They soon lose ambition to do
anything else than to continue as a coal-miner.
In those days, and later as a young man, I used to try to picture
in my imagination the feelings and ambitions of a white boy with
absolutely no limit placed upon his aspirations and activities. I
used to envy the white boy who had no obstacles placed in the way
of his becoming a Congressman, Governor, Bishop, or President by
reason of the accident of his birth or race. I used to picture
the way that I would act under such circumstances; how I would
begin at the bottom and keep rising until I reached the highest
round of success.
In later years, I confess that I do not envy the white boy as I
once did. I have learned that success is to be measured not so
much by the position that one has reached in life as by the
obstacles which he has overcome while trying to succeed. Looked
at from this standpoint, I almost reached the conclusion that
often the Negro boy's birth and connection with an unpopular race
is an advantage, so far as real life is concerned. With few
exceptions, the Negro youth must work harder and must perform his
tasks even better than a white youth in order to secure
recognition. But out of the hard and unusual struggle through
which he is compelled to pass, he gets a strength, a confidence,
that one misses whose pathway is comparatively smooth by reason
of birth and race.
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