Alfred H. Stone Collection
Volume: 97

26. Wm. H. Fleming, Slavery and the Race Problem in the South, with Special Reference to the State of Georgia: Address of Hon. Wm. H. Fleming, before the Alumni Society of the State University, Athens, June 19, 1906 (Boston: Dana Estes & Co., [1906?]). (66 p.)

Speech linking racial tension with the effort by white Southerners to reverse gains made by African Americans during Reconstruction. According to the speaker, the solution to the race problem can be found “by giving the negro justice and applying to him the recognized principles of the moral law. This does not require social equality. It does not require that we should surrender into his inexperienced and incompetent hands the reins of political government. But it does require that we recognize his fundamental rights as a man, and that we judge each individual according to his own qualifications, and not according to the lower average characteristics of his race.” Favorable comments regarding the speech appear in the first eight pages of the pamphlet. Mr. Stone has marked many passages in this pamphlet and has written comments in the margin on pages 43 and 63.