THE NE * PROBLEM * Jt A Sociological Treatment BY R. R. WRIGHT, JR. THE NEGRO at PROBLEM at c§b Being extracts from two lectures on "The Sociological Point Of View In The Study Of Race Problems," and "The Negro Problem; What It Is Not, And What It Is ^ & BY R. R. WRIGHT, JR. Printed By THE A. M. E. BOOK CONCERN 631 Pine Street, Fhila.. Pa. Copyright By R. R. Wright, Jr. 1911 FOREWORD. The following papers were prepared for the Social Study Class at the Univer¬ sity of Pennsylvania, and partly publish¬ ed by the "Public Ledger," of Philadel¬ phia, and a number of other publications. The first part tells of the attitude which social students ought to have in the study of race problems, and the difficulties in¬ volved; the second portion is an analysis of the Negro problem, which, when first published, attracted considerable atten¬ tion. This is presented in this form chiefly for the criticism of the reader; and no one will welcome this criticism any more than THE AUTHOR. November, 1911. THE SOCIOLOGICAL ATTITUDE IN THE STUDY OF NEGRO PROBLEMS. I have been asked to speak on the Negro Problem. What, may I ask, should be the proper attitude of the social stu¬ dent toward this so-called Negro Prob¬ lem? Before we go into any analysis of the same, it is necessary that we should carefully consider some of the fundamen¬ tal principles of the science of sociology as it bears upon our study of race. Fundamental Principles. Sociology is the last of the great sci¬ ences. It is only a little more than a generation old, and, as yet, its principles are not quite definite. So that among any 8 The Negro Problem large number of people who call them¬ selves sociologists, one might find as many shades of opinion as he would among the large number of persons who call themselves Christians. Unlik?. biol¬ ogy, or astronomy, or methematics. there is as yet no definite set of fundamental principles upon which all sociologists agree. The difficulty which Mr. Herbert Spencer has pointed out in his excellent treatise on the Study of Sociology, is that sociology deals with human activity, which presents many difficulties of inter¬ pretation. The opponents of the science have said that no such science could ex¬ ist, because human action could never be foretold on account of the operation of the element of the free will. Man's will being free, it is argued, means that man's actions are determined more by desire, whim, impulse and caprice, than by law. The Negro Problem 9 While certain causes will produce certain results when all the factors are purely- physical, it may be different when the human will enters, for the same stimuli may produce very different results. What makes one man laugh, may cause another to cry; what affects one man one way to¬ day, may affect him differently 1o-mor- row, and still differently the next nay. An iron ball let loose at the top of a hill will follow the line of least resistance, till it reaches the bottom of the hill, unless stopped by some outside force. Here the law of gravitation has full play. And not only will one iron ball, but every iron ball, and every wooden ball, or stone ball, will show, approximately, the same influ¬ ence of gravitation. But a man m?.y start down hill, in fact, be pushed down, but he may go only half way and turn back, or turn to the left, or to the right, cr stop 10 The Negro Problem still because of no outside influence, and only because of his will, his own desire. Hence, the difficulty in judging men's ac¬ tions. Hence, the impossibility ot a sci¬ ence of human activity. Furthermore, there is great difficulty in judging human action in order to get ma¬ terial for social law, if such were possible. In human action, as no where eke. men are influenced by personal or social point of view. If the man is a Jew, all things appear to him from the Jewish point of view; if he is a lawyer, he has a legal bias (as Mr. Spencer calls it), or if he is a rich man, he will have the bias of the wealthy. Take any set of phenomena, there will be as many different opinions as there are different biases, each firmly held to be the correct opinion or point of view. But all serious students agree that it is this very bias which makes a study worthless from The Negro Problem 11 a strictly, scientific point of view, for un¬ til we can get out of our personal feel¬ ings, we cannot be said to have achieved anything which is scientific. The Scientific Point of View is Imper¬ sonal. The sociologist, to be scientific, should attempt at least to approach human phe¬ nomena in just the same spirit as the biol¬ ogist would approach phenomena of life. The questions of race, or social relations, or of government, or family, or of labor and capital, must be treated by the