The American Negro Academy Occasional Papers, No. 2THE CONSERVATION OF RACESW. E. Burghardt Du Bois1897

Announcement

The American Negro Academy believes that upon those of therace who have had the advantage of higher education and culture, rests the responsibility of taking concerted steps for theemployment of these agencies to uplift the race to higher planesof thought and action. 	Two great obstacles to this consummation are apparent: (a)The lack of unity, want of harmony, absence of a self-sacrificing spirit, and no well-defined line of policy seekingdefinite aims; and (b) The persistent, relentless, at timescovert opposition employed to thwart the Negro at every step ofhis upward struggles to establish the justness of his claim tothe highest physical, intellectual and moral possibilities. 

The Academy will, therefore, from time to time, publishsuch papers as in their judgment aid, by their broad andscholarly treatment of the topics discussed the dissemination ofprinciples tending to the growth and development of the Negroalong right lines, and the vindication of that race againstvicious assaults. 

THE CONSERVATION OF RACES

	The American Negro has always felt an intense personalinterest in discussions as to the origins and destinies ofraces: primarily because back of most discussions of race withwhich he is familiar, have lurked certain assumptions as to hisnatural abilities, as to his political, intellectual and moralstatus, which he felt were wrong. He has, consequently, been ledto deprecate and minimize race distinctions, to believeintensely that out of one blood God created all nations, and tospeak of human brotherhood as though it were the possibility ofan already dawning to-morrow. 

	Nevertheless, in our calmer moments we must acknowledgethat human beings are divided into races; that in this countrythe two most extreme types of the world's races have met, andthe resulting problem as to the future relations of these typesis not only of intense and living interest to us, but forms anepoch in the history of mankind. 

	It is necessary, therefore, in planning our movements, inguiding our future development, that at times we rise above thepressing, but smaller questions of separate schools and cars, wage-discrimination and lynch law, to survey the whole questionsof race in human philosophy and to lay, on a basis of broadknowledge and careful insight, those large lines of policy andhigher ideals which may form our guiding lines and boundaries inthe practical difficulties of every day. For it is certain thatall human striving must recognize the hard limits of naturallaw, and that any striving, no matter how intense and earnest, which is against the constitution of the world, is vain. Thequestion, then, which we must seriously consider is this: Whatis the real meaning of Race; what has, in the past, been the lawof race development, and what lessons has the past history ofrace development to teach the rising Negro people?

	When we thus come to inquire into the essential differenceof races we find it hard to come at once to any definiteconclusion. Many criteria of race differences have in the pastbeen proposed, as color, hair, cranial measurements andlanguage. And manifestly, in each of these respects, humanbeings differ widely. They vary in color, for instance, from themarble-like pallor of the Scandinavian to the rich, dark brownof the Zulu, passing by the creamy Slav, the yellow Chinese, thelight brown Sicilian and the brown Egyptian. Men vary, too, inthe texture of hair from the obstinately straight hair of theChinese to the obstinately tufted and frizzled hair of theBushman. In measurement of heads, again, men vary; from thebroad-headed Tartar to the medium-headed European and thenarrow-headed Hottentot; or, again in language, from the highly-inflected Roman tongue to the monosyllabic Chinese. All thesephysical characteristics are patent enough, and if they agreedwith each other it would be very easy to classify mankind. Unfortunately for scientists, however, these criteria of raceare most exasperatingly intermingled. Color does not agree withtexture of hair, for many of the dark races have straight hair;nor does color agree with the breadth of the head, for theyellow Tartar has a broader head than the German; nor, again, has the science of language as yet succeeded in clearing up therelative authority of these various and contradictory criteria. The final word of science, so far, is that we have at least two, perhaps three, great families of human beings–the whites andNegroes, possibly the yellow race. That other races have arisenfrom the intermingling of the blood of these two. This broaddivision of the world's races which men like Huxley and Raetzelhave introduced as more nearly true than the old five-racescheme of Blumenbach, is nothing more than an acknowledgmentthat, so far as purely physical characteristics are concerned, the differences between men do not explain all the differencesof their history. It declares, as Darwin himself said, thatgreat as is the physical unlikeness of the various races of mentheir likenesses are greater, and upon this rests the wholescientific doctrine of Human Brotherhood. 

