Fourth Session, 8:00 p. m.

        President Ware presiding.

        Subject: "Social Service and the Negro American."

        Address: Miss Lucy C. Laney, of Augusta, Ga.

        Music.

        Address: Dr. W. E. B. DuBois, of New York City.

        Discussion.

Preface

        There is only one sure basis of social reform and that is Truth -- a careful, detailed knowledge of the essential facts of each social problem. Without this there is no logical starting place for reform and uplift. Social difficulties may be clear and we may inveigh against them, but the causes proximate and remote are seldom clear to the casual observer and usually are quite hidden from the man who suffers from, or is sensitive to, the results of the snarl.

        To no set of problems are these truths more applicable than to the so-called Negro problems.

        One of the most fundamental of these problems is that of the manners of the Negro race. On this question the most diverse and contradictory opinions are confidently exprest, leaving the real inquirer for truth in great bewilderment.

        There is without a doubt a deep-seated feeling in the minds of many that the Negro problem is primarily a matter of morals and manners and that the real basis of color prejudice in America is the fact that the Negroes as a race are rude and thotless in manners and altogether quite hopeless in sexual morals, in regard for property rights and in reverence for truth.

        This accusation, which has been repeated for decades, is the more easily made because manners and morals lend themselves but seldom to exact measurement. Consequently, general impressions, limited observations and wild gossip supply the usual data; and these make it extremely difficult to weigh the evidence and to answer the charge.

        This study is an attempt to collect opinion on the general subject of morals and manners among Negro Americans from those who ought to know. It is by no means complete or definitive, but it is to some degree enlightening.

        The first attempt to study the moral status of the Negro was made in 1903, the results of the study appearing as No. 8 of the Atlanta University Publications, bearing as its title "The Negro Church". The present study goes over a part of this ground after an interval of ten years.

        The study is, therefore, a further carrying out of the plan of social study of the Negro American, by means of an annual series of decennially recurring subjects covering, so far as is practicable, every phase of human life. This plan originated at Atlanta University in 1896. The object of these studies is primarily scientific--a careful research for truth; conducted as thoroly, broadly and honestly as the material resources and mental equipment at command will allow. It must be remembered that mathematical accuracy in these studies is impossible; the sources of information are of varying degrees of accuracy and the pictures are wofully incomplete. There is necessarily much repetition in the successive studies, and some contradiction of previous reports by later ones as new material comes to hand. All we claim is that the work is as thoro as circumstances permit and that with all its obvious limitations it is well worth the doing. Our object is not simply to serve science. We wish not only to make the truth clear but to present it in such shape as will encourage and help social reform. In this work we have received unusual encouragment from the scientific world, and the publisht results of these studies are used in America, Europe, Asia and Africa. Very few books on the Negro problem, or any phase of it, have been publisht in the last decade which have not acknowledged their indebtedness to our work.

        We believe that this pioneer work in a wide and important social field deserves adequate support. The Trustees of the John F. Slater Fund have given us generous aid in the last six years, which aid has been supplemented by the general funds of the University. These latter funds are limited, however, and needed in many other directions. What we earnestly ask is an endowment for this research work. A fund yielding $5,000 a year might under proper supervision yield incalculable good and help the nation and the modern world to a righteous solution of its problems of racial contact.

Resolutions

        The following resolutions are the expression of the members, delegates and attendants upon the sessions of the eighteenth annual Conference:

        The eighteenth Atlanta Conference has reviewed the moral and religious condition of the American Negroes and its changes during the last decade. It finds a decided strengthening of the home life, a betterment in the habits of courtesy, cleanliness and thrift and a wider conformity to the rules of modern morality. The Conference finds two great hindrances still in the path of advance: the persistence of older habits due to slavery and poverty and racial prejudice. It is not to be expected that a people whose original morality had been wholly destroyed by slavery and but partially replaced should not show in a single generation of freedom many marks of the past in sexual irregularity, waste, irresponsibility and criminal tendencies. The Conference finds that much has been done in the last decade to improve these habits; and that much more could be done if racial prejudice did not operate to leave colored women unprotected in law and custom, to invade colored residence districts with vice and bad sanitary conditions and to degrade and make inefficient the Negro public school system. We regard it as the burning shame of the decade that of three and a half millions of colored children of school age two millions were not even enrolled in school last year.

