nevertheless, they insist that the
way to truth and right lies in straightforward honesty, not in
indiscriminate flattery; in praising those of the South who do well and
criticising uncompromisingly those who do ill; in taking advantage of
the opportunities at hand and urging their fellows to do the same, but
at the same time in remembering that only a firm adherence to their
higher ideals and aspirations will ever keep those ideals within the
realm of possibility. They do not expect that the free right to vote,
to enjoy civic rights, and to be educated, will come in a moment; they
do not expect to see the bias and prejudices of years disappear at the
blast of a trumpet; but they are absolutely certain that the way for a
people to gain their reasonable rights is not by voluntarily throwing
them away and insisting that they do not want them; that the way for a
people to gain respect is not by continually belittling and ridiculing
themselves; that, on the contrary, Negroes must insist continually, in
season and out of season, that voting is necessary to modern manhood,
that color discrimination is barbarism, and that black boys need
education as well as white boys.

In failing thus to state plainly and unequivocally the legitimate
demands of their people, even at the cost of opposing an honored
leader, the thinking classes of American Negroes would shirk a heavy
responsibility,--a responsibility to themselves, a responsibility to
the struggling masses, a responsibility to the darker races of men
whose future depends so largely on this American experiment, but
especially a responsibility to this nation,--this common Fatherland.
It is wrong to encourage a man or a people in evil-doing; it is wrong
to aid and abet a national crime simply because it is unpopular not to
do so. The growing spirit of kindliness and reconciliation between the
North and South after the frightful difference of a generation ago
ought to be a source of deep congratulation to all, and especially to
those whose mistreatment caused the war; but if that reconciliation is
to be marked by the industrial slavery and civic death of those same
black men, with permanent legislation into a position of inferiority,
then those black men, if they are really men, are called upon by every
consideration of patriotism and loyalty to oppose such a course by all
civilized methods, even though such opposition involves disagreement
with Mr. Booker T. Washington. We ha