last fifty years in this country than any similar
group of people had ever made in a like period of time. After he had
raised the white section of his audience to a high degree of
self-congratulatory complaisance he would suddenly shift the tenor of
his remarks and ask them why they should mar this splendid record by
discriminating against the weaker race in matters of education, by
destroying their confidence in the justice of the courts through mob
violence, and by the numerous small, mean ways in which race prejudice
shows itself and retards and discourages the upward struggle of a
weaker people. As he proceeded along these lines one could see the
self-congratulatory expression fade from the faces of his white
listeners.

He would next turn to his own people and tell them of their phenomenal
progress since emancipation and of the great and essential part they
had played in the upbuilding of the South--left prostrate by the Civil
War. One could see their eager, upturned faces glow with pride and
self-satisfaction. But suddenly he would shift the tone of his
comments and tell them how sadly those of them who were indolent and
shiftless and unreliable and vicious were retarding the upward
struggles of the industrious and self-respecting majority and how they
were perpetuating the prejudice against the whole race. And as he
pictured this seamy side of the situation one could see the glow of
pride gradually wilt from the myriads of swarthy upturned faces.

Hardly less successful than his use of statistics was his use of the
much-abused funny story. He never told a story, however good, for its
own sake. He told it only when it would most effectively drive home
whatever point he happened to be making. In this same speech he was
saying that a Negro who is lazy and unreliable and does nothing to
accumulate property or improve his earning capacity deserves no
consideration from whites or blacks and has no right to say that the
color line is drawn against him. By way of illustration he told this
story: "A shiftless Southern poor white asked a self-respecting old
black man for three cents with which to pay his ferry fare across a
river. The old black man replied: I's sorry not to commerdate yer,
boss, but der fac' is dat a man what ain't got three cents is jest as
bad off on one side ob der ribber as der udder.'"

At another point in this speech he was telling his people not to be
discouraged because their race has less to po