THE COLORED AMERICANS’ NATIONALITY
The Colored Americans’ field is the entire United States. They are an integral part of the nation the same as other citizens, and their rapid progress entitles them to an occupation of that field on a par with all others.
We are fast getting rid of the vulgar epithets heaped upon citizens of the United States who are Jews, Germans, Irish, etc., and the vulgar epithets hurled at Colored citizens of the United States on account of their color.
The time is soon coming, therefore, to ask: Why should we say, “Colored Americans?” Let us advance to the next Government census and forestall an episode to see how it would work:
The scene is supposed to be in the year 1920 and represents the United States census taker of that period going his rounds and making inquiries. He calls upon a well known Jewish citizen, and the following conversation takes place:
“Mr. Solomon Isaacs, what is your nationality?” Mr. Isaacs replies: “I am an American citizen, I was born in Chicago in the 19th Ward.” The examining man asks: “Are you not a Jew?” Mr. Isaacs replies: “No, sir, I am an American.” “But your nose,—” “My nose has nothing to do with my nationality.” This being true, the Jew is allowed to go.
Calling next upon Mr. Patrick McGillicuddy, he opens his book:
“Patrick McGillicuddy, what is your nationality?” Mr. McGillicuddy makes the same answers as the Jew. “But,” says the examiner, “Your long square chin and protruding lower jaw proclaim you an—”
“My chin, sir, has nothing to do with my nationality.” So the Irishman is passed.
Next in succession come visits to the Italian, the Spaniard, the Japanese, the Chinese, the Russian, the Hindoo, and so on. All these men deny that they are anything but Americans. The examiner points out their nationality in their features, but is told that features, face, complexion, noses, chins, or hair, have nothing to do with nationality. They were all born in this country and there is nothing more to be said.
“I AM AN AMERICAN, SIR”
Finally, the examiner brightens up. He has found something that can not be disputed. He calls upon George Washington Adams. “Ahem, Mr. Adams, what is your nationality?” Mr. Adams responds: “I am an American, sir.” The examiner is puzzled, but revives. “Are you not a Negro?” Mr. Adams, having learned something from the Jew, the Irishman and the others, replies: “No, sir, I am not a Negro, I am an American born in the United States.”
“But, your color indicates that you are a Neg—.” “My color, sir, has nothing whatever to do with my nationality, no more, in fact, than the Jew’s nose, the Irishman’s jaw, or the Spaniard’s olive face, the Russian’s matted hair, the Swede’s blonde whiskers, the Chinaman’s pigtail, the Italian’s earrings, or the Indian’s scalplock. According to the United States Constitution and all the laws thereunder, my color has been erased and I am an American to all intents and purposes, the same as you.”
After recovering from his swoon, the census taker goes out to the nearest saloon, takes some refreshments and begins a movement to have the legislature enact a law, prohibiting Colored Americans from breathing the same atmosphere as other Americans. But the scheme fails because when it comes to the question of color, the Jews, Spaniards, Italians, Frenchmen, Mexicans, and so on, would be affected.
Of course this appears ridiculous. It is not intended to be ridiculous, however, but suggested in sober earnest. It is what has been going on in this country for several decades, and it is time to stop such folly.
The main point is, that the whole of the United States is the fair field for the exploitation by Colored Americans. And there will not be the slightest obstacle in the way of such exploitation, if Colored Americans drop the past and look to the future. It is not supposable that ten millions of people, who, in another generation will number twenty millions, can be extirpated or crowded out of the enjoyment of human rights because of the prejudices of a few persons who judge from their own standpoint.
To show how fast this field is being exploited by Colored Americans would require a large volume of statistics, but the essentials may be given so that it may be inferred that the field is in a fair way of being occupied.
Our most valuable account, strangely enough, comes from an English source:
In 1911 a commission was sent by the English Board of Trade to the United States to investigate the cost of living in American towns, but the report included important information concerning the occupations of Colored Americans in cities of the United States.
It appears from the report that the Colored Americans in New York City, in spite of the industrial barriers that exist there, contain within themselves most of the elements, professional, trading, and industrial, that go to make up the life of other and more normally situated communities.
BRICKLAYERS AND CARPENTERS
In Atlanta, Georgia, about three-fourths of the bricklayers are Colored Americans, but the majority of the carpenters are white. Nominally, the rate of wages is the same for both races. One large employer held, that Colored American’s as bricklayers had a value exceeded by no one, and that in his own case the highest paid workmen were Colored Americans.
In Baltimore, it was found that Colored Americans occupy a very important position in the working class element of the population. An overwhelming majority in the building trades are Colored Americans.
In Birmingham, Alabama, there is a larger number of Colored American workmen than in any other district in the United States. The building and mining industries are the two in which the two races come into the most direct competition with one another, yet in neither of these industries does a situation exist which occasions any serious friction.
In Cleveland, Colored Americans were found in the steel and wire works, as plasterers, hod carriers, teamsters and janitors.
In Memphis, in the transport trades and also in certain industries, such as the making of bricks and cottonseed oil, the labor is almost entirely Colored American. They are making their way into the skilled trades, and in some wood working establishments both whites and blacks work side by side at skilled occupations.
In New Orleans, the industries are of a kind which employ mainly unskilled or semi-skilled labor, with the result that white men and Colored Americans are found doing the same kind of work and earning the same rate of wages.
In the Pittsburg district, more than a hundred Colored Americans are employed in business as printers, grocers, hairdressers, keepers of restaurants, caterers, etc. Many are employed by the municipality as policemen, firemen, messengers, postmen, and clerks. A large number of work people in the building and iron and steel trades are Colored Americans, some being in highly skilled occupations.
Here is the truth from a foreign source that must be considered fair and unprejudiced. But the home records show a more diversified distribution maintaining a proportionate employment everywhere.
There does not appear anywhere to be a fear that the labor of Colored Americans will crowd out the white labor, but there is a lingering suspicion that it may do so, although practically it does not.
In consequence of this timidity, what are known as “segregation” laws and ordinances have been passed in various places, Baltimore having made the most extensive effort to keep the laborers of the two races apart.
In other cities, as Atlanta, Kansas City, Norfolk, Richmond, and St. Louis, efforts were made to effect legal segregation.
The result of all these attempts to keep the Colored Americans out of their legitimate field of competition with other Americans, failed utterly, or caused such great financial losses to White Americans without affecting Colored Americans in any way, or stopping their accumulations of property, that segregation may be considered a dead issue.
In Spokane, Washington, it has been decided judicially, that Colored Americans can not be excluded from buying property in any particular place in the State. The same is the judicial sentiment in New York and elsewhere.
THE FIELD OF ORGANIZED LABOR
In the field of organized labor, Colored Americans are also making great strides, the prejudice heretofore existing having almost disappeared. At New Orleans, Mr. T. V. O’Connor, President of the International Longshoremen’s Union, sounded the keynote when he declared, upon the admission of Colored Longshoremen to the Union: “We are going to bring about industrial equality. If Colored Americans stand ready to assist themselves, they will get the same wages and working conditions that the white man enjoys.”