onclusion necessarily grows out
of the traditional attitude of the average American on the question of
the capacity of the Negro for high scientific and technical
achievement. This state of mind on the part of the general public is
not perceptibly changed by the well-authenticated reports now and then
of meritorious inventions in many lines of experiment made by Negroes
in various parts of the country, notwithstanding the fact that these
reports are frequently made through channels that would seem to leave
nothing to doubt.

It has always been and presumably always will be difficult for truth
to outrun a falsehood. One instance of the way in which such false and
erroneous impressions of the Negro's capacity and achievement gain
currency and fix themselves in the public mind is shown sometimes in
the campaign methods of some politicians. One of these, a Marylander,
addressing a political gathering in his native State in behalf of his
own candidacy for Congress, a few years ago declared that the Negro
was not entitled to vote because he had never evinced sufficient
capacity to justify such a privilege, and that not one of the race had
ever yet reached the dignity of an inventor. It is not easy to
understand how a gentleman of the requisite qualifications to
represent an intelligent constituency acceptably in the Congress of
the United States could so palpably pervert the truth in a matter on
which he could so easily have rightly informed himself. At the time
when this statement was made, 1903, in Talbot County, Maryland, there
was on the shelves of the Library of Congress a book[15] containing a
chapter on "The Negro as an Inventor," and citing several hundred
patents granted by our government for inventions by Negroes. And still
another instance is that of a leading newspaper of Richmond, which
some time ago published the bold statement that of the many thousands
of patents granted to the inventors in this country annually not a
single patent had ever been granted to a colored man. These and
similar general statements which make no mention of exceptions admit
of but one interpretation. The wish may be father to the thought, but
the truth is not father to their words.

In the cause of truth it is very gratifying to the writer to be able
to show that notwithstanding the frequency and the persistency of
these misrepresentations, the facts are gradually coming to the front
to prove that the Negro not only now but in the re