	Although the wonderful developments of human history teachthat the grosser physical differences of color, hair and bone gobut a short way toward explaining the different roles whichgroups of men have played in Human Progress, yet there aredifferences–subtle, delicate and elusive, though they may be–which have silently but definitely separated men into groups. While these subtle forces have generally followed the naturalcleavage of common blood, descent and physical peculiarities, they have at other times swept across and ignored these. At alltimes, however, they have divided human beings into races, which, while they perhaps transcend scientific definition, nevertheless, are clearly defined to the eye of the Historianand Sociologist. 

	If this be true, then the history of the world is thehistory, not of individuals, but of groups, not of nations, butof races, and he who ignores or seeks to override the race ideain human history ignores and overrides the central thought ofall history. What, then, is a race? It is a vast family of humanbeings, generally of common blood and language, always of commonhistory, traditions and impulses, who are both voluntarily andinvoluntarily striving together for the accomplishment ofcertain more or less vividly conceived ideals of life. 

	Turning to real history, there can be no doubt, first, asto the widespread, nay, universal, prevalence of the race idea, the race spirit, the race ideal, and as to its efficiency as thevastest and most ingenious invention of human progress. We, whohave been reared and trained under the individualisticphilosophy of the Declaration of Independence and the laisser-faire philosophy of Adam Smith, are loath to see and loath toacknowledge this patent fact of human history. We see thePharaohs, Caesars, Toussaints and Napoleons of history andforget the vast races of which they were but epitomizedexpressions. We are apt to think in our American impatience, that while it may have been true in the past that closed racegroups made history, that here in conglomerate America NOUSAVONS CHANGER TOUT CELA–we have changed all that, and have noneed of this ancient instrument of progress. This assumption ofwhich the Negro people are especially fond, can not beestablished by a careful consideration of history. 

	We find upon the world's stage today eight distinctlydifferentiated races, in the sense in which History tells us theword must be used. They are, the Slavs of eastern Europe, theTeutons of middle Europe, the English of Great Britain andAmerica, the Romance nations of Southern and Western Europe, theNegroes of Africa and America, the Semitic people of WesternAsia and Northern Africa, the Hindoos of Central Asia and theMongolians of Eastern Asia. There are, of course, other minorrace groups, as the American Indians, the Esquimaux and theSouth Sea Islanders; these larger races, too, are far fromhomogeneous; the Slav includes the Czech, the Magyar, the Poleand the Russian; the Teuton includes the German, theScandinavian and the Dutch; the English include the Scotch, theIrish and the conglomerate American. Under Romance nations thewidely-differing Frenchman, Italian, Sicilian and Spaniard arecomprehended. The term Negro is, perhaps, the most indefinite ofall, combining the Mulattoes and Zamboes of America and theEgyptians, Bantus and Bushmen of Africa. Among the Hindoos aretraces of widely differing nations, while the great Chinese, Tartar, Corean and Japanese families fall under the onedesignation–Mongolian. 

	The question now is: What is the real distinction betweenthese nations? Is it the physical differences of blood, colorand cranial measurements? Certainly we must all acknowledge thatphysical differences play a great part, and that, with wideexceptions and qualifications, these eight great races of to-dayfollow the cleavage of physical race distinctions; the Englishand Teuton represent the white variety of mankind; theMongolian, the yellow; the Negroes, the black. Between these aremany crosses and mixtures, where Mongolian and Teuton haveblended into the Slav, and other mixtures have produced theRomance nations and the Semites. But while race differences havefollowed mainly physical race lines, yet no mere physicaldistinctions would really define or explain the deeperdifferences–the cohesiveness and continuity of these groups. Thedeeper differences are spiritual, psychical, differences–undoubtedly based on the physical, but infinitely transcendingthem. The forces that bind together the Teuton nations are, then, first, their race identity and common blood; secondly, andmore important, a common history, common laws and religion, similar habits of thought and a conscious striving together forcertain ideals of life. The whole process which has broughtabout these race differentiations has been a growth, and thegreat characteristic of this growth has been the differentiationof spiritual and mental differences between great races ofmankind and the integration of physical differences. 