        The Conference is glad to note in the Negro church some signs of awakening to new duties and larger responsibilities. New institutional work of social uplift is appearing here and there under trained men. The majority of Negro churches remain however financial institutions catering to a doubtful round of semi-social activities. The Negro church must, if it survives, adopt a new attitude towards rational amusement and sound moral habits.

        The Conference is pleased to call the attention of the country to the fact that much of the real work of social uplift and moral awakening is being carried on by Negro women in their clubs and institutions. No group of women in the world have amid studied insult and race discrimination made so brave a fight for social betterment or accomplisht so much of actual, tangible good.

        The hope of the future in moral uplift lies in thoro common school training for Negro children, respect and protection for Negro women, widened industrial opportunity for Negro men and systematic effort to lessen race prejudice.

        (Signed)

W. E. B. DuBois, New York, N. Y.

L. H. Williams, Macon, Ga.

A. G. Dill, Atlanta, Ga.

A Select Bibliography

        Arranged alphabetically by authors

        American Academy of Political and Social Science: The Negro's Progress in Fifty Years. Philadelphia, 1913. 244 pp.

        Atlanta University Publications:

        No. 9. Notes on Negro Crime, particularly in Georgia. 1904. 68 pp.

        No. 12. Economic Co-operation among Negro Americans. 1907. 184 pp.

        No. 13. The Negro American Family. 1908. 152 pp.

        No. 14. Efforts for Social Betterment among Negro Americans. 1909. 136 pp.

        No. 15. The College-bred Negro American. 1910. 104 pp.

        No. 16. The Common School and the Negro American. 1911. 140 pp.

        No. 17. The Negro American Artisan. 1912. 144 pp.

        Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man. Anonymous. Boston, 1912. 207 pp.

        Baker, Ray Stannard. Following the Color-Line. New York, 1908. 314 pp.

        Barnes, Albert. The Church and Slavery (with Appendix). Philadelphia, 1857. 204 pp.

        Blyden, Edward Wilmot. Christianity, Islam and the Negro Race. Introduced by Samuel Lewis, London, 1887 (4) VII (1) 423 pp.

        Boas, Franz. Commencement Address at Atlanta University, May, 1906. Atlanta University Leaflet, No. 19. 15 pp. The Mind of Primitive Man. New York, 1911. 294 pp.

        Brawley, B. G. A Short History of the American Negro. New York, 1913. 242 pp.

        Crawford, Daniel. Thinking Black. New York, 1913. 16,485, 17 pp.

        Crisis, The. Organ of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. New York, 1910, et seq.

        Crummell, Alexander. A Defense of the Negro Race in America, etc. Washington, 1883. 36 pp.

        Douglass, H. Paul. Christian Reconstruction in the South. Boston, 1909. 407 pp.

        Du Bois, W. E. B. The Philadelphia Negro. Philadelphia, 1896. 520 pp. The Quest of the Silver Fleece. Chicago, 1911. 434 pp. Souls of Black Folk. Chicago, 1903. 264 (1) pp.

        Dunbar, Paul Lawrence. The Sport of the Gods. New York, 1901.

        Ferris, William H. The African Abroad. 2 Vols. New Haven, 1913.

        Hare, Maud Cuney. Norris Wright Cuney. New York, 1913. 230 pp.

        Hartshorn, W. N. An Era of Progress and Promise. Boston, 1910. 576 pp.

        Haynes, George Edmund. The Negro at Work in New York City. New York, 1912. 158 pp.

        Johnston, Sir. Harry. Negro in the New World. New York, 1910. 499 pp.

        Krehbiel, H. E., Editor. Afro-American Folksongs. New York and London, 1914. 176 pp.

        Laidlaw, Walter, Editor. The Federation of Churches and Christian Workers in New York City, N. Y. Sociological Canvasses 1896, First, 112 pp. Second, 116 pp.

