Present forces in Negro progress

Front matter

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BOOKS BY W. D. WEATHERFORD

“ Negro Life in the South” ..... 50 cts.

Preface

In venturing on this second volume concerning the much vexed question of race relationships, I can only ask the same cordial response which the former effort elicited. When “ Negro Life in the South” was sent out to the college men of the country, it was with the greatest misgivings. I am persuaded that not the merit of the book but the overmastering importance of the subject has called forth a response far beyond expectation. Already, more than ten thousand college men in the South have used this little volume in the study groups of the college Young Men’s Christian Associations. Many of these groups have asked for a further study of this subject, and it is in response to this call that the present volume is sent forth.

I am greatly indebted to the large number of students and professors, in white and colored schools alike, who have helped in gathering the material for this undertaking. Also, I must express my appreciation to the farm demonstrators in the South, superintendents of education and hosts of others who have so fully and cordially responded to my requests for facts.

As in the former volume, I have attempted to be fair to all concerned. The supreme need of the hour is that men shall face facts rather than spin theories. No sane or fair-minded man can excuse his own ignorance of so important a subject. My effort, therefore, has been to state conditions as they are, even though such statements at times have seemed harsh. I confidently believe that all well-wishers of the race will be glad to face these facts in the same spirit

PRESENT FORCES IN NEGRO PROGRESS.

of fairness. Perhaps it may be important to say, as in the preface to the former volume, that the author is a Southern man, educated in the South, and now living and working in that section, where he has a chance to know the Negro as he is. W. D. Weatherford,

Nashville, Tennessee,

Chapter I Chapter I

Paul, the seclusive Jew, but also the Roman citizen and world traveler, long schooled in the thought and spirit of Jesus Christ, said boldly to the proud Athenians who thronged him on the Areopagus, “God has made of one [blood] every nation of men for to dwell on the face of the earth.” The dictate of deep religious conviction has settled down into the firm postulate of modern anthropology . Darwin's “Origin bf Species" holds that all forms of life are descended from a comparatively few simple types, and that nature by a process of selection of the fittest has brought out of the variations of individuals a series of species fitted to live in the environment in which they find themselves. Whatever the original type of man was — this we are not here interested to discuss — modern anthropologists are agreed that the human family is sprung from a common origin, and hence all men are by nature akin. The differences in races are due to a long selective process extending over thousands of years, by which those characteristics of individuals, which best fitted them to the environment in which they lived, become more and more accentuated, through the dying out of all those individuals who did not possess such characteristics.

It is a commonplace fact that no two individuals are alike, and this was no less true in the dawn of the human race than it is now. Each individual had certain differentiae that set him off from all others. Anthropologists believe that as centuries passed by and as men moved out into different environments, those men possessing certain of the more prominent differentiae were able to survive; hence these differentiae combined, owing, doubtless, among other things, to climate and food supply, to set apart one group as a definite type or race. Other specific attributes surviving and becoming more prominent in a different environment combined to set apart another group ; and, so it happened for as many distinct races as were able to establish themselves strongly. Among these original types, most scholars believe that the white man of Europe, the yellow man of Asia and the black man of Africa held the prevailing places. Later the mixing of these groups possessing the stronger characteristics would give rise to secondary racial types.

Races Fitted for Their Environment.

If the origin of race characteristics is such as these scientists believe it to be, then one can readily understand why the Chinese are better able to survive under Asiatic conditions than are other races; or the black man better able to survive in Africa than the white man ; for through a long selective process, nature has picked out a race of men in each case whose differentiae have best fitted them to survive under specific conditions. Viewed from this standpoint, the yellow man is the fittest for Asia, the black man is the fittest for Africa , and the white man for certain other parts of the earth. Either of these may prove less fit for the environment of another section. But unfitness does not necessarily mean inferiority. A white man may be far less fitted for Africa than the black man, but the former is not necessarily inferior, and vice versa. Fitness does not consist in intellectual ability alone, but in all those qualities which combine to meet the environment at the point of highest efficiency.

Environment of the Negro.