	The age of nomadic tribes of closely related individualsrepresents the maximum of physical differences. They werepractically vast families, and there were as many groups asfamilies. As the families came together to form cities thephysical differences lessened, purity of blood was replaced bythe requirement of domicile, and all who lived within the citybounds became gradually to be regarded as members of the group;i. E. , there was a slight and slow breaking down of physicalbarriers. This, however, was accompanied by an increase of thespiritual and social differences between cities. This citybecame husbandmen, this, merchants, another warriors, and so on. The IDEALS OF LIFE for which the different cities struggled weredifferent. When at last cities began to coalesce into nationsthere was another breaking down of barriers which separatedgroups of men. The larger and broader differences of color, hairand physical proportions were not by any means ignored, butmyriads of minor differences disappeared, and the sociologicaland historical races of men began to approximate the presentdivision of races as indicated by physical researches. At thesame time the spiritual and physical differences of race groupswhich constituted the nations became deep and decisive. TheEnglish nation stood for constitutional liberty and commercialfreedom; the German nation for science and philosophy; theRomance nations stood for literature and art, and the other racegroups are striving, each in its own way, to develop forcivilization its particular message, it particular ideal, whichshall help to guide the world nearer and nearer that perfectionof human life for which we all long, that"one far off Divine event. "

	This has been the function of race differences up to thepresent time. What shall be its function in the future?Manifestly some of the great races of today–particularly theNegro race–have not as yet given to civilization the fullspiritual message which they are capable of giving. I will notsay that the Negro-race has yet given no message to the world, for it is still a mooted question among scientists as to justhow far Egyptian civilization was Negro in its origin; if it wasnot wholly Negro, it was certainly very closely allied. Be thatas it may, however, the fact still remains that the full, complete Negro message of the whole Negro race has not as yetbeen given to the world: that the messages and ideal of theyellow race have not been completed, and that the striving ofthe mighty Slavs has but begun. The question is, then: Howshall this message be delivered; how shall these various idealsbe realized? The answer is plain: By the development of theserace groups, not as individuals, but as races. For thedevelopment of Japanese genius, Japanese literature and art, Japanese spirit, only Japanese, bound and welded together, Japanese inspired by one vast ideal, can work out in itsfullness the wonderful message which Japan has for the nationsof the earth. For the development of Negro genius, of Negroliterature and art, of Negro spirit, only Negroes bound andwelded together, Negroes inspired by one vast ideal, can workout in its fullness that great message we have for humanity. Wecannot reverse history; we are subject to the same natural lawsas other races, and if the Negro is ever to be a factor in theworld's history–if among the gaily-colored banners that deck thebroad ramparts of civilizations is to hang one uncompromisingblack, then it must be placed there by black hands, fashioned byblack heads and hallowed by the travail of 200, 000, 000 blackhearts beating in one glad song of jubilee. 

	For this reason, the advance guard of the Negro people–the8, 000, 000 people of Negro blood in the United States of America–must soon come to realize that if they are to take their justplace in the van of Pan-Negroism, then their destiny is NOTabsorption by the white Americans. That if in America it is tobe proven for the first time in the modern world that not onlyNegroes are capable of evolving individual men like Toussaint, the Saviour, but are a nation stored with wonderfulpossibilities of culture, then their destiny is not a servileimitation of Anglo-Saxon culture, but a stalwart originalitywhich shall unswervingly follow Negro ideals. 

	It may, however, be objected here that the situation of ourrace in America renders this attitude impossible; that our solehope of salvation lies in our being able to lose our raceidentity in the commingled blood of the nation; and that anyother course would merely increase the friction of races whichwe call race prejudice, and against which we have so long and soearnestly fought. 

	Here, then, is the dilemma, and it is a puzzling one, Iadmit. No Negro who has given earnest thought to the situationof his people in America has failed, at some time in life, tofind himself at these cross-roads; has failed to ask himself atsome time: What, after all, am I? Am I an American or am I aNegro? Can I be both? Or is it my duty to cease to be a Negro assoon as possible and be an American? If I strive as a Negro, amI not perpetuating the very cleft that threatens and separatesBlack and White America? Is not my only possible practical aimthe subduction of all that is Negro in me to the American? Doesmy black blood place upon me any more obligation to assert mynationality than German, or Irish or Italian blood would?

	It is such incessant self-questioning and the hesitationthat arises from it, that is making the present period a time ofvacillation and contradiction for the American Negro; combinedrace action is stifled, race responsibility is shirked, raceenterprises languish, and the best blood, the best talent, thebest energy of the Negro people cannot be marshalled to do thebidding of the race. They stand back to make room for everyrascal and demagogue who chooses to cloak his selfish deviltryunder the veil of race pride. 

