LBJ’s Howard Address: A cross-examination

Part one

Photo by Library of Congress on Unsplash

During the Civil War, the big question was: What will white society do with the black slaves once they were freed? White Americans feared ex-slaves would not be able to take care of themselves and wondered how they were going to manage “the Negro problem.”

Former slave and abolitionist Frederick Douglass had a simple solution.

Douglass told white America: Don’t meddle, nor trouble yourselves with questions as to what is to be done with the ex-slaves. White meddling has been the Negro’s greatest misfortune. The Negro is not asking for benevolence, pity, or sympathy. Negroes only ask whites not to build gates against them nor pass laws that degrade them. Outside of that, Negroes want to be left alone, subjected only to the same great laws that apply to all citizens. If Negroes were born in need of crutches, then Negroes would require outside assistance, but this is not the case. The Negro must make his own way in the world. The Negro wants the chance to stand on his own legs. But if the Negro can’t stand alone, then whites must allow the Negro to fall on his own.

Frederick Douglass wasn’t opposed to government aid or white philanthropy. He was opposed to white paternalism predicated on black inferiority.