        Miller, Kelly. Race Adjustment. New York and Washington, 1908. 316 pp.

        Negro Young People's Christian and Educational Congress. The United Negro. Atlanta, 1902. 600 pp.

        Ovington, M. W. Half-a-Man. New York, 1911. 236 pp. Hazel. New York, 1913. 162 pp.

        Spiller, G., Editor. Inter-Racial Problems. London, July, 1911. 485 pp.

        Stewart, William and T. G. Gouldtown. Philadelphia, 1913. 237 pp.

        United States Census. Vol. on Churches, 1904. Thirteenth Census, 1910.

        Washington, B. T. and Du Bois, W. E. B. The Negro in the South. Philadelphia, 1907. 222 pp.

        Williams, George W. History of the Negro Race in America from 1619 to 1880. New York, 1883. 2 Vols.

        Wright, R. R., Jr. The Negro in Pennsylvania. Philadelphia, 1912. 250 pp.

Morals and Manners among Negro
Americans

Section 1. Scope of the Inquiry

        The results of the eighth annual social study of the Negro American were publisht as "The Negro Church". The largest volume yet issued by the Conference, it was an historical and institutional inquiry into the moral and religious condition of Negro Americans. The historical and institutional phase of the subject does not as yet call for further investigation. On the other hand, one section of the report, the moral status of Negroes, is a large field for inquiry. The problem before the social investigator is this: How can such an inquiry be made scientifically? The chief sources which suggest themselves for such an inquiry are birth statistics, crime statistics, and statistics of religious bodies. All of these we have endeavored to find, but there are comparatively few available. Birth statistics are not kept in the localities where the masses of Negroes live, save in the District of Columbia. Crime statistics are too general and too much mingled with extra-moral causes and motives to be trustworthy. In this connection we have used the report issued in 1904 by the Department of the Census. The statistics of religious bodies from the same source have seemed sufficient for our purposes, since the later figures reported by the churches are liable to exaggeration.

        The reports of the Department of the Census served as a basis for the following studies made by the members of the class in Sociology in Atlanta University:

        Negro Americans in the United States.

        The Negro American Farmer.

        Marital Conditions among Negro Americans.

        Religious Bodies among Negro Americans.

        Using the following questionnaire, the class also made an intensive study of:

        The Negro Church in Atlanta, Georgia.

• 1. City--Atlanta. State--Georgia
• 2. Name and denomination of church.
• 3. Location.
• 4. Name of pastor. Address of pastor. Where educated.
• 5. Membership. Number under twenty years of age.
• 6. What is the proportion between male and female members?
• 7. Value of church property.
• 8. Total expenditures of church last year. Amount expended for missions. Amount expended for education. Amount expended for buildings and repairs. Amount expended for charitable work.
• 9. What is the church doing along the following lines: Caring for old people. Encouraging young people. Holding to young men. Other social service.
• 10. Where does the church encounter its greatest difficulty?

        Investigator . . . . . . . . . . . .

        In addition to the above sources, the only, and in some respects the best, available material for the use of this investigation seemed to be the opinions of trustworthy persons in various parts of the United States who ought to know of the morals and manners of Negro Americans. Such a study was attempted in the use of the following questionnaire sent to interested persons thruout the United States:

• 1. City . . . . . . . . State . . . . . .
• 2. What is the condition of colored people whom you know in regard to the following?
  • (1) Good manners.
  • (2) Sound morals.
  • (3) Habits of cleanliness.
  • (4) Personal Honesty.
  • (5) Home life.
  • (6) Rearing of children.
  • (7) Wholesome amusement for young people.
  • (8) Caring for old people.
• 3. What is the church doing along these lines?

