Joel Chandler Harris' life of Henry W. Grady including his writings and speeches
History
Joel Chandler Harris' life of Henry W. Grady including his writings and speeches
Grady, Henry Woodfin, 1850-1889
and still terrible, are but held in arrest. Launch them mistakenly,
chaos may come. Wrong-headedness may be as fatal now as
wrong-heartedness. Clear views, clear statement, and clear understanding
are the demands of the hour. Given these, the common sense and courage
of the American people will make the rest easy.
Let it be understood in the beginning, then, that the South will never
adopt Mr. Cable’s suggestion of the social intermingling of the races.
It can never be driven into accepting it. So far from there being a
growing sentiment in the South in favor of the indiscriminate mixing of
the races, the intelligence of both races is moving farther from that
proposition day by day. It is more impossible (if I may shade a
superlative) now than it was ten years ago; it will be less possible ten
years hence. Neither race wants it. The interest, as the inclination, of
both races is against it. Here the issue with Mr. Cable is made up. He
denounces any assortment of the races as unjust, and demands that white
and black shall intermingle everywhere. The South replies that the
assortment of the races is wise and proper, and stands on the platform
of equal accommodation for each race, but separate.
The difference is an essential one. Deplore or defend it as we may, an
antagonism is bred between the races when they are forced into mixed
assemblages. This sinks out of sight, if not out of existence, when each
race moves in its own sphere. Mr. Cable admits this feeling, but doubts
that it is instinctive. In my opinion it is instinctive—deeper than
prejudice or pride, and bred in the bone and blood. It would make itself
felt even in sections where popular prejudice runs counter to its
manifestation. If in any town in Wisconsin or Vermont there was equal
population of whites and blacks, and schools, churches, hotels, and
theaters were in common, this instinct would assuredly develop; the
races would separate, and each race would hasten the separation. Let me
give an example that touches this supposition closely. Bishop Gilbert
Haven, of the Methodist Episcopal Church, many years ago came to the
South earnestly, and honestly, we may believe, devoted to breaking up
the assortment of the races. He was backed by powerful influences in the
North. He was welcomed by resident Northerners in the South (then in
control of Southern affairs) as an able and eloquent exponent of their
views. His first experiment toward mixing the races was made in the
church—surely the most propitious field. Here the fraternal influence of
religion emphasized his appeals for the brotherhood of the races. What
was the result? After the first month his church was decimated. The
Northern whites and the Southern blacks left it in squads. The dividing
influences were mutual. The stout bishop contended with prayer and
argument and threat against the inevitable, but finally succumbed. Two
separate churches were established, and each race worshiped to itself.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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