soci¬ ologist as no more his personal concern than is a piece of dirt to the geologist, or a flower to the botanist, or a snake the personal concern of the zoologist. No botanist would be turned from his care¬ ful study of flowers because the roses 12 The Negro Problem grew in his yard, or because they were his wife's favorite flowers. No geologist would be expected to pay more personal attention to geological conditions in his native country than in his enemy';'coun¬ try, and when he examines them the ques¬ tion of personal likes and dislikes has ab¬ solutely nothing to do with it. The chem¬ ical analysis of materials is a thing en¬ tirely apart from the possession of these materials by any individual, or from any preference which the chemist may have. If he is examining the blood of a million¬ aire or a king, he is no more influenced than if he is examining the blood of a criminal. The point of view of science is entirely impersonal. One of the best il¬ lustrations of this is in the case of Presi¬ dent Ira Remsen, of Johns Hopkins Uni¬ versity. He discovered saccharin, a sub¬ stance many times sweeter and cheaper The Negro Problem 13 than sugar, which was used as a substi¬ tute for sugar. On this hung most of Remsen's reputation as a chemist and benefactor of humanity; but when later study showed that saccharin was injur¬ ious to the digestive organs, he, a true scientist, did not hesitate to disapprove its use in foods. There is no such thing as passion or anger in science. There is no such thing as sentimental approval or disapproval in science. Facts, and facts alone, count in science. The scientist's business is to find out what the facts are, not to make them; to find out the course of evolution and not to direct that course. Now, until we can approach facts of social life in such a spirit, we cannot be said to have a science of sociology. A so¬ ciologist who is black ought not to have a different point of view from that of one who is white. He is not interested in 14 The Negro Problem proving any superiority of his race or of any other race. Whatever the facts show, that the sociologist grasps. Ap¬ plied sociology has been likened to ap¬ plied medicine. We would not expect a physician, if his child had tuberculosis, to treat it for a pain in the arm, but to treat it for tuberculosis. There are diseases which point to immorality, and yet he would be an unprofessional physician, who, after diagnosing the case, would treat a man for catarrh, where it was clear that he had syphilis, or some other disease of that class. The physician must be guided by facts, not good wishes, nor the feelings of his patients, no matter how rich or learned and influential or how poor and despised they are. It would be clearly as unprofessional for the sociologist to pander to the preju- The Negro Problem 15 dices of his community merely for money, or popular applause, or because he has not the moral courage to withstand them, as it would be for the physician. The scientist is the man of knowledge, and he should not be led by the^ ignorance of the mob. Impersonal Point of View Must Be Con¬ tended For. The stand which the sociologist must take to-day is not new, and he must not be surprised if his community is plow to hear real facts. One of the most imper¬ sonal of the sciences is astronomy. No man thinks of putting his personal feel¬ ings into the study of the stars. But the science of astronomy had to contend for centuries in order to gain this impersonal 16 The Negro Problem point of view. It not only had to fight the ignorance of the rabble, but the learn¬ ing of the pseudo learned. It first had to fight the church, the most powerful or¬ ganization in the world at that time. And this was its greatest enemy. Most peo¬ ple who claim to be religious and to be led by their consciences, feel that con¬ science is somehow the voice of God, and whatever their conscience approves is unquestionably right. Many, therefore, have been willing to die for their con¬ sciences' sake. So, a thousand years ago, when men read in the Bible about the four corners of the earth, th'ey were sure that the earth was flat, with four corners. Any one who wrote or spoke against this point of view, was considered by the gen¬ eral public both ignorant of the s'ate of things and unfaithful to religion. The Negro Problem 17 Astronomy's Contention for the Imper¬ sonal Point of View. When Copernicus asserted that the earth was not the center of the universe, that it was merely a small part of d great system which moved around the sun, which was the center, he did not hfvve the support of public opinion. Many thought he was mad; that his mind was unbal¬ anced. Did not the Bible speak of the sun rising and setting, and did not we see it move over the earth, from Fast to West? Do we not know that the earth is not moving? For if it were, how could we stand on it? Did not Joshua command the sun to stop in its course around the earth? Thus Holy Writ was brought in to substantiate the popular view ?