WHITES AND BLACKS OR THE QUESTION SETTLED 26

CHAPTER IV. THE PROBLEM— MUST THERE BE A RACE CONFLICT? 

It is said that the Negro is anxious to lose his black skin, becoming white: that his school teaches him to despise himself; that he longs for the association and the society of the white people in proportion to the numbers educated; that he wants to miscegenate.

Some go so far as to say that certain would-be respectable colleges make the race question a serious problem by teaching that the only solution is amalgamation — the black and the whites intermarrying; and in this way, in the future, making only one race — a mongrel — in this country.

Such a thing will never be. In fact, intermixing of races will not take place any oftener than murders, robberies and other grave crimes which are legislated against. This world is not inhabited by angels, and the fools are not all dead. What I said some time ago about this intermixing of races by intermarriage I say again. As for amalgamation, you need not fear that.

Race wholeness and race integrity will be maintained without laws being enacted to have it so.

This is said without any desire to reflect unpleasantly on those States enjoying a law preventing intermarriage. As long as crows follow crows, geese follow geese: coal with coal, gold with gold; plants of a kind each in their own climate and locality, you need have no fears that the human family will become less distinctive. God enjoys variety, and he will always force the best in each race to care more for its own particular kind than for another's.

It is a subject for congratulation that colored men, as well as those of the other race, are studying this "race question" or problem. Eminent gentlemen, like Dr. Boggs, Governor Lee, Senator Ingalls, Hon. Henry W. Grady and Dr. Curry seem to think that the question or subject is a problem. In fact, seven-eighths of the "great minds" of the country decide that it is a problem so complicated and intricate that no statesman has, as yet, been found able to give a satisfactory solution.

Mr. John T. Shufton and a few others to be found in both races, including the writer, are helplessly in the minority. And whether or not we would call the subject a "problem", we must at least admit that the subject is one of growing interest.