An Orator
WILLIAM HARRISON HAYNES
WILLIAM HARRISON HAYNES
WILLIAM HARRISON HAYNES
Among the four contestants for a prize in oratory at the University of Chicago was William Harrison Haynes of Nashville, Tenn. The first prize of $100, which is awarded annually to a student of this university for excellence in oratory, is given by Mr. Julius Rosenwald of Chicago.
The contest was held on the evening of June 1st, in Leon Mandel Assembly Hall. A brown face and such a title—“A Plea for Justice”—without difficulty attracted for the speaker the keenest attention of an audience almost entirely white. Confident in his skill and ability and rejoicing in this marvelous opportunity to speak before such an audience in behalf of his people, Mr. Haynes delivered his oration in a style and manner that has never been equaled in previous contests. It was evident by the heavy waves of applause, that to him belonged the victory, and when the announcement of the first prize was made, the colored speaker was hardly able to hold his position because of the crowd that thronged about him to extend congratulations and to express lofty words of praise.
Mr. Haynes, an A. B. from Morehouse College of the class of 1915, came to the University of Chicago last fall and shortly after was made a member of the Varsity Debating team. He debated for Chicago twice, winning both times, and on the day of his graduation he was given an elegant gold watch fob by the Delta Sigma Rho debating fraternity as a token of appreciation of his good fellowship and excellent scholarship displayed during his short stay at the university.
Recently ex-President Roosevelt in a speech before the Chicago Bar Association sounded the note for military preparedness. He and the foremost leaders in political circles in the United States today are trying to make the American people squarely face the issue of preparedness from a military point-of-view.
All of this sentiment for preparation may be for future military emergencies, or it may be to meet the growing responsibility of the nation. In either case, if the best results are to be realized, it is necessary that in every section of the country the fundamental principles upon which our democracy is based shall be properly administered. If we are to be really prepared for any emergency, then the vital principles of this government must be understood by every man. Every section of our great country and every man in it must know that this country stands for justice and equal opportunities to all, and that each man is to be permitted to work out and develop himself to his highest powers. Yet there is a section of our country where every day the basic principles on which our government is founded are being violated. Every day sees men subjected to injustice and arbitrary discrimination. Every day sees men deprived of that opportunity and equal protection of the laws which have been so cherished by the American people. If preparedness means the development of manhood and womanhood in order that we shall be able to repel the injustice of a foreign invader, then we must begin by granting justice to those here at home. Tonight, ladies and gentlemen, I wish to speak to you on one phase of the great American problem—the relation of the Negro to the South, and the South to the Nation.
Allow me to present briefly, if you please, an analysis of the most prevalent forms of injustice that are practiced in the South today. In the matter of suffrage, six states in the South have in practice laws which virtually take away the right of the colored man to vote. Politicians are elected to office not on the basis of their ability, but simply willingness to design and support legal technicalities which are prolific of this sort of injustice. These suffrage laws are based upon property ownership, or ability to read and interpret the Constitution, or payment of taxes; but the power of decision as to who is qualified under these laws is in the hand of a few unscrupulous politicians, who decide eligibility purely on the basis of race. An illustration will serve to show how these laws operate and the evils resulting from them. Before the disfranchisement act went into operation in Alabama there were 232,000 white and 181,000 colored male citizens of voting age, making a total of 413,000. The total number of qualified voters in the state today will not aggregate more than 200,000. There are 181,000 colored male citizens of voting age in Alabama today, at least 8,000 of whom are college graduates, and yet there are only 3,000 of them permitted to register and vote. Nevertheless, ladies and gentlemen, these people are counted as a basis of representation, and since they are denied the ballot they are even misrepresented, and the power of those who do the injustice is doubled. There are tonight almost 5,000,000 colored citizens of this country who reside in the purview of these discriminating laws, who are denied the right of the ballot, despite the fact that more than 53 per cent of them pay taxes on property owned. Can these states consistently deny the rights of citizenship to 5,000,000 men, and then in time of crisis call upon them to support the government which has kept them down? Can Americans who believe in justice and equal opportunity to all afford to see these men deprived of their rights? These people have shown that they can successfully take part in the industrial life of the South. But what good will that do unless they can protect the fruits of their labor by means of the ballot—the ballot that elects the representatives who make the laws—the ballot which elects the judges who enforce them?
We hear so much of ignorance and its attendant evils as a menace in the South, we would suppose that the funds for public education would be adequately and justly distributed. But such is not the case.
Forty per cent of the children of school age in eleven states in the South are of the colored race, and yet they receive only fifteen per cent of the school fund. In the state of Georgia the population of the two races is almost equal and millions of dollars of the public fund are annually spent for high school education, but nowhere in this great state is there one public high school for members of my race. In the city of Atlanta, last year, 4,503 colored children applied for admission to the public school, and these came voluntarily, not forced by a compulsory education law. The seating capacity of the schools provided for their education was 2,951. Instead of increasing the seating capacity the board of education abolished the eighth grade, and even to this night the seventh grade measures the extent of public education for my race in the city of Atlanta.
