CRIME AMONG NEGROES'
KELLY MILLER, Howard University, Washington, D. C.
The criminal status of the Negro race is a matter that
should be carefully weighed and investigated, and cautious
and reasoned conclusions deducted therefrom. The anti-
Negro doctrinaries are ever prone to seize upon the surface
appearance of things criminal and utilize them to blacken and
blast the reputation of the race.
The Census of 1890 made a study of criminal statistics.
Although the Twelfth Census made no such investigation,
there was a special bulletin issued in 1904, which made a par¬
tial examination of criminal statistics.
The one essential fact, so far as the Negro race is con¬
cerned, is that twelve per cent of the population contributed
thirty-two per cent of the crimes of the United States. This
ratio was practially the same for 1890 and 1904. During the
interval of fourteen years there had been no absolute increase
in Negro crime, but in some instances there was are relative
increase, as compared with that of the white population. In
1890, there were 24,227 Negro prisoners in the United States.
In 1904, there were 26,870 such prisoners. Although there
was some discrepancy in the methods of return at the two
census periods, the underlying fact remains that the criminal
status of the race had made no notable increase, as compared
with the growth of the Negro population, during the interven¬
ing fourteen years.
The sociologist first ascertains the facts. Then he
accounts for and interprets them. Finally, he generalizes
upon them and points out their prophetic import. The orator,
on the other hand, first generalizes and prophecies, and after¬
wards finds it is necessary to ascertain the facts lying at the
basis of his generalization and prophecy. Now the fact is
that the Negro has a criminal record about three times as
great as his numbers entitle him to. How shall we account
for this ? If one should go to England or any other part
of the earth and study the condition of the people who live in
poverty in the crowded cities, he would find an overwhelming
preponderance of crime among the submerged element as com¬
pared with the general population. The Negro shows this
r Abstract of a Hampton Negro Conference address, July 15,1909, repiinttd from
the Southern Workman, Hampton, Virginia.
high criminal rating because he constitutes, in the United
States and especially in the large cities, the submerged
stratum where the bulk of actionable crime is found the world
over. Crime is a question of condition,- not one of color.
Another reason, in my judgment, which contributes to
the seeming increase in Negro crime, is the fact that, during
the last fifteen years, there has grown up, on the part of the
white race, a spirit of racial exclusiveness and intolerance.
This is outwardly manifested in the public provisions for the
sharp separation of the races in all matters where there is
likely to be anything like intimacy of contact. Formerly
there was a kindly personal and patriarchal. relation between
the races, but in these latter days it is becoming hard and
business-like. "If the Negro offends against the law, let him
perish by the law," is the prevaling motto and method. A
famous English writer sometime ago said: "If you wish to
destroy a feeble race, you can do so more easily by the law
than without it. Make the laws as rigid as possible and
enforce them rigidly." Those who watch events closely must
have noticed the application of this principle in certain parts
of the country.
I believe, from observation and examination, that, taking
the Southern courts as a whole, the Negro in some cases is
treated unusually severely, and in others with unusual lenity.
Balancing the two extremes, he gets substantial justice; but
there is a difference between fairness and justice. Fairness
consists in equal distribution of favor ; justice in equal appli¬
cation of rights. The laborer in the parable, who entered at
the eleventh hour, was received on terms of compensatory
equality with the one who had borne the heat and burden of
the day, but the more strenuous workman could not accuse
the master of the vineyard of injustice, but merely of unfair¬
ness. If the Negro gets justice in the Southern courts, the
white man gets less than justice, and this makes an unfair
distribution of penalties.
When Negroes commit crimes among themselves they
are not apt to be punished with undue severity, but when they
commit crime against the white race punishment is sure, swift,
and severe. On the other hand, when the white man commits
an offence against the Negro, acquittal is almost sure to follow;
arid even if convicted he is released with a slight fine and does
not go to swell the prison record of his race. Even where
the white man commits an offence against his own race he is
not apt to receive the full rigor of the law. When two races
are living together, the race which assumes superiority is
wont to regard itself as sacred in the eyes of the other, and
is very reluctant to humiliate any of its members, even by due
process of law.
I believe that all will agree that a white person in Mass¬
achusetts is in every way as upright and as well behaved as
the white person in any other place in the world, and yet, if
we follow statistics, we find that the white people in Missis¬
sippi are: angels of grace as compared with the white people of
Massachusetts. In Massachusetts there are 5477 whites in
prison; in Mississippi only 114. The ingenuity of the
Yankee sociologist can easily explain away this seeming dis¬
crepancy. By the same process of reasoning, the glaring
criminal discrepancy between the races can be accounted for.
There are probably no more white prisoners in Massachusetts
than there ought to be, but no man in his senses, not even
Governor Vardaman, will claim that only 114 white persons in
Mississippi should be "in durance vile." By parity of reason,
it is fair to say that probably in the South the number of
white prisoners falls immensely below the number of white
offenders against the law.
If the entire Negro population should withdraw from the
South and its place supplied by whites occupying a similar
status, the crime rate of the South would not be appreciably
affected. In the United States as a whole there is an average
of one prisoner to every one thousand of the population. In
the South Atlantic states, where the Negro is found in largest
numbers, the criminal rate is almost exactly the same as that
of the nation at large. In the North Atlantic states where
there are few Negroes, there is a still higher average, and in
the Western states where there are no Negroes, comparative¬
ly speaking, the rate is highest of all. It is impossible to
trace any connection between race and crime. If the Negro
in the North shows a much higher criminal rate than the
Negro in the South, it is also true that the white race in the
North shows a greater ratio of crime over that same race in the
South.'
The Negro in this country is the sacrificial race. He is
the burden bearer for the white race. He constitutes the
mud sill of society and suffers the ills of that lowly place. He.
performs the rough work of society. He suffers the affliction
and even commits the crimes which always fall to the lot of
his status. Were it not for him the white race would suffer
corresponding ills. The Caucasian should appreciate the
vicariousness of the black man's lot and not strive by false
reasoning and force argument to make his burdens greater
than they are.
Just as the Negro death rate, three times as great as that
of the whites, is clearly due to his condition, so his crime rate,
bearing the same disproportion, is also attributable to the
same cause.
What should be the attitude of the Negro men and
women of light and leading towards this high criminal record
and the interpretation just place upon it ? In the first place
they should strive insistently and incessantly to reduce this
rate. It is always more satisfactory, from a sociological point
of view, to remove an evil than to explain the cause for its
existence. Laws are made for the protection of the weak. It
makes my heart bleed when I see a Negro violating the law,
which is his only safeguard and protection under our scheme of
civilization. This Samsonian folly pulls down the pillars of the
temple of justice, the only aslyum for the weak. Colored men
should use their best offices to persuade those who are in con¬
trol of the lawmaking agencies in the states and in the nation to
enact only such laws as can be cheerfully upheld and obeyed by
all, without compromise of becoming dignity and self-respect.
The white race should enact laws of such equity and fairness
that the Negroes will have no cause to complain of their
unrighteousness and injustice. For if the laws themselves
are unrighteous, where shall we look for righteousness ?
Let the Negro obey the Ten Commandments and the
white race the Golden Rule. Then all will be well. Ephraim
will not envy Judah, and Judah will not vex Ephraim.