which the Negro has against
his will wielded in the making of American civilization. Society not
alone guilty - ........

But the central thought of my theme at this time is concerned with
the voluntary and spontaneous gifts that the Negro has brought. His
material contributions are so obvious that they can hardly be overlooked.
There is for example, his gift of labor. One whole section of our country
is today a land of roads and railroads, of farms and gardens, of fruits and
harvests largely because of the gift of black labor.

But his gifts have also been artistic and spiritual, gifts that

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have gone into our common cultural store. He has given America his music, both sacred and secular. In his sacred music he has given a body of folk songs unsurpassed by the folk songs of any people in the world. Songs which in the poignancy of their beauty are unequalled. (Expand) In fact, it can be truthfully said that the Negro spirituals constitute the finest distinctive artistic creation that America has to offer the world.

His secular music has become a pervading element in American life. Indeed, it is no longer racial, it is now national. He has given America its main body of folk lore in the Uncle Remus stories, collected by Joel Chandler Harris. And he has furnished the nation and a large part of the world with its general forms of dancing. In a country in which there is a strong tendency to go to the extremes of hardness or drabness relieved only by forced and artificial gaiety, he exemplifies in a high degree the simple pleasure that spring from the sheer joy of living.

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Not only has he made these direct contributions, but indirectly he has been a strong influence in our national art and music, in our literature and theater. (Foote - 3 races-egends at least aops -Dixie.)

And, too, he has made a vital spiritual contribution. I do not doubt that the day will come when the fortitude with which the Negro has met almost overwhelming odds and the courage with which he has struggled forward, in spite of towering difficulties, will be held up as an example to all American youth. (Expand)

It is not my intention here to catalogue the achievements of individuals of the group -- and those achievements are not few; I have called attention only to the contributions made by the folk of the group. And that I have been able to do in only the briefest way. But I hope that even this hasty summary will point the fact that the Negro is not, as

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he is so generally regarded, merely a beggar under the nation's
table waiting to be thrown the crumbs of civilization; that it will
point the fact that he is a creator as well as a creature; that he is
not just a neutral mass, but a contributor to the building up of America's
greatness and an active force in the making of American civilization.

It is upon these grounds that are based his claims for full participa-
tion in all of the common privileges of American citizenship. He
demands them not as a favor but as rights well earned. If all the groups
that make up our national family are measured by this scale, and
accorded recognition and appreciation accordingly, 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 forebearance.

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I comitted the achievements of individuals and confined myself
to the contributions of the folk of the group, because, etc.
These folk contributions are important not only because of their
intrinsic value, but also because they provide a vast mine of material
for the individual conscious artist. This mine is being worked today,
and individual artists, black and white, are going to it for their mater-
ial. In any country, a rich folk art has always proved a sure support
for a conscious national art. Where there is no folk art the national
art will most likely be rootless and artificial. It is a general truth
that every people that has produced a fine national art - Negri - Rauschen-
America should be appreciative of the fact that among the gifts brought
by the Negro is so generous a store of rich folk art.

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Already this store is being drawn on in the larger forms of American music, in the serious attempts in the American theater and in American literature. And as time goes on it will be more fully drawn on in all the higher forms of American art.

I shall conclude these remarks by reading you a poem. I shall read one of the poems from my volume entitled "God's Trombones", Seven Negro Sermons in Verse." I read it as in some degree an illustration of the potentialities of this folk stuff as material for conscious art. For if I went back to the folk stuff that clusters round the oldtime Negro preacher. I read it also as a tribute to the oldtime preacher, to his importance as the first shepherd of a leaderless flock.

Z

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