C. C. Scott Speech: Submission, Emigration, or What?

In 1907, C. C. Scott gave a speech at a "race conference" that was titled "Submission, Emigration, or What?" The text of the speech, which is reproduced below, was published in The State newspaper. Part of the text appears to be missing. Specifically, the section titled "Three Elements" appears to be missing text after paragraph two.

In the brief space of 15 minutes, the time allowed me for a discussion of this question, it will be impossible to say much that I desire to say; and yet I have no complaint to make on this score for the reasons that another speaker will discuss this same subject, and the committee on program doubtless felt that two speakers, each seeking 15 minutes on the same subject, would be apt to say more that will be helpful and beneficial, and at the same time will give opportunity for a larger representation throughout the State on the programme than one speaker would have done. This subject is a suggestive one. While it is not the one I would have selected as my theme for this occasion I cheerfully accepted it when I found it was the judgement of the committee that I should do so.

I feel that before proceeding to say anything bearing on the subject I ought to say that I have given it prayerful and careful consideration and have asked Him who knoweth our thoughts before we have framed them into words, to so direct what I shall say that nothing shall be uttered by me that shall have the slightest tinge of unkindness or malice or uncharitableness. The occasion that calls us together is too serious to allow any feelings of selfishness or spirit of resentment to enter our breasts, but should inspire each of us to say what he feels will meet the approval of his God.

Two things are suggested to me to discuss and the other or others I am, by implication, to suggest and discuss. They are 'Submission, Emigration, or What?'

In other words, Shall we submit to the conditions confronting us and overpowering us, sapping our manhood and womanhood and bringing us down to the verge of despair and desperation; or shall we take steps to indicate the wholesale emigration of our people; or what shall we do?

The first thing to consider is what are the conditions?

A Review of Causes

With the triumph of the Union forces and the fall of the Confederacy came the emancipation of nearly 4,000,000 of slaves, and in an incredibly short space of time all the male members of the slave population who were 21 years of age and over given the right of franchise. Prior to the Civil War, South Carolina, like every slave-holding state, was ruled by what may be properly termed an oligarchy.

The class of people designated as "poor whites" had but little to do with the government. The white people, too poor to own slaves, in many instances fared worse than many of the slaves. 

Among the wealthier class of slave owners, a sort of paternalism maintained on the plantations, which constituted their chief wealth, and some of the slaves enjoyed a degree of freedom that made their condition but a nominal slavery.

The close of the war found this slave-holding, property-owning class crushed in spirit, bankrupt, conquered, but not subdued.

They believed that slavery was a divine institution just as truly as do the Mormons believe that Mormonism is a divine institution. They felt and believed that the wrestling from them by force of arms this large mass of ignorant human beings whose value was estimated in the inventory with their other chattels, and placing them on a civil footing with themselves was a degradation they could not submit to.

Three Elements

The close of the war brought to the surface three political and social elements, the governing class of whites, the poor whites and the negro freedman. Much has been said and written about this mistake made by the national government in giving the ballot to the negro. I believe the day will come when the consensus of opinion will be that the real mistake was in so soon giving the South, the entire South, irrespective of class, color,  or condition, the right to take part in the affairs of government. History makes but little mention of it, but it was nevertheless a fact that that there was, at the close of the Civil War, a respectable number of negroes of intelligence and property worth, and they, with others of their race, waited on their former masters and political rulers and requested them to take the reigns of government under the new order of things but their overtures were spurned and their requests treated with scorn. Instead they gave them the black code, which discriminated between whites and blacks as citizens and even in the courts of justice and put the former slaves practically into a condition of second slavery. This compelled congress and the president to provide for the State a military government.

The next attempt on our part was to nominate and elect to office some of the best and most liberal Southern white men in the State but many declined to serve, and the few who were farseeing enough to realize that that was the only salvation for the South were hounded and ostracized until they were either driven from the State or out of politics. Then pandemonium reigned, and the disgraceful conduct of the political crew composed for the most of a few of the wealthier Southern whites, some of the Southern poor whites, and white and colored carpetbaggers and ignorant negroes gave pal- [text omitted?]

forcible overthrow and practical suppression of the Republican Party throughout the South. 

Promise was made at that time by the most respectable element of the Southern whites to give equal and exact justice to the negroes if they would join them in overthrowing the then dominant party. This promise has never been kept.

The Negro's Rights

Step by step nearly every right of the negro, civil and political, has been either abridged or completely wrested from him.

He is denied the right to vote. He is practically denied the right to sit on a jury. He is denied fair treatment by the railway and steamboat companies. In fact, he is not even given decent treatment by any of the common carriers. The jim crow car is, as a matter of fact, not a separate car for negroes, but a car for all classes of white men and the low-bred negroes to lounge in and to smoke in, for the transportation of poor unfortunates of both races who are from time to time sent to the lunatic asylum, and for transportation of the chain-gang and the penitentiary convicts, while their waiting rooms are the resting places for not only the white and colored railway employees, but for any and every tramp and street loafer.

Sad and extensive experiences have convinced me that, as a rule, an appeal to the conductors or agents is more apt to provoke an insult than to obtain redress. The negro is not even allowed his pro rata share of the funds he pays into the treasury for the education of his children, and if surprised when he sees men of the South who are presumed to know better proclaim to the public that the white South is burdened with the education of the black South. In some instances, he is not even allowed to have teachers of his own race to instruct his children. The negro is the South's chief assert in trade. Take him out of the South and you will bankrupt it. And yet he is the South's scapegoat. Blatant politicians whose chief stock in trade is abuse of the negro, say the South does not want him and does not need him; and yet this same class of politicians enact laws to prevent his leaving, and punish by imprisonment and fines men who have the temerity to undertake to transport him elsewhere. As a tenant on the farm he has done surprisingly well under most adverse conditions, but has not been a success in the line of accumulating or acquiring property for himself or building up the land of the landlord. Under him the farm lands are becoming poorer, and between him and the landlord, the relation is becoming more strained.

