NEGROES: Black Representatives

It was announced last week that the Republican organization in the 21st Congressional District of New York had selected Dr. Charles H. Roberts, a Negro dentist, as a candidate for Congress. A few weeks ago George E. Brennan, Democratic boss of Chicago, chose another Negro, Earl B. Dickerson, as candidate for Congress in the First District of Illinois.

President Coolidge, asked by a New Yorker to interfere in order to prevent Dr. Roberts’ nomination. He replied:

Our Constitution guarantees equal rights to all our citizens without discrimination on account of race or color. I have taken my oath to support that Constitution. … A colored man is precisely as much entitled to submit his name in a party primary as any other citizen. The decision must be made by the constituents to whom he offers himself and by nobody else. . . .

These two selections are not insignificant. Coming from opposite parties, they show a tendency in Northern political machines to nominate Negroes to take advantage of the increasing Negro vote in the North. It happens that the 21st District of New York is in a section of Manhattan, Harlem, which has a large Negro population. The same is true of the First District of Illinois.

If this policy on the part of political bosses proves fruitful, there may soon be a number of Negroes in Congress from Northern municipalities. The last Negro Congressman was George H. White, of North Carolina, whose term expired in 1901. It is noteworthy that of the 21 colored Representatives and two Senators who have served in Congress every one, without exception, came from the South. To be sure, most of them served during the Reconstruction days of the 1870’s.

The conditions which brought these men to Congress have passed. Another set of conditions is coming about in which we may again expect to see a few Negroes in Congress,