The crisis : $b A record of the darker races, Vol. I, No. 1, November 1910Various
History
The crisis : $b A record of the darker races, Vol. I, No. 1, November 1910
Various
African Americans -- Periodicals
An inevitable step forward in anti-Negro prejudice is being taken in
Baltimore, and threatened elsewhere. The colored folk of that city
long ago became dissatisfied with a particularly bad system of alley
homes. They saved their money and purchased nearly the whole length of
Druid Hill avenue--one of the best colored streets in the world. Then
they began to expand into parallel streets, one of which was McCulloh.
They had been told that “money talks,” and that the surest road to
respect in America was financial success. The result was inevitable.
The white people of McCulloh street rose in indignation and are
importuning the City Council to pass an ordinance prohibiting colored
people from “invading” white residential districts, and _vice versa_.
Their argument sounds strong: colored residents bring down the price of
property, therefore get rid of colored residents.
Is this the real logic of the situation? Why do colored people depress
property values? Because of an exaggerated and persistently encouraged
racial prejudice. In the encouragement of such prejudice, Baltimore
and Maryland have particularly sinned. Would not an attempt to allay
prejudice be wiser than laws against thrift?
VOTING.
If there is one thing that should be urged upon colored voters
throughout the United States this fall it is independence. No
intelligent man should vote one way simply from habit. Only through
careful scrutiny of candidates and policies can a man put himself in
position to help rule one hundred million people. It is because of
the suspicion that colored men are not capable of doing this, or are
unwilling to do it, that so many American citizens acquiesce in the
nullification of democracy known as disfranchisement. Let every colored
man who can, vote; and whether he vote the Republican or Democratic
or Socialist ticket, let him vote it, not because his father did or
because he is afraid, but because after intelligent consideration he
thinks the success of that ticket best for his people and his country.
AGITATION.
Some good friends of the cause we represent fear agitation. They say:
“Do not agitate--do not make a noise; _work_.” They add, “Agitation
is destructive or at best negative--what is wanted is positive
constructive work.”
Such honest critics mistake the function of agitation. A toothache is
agitation. Is a toothache a good thing? No. Is it therefore useless?
No. It is supremely useful, for it tells the body of decay, dyspepsis
and death. Without it the body would suffer unknowingly. It would
think: All is well, when lo! danger lurks.
The same is true of the Social Body. Agitation is a necessary evil to
tell of the ills of the Suffering. Without it many a nation has been
lulled to false security and preened itself with virtues it did not
possess.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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