African Americans; United States -- Race relations
not confined to women of the Negro race by any means. The white infant
asylums will give ample proof of this. We know full well that a white
man may not marry a colored girl in the South, but we wonder just why
it is he does not marry the white girl whom he seduces? I am able to
give a partial reason—THE FORCE OF HABIT! The white man has grown so
accustomed to seducing Negro women and getting by with it, that the
virtue of his own women has come to mean nothing to him.
“We now come to Jean Gordon’s statement relative to ‘wild stories
are being circulated that the Negro won the great world war....’ No
intelligent Negro can claim that the Negro won the world war, but
every intelligent man, woman, and child, in this country and on the
other side, is aware that the Negro did his share in winning it over
there, and did his full share over here. The Negro has participated
in every war in which this country has engaged, and at no time did he
retreat nor show the yellow streak. No one can cite an instance where
a Negro protested against going to the front. Against propaganda that
was overwhelming, the Negro remained loyal. The first Negroes to set
foot on French soil were from Louisiana—longshoremen; they were not
soldiers, true, but they did what they were sent to do, and did it
well. Very few white regiments from Louisiana saw the firing line,
yet they are all soldiers. No doubt, had they been sent to the front,
they would have fought, but so would every black citizen of the United
States. However, if it is true that ‘comparatively few of them fought
when the total of the millions of white men who died in that struggle
is considered,’ the reason for that is that the South did its level
best to keep the Negro out of the war as a soldier. And it must be
known that every white man who fought and died was not an American!
Every black man who fought did his part creditably, as has ever been
the case. Whole Negro regiments were decorated by the French, and bear
in mind that among those who were the first to be decorated by the
French were American Negroes! As for the fighting qualities of the
Negro, all I need do is to refer any ‘doubting Thomas’ to Xon Hill.
Nothing more need be said. And I repeat for all concerned that while
the Negro did not win the world war, _he did his share in helping to
win it_ over there, and he and his women who remained over here helped
to win it by laboring and giving funds.... The Negro dug trenches, he
fought, he died on the battlefield, he gave of his money and his labor
over here, and his women gave of their money and labor. _Did_ the Negro
help win the great world war? _I’ll say he did!!!_ Will anyone say he
did not? If anyone has done more, let him come forward.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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