Crime among negroes is on the increase. Laws especially framed and enacted for his punishment, disfranchisement and degradation are being enacted and punishment for his offenses are gradually becoming more severe.

Lynchings and other inhuman and unlawful treatment of negroes has become an epidemic.

Such, briefly and in part, is his condition.

Emigrate? No!

Shall we emigrate? No.

Emigrate where? Emigrate how? Emigrate when? Emigrate why, or for what?

When some practical business statesman who understands the situation shall suggest for our consideration some feasible plan for our emigration it will then be in order for us to consume the time in considering it. Shall we submit to our present conditions? Well might we quote Hamlet's soliloquy: "To be or not to be; that is the question: whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, or to take up arms against a sea of troubles, And by opposing end them?"

Submit? No!

Again I ask, "Shall be [we?] submit?" I answer a thousand times no.

If not submission, then what?

Aye, there's the rub.

A few things seem clear to my mind.

The negro's, in fact the whole South's, greatest enemy is the politician. The influence that has dominated the South during the past 16 years has been a gall of bitterness to the negro, and as blighting a curse to the morals of the South as a heavy frost to the soil in midsummer. It has sown dragons' teeth and the time of reaping seems at hand. Permit me to suggest a few things. I feel that each race may do towards relieving the tension and improving conditions for I verily believe that a few more outbreaks will bring about results that will be distressful and surprising to both races. God forbid that any further outbreaks take place. But let us as negroes be frank and outspoken and manly, and say that in the event of such outbreaks we do not intend to submit to have our persons and premises searched without due process of law, in some instances by the mob in military uniform, and our wives and children beaten and outraged with impunity and our and their bodies kicked about the streets without hazarding our lives in their protection. Much can be done by us who are gathered here, and other like us to improve existing conditions.

The Alternative

Let us resolve, as many of us have resolved, to be even more temperate in speech and action, especially in times of intense excitement. Let us preachers say nothing from our pulpits or in private to our membership about white people that we do not think it would be wise or proper to say to their faces. Let us cultivate and inculcate in our people a greater spirit of friendliness for Southern white people. This does not mean a spirit of servility or toadyism or hypocrisy. Some white people like the negro of cringing looks and humble mien, showing his teeth and bowing and scraping, with hat in hand, and proclaiming that the Southern white man is his best friend, and all such twaddle, but others, and most of them, generally size up that class of negroes and may use them but will never trust and respect them.

Let us cultivate the spirit of the golden rule, not only in our dealings with our own race, but also with our white neighbors. The rule will solve the South's problems. That rule will solve the nation's problem. That rule will solve all human problems.

Let us have more faith in and respect for one another. Wise or unwise it may be, but I make it a point not to vilify or abuse a man of my race, prominent or lowly, to a white man. I feel that if the intelligent white people take the intelligent negroes at the estimate they and others of their race have put upon one another in public print and speech and in private conversation they will conclude that our preachers are a class of adulterers, our women a class of prostitutes, and that we are generally a race of degenerates and reprobates. Let us talk one another up. Let us forever quit our denominational controversies and abuses. And then again we must arise our standard of morality. Do not misunderstand me. I say we must.

A man chided me recently for saying in public that the white people are our superiors, mentally, morally, intellectually and financially. And they are. God did not make them so, but a thousand years of training did it. We have had but a little more than 40 and have been heavily handicapped but we have had Jehovah's pillar of cloud by day and His pillar of fire by night. Sometimes I have also felt that we have found our Moses and sometimes I have felt that I have been mistaken. Perhaps he has not yet come down from the mountain, and perhaps he has. We have certainly had too many Aarons along certain lines. Then again let us not only encourage but seek to have among us, in our churches and Sunday schools, in our school commencements and anniversaries and Emancipation day celebrations our best white people. Let us command rather than demand their respect. Seek their cooperation and moral support in saving our boys and girls from lives of sin. Seek their help in our efforts to establish and maintain law and order leagues, and in other matters that pertain to our moral and spiritual welfare, and let us show proper appreciation and gratitude. Let us help our people to more fully appreciate the fact that it is far better and more honorable, enumerative and satisfactory to have our children be the servants of decent, respectable white people in their homes than to serve on chaingangs and in prisons. Let is also train and encourage one another to feel and believe that it is not dishonorable or humiliating to be the servants or one another, but that we ought to feel special pride in serving one another.

I have read somewhere that there is a Jewish proverb that says "He who fails to give his child a trade teaches him to steal." The negro is woefully neglecting this essential part of his child's training, and the result is an increasing number of street loafers, tramps and criminals. Compel our children to learn trades.

Seek and if possible secure the moral support of the best white people in your community. You will find them valuable friends in time of need. Remember, character is your greatest asset, and that everybody can possess it. Let organized effort be made in each community to keep our women, especially our young women, off the streets at night. Above all, let us remember: "There is a divinity that shapes our ends rough hew them as we may be." If God made us to be inferior to our white brethren and fixed our capacities and capabilities within certain bounds we can never go beyond them; and if, on the other hand,  He has made of one all nations of the earth, giving each individual member capacities and capabilities limited only by circumstances and environments, it will only be a question of time when conditions will change and development will expand and enlarge until the negro, freed from baneful influences and unfavorable environments, will develop in culture and character til he shall arrive at the fullness of the stature of a man.