THE MUCKRAKERS' ATTITUDE TOWARD THE NEGRO;

A STUDY IN BENIGHTED NEGLECT

by
David P. Aldstadt

As the twentieth century dawned in America, progressive reforms were being instituted
in many large cities and a number of Western and Midwestern states. About this time there
appeared a group of writers who aided the Progressives in their attempts to make the public
aware of its problems and its power to do something about them. These "Muckrakers" were
invaluable to the Progressives because their writing, published in widely read magazines and
newspapers, helped to focus public attention on the more flagrant social evils of the day.

There was, however, one particular segment of the social order which was largely
overlooked by the Progressives. They ignored the problem of race and the social and political
limitations which were put upon the Negro in American society. The basic problem here
•vas the fact that many Progressives were Southerners who simply refused to recognize the
Negro as anything but a second class citizen. That they failed to take up the cause of the
Negro is not necessarily a condemnation of the Progressives. They were, after all, products
of their age -— an age that accepted without question the basic inferiority of the Negro and
doubted his ability to operate as an intelligent citizen in a democratic society.

The Muckrakers, too, gave little attention to the problem of race but did, at least,
recognize that it existed. As such, they provided one of the few vehicles for bringing atten-
tion to the existence of one of the biggest problems of American democracy.

At the end of the Civil War the Negro numbered around four million. By 1900 he
had doubled his numbers. What is more, he had begun to move into the city and to compete
with the poorer whites and the incoming immigrants in the labor market. As a result of this,
Southern attitudes on racism found ready acceptance among many of the Northern laboring
classes with the result that the Negro was excluded from much of the Progressive legislation
of the era. As C. Vann Woodward points outin his Strange Career of Jim Crow, the Negro,
by 1900, had actually regressed from the standpoint of attaining social and political rights
since the Civil War.1 An attitude had grown up that segregation of the Negro and his
political disfranchisement was a natural state of affairs and to try to change this state of
affairs was, practically speaking, impossible — in fact, a defiance of natural law. William
Graham Sumner's dictum tht "stateways do not make folkways" became the rationale for
those who would oppose legislation favorable to the Negro. That the Negro had not always
been disfranchised or strictly segregated and that there were, in fact, "forgotten alternatives"
to the Negro problem is pointed out by Woodward, but the fact remained that these alterna-
tives were, indeed, forgotten and Sumner's dictum fully accepted. The situation in 1900,
then, was one of "capitulation to racism" on the part of just about every element of society.2
Northern liberals, desirous of political union with Southern liberals, abandoned their tradi-
tional stand against Southern racism and the North and the South were reunited politically
at the expense of the Negro. American imperialism also lent its effects to the crumbling re-
sistance to racism. "As America shouldered the White Man's Burden she took up at the
same time many Southern attitudes on the subject of race."3 At the same time, whatever
internal resistance to racism that there was within the South was crumbling as the contest be-
tween conservativies and liberals took on an increasingly racist character. Populism, a
doctrine which had originally been non-racial in nature, developed racist tendencies when it
became obvious that it could not control the Negro vote.
The result of the above was a type of permission to hate which found its rationale in
Sumner's statement. As Woodward says, "it was the contention of Sumner's classic Folk-
ways . . . that 'legislation cannot make mores' and that 'stateways cannot change folkways'.
Sumner described these 'folkways' as 'uniform, universal in the group, imperative, and invari-
able.' Perhaps it was not his intention, but Sumner's teachings lent credence to the existence
of a primieval rock of human nature upon which the waves of legislation beat in vain."4

Ironically, the racists in instituting the Jim Crow laws of the period were, in a sense,
successful in doing just what Sumner said could not be done — change folkways by state-
ways. They were able to give the prestige of the law to the fact that the Negro was inferior
and gave segregationists a legal excuse for their actions.
Agitation in the North against the Southern treatment of the Negro brought forth a
Southern rationalization of its position which was accepted by much of the nation as a whole.
Citing Northern lynchings and the treatment of Negro laborers as examples, they held that
the Negro was actually better off in the South because they, the Southerners, understood the
Negro. The Negro was uniquely the Southerner's problem — he had lived with the Negro
all his life and he knew how he thought and acted. This argument was cogently presented in
many magazines and newspapers of the time. Perhaps the most prestigious and well written
arguments appeared in an article written by Thomas Nelson Page, a Southern author and
later Woodrow Wilson's ambassador to Italy, for McClure's Magazine.5 Page's article was
written at the request of S.S. McClure who, because he was concerned about the race prob-
lem, was seeking to generate-interest in it by giving it as much publicity as possible. Slavery,
said Page, had been good for the Negro, "indeed, this very period of slavery in America had
given to him the only semblance of civilization which the Negro race possessed since the dawn
of history. ... It left him a trained laborer and in good physical condition." When the
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war ended, "scarcely an adult was not a trained laborer or a skilled artisan." What was
more, the South had faithfully applied itself to giving the "Negroes all the opportunities
necessary for attaining an education", and the result was simply that the Negro had used his
opportunity to "oppose the white race."7 Page divided Negroes into three classes. The first
class consisted of the educated Negro, a type usually "quite disreputable" and concerned with
making trouble. This proved the futility of giving him an education. The second class was
the "sensible" types — the ones without education but trained in slavery and therefore the
"backbone" of the race. The third class was the totally ignorant Negroes. These made up
the largest part of the race and were people with whom one could not reason.

