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^The Road to Righteous 
 Judgmenf' 
 
 A Brief On the Negro 
 Question 
 
 BY J. E. CALLAWAY 
 
 Printed 1922, Arkadelphia, Ark. 
 THE SIFTINGS HERALD PTG. CO. 
 
Copyright 1922 
 By J. E. Callaway 
 
 )aA6S6723 
 
 NOV 10*22 
 
 
 
FOREWORD 
 
 No apology is offered for the 
 sentiments herein expressed. Tho 
 writer was born and reared in the 
 South, and after an experience of 
 more than twenty-five years at th^ 
 bar, where a large part of the litiga- 
 tion concerned negroes, he feels at 
 liberty to offer a suggestion which 
 might aid in the solution of Ameri- 
 ca's biggest problem. It is to that 
 end that these thoughts are directed. 
 
 J. E. C. 
 Arkadelphia, Arkansas, 
 November 1, 1922. 
 
"The Road to Righteous 
 Judgment 
 
 SINCE the begiuuingofbistory, races, nations 
 and communities bave bad problems witb 
 whicb to deal. Tbe Egyptians bave ever 
 wrestled witb tbe river Nile. Invasions by 
 armed foes were tbe constant dread of ancient 
 and medieval cities and means by wbicb to 
 successfully resist tbese attacks was tbe up- 
 permost tbougbt in tbe minds of tbeir inbab- 
 itants. For centuries the Englisb speaking 
 people lived in continuous dread of re-concur- 
 rences of tbe cbolera plague, wbicb often de- 
 populated cities, and it is witbin tbe memory 
 of tbe present generation that tbe dread spec- 
 tre of yellow fever always haunted tbe soutb 
 temperate zone of tbe Western Hemispbere, 
 Happily for bumanity, tbese troubles and dif- 
 ficulties bave been reduced to a minimum, 
 wbere not completely overcome. 
 
 The tariff, immigration, and otber economic 
 and political issues bear tbeir relative impor- 
 
''The Road to Righteous Judgment' 
 
 tauce to the Aiuerican public. Each subject 
 receives much thought from its respective 
 champions both of the public press and the 
 platform, but the life or destiny of our coun- 
 try does not de]->end upon any one or all of 
 these issues. 
 
 Immigration is perhaps the weightiest of 
 the above questions, but its seriousness does 
 not consist so much in the nationality of the 
 immigrant, but in what his political creed 
 may be. The most important question v\iiich 
 can ever confront any people is the fate of 
 their children and what shall be their moral 
 intellectual and physical complexion. Noth- 
 ing so touches the instincts of the human 
 heart as the welfare of the children for whom 
 tlie fathers and mothers are responsible. 
 Therefore the purity of the blood and racial 
 integrity of our offsprings are of greater im- 
 portance than any legislation which touches 
 only the tem.poral affairs of life. 
 6 
 
''The Road to Righteous Judgment'^ 
 
 America is now confronted witli many 
 problems. World peace is far from an ac- 
 complished fact. The troubles between labor 
 and capital, like the poor, we have with us al- 
 ways. The liquor question will not down. 
 The so-called Japanese menace while allayed 
 for a time will continue to ^e a bugaboo in 
 the mind of the Jingo. Many disquieting is- 
 sues of lesser importance are magnified in 
 the minds of the people to the extent of the 
 zeal manifested by the individual in whose 
 brain the particular subject finds lodgment. 
 Man is indeed a strange animal whose phy- 
 chosis can not be accounted for. He can sleep 
 over a smouldering volcano undisturbed by 
 real dangers and at the same time have night- 
 mares over imaginary foes and evils which 
 never materialize and which have no exist- 
 ence in fact. Present and imminent dangers 
 are frequently given the least thought, and 
 those evils which are sometimes considered 
 7 
 
"The Road to Righteous Judgment'' 
 
 permanent receive tlie least attention, how- 
 ever insidious they may be. 
 
 Sociologists have theorized and speculat- 
 ed and politicians have covered the subject 
 with blandishments, yet no sane or practical 
 solution has been proposed touching the eter- 
 nal question which is ever pressing itself upon 
 the American public and particularly in the 
 southern states, — the negro, his place, social 
 status and destiny. 
 
