nd society and making him a
political outcast. They knew that to educate the Negro would cause him to
know that when he was being jim-crowed and segregated, a caste system
based on the color of the skin was being established in America. In a
word, those Americans who desired to rob the Negro of the fruits of the
Civil War and to reduce him as far as possible to his previous status as a
slave, knew that to educate the Negro was to open his eyes to the fact
that the restrictions which they were trying to impose upon him were
giving him a social, civil, political and economic status which was lower
than that of the illiterate emigrant from Europe, lower than that of the
Japanese, Chinese, Hindoo, Indian and Filipino. In a word, they knew that
to educate the Negro would open his eyes to the fact that the color of his
skin was a mark of shame and a badge of dishonor and that a caste
prejudice based upon color, was contrary to the spirit of Christianity and
to the democratic principles underlying this government. In a word, they
knew that it would be more difficult for them to carry out their programme
with the Negro educated. And these are the reasons why twenty years ago,
it was regarded as unwise and dangerous to give the Negro any higher
education above the three R's and a training in the trades. And most of
the leaders of the Negro race were asleep at the switch twenty years ago.
They eagerly swallowed the sugar-coated and chocolate-coated pills. They
took the medicine which their Anglo-Saxon friends offered because it was
honeyed and sugared with a few fat jobs and contributions to churches and
schools. And while they slept, as Samson slept on the lap of Delilah, they
were shorn of their political and civil locks, and awoke one bright
morning to find that their strength was gone.

It was a rude awakening that they experienced in the summer of 1917, when
the edict went forth that all American citizens, black as well as white
men, were subject to the selective draft. It was a rude awakening that
they experienced, when they discovered that their sons must cross the
ocean and give their lives to bring a freedom to war-ridden Europe, which
was denied their race in this country. It was a rude awakening that they
experienced when they realized that they who only experienced partial
citizenship in this country were called upon to make the same sacrifice in
blood and treasure as their fairer-skinned brothers, who had experienced