said nothing of its relation to the white world. The founders
of these enterprises grew up with the exploitation of the New
South. Had it not been for the bar of color some of them
would have been counted among the most conspicuous of the
new industrial and commercial classes in the South. They
were restricted in the field of their activities. Yet they are as
typical of the New South as any white business man. Their
outlook is the same. John Merrick in a letter commenting
on the Wilmington riots enunciated views on government held
by the middle class everywhere. Have the men of the white
South recognized these brothers under the skin? Yes. They
show respect for their achievements. They have been friendly
to their enterprises. This is perhaps due to two causes: namely,
the lack to a large extent of the savage race prejudice of the
lower South and the absence of serious competition. White
men have recognized these men as the supporters of property
rights. They know these men would no more vote for Debs
than they. Yet, there are still Jim Crow cars in North Carolina, and the Negro is denied civil and political rights.
Durham is promise of a transformed Negro. The Negro has been a strange mixture of the peasant and the gentleman in his outlook on life. Because of the Negro's love of leisure and sensuous enjoyment, men have called him lazy and immoral. Because he lacks calculation, white folk have called him shiftless. But two hundred and fifty years of enforced labor, with no incentive in its just rewards, more than any inherent traits, explain why the Negro has for so long been concerned chiefly with consumption rather than production. Peasant virtues are middle-class faults. And so are the gentleman's; and the Negro has come by these in curious but inevitable ways. Some he has absorbed from the master-class of the South that he served and knew so intimately; the rest has come from his artistic nature. The drab way of life that seeks ever to work and pile up wealth and finds its enjoyment in spasmodic intoxications of pleasure has not been the way of the Negro. His desire for color and form has been the cause of mockery. His desire to work for only enough to supply his wants is only the ideal that has motivated economic activities in former ages.
