believe that the Negro is capable of as high a degree of civilization
as the Anglo-Saxon. They believe him to be by nature inferior to the
white man. But I contend that the Negro is not by nature inferior to
the white man, but that he is as capable of reaching the American type
of civilization as the white man. This is obvious from the phenomenal
strides made by him within the past thirty-six years along material,
moral and educational lines.

No one seems to take on and absorb the American civilization more
readily than the American Negro, and if he has the same advantages and
was allowed to enjoy the same full and free citizenship along with his
white neighbor, his advancement in civilization would be as rapid as
that of the white man.

There are to be found now not a few Negro men and women whose culture
and refinement would not suffer by comparison with that of the best
white people of this country. It is not native incapacity and the want
of vital manhood that limit the Negro's progress in civilization, but
it is the fight made against him on the ground of his previous
condition. Remove this and give the Negro the white man's chance and
he will keep pace with the white man in his march toward civilization.


THIRD PAPER.

WILL IT BE POSSIBLE FOR THE NEGRO TO ATTAIN, IN THIS COUNTRY, UNTO THE
AMERICAN TYPE OF CIVILIZATION?

BY R. S. LOVINGGOOD, A. M.