Francis J. Grimké

“ It is only in the North and West, among the descendants of the men who fought and died for the Union, that we find the principles for which their fathers stood, forgotten or cowardly surrendered. For these men to allow the colored man to be robbed of his rights by the descendants of those who fought to destroy the Union and to perpetuate slavery is to dishonor the memory of their fathers; is virtually to say, that they were wrong, and that the rebels were right. Such an attitude is an affront to every loyal white man who fell during the war or who fought for the Union and the cause of freedom. ”

“ I do not think any government office should be held by a Negro. I think the defeat of this appointment of a Negro is of more importance than the passage of the tariff bill and the enactment of currency legislation. It rises like a mountain peak above all other questions of the day. It seems that the appointment was made in view of Patterson's campaign activities in the interest of Democracy. I do not think much of the policy that pays party obligations at the expense of the purity of the greatest race on the globe. I shall fight every Negro appointment that is made. ”

“ We need to impress ourselves with the importance of being efficient. We must know how to do things; we must know how to do things well. It isn't enough that a thing is done; it must be well done. Quality in work is the thing that tells; and more and more as competition increases we must impress ourselves with that fact. The old adage, "Whatever is worth doing at all, is worth doing well," we cannot too strongly impress ourselves with. Inefficiency puts an individual of a race always at a disadvantage. ”

“ The white man, when it comes to the Negro, is pretty bad, I know, but I cannot believe that he is so hopelessly bad as to render it impossible for the colored man to dwell with him and be treated by him as a man and brother. It may ultimately turn out to be true; but I am not yet willing to believe it. It cannot be that this white race, which prides itself upon its superiority to all other races, under this highest test of superiority—the ability to accord to every man his right and to treat every man as a brother of whatever race or nationality, is going to be found so sadly deficient. ”

“ Is it the part of true patriotism to continue longer to make invidious distinctions between citizens who must forever live side by side, and upon the mutual co-operation and sympathy of whom, the welfare and happiness of the whole will depend? Is it wise to encourage, to help fan the flame of race prejudice from which no good can possibly come, but only evil, and evil more and more as it is encouraged? ”

“ The enemies of the race are more united and more determined than ever to throw themselves across the pathway of our progress and to compel us by sheer brute force, whatever our attainments may be, into a position of permanent inferiority. Not content with what has already been done to humiliate us, it is now demanding segregation, is now insisting upon restricting the rights of colored people to live in certain prescribed sections of communities only. And it has become so emboldened, so insolently aggressive that it is demanding segregation among the employees of the General Government itself. ”

“ The race is becoming more and more alive to its rights, and, as it advances, this sense of what belongs to it, of what it is entitled to will increase rather than diminish. There is no way by which this growing insistent demand for its rights on its part can be arrested except by recognizing these rights, or, by forcing the race back into the condition of intellectual and moral darkness in which it was before the great era of freedom, or, by killing it off, either slowly by shutting it out of all productive industries, or by the wholesale massacre of it. ”

“ It is also well for us, as we face the future, not to be deceived, not to be misguided by the assumption upon which some of our race leaders have been proceeding. It has been assumed by some that the reason why we are treated as we are is because we are poor, because we are ignorant, because we are degraded, in a word, because of our condition; and, that if we will only improve ourselves—will only work hard and better our condition—will get more knowledge, more money, more character, it will be all right in the end. ”

“ So far as we may judge from the experiences of the last fifty years and from what is transpiring about us to-day, there is no hope of things ever being any better as the result of race improvement. It is right, of course, for us to make the most of our opportunities, and to press forward as rapidly as possible along all lines of endeavor, material, intellectual, moral, spiritual; but let us not be deceived, let us not imagine, though we ourselves will be greatly benefited by such a course, that the attitude of the white man towards us will change for the better in consequence. ”

“ It isn't something which it would simply be well for us to possess, which it would be to our advantage to possess; it is absolutely indispensable. There is no future for us, no honorable future for us, without it. This is the way we must feel; this is the way we must make our children feel. Character, high character, is not something which we may or may not set before us as we face the future, as we enter upon the second half of the century of freedom; but something which we must set definitely before us as of transcendent importance. ”

“ I want to remind you of the fact that we are now free; that we are American citizens; that under the laws we are entitled to the same rights and privileges as yourselves. Slavery no longer exists in this country—all are now free men. What is freedom to mean to us? ”

“ Such a policy will make the Negro forget that he is a Negro, and will lead him to think of himself simply as an American citizen; will stimulate his patriotism; will render it no longer necessary for him to be particularly concerned about race interests, but will leave him free to be concerned about those interests which are common to all the people. Such a policy will also set free for higher and nobler uses all the ability, the energy, the resources that are now being expended in efforts to keep the Negro down and which will be of incalculable benefit to the Nation. ”

“ You cannot surround a man with conditions which tend to develop his manhood, his self-respect, and expect him to quietly acquiesce in any line of conduct which aims to humiliate him, to force him down beneath the level of what he feels to be his due. The oppressive measures which the slave-holders took to keep the slaves in an attitude of subserviency by shutting all light, by keeping them in darkness, by depriving them of all opportunities of improvement, was the only safe, the only wise course to pursue. ”

