Negro citizenship and suffrage he championed not to save the political power of his party and section, but as a duty which the republic owes to the weakest of her children because of their weakness.
Archibald Henry Grimké: “Negro citizenship and suffrage he championed not to save the political power of his party and section, but as a duty…”
Editor's note · Context
Grimké articulates the moral obligation to advocate for Negro citizenship and suffrage, emphasizing duty over political gain.
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Is it any wonder that crime emerges out of such cruel and unequal conditions?
It should make this a day of fasting and prayer, not of boisterous merriment and idle pageantry--a day of great lamentation, not of congratulatory joy.
No body of men on the face of the earth deserve their charities, and prayers, and united assistance so much as the slaves of this country; and yet they are almost entirely neglected.
The South does not regard the Negro laborer then as undesirable but quite the contrary--only it wants to retain possession of it on its own terms, not on those advantageous to that labor.