History of Negro Soldiers in the Spanish-American War, and Other Items of InterestJohnson, Edward A. (Edward Austin)
History
History of Negro Soldiers in the Spanish-American War, and Other Items of Interest
Johnson, Edward A. (Edward Austin)
Spanish-American War, 1898 -- Participation, African American
They must climb up themselves with such assistance as they can get.
The race has done well in thirty years of freedom, but it could have
done better; banking on the progress already made the next thirty
years will no doubt show greater improvement than the past--TIME,
TIME, TIME, which some people seem to take so little into account,
will be the great adjuster of all such problems in the future as
it has been in the past. Many children of the white fathers of the
present day will read the writing of their parents and wonder at their
short-sightedness in attempting to fix the metes and bounds of the
American Negro's status. We feel reluctant to prophesy, but this much
we do say, that fifty years from now will show a great change in the
Negro's condition in America, and many of those who now predict his
calamity will be classed with the fools who said before the Negro was
emancipated that they would all perish within ten years for lack of
ability to feed and clothe themselves. The complaint now with many of
those who oppose the Negro is not because he lacks ability, but rather
because he uses too much and sometimes gets the situation that they
want. This is pre-eminently so from a political standpoint and the
reported arguments used to stir the poorer class of whites to rally
against the Negroes in Wilmington during the campaign just before the
late MASSACRE there in the fall of 1898, was a recital by impassioned
orators of the fact that Negroes had pianos and servants in their
houses, and lace curtains to their windows-this outburst being
followed by the question, "HOW MANY OF YOU WHITE MEN CAN AFFORD TO
HAVE THEM?" So as to the problem of the Negro's imbibing the traits of
civilization, that point is settled by what he has already done, and
the untold obstacles which are being constantly put in his way by
those who fear his competition. The question then turns not so much on
what shall be done with the Negro as upon WHAT SHALL BE DONE WITH THE
WHITE
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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