The Negro race is that part of the human family which found its development and formed its differentiating characteristics in the tropical sections of the globe. Therefore we should expect that physically and mentally he would be so constituted as best to survive under tropical conditions. It is simply impossible to understand the Negro without taking this fact into account. Unfortunately, the white man has usually measured the Negro by his own standards, and wherein there is lack of conformity, it has been put down to the discredit of the Negro. This may or may not be a fair judgment in any particular instance. The one important thing is that we, as white men, shall come to understand sympathetically what the Negro really is, and why he is and what he is. When one goes down into the slums and sees the conditions into which children are born, he at once has a new understanding and a new sympathy for the different standards of those children. We are perfectly aware that this early environment is very apt to color the whole life of the man. Likewise when one looks into the tropical conditions where a great race was conceived by nature and born and nurtured for thousands of years, one will see how that environment has been inwrought into the very fiber of the being of that race. This will make clear the basis of those characteristics of the American Negro wherein he differs from the white man.

Frankness Needed.

In a discussion of this kind everything is to be gained by a frank statement and nothing is to be lost. It is far more important to face the facts than to make a case either for or against the Negro race. The worst must be boldly stated, the best must be gladly seen. The first will be humiliating to the best Negroes and their friends, the latter will be discomforting to the demagogue who berates the whole race.

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But I am persuaded that the best white men and the best Negroes are more than eager to see conditions just as they are. I, therefore, make bold to set forth simply, but I hope clearly, the mental and moral traits of the Negro which have a practical bearing on the relationship of the two races in the South. It is to be noted, of course, that the white man possesses many or all of these characteristics in greater or less degree, for both whites and blacks started with the same general nature ; but the environment of Africa has accentuated certain characteristics for the negro, and the environment of Europe has accentuated others for the whites. Therefore, we are not attempting to point out those characteristics which set him off completely from all other races, but we are trying to make a brief inventory of his weaknesses and his strength. First, let us face frankly some of his outstanding weaknesses. To the negro race these should be a challenge to improvement, for, as John Fiske, speaking from a scientific standpoint, has so well said: “The most essential feature of man is his improvableness,M and with this quality no race or individual can be hopeless. On the other hand, to the white man these darker facts should be a challenge to sympathetic helpfulness.

Lack of Self-ControL

Perhaps the characteristic in which the Negro differs most radically from the white man is in lack of self-control. By this we do not mean to say that the white race, or any individual in it, has perfect self-control. No man who has half tried to live a decent life has failed to observe his weakness in this regard. Nor does it mean that there are no Negroes who have a high degree of poise and self-mastery. We mean simply that the Negro, as a race, has not so far developed what the psychologists call the power of inhibition. He cannot forego the pleasure of present gratification in order that he may reap an increased, but a far-off, reward. To him the future has little meaning. While he has an extravagant imagination, it has too little power of synthesis to be able to relate properly the facts of self-denial and future reward so that the latter becomes a living reality. In other words, he is much like the child who has not yet learned to center attention on any one thing long enough to create an abiding interest sufficiently strong to overcome the pressing interest of the immediate hour. Viewed from this standpoint, education is simply the training of the child in the art of such continued attention as will enable it to give a proper valuation to far, as well as to near events. Likewise, the progress of civilization is just the growth of the cruder types of men into the ability to restrain their present desires or appetites for the sake of a larger future good, either for themselves or for the community.

Explanation of This Lack of Self-Control.

Some reasons for this lack of self-control are not far to seek, when one looks into tropical environment. One of its commonest manifestations is what we, in common parlance, call laziness. The future reward is .not vivid enough to induce a man to lay aside his present ease that he may attain a larger good in the future. This habit of self-indulgence would be greatly accentuated in a tropical climate, where the abundant hand of nature supplies most of the actual necessities of food and clothing. Furthermore, in such a climate hard labor frequently is punished by death. Those who are over-industrious are eliminated, and there is bred by natural selection a race of listless people. Work in order that one may live, is a great teacher of self-control. If a great preacher could speak with perfect propriety and good effect on the commonplace subject, “Blessed Be Drudgery” in our time, and in the midst of the most energetic and cultured type of American people, it is no wonder that i8 a people where drudgery is unnecessary, and next to impossible should fail to develop those powers of inhibition which routine work is so well calculated to foster. Not to have to work is a handicap to any individual. But for a race to be freed from this necessity, through multiplied centuries, is to place upon the powers of decision and self-control a test which unfits them for a more strenuous environment until their nature has had time to adjust itself to the new conditions. This process must, of necessity, be slow.

Indulgence.

Furthermore, the abundance of food at one season and its paucity at another — which must inevitably be the case where there is little harvesting, but complete dependence on nature — will of itself foster a disposition to gorge during the time of plenty in order not to suffer in the leaner days. But here again is a form of indulgence which breaks down the power of self-control. This fact is believed by some to explain, in part at least, the exaggerated appetite of a great many Negroes, not only for food, but for liquors and tobacco.

