"The right of American citizens of African descent , commonly called Negroes, to vote upon the same terms as other citizens of the United States is plainly declared and firmly fixed by the Constitution....
"For thirty-five years this has been the law. As long as it was measurably respected, the colored people made rapid strides in education, wealth, character and self-respect. This the census proves, all statements to the contrary notwithstanding. A generation has grown to manhood and womanhood under the great, inspiring freedom conferred by the Constitution and protected by the right of suffrage --protected in large degree by the mere naked right, even when its exercise was hindered or denied by unlawful means.... They have reduced their illiteracy nearly 50 percent. Excluded from institutions of higher learning in their own States, their young men and women hold their own, and occasionally carry away honors, in the universities of the North. They have accumulated three hundred million dollars of real and personal property. Individuals among them have substantial wealth , and several have attained to something like national distinction in art, letters and educational leadership. Heavily handicapped, they have made such rapid progress that the suspicion is justified that their advancement , rather than any stagnation or retrogression, is the true secret of the virulent Southern hostility to their rights which has so influenced Northern opinion that it stands mute, and leaves the colored people, upon whom it conferred liberty, to the tender mercy of those who have always denied their fitness for it ."
P. 21, "The Disfranchisement of the Negro," by Charles W. Chestnutt THE NEGRO PROBLEM (1903)
Sunday, June 3, 2018
THE DISFRANCHISEMENT OF THE NEGRO
"The right of American citizens of African descent , commonly called Negroes, to vote upon the same terms as other citizens of the United States is plainly declared and firmly fixed by the Constitution....
"For thirty-five years this has been the law. As long as it was measurably respected, the colored people made rapid strides in education, wealth, character and self-respect. This the census proves, all statements to the contrary notwithstanding. A generation has grown to manhood and womanhood under the great, inspiring freedom conferred by the Constitution and protected by the right of suffrage --protected in large degree by the mere naked right, even when its exercise was hindered or denied by unlawful means.... They have reduced their illiteracy nearly 50 percent. Excluded from institutions of higher learning in their own States, their young men and women hold their own, and occasionally carry away honors, in the universities of the North. They have accumulated three hundred million dollars of real and personal property. Individuals among them have substantial wealth , and several have attained to something like national distinction in art, letters and educational leadership. Heavily handicapped, they have made such rapid progress that the suspicion is justified that their advancement , rather than any stagnation or retrogression, is the true secret of the virulent Southern hostility to their rights which has so influenced Northern opinion that it stands mute, and leaves the colored people, upon whom it conferred liberty, to the tender mercy of those who have always denied their fitness for it ."
P. 21, "The Disfranchisement of the Negro," by Charles W. Chestnutt THE NEGRO PROBLEM (1903)