An  old  Negro  said  to  me :  "We  had  two  clocks
on  the  cabin  wall,  and  one  was  very  slow  and
deliberate  and  always  seemed  to  say:

*'  'Take  yo'  time.   Take  yo'  timel'
*'But  the  other  gabbled  to  us:

*'  'Get  together,  get  together,  get  together!*
That's  what  we  got  to  do  to-day,  brothers —
get  together."

The  Negroes  are  fond  of  emphasizing  the
iriviality  of  color  diif erences.  They  reprove  the


IN  ALABAMA  209

white  man  playfully.  ''Why  get  so  excited  about
difference  in  color?  We  believe  in  equality  of
rights  for  all  men,"  I  heard  a  leader  say,  ''for
all  men  of  whatever  color — white,  black,  brown,
or  yellow,  or  blue. ' '  And  his  audience  laughed.
*  *  Two  boys  go  into  a  shop ;  one  buys  a  red  toy,
the  other  a  blue  toy — but  it  is  not  very  impor-
tant which  color — the  toy's  the  same."

But  of  course  color  prejudice  or  preference
is  not  such  a  haphazard  matter,  and  prejudice
against  the  Negro  is  prejudice  against  more
than  color.  The  toy,  so  to  speak,  is  different.
It  may  be  as  good,  but  it  is  different.  The  body,
and  especially  the  skull,  of  a  Negro  is  different
from  that  of  the  white  man.  The  nervous  sys-
tem, the  brain,  the  mind  and  soul,  are  different.
I  heard  the  theory  put  forward  in  the  name  of
Christian  Science  that  in  God's  perfect  plan,
there  were  no  Negroes.  Their  dark  skins  were
other  men's  evil  thought  about  them.  All  men.
