The Negro Problem
It might be profitable to my readers, after having sketched my life in the army, to give some of my views pertaining to my race, relative to the Civil War and the time since then.
Much is being said and written on the so-called Negro Problem. Why it has taken this name, I have never been able to decide. For when we examine into its intricacies, we find that it is the White Man’s problem also. And certainly it is true, that if this problem is ever settled in this country on a proper basis, it will be settled when the White and the Colored people come together on some practical basis of agreement. There are more than ten millions of Colored people in this country and they are here to stay. They have paid at least a part of the debt which they owe to the nation, on the battlefield. They have never shirked their duty in this respect and they never will. Soldiers during both the Civil and the Spanish-American wars, demonstrated the fact that they are patriotic to the core and that on the battlefield they are not afraid of the belching cannon. They have done their duty in this regard. And when we look into the historyof the Colored people since the Civil War we are satisfied that the progress which has been made, is a most satisfactory one. It is acknowledged by some of the leading White men of the nation, that the progress of the Negro Race since the Rebellion has been unparalleled in history.
But that there is much to be done by my own people yet, is evident. We have just begun the work of our race. A race that is not over fifty years old in the arts of civilization, is but an infant in swaddling clothes. We are to wait until he is able to walk and especially to work. The Negro Race in this country has a most trying ordeal before it. It is one of the most difficult of undertakings, to work out our destiny in a land of such high civilization as that of this country. While on the one hand it would seem an easier task in such a civilization, because of the advantages which we have thrown about us; on the other hand, there are probably more disadvantages. And why? For the simple reason that the Colored man comes out of the past without the centuries of training which the White man has. He comes out of the past without any history. He comes out of the past in a crude condition, untrained and with the curse of slavery still resting on him. It will take time for him to prepare himself to compete with theWhite man and compete he must! The Colored people must wake up to the fact that they have to pay for everything that they get in this country. The mystic “mule and forty acres,” promised by Uncle Sam, has never been forthcoming. And this is but an indication of any other mystic gifts that we might dream of in days to come. It will be by the dint of hard labor, that the Colored man will rise and make his mark. There are many features of this situation which we will be compelled to look into and many conditions which we must face, as men.
I have often asked myself the question, why is it that on our railroads and street car tracks, there is such a lack of our working men? We see thousands upon thousands of white men, chiefly foreigners. There was a time when the larger portion of railroad laborers was Colored men. There are two or three reasons for this which are obvious. One is that the foreigner will work for a cheaper wage and will live on less than the Colored man. He is willing to undergo certain hardships and privations that the Colored man does not undergo. I am not willing to concede that he is a better workman than the Colored man, for the Colored man has proven his ability as a laborer along every line of work. Another reason is that the White man may bemore reliable. He can be depended on with more certainty. And at this point let me say that if the Colored race is ever to take its place in the mart of trade, it must become more reliable.
Promises must be kept. When a man agrees to work for six days in the week, for a certain number of weeks, he must stay his time out and do his work. It is not a question of his disliking the work or the employer, but the question of his fidelity to his trust. For this reason, that the Colored man is not faithful to his promises, he has been discounted in the field of manual labor. The more important the job of the employer, the more important the fidelity of the employee. No employer wishes to undertake an extensive and costly piece of work and be dependent on a class of labor that may fail him at the place where he needs steady, persistent work. So he will, in making his choice select that class of labor that will stick to him through thick and thin. Fidelity to a trust is one of the essentials of man and womanhood that must be cultivated among my people. If I am correctly informed, I understand that in our large cities, our girls are not holding their own as house servants. They are being set aside for the White girls and these for the most part are foreigners also. Here is a large and remunerative field that will be ultimatelyclosed to our girls if they do not take hold of the situation and meet all competition. Surely it is due us, if we make good, to receive the labor that is being given out on every hand. We were here before the foreigner and are the native laborers of the country. And the country owes it to us to give our race the labor of the field, of the trades and of the homes, if we merit it. I greatly fear, however, that we do not merit it. We need more sterling worth among us.
The cities are becoming the great centers of my people and in these cities there is plenty to do. The work is there. It must be done. My people must live. They must have money to live. They should get this money honestly, and this means by work. But suppose that the Colored people of the cities, both North and South, fail in getting their portion of the work that is to be done, how are they going to live? That is the question. And we are sure of this conclusion, that if a man does not earn his bread by the sweat of his brow, which is the Divinely appointed way to earn it, that he will be forced to earn it in some dishonorable manner. He will be forced to become more or less a criminal. He will become a menace rather than a benefit, to the community in which he lives. So that unless my people look to their own welfare inour cities there is an ever growing future of darkness for them. I need not stop to tell of the unsanitary conditions in which they live. These conditions are enough to deplete their living greatly every year. I need not talk of the crowded tenement houses of the city where many persons of both sexes are frequently huddled into one room and many families into one house. I need not tell of the bawdy houses, the gambling dens and the saloons, thickly scattered through the sections of the city where the Colored people live. It is enough to damn them all. I need not tell of the growing criminal class among the Negroes in the cities and of the recruits that flow in from the South every year. I need not speak of the White and the Black Slave traffic among the young girls of both races. The cities are the death centers of the Negro race, unless there is something radically done to overtake these conditions. This, of course, is the dark side of the picture, but I have not painted it as dark as it is. It would be impossible to do this. It might be profitable for my readers, when they are in Philadelphia, to visit South street and its adjoining streets, that they may see with their own eyes, the signs of infamy, idleness and debauch among my people. You will find scores of young men there well dressed, simply stragglingabout. How do they live? Why are they not at work? The dens of infamy hidden in houses answer to their vocations.
