the Negro.

When, about 1830, anti-slavery agitation arose in this country, a new set
of arguments were brought forward to justify slavery. First in importance
were those taken from the Bible. Science also was called upon and brought
forward a large number of facts to demonstrate that by nature the Negro
was especially fitted to be a slave. It happened that about this time
anthropology was being developed. Racial differences were some of the
things which especially interested scientists in this field. The races
were defined according to certain physical characteristics. These, it was
asserted, determined the superiority or inferiority of races. The true
Negro race, said the early anthropologists, had characteristics which
especially indicated its inferiority. Through our geographies, histories
and encyclopedias we have become familiar with representations of this
so-called true Negro, whose chief characteristics were a black skin, woolly
hair, protuberant lips and a receding forehead. Caricaturists seized upon
these characteristics and popularized them in cartoons, in songs and in
other ways. Thus it happened that the Negro, through the descriptions that
he got of himself, has come largely to believe in his inherent inferiority
and that to attain superiority he must become like the white man in color,
in achievements and, in fact, along all lines.

In recent years it has been asked, "Why cannot the Negro attain superiority
along lines of his own," that is, instead of simply patterning after what
the white man has done, why cannot the Negro through music, art, history,
and science, make his own special contributions to the progress of the
world? This question has arisen because in the fields of science and
history there have been brought forward a number of facts which prove this
possibility. First of all, the leading scientists in the field of
anthropology are telling us that while there are differences of races,