Sexual Indulgence.

Then again, it is not inconceivable — and many students of social questions believe it to be a fact — that the high death rate of the tropics has put a premium on, if it has not made a necessity of a high birth rate, thus leading the native again into a form of indulgence which seems nothing less than terrible. This statement ought to lead us to admire the splendid victory of that growing company of colored people who have overcome in this fight ; it ought also to make us redouble our sympathetic help for those still in the struggle.

Professor Dowd's Summary.

Speaking of this lack of inhibition among the Negroes of tEe Banana Zone, from which many of the slaves came to America, Professor Dowd says : 1

'Their wills are inundated and paralyzed by the surging of every passion and impulse towards immediate gratification. The riotous clamor of their passions explains their ungovernable temper, propensity to murder, steal, lie, deceive, or to overindulge their sexual appetite, their love for liquor, tobacco or anything that may momentarily strike their fancy. It is this same lack of restraint among civilized people that fills their world with tragedy, strews the path of history with blood, makes necessary wars, armies, navies, police, jails, reformatories and hospitals and orphanages. As a consequence of the thraldom of the Negroes to their passions, they have become afflicted with a kind of abulia, i. e., a certain antipathy to whatever exacts resolution, constraint or mental effort.”

Change, A Slow Process.

These characteristics have worked themselves into the fiber of the Negro race through long centuries of time, and their elimination will not be the work of a day. The situation is by no means hopeless, however, for study of the American and African negro types leads one to the deliberate conclusion that the American Negro is far more removed from the degradation of the mass of population in tropical Africa than the average American white man is removed from the ignorant American Negro. All of this progress has been made in two or three centuries. Much of it in one century, which is as a watch in the night compared with the centuries during which these propensities were built up.

Restraint Needed.

What the Negro needs is encouragement to self-control.

“‘The Negro Races,” p. 383.

Just as the child in the home is unable to control himself and needs- the fostering care of the parent, so the mass of Negroes needs the encouragement of a stronger race. As a simple illustration : if I were not in favor of prohibition for any other reason, I would be its strong advocate in the South, in order that this temptation might be removed from the path of a race of little self-mastery. It is a well-known fact that intoxicants of any kind deaden the powers of self-control, and when taken by those whose inhibitory powers are already weak, they can have no other effect than the most disastrous. I wish to mention this matter in a later chapter, but here I cannot refrain from saying that no white man who knows the far-African heredity of the Negro can honestly damn him for his self-indulgence, and still leave before him the temptation to get that which robs him of what little self-control he has been able to acquire during these brief centuries. Hon. Seaborn Wright, of Atlanta, expresses the conviction of Southern men who have honestly studied this question, and who really care, when he says, 'The development, the safety, aye! the very life of the Negro race in the South hangs upon his absolute separation from intoxicating liquors.” 1

Superstition.

The next weakness of negro character which stands out prominently is superstition. Every primitive race has much of this characteristic, and indeed few if any of the most advanced races are entirely free from its power. Thus we are not discussing a characteristic which inheres in the Negro alone; we are simply trying to get a real view of the negro nature as we now find it in the South. It is unnecessary here more than to refer to the dark superstition of practically all of the African tribes. They live in constant fear of angry spirits, of the power of the fetich, of the

^‘Social Welfare and the Liquor Problem,1 ” p. 233.

witch doctor and what not. Much of this has become so deeply ingrained in the nature of the Negro that the slaves and their descendants have never been able to shake themselves free from its terrible hold.

This superstitious fear makes almost every Negro an intense conservative, hard to move out of the old beaten way of doing things. To change means the past was wrong, and that cannot be, because providence has prospered it. A brief look, however, at some of the fields and homes would make one very loath to charge providence with any such crimes. Perhaps there is no more unprogressive or immovable mass of humanity to be found than a group of superstitious Negroes. There is no greater bar to the Negro's advancement than this fear, and the hope of the race lies in his getting a new message of life that is not based on superstitious fears of ghosts, spirits and future punishment.

Cruelty.

In view of the Negro's kindliness and good nature, it seems a strange charge to say that he is cruel to animals and dependents. Yet candor forces one to admit that this is frequently the case. Some of the horrible practices of punishment in Africa would be unbelievable did not one have the thought of the Inquisition, St. Bartholomew, the French Revolution, ever staring him in the face. Not infrequently have I seen an ignorant Negro beat his mule or horse, seemingly for the pure joy of seeing the animal wince.