 When the slave trader introduced the 
 African into the American colonies an epoch 
 was created in American history. The negro 
 slave was not responsible for being here. He 
 was a victim of intrigue and treachery, and 
 humanity was outraged when he was torn 
 from his native shore and thrust into bondage 
 in a foreign land. After centuries of slavery 
 which could not be justified in law or morals, 
 he was ruthlessly thrown upon his own re- 
 sources among his former masters under the 
 8 
 
The Road to Righteous Judgment'^ 
 
 gnise of freedom. Struggling with adversity, 
 and a prey to the unscrupulous, he has blund- 
 ered along the highway called citizenship for 
 nearly three score years. No race has ever 
 deserved greater solicitude at the hands of its 
 superiors. 
 
 ^N'o two races have ever possessed greater 
 dissimilarity than the Ethiopian and the 
 Anglo-Saxon. It is taught by certain evolu- 
 tionists that the straight hair of the chimpan- 
 zee is maintained through the development of 
 man as he has progressed upward from the 
 lower order, and is evidence of his simian an- 
 cestory, or that he has descended from the 
 monkey. In this theory the negro is not taken 
 into account. He stands as the only species 
 which walks upright, with hair of a kinkiness 
 which sometimes causes it to be referred to as 
 wool. It cannot be said that the torrid 
 climate from which he came, produced this 
 phenomena, because it is not evident in any 
 9 
 
''The Road to Righteous Judgment'^ 
 
 other animal life by which he is snrrouuded. 
 The conclusion is inescapable tliat he was 
 created in a class to himself, and has so re- 
 mained to this day. The color, cranial and 
 other physiological differences between the 
 white man and the negro, create a gulf lii 
 racial matters which no etlinologist can bridge. 
 
 The practical traits of the white man are 
 absent in the negro. Temperamentally they 
 are as nnlike as their colors. The negro is 
 more inclined toward mysticism and the oc- 
 cult. He thrives in lodges and secret socie- 
 ties wliere symbols and mysteries of the im- 
 agination hold high carnival. The tendency 
 of the white man, regardless of circumstances, 
 is upward, for aggression and development. 
 The tendency of the negro, except where in- 
 spired by the white man's example, is down- 
 ward, toward idleness and lethargy. 
 
 F. Manetta, an eminent student of the 
 American negro, found negro cliildren in tlie 
 10 
 
I 
 
 ^'TUe Road to Righteous Jiidgmenf^ 
 
 H i w u w— »»— »«»— m I I H I I I II 1 I w n I n H I I M a 
 
 southern states to be mentally alert and 
 bright, sometimes precocious, only to become 
 dull upon approaching the adolescent period. 
 This he did not attribute to environment or 
 lack of opportunity, but to the form and 
 structure of the cranium which did not admit 
 of cerebral growth. However, prodigies were 
 occasionally found among them who had a 
 genius for rythm, as in the case of ''Blind 
 Tom'' whose instinctive knowledge of sound 
 charmed his hearers in piano music upon the 
 American stage for nearly a generation. 
 
 Among races the wider the diversity of col- 
 or, the greater the danger of friction and the 
 less the inclination to fraternize. This is one 
 of the immutable laws of nature. Caste and 
 social distinction between white people and 
 negroes is not only marked in this country but 
 also in European and South American coun- 
 tries. Chile, and other nations of South Amer- 
 ica, have large negro populations but no at- 
 11 
 
'T?i€ Road to Righteous Judgment' 
 
 tempt is made there to educate or prepare them 
 for citiznship as in this country. In those 
 countries they are regarded as a menial and 
 subject race, ordained by nature as bearers of 
 burdens and the serv^ants of their superiors. 
 
 History records no instance where two peo- 
 ples of such divergent types as the negro and 
 the Anglo-Saxon have dwelt harmoniously to- 
 gether in the same land on equal terms. If 
 such were possible intermarriages and amal- 
 gamation would be the inevitable result. 
 Especially to the Southerner such a course is 
 unthinkable and abhorrent. Nothing could be 
 more repulsive. WTien he gravitates racially 
 his desire is upward as every instinct of his 
 nature demands. 
 
 Social equality with the negroid neces- 
 sarily implies an invitation to the negro into 
 the home of the white man. An invitation in- 
 to the home implies an equality of race and 
 blood. An equality of race and blood implies 
 12 
 
^^The Road to Righteous Judgment^' 
 
 an invitation to marry his daughters. Such 
 intermarriage would mean the destruction 
 of the white race and the ideals for which it 
 has striven since the white man first appeared 
 upon the earth. At the confluence of the Miss- 
 issippi and Ohio rivers a stream of blue is 
 blended with a stream of murky yellow. The 
 purity of one is contaminated by the other and 
 a degeneration of the whole is the result. 
 Shades of our forefathers deliver us! 
 
