the country and the
army alive. Since the war closed he has been on the defensive in the
North; but a country that wishes to consider all of the factors that
enter into its gravest social problem could never forget his valiant
service in 1918. Let any one ask, moreover, even the most prejudiced
observer, if he would like to see every Negro in the country out of it,
and he will then decide whether economically the Negro is a liability or
an asset.

Again, consider the Negro soldier. In all our history there are no pages
more heroic, more pathetic, than those detailing the exploits of black
men. We remember the Negro, three thousand strong, fighting for the
liberties of America when his own race was still held in bondage. We
remember the deeds at Port Hudson, Fort Pillow, and Fort Wagner. We
remember Santiago and San Juan Hill, not only how Negro men went
gallantly to the charge, but how a black regiment faced pestilence that
the ranks of their white comrades might not be decimated. And then
Carrizal. Once more, at an unexpected moment, the heart of the nation
was thrilled by the troopers of the Tenth Cavalry. Once more, despite
Brownsville, the tradition of Fort Wagner was preserved and passed on.
And then came the greatest of all wars. Again was the Negro summoned to
the colors--summoned out of all proportion to his numbers. Others might
desert, but not he; others might be spies or strikers, but not he--not
he in the time of peril. In peace or war, in victory or danger, he has
always been loyal to the Stars and Stripes.

Not only, however, does the Negro give promise by reason of his economic
worth; not only does he deserve the fullest rights of citizenship on
the basis of his work as a soldier; he brings nothing less than a great
spiritual contribution to civilization in America. His is a race of
enthusiasm, imagination, and spiritual fervor; and after all the doubt
and fear through which it has passed there still rests with it an
abiding faith in God. Around us everywhere are commercialism, politics,
graft--sordidness, selfishness, cynicism. We need hope and love, a new
birth of idealism, a new faith in the unseen. Already the work of some
members of the race has pointed the way to great things in the realm of
conscious art; but above even art soars the great world of the spirit.
This it is that America most sadly needs; this it is that her most
fiercely persecuted children bring to her.

Obviously now if the Negr