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Footnotes 1387
over a large section of the country, burying some portions and affecting the whole. It
is apparently harmless, but beneath its surface smoulder fires which may at any time
burst forth unexpectedly and spread desolation all around.” {The Negro: The Southern-
tf^s Problem [1904], p. 64.)
Charles S. Johnson, Growing Uf in the Black Belty pp. 75 ff,, 98, 280 fassim.
Compare Charles S. Johnson, Shadow of the Plantation (1934), p. 6.
‘‘Within the lower classes a distinction should be made between the ‘folk Negro’ and
the rest of the -population. This distinction is important and more cultural than eco-
nomic; it refers to the family habits and values evolved by the Negro culture under the
institution of slavery. Many of the naive traits and customs of the ‘folk Negro’ are
out of line with the practices of the larger society, but were at times in the past essential
to group survival in cultural isolation. Stripped of their basic African culture by the
exigencies of life in America, they evolved a social life and a culture of their own which
was adequate for survival in their peculiar status in America. The customs, beliefs, and
values developed have been a response to their limited roles within the American social
order, even when many of the traits of the group have been borrowed from early
American settlers and crude pioneers in the cotton country. In a sense, they have been
repositories of certain folkways now outgrown by those groups which were more rapidly
absorbed into the larger currents of American life. The patterns of life, social codes and
social attitudes, set in an early period, have because of the cultural as well as geographical
isolation continued to be effective social controls. In the social consciousness of the group
and in its social life, there has been a considerable degree of organization and internal
cohesion.
“The ‘folk Negro’ organization of life and of values has been essential to survival
and to the most satisfying functioning of the members of the group in their setting.
Many things for which the larger dominant society has one set of values, meanings, and
acceptable behavior patterns—marriage, divorce, extra-marital relations, illegitimacy,
religion, love, death, and so forth—may in this group have quite another set. .This helps
to explain types of personalities developed under the peculiar circumstances of life of
the ‘folk Negro’ and makes their behavior more intelligible. The increase of means of
communication and the introduction of some education is breaking down the cultural
isolation of this group.” (Charles S. Johnson, Growing Uf in the Black Belt^ pp. 75-76.)
36 “’Tjie upper class of the Negro population is that group possessing in general a
family social heritage known and respected by the community, a substantial amount of
education, an occupational level which is achieved by special formal preparation, a
comfortable income, ownership of property, stability of residence, superior cultural
standards, a measure of personal security through influential connections, or the ability
to exert economic or other pressure in the maintenance of this security, or any com-
hination of most of these characteristics. Further, this group is conceived by itself as a
class and is so recognized by others; it is recognized by similar groups in other areas;
and is regarded, whether with approval or disapproval, by other classes as a difl^’erent and
an exclusive society. In this classification are usually the Negro doctor’s families, some
teachers and school principals, successful landowners, and even families without large
possessions but with superior education and a significant family history. The distinction
may be clarified by the observation that the typical rural preacher, although a ‘profes-
sional,’ does not normally belong in the class. The physician almost always does. Most
of the preachers, especially in the Southern rural areas, are about as unlettered as theii
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