 The social barrier between the negro and 
 the white man can never be removed in the 
 South, and the negro here must forever remain 
 socially an Ishmaelite. As a result of this his 
 position in the political and commercial world 
 must be negligible. He will not be looked up- 
 on by his white neighbor as other than a 
 hewer of wood and a drawer of water, irre- 
 spective of what his education may be or what 
 he may think of himself. The door of hope 
 for him to social recognition is closed. It 
 13 
 
^'Tlie Road to Righteous Judgtnent'^ 
 
 was closed by the Creator in tlie production of 
 two types of man so divergent. No one slionld 
 appreciate this more than the black man him- 
 self, as he certainly must know tliat he cannot 
 over-ride distinctions made by nature. All 
 Caucasian races are a unit in tliis view. 
 
 The American Indian possessed qualities 
 of mind and imagination which have never 
 been approached by his African contemporary. 
 His crude flights into the realm of poesy in- 
 dicated a bright intellect altho untrained. 
 Under stress of conditions and pent up emo- 
 tions there came from him outbursts of elo^ 
 quence and oratory which Tliomas Jefferson 
 classed with the classics of the ancient world 
 and betokened an undeveloped power, which 
 if trained, would have nothing superior in any 
 race. The Indian sought no social recogni- 
 tion at the hand of the ^'paleface." He prefer- 
 red to remain an Indian and desired no asso- 
 ciation outside of his tribe or race. He was 
 14 
 
'^Th^ Road to Righteous Judgmenf^ 
 
 for more than tw^o centuries the chief problem 
 in American politics until the country finally 
 awoke to a realization that he should be a 
 ward of the government and not a citizen. 
 The Indian question no longer concerns us. 
 It has long been settled wisely and well, and 
 £;11 thanks are due those wise and patriotic 
 statesmen of another generation who met and 
 grappled with the question like men until a 
 proper status was found for the red man and 
 his destiny in America fixed. 
 
 The negro has never been understood by the 
 people of the northern and eastern states. 
 This ignorance has been due to lack of contact 
 with him and lack of knowledge of his char- 
 acteristics. The literature of those sections, 
 and especially prior to the American civil 
 war, disclosed an utter misconception of his 
 nature. Their writers dwelt upon the negro's 
 supposed wrongs and oppression in the South 
 and wreathed into fantasy the sufferings of 
 15 
 
^^The Road to Righteous Judgment^' 
 
 the female slave who was pictured as an Aph- 
 rodite in the hands of tormentors. Longfel- 
 low, Lowell, and other lesser lights continual- 
 ly revelled in pictures of Prometheus bound to 
 the rock. 
 
 During the world war the exodus of ne- 
 groes from the Southern states to the north 
 and mid-west was large. They went to better 
 not only their financial condition, but in the 
 firm belief that the northern man was their 
 friend. They no doubt expected courtesies to 
 which they were not accustomed and had illu- 
 sioned reasons for these expectations. Certain 
 prominent daily newspapers of the city of 
 Chicago had prior thereto taken the lead as 
 unrelenting critics of the southern white man 
 for his attitude tow^ard the negro. Bitter and 
 vindicative articles and editorials had from 
 time to time filled the columns of these journ- 
 als, and their criticism was of an intolerant 
 nature. Alas, forsooth, a rude awakening was 
 16 
 
^'The Road to Righteous Judgment^' 
 
 in store for Africanus, upon reactiing tlie 
 ''Windy City." Upon his advent there in 
 numbers violent race riots were staged upon 
 the slightest pretext. In many instances he 
 was a victim of maltreatment and brutality 
 merely because of his color. From his recep- 
 tion at the hands of his supposed friends it 
 soon became apparent that the negro is bet- 
 ter off where he is best known and understood. 
 Ohio, President Harding's home state, during 
 the first year of his administration, came in- 
 to the limelight and obtained its share of ad- 
 vertising as an unhealtliy place for the ^'color- 
 ed brother" to sojourn. The state of Kansas 
 soon followed in a similar demonstration and 
 disgraced itself by mobs and race riots. Okla- 
 homa, a mid-west state, next came upon the 
 scene in an attempt to ''ouj- Herod Herod" in 
 racial conflagration. 
 
