The American Negro - What He Was, What He Is and What, He May Become, a Critical and Practical Discussion #220531

The title of this work is sufficiently explicit, I take it, to leave no room for doubt as to its general character, though there is a disposition in some quarters to use other terms than negro to designate that class of our people derived from African origin. For ordinary purposes, the inhabitants of this country may be fairly divided into white and colored classes. Nevertheless, such racial grouping is neither an exact nor a true ethnological designation of the American people, for the reason that it does not agree with known facts. For example, many persons of negroid ancestry, but white in color, are classed with the white race in communities ignorant of their negro origin. On the other hand, many Italians, Portuguese, Mexi cans, and Indians, are dark complexioned, but with out the least strain oi negro blood. Therefore, as there is such a thing as a distinctively negro people, and as it is in indisputable evidence that the Ameri can freed people were primarily derived from a genu ine negro stock, there is ample warrant for using the terms negro and negroid in designating the per son, as well as the forms of thought and action, characteristic of the descendants of such ancestors.