The Negro, said Page, had accomplished little since emancipation and what he had ac-
complished had been done for him by white men in the South. The Negro had, in fact,
regressed since emancipation and segregation was, therefore, the result of failure on the part
of the Negro to hold his own. Page ended his article with a quote from William Hannibal
Thomas, which, said Page, was all the more valid because Thomas himself was a Negro:
"All who know the Negro recognize, however, that the chief and overpowering clement in his
make-up is an imperious sexual impulse." In summary, Page averred that what he had
written were the views of "people who know and understand the Negro."8

Prevailing attitudes and growing legal limitations combined to make the Negro's
situation at the turn of the century the worst it had been since emancipation. Ignored by
the important political parties, including the Progressives, and victim of a feeling which held
that it was hopeless and even dangerous to try and help the Negro, he had few champions.
Negro self-help attempts such as Booker T. Washington's Atlanta Compromise, the.Urban
League, and the NAACP only served to point out the fact that the solution to the Negro
problem needed the help of concerned whites. But this was slow in coming and those con-
cerned, though sincere, were limited by their own prejudices. This was very much the case
insofar as the Muckrakers were concerned.

Nevertheless, it is not surprising that when S.S. McClure began his magazine, the
Negro would receive some attention. _In 1904, McClure commissioned Carl Schurz to write
an article stating the case for the Negro. This article had the desired effect of eliciting
response in many of the leading magazines of the day including the one by Page." The
article demolished the argument that the Northerner had no right to discuss the "peculiar prob-
lem" of the South: "Undoubtedly there are in the South men who understand their neigh-
bors' interests best; but there are others who do not understand those interests at all, and whose
opinions in several important historic instances have overruled the opinions of those who
did."10 He goes on to show by statistics that the Negro, contrary to prejudiced opinions then
popular, would in fact work without compulsion if given the chance. It was true that a
large portion of the Negro population was ignorant, but it was also true that many voting
whites were just as ignorant. His solution to this problem would be to give the Negro a
better education. To those who argued that education made the Negro unfit for work and a
trouble-maker, he provided statistics to show what the educated Negro had accomplished.
Schurz agreed that giving the ballot to the Negro willy-nilly had been a mistake and
that this should have been done gradually. B ut, taking the vote away from him at this stage
was unconstitutional, immoral, and dangerous to the working of a proper democracy. His
points were well argued but it is significant to note that this article, considered to be the most
progressive treatment of the Negro at that time, made no case for social equality. In conclu-
sion, Schurz allowed that the Negro was probably intellectually inferior to the white man:
"They will also be able to show that, even supposing the average negro not to be able to reach
the level of the average white man, the negro m ay reach a much higher level than he now oc-
cupies, and that, for his own good as well as the good of society, he should be brought up
to as high a level as he can reach."11
Throughout the period, McClure's continued to give limited attention to the Negro
problem. Perhaps the most sensational treatmsnt was two articles on lynching by Ray Stan-
nard Baker.1- This Muckraker was so affected by what he found that he became the most

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prominent writer on the racial problem.