 President Harding in his first message to 
 Congress declared that "Congress ought to 
 17 
 
''The Road to Righteous Judgmenf^ 
 
 wipe the stains of barbaric lynching from the 
 banners of a free and orderly representative 
 government.'' These are fine words, and every 
 American citizen with patriotic blood in 
 his veins heartily applauds the Pi^esident for 
 the sentiments. But in order to *'wipe the 
 stain" the cause must first be removed, and 
 Mr. Harding offers no remedy for removing 
 the cause. After saying that we face the fact 
 that millions of people of African descent are 
 among our population, the President adds: 
 
 ''It is unnecessary to recount the diffi- 
 culties incident to this condition, or to empha- 
 size the fact that it is a condition which cannot 
 be removed. There has been suggested, how- 
 ever, that some of the conditions might be 
 ameliorated by a humane and enlightened con- 
 sideration of it, a study of its many aspects, 
 and an effort to formulate, if not a policy, at 
 least a national attitude of mind calculated to 
 bring :about most satisfactory possible adjust- 
 meiit of relations between the races and of 
 18 
 
'^The Road to Righteous Judgment'^ 
 
 »— »lfW H I H M II W 11 II ■ I t II I H ■ H— IM^ Wll I I M— II— ■ 
 
 each race to the national life. One proposal 
 is the creation of a commission embracing rep- 
 resentatives of both races to study and report 
 on the entire subject. The proposal has real 
 merit. I am convinced that in mutual tolera- 
 tion, understanding, charity, recognition of the 
 interpendence of the races and the mainten- 
 ance of the rights of citizenship, lies the road 
 to righteous judgment." 
 
 Mr. Harding's words sound a note of des- 
 pair. H^ sees "a condition which cannot be 
 removed," from his viewpoint. He seems to 
 realize that if every suggestion offered in his 
 message is scrupulously followed that only 
 some of the difficulties '^might be amelior- 
 ated." As a thinking man, he of course real- 
 izes that they will not be removed, and that 
 during the possible ''amelioration" for the 
 time being, racial differences and antipathies 
 are only slumbering, and subject to be aroused 
 to frenzy at any time and at any place where 
 there is contact between the races. Indeed 
 19 
 
^'TJie Road to Righteous Judgment^' 
 
 he might as well have used the language of 
 Grover Cleveland who said: 
 
 "There is one problem in American life 
 for which I see no solution. It is the race 
 problem, the negro question." 
 
 The theory upon which the American gov- 
 ernment is founded, is that every citizen shall 
 have an equal chance in deciding economic 
 and political questions. This carries with it 
 the right to help govern and constitute the 
 judiciary. The right to the ballot is tanta- 
 mount to the right to hold office and adminis- 
 ter the affairs of state. The white man does 
 not regard the negro as possessing the racial 
 or social fitness to govern the Anglo-Saxon or 
 Caucasian. It would be a waste of mental 
 tissue to argue that these functions should 
 be exercised by the Afro- American in this 
 country. A sympathetic regard and attitude 
 toward the negro in this respect seems to be 
 as far as any section of our country is willing 
 20 
 
The Road to Righteous Judgment'^ 
 
 to go, regardless of loud protestations in his 
 belialf in those portions of the country where 
 he does not dwell. The native born American 
 citizen of the white race will not look upon 
 his country as other than the white man's in- 
 heritance. This sentiment prevails not only 
 in the southern states but throughout the na- 
 tion and wherever the stars and stripes may 
 wave. 
 
 The ballot in the hands of the negro has 
 proven his worst enemy. He is, and will con- 
 tinue to be, the tool of designing politicians 
 wherever he may hold the balance of power. 
 '\Miere his vote is not needed no political 
 party desires to be burdened with his aid. 
 This is shown by the growth of the ^'lily- 
 white" faction in one of our great political 
 parties. 
 
 President Lincoln gravely doubted the 
 wisdom of enfranchisement of the negro and 
 21 
 
^The Road to Righteous Judgment'^ 
 
 did not favor a step so extreme. During agi- 
 tation by radicals in Louisiana for negro fran- 
 chise Mr. Lincoln wrote Governor Hahn in 
 1864 saying, 
 
 ^^I barely suggest for your private consid- 
 eration wbetber some of the colored people 
 may be let in, — as for instance the very intel- 
 ligent and especially those who have fought 
 gallantly in our ranks." 
 
