 Topic 6. Third Paper of 20th Century Negro Literature. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Phyllis Vincelli. 20th Century Negro Literature. Topic 6. Third Paper by George T. Robinson. A. M. L. L. B. Is the criminal Negro justly dealt with in the courts of the South? George Thomas Robinson was born in Macon, Mississippi, January 12, 1854, of slave parents. An orphan, in 1865, he set out to fight life's battles with no one to guide and protect him. He has risen to a place of distinction, a journalist of note, a lawyer of high standing, a learned professor of law, an orator of repute, a molder of thought, and a reformer. He received his first inspiration from a remark which he heard, the Honorable C. S. Smith, now a bishop in the AME Church, make to a public school