ow in every direction like
other American citizens whose race and color are different from his own.
Not a doubt of it in legal theory but when he puts his theoretical rights
to the test of fact he finds that he is different, that he may not do many
of the things which white men all about him are doing all the time. He
finds that even the Chinese who are denied citizenship in the Republic,
receive better treatment, are accorded larger liberties as men than are
allowed him in the South.

Why is this? Why does the Negro occupy this very anomalous position in his
country? Is it because he is an alien? It cannot really be that, because
he is not an alien. But perhaps it is because the whites choose to make
believe that he is an alien, which comes nearer the real reason.
Nevertheless no alien is he any more than are the whites themselves, if
duration of occupancy of the soil has anything to do with making a race
native and to the manner born. Is it because the Negro has proved himself
an undesirable citizen? Certainly not if past services to the country of
the greatest value are any proof to the contrary. In the Revolutionary War
he was no insignificant factor in achieving American independence; and in
the War of 1812 which defended this independence against British
aggression; and in the Civil War which saved the Union and abolished
slavery; and in the Spanish-American War which removed a chronic peril to
the National peace and added immensely to the National domain. Nor has he
failed as a laborer, for he does annually his share of the work of the
Nation, and in the production of its wealth. Without Negro labor how much
less cotton would the South produce annually, or sugar or rice or tobacco,
think you? His labor besides is very much in evidence in southern mines
and mills and trades. Then, has he ever plotted against the Government,
state or national, was he ever as a class a menace to law and order, or an
enemy to property, or a breeder of industrial unrest and violence? On the
contrary has he not been patient and peaceful and cheerful under wrongs
which would have made any other class of Americans sullen and dangerous
and lawless? No, he is not an undesirable citizen for these sufficient
reasons, but there is yet another good answer on this head. Negro labor
could not in any considerable numbers leave the South voluntarily because
Southern capital and landed interests would not let it, would resist by
force if found neces