 When the fifteenth amendment to our 
 Federal constitution was adopted, Lincoln was 
 dead. This amendment is sweeping in its 
 character and gave to every negro male of 
 voting age the right to the ballot, which he 
 yet possesses. If Mr. Lincoln had been alive 
 at the time of this amendment's adoption, 
 there is no reason to believe that he would 
 have changed the opinion expressed by him to 
 Governor Hahn of Louisiana in 1864. 
 
 In groping for a solution, certain theo- 
 rists, or dreamers maintain that in the edu- 
 22 
 
^'Tlie Road to Riglitcous Judgment''^ 
 
 nation of the negro lies tlie panacea for our 
 present ills. That by the elevation of his in- 
 tellectual, moral and spiritrtal tone lie will be- 
 come a better citizen with liio^her ideals and a 
 greater respect for the law. This is indeed 
 good and admirable as far as it goes, but does 
 not touch the seat of the trouble. Besides the 
 plan might work backward by creating greater 
 competition between the races, produce fric- 
 tion and arouse the blacks to greater aspira- 
 tions for social equality with the whites. In- 
 deed, the negro is entitled to all the education 
 he can assimilate and which he can adapt to 
 his surroundings, but under present condi- 
 tions, higher education for him will not cuie 
 present evils or extricate him from his environ- 
 ments. Education cannot eliminate racial 
 distinctions; one might as well undertake to 
 remove the slant from the Chinaman's eye by 
 that means. 
 
 One of the products of the fifteenth 
 23 
 
^'The Road to RigJiteous Judgmenf^ 
 
 amendment to the Federal constitution was 
 tlie drafting- of negro soldiers for the world 
 war. From a legal standpoint, no other 
 course was ojjen. If a citizen and a voter, 
 he was properly required to bear arms for his 
 country. Some made excellent records, but 
 the general result or effect in the minds of 
 man}' persons, w^as harmful in that it gave the 
 negro soldier an exalted view of his impor- 
 tance and unduly elevated the impressions of 
 the race at large as to their political and so- 
 cial status. Decorations for merit or achieve- 
 ment during the war caused the colored recip- 
 ient to no longer regard himself as inferior to 
 the white man, but to entertain stifled hopes 
 of an elevated social position. In many in- 
 stances, it vras noted that a resentment was 
 aroused in his breast against the race at whose 
 table he could not hope to sit or with whose 
 daughters he could never expect to associate. 
 On the Congo river in Africa, tribal wom- 
 24 
 
'The Road to Righteous Judgment 
 
 en have been known to be assaulted by male 
 gorillas. Their form and symmetry evidently 
 appear to the beast more attractive than 
 the female of his species, and his lust leads him 
 to risk dangers which even hunger will not do. 
 It is the old story of the feminine attraction 
 w^hich detained Julius Caesar in Egypt and 
 for which Mark Anthony paid the price at the 
 shrine of the Egyptian queen. 
 
 To the potent negro male the figure of the 
 white woman seems to appeal. Social bar- 
 riers preclude the possibility of him enjoying 
 her society or ever claiming her as his own. 
 The statutes of all southern states forbid mar- 
 riages between white persons and those of Af- 
 rican blood. His passions are aroused and 
 his lust fired. He knows the chances he is 
 taking, but beastly instincts urge him on and 
 the woman is in his forcible embrace. The 
 community is aroused and a lynching follows. 
 These occurences have become so common 
 25 
 
^'The Road to Righteous Judgment'^ 
 
 that they barely receive a lieadline in tlie 
 newspapers of the day. In each instance, not 
 only is punishment meted out to the brute but 
 the moral tone of the citizenship is lowered. 
 Disrespect for the law in these cases is in- 
 creasing and our social fabric threatened. No 
 people can violate or trample underfoot the 
 law in one instance without impairing their 
 usefulness to uphold its majesty on other oc- 
 casions. If the culprit were the only victim 
 of the mob's vengeance, there would be added 
 weight to the argument that the outraged 
 woman should not be further humiliated by 
 having to testify at the trial of her assailant. 
 The people of the so-called ''black belt" of the 
 South are the greatest victims of these trage^ 
 dies, but the occurances will increase in other 
 portions of the country as the black popula- 
 tions disseminates. The error lies in the con- 
 tact of the two races and their mingling to- 
 gether in industry and commerce. Temptation 
 26 
 
''The Road to Righteous Judgment'^ 
 
 is the basis of these assaults, and will continue 
 until the two races are segregated. 
 
