n fellowship. They are salvable to be sure but from afar by
missionary efforts, the farther away the better, in China and Japan, in
India and Africa. For there this church is in no danger of race
contamination in its pews and at its altars and in its homes. The American
church is saying with the spirit of the unseeing Peter of old, "Not so
Lord, we have never accepted any man who is brown or black or yellow as
really our brother, for we are white and Thou hast made us of different
clay, of purer blood than all these millions of brown and black and yellow
peoples. Thou hast made us white and white we mean to remain, Thy common
fatherhood and the brotherhood of all these alien races to the contrary
notwithstanding. We try to be humble Lord, but we have never yet succeeded
in humbling the proud blood which Thou hast given us to the level of
brotherhood with these strange dark peoples."

That is the spirit which the Negro encounters in the American church; that
is the spirit which crushes him down and crowds him back whenever he tries
to rise and advance. He and his are denied the White man's chance to make
the best of themselves and to get the most out of themselves. And when
many of them fail, as fail they must, they are beaten with many bitter
words by this so-called Christian people because of this failure, and when
some succeed in spite of the gates of this hell of race hatred and
oppression they are beaten with even more bitter words and sometimes with
bitter blows, and told to stay where they are put behind the poorest and
most worthless of the whites in America's long procession of progress and
civilization. Is it any wonder that crime emerges out of such cruel and
unequal conditions? The wonder is that the colored criminal class is not
larger and more dangerous to person and property. Take a glance into the
alleys of misery, into the ghettos of wrong where human beings beaten by
other human beings stronger than they in the battle of life are penned in
their destitution and wretchedness to live and die like poisoned rats in a
hole, a prey to heat in summer and cold in winter and disease the year
round, a prey to vice, a prey to the saloons which the white man thrusts
upon them to steal away their last nickel and the remnant of their self
respect. One need not be a prophet to foresee that out of all this
injustice and inequality God's avenging angel will come some day with
sword, double-edged and deadly with disease an