Baker's lynching articles typified Muckraking treatment and philosophy. They felt
that, in most cases, a simple but in-depth factual account served the best purpose in calling
attention to social problems. They liked to let the facts speak for themselves. According-
ly, for instance, McClure's gave equal time to Schurz and Page while offering little editorial
comment. Baker's articles were in line with this approach. He simply wrote what he saw
and heard, giving graphic and detailed accounts of the lynching of Negroes while pointing
out the failure of the law to prevent the crime from occuring and its ineptitude in dealing with
the lynch mobs. Typically, Bakers articles dealt with lynching in both the North and the
South.
The articles dealing with the racial problem in McClure's were not numerous and
there was little offered in the way of analysis or solutions. Indeed, from 1904 to 1915,
there were only the articles by Schurz, Page and Baker plus one by William Archer who
gave anything but an enlightened treatment of the issue.13 Archer, a Southerner, offered yet
another Southern analysis to the treatment of the Negro. It is interesting to note that there
appeared no refutation of his arguments on the pages of the leading Muckraking journal. All
of the traditional phobias and prejudices were included in the article with primary emphasis
on the Negro's sexual drives. Archer argued against the Atlanta Compromise on the basis
that, "if the Atlanta Compromise were possible in every way, it would be impossible on the
side of sex. For two races to dwell side by side in large numbers, and to be prohibited
from coming together in legal marriage, is unwholesome and demoralizing to both."14 This
comment, taken out of context, sounds like an argument against segregation, if Archer had
been a moralist. He goes further, however, and argues that intermarriage could not be per-
mitted because of the "essential and innate inferiority of the negro." Also, the Negro had a
low moral standard and thus Southern manhood would be sorely tempted. 35

Though the McClure's articles prompted a number of replies in the magazines of the
day, it is somewhat of a gauge of the relative importance which "enlightened" Americans as-
signed to the problems of the Negro that this most famous of all Muckraking magazines de-
voted so little space to it. There simply were other, more pressing, issues at the time. There
was no refutation that the Negro was physiologically, mentaly, or socially inferior to the
white. The Negro should have political equality in a democracy and he should be protected
from inhumane treatment, but further than this the Muckraker did not go. There was no

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really deep assessment of the evils of social inferiority. It is, therefore, little wonder that ac-
complishment was small when on the one hand it was argued that the Negro should be given
equal political rights, and on the other agreed that he was an inferior being. It was simply
too easy then to argue that a properly run democracy could not allow itself to be hampered
by a section of the electorate which let itself be dictated by passion rather than intelligence.
To allow the Negro political equality was dangerous. That the Muckraker defended the first
argument but admitted to the second was not so much a comment on his shortsightedness as
proof that he was a product of his age.

Giving far more space and attention to the Negro problem than McClure's was a
magazine called the Independent. This magazine, like McClure's, gave space to both sides
of the questions and here one can find well-argued reasons as to why the Negro was the
Southerner's problem and why the Negro deserved no better than he got.10 On the other
hand, Booker T. Washington was a regular contributor to the magazine, and in a number
of articles made a case for the fact that the Negro, if given the chance, was able and willing
to help himself.17 There was, however, no mention of political or social rights in his articles.
There was also a series of articles dealing with the Negro's situation in various Northern
cities such as Cincinnati, Syracuse, and Cleveland. Here, the main point driven home was
that de facto segregation was as much a fact in the North as in the South.18 This "look to
your own nest" attitude was another argument which typified the Muckrakers' treatment of
the Negro. They were always very careful to point out the universality of the problem and
the fact that the North had no right to take a holier than thou attitude toward the South where
the Negro was concerned. This, of course, was quite true but it inadvertently strengthened
the Southern argument that it was the Southerner who really understood the Negro and his
problems and that his treatment of the Negro was better because of it.

The editorial staff of The Independent gave more comment to the racial situation than
that of any Muckraking magazine. Hardly an issue appeared during this period which did
not deal with some aspect of race. There were editorials dealing with pay for Negro teachers,
Negro convict labor, lynching and disfranchisement. The editor of the magazine was one of
the few white writers of the day who actually took a stand on the fact that the Negro was
not inferior to the white man: "Those who try to keep the negro in subjection are ignorant
of negroes and of human nature. They believe negroes are naturally inferior to white people.
That has never been proved and is very doubtful." 10 He was, however, just as misguided as

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many others on another important point: "Negroes do not ask for social equality. What they
ask for is simple equality of legal rights."-0

There was only one Muckraker of major importance who devoted attention to the
Negro problem. As indicated above, this was Ray Stannard Baker. Besides his articles for
McClure's, he wrote on the racial situation in The Independent, the Arena, the American
Magazine, and the Cosmopolitan. He is also responsible for the most complete and in-depth
study of the Negro during this period in a series of articles for the American. These were
1
later published in book form?