“ It makes no difference how much he knows, how efficient he is, how gentlemanly he is, the thing that makes him objectionable is that he is a Negro, or is of Negro descent. It doesn't make any difference how highly cultivated he is, it becomes, in the language of the Representative from Louisiana, "an intolerable humiliation for a white man to be compelled, in order to earn his daily bread, to work side by side with an objectionable people." It isn't the condition of the people; it isn't their backwardness that discounts them, but the fact that they are of African blood or descent. ”

“ We must all of us, as we begin this new half century of freedom, be more thoughtful about our homes, more concerned to make them proper habitats for the rearing of children; more concerned about our schools and the character of the men and women who are in charge of them; and more concerned about our churches to see that they are properly manned, properly conducted, properly supported by our presence and by our financial aid. None of these institutions can be allowed to deteriorate, to fall behind, without affecting unfavorably the progress of the race. ”

“ Whenever you are tempted to ill-treat the colored man, to deny him a man's chance in the race of life, remember that you brought him here, and that the least that you can do, the least that you owe him, is to treat him decently, humanely. ”

“ What is needed is a New EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION—a proclamation that will set the white man free from the degrading influence of race prejudice—a proclamation that will register a decree or purpose on the part of the white race to free itself not only from the narrowing lust of gold, but from the still more narrowing lust of race hatred and proscription. ”

“ What we need, therefore, as we face the future, is to endeavor to get the active and hearty coöperation of all the teachers in all of our schools in this higher mission of character building in their pupils. The teachers, if they can only be made to see it, hold a place second in importance only to the home in the service which they can render in the stupendous task which confronts us as a race. ”

“ If our presence in this country is undesirable, as is frequently alleged, it is not for the white man to set that up as an excuse or justification for ill-treating us. If it had not been for their selfishness we would not be here. If our presence here is an evil, they are not the ones to complain, they at least, ought to be willing quietly to accept it as it is an evil of their own making. This is one of the things that has always seemed to me to render the treatment of the Negro by the white man particularly contemptible. ”

“ There is no option left us if we have any regard to our highest and best interest, and the best interest of those who are to follow us. If the moral atmosphere in which the race lives and moves and has its being is not kept pure and healthful and invigorating it can never hope to become a strong, virile, self-respecting race, or a race that will be likely to command much respect from others. The race has, be it said to its credit, all along attached some importance to character, but the emphasis which it puts upon it must steadily increase. ”

“ These enemies who are fighting us deserve our pity. The course which they are pursuing, in the long run, will prove more injurious to them than to us. The more they fight us, the more they resist us, the more they seek to insult and humiliate us, the more are they injuring themselves, the more are they sinking to lower levels, the less are they becoming worthy of the respect of decent, right-thinking people. ”

“ If the progress we have made during these fifty years has had so little effect upon a man like Woodrow Wilson, how much is it likely to have upon the average white man? Any one who has kept in touch with the movements of the last half century that have had to do with this vexed question, cannot fail to see that the two phases of the race issue have very little to do with each other. ”

“ We may suffer in our feelings; we may be deprived of our rights for a time; but they are suffering in a way that is eating away the only thing of real value—the only thing that is worth having—character. We may suffer, but the penalty which we pay is not near so dear, so costly as the penalty which they are paying. ”

“ One thing you may be assured of, we will never be satisfied with anything less. Unless these rights be conceded; unless we be treated as we have a right to expect you to treat us, this friction, which is doing so much to demoralize the whole country, will continue. Is it not better for the thoughtful, sane, sober, right-thinking men and women among you to call a halt to those, who, keeping the humiliation of the Negro before them as their chief aim, are willing to sacrifice everything else to it? The humiliation of the Negro; the hedging of him about with degrading restrictions ”

“ The Negro race makes no claim to superiority over other races. It is simply human like other races. The same 5evidences of depravity exhibited by other races it also exhibits, neither more nor less. As bad as is a certain element among us, it is no worse than the same element in other races. The trend of the race is not downward, but upward; is not backward, but forward. Moral progress, of course, is always slower than any other kind of progress. It is very much easier to train the head than to train the heart; it is very much easier to develop brain power than moral power. ”

“ And this must be borne in mind in estimating the moral progress of the race as compared with its intellectual and material advancement. If progress here has been slower, it is simply because that kind of progress is slower among all races. That the race is responding, in a measure, to the many agencies that are at work for its moral and spiritual uplift can hardly be doubted; nor can there be any doubt that there is an element, and a steadily increasing element among us, that is laying more and more emphasis upon character, upon upright living. ”

“ And this is the way, it seems to me, that any right thinking man, any man who has a heart of pity must feel as he looks out on the multitudes in this land who are yielding themselves up to the sway of this bitter, degrading, Negro-hating spirit ”

“ There is, of course, in all races an idle, vicious, lawless, dare-devil, reprobate element. And such an element we find among us, especially in the urban population; but the existence of such an element in the Negro race is no more evidence of a retrograde tendency on the part of the race as a whole, than the presence of such an element among the whites is an evidence of a retrograde movement on the part of the white race as a whole. ”

“ If the wolf and lamb can dwell together, and the lamb be perfectly safe, surely the white man in this country is not so absolutely beyond being amenable to reason and common sense and decency as to make it impossible, some time in the future, for him and his brother in black to dwell together, and the brother in black feel no uneasiness, no fear of being molested, or of having his rights infringed upon by him. ”