Part 37 (1/2)

22. The Jukes. (Dugdale, _The Jukes_.)

23. The Kallikak family. (G.o.ddard, _The Kallikak Family_.)

24. The criminal theories of Lombroso. (Consult an encyclopedia.)

25. Modern prison systems. (Henderson, _Modern Prison Systems_.

Individual students may be a.s.signed to the study of the prison systems of particular countries.)

26. Industrial training in prison. (Lewis, _The Offender_, part i, chapters x and xii; _Annals_, vol. xlvi.)

27. The discharged convict. (Booth, _After Prison, What_?)

FOR CLa.s.sROOM DISCUSSION

28. Is crime increasing in the United States?

29. The practicability of the indeterminate sentence.

30. Should capital punishment be abolished?

31. Advantages and disadvantages of the ”honor system” in prison.

CHAPTER XXII

THE NEGRO

244. ORIGIN OF THE AMERICAN NEGRO.--Early in the seventeenth century the scarcity of labor in the American colonies led to the introduction of African Negroes as slaves. In response to the demand for slave labor on the southern plantations, the importation of Negroes increased steadily during the next century. The slave trade was nominally abolished in 1808, but Negroes continued to be brought in until the Civil War period. In September, 1862, President Lincoln proclaimed abolished both the slave trade and the inst.i.tution of slavery in the United States. The legality of this act was substantiated in 1865 by the Thirteenth Amendment to the Federal Const.i.tution.

245. RISE OF THE NEGRO PROBLEM.--The Emanc.i.p.ation Proclamation, followed by the Thirteenth Amendment, conferred freedom upon four million slaves. In 1868 the Fourteenth Amendment made the freed Negroes citizens of the United States, and in 1870 the Fifteenth Amendment enfranchised them. Largely as the result of these measures, the problem of the slave developed into the present Negro problem. The racial differences between the white and the Negro, as well as the demoralizing effects of slavery, promised to render difficult the adjustment of the Negro to American life. The situation was made more serious by the suddenness of emanc.i.p.ation, and by the fact that the vote was extended the Negroes before most of them were ready for it.

The economic, social, and political upheaval effected in the South by the war, together with the bitterness with which many southern white men regarded the newly freed Negroes, also contributed to the difficulty of the situation. Lastly, the Negro became a problem because of the lack of a national program in his behalf.

246. NUMBERS AND DISTRIBUTION.--In 1920 the Federal census gave 10,463,131 as the Negro population of the United States. According to these figures the Negro const.i.tutes slightly less than one tenth of our total population. Eighty-five per cent of the Negroes live in the South. In Mississippi and South Carolina the Negro exceeds the white population, while in several other southern states the Negro const.i.tutes from one fourth to one half of the total population.

About three fourths of our Negroes live in the rural districts. There is, however, an important migratory movement which operates to decrease this percentage. There is a growing tendency for southern Negroes to leave the rural districts and to move cityward. Chiefly because of the economic attractions of urban life, many rural Negroes are moving toward the southern city; in search of social equality as well as greater economic opportunities, many southern Negroes are migrating to the cities of the North.

247. ADAPTABILITY OF THE NEGRO.--From one important angle, civilization is the process of getting along with one's environment, partly by changing that environment, and partly by adapting one's self to external conditions. An important characteristic of the Negro, not usually taken into account, is his adaptability. Ours is predominantly a white man's civilization, and we are accustomed to think of the Negro as an individual who finds it more or less difficult to fit into our way of living. And yet one reason for believing that the Negro has a capacity for modern civilization is that he has survived until the present time. Compare the Negro in this regard with the American Indian, who, despite his many n.o.ble traits, has fared poorly under the white man's civilization. The Indians of Cuba, for example, were so proud and unbending that they died out under the slavery which the early Spanish imposed upon them; the Negro, because of his teachableness and his pa.s.sive strength, not only survived slavery, but has weathered freedom under very disadvantageous circ.u.mstances.

248. PROGRESS SINCE THE CIVIL WAR.--The Negro has made considerable progress since the Civil War. Many Negroes have become independent farmers and artisans, owning a considerable amount of property.

Despite the backwardness of Negro schools, great progress has been made in the matter of decreasing Negro illiteracy. Whereas at the close of the Civil War some ninety per cent of the Negroes were illiterate, less than a third of our present Negro population is illiterate. In art, literature and science the Negro has already made a tolerable showing. Altogether it is likely that an able and constructive leaders.h.i.+p is being developed among the Negroes.

249. PRESENT ECONOMIC CONDITION.--In spite of the substantial progress made since the Civil War, however, the present economic condition of the Negro is unsatisfactory. The great majority of Negroes are unskilled laborers of a s.h.i.+ftless disposition. Because he is frequently neither a dependable nor an efficient worker, the average Negro tends to receive low wages. The Negro is not skilled in manufacturing or mechanical lines, and he is kept out of the higher trades and professions by reason of illiteracy and social barriers.

Very often the southern Negro is a tenant farmer, carelessly tilling a small plot of land and mortgaging his crop in order to secure the bare necessities of life. Large families, inadequately supported, and reared under insanitary living conditions, are characteristic of the southern Negro. The failure to save money, and the inability to protect themselves against exploitation by unscrupulous white men, are characteristic weaknesses of many Negroes.

250. PRESENT SOCIAL CONDITION.--Though decreasing steadily, Negro illiteracy is still high. This is a serious evil. Not only does illiteracy bar the Negro from the education and training of which he is in such great need, but it allows unscrupulous persons to swindle and exploit him. The Negro furnishes an abnormally large proportion of our prison population. Whether or not this is partly the result of racial characteristics, it is certain that the bad economic and social conditions surrounding Negro life lead to a high degree of criminality. In justice to the Negro it should be noted that in many communities he is apprehended and convicted more often than is the white culprit. Acts which would go unpunished or even unnoticed if committed by white men often arouse the community and lead to severe punishment when committed by Negroes. Statistics on Negro crime are also influenced by the fact that the poverty of the Negro often causes him to go to jail while the white offender escapes with a fine.

A serious evil is race mixture between Negroes and whites. This has gone on since colonial times, until at the present time probably more than half of the Negroes in the United States have some degree of white blood. Such mixtures, while probably not disastrous from the standpoint of biology, have unfortunate consequences socially.

Generally the mulatto offspring are forced to remain members of the Negro group, where they are subjected to social surroundings which too often encourage disease, vice, and degeneracy. The majority of the states now have laws forbidding marriage between Negroes and whites.