It would be well in our cities to have such municipal regulations that such loafers, male or female, could be arrested, unless they could show that they were actually engaged in some legitimate work. Unless something of the kind is done in the cities, they will become more and more the cess pools of sin and death, and into these pools thousands upon thousands of my people will be thrown annually to sink to hell!
There is not only the obstacle of instability which my people must overcome in order that they may get and hold the place that they should have in the field of labor, but the Trades Unions are rapidly closing up these fields against the Colored laborers. The basis of the opposition to the Colored people is primarily the desire to eliminate him from the ordinary industrial lines of work that he will not be able to compete with the White man. Of course, if he is not permitted to work there is no danger of competition. This is the real cause of the opposition of Labor Unions to the Colored laborer, but this cause is hidden, and the outward cause is, because his skin is black. They do not want to work by the side of the black man. This, howeveris but a good excuse in the mouth of the white man for it is accepted as satisfactory by the white employer. An examination into labor conditions in our Northern cities reveals a deplorable condition so far as the Colored man is concerned. He cannot get a job calling for the skilled artisan however skilled he may be. The Union will not permit him to win his bread by the sweat of his brow. He cannot work because he is not allowed to work. What is to be done for hundreds of laborers who are thus excluded from the fields of honest livelihood? There is no likelihood that these avenues will ever be opened and unless he can find employment among his own people of what value is his skill as an artisan to him and of what use is the acquiring of such a training? The only answer to this question is that the Colored laborer must thoroughly prepare himself and be on the ground ready for action. He must be patient. He must be prepared to meet every objectional condition with manliness and kindness, for the odds are against him. There are many lessons that we have learned and there are many lessons yet to be learned. New conditions in this most complex civilization must be met with the application of the principles of fidelity, honesty, industry,and the like, or we will never win for the race in this country.
Another great need of my people is the ownership of their homes. This makes the people, citizens in the most realistic sense, they pay taxes and have the right of representation on such basis. They become independent. They are then able to lay up some money. They are prepared to enjoy life in its real and true sense. They will command the respect of the White race and share with them the burdens of government in times of peace. They become producers to some degree. There cannot be said too much in favor of the gospel of ownership in this form of government. It is our sheet-anchor of hope. The money that is paid out annually for rent if invested through the right channels will in a few years pay for the rented house. The time seems to be drawing closer when it will be more difficult for a Colored man to buy good property. There are many sections now in our cities from which the Colored man is eliminated as a purchaser. The rule is to confine him to certain undesirable sections of the city. This can be overcome to some degree by the practice of economy and the purchase in the next few years of homes.
I wish it to be known that I am by no meansa pessimist, regarding my people. The same God made my race that made the White race and He has a destiny for us and He is with us that we may reach that destiny. But I realize that we have our own part to perform and that it must be done on the foundation of certain great principles which God Himself has taught us in His Book. It is in recognition of these eternal laws that I speak, these principles will stand forever and the people that puts them into daily practice, will abide with the principles, but the people who violate them must go down.
I am deeply interested in the education of the ministry of the race. There are thousands of Colored preachers whose education is sadly deficient. They are really not capable of doing the work of ministry either in or out of the pulpit, and yet they are leading millions of the people. In a most peculiar sense the Colored pastor is the leader of his flock. The members of the church follow him and that too almost blindly. They will condone his faults, overlook his ignorance, and receive what he says as “The law and the Gospel.” That the people are disposed to this most kindly attitude toward their ministers is most praiseworthy, but that in many cases the ministers are unworthy of such confidence is most lamentable. It has been carefully estimatedthat only about ten per cent of the pastors who have been ordained are college men and that the average education of the Colored minister is not above the seventh or eighth grade of the common school, with practically no Bible or Theological training. This is a sad state of affairs when we consider that the minister is the leader of the people. And I am sorry to say that the disposition to improve themselves is not apparent on the part of many of these ministers. They rather make pretensions and hide behind these pretensions, they mask themselves behind the smattering of an education, and think that they are passing for educated men; but how sadly they are deceived. How this condition is to be remedied is yet to be seen. It is evident that the present system of ministerial education in vogue is not sufficient for the need. Out of over fifteen hundred young men who enter the ministry yearly, only ten per cent are graduated in the Theological course of all our schools. The schools of the United States doing Theological Training for the ministry of the Negro race are therefore not beginning to do the work.
I might mention in this connection that there is an organization which is beginning this work in the right manner, The Bible Educational Association, with headquarters in Philadelphia,Pa.This is an association of Bible colleges or schools. These schools are located where they are needed and maintained by the Association. By the plan of this Association schools can be established where the ministers are located as pastors and the advantages of this training is thereby brought to their very doors. The Bible College of Philadelphia and the Bible College of Washington, D. C., both schools of this Association are doing a great work. The ministers are being greatly benefited by taking the practical and helpful courses. These schools train also young men for the ministry.
There is much more that I might say on this great subject of the Negro Problem, but time and space will not allow. Whatever course may be pursued and plans adopted, it must always be remembered that “They labor in vain, except the Lord build the house.” Our plans are like the nests of mice, the straw before the wind, the dust in the gale, they amount to nothing without God’s co-operation. And His co-operation cannot be had without our obedience to His laws and commands. The people of this country of both races have much to learn of vital Godliness. The prejudice which exists in both races, the hatred and antagonism engendered thereby, the separation of the races in educationaland religious matters, are all parts of the condition which we are forced to face and in some manner to meet. Both races must know each other better. They must recognize the rights and privileges of manhood and womanhood. They must build promotion, on merit and service, on ability, regardless of the color of the skin or previous condition of servitude. All must become the followers of the Meek and Lowly Christ, and they will be brothers and our brothers’ keepers. There is no Fatherhood of God and Brotherhood of Man, excepting on this foundation. Whether I live to see it or not, the Negro problem will never be settled, unless on this basis.