Twice today, Senator Harding greets representatives from numerous Black organizations, including convention attendees from the Baptist church and the Methodist church and members of the National Equal Rights League.
General John J. Pershing, his overnight guest, speaks to both crowds, telling one: "The colored people of America are to be congratulated upon their magnificent showing at home and abroad during the war and we are all to be congratulated, for without that support we would not have been able to win the victory as early as we did."
William H. Lewis, an assistant attorney general under President Taft, tells the candidate, "The pilgrims you see before you at this hour are on the road to Washington seeking a rehabilitation of their status as American citizens. The road to Washington this year leads through Ohio, through Marion, not Dayton. We pause to pay our respects to you, sir, as the standard-bearer of the party to renew our pledge of fidelity and devotion to the party of our fathers, the party of freedom and human progress, to pass the word on to our brethren to meet you again at the White House on the fourth of March, confident that we shall receive the same cordial greeting there as you have given us here..."
Americans: I greet you as workers in the cause of a noble religious purpose, and I shall address you, insofar as I am able to do so without thought of my position as a candidate of a party for high political office, and with my interest centered upon you, upon your aspirations, and upon the contribution of your people to America. I will center my interest also upon the contribution of America to your people and upon the justice which, in America, must never relax vigilance, not to create an equality that is worth nothing if it be not earned, but an equal opportunity for all men and women to achieve and hold the full recognition of their own merit, capacity and worth.
Too much doctrine based upon another principle has been loosed upon a war-worn world, abroad, particularly in Russia. There has grown up the idea that by some impossible magic, a government can give out a bounty by the mere fact of having liberty and equality written over its door, and that citizenship need make no deposits in the bank of common weal in order to write checks upon that bank. Here at home — we have had too much encouragement given to the idea that a government is a something-for-nothing institution. But I say that citizenship is not based upon what one can get, but that it is based upon what one gives. I say — and I wish that I could speak through you to all Americans — "Let's Serve!"
Under that slogan of good citizenship there is no reason why you should not hold your heads high. You, who are assembled today, and your race in America, have the good sense, as all thoughtful Americans have, to know that it is only in a country where merit, capacity, and worth of men and women are recognized and rewarded, that merit, capacity, and worth are developed. You, and I, and good Americans, of whatever color, blood or creed, know that the aspiration of all men is equal opportunity to create recognition of differences between themselves, and that no injustice known to men can be greater than that of the tyranny and autocracy that labels itself Democracy, or Bolshevism, or Proletariat, and enslaves all men and all their ambitions and all their freedom with the iron hand of mediocrity. The American negro has the good sense to know this truth, has the good sense and clear head and brave heart to live it and I, assuming to speak a truth which America ought to know, proclaim it to all the world that he has met the test and did not and will not fail America.
I proclaim more; I assert to all the world that America has not, and will not fail the American negro. If there are those who doubt me let them look to the record — the record of the colored race in American citizenship, and the record of America in giving opportunity.
Your very presence in assembly, coming from great organizations dedicated to high religious purposes, is enough to cause any man to give recognition in his heart to the great contribution to American citizenship which is found in the capacity for deep religious faith among people of your blood. America needs the deep religious faith. She needs it whether it comes from Catholic, Jew, or Protestant. She needs it in her citizenship, and I recognize that the best of America is our spiritual life and not our material possessions, and that if America ever lets her spiritual life die, she will no longer be the land we love.
The expression of that spiritual life, alive in the hearts of the people of your blood, has, I believe, been the basis for the achievements of the American negro. They are great and amazing achievements. They have been wrought, not from words, nor false claims, but by patience, tolerance, restraint, and by the earned rewards of that merit, capacity and worth of citizenship of which I have spoken.
Let all true Americans know that the census of 1910 showed that over 67% of the men and 54% of the women of your blood were gainfully employed, a larger percentage in both cases, than the rest of us Americans.
Let America know that the churches of the colored race have increased during a little more than half a century from 700 to 43, 000. Let her know that home-owners have increased from 12,000 to 600,000 and farms operated from 20,000 to one million. Let America know that literacy among colored people has climbed from 10% to 50%.
Let all true Americans know and recognize that during the war the colored race of America invested one dollar of every five they owned in war bonds. Let them know that 340,000 colored boys were in our Army, with only one case of conviction for avoiding the draft.
By when we Americans of whatever color, render tribute to the record of the American negro, let us not forget to render tribute to America under whose institutions and among whose people their record was made. For I tell you — and through you I tell all Americans — that if your people have progressed in so amazing and inspiring manner, it must have been that America gave you opportunity. If you have risen by your merit, capacity, and worth, and not by agitation and violence and revolt against our institutions it is proof that you have prospered under our institutions, and have loved them.
If the men and women of your blood have given, as we all desired to give a great outpouring of treasure and blood upon the altar of patriotism, it is because the truth was in your hearts — America has given you her great blessing of justice.
You have it, and you shall have it. It will be good American citizenship that will continue to accord it to your people, If I have anything to do with it, it shall also be good American obedience to law. Brutal and unlawful violence whether it proceeds from those who break the law or from those who take the law into their own hands, can only be dealt with in one way by true Americans, whether they be of your blood or of mine.
Fear not! Here upon this beloved soil you shall have that justice that every man and woman of us knows would have been prayed for by Abraham Lincoln. Fear not! Your people by their restraint, their patience, their wisdom, integrity, labor, and belief in God will earn the right to that justice, and America will bestow it.
Sources:
- "Harding Talks G.O.P. Doctrines to Negro Folk." Chicago Tribune. 11 September 1920.
- "Spokesman for Negro Baptists." Marion Star. 11 September 1920.
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