Part 2

(2). As a race, in addition to those forces that affect injuriously our moral and spiritual, our physical and economic interests, we are also beset by enemies that are laboring earnestly to deprive us of our civil and political rights as American citizens. These enemies are most persistent in their efforts, and everywhere are endeavoring to create a sentiment against us. Every blunder that any member of the race makes, every misstep that any member of the race takes is by them magnified, and by them paraded through the press, and charged to the race as a whole. These are the enemies that are clamoring for Jim-Crow cars, for segregation in our cities, for laws against the inter-marriage of the races; and who are endeavoring in every possible way to humiliate us and to make life just as hard as possible for us. The marvel is, as a race, that we are doing as well as we are, in view of the many and deadly forces that are arrayed against us. The verdict seemingly is, If we are allowed to live at all we must be content to be menials, to occupy only the lowest places; and there is a disposition to crowd us out of even such places. The feeling is, not only that this is a white man’s government, but that everything in this country is for the white man. The right of the colored man to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, to even the most ordinary courtesies of life, seems to be questioned. He is, nominally, in a Christian land; but when it comes to the treatment which it accords to him, there is no thought of Christianity, no effort or endeavor in any way to be governed by the simplest principle of the religion of Jesus Christ. In the treatment that is accorded to him every principle of Christianity is ignored. There is not the slightest disposition to recognize him as a brother, to treat him as a man. The atmosphere in which he lives is a hostile atmosphere. The emigrant from Europe, with all his ignorance and degradation is welcomed with outstretched hands; but no such spirit greets the Negro. This is as much his home, and he has just as much right to be here as any other class of citizens; and yet he is treated, is made to feel as if he were an alien. During the Christmas holidays I received a Christmas card upon which was represented a very forlorn looking little colored boy, and under it was written: “No one loves me.” Whether it was intended by the artist, who was colored, to represent the condition of the race in this country or not, I do not know; but, in a sense, and to a measure, it certainly does represent our condition among this white population in the midst of which we are living. This is not true, of course, of all of the white people. There are some who are, in a sense, friendly to us, and who, up to a certain point, are willing to stand by us; but there are comparatively few even among these who, in their heart of hearts, recognize us as brothers in the sense in which they recognize white men, or who feel that we are entitled to precisely the same treatment as white men are entitled to. They think we are entitled to some consideration, but not to all that white men are entitled to. The broad Christian principle of the brotherhood of man, not of white men, but of all men, is a principle that, in spite of our professed Christianity, and our professed passion for democratic institutions as a nation, has never been recognized in this country except so far as white men are concerned. And this is why the struggle of the colored man here for civil and political equality has encountered such wide-spread opposition on the part of the enemies of the race, and such half-hearted support on the part of even his professed friends. It is because, at bottom, on the part of both friends and foes, there is this denial, consciously or unconsciously, of brotherhood, this feeling that they are dealing with a different order of beings from themselves. Loyalty to Christianity and to democratic principles requires, however, that this barrier be broken down. And, sooner or later, I believe it will be broken down. The Negro cannot permanently be denied equality of rights and opportunities and Christianity and true democracy be maintained. One or the other will be sure to succumb. Christianity and true democracy cannot exist anywhere and inequality of rights and opportunities continue to exist. The whole tendency of both of these forces is to break down walls of separation and to bring about a state of universal brotherhood. And these are the great forces of the future--the forces that will more and more, control the destiny of humanity.

What now is our duty, in view of present conditions--in view of the forces that are arrayed against us--the forces that mean, if victorious, physical, intellectual, moral, economic, social, and political degradation? How are these evils to be met? God’s method of meeting the enemy, as set forth in the passage we are considering, is the one that must be followed.

How was the yoke of the Midianites thrown off? It was through a band of faithful men, whom he had gotten together, and who worked in dependence upon him. And this is all that is needed to-day to bring victory, to overthrow the forces of evil, to drive out the enemy.

(1). We need the right kind of men and women--men and women who see the evil and deplore it--men and women of moral convictions--men and women whose sympathies are with the right, whose whole nature rises up in protest against the evil. One reason why it is so difficult to get anything done along moral lines is because there are so few who have any convictions, so few who feel, as the apostle felt when he said, “Necessity is laid upon me, yea, woe is me if I preach not the gospel.” So profoundly had the truth taken hold of him, such were his convictions in regard to the needs of humanity and the adaptation of the gospel to meet those needs that he simply could not keep still.

We need also men and women of courage--men and women who are not afraid to attack the evil, to speak out in condemnation of the things about them that are demoralizing in their tendency. Another reason why it is so difficult to make any headway in moral reforms is because there are so many cowards in society, so many who are timid, who are afraid to speak out, to lift up their voices for fear of hurting themselves or of offending somebody. Cowardice has silenced many a lip, has paralyzed many an arm that might have wrought mightily for God and truth.