In an investigation made by Mr. Stephenson, of North Carolina, concerning jury service of Negroes, it came out rather clearly that most negro defendants preferred not to have other Negroes on the Jury, because they feared cruel treatment and severity from such jurors. Whether this is so or not, almost every lawyer and judge questioned gave this as his conclusion. Dr. Odum, in his discussion of “The Social and Mental Traits of the Negro/' gives more emphasis to the cruelty of the Negro than we are disposed to accept. But perhaps he is partly right when he says : 1 “ And Negroes often impose severe punishments when the feeling of authority and power is given full sway. His judgments are both careless and without compassion when they are once directed against a subordinate.”

Undoubtedly this cruelty is a survival of the old savagery, where the hand of every man was set against his neighbor, and so, perhaps we ought not to judge too harshly those who are separated from this ancestry by so brief a period of time. We have before remarked concerning the lack of synthetic imagination on the part of the African native. This may account to some extent for his cruelty because he is not able to put himself in the other man’s place. John Fiske has put this clearly as follows:2

“If now we contrast the civilized man intellectually and morally with the savage, we find that, along with his vast increase of cerebral surface, he has an immensely greater power of representing in imagination objects and relations not present to the senses. This is the fundamental intellectual difference between civilized men and savages. The power of imagination, or ideal representation, underlies the whole of science and art, and it is closely connected with the ability to work hard and submit to present discomfort for the sake of a distant reward. It is also closely connected with the development of the sympathetic feelings. The better we can imagine objects and relations not present to sense, the more readily we can sympathize with other people. Half the basis of cruelty in the world is the direct result of stupid incapacity to put one’s self in the other man’s place.”

Let us hope that better trained imaginations and a more genuine religion will help to eradicate this ugly element.

luThe Social and Mental Traits of the Negro,” p. 209.

a“The Destiny of Man,” p. 99.

Vanity and Conceit.

It is an undoubted fact that the mass of Negroes in the South are near enough to the child stage to be eager for attention and easily filled with conceit. Referring to this characteristic among African tribes of the Banana Zone, Professor Dowd says:1 “The Negro seeks to win the applause of his fellows, usually by a gaudy exhibition of dress, trinkets or boastful language. The least word of praise or flattery gives him a lively sense of pleasure, and this soft spot in his character is one of which the shrewd white man soon learns to take advantage/1

Indeed, one of the strongest objections brought against educating the Negro is the fact that it makes of him a “smart-Alec.” One is forced to confess that gaudy ties, pointed shoes of extreme style, “loud” hosiery, and hats tilted to one side frequently mark the negro student who has just started. It is a pity that such should be so. But candor forces us to remember that the Negro has no monopoly on “smart- Alecdom.” It is just a little more prominent and vulgar in its negro manifestation.

“When I see a lad with his pants rolled up And his beautiful sox on view,

With his red neck-tie, and his little round hat.

With a band of marble blue,

With his sixteen rings and his fourteen pins That he got at his dear prep-school,

Why it strikes a chord and I say, “Oh, Lord!

Was I ever that big a fool?”

And that was written of the white freshman.

Tendency to Wordiness.

Of the Negro's tendency to wordiness I know no better example than the book, “The American Negro,” written by a Negro as an arraignment of the race. After charging the Negro with vanity, pomposity and conceit, he passes on to a

“‘The Negro Races,” p. 395.

2 4 criticism of the religious and social life of the Negro as1 follows : 1 “The social side of the negro life has been to me an open page of execrable weakness, of unblushing shame, of inconceivable mendacity, of indurated folly and ephemeral contrition.” By this sentence alone he would prove how near he is to his African ancestor who loves nothing so well as a high-sounding palaver.

The Negro is naturally vain, conceited, verbose, pompous— every one of which traits appears in the characters created by Dunbar, himself a Negro who presumably knew them well. But real training is a splendid cure, and I am glad to say that I do not know a single well-trained Negro who allows himself to fall into these childish habits.

Lacking in Power of Initiative.

Perhaps the most fundamental weakness is the seeming lack of initiative. The Negro is a good follower. He imitates easily and accurately, but he does not seem, so far at least, to have developed much power of originality save in a few instances. The weakness of the Liberian government ; the fact that there have never been any great empires built up in Africa ; the failure of the churches in America to unite on any strong, aggressive policy ; the absence of community life and spirit — all are indications of lack of originative and initiative ability. Of course, there are a few real leaders, like Dr. Booker T. Washington, Major R. R. Moton, of Hampton, Dr. C. T. Walker, of Augusta, Ga., and T. C. Walker, of Gloster County, Virginia, not to mention many others who have proved themselves genuine leaders of men. Perhaps as years go by and as more and more responsibility for the welfare of his race is thrown on the Negro, increasing numbers of men will be found able to respond to the call for leaders with power of initiative.

