I have sought to paint an average picture of real relations
between the sons of master and man in the South. I have not
glossed over matters for policy's sake, for I fear we have
already gone too far in that sort of thing. On the other hand, I
have sincerely sought to let no unfair exaggerations creep in.
I do not doubt that in some Southern communities conditions
are better than those I have indicated; while I am no less
certain that in other communities they are far worse.
Nor does the paradox and danger of this situation fail to
interest and perplex the best conscience of the South. Deeply
religious and intensely democratic as are the mass of the
whites, they feel acutely the false position in which the Negro
problems place them. Such an essentially honest-hearted and
generous people cannot cite the caste-levelling precepts of
Christianity, or believe in equality of opportunity for all men,
without coming to feel more and more with each generation
that the present drawing of the color-line is a flat contradic-
tion to their beliefs and professions. But just as often as they
come to this point, the present social condition of the Negro
stands as a menace and a portent before even the most
open-minded: if there were nothing to charge against the
Negro but his blackness or other physical peculiarities, they
argue, the problem would be comparatively simple; but what
can we say to his ignorance, shiftlessness, poverty, and crime?
can a self-respecting group hold anything but the least possi-
ble fellowship with such persons and survive? and shall we let
a mawkish sentiment sweep away the culture of our fathers or
the hope of our children? The argument so put is of great
strength, but it is not a whit stronger than the argument of
thinking Negroes: granted, they reply, that the condition of
our masses is bad; there is certainly on the one hand adequate
historical cause for this, and unmistakable evidence that no
small number have, in spite of tremendous disadvantages,
risen to the level of American civilization.
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