to the exercise of the
suffrage have been passed in all the Southern States, and have operated
to exclude from the ballot large numbers of both white and colored
citizens, who on account of ignorance or poverty are unable to meet
the tests. These provisions, whatever the opinion entertained as to
the wisdom of such laws, are well within the principle laid down by
the Fifteenth Amendment. But several Southern States have gone a step
further, and by means of the so-called 'grandfather laws,' have exempted
certain ignorant white men from the necessity of meeting the educational
and property tests. These unfair 'grandfather laws,' however, in some of
the states adopting them, have now expired by limitation.

Let me then lay down this general proposition:--

Nowhere in the South to-day is the Negro cut off LEGALLY, as a
Negro, from the ballot. Legally, to-day, any Negro who can meet the
comparatively slight requirements as to education, or property, or both,
can cast his ballot on a basis of equality with the white man. I have
emphasized the word legally, for I know the PRACTICAL difficulties which
confront the Negro votes in many parts of the South. The point I wish to
make is that legally the Negro is essentially the political equal of
the white man; but that practically, in the enforcement of the law, the
legislative ideal is still pegged out far beyond the actual performance.

Now, then, if we are interested in the problem of democracy, we have two
courses open to us. We may think the laws are unjust to the Negro,
and incidentally to the 'poor white' man as well. If we do, we have a
perfect right to agitate for changes; and we can do much to disclose,
without heat, the actual facts regarding the complicated and vexatious
legislative situation in the South, as regards the suffrage. Every
change in the legislation upon this subject should, indeed, be jealously
watched, that the principle of political equality between the races be
not legally curtailed. The doctrine laid down in the Fifteenth Amendment
must, at any hazard, be maintained.

But, personally,--and I am here voicing a profound conviction,--I think
our emphasis at present should be laid upon the practical rather than
upon the legal aspect of the problem; I think we should take advantage
of the widely prevalent feeling in the South that the question of
suffrage has been settled, legally, for some time to come: of the desire
on the part of many Southern people,