Finally, the American Negro Academy must point out a
practical path of advance to the Negro people; there lie before
every Negro today hundreds of questions of policy and right
which must be settled and which each one settles now, not in
accordance with any rule, but by impulse or individual
preference; for instance: What should be the attitude of
Negroes toward the educational qualification for voters? What
should be our attitude toward separate schools? How should we
meet discriminations on railways and in hotels? Such questions
need not so much specific answers for each part as a general
expression of policy, and nobody should be better fitted to
announce such a policy than a representative honest Negro
Academy.
All this, however, must come in time after careful
organization and long conference. The immediate work before us
should be practical and have direct bearing upon the situation
of the Negro. The historical work of collecting the laws of the
United States and of the various States of the Union with regard
to the Negro is a work of such magnitude and importance that no
body but one like this could think of undertaking it. If we
could accomplish that one task we would justify our existence.
In the field of Sociology an appalling work lies before us.
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