(2). As a race, in addition to those forces that affect injuriously our moral and spiritual, our physical and economic interests, we are also beset by enemies that are laboring earnestly to deprive us of our civil and political rights as American citizens. These enemies are most persistent in their efforts, and everywhere are endeavoring to create a sentiment against us. Every blunder that any member of the race makes, every misstep that any member of the race takes is by them magnified, and by them paraded through the press, and charged to the race as a whole. These are the enemies that are clamoring for Jim-Crow cars, for segregation in our cities, for laws against the inter-marriage of the races; and who are endeavoring in every possible way to humiliate us and to make life just as hard as possible for us. The marvel is, as a race, that we are doing as well as we are, in view of the many and deadly forces that are arrayed against us. The verdict seemingly is, If we are allowed to live at all we must be content to be menials, to occupy only the lowest places; and there is a disposition to crowd us out of even such places. The feeling is, not only that this is a white man’s government, but that everything in this country is for the white man. The right of the colored man to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, to even the most ordinary courtesies of life, seems to be questioned. He is, nominally, in a Christian land; but when it comes to the treatment which it accords to him, there is no thought of Christianity, no effort or endeavor in any way to be governed by the simplest principle of the religion of Jesus Christ. In the treatment that is accorded to him every principle of Christianity is ignored. There is not the slightest disposition to recognize him as a brother, to treat him as a man. The atmosphere in which he lives is a hostile atmosphere. The emigrant from Europe, with all his ignorance and degradation is welcomed with outstretched hands; but no such spirit greets the Negro. This is as much his home, and he has just as much right to be here as any other class of citizens; and yet he is treated, is made to feel as if he were an alien. During the Christmas holidays I received a Christmas card upon which was represented a very forlorn looking little colored boy, and under it was written: “No one loves me.” Whether it was intended by the artist, who was colored, to represent the condition of the race in this country or not, I do not know; but, in a sense, and to a measure, it certainly does represent our condition among this white population in the midst of which we are living. This is not true, of course, of all of the white people. There are some who are, in a sense, friendly to us, and who, up to a certain point, are willing to 

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