Because of its nature, a race problem admits of but one or the other of two
forms of solution. To solve the problem, the races concerned must be separated
or amalgamated. As long as they dwell together, there will be a race problem. Remedial
measures may be instituted for The purpose of reducing race friction, and
adjustments more or less satisfactory may be made, but the problem will
continue as long as the races are in contact.
The student of the American Negro problem (which is but a segment of a
world-wide color problem) may approach the subject from two angles. He may seek
to assuage race friction; or he may seek to solve the Negro problem. The
following pages constitute a study of the Negro problem with the latter purpose
in view. Remedial measures tending to assuage race friction are, of course,
desirable and may be necessary, but they leave the student where he begins;
with a race problem still on his hands. What is needed in regard to the
three-century-old American Negro problem is a permanent solution; not a
temporary adjustment. With a solution of the problem, the United States will be
free to develop a White culture uninfluenced by the presence of the increasing
millions of Africans within her borders. Without such a solution, America is to
be burdened with a race problem forever, or until such times as the races
become amalgamated and the future American a Negroid.
By reason of the unusual circumstance attendant upon the securing of the
data herein presented, it may be expedient to relate the manner and extent of
the research.
The writer's interest in the American Negro problem dates back to the last
year of his student course at Vanderbilt University. Then for three years at
the University of Chicago, his time was given to a study of the American
problems of color and to preparation for the making of a study of the
world-wide color problems with the purpose of bringing to bear upon the
American problems information obtained from a study of the White race in
contact with colored races throughout the world. This new field of research
appeared to offer much of practical advantage to the American student, for the
White race has been in contact with colored races during six thousand years of
authentic history, and there are at the present time, some thirteen White
nations with the Negro problem to solve.
The purpose of the writer was fourfold: (1) to observe the ethnic traits of
the colored races; (2) to compare the Negro policies of other White nations;
(3) to study the independent Negro governments; (4) to seek to discern the
results upon the White race and its institutions of its centuries of contact
with colored races. It is the last named purpose which is embodied in the
present thesis.
Having prepared to make an investigation of the world-wide color problem,
the writer set about securing financial aid in furthering his plan. He applied
to many institutions for aid. He enclosed with the applications a general
statement of the gravity of our Negro problem and the rich field for research
beyond America offering enlightenment upon our problem, together with
testimonials, given by two of his professors; men of high scholastic standing.
All efforts to secure funds for the proposed investigation failed. A few of the
institutions approached were practically interested in the Negro problem, but
were confining their research to local conditions.
The chagrin of the writer was considerable, for the denials of aid were
usually accompanied with an expressed appreciation of the practical value of
the proposed research. Having exhausted the possibilities for securing funds,
he resolved to rely upon his own resources in financing the undertaking.
With this in view, he left Chicago in the fall of 1909, and soon thereafter
was en route to Cape Town, Africa, traveling as a steerage passenger. In South
Africa, employment was obtained in the gold and diamond mines where hundreds of
thousands of Negroes are gathered as laborers under White superintendents.
Leaving South Africa, he journeyed overland to Cairo, a distance of 4,500
miles. From Egypt, a journey down The east Coast enabled him to see several
collinses; French, Italian, British, Portuguese.
From Africa the investigation was extended to Australasia: the year
following, to the East Indies, South and East Asia. Later, South and Central
America and the West Indies were visited.
In Africa, the course of the journey including the full length of the Nile.
In Equatorial South America, the headwaters of the Amazon were reached in the
high Andes, and that river followed to the Atlantic Ocean.
During the six years of travel, the mines of Africa and Peru, the
newspapers, magazines, and lecture platform of South Africa, Australia, New
Zealand, the Philippines and the United States yielded the funds that had been
so earnestly sought at American institutions. Working two and a half years
underground (from 700 to 1,900 feet) may not appeal to one as an enticing way
of financing a scientific undertaking, but such a method has two important
advantages; the rate of remuneration is relatively high, and one is thrown into
intimate and prolonged contact with many colored races. The intimacy of contact
is an important consideration to the ethnological student.
Both in foreign lands and in America the extensive study of the contact of
races, together with the prolonged journeys, have appealed to the press, and
some twenty important publications have given lengthy articles to the result of
the investigations. The interest thus manifested more than compensates for the
hardships of the undertaking, for it is a tribute to the need and possible
value of the research.
The work was completed just as the United States was drawn into the World
War, thereby creating a condition which rendered its publication neither
practical nor expedient at that time. Since the conclusion of hostilities,
attention has been forced upon the American Negro problem by violent symptoms
of unrest of that race, while in the final revision the author has been able to
make use of additional information, obtained when in service in the American
Expeditionary Force, by a first-hand study of colored contingents in Europe;
Asiatic, African, and American, thus completing a study of the color problem
upon all continents.
While this volume deals primarily with the Negro problem it will readily be
seen that this, though the gravest, is not the only color problem to be solved
before the realization of a "White America." The danger from beyond
the Pacific, rightly called the "Yellow Peril," must be faced
courageously. Upon its proper solution depends the attainment of the White
ideal as much as upon the segregation of the African race which has been with
us for three centuries, has grown to some eleven millions in our midst, and is
wholly alien to our race and institutions. In a much minor number we have the
red Indians, the absorption of whom will in a measure lower the creative
intelligence of the White man.
The program proposed for the solution of the Negro problem should be
adjusted to a program for the exclusion of the Asiatic and to one for the
selection of a desirable type of European immigrant.
During the period of preparation of this volume there appeared two
publications of importance, in dealing with the racial basis of European
history (The Passing of the Great Race, by Madison Grant), the other
showing the impending peril of the Asiatic to Europe as well as to America and
the rest of the White world (The Rising Tide of Color, by Lothrop
Stoddard). The reader is referred to these publications for data bearing upon
our immigration problem and the world-wide color problem.
It is impossible to deal with a wide range of history without presenting
details of data t which exception may be taken. Particularly this is true when
use is made of any of the present classifications of the races of mankind, for
the current classifications are not without defect.
The opinions of others have been sought even when the research of the writer
may have placed him in more favorable position for the acquirement of the data
presented than the authority cited. Nor has there been an attempt to limit
quotations to the best known authorities, for the truths herein presented have
been discerned by many students. In presenting data from some of the earlier
writers, who worked with less complete information than that available to the
ethnologists of today, care has been taken to utilize such of their data as is
found in accord with present information.
I wish to acknowledge indebtedness to Mr. Madison Grant for his criticism of
the ethnological data herein presented. The reader will find his views
definitely expressed in a quotation given at the beginning of Chapter XIII.