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Full resolution (TIFF) - On this page / på denna sida - IX. Leadership and Concerted Action - 39. Negro Improvement and Protest Organizations - 13. Negro Strategy
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856 An American Dilemma
movement should split on several fronts and that it should make the most
of possible allies among the whites. Kelly Miller has this to say:
The progress of all peoples is marked by alterations of combat and contention on
the one hand, and compromise and concession on the other, and progress is the result
of the play and counterplay of these forces. Colored men should have a larger toler-’
ance for the widest latitude of opinion and method. Too frequently what passes as
“an irrepressible conflict” is merely diflFerencc in point of view.^^®
James Weldon Johnson wrote:
We should establish and cultivate friendly interracial relations whenever we can
do so without loss of self-respect. 1 do not put this on the grounds of brotherly love
or any of the other humanitarian shibboleths; I put it squarely on the grounds of
necessity and common sense. Here we are, caught in a trap of circumstances, a minor-
ity in the midst of a majority numbering a hundred and ten millions; and wc have
got to escape from the trap, and escape depends largely on our ability to command
and win the fair will, at least, and the good will, if possible, of that great majority. . . .
It seems to me that the present stage of our situation requires diversified leadership.
1 am certain that there are two elements which are necessary. We need an clement of
radicalism and an element of conservatism; radicalism to keep us from becoming
satisfied and conservatism to give us balance; to the end that the main body will be
steady, but alive, alert, and progressive. We should guard against being stagnant, on
the one hand, or wild-eyed on the other.^^^
Negroes should attempt to develop that type of political culture which
is ideal in any democratic nation. There must be radicals, liberals and
conservatives. Viewed as a going system of collective action all three factions
and many others have their ‘‘functions” in the concert. The intelligent
citizen should be able to see this. It is required of him, of course, to take
his own stand and to fight by his individual opinion, but, nevertheless, to
be able, not only to “see the viewpoint of the other fellow,” but actually to
understand and appreciate his “function” in the system. When this mutual
understanding is reached in a nation—which is a high stage of political
culture—the radical or the conservative will find that it does not decrease
in the least his efficiency in fighting for his own opinions. On the contrary,
he can strike harder and better—at the same time as he becomes a little
more careful about where he hits.
An American Negro should, in the same way, select the front where he
wants to take his stand. But he should keep his eyes wide open to the
desirability that other Negroes have other stands. The Negro labor organ-
izer should be grateful that there are others who fight for his civil liberties
and still others who do the welfare work for his potential members. The
militant Negro should be able to see the usefulness—in some situations
—
of some Negro leaders who understand how to do the “pussy-footing,” and
contrariwise. The present writer has found many individual Negro leaders,
most of them active in the organizations discussed in this chapter, who see
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