	Is this right? Is it rational? Is it good policy? Have wein America a distinct mission as a race–a distinct sphere ofaction and an opportunity for race development, or is self-obliteration the highest end to which Negro blood dare aspire?

	If we carefully consider what race prejudice really is, wefind it, historically, to be nothing but the friction betweendifferent groups of people; it is the difference in aim, infeeling, in ideals of two different races; if, now, thisdifference exists touching territory, laws, language, or evenreligion, it is manifest that these people cannot live in thesame territory without fatal collision; but if, on the otherhand, there is substantial agreement in laws, language andreligion; if there is a satisfactory adjustment of economiclife, then there is no reason why, in the same country and onthe same street, two or three great national ideals might notthrive and develop, that men of different races might not strivetogether for their race ideals as well, perhaps even better, than in isolation. Here, it seems to me, is the reading of theriddle that puzzles so many of us. We are Americans, not only bybirth and by citizenship, but by our political ideals, ourlanguage, our religion. Farther than that, our Americanism doesnot go. At that point, we are Negroes, members of a vasthistoric race that from the very dawn of creation has slept, buthalf awakening in the dark forests of its African fatherland. Weare the first fruits of this new nation, the harbinger of thatblack to-morrow which is yet destined to soften the whiteness ofthe Teutonic to-day. We are that people whose subtle sense ofsong has given America its only American music, its onlyAmerican fairy tales, its only touch of pathos and humor amidits mad money-getting plutocracy. As such, it is our duty toconserve our physical powers, our intellectual endowments, ourspiritual ideals; as a race we must strive by race organization, by race solidarity, by race unity to the realization of thatbroader humanity which freely recognizes differences in men, butsternly deprecates inequality in their opportunities ofdevelopment. 

	For the accomplishment of these ends we need raceorganizations: Negro colleges, Negro newspapers, Negro businessorganizations, a Negro school of literature and art, and anintellectual clearing house, for all these products of the Negromind, which we may call a Negro Academy. Not only is all thisnecessary for positive advance, it is absolutely imperative fornegative defense. Let us not deceive ourselves at our situationin this country. Weighted with a heritage of moral iniquity fromour past history, hard pressed in the economic world by foreignimmigrants and native prejudice, hated here, despised there andpitied everywhere; our one haven of refuge is ourselves, and butone means of advance, our own belief in our great destiny, ourown implicit trust in our ability and worth. There is no powerunder God's high heaven that can stop the advance of eightthousand thousand honest, earnest, inspired and united people. But–and here is the rub–they MUST be honest, fearlesslycriticising their own faults, zealously correcting them; theymust be EARNEST. No people that laughs at itself, and ridiculesitself, and wishes to God it was anything but itself ever wroteits name in history; it MUST be inspired with the Divine faithof our black mothers, that out of the blood and dust of battlewill march a victorious host, a mighty nation, a peculiarpeople, to speak to the nations of earth a Divine truth thatshall make them free. And such a people must be united; notmerely united for the organized theft of political spoils, notunited to disgrace religion with whoremongers and ward-heelers;not united merely to protest and pass resolutions, but united tostop the ravages of consumption among the Negro people, unitedto keep black boys from loafing, gambling and crime; united toguard the purity of black women and to reduce the vast army ofblack prostitutes that is today marching to hell; and united inserious organizations, to determine by careful conference andthoughtful interchange of opinion the broad lines of policy andaction for the American Negro. 

	This, is the reason for being which the American NegroAcademy has. It aims at once to be the epitome and expression ofthe intellect of the black-blooded people of America, theexponent of the race ideals of one of the world's great races. As such, the Academy must, if successful, be	(a). Representative in character. 	(b). Impartial in conduct. 	(c). Firm in leadership. 

	It must be representative in character; not in that itrepresents all interests or all factions, but in that it seeksto comprise something of the BEST thought, the most unselfishstriving and the highest ideals. There are scattered inforgotten nooks and corners throughout the land, Negroes of someconsiderable training, of high minds, and high motives, who areunknown to their fellows, who exert far too little influence. These the Negro Academy should strive to bring into touch witheach other and to give them a common mouthpiece. 

