“I see no reason why one should anticipate disaster as a result of such slow and almost imperceptible amalgamation as must necessarily take place under the circumstances.
“I neither oppose nor advocate it (amalgamation). After we have studied the results of race mixtures between whites and Negroes, I shall be in a position to decide upon its advantages or disadvantages.
“Anthropologically, the Negro displays rather more features which may be considered primitive than do white races, but in many physical features the Negro is more advanced than the white. I do not feel that there exists any satisfactory method of appraising the comparative mental abilities of different races. I am unwilling to express opinions as to racial superiority or inferiority until some real basis of knowledge has been laid down.
WHO IS A NEGRO? EUROPEAN TYPES—ENGLISH
VIII. Left to right: John Archer, photographer of Negro-Irish parentage, who way Mayor of BaMersea, one of London’s largest boroughs; Andrew Bogle, (See Sex and Race, Vol. I, p. 204, 2nd ed.) and (lower right) Thomas Tallis (1515-1585) “The Father of English Cathedral Music.”
“From the scientific point of view the prime desideratum is an anthropological study of the Negro in the United States and a study of the results of race mixture. But I am not at all certain that anything scientists can learn would have great efficacy in settling the race problem.
“If it were discovered that race mixture with Negroes produced undesirable types many whites would be pleased and most Negroes would not accept the conclusions.
“If on the contrary certain mixtures were demonstrated to be superior many Negroes would be pleased and most whites would be unwilling to accept the demonstration. In either event discontent and dissatisfaction would result. Democracies will always be swayed by ignorant prejudices rather than led by scientific principles or by ethical ideals.”11
Dr. Ales Hrdlicka, late curator of anthropology, Smithsonian Institution, in reply to the question: “Do you think white and black will amalgamate? replied, “Yes.” Asked: Would amalgamation lead to the destruction of civilization? he replied, “No.” He opposed race-mixing, however, so far as white and black are concerned because “the differences are too great and the results could not be an advantage.”12
Ellsworth Huntington, Yale University: “The army mental tests showed that 86 per cent of the southern Negroes possess inferior intelligence. Other evidence shows that almost the only Negroes who have accomplished much of importance have been partly white. The blending of white and black has produced something more competent than the pure black but less competent than the pure white. It has often made a most dysgenic blend, creating a white man’s ambition in a black man’s lethargic body. A certain group of scientists maintain that within a few hundred years there will be no more pure blacks in America. If that were to happen the mentality of the nation would be materially lowered.”13
H. S. Jennings, professor of zoology, and Director of the Zoological Laboratory in John Hopkins University, says: “No incompatibility of chromosomes is to be observed among the different races of man. The Negro and the white man each have 24 pairs of chromosomes. These work perfectly together both in forming vigorous offspring, and in the much more delicate tests of later uniting to form germ cells in those offspring … With respect to the main features of physical structures of functions, and of physiology, the offspring of parents belonging to diverse races are as perfect and vigorous and efficient as the offspring of members of the same race.”14
Algernon Lee, Director, Rand School of Social Science: “Ever since the first Negroes were brought to this country, mixture of Caucasian and Negro blood has been going on, chiefly through intercourse of white men with colored women.
“I see no reason to doubt that this process will continue.
“I do not know of any way in which I could oppose or check this historic process.
“Anthropological research gives no support to the theory that any one race or variety, of mankind is inherently superior to another.
“The solution of the race problem is to be found in social justice. It is essentially not a race problem.”15
Prof. Jacques Loeb, former head of the Department of Experimental Biology in the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research: “It has been stated that the mixtures between white and black are an inferior breed; that the pure breeds—the pure black and the pure white breed—are superior to the mixed race. As a matter of fact biology has nothing in support of that position, but we have some definite facts which show that in certain cases the hybrid is superior to both parent races …
“It would be wrong to say that in each case the result of a mixture of races is better than the pure breed. That is true in some cases, in other cases the opposite is true. But the fact that in a number of cases the mixture yields results that are superior to both parent breeds is enough to show the absurdity of the sweeping statement that the intermixing of races should be considered a felony.”16
William McDougall, professor of psychology, Duke University: “I hold that eventual complete amalgamation of the Negroes and whites is almost certain to occur in the United States of America, if the matter is left to nature.
“In my opinion, miscegenation must be regarded as a dangerous experiment which the white race can ill afford to make. It is impossible to forecast what the white stock would suffer in quality through absorbing the 100 per cent of Negro blood present in the population.
“I am opposed to amalgamation …
“I do consider that in spite of much that is amiable in the Negro the race is inferior to the white race, i.e., is less high cultured, more childlike in various ways.”17
Henry Fairfield Osborn, paleontologist, American Museum of Natural History: “My personal opinion is strongly against race mixture of any kind. I believe each race which has been produced by nature should try to develop its best qualities along its own natural lines.”18
Dr. Robert W. Shufeldt (1850-1933), Major, U.S.A., head of the Army Medical Museum, and one of America’s foremost scientists and naturalists: “Any number of people can be found in this country to-day who will stoutly deny, and they believe what they say, too, that there is any interbreeding going on at all between the blacks and the whites, and that the numerous mulattoes are due to climate. Such people are, of course, absolutely blind as to what is going on about them; they are ignorant and do not care to see. Take the city of Washington, for instance, I can remember thirty-five years ago when the mulattoes in the streets of that place were comparatively the rare exception, while they are to be seen there now simply in scores upon scores. Some are wonderfully handsome creatures with superb figures but handsome and fine-physiqued only in the sense that our American skunk is likewise a beautiful creature. It is also a black animal with more or less of a white stripe in it that is given to stealing chickens and can when irritated elevate its tail and raise the most outrageous stink, which is quite sufficient to check the progress of any Anglo-Saxon, however robust and civilised he may be …
“These half-breed Negroes in the United States, or in fact all that class of people having any Negro blood in them at all, are extremely objectionable factors in our civilization. They often, indeed, in a large proportion of instances are worse than the typical Negroes themselves. They are dangerous from whatever point of view man may elect to view them …
“Mulattoes, too, have better opportunities to contract white alliances in marriage and thus insidiously pass the savage Ethiopian blood into the veins of the Anglo-Saxon or American. This is most deplorable for I have frequently remarked the Negro has absolutely nothing in his organization that can be added to our own with slightest value while on the other hand nearly everything about him, mentally, morally, and physically is undesirable to the highest degree … Personally, I have found them equally superstitious, treacherous, mendacious, and unreliable …
“It