>gainst the scientist. Copernicus was treated as an infidel, and in those days when the Church ruled the sciences, as well as the 8 The Negro Problem conscience, Copernicus' books were burn¬ ed and he was silenced. A few years later there came Galileo, who had about the same experience. He claimed to have made discoveries which the popular mind did not believe, and he was forced to deny what he had scientifically discov¬ ered, in order to escape popular prejudice and persecution. Such was the case also of Keplar, who was brought before the Church Council and made to take back what he had publicly stated, and which, of course, we now know to be true We look back at that day and pity the poor people's consciences, which made them do unreasonable things, and it is suffi¬ cient evidence to say that conscience in the scientific matters indicated was not God's voice. Astronomy, by following the facts rather than the whims o: men, has won the day. The Negro Problem 19 Geography Had Also To Contend. The first geographers and astronomers who claimed that the earth was round were brought up before church councils and were made to attempt to prove their contention by the Bible, and were dis¬ graced when they stated to the world that the earth was round. Even as late as the time of Christopher Columbus, the geog¬ rapher was not free from public cen-j sure. He was persecuted because he de¬ clared that the western part of the world could be reached by sailing east.. He was crazy, so the great mass of people thought, because he did not adhere to popular opinion, but time has proved him wiser than the mob, and posterity calls him one of the makers of geography, and we honor him as a benefactor of the world. To-day we laugh at the man who says that the earth is flat, or that he sees 20 The Negro Problem - the sun rise and set, and who talks liter¬ ally, about the four corners of the earth. We have, of course, changed our view of the Bible and our consciences as well have changed to suit our science. But this never would have been had scien¬ tists not contended for consideiation of facts, and facts alone. The geologist has also had to fight his way for the impersonal point of view. There are men living to-day who have called the geologist the worst of infidels. Do not the tradition and the Bible say, if we take their interpretation, that Hell is a burning lake, and do they not make the Bible locate it in the bowels of the earth? When the geologist explains his view of the earth, making no place for a Hell within, and declares that this earth is only eight thousand miles through, he was promptly branded as an infidel by The Negro Problem 21 those who judged by their prejudice and their consciences, rather than by the facts. Similarly when the geologist said this earth was hundreds of thousands of years of age, men whose opinions were not based upon a study of facts, gave the ge¬ ologist all kinds of abuse. But to-day, we accept complacently, practically everything which the geologist claimed in this regard. And so the botanist and the zoologist anl them from other men, but that they still re¬ mained the same in character and ability. It is clear that we should have no more Negro problem, but it is not clear that we should not have just as the day before, various problems of crime, poverty, ignor¬ ance, immorality, etc. We should then 34 The Negro Problem be convinced that these problems, which still exist, are not the Negro problem. - What the Problem Is. What, then, is the' Negro problem? What maladjustment is at the same time common to the Negro group as a whole, and peculiar to it as over against the white group? Sociology, whose field of study is the social mind, so to speak, fur¬ nishes the ready answer, after a careful analysis of the condition. That answer is that the Negro problem is in the atti¬ tude of the American public mind toward the Negro race, an attitude which insists upon separating the Negro group from the general group, and labeling the Negro according to his color alone with¬ out regard to his character, Jt is this at: The Negro Problem 35 titude. which continually seeks and exag¬ gerates imaginary "race differences," and is anxious about "the place of the Negro," not allowing the Negro to find his own level or place as other men do. It makes race, rather than character and efficiency, or lack of these, the reason for difference. This attitude is the maladjustment com¬ mon to all Negroes and peculiar to