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
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