FOREWORD

Miss Ovington's description of the status
of the Negro in New York City is based on
a most painstaking inquiry into his social
and economic conditions, and brings out in
the most forceful way the difficulties under
which the race is laboring, even in the large
cosmopolitan population of New York. It
is a refutation of the claims that the Negro
has equal opportunity with the whites, andi
that his failure to advance more rapidly
than he has, is due to innate inability.

Many students of anthropology recognize
that no proof can be given of any material
inferiority of the Negro race; that without
doubt the bulk of the individuals composing
the race are equal in mental aptitude to
the bulk of our own people; that, although
their hereditary aptitudes may lie in slightly
different directions, it is very improbable
that the majority of individuals composing