9-th, 2004 - 27: 0   (Posted By: Webmaster)
The Confession of A Great Whiteman & Leader    

The Confession of A Great Whiteman & Leader
LIBERTY HALL, NEW YORK, March I8, I923

My subject for tonight is "The Confession of a Great White Man and Leader." Some Sunday nights ago you heard me speak of the speech made by William Jennings Bryan in Washington at a dinner where he was entertained by a large group of his own people. We commented on Mr. Bryan's speech in Liberty Hall, as well as through my front page article in the Negro World. Other Negro newspapers commented on the speech of Mr. Bryan, and these various comments led the daily "Times" of New York (I speak of the white 'Times') to request of Mr. Bryan to write an article expressing his further opinion on the matter and explain himself for what he said at the dinner in Washington. Mr. Bryan repeated everything he said this morning in his article in the daily "New York Times" and adds even more.1 In concluding the article he said this: "My views upon the race question do not depend upon my present residence in the South; 2 they were formed long before I ever thought of living in the South; they were expressed as the occasion required, and so far as I know do not differ from the views of other white men who have had occasion to express themselves on the fundamental principles involved when these principles would apply to themselves and to their own families."

In this article of today we have Mr. Bryan repeating himself what he said in his talk in Washington a few weeks ago and adding more as expressing his attitude on the race question. He held to his idea of white supremacy and his belief that government should only be in the hands of the white man because white men are best able to interpret the needs of humanity. He concludes this article by saying that his views, he feels sure, are the views and opinion of other white people when called upon to give an opinion upon the subject. The statement of Mr. Bryan confirms the opinion and attitude of the Universal Negro Improvement Assn. of five years and confirms my stand in the matter of the Ku Klux Klan and the misrepresentation that other Negroes tried to make of my interview with that organization and the statement I made after that interview-that all white men in America feel like the Ku Klux Klan, but the only difference is that the Klan is honest enough to give expression to its opinion and carry out its attitude in defiance of any other opposition whilst others are not honest enough to give expression but feel the same way. Mr. Bryan comes out and says as a leader and statesman that his feeling and his opinion on the race question is that there should be white supremacy and that government should be in the hands of the white race because the white race can best interpret the needs of humanity; that such is the feeling of other white men when called upon to give an opinion on the same subject. This should convince us now that the majority of white people in this country feel as the Ku Klux Klan feels and Mr. Bryan feels, and that is that the power of government should rest not with the Negro race in this country, but should rest with the white men. For that they intend to fight and for that they intend to die. Now admitting that is so, and as we know it is so, what is the alternative for the Negro? The alternative is to follow in the cause of the Universal Negro Improvement Assn., that of the Negro building for himself. Hence the Universal Negro Improvement Assn. wastes no time in trying to explain itself. We do not need men like Mr. Bryan or Tillman and Vardaman to tell us that; we understand that well; we know that so long as this difference in numbers between the two opposite races that live in this country exists, the white man is going to carry out a program of white supremacy, and there will be absolutely no chance or opportunity between now and eternity for the colored man in America to take an equal place socially, politically and economically with the race that dominates. The one alternative is for the Negro not to waste his time and energy and ability in contributing to that which will make the other man great, but to use his energy and ability in contributing to build for himself. And that is where the Universal Negro Improvement Assn. differs from all the other movements in this country, in that we feel that whatsoever they do, whatsoever they say in trying to bring about a condition where colored men will co-operate side by side with the white man, at the best they are contributing to the white man's civilization, the white man's power, and are therefore wasting their

Page:  [ 1 ]  2  3  4  5  6  7