The periods of a nation's development, its maturity and decline, are to be measured not by years but by generations. With our limited intellectual vision we can but dimly perceive the relative value of the forces engaged in shaping the momentous events in our future history of which the womb of time is yet to be delivered. We can but feebly estimate the results which are destined inexorably to follow this established violation of the primary law of our political organization. But this we surely know, that, in the end, error, cowardice, and injustice will be followed by expiation.

Though the mills of God grind slowly, yet they grind exceeding small;

Though with patience he stands waiting, with exactness grinds he all.

CHAPTER VI

THE NEGRO'S SOLUTION

I believe that a straightforward, honorable treatment of black men according to their desert and achievement will soon settle the negro problem. If the South is right in its contention that negroes cannot by reason of hereditary inferiority take their places in modern civilization beside white men-few will rise to a plane that will make their social reception a matter worth consideration; few will gain the sobriety and industry which will deserve the ballot; and few will achieve such solid moral character as will give them welcome to the fellowship of the church. If, on the other hand, negroes with the door of opportunity thrown wide do become men of industry and achievement, of moral strength and even genius, then such rise will silence the South with an eternal silence.-PROFESSOR WILLIAM E. BURGHARDT Du Bois, Lecture at Philadelphia Divinity School, June, 1907.

THE

HE census figures of 1900 indicate the prevalence of illiteracy among negroes to be as follows:

Total number of negroes of ten years of age and up

The census of 1890 showed the percentage of illiteracy among the negroes to be 57.1 per cent. When we consider that the term illiteracy as used in this connection denotes an absolute incapacity to read and write, the appalling condition of ignorance of the negro population is sufficiently established. Of the 55.5 per cent. shown by the census of 1900 not to be included as absolutely illiterate, probably 90 per

cent. or more would be classified as of exceedingly defective education if subjected to the test of even a moderate standard of literary acquirement.

a Solution.

It follows from the foregoing statistics, and from our general knowledge of the race, that the negroes taken en masse can have no intelligent conception of the Incapacity of the Negro problem under discussion, and consequently to Propose have no suggestion for its solution. Not only is this the fact by reason of the inadequacy of their mental equipment and experience to grasp the problem in all its bearings, but it is altogether the more so for the reason that they have been for centuries accustomed to rely for guidance entirely upon the people of the Caucasian race. This is true as well of the North as of the South, for until the last two decades, with few but conspicuous exceptions, the negro has been content to follow white leadership in every question connected with his status as a citizen of the country.

During the period of slavery it is obvious that no question of the kind ever arose among the enslaved negroes, and so far as the freemen, both North and South, were concerned, the contempt in which they were held caused their opinions to be consistently disregarded. Emancipation and enfranchisement turned the mind of the negro toward the possibility of achieving position, social and political, in the South; but as years have elapsed his hopes in this respect have been disappointed, and the gravity of the race problem has begun to impress itself upon the thoughtful minds brought to the front by education and the natural evolution of the negro intellect.

In point of fact, so far as the mass of the negro population in its condition of ignorance and political suppression is concerned, the only problem calling urgently for solution is that of the acquisition of a bare livelihood, and only among the comparatively few engaged in professional or

educational work in the South, and the still fewer who have acquired position of some prominence in the North, is there any serious comprehension of the character of the problem or any attempt systematically to work out its solution.

The difficulty of ascertaining the true negro sentiment on the subject is further increased by two quite opposite traits on the part of the negroes who are prominent in the discussion. The first is that, as with the Oriental, the negro mind has qualities not readily understood by the average Caucasian. There is much truth in the saying of the Southerner:

You Northern people know really nothing of the negro; you must have lived all your life with him to understand him.

There is something in the composition of the African intellect which makes it a sealed book to the ordinary understanding of the Caucasian.

The other trait springs from the well-known fact that nearly all the gifted leaders of the negro race, North and South, the teachers, clergymen, doctors, politicians, and successful business men,-are of the mulatto type. The common practice of essayists upon the question of negro capacity, of pausing at this point to enter upon a disquisition relating to the future of the mulatto, will not be followed. It suffices for present purposes to emphasize the fact that but few negroes, from Frederick Douglass to President Booker T. Washington, who have a record of accomplishment, are in reality anything other than white men with an infusion of African blood. Douglass was such; Senator Bruce of Mississippi, the foremost negro statesman of the reconstruction period, was nearly pure white; President Washington claims a white father, is apparently of three

fourths Caucasian blood, and has been not inaptly described as a "bronzed Irishman." Professor DuBois would pass anywhere for an Italian professor, or a Parisian maître d'escrime. Chestnut, Atkins, Anderson, Stewart, Fortune, and other prominent men of the race, present strongly marked characteristics of Caucasian extraction. No one could have seen the assemblage at the National Negro Business League meeting in New York, in August, 1905, without being moved to remark that the general shade of complexion of the membership would justify the Duke's remark to Brabantio, “far more fair than black."

This double difficulty of ascertaining the attitude of the normal African mind toward the question tends to render any conclusion as to the general negro view of the problem exceedingly subject to error. Let us, however, pursue the course followed in attempting to ascertain the character of other propositions for its solution, and also in this instance summon our black witnesses to the stand and from their own statements endeavor to reach a conclusion.

If the condition of the thinking negro mind could be made the subject of careful analysis, it would reveal the race in an attitude of bitter protest against present conditions and of growing despair as regards future amelioration. So fervent, however, is the faith of the race in the protection of the Almighty, so optimistic the general spirit of the negro, that without much substantial foundation for his belief he is yet looking forward hopefully to some satisfactory outcome of the situation. Apart from those unthinking representatives of the negro population who exhaust themselves in ineffectual protest against existing conditions without suggestion of remedy, we find two fairly well defined solutions outlined, having in effect the same purpose, and devoted to the same end, but seeking to accomplish it by distinctly different methods.