We need also reliable men and women--men and women who can be depended upon; men and women who, when the crisis comes, when the conflict begins, will not desert, but will stand by their colors. There are so many who blow hot and cold on moral issues, who are with you to-day and with the enemy to-morrow.

We need also earnest men and women--men and women who are zealous in the cause of right--heartily in favor of what is pure, lovely, and of good report--who are not disposed to make any compromises with evil, who are out and out in their opposition to the forces of evil about them. And here is another reason why it is difficult to do very much--there are so many who are lukewarm, indifferent, who don’t seem to care whether moral reforms go on or not. If they do anything at all it is in an indifferent, half-hearted, non-committal way.

We need also God-fearing men and women--men and women of faith--men and women who build on God, who stand on the promises of God. One thing we may be assured of--nothing can be effectively done for the moral uplift of the race, for the overthrow of the forces of evil that are at work in our midst, unless we have in every community men and women such as I have been describing, through whom to operate as the first great requisite.

(2). These men and women ought to be brought together in some form of organization. The three hundred men who formed Gideon’s Band were welded together. They understood each other; they saw alike; they felt alike--all had the same object in view; all worked according to the same plan; all were under the direction of one leader. An individual working alone may accomplish something; but the most effective way of working, especially where there is much to be done, is in combination, is by uniting our forces under intelligent leadership. Three hundred men working together can always do more than one man working by himself, however effectively he may work. The good people in every community, the people who feel the need of doing something, must come together and pull together--must join hands in waging war against the forces of evil, by directly opposing them, and by setting up counter influences. In other words, they must stand together if they are to make their influence felt, if they are to do the most effective work. And here is another reason why we do so little. The people who ought to stand together do not always stand together. The people who ought to say, Amen when a blow is struck for the right, when evils are assailed, are the very ones often who criticise the man or the woman who has the courage to speak out. And so the little that is done is often neutralized.

(3). We need still another thing. After we get the right kind of men and women; and get them organized we need help from God. The real secret of the success which came to these three hundred men was that God was with them. In other words, what I mean is, that we have got to carry on this fight against the forces that are arrayed against us, moral or otherwise, if we hope for success, in dependence upon God; we have got to feel as Luther did:--

“Did we in our own strength confide, Our striving would be losing; Were not the right man on our side-- The man of God’s own choosing: Dost ask who that man may be? Christ Jesus, it is He; Lord Sabaoth His Name, From age to age the same, And He must win the battle.”

Unless we fight in the consciousness that we are not fighting alone; unless God actually comes to our aid, our efforts are vain. God has promised to help; and he will help. And this we should remember and avail ourselves of.

With these conditions fulfilled--with the right kind of men and women among us, animated by the same spirit, working towards the same end, and linked with God all things in the way of moral uplift, and in the way of counteracting the influence of the forces of evil about us are possible. The gates of hell will not be able to withstand the united, aggressive, persistent effort of men and women of this stamp--men and women who are themselves thoroughly alive to the importance of keeping the standard high, and of waging unceasing warfare against the forces of evil. “One,” we are told, “shall chase a thousand, and two shall put ten thousand to flight.” And where the conditions are fulfilled the rule never fails to work--victory always follows. We are weak, because we haven’t faith; we are weak, because we are not united; we are weak, because we are not in earnest.

Such bands of men and women as I have been describing, are everywhere needed to-day--in the home, in the church, in the Sabbath school, in the Young Peoples’ Society of Christian Endeavor, in all our secret organizations--among the Masons and Odd Fellows; in all our benevolent societies, in our schools, colleges, universities, in all business corporations, banking and other establishments--everywhere such bands are needed--bands of clean men and women, pure men and women, men and women who stand up for what is right, who are willing to fight for what is right, who can always be depended upon in every moral crisis--who fight, and who fight always on the side of right, of honor, of decency--whose influence is always thrown in the interest of the things that are true, and just, and pure, and lovely, and of good report.

All that I have said in reference to meeting the moral evils that assail us, is also true as to meeting those enemies who are assailing our civil and political rights, as American citizens. They are to be met in the same way.

