he feels to be his due. The oppressive measures which the slave-holders took to keep the slaves in an attitude of subserviency by shutting all light, by keeping them in darkness, by depriving them of all opportunities of improvement, was the only safe, the only wise course to pursue. And even under such circumstances, under such rigid enforcement of repressive measures, the spirit of resistance was not entirely extinguished. How much less is it to be expected now that we should quietly submit to unjust treatment, to invidious distinctions! The race is becoming more and more alive to its rights, and, as it advances, this sense of what belongs to it, of what it is entitled to will increase rather than diminish. There is no way by which this growing insistent demand for its rights on its part can be arrested except by recognizing these rights, or, by forcing the race back into the condition of intellectual and moral darkness in which it was before the great era of freedom, or, by killing it off, either slowly by shutting it out of all productive industries, or by the wholesale massacre of it.

The last two lines of action, on the part of the dominant race, are among the possibilities, but scarcely among the probabilities of the future. The Negro in this country can never, never again be forced back into the condition in which he was before the War. Nor is there any likelihood of a wholesale slaughter of the race. 6There is very little hesitancy or compunction about killing an individual or a small group of individuals, but when it comes to making war on the race as a whole, with a view to exterminating it, even our worst enemies will hesitate, will hardly venture upon so violent a measure; if not from a sense of right, at least, from fear of arousing the moral sentiment of the civilized world. The race is not likely to be less insistent in the future in demanding its rights than it is now at the end of the first half century of growth, of development.

6

IV. At the end of these fifty years of freedom, in spite of the remarkable progress that we have made along all lines, we find race prejudice increasing instead of diminishing. The remarkable record of progress that we have made has had no appreciable influence, so far as appears on the surface, in lessening the feeling of hostility to us. Race prejudice is stronger, is more bitter, more aggressive to-day than ever before. The enemies of the race are more united and more determined than ever to throw themselves across the pathway of our progress and to compel us by sheer brute force, whatever our attainments may be, into a position of permanent inferiority. Not content with what has already 

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