	The Academy should be impartial in conduct; while it aimsto exalt the people it should aim to do so by truth–not by lies, by honesty–not by flattery. It should continually impress thefact upon the Negro people that they must not expect to havethings done for them–they MUST DO FOR THEMSELVES; that they haveon their hands a vast work of self-reformation to do, and that alittle less complaint and whining, and a little more dogged workand manly striving would do us more credit and benefit than athousand Force or Civil Rights bills. 

	Finally, the American Negro Academy must point out apractical path of advance to the Negro people; there lie beforeevery Negro today hundreds of questions of policy and rightwhich must be settled and which each one settles now, not inaccordance with any rule, but by impulse or individualpreference; for instance: What should be the attitude ofNegroes toward the educational qualification for voters? Whatshould be our attitude toward separate schools? How should wemeet discriminations on railways and in hotels? Such questionsneed not so much specific answers for each part as a generalexpression of policy, and nobody should be better fitted toannounce such a policy than a representative honest NegroAcademy. 

	All this, however, must come in time after carefulorganization and long conference. The immediate work before usshould be practical and have direct bearing upon the situationof the Negro. The historical work of collecting the laws of theUnited States and of the various States of the Union with regardto the Negro is a work of such magnitude and importance that nobody but one like this could think of undertaking it. If wecould accomplish that one task we would justify our existence. 

	In the field of Sociology an appalling work lies before us. First, we must unflinchingly and bravely face the truth, notwith apologies, but with solemn earnestness. The Negro Academyought to sound a note of warning that would echo in every blackcabin in the land: UNLESS WE CONQUER OUR PRESENT VICES THEYWILL CONQUER US; we are diseased, we are developing criminaltendencies, and an alarmingly large percentage of our men andwomen are sexually impure. The Negro Academy should stand andproclaim this over the housetops, crying with Garrison: I WILLNOT EQUIVOCATE, I WILL NOT RETREAT A SINGLE INCH, AND I WILL BEHEARD. The Academy should seek to gather about it the talented, unselfish men, the pure and noble-minded women, to fight an armyof devils that disgraces our manhood and our womanhood. Theredoes not stand today upon God's earth a race more capable inmuscle, in intellect, in morals, than the American Negro, if hewill bend his energies in the right direction; if he willBurst his birth's invidious barAnd grasp the skirts of happy chance, And breast the blow of circumstance, And grapple with his evil star. 

	In science and morals, I have indicated two fields of workfor the Academy. Finally, in practical policy, I wish to suggestthe following ACADEMY CREED:

1. 	We believe that the Negro people, as a race, have acontribution to make to civilization and humanity, which noother race can make. 

2. 	We believe it the duty of the Americans of Negro descent, as abody, to maintain their race identity until this mission ofthe Negro people is accomplished, and the ideal of humanbrotherhood has become a practical possibility. 

3. 	We believe that, unless modern civilization is a failure, itis entirely feasible and practicable for two races in suchessential political, economic and religious harmony as thewhite and colored people in America, to develop side by sidein peace and mutual happiness, the peculiar contribution whicheach has to make to the culture of their common country. 

4. 	As a means to this end we advocate, not such social equalitybetween these races as would disregard human likes anddislikes, but such a social equilibrium as would, throughoutall the complicated relations of life, give due and justconsideration to culture, ability, and moral worth, whetherthey be found under white or black skins. 

5. 	We believe that the first and greatest step toward thesettlement of the present friction between the races–commonlycalled the Negro Problem-lies in the correction of theimmorality, crime and laziness among the Negroes themselves, which still remains as a heritage from slavery. We believethat only earnest and long continued efforts on our own partcan cure these social ills. 

6. 	We believe that the second great step toward a betteradjustment of the relations between races, should be a moreimpartial selection of ability in the economic andintellectual world, and a greater respect for personal libertyand worth, regardless of race. We believe that only earnestefforts on the part of the white people of this country willbring much needed reform in these matters. 

7. 	On the basis of the foregoing declaration, and firmlybelieving in our high destiny, we, as American Negroes, areresolved to strive in every honorable way for the realizationof the best and highest aims, for the development of strongmanhood and pure womanhood, and for the rearing of a raceideal in America and Africa, to the glory of God and theuplifting of the Negro people. 

W. E. Burghardt Du Bois