The Race Problem in Paris and the French West Indies

Bibliographic Data

ID4764855
AuthorsMercer Cook (corresponding author)
Year1939
Volume8
Issue4
Pages673
Publication date1939-10-01
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueThe Journal of Negro Education (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0022-2984 • E-ISSN: 2167-6437
PublisherJSTOR (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.2307/2292908
OpenAlexW2322672829
LanguageEN
Citations received3

I should like to preface my remarks this morning with the reminder that France is not Utopia. As President Stanley King recently cautioned the Amherst College student body: You will never find a promised land; you have to make one. It seems to me perfectly obvious that any solution to the American Negro's problems must be worked out right here at home. I make this statement because of various releases in the Negro press stressing what was apparently thought to be the remarkable discovery that America is the best place for colored Americans. Without suggesting therefore any mass migration, I should like to consider, as objectively as possible, the race question as I found it in Paris and the French West Indies. Most of us are familiar with the manner in which racial discrimination varies not only in different states of this country, but also in different cities of the same state. Negroes in New Orleans will tell you that Baton Rouge is more prejudiced; Jersey City is reputedly less prejudiced than Trenton; and I have heard it said that Savannah is in some respects less difficult than Atlanta. Occasionally there are differentiations within a single city: certain theaters will admit Negroes, others will not; some hotels employ Negroes, others do not; street cars will carry Negro passengers, busses

Ethnology · Geography · Race (biology) · Sociology · West indies · Canadian Identity and History · Gender Studies · Historical Studies and Socio-cultural Analysis · History

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