155699A Proceedings of the National Negro Conference New York May 31 and June 1 CONTENTS PAGE Preface 5 Address of Chairman 9 By Mr. William Hayes Ward Race Differentiation—Race Characteristics 14 By Prof. Livingston Farrand The Xegro Brain 22 By Prof. Burt G. Wilder Address 67 By Prof. Edwin R. A. Seligman Address 71 By Prof. John Dewey Race Reconciliation 74 By Mrs. Celia Parker Woolley Politics and Industry 79 By Prof. W. E. B. DuBois Race Prejudice as Viewed from an Economic Standpoint... 89 By Dr. William L. Bulkley The Xegro and the South 98 By Mr. William English Walling Discussion HO Address of Chairman 121 By Judge Wendell Phillips Stafford .Address 127 By Mr. John T. Milholland The Race Problem 131 By the Rev. Jenkins Lloyd Jones Is the Southern Position Anglo-Saxon? 136 By Prof. John Spencer f'assett Evolution of the Race Problem 142 By Prof. W. E. B. DuBois The Problem's Solution 159 By the Rev. J. Milton Waldron Civil and Political Status of the Negro 167 By Bishop A. Walters Lynching Our National Crime 17.4 By Mrs. Ida Wells-Barnett Negro Disfranchisement as it Affects the White Man 180 By Hon. Albert E. Pillsluiry The Need o ( Organization 197 By Mr. Oswald Garrison Villard Effect on Poor Whites of Discrimination Against Negroes.. 207 By Hon. Joseph C. Manning The Negro and the Nation '. 211 By Dr. William A. Sinclair Address 214 By the Rev. C. E. Stowe Address 217 By the Rev. E. W. Moore Address 220 By Mr. Charles Edward Russell Resolutions 222 Letter from Mr. William Lloyd Garrison 226 Letter from Hon. Brand Whitlock 228 PREFACE ^— Early in 1909 some twenty persons met together in New York City for the purpose of utilizing the public in- terest in the Lincoln Centennial in behalf of our colored fellow citizens. Within a few weeks this number was enlarged to about fifty, one-third of whom were from other cities than New York. From the outset this com- mittee was composed of white and colored people alike, and represented the most varied opinions ; all agreed only in the feeling thai no one of the great efforts now being made by the Negroes or by whites in their behalf or all of them out together fully responded to the needs of the situation. It was the opinion of all the members of the prelimi- nary committee,* and I believe also of every one of those since interested in the Conference, that the most neglect- ed side of the Negro's welfare is his right to civil and political equality, recognized for nearly half a century in this country and clearly expressed in the Constitution. It was realized that no organization then ex- isted, composed of colored and white people alike, that was making its main object the preservation of these rights, now threatened from so many quarters. It was considered highly important to establish a re- *Thc Committee invites communications of all kinds, not only questions as to its work, hut all possible information and sug- gestions concerning the civil and political status of the colored people and related matter J. the deteriorating effects of civil and political wrongs on general welfare; and also with reference to he indirect effect of such civil and political disabilities on those vhite elements of the population which, being most similarly •uated to the Negroes in their daily life and occupations, are °n similarly affected by the prevailing persecution. - lation between organizations already in existence as well as among individuals who^while working for the colored population primarily in some other direction, were also firmly decided to stand for the Negro's political and civil rights, but were unable to do so effectively on ac- count of the absence of such an established relationship. The same unanimity that prevailed in regard to the main objects of the, new organization extended also to of its choice of meth ds. It was decided that a series conferences would be the best means at once to attract the attention of all those who might become interested in the proposed organization, to put the pres- ent situation of the Negro in its entirety in the fore- ground of public interest and to establish a basis of fact, reasoned policy and even of science for its future conduct. The first Conference was necessarily of a general char- acter. It is hoped and believed that each of the comr ; conferences will be limited to a more definite field, and therefore give results of a still greater scientific value. The intention is. also, to make them even more thoroughly representative of the whole body of opinion in this country that stands for all the rights of the col- ored population including equal opportunity to enter into and to rise in every field of employment, public and private, -without exception. The results of the first Conference more than justified the greatest hopes of its promoters. The programme, as arranged, while covering a very broad field, showed the feasibility of building up an organization on these lines. The character of the delegations composing the Confer- secur- ence and its final action proved the possibility of ing harmony between half a dozen different currents of opinion favoring the Negroes, already existing among; the white population, and a similar number of diverging I movements among the colored people themselves. It is confidently believed that the proceedings of the first Conference of 1909 and the resolutions passed will serve as a convincing appeal for public support, that they will bring not only a very large increase in the number of those attending the conference but also new forces which will strengthen it for the work it has already un- dertaken, broaden its scope and define still more clearly the friendly attitude of all public-spirited and democratic citizens. In view of the resolutions adopted in 1909 it is scarcely necessary to state that it is the deep conviction of all that not only the ultimate solution of the problem but the crying necessities of the moment will be best met not by any suppression or postponement of the fullest and freest possible discussion of the question in all its aspects, but by bringing it into the very foreground of public attention. Every available means should be adopt- ed for this purpose, not only investigations of the situa- tion in all of its manifold forms and in every section of the country, but also conferences, public meetings, speeches and articles by members of the organization and all others interested, co-operation with other organiza- tions and the furnishing to the public press of news hith- erto suppressed or difficult to obtain. By all these and other means it is hoped and believed that the so-called Negro question, in its broader aspects, will become more and more a subject of daily interest to all classes of the American people, until the nation is at last in a mood to deal with this momentous evil of race discrimination in the thoroughgoing spirit with which r.lone it can be successfully handled. W. E. W. National Nec.ro Conference Headquarters, 500 Fifth Avenue, New York City. < X Morning Session, May 31 William Hayes Ward, Chairman Address of William Hayes Ward Editor The Independent New York The purpose of this conference is to emphasize in word and, so far as possible, in act, the principle that equal jus- tice should be done to man as man, and particularly to the Negro, without regard to race, color or previous condi- tion of servitude. It is not strange that with the aboli- tion of slavery, and the legal and nominal grant of suf- frage and equal rights to care for himself, there should have followed, with many among us, a cooling sympathy, or the thought that our duty was all done and that now the freedman could look out for himself as the rest of us do. As the years have passed and a new generation has come which has no memory of the Civil War or of the Proclamation of Emancipation, and no knowledge of the efforts made during the period of reconstruction and the adoption of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amend- ments to reduce the Negro back to a condition of serf- dom, we need not wonder that the old fervor of sympa- thy has much subsided, while at the same time there has been a readiness to apologize for old wrongs; and we have even seen the effort, too often successful, to pervert the history of the old struggle. There is an absolute divergence of view between the ruling majority in the South, who desire to hold the Negro in virtual serfdom, and ourselves. They arc, in a degree, honest in their position, if not Christian. They helieve that the Negro is essentially inferior, something less than fully human, half a hrutc, and incapahle of reaching the standard of civilization. This is an ignor- ant position, hut yet actually held and believed. I sup- pose that it is not generally known what is the scientific basis of that popular opinion which still finds its ex- pression in speeches, editorials, and hooks, and even in popular novels and plays. For that belief the respon- sibility rests on a book which for some years before the Civil War had great circulation and influence, and which was the armory from which the defenders of slavery drew their weapons and ammunition. It was entitled "The Types of Mankind" by Nott and Glidden. Dr. Nott was a physician and he contributed to the work all the data of anatomy and ethnology which could be gathered to show the physical and mental inferiority of the Negro.