His ideas and attitudes on he racial issue best sum up the ideas and attitudes of the
Muckrakers as a group. Perhaps his best article was one published in The Independent in
1909. In the article, Baker deals with his answer to, and refutation of, a decision of the U.S.
Supreme Court upholding a decision of the Kentucky Supreme Court which forbade coedu-
cation of whites and blacks in Berea College. The decision of the Supreme Court, said
Baker, was essentially a decision dealing with the limitation of democracy in America: "De-
mocracy is not law, not customs, not institutions. Democracy is a spirit. And if that spirit
does not prevail among our people, should we retain laws on the statute books which we do
not intend to obey?" The North was no different from the South in this: "We have no
stones to cast at the South. This is our problem too." Baker believed that the "Supreme
Court decision in the Berea College case has been attacked in some quarters, but does it not
represent the real views of the mass of American citizens?" He criticized Americans as hy-
pocrites: "It is not the negro who is wrong, but the democracy. The final test of any de-
mocracy is its humblest citizen." Democracy, said, Baker, was manifested in the spirit which
prevailed among its citizens. He felt that white citizens did not have to eat with the Negro
nor marry daughters to his sons. "We cannot look for laws to accomplish what the spirit
back of them does not warrant." The Americans needed a revival of the spirit of demo-
cracy and this could be attained only by the old fashioned remedies of education and pas-
sionate preaching of the "religion of service."22 As such, of course. Baker was a disciple of
William Graham Sumner.

Baker's book, Following the Color Line, was a statement of the condition of the Negro
in American life in which he reiterated in his conclusions essentially the same as discussed
above. We have the Negro with us, said Baker, inferior or not. Socially he may remain
segregated, politically he cannot, if our democracy is to survive.

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 Our present day society has come to the realization that the Negro in our society
will never attain true political equality without an equal amount of social equality. We have
also come to realize that true gains over prejudice can only be obtained when laws are in-
stituted to deal with them. This has been borne out by the fact that the Negro's very real gains
in the last ten years have come through the operation and institution of intelligent legislation
dealing with the problem.
In 1900 his was not the case. It was simply accepted that laws could not help to
change peoples' natural prejudices. ^"Social equality, it was believed, was undesirable, not only
from the standpoint of the white man, but the Negro as well. As a result of this prevailing
belief, whatever was done for the Negro and the problem of race in American society had
to do with making the Negro politically equal. The NAACP is a good example of this con-
cept. As men of their time, the Muckrakers followed this line of reasoning. They could
not be expected to have foresight beyond the limitations of prevailing attitudes and accepted
truth. We of a later age know that political equality is a sham if social equality is not
achieved. But we have the advantage of a generation of racial strife to teach us this lesson.
The Muckraker was not concerned about the Negro as a person, but about the limitations of
this constitutional rights as detrimental to democratic society. As such he never really came to
grips with the essential problem.
Another point to be made regarding the Muckrakers' treatment of the Negro is that
his concern is a bit overrated by historians.23 Race was of little concern in this period.
There were other groups and issues which demanded and received attention. In conclusion
one could say that the accomplishments of the Muckrakers on behalf of the Negro were pro-
portionate to the effort extended.

REFERENCES

1. C. Vann Woodward, The Strange Career of Jim Crow (New York: Oxford University
Press, 1957).
2. Ibid.
3. Ibid., p. 54.
4. Ibid., p. 88.
5. Thomas Nelson Page, "The Negro: The Southerner's Problem," McClure's Magazine,
XXIII (May, 1905), pp. 96-102.

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 6. Ibid., p. 96.
7. Ibid., p. 97.
8. /foid., p. 102.
9. Carl Schurz, "Can the South Solve the Negro Question?" Ibid., XXII (January, 1904),
259-275.
10. Ibid., p. 268.
11. Ibid., p. 274.
12. Ray Stannard Baker,-"Lynching in the South," ibid., XXIV (January, 1905), 299-
314, and "Lynching in the North," ibid., (February, 1950), 422-430.
13. William Archer, "Black and White in the South," ibid., XXXIII (January, 1909),
324-338.
14. Ibid., p. 330.
15. Ibid., p. 332.
16. See especially, Furnifold M. Simmons, "The Political Future of the Southern Negro,"
Th Independent, LX (October, 1906), 1521-1526.
17. See Booker T. Washington articles in ibid., Vols. LIX, LX, LXII.
18. See Frank W. Quillan articles in ibid., Vol. LXVIII.
19. Editorial, "The Negro Question and its Solution," The Independent, LXXVII (Nov-
ember, 1909), 396.
20. Ibid.
21. Ray Stannard Baker, Following the Color Line (New York: Doubleday, Page and Com-
pany, 1908).
22. Ray Stannard Baker, "The Negro in a Democracy," The Independent, LXVII (Septem-
ber, 1909), 584-588.
tioch Press,

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