Official proceedings of the annual meeting: 1919

WHAT DOES THE NEGRO WANT IN OUR DEMOCRACY? R. R. Wright, Jr., Ph.D., Editor "Christian Recorder," President, Colored Protective Association, Philadelphia. The invitation to speak at the National Conference of social work on this subject, came to me as a great surprise. The subject is not of my choosing. As it came with the ear marks of sincerity, I shall answer as frankly and as clearly as possible. The Question. I take it that "our democracy" refers to our country, as it is now in ideal, and as it is hoped it will be as a result of the labors of such good people as make up this conference. As we all strive for that ideal, we should all know what each expects to realize. As the Negro has helped in war and peace, in slavery and freedom with labor and life, to make our country what it now is, and what it shall be, a very proper question to ask is "What Does the Negro Want in Our Democracy?" The answer to this question is as applicable to the local as well as to the national community. It is not at all improper that I should answer this question on behalf of my people, for I have been elected by the secret ballot of 600 representatives who were themselves elected to represent more than a million Negroes in every state in the Union and in Africa, South America and the West Indies, as a spokesman of the Negroes. I am editor of the Christian Recorder, the official organ of the African Methodist Episcopal church, the oldest and largest organization of Negroes in America. I keep in weekly touch with its leaders all over the world, I travel constantly throughout the country and make it my business to know Negro thoughts. I am president of the largest local civic organization among Negroes in America-The Colored Protective Association of Philadelphia, and I entered social work among Negroes only after a thorough course in History, Economics and Sociology, taking A.B. degree in a southern Negro college (Georgia State), the A.M. degree in a western university (The University of Chicago), and the Ph.D. degree in an eastern university (The University of Pennsylvania). As research fellow in Sociology in the University of Pennsylvania, and under a grant from the Carnegie Institution, and as an investigator for the United States government, I traveled during my student days in various parts of the North and South, and upon my responsibility I compared results by study and observations for more than a year in Europe. Since my student days I have had my heart close to the Negro, for upon them and them alone I depend for my livelihood. I was born in Georgia, and have spent over half my life in the South, and I have been in every state in the South from three times to a dozen times within the past ten years. I make these personal statements that you may see that I have some reason for answering this question on the behalf of my people "What Does the Negro Want in Our Democracy?" I shall answer the question in a few paragraphs as succinctly as possible. The Negroes' wants in our democracy are simple and fundamental. The Negro wants a democracy not a "whiteocracy." At present the United States of America is more a "whiteocracy" than a democracy. The Negro wants the sign "For Whites Only" erased from the banner and spirit of "our democracy." In other words, all the Negro wants is democracy in the fundamental sense of the term as explained by the immortal Lincoln in "A government of the people for the people and by the people" (not white people only). All the Negro wants in our democracy, is for the spirit of the Declaration of Independence, and of the Constitution of the United States to be applied to all citizens without fear or favor. That is not done in the United States today and in so far as it is not, we fall short 539

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Title
Official proceedings of the annual meeting: 1919
Author
National Conference on Social Welfare.
Canvas
Page 539
Publication
New York [etc.]
1919
Subject terms
Public welfare -- United States
Charities -- United States

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"Official proceedings of the annual meeting: 1919." In the digital collection National Conference on Social Welfare Proceedings. https://name.umdl.umich.edu/ach8650.1919.001. University of Michigan Library Digital Collections. Accessed May 30, 2025.
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