^‘The American Negro,” p. xxi.

Picture Not All Dark.

This is an ugly, but not altogether dark picture. In every phase of weakness here presented the American Negro is — if we may believe the records of African travelers — many stages advanced over his African ancestry. Progress has been slow, to be sure, but the start is always slow. Now that the start is well made, I confidently look to see more advancement in the next twenty-five years than we have seen in all the years since the landing of the first slaves in 1619. If the things I have said have seemed harsh, they have been said with no desire to wound, but with the one sincere purpose that white and colored alike may see the weaknesses of the Negro and unite in an effort to save him from himself. Emerson once said the purpose of a friend is to make us do what we can, and no man is a real friend to an individual or to a race who is not honest enough to see, and courageous enough to set forth the plain weaknesses found therein.

Strong Points in Negro Character.

One is glad to have said the worst in order that he may feel free to say the best without being accused of prejudice or of a one-sided view. That there are many noble traits of character in the Negro cannot for a moment be doubted by those who have taken time to think systematically through their experiences with him. Of course many of these virtues are almost lacking in many of the vagrant servant class who work only enough to keep soul and body together, but this same thing is true of the shiftless class of whites. In fact, if I must deal with a shiftless man, I believe I would take my chances on a trifling Negro rather than a trifling white man. Not a few of the managers and owners of large plantations have expressed to me this same preference.

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Fidelity.

Of all the stories of faithful devotion, few read more like a romance than the simple facts of the love of the slave for his master. For years I have had an attentive ear to such stories, whether told by some white-haired old Negro who still lives in the past or by some of the old slave owners, who love to recount the gratitude and faithfulness of their slaves. Just the other day a prominent negro leader told me the simple story of his father, going to war as the bodyservant of his young master, watching him in his tent, burying him when killed, and walking two hundred miles after the battle to carry back to his young mistress the gold watch and the money of her dead husband. Joel Chandler Harris and Thomas Nelson Page have made this characteristic of the Negro stand out clearly by the beauty of their plantation stories. Paul Laurence Dunbar, himself a pure blood Negro, has given the same characteristic beautiful expression in his stories, ‘The Staunton Coachman,” “Cahoots,” etc., and in such poems as “The Deserted Plantation"’ and “Christmas on the Plantation.”

During all the dark days of the Civil War there were very few instances where Negroes deliberately betrayed a specific trust. “That was the old-time darky,” many are fond of saying, but it was the Negro, for old time or new time, the essential nature of a race cannot be changed in a generation. If the “old-time negro” had in him the essential quality of fidelity to a trust, then the new Negro has that same fundamental quality, if we will only find some way to develop it. Those who talk about the angelic qualities of the “old-time darky” (I do not like the term), and damn with every breath the new Negro, simply prove their shallow thinking. They ought to know that a race characteristic cannot be developed in two or three generations unless its essential elements are there at the beginning. If fidelity was a mark of the former slave, fidelity is still a trait, though undeveloped, in the Negro of today. We alone are responsible if we do not find means of bringing it to the surface. Besides, it may fairly be said that few Negroes today deliberately disregard a definite charge. They may lie or steal in petty ways, but even the poorest type of Negro rarely betrays a specific trust.

Gratitude.

It often has been said of late years that the Negro has no sense of gratitude. This is not in accordance with my experience. I do not mean to say that I have not done things for Negroes where the latter failed to show appreciation, but I do mean to say that they are fully as appreciative and much more expressive of their appreciation than the average white person, particularly where the thing done is something the motive for which they are able to understand. I have spoken in a great number of their churches, and in many of their schools, with always one result — a genuine appreciation from them of what I was trying to do. Many of our strongest and best ministers who have thus attempted to serve, testify to the same responses. In fact, it is almost pathetic to see the deep appreciation for a Southern white man who attempts to help them. I recently spoke in one of the negro churches on St. Helena Island, South Carolina, and an old woman came up to me and said : “T’ank de Lord, Southern white man, for sich a one as you. I nebber thought he would be bawn !” When I assured her that there were hundreds of other Southern men deeply interested in the welfare of the race, her gratitude was unbounded.