them. The attitude is seen in a thousand things; it is sometimes loud and uncivil, as in the cases of the Rev. Thomas Dixon's or James K. Vardeman's, or Senator Tillman's agitations, or it is quiet and polite, as in the case of a Northern employer who refuses the Negro appli¬ cant for promotion, or for a place other than in menial service, merely qn the ground of his color rather than fitness. It is unsuspectingly reflected by many good housewives, who sav. "I don't want a 36 The Negro Problem Negro girl to work for me, for I have had one and she was unsatisfactory," not thinking that if she used the same reason¬ ing with girls she would be forced to do all her work herself. Or it is seen in the laborers who will not work with a competent Negro foreman, or the clerks who threaten to strike if a Negro is put on the force. It is causing gradual segregation in the public schools; has caused it in the Christian church, and threatens to make the brotherhood of Christ spoken of, a hollow mockery in Amercia. Evil Results. This attitude causes general weakness and waste. First, in the Negro it causes general demoralization, and thus compli- The Negro Problem 37 cates the problem of inefficiency, poverty, etc., which some mistake for the Negro problem. It encourages, in Negroes, low ideals, in that it separates them from the community, and says to them in so many words that the best is not for them. But it has a bad effect upon the com¬ munity, for it deprives the manufacturer and the business man in general of a very valuable labor supply. It also, by causing labor unions to discriminate against Ne¬ groes, robs the cause of labor of a power¬ ful ally. How powerful this ally is, was only hinted at when, with the aid of less than 500 Negroes, the meat packers of Chicago were able to break the stock¬ yards strike of 1904, and with still fewer Negroes, the teamsters' strike, in 1905, involving 100,000 whites, was broken. These strikes were veritable industrial wars. But Negroes are net strike-break- 38 The Ne&ro Problem ers by choice. They are from necessity of self-protection, for the average laboring man has not seen that the interests of black and white labor can be the same because of the attitude referred to. The attitude has weakened the church. Minis¬ ters who preach for African missions are often, because of this attitude, afraid to say a kind word for the Negro in America or to visit their Negro parishioners. Thus those who should preach and lead the world to that great ideal of the Christ Master are actually going back on this ideal in so far as the Negro is concerned. It has made the democracy of which we dreamed, only a dream. It has caused white men of the South, fearing an im¬ possible hallucination of "Negro domina¬ tion," to vote solidly, irrespective of con¬ viction, on purely political affairs, and it is the chief corner-stone for the building The Negro Problem 39 Up of a system of caste in a proposed democracy. Because of this attitude of separation, no Negro is safe in any com¬ munity, nor is his family or his property, Try as we may, we can never protect a people who are psychologically separate. They will always be the prey of the larger group. The Solution. Such is the'Negro problem; such, some of its far-reaching results. Can it be solved? How? It can be solved. But it is not to be solved from without; by merely working on Negroes. Education of the Negroes does not solve it; nor does amassing of property by them, or becom¬ ing self-respecting and law-abiding. In¬ deed, the most bitter and savage out- 40 The Negro Problem break of race feeling we have had in years occurred in the city of Atlanta, which has more Negro colleges than any other city in the country, and in a com¬ munity where nearly every Negro's home was owned by himself, and which had been publicly praised by the Mayor for being so law-abiding as to need no policemen. Men who were attacked and mishandled by the mob of whites in¬ cluded graduates from Yale University, Boston University, two presidents of a college and others, all well-to-do, and some, according to Southern standards, wealthy; and, according to a report of a committee of white citizens of Atlanta, "not one of the Negroes killed and wounded in the riot was of the criminal class. Every one was industrious, re¬ spectable and law-abiding." I might give hundreds, indeed thousands, of facts to The Negro Problem 41 show that the problem is intensified with wealth, industry and culture on the part of Negroes, and that the less the culture, or the more the degradation, the less is the problem realized. A poor, illiterate and even vicious and diseased Negro ser¬ vant is admitted to the comforts of . hotels and palace cars, when Negroes of culture and wealth are denied. The problem can only be solved by a change of attitude of the public mind from that of indifference, opposition or depreciation, to one not especially favor¬ ing the Negroes, but one of fairness and justice and consideration. Only by awaken¬ ing the American conscience, which now is soundly asleep, can this problem find solution. First, the Christian ministers ought to be leaders in the movement, for they are theoretically committed to it by the brotherhood teachings of theii Christ. 