The Future of the American NegroWashington, Booker T.
History
The Future of the American Negro
Washington, Booker T.
African Americans
In finding a remedy, we must recognise the world-wide fact that the
Negro must be led to see and feel that he must make every effort
possible, in every way possible, to secure the friendship, the
confidence, the co-operation of his white neighbour in the South. To
do this, it is not necessary for the Negro to become a truckler or a
trimmer. The Southern white man has no respect for a Negro who does
not act from principle. In some way the Southern white man must be led
to see that it is to his interest to turn his attention more and more
to the making of laws that will, in the truest sense, elevate the
Negro. At the present moment, in many cases, when one attempts to get
the Negro to co-operate with the Southern white man, he asks the
question, "Can the people who force me to ride in a Jim Crow car, and
pay first-class fare, be my best friends?" In answering such
questions, the Southern white man, as well as the Negro, has a duty to
perform. In the exercise of his political rights I should advise the
Negro to be temperate and modest, and more and more to do his own
thinking.
I believe the permanent cure for our present evils will come through a
property and educational test for voting that shall apply honestly and
fairly to both races. This will cut off the large mass of ignorant
voters of both races that is now proving so demoralising a factor in
the politics of the Southern States.
But, most of all, it will come through industrial development of the
Negro. Industrial education makes an intelligent producer of the
Negro, who becomes of immediate value to the community rather than
one who yields to the temptation to live merely by politics or
other parasitical employments. It will make him soon become a
property-holder; and, when a citizen becomes a holder of property, he
becomes a conservative and thoughtful voter. He will more carefully
consider the measures and individuals to be voted for. In proportion
as he increases his property interests, he becomes important as a
tax-payer.
There is little trouble between the Negro and the white man in matters
of education; and, when it comes to his business development, the
black man has implicit faith in the advice of the Southern white man.
When he gets into trouble in the courts, which requires a bond to be
given, in nine cases out of ten, he goes to a Southern white man for
advice and assistance. Every one who has lived in the South knows
that, in many of the church troubles among the coloured people, the
ministers and other church officers apply to the nearest white
minister for assistance and instruction. When by reason of mutual
concession we reach the point where we shall consult the Southern
white man about our politics as we now consult him about our
business, legal, and religious matters, there will be a change for the
better in the situation.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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