A third form of injustice in the South which shows signs of increasing is segregation of residential sections by city ordinances. These laws are unconstitutional because they prevent a man from selling or renting his property to whomsoever he chooses. But, they are also teeming with evils which do not appear on the surface. Segregation does not simply mean that the races live apart in separate districts. It means that these segregated divisions for colored people will be almost automatically converted into slums. For, in them police improvement and sanitation will be of the poorest sort, appropriations for street improvement and sanitation will be few and far between. It means that there will be no escape from this environment within the city limits for even the most worthy and aspiring citizens of my race. You can easily see the dilemma which exists in the South today where segregation is enforced. If we are not thrifty and have no desire for education and moral uplift, we are depicted to the world as the most worthless of human beings. On the other hand, if we wish to develop ourselves and our children into citizens worthy of this great Republic, in the South we are prevented by the Law. If we ask for those privileges of the law to which we are entitled, we are told we are not yet ready for them. If we ask for the opportunity to prepare to exercise those privileges, we are told we would not make use of them if we had them—and they are denied to us. The policy of the South is illogical, inconsistent, indefensible. Unless the South squarely faces the problem before its doors, unless it seeks to solve the problem instead of repressing it, and deals with the problem with intelligence and sympathy, then inevitably there must result, for my people and for yours, stagnation, disease and death!
It is not necessary for me to call your attention this evening to the widespread practice in the Southern states of denying the right of trial by jury. Can any state expect to develop law-abiding citizens while the laws themselves are freely broken in the matter of punishment? To summarize the situation in the South, life is cheap, property is always in danger, and lawlessness reigns supreme. As a result of it all, the law of retributive justice brings it about that the South is the retarding cog in the machinery of our democracy. World conditions demand that the machine be set in prime to meet future responsibilities and duties.
The problem is neither local or racial—it is national. It is not a matter of racial misunderstanding involving only one section of the country. It is a matter of eleven million citizens of the United States being subjected to flagrant injustice. Its solution involves not only the welfare of my race, but the future of the Republic.
A correct and permanent solution of this problem involves the ready co-operation of the colored race, the South, and the National government. The colored race, which constitutes one-third of the population of the South, is such a factor in the life of the South, that no plan of civil and material welfare can ignore his rights if it hopes to reach the highest success. We are learning the value of industrial independence and education. Leaders of my race are coming forward, men of ideals and of vision, who are giving to millions inspiration, ambition and hope. Given but the opportunity, we will help to make industrious, intelligent and patriotic citizens of our people.
Today the South is half a century behind the North in the development of her resources and her industries. It is to the interest of the South to learn that the time spent in repressing the negro is just that much time lost from the promotion of its industrial and civic welfare. It is to the interest of the South to learn that those efforts which tend to curtail the fullest growth of one-third of this population must inevitably curtail the fullest growth of the South itself. It is to the interest of the South to have a spiritual awakening, if it hopes to develop its material and civil resources.
The National government that poured out its treasures and the blood of its sons that men might be free, cannot stop short of their full enfranchisement through the freedom of knowledge and culture. The National government must give its aid to develop skilled hands, disciplined minds, and patriotic hearts. For the colored race is the one asset of this country, especially of the South, which at present shows promise of the greatest returns in proportion to the money and energy spent in its development.
We, the younger generation of the colored race, realize the gravity of the situation, and that we are factors in its solution. We are aware of the fact that we are in the midst of a people that is the product of twenty centuries of human progress.
At present we have every reason to be hopeful. When, during the last half of the nineteenth century, the cries of my people were for charitable help to combat ignorance and poverty, the philanthropists of the North responded in the form of Morehouse, Fiske, Tuskegee and other institutions of both higher education and industrial training. These schools today have thousands of graduates scattered in all parts of the South, giving their lives in fighting poverty and ignorance. At the beginning of the twentieth century, the cry from the South is for equal opportunity and a proper administration of justice. We expect the government to respond. We have faith in American ideals—in the ultimate triumph of Americanism.
We have faith in the greatness of our country, and in the ability of its people to meet and overcome all difficulties which may beset it. We have faith in the determination to realize for all men, both white and black, the broadest possibilities of life and to seek its highest powers. We have faith in the Union of knowledge, cheerful co-operation, and broad-minded sympathy to advance the common good. Let us pray God that the heart hurting plights of race dislikes, the sectional differences and racial animosities and suspicions will pass away, and their place be taken by that broader republic of human attainment which knows no limitations of race, color, or clime!