The Getting Word African American Oral History Project preserves the histories of Monticello’s enslaved families and their descendants.
Through over 200 interviews with participants and countless hours of research, remarkable stories have emerged to form an archive of freedom.
“The American Idea Of Fair Play”
In 1922, Frederick Roberts warns of the growing threat to the ideals of the Founders.
In the south, the policy of white toward Negro is one of suppression and antagonism. Once the issue of social equality is raised, the whole American idea of fair play is laid aside in favor of mob force and lynching bees. The result is that our national tranquility is shaken to the roots, and the very life of American ideals is threatened.
In the west, on the other hand, the athletic ideal governs the relation between the races. Here the American idea of fair play prevails. The race issue is never present in politics, but rather Negro and Caucasian vote on all questions from a moral and purely objective viewpoint.
The problem of racial disorder in the south is not a Negro problem, but a purely American one. If in one corner of the land law and order may be set aside to favor the passions of a group, why is it not feasible to do the same thing in other parts of the country? Thus the very existence of the principles, upon which our nation was founded are at stake. (San Jose Evening News, 2 Sep. 1922)
Themes: Racial Prejudice, Struggle for Equality
