African Americans; United States -- Race relations
The Negroes are arming themselves. They are more ready to retaliate—to
quote a letter from Memphis: “There is an increased determination
on the part of great numbers of Negroes to defend their rights by
force.... The Negro is emotional, and the masses of them are quite
ready to think they are oppressed in matters in which they are
not oppressed at all, and therefore to use force on unjustifiable
occasions. This shows itself in the increased use of firearms by
petty thieves against the police. A Negro was arrested here recently
on the charge of selling stolen chickens. His home was known. It was
inconceivable that the ordinary white petty thief would shoot officers
of the law in order to prevent an arrest which probably would have
resulted in a comparatively small punishment, but this man murdered an
officer and is to be hung. The same thing has occurred here several
times. Under these circumstances it is difficult to induce the police
to hold the proper attitude toward the Negro. They never know when he
is going to shoot, and so it is natural that they should shoot a Negro
much quicker than they would a white man. This begets in its turn a
feeling of resentment which makes the relations between the Negro and
the police more difficult. I cannot emphasize too strongly the fact
that when a minority tries to protect itself—although it may use
only the weapons which the majority in the past has been accustomed
to use in defending itself against tyranny, the minority is apt to
find itself condemned in the eyes of the public. Take the attitude
which the mass of Americans are occupying with reference to the Reds
and their deportation.... A small number of the Reds have appealed to
force—the whole crowd are more or less outlawed by American public
opinion. What I am apprehensive of if the Negroes continue to follow Du
Bois is just such an embitterment of relations between the two races.
I do not believe that the race relation in Chicago is the better for
the race riot. On the other hand, in Europe, every revolution usually
resulted sooner or later in greater freedom even where the revolution
was suppressed. My experience with Negro uprisings has been precisely
the reverse. Such progress as the Negro has made has been by education
and the awakening of the conscience of the white man.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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