42 The Negro Problem Then the social teachers who have the ideal of democracy ought to practice and teach the throwing off of this undemo¬ cratic distinction. The business man can give the black man a fair chance without special favor, and insist upon his right to do so, even though his employes at first object. The labor leaders can slowly edu¬ cate the laboring classes that the inter¬ ests of all laborers are one. The politician can help the country greatly by striving to eliminate the race issue. The solution cannot be accomplished en masse: it is to be a slow change in the mental atritude of the whole white race. Not a Hopeless Task. It is not a hopeless task, as develop¬ ments in this country since the war have The Negro Problem 43 shown. Forty years ago, for example, be¬ ing a policeman in this city or ckrking in the post office was a "white man't. job;" but one by one Negroes have entered these places, and though there was pro¬ test at first, scarcely any one objects to¬ day. The Midvale Steel Company has given a valuable lesson in what auiet in¬ sistence will do, in that it has insisted upon letting Negroes come into the plant, and now no one objects. Thousands of business men have done the same, with a like experience, thus helping solve the problem. Indeed, it seems that the business men have outstripped those to whom we naturally look—the ministers of the Gospel—in this respect. Then there is general ignorance of the Negro race. Most people think they know the Negro, and are unwilling to learn; hence, they make adjustment more 44 The Negro Problem difficult. In speaking of the conference in Atlanta concerning the riot, Mr. Hopkins, one of Atlanta's leading lawyers and a Southerner by birth, is reported to have said: "I believe those Negroes under¬ stood the situation better than we did. I was astonished at their intelligence and diplomacy * * * I didn't know that there were such Negroes in Atlanta." Such a statement shows that Mr. Hop¬ kins is making progress toward the solu¬ tion of this vexed problem, and like him, leaders of thought and public-spirited men ought to seek to inform themselves concerning the real condition, seek to co¬ operate with the best Negroes and pa¬ tiently work for the truer and purer democracy. This, of course, demands a deal of moral courage; often a bit of sacrifice for principle, which in being worked out will The Ne&ro Problem 45 not only relieve the Negroes, but strengthen the white race even more. To recapitulate then: The Negro prob¬ lem is the problem of mental attitude of whites toward the Negro, preventing the assimilation of Negroes into American economic life. It, therefore, robs the coun¬ try of much economic benefit, making prog¬ ress slower, and even retarding business development (as when the bank clearings of Atlanta fell thousands of dollars after the riot), depriving the labor cause of one of its most leadable and teachable allies. This attitude demoralizes Negroes, crushes ambition, but aids crime and immorality and tends to increase poverty. The Negro problem can be solved only by awaken¬ ing the sleeping conscience of the whites, who dominate. This solution of the Negro problem will be the greatest achievement of American democracy and 46 The Negro Problem Christianity. Patience, toleration, con¬ tact and co-operation with the best of the Negroes, differentiation as to character and efficiency, rather than color, and con¬ stant insistence upon human rights to work, to live, to progress, instead of the emphasis of the superiority of whites over blacks, are some of the factors and forces which will bring about the change, and all men of intelligence and patriotism ought to lead in bringing it about. I would not close without paying a well- deserved tribute to W. D. Weather ford, a Secretary of the International Committee of the Y. M. C. A. among the colleges for white men of the South. He is a South¬ ern man of culture, and he has written a book on "The Negro in the South," the best book written by a Southerner, which shows wide knowledge and an enlight¬ ened conscience, I think this is only The Negro Problem 47 indication of what the Southerner of cul¬ ture will continue to do when he becomes really enlightened.