203 Eligibility of Colored Members to Seats (1868)

The scene presented in this House today is one unparalleled in the history of the world. Never in the history of the world has a man been arraigned before a body clothed with legislative, judicial, or executive functions charged with the offense of being of a darker hue than his fellowmen. The Anglo-Saxon race sir is a most surprising one. No man has ever been more deceived in that race than I have been for the last three weeks. I was not aware that there was in the character of that race so much cowardice or so much pusillanimity. The treachery which has been exhibited in it by gentlemen belonging to that race has shaken my confidence in it more than anything that has come under my observation from the day of my birth.

Whose Legislature is this? Is it a white man’s Legislature or is it a black man’s Legislature? Who voted for a Constitutional Convention in obedience to the mandate of the Congress of the United States? Who first rallied around the standard of Reconstruction? Who set the ball of loyalty rolling in the State of Georgia? And whose voice was heard on the hills and in the valleys of this State? It was the voice of the brawny-armed Negro with the few humanitarian-hearted white men who came to our assistance. I claim the honor sir of having been the instrument of convincing hundreds—yea, thousands—of white men that to reconstruct under the measures of the United States Congress was the safest and the best course for the interest of the State.

Let us look at some facts in connection with this matter. Did half the white men of Georgia vote for this legislature? Did not the great bulk of them fight with all their strength the Constitution under which we are acting? And did they not fight against the organization of this legislature? And further sir, did they not vote against it? Yes, sir! We are told that if black men want to speak, they must speak through white trumpets. If black men want their sentiments expressed, they must be adulterated and sent through white messengers who will quibble and equivocate and evade as rapidly as the pendulum of a clock.

The great question sir, is this: Am I a man? If I am such, I claim the rights of a man. Am I not a man because I happen to be of a darker hue than honorable gentlemen around me? Let me see whether I am or not. I want to convince the House today that I am entitled to my seat here. A certain gentleman has argued that the Negro was a mere development similar to the orangutang or chimpanzee. But it so happens that when a Negro is examined physiologically, phrenologically, and anatomically, and I may say physiognomically, he is found to be the same as persons of different color. I would like to ask any gentleman on this floor, where is the analogy? Do you find me a quadruped or do you find me a man? Do you find three bones less in my back than in that of the white man? Do you find fewer organs in the brain? If you know nothing of this, I do. For I have helped to dissect fifty men, black and white, and I assert that by the time you take off the mucous pigment the color of the skin you cannot to save your life distinguish between the black man and the white. Am I a man? Have I a soul to save, as you have? Am I susceptible of eternal development, as you are? Can I learn all the arts and sciences that you can? Has it ever been demonstrated in the history of the world? Have black men ever exhibited bravery as white men have done? Have they ever been in the professions? Have they not as good articulative organs as you?

It is said that Congress never gave us the right to hold office. I want to know sir, if the Reconstruction measures did not base their action on the ground that no distinction should be made on account of race, color or previous condition? Was not that the grand fulcrum on which they rested? And did not every reconstructed state have to reconstruct on the idea that no discrimination in any sense of the term should be made? There is not a man here who will dare say No. If Congress has simply given me a merely sufficient civil and political rights to make me a mere political slave for Democrats or anybody else giving them the opportunity of jumping on my back in order to leap into political power I do not thank Congress for it. Never, so help me God, shall I be a political slave. I tell you what I would be willing to do: I am willing that the question should be submitted to Congress for an explanation as to what was meant in the passage of their Reconstruction measures and of the Constitutional Amendment. Let the Democratic Party in this House pass a resolution giving this subject that direction and I shall be content. I dare you gentlemen to do it. Come up to the question openly, whether it meant that the Negro might hold office or whether it meant that he should merely have the right to vote. If you are honest men you will do it

So far as I am personally concerned, no man in Georgia has been more conservative than I. “Anything to please the white folks” has been my motto and so closely have I adhered to that course, that many among my own party have classed me as a Democrat. Why sir, though we are not white, we have accomplished much. We have pioneered civilization here. We have built up your country. We have worked in your fields and garnered your harvests for two hundred and fifty years! And what do we ask of you in return? Do we ask you for compensation for the sweat our fathers bore for you — for the tears you have caused and the hearts you have broken and the lives you have curtailed and the blood you have spilled? Do we ask retaliation? We ask it not. We are willing to let the dead past bury its dead. But we ask you now for our rights. You have all the elements of superiority upon your side. You have our money and your own. You have our education and your own. And you have your land and our own too. We who number hundreds of thousands in Georgia including our wives and families, with not a foot of land to call our own. Strangers in the land of our birth without money, without education, without aid, without a roof to cover us while we live nor sufficient clay to cover us when we die! It is extraordinary that a race such as yours professing gallantry, and chivalry, and education, and superiority, living in a land where ringing chimes call child and sire to the Church of God. It is extraordinary I say that with all these advantages on your side, you can make war upon the poor defenseless black man. You know we have no money, no railroads, no telegraphs, no advantages of any sort, and yet all manner of injustice is placed upon us.

Gentlemen talk a good deal about the Negroes “building no monuments”. I can tell the gentlemen one thing: that is that we could have built monuments of fire while the war was in progress. We could have fired your woods, your barns, and fences and called you home. Did we do it? No, sir! And God grant that the Negro may never do it or do anything else that would destroy the good opinion of his friends. We are a persecuted people. Luther was persecuted, Galileo was persecuted, good men in all nations have been persecuted. But the persecutors have been handed down to posterity with shame and ignominy. If you pass this bill, you will never get Congress to pardon or enfranchise another rebel in your lives. You are going to fix an everlasting disfranchisement upon Mr. Toombs and the other leading men of Georgia. You may think you are doing yourselves honor by expelling us from this House. But when we go, we will do as Wickliffe and as Latimer did. We will light a torch of truth that will never be extinguished. I hope that our poor, downtrodden race may act well and wisely through this period of trial, and that they will exercise patience and discretion under all circumstances.

Source: Henry McNeal Turner, “On the Eligibility of Colored Members to Seats in the Georgia Legislature” (September 3, 1868). http://www.historyisaweapon.com/defcon1/mcnealturnergeorgialeg.html