 The present head of TusSegee Institute, 
 who is Booker Washington's successor, some 
 time ago was reported as having warned his 
 people through the public press, that social 
 equality with the whites can never become a 
 reality. The institution over which he pre- 
 sides is largely fostered by the money of 
 white men, and no expression other than one 
 in keeping with the white man's view would 
 be consistent, from that institution. Yet, un- 
 less ambition is indeed a glorions cheat, there 
 inevitably lurks in the mind and heart of every 
 educated product of Tuskegee Institute, a 
 secret longing to become the social equal of 
 any other race among whom he dwells. Other- 
 wise education is to him a failure and mean- 
 ingless. 
 
 No race or people can be at its best while 
 handicapped by unnatural conditions. That 
 27 
 
^'The Road to Righteous Judgment' 
 
 tlie negroes are handicapped by living among 
 the whites cannot be questioned. Likewise, 
 that the white man is also in a measure, hand- 
 icapped goes without saying. The best in 
 each race can never develop or be brought out 
 while subject to racial differences and antag- 
 onisms. It is an unsound sociological condi- 
 tion which does not permit or encourage the 
 highest ideals in every person living under the 
 same government, and every rule of reason and 
 principle of logic suggest their separation 
 when this cannot be done. 
 
 'There is an abiding menace to each race 
 while living together. This was voiced by 
 Representative Garrett of Tennessee in De- 
 cember, 1921, when in the lower house of Con- 
 gress while discussing a proposed anti-lynch- 
 iiig bill he said: 
 
 "Many of you gentlemen do not know 
 what it is to live in a section in which your 
 wife dare not travel a^ne for a distance of a 
 28 
 
''The Road to Righteous Judgment' 
 
 mile through wood or field. You do uot 
 kuow what it is to raise a daughter amid a a 
 environment where from the very time of her 
 reaching the age of ten, so long as she lives, 
 the sword of Damocles hangs over her head.'* 
 
 Commenting on the Tulsa (Oklahoma) 
 riot which occurred during the spring of 1921, 
 one newspaper called attention to the fact 
 that many clashes between the negroes and 
 whites had occurred in recent years north of 
 the Mason and Dixon line. It cited the race 
 riot in East St. Louis, Illinois, on July 7, 1917, 
 in which 125 persons were killed. The riot 
 in Washington, D. C, July 19, 1919, seven per- 
 sons killed. A few dayvS later in the city 
 of Chicago 38 persons were killed and five 
 hundred wounded. Three days before at 
 Omaha, Nebraska, three killed and many 
 wounded, the mayor of the city was also 
 hanged but rescued in time to save his life. 
 
 Kacial intolerance was the firebrand in 
 29 
 
^^The Road to Righteous Judgmenf^ 
 
 ««»» W ii I I l>«— M^H— l».-»H— .1|«»HH.— M.— »«— i|lf.t||«i^H M ■>— IM^ ;: 
 
 each of the instances cited above. It only 
 needed a spark to produce the conflagration. 
 That each community in which negroes and 
 whites dwell, is continually treading over a 
 slumbering volcano, is putting the situation 
 mildly. Each needs to be delivered from the 
 other and our ever preplexing negro problem 
 solved. 
 
 Recently there was a movement on foot 
 with head offices in New York City to found 
 a negro empire in Africa. It was to be made 
 up chiefly by negro immigration from 
 America. It was reported that nearly four 
 million negroes were adherents to the idea 
 and that a negro with expansive vision is the 
 originator and leader. As a matter of course 
 such an undertaking is doomed to failure, as 
 all similiar movements have been in the past. 
 It is a mirage altho beautiful in its concep- 
 tion, yet never can be grasped. Like the col- 
 onization of the Jews in Palestine, it is only 
 30 
 
"The Road to FigJiteous Judgment'^ 
 
 a dream. Nostalgia is a disease from whicli 
 no people are immune. The task is too gigan- 
 tic and unwieldh'. Tlie negroes in this coun- 
 try propogate more rapidly than the whites, 
 and with a colored population of ten million 
 or more, it is impractical to expect a material 
 portion of them to leave the land of their 
 birth hoY>'ever alluring may be the prospects 
 of an African empire. There is no moral, 
 legal or constitutional right to forcibly re- 
 quire them to be exiled to a foreign land. 
 Neither would Uncle Sam be willing to un- 
 dertake a friendly deportation of those will- 
 ing to go. 
 
