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Richard Wright.  “Are We Solving America’s Race Problem?”  May 24, 1945.

Occasion:  Speech given in New York City for the radio program entitled “America’s Town Meeting On Air.”  Mr. Wright was a member of the panel that discussed racial problems of recent years and also offered solutions.  At the time of this address, Wright was well known as the author of Native Son, and his latest book, Black Boy was currently a best seller.

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Are We Solving America’s Race Problem?

1

I take issue with Mr. Elmer Carter’s dangerous theory—dangerous theory of a gradual solution of the race problem.  If his theory is believed and accepted we stand in danger of letting race violence creep upon us unawares.  It’s true that under the stress of war the Nation was compelled to admit Negroes to a few areas of life, heretofore reserved exclusively for whites.  But let us not be deluded into thinking that these war gains will be lasting.  Already a desire for normalcy has gripped the Nation.  We all remember the bloody race riots that swept the country after World War I when the Nation went back to its peacetime habits.    

2

Mr. Carter hints with pride that in 1936 seven Negroes were lynched and in 1944 only two were lynched.  Is Mr. Carter asking us to thank lynch mobs for this record?       

3

Let’s get down to cases.  The race problem is not being solved.  Indeed, it is becoming more acute.  Witness the recent outbreaks in Beaumont, Texas; Detroit; and Los Angeles.    

4

What do we mean by a solution of the race problem?    

5

It means a nation which there will exist no residential segregation, no Jim Crow army, no Jim Crow navy, no Jim Crow Red Cross Blood Bank, no Negro institutions, no laws prohibiting intermarriage, no customs assigning Negroes to inferior positions.  We would simply be Americans, and the Nation would be the better for it.  A flood of creative energy would flow from the millions of Negroes and whites filled with a hunger for a richer life.    

6

But the contrary is true; the Nation is split.  Racial segregation is our national policy, a part of our culture, tradition, and morality.  White America feels that black America possesses no rights commanding respect, that Negroes are to be kept firmly in an area branded as inferior.  White America feels that it is right to treat Negroes wrong and wrong to treat them right.    

7

Tonight Mr. Ives will tell you that jobs are a solution to the problem; that fair employment practices will do the trick.  Now let’s look at this proposition.  Before the war, Harlem had a slogan.  They said, “There’s nothing wrong with Harlem but what 25,000 jobs won’t cure.”    

8

Well, war came and Harlem got full employment.  Then in August 1943, a racial outbreak swept that unhappy ghetto.  Why?  They had jobs, but they did not have respect, justice, freedom of living space.  They had jobs, but their sons and daughters were being kicked and hounded in the Army and the Navy and they resented it.    

9

Let’s not let the illusion of jobs blind us to the deeper cancer of race hate in this country.  I’m for Federal and State FEPC, but it’s merely a step in the right direction, not a solution.    

10

Again I take issue with Mr. Carter.  He tells us that there is now a nationwide campaign to raise $1,500,000 for Negro education.  Now, not only is this inadequate, but the method of asking for it is wrong.  It’s public charity and it’s shameful.  Every child in America, white or black, ought to have the right to an education without somebody passing around the begging cup.    

11

The paternalistic attitude of whites towards Negroes must stop because it lulls whites into feelings of dangerous complacency about rising racial tensions.  Yes, I would deprive white people of the luxury of feeling good when they treat Negroes kindly.    

12

I’d advocate the extension of simple and straight justice to everybody.  The race problem cuts deep.  Race hate in subtle guises is taught in our schools, our homes, and our churches.  We see reflections of it in our films and hear it over our radios.  But listen, here is something of great and decisive importance that is overlooked.  Twenty-five years ago there were only a few thousand Negroes clamoring for justice.  But today there are 13 million, and they resent the degradation of their second-class citizenship.  Gradual solutions are out of date.  They hide the present gravity of this problem which confronts the Nation for the first time in all of its tragic fullness.    

13

Here is the truth, whites can no longer regard Negroes as a passive, obedient minority.  Whether we have a violent or peaceful solution of this problem depends upon the degree to which white Americans can purge their minds of the illusions that they own and know Negroes.    

14

Negro confidence and dignity increase day by day.  The Negro realizes that his relationship to America is symbolic.  He knows that the world is watching his bid for manhood.  He knows that the widespread knowledge of his plight constitutes a great moral weapon; he will not hesitate to use that weapon.  Unless white Americans pry their minds out of their horse-and buggy ways of regarding Negroes, violence may be upon us.  These are the facts; this is the issue.