(1). In every community we have got to have men and women who put a proper estimate upon our civil and political rights--men and women who know what rights we are entitled to as American citizens, who value those rights; and who are deeply conscious therefore of the wrong which the enemies of the race are seeking to perpetrate upon us by depriving us of those rights. There are some members of our race, unfortunately, who, for one reason or another, have attempted to minify the importance of civil and political rights, or who, at least, pretend that they see no great evil in the deprivation of these rights. I say pretend, for, at heart, I do not believe they think anything of the kind. They cannot believe as they say they do, if they have any self respect, or any appreciation of what citizenship means. Such people are of no value to us in the fight which we are making for our rights under the Constitution: they are rather a hindrance to us, because they are used by the enemy in justification of the course which they are pursuing. The fact that there are colored people, and some so-called leaders, who don’t attach much importance to these rights, makes the white assailant feel that, after all, no great injury is done to the Negro. The colored people themselves, they say, in effect, don’t regard it as such, and why should we, why should we attach any more importance to the matter than they do. In every community therefore, as a foil to this pernicious doctrine, there must be men and women to whom these rights mean something; there must be men and women who hold them in high estimation, who have a deep and abiding sense of their value, of their importance. Everywhere, throughout the race, very little patience ought to be shown, or respect either, to Negroes, whether big or little, who undervalue, and who are seeking to instill into the race a spirit of indifference to civil and political rights. To do so is to encourage the race to commit political suicide; and the race that is willing to commit political suicide is the race that will be driven to the wall, that will be the football of every other race within the Republic. Strange, that some of us are so stupid or so blinded by selfishness that we don’t see this! Personally I have absolutely no patience with the Negro, big or little, who is content to live in a country, under laws which are made for his government without his consent and about which he, not only has nothing to say, but is purposely excluded from participation in the functions of government. The American colonies resisted the imposition of a tax by the British Parliament, because they were taxed without representation; and they were right in the resistance which they offered. The position in which our enemies are seeking to place us is a humiliating one, and I pity the race or individual who doesn’t see it, and who doesn’t feel the humiliation of being compelled to submit to laws without having a voice in the making of them, while others are accorded that right, and for no reason except the color of their skin. It is humiliating to be thus discriminated against; and the more deeply this sense of humiliation is felt by the average Negro, the more difficult it will be to permanently deprive him of that right.

(2). The men and women of our race, in every community, who value civil and political rights, who are not content to be legislated for without having a voice in saying who the legislators shall be, should work together, should come together in some form of organization, for the purpose:

(_a_). Of asserting in a kindly, but positive manner, whenever it shall be necessary, our claims as American citizens under the constitution. We have rights under the constitutions; we are American citizens, and we are not to forget this ourselves, nor are we to let others lose sight of it. The manly assertion of our rights is a duty which we owe to ourselves; and which at the proper time, we should never hesitate to perform.

(_b_). We should come together for the purpose of resisting, in every lawful way, all attempts to abridge our rights, to curtail our privileges as citizens. Whatever other citizens enjoy we have a right to enjoy; and we ought not to submit quietly to discriminations which violate this principle. If we can’t do anything else, at least, protest; cry aloud. Let those who are responsible know that we know that we are unjustly discriminated against.

(_c_). We ought also, as far as possible, to carry on a campaign of education, the design of which should be to strengthen our hold on the friends that we have among the whites, and to so present the facts touching the race, as to make a favorable impression upon, and, win over, if possible, our enemies, or, at least, to get them thinking along right lines. In this connection the _Crisis_, a magazine that is published under the auspices of The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, ought to appeal to our people in every community, and ought, through their support, to be given the widest circulation. It presents, as no other organ does, the bare naked facts as to our race along all lines; and, after all, the facts are the things that tell, that win their way, and that produce conviction. The more widely we can get this magazine distributed among the whites, the more hopeful will be the outlook for us.

(_d_). In every community also, through our churches, through our schools--Sunday and day schools, and through every other agency by which they may be reached, we should endeavor to impress upon our people the importance of being respectable, of behaving themselves, especially in their public deportment, when they are before the eyes of those who are prejudiced against them, and who will be sure to view them with a much more critical eye than they would their own race. We should impress upon them also, in every possible way, whenever the opportunity presents itself, the importance of being trustworthy, reliable, of qualifying themselves to do well whatever they undertake to do, so that as they come in contact with the whites, as they may find employment among the whites, the fact of their respectability, their efficiency, their reliability, their trustworthiness will stand out conspicuously. In this way much can be done to create a sentiment favorable to us, to set us in a better light, to give us a better standing with those who have been indifferent or hostile to us. We need, as a race, every one of us, to understand and to lay to heart, and to get our children to understand and lay to heart, that in the environment in which we find ourselves, we can do very much through our personal conduct, through the manner in which we bear ourselves, the manner in which we acquit ourselves, through what we make of ourselves and of our children, to intensify or to diminish this opposition to us. This won’t accomplish everything, of course, but it will aid mightily in removing some of the obstacles out of the way. The better we behave ourselves, the more we make of ourselves, the more, I know, we are hated by some, but that doesn’t destroy the force of the general principle we are here laying down.