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Full resolution (TIFF) - On this page / på denna sida - X. The Negro Community - 44. Non-Institutional Aspects of the Negro Community - 5. Negro Achievements
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Chapter 44. Non-institutional Aspects 987
industrial concern, there have been only half a dozen outstanding Negro
natural scientists, and perhaps a dozen or so outstanding Negro social
scientists.*^ And so it goes, down the list of fields in which superior per-
formance IS regarded as noteworthy. Most of the fields in which Negroes
commonly attain superior performance are regarded as lowly—such as
agriculture and personal service—^and so no attention is paid to the high
performance, and it is not recognized as an achievement. The esteemed
fields in which Negroes have made many achievements are those of the arts,
of the sports and of entertainment.
Before we go on to these, we call attention to the high performance of
Negroes in a field that is often overlooked by whites. We refer to the
fighting for the Negro cause—the field of race leadership. If we include
this field with politics, we can honestly say that some of the most capable
statesmen in the United States are Negroes, whatever we may think of their
policies. If these men, with their training in practical politics, were white,
they would no doubt be national leaders just as they are now race leaders.
This was almost recognized of Frederick Douglass and Booker T. Washing-
ton, but the two other Negro statesmen of equal stature W. E. B. Du Bois
and James Weldon Johnson—have been virtually ignored by whites. On a
second level, still high when compared with most white national leaders,
are such men as Elmer Carter, Lester Granger, Charles Johnson, A.
Philip Randolph, and Walter White. A woman, Mary McLeod Bethune,
belongs on this level. Younger men, with no small achievement and still
greater promise, are Earl Dickerson, Adam Clayton Powell and Roy Wil-
kins. In addition to these, there are wise Negro politicians all over the
country, in the national offices of the betterment and protest organizations,
and in the federal government in Washington. Working on the Negro
problem gives one a set of practical ideals, a training in strategy, and a
respect for courage, patience, and loyalty, that are necessary to a first-rate
politician.
It is in the field of entertainment that the Negroes achievements are most
widely recognized, and the oppoftunities made available to him there have
made it possible for him to develop excellence in the economically sub-
sidiary fields of arts and sports. The Negro has not only provided enter-
tainment and art but also material for entertainment and art by whites:
the Negro folk tales of Uncle Remus were set in writing by Joel Chandler
Harris j
many of the rhythmic songs of the Negro have provided the basic
themes for white composers (Stephen Foster, for example) j
the greatest
popularizers of ragtime music were A1 Jolson and Irving Berlin j
some of
the best dramas of Negro life are by Du Bose Heywardj
the Negroes
* It may be remarked, in passing, that in sociology, which is the branch of science under
which most of the studies of Negro life and problems have gone on, Negroes have occasio^ially
made first-rank achievements in the field.
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