  ---

  Page 13

• 4. How do present conditions in these respects compare with conditions ten (or twenty) years ago? Name Street Address

        The questionnaire was sent to four thousand people residing in all parts of the country and engaged in all walks of life. Ten per cent of those questioned made replies to this questionnaire, the answers coming from thirty states and from persons classed under the following groups:

• Preachers:
  • Bishops (2)
  • Presiding Elders (5)
  • Ministers (125)
• Teachers:
  • Presidents of Colleges (1)
  • Principals of Public Schools (36)
  • Principals of Private Schools (36)
  • Teachers in Public Schools (80)
  • Teachers in Private Schools (80)
• Social Workers:
  • Y. M. C. A. Secretaries (7)
  • Nurses (2)
• Artisans:
  • Contractors and Builders (5)
  • Bricklayers (3)
  • Tailors (3)
  • Painters (4)
  • Blacksmiths (4)
  • Dressmakers (4)
  • Cigar Manufacturers (1)
  • Harness Makers (1)
  • Stationary Engineers (1)
• Professionals:
  • Physicians (40)
  • Dentists (14)
  • Lawyers (7)
  • Unclassified (40)

Section 2. The General Problem

        When we consider the ten million American Negroes from the standpoint of their daily conduct and personal morality, what sort of folk are they? How far have they assimilated

and presumably how far are they able to assimilate modern culture of the average kind?

        Two elements would, to most minds, enter into the final answer to these questions: The general racial morality of the Negro and the social environment of the American Negro. The general racial morality of any great group is exceedingly difficult to determine, if indeed there is any such thing. The Negro race, like all great races, is, even in Africa, widely divergent in type, largely mixt with other races, and the result of widely differing influences of climate and contact. To speak of a single racial morality under such conditions is not to speak intelligently. We can, however, quote with advantage the judgment of competent and careful observers as to particular tribes and nations. A few such judgments are subjoined:

        1 Schweinfurth: Heart of Africa, Vol. 2, p. 12.

but I confess that I am; and I can tell you they are something to be afraid of".1

        1 Ibid, p. 94-95.

        Ratzel says:2

        2 Ratzel: History of Mankind.

        Sweinfurth says:3

        4 Kingsley: West African Studies, 2d ed., p. 365

        Parental affection is developt among the Dyoor much more decidedly than among the other tribes. A bond between mother and child which lasts for life is the measure of affection shown among the Dyoor.

        Parents (among the Dinkas) do not desert their children, nor are brothers faithless to brothers, but are ever prompt to render whatever aid is possible. Family affection is at a high ebb among them".

        Miss Kingsley says:4

        3 Sweinfurth: Heart of Africa.

human beings in regular rank, that is to say influence in council: firstly, the free relations of the king, if he be a free man himself, which is frequently not the case; if he be a slave, the free people of the family he is trustee for; secondly, the free small people who have placed themselves under the protection of the House, rendering it in return for the assistance and protection it affords them service on demand; the third and fourth classes are true slave classes, the higher one in rank being that called the Winnaboes or Trade boys, the lower the pull-away boys and plantation hands. The best point in it, as a system, is that it gives to the poorest boy who paddles an oil-canoe a chance of becoming a king.

Section 3. The American Environment

        The environment of the American Negro has not been in the past and is not today conducive to the development of the highest morality. There is upon him still the heritage of two hundred and fifty years of the slave regime. Slavery fosters certain virtues like humility and obedience, but these flourish at the terrible cost of lack of self-respect, shiftlessness, tale bearing, theft, slovenliness and sexual looseness.

        Ignorance and poverty have been the greatest and most influential facts for the freedmen, and to these must be added the disadvantage of a strong caste system. The average Negro child must be educated in poor schools, if indeed in any school at all; he must grow up in an atmosphere where he can scarcely escape humiliation, contempt and personal insult; his chances for work are narrowly restricted; as a man he lives in a world limited by law and custom in such ways that he is liable to violent punishment for acts involving no moral turpitude or to excessive punishment for peccadillos. His general outlook on life is apt to be distorted by such surroundings and his tendency, if he is thotful, is to become surly in temper, or pessimistic or hypocritical. If he is careless he becomes more so and tends to shiftlessness and irresponsibility. The history and environment of the American Negro have brot their marked results.

Section 4. Good Manners

        We subjoin one hundred and twenty-three answers from twenty-nine states as to the manners and general courtesy of Negro Americans.