 A negro colony in the Harlem section of 
 New York City has a population reaching 
 six figures. Here, it is said that the needs of 
 the negro for food, clothing and entertainment 
 are supplied by their own efforts. The experi- 
 ment is illuminating and prophetic. If segre- 
 gated under governmental supervision and 
 31 
 
The Road to Righteous Judgment'^ 
 
 placed to tliemselves, tlieir ideals as a race 
 could be attained. The white man placed the 
 American negro in his present surroundings 
 and the white man cannot escape the burden 
 of securing to him the right to life, liberty and 
 the pursuit of happiness. These three inalien- 
 able rights cannot be guaranteed to the black 
 man unless he is favorably situated and given 
 opportunity to expand intellectually, morally 
 and physically. 
 
 There can be no question as to white su- 
 premacy in this country, even though condi- 
 tions remain as they are and the two races 
 continue to dwell together. But present condi- 
 tions will continue to offer an excuse for law- 
 lessness and the existence of the mob spirit in 
 every instance where there is a semblance of 
 a clash between tbe whites and blacks. 
 
 Bonie interesting figures are available 
 from the Federal census of 1920, as to the deu- 
 &ity Oi population of the various states i-f the 
 32 
 
The Road to Righteous Judgment'^ 
 
 American union. For instance* The number 
 of inhabitants of Rhode Island is 560.4 to the 
 square mile. Massachusetts has 47J).2; New 
 Jersey 420 ; Connecticut 286.4 ; and K^w York 
 217.9. 
 
 The negro is a native of and thrives in a 
 warm climate. Some of the northern states and 
 eastern states with the most dense population 
 have less than one per cent negroes, while cer- 
 tain southern states have a negro population 
 exceeding that of the whites. The negro's home 
 is in the South, where he has a right to remain 
 and where he is adjusted to climatic and other 
 conditions. The population of the southern 
 states, in density, as compared to those states 
 cited above, is insignificant. As an illustra- 
 tion, Alabama has to the square mile only 
 45.8; Arkansas 33.4; Florida 17.7; Georgia 
 49.3; Louisiana 39.6; Mississippi 38.6; South 
 Carolina 55.2; Tennessee 56; Virginia 57.4 
 
 In each of the southern states above men- 
 33 
 
^'Tlic Road to Righteous Judgmenf^ 
 
 "—"W—tl—gl^^H—IM— »«—»■»— IH—»IN— ■»—«»— 1H»-.|».—M H in— 11— » 
 
 tioned there are available areas ranging from 
 five to twenty miles square which are easily 
 adaptable as reservations or colonies, much of 
 the land being productive and capable of a 
 high state of cultivation if cleared and made 
 ready for use. The government should no 
 longer hypocritically insist that the negro is a 
 citizen and enjoys the rights of a citizen. A 
 glance at any roster of court officials or jury 
 list brands such an assertion as a falsehood. 
 He is not in reality a citizen and has never 
 been except in name, and candor demands 
 that w^e deal fairly with him. Regardless of 
 the adoption of the Fifteenth amendment the 
 negro belongs to a subject race as nature has 
 ordained for him. Europe abounds in sub- 
 ject races. The Croats, Slovenes, Lithunians 
 and others. Some of these subject races are 
 of a high intellectual caste, and have thrived 
 and prospered in Europe for centuries. They 
 have a history and literature of their own but 
 34 
 
''The Road to Rigliteous Judgment" 
 
 had no national existence prior to the world 
 war. 
 
 Through a governmental commission the 
 available waste land of the southern states 
 above mentioned should be investigated with 
 the view of providing colonies or reservations. 
 Each reservation could now be obtained at a 
 nominal cost and accomodated to the proxim- 
 ity of the negro population. If needs be sev- 
 eral reservations could be located within a 
 single state. Thus populated with negroes 
 these reservations or colonies could be given 
 territorial status or status of insular posses- 
 sions, and offered the opportunity to demon- 
 strate their ability for self government. No 
 home owner should be required to abandon his 
 home against his will, yet by appropriate na- 
 tional legislation sufficient inducements and 
 encouragement could be offered which would 
 soon locate the bulk of the colored population 
 happily and amicably within the given terri- 
 35 
 
•Tfw Road to Righteous Judgment' 
 
 tory. By gradual process of proper adjust- 
 meuts our entire negro population would ul- 
 timately occupy tbe area set apart to them. 
 Here towns would be built, farms opened, 
 school houses constructed, and churches erect- 
 ed. It would mark the beginning of a felici- 
 tious era in the life of the American negro, and 
 open an avenue for his moral and intellectual 
 development whicli has hitherto been closed. 
 The Fifteenth amendment, if expedient, might 
 be repealed. Thus under favorable conditions 
 and unmolested by fear, the negro could work 
 out his destiny among his own people. Being 
 self supporting he would not be a public bur- 
 den as in the case of the Indians. No further 
 objections could be urged against educating 
 him in the arts and sciences, and he would 
 find his place in our government without con- 
 tact with the white race and removed from 
 those who would subject him to servile treat- 
 ment. The purity of the Caucasion blood 
 36 
 
*^The Road to Righteous Judgment" 
 
 » II n Bl 1 n — »»■■ ■■ 11 111 M ill ■ « »■ M ■ I ■ I I I 1 1 m M I H ■ 
 
 would be preserved, and our children and chil- 
 dren's children relieved of a cloud which oth- 
 erwise will remain over them like a pall. Is 
 not this, indeed, "the road to righteous judg- 
 ment/' referred to by Mr. Harding? 
 
 Indifference to a subject so vital to ou» 
 national life is a crime against civilization. 
 Yea, it is more, it is a crime against those who 
 are yet unborn. The age and generation, 
 which through inertia, indifference or coward- 
 ice, refuses to deal wath a subject of such su- 
 preme importance as the race question, but 
 passes it along in an aggravated form to the 
 next generation, evinces no statesmanship and 
 deserves the condemnation of those who come 
 after them. Until the question is settled 
 rightly, once for all, the American negro must 
 of necessity continue to be the white man's 
 burden. 
 
 In my dreams I stood upon the bank of a 
 wonderful river, — the river of American civili- 
 37 
 
The Road to Righteous Judgment'^ 
 
 zation. It was broad and deep, and upon its 
 mighty bosom were myriads of crafts of va- 
 rious sizes and shapes, some black, the others 
 white, all intermingled and gliding upon the 
 current to the ocean. The white crafts seemed 
 of superior construction and speedier than 
 the others. The mist hung low, and my heart 
 was heavy as I beheld the haunted look upon 
 the faces of the beings within the crafts, and 
 especially upon those within the black crafts 
 as the two colors jostled each other. I be- 
 held the disregard which the white crafts had 
 for the black crafts and the resentful conduct 
 of the black crafts as they each sped on their 
 way. Often they would by chance collide and 
 the air resounded above the din of the waters 
 with the shouts and curses from those on 
 board. A fierce conflict would ensue, result- 
 ing in the destruction of many crafts of each 
 color. And I heard the moans of those who 
 went down and heard the voices of infants and 
 
 1.0-4 
 
■The Road to Righteous Judgment^^ 
 
 Rged ones who had no part in the conflict. 
 And I heard the voice of the wise man w^ho 
 said, "It is unnecessary to recount the difficul- 
 ties incident to this condition, or to empha- 
 size the fact that it is a condition w^hich can- 
 not be removed.'' 
 
 The scene shifted. I stood further down 
 stream. I saw a dividing line in the middle 
 of the river with the white crafts on the right 
 and the black crafts on the left, each gliding 
 sw^iftly and peacefully to the ocean. The sun 
 was shining and my heart w^as glad as I 
 heard the laughter of children and the songs 
 of those on board as each color sped onward 
 towards its destination without contact with 
 each other. I heard the voice of the wise man 
 again and he said, "I am convinced that in 
 mutual tolerance, understanding and charity 
 between the races lies tJie road to righteous 
 judgment. '^ And I saw the crafts all finish 
 their journey, the white crafts keeping to the 
 39 
 
^'Tlie Road to Righteous Judgment^' 
 
 light and tbe black crafts keeping to the left, 
 and altho the speedier and superior crafts on 
 the right were often called to the assistance of 
 those on the left, yet discord had left the river 
 and there were smiles on the faces of those 
 who formerly had haunted looks as they all 
 sped onward toward their common destina- 
 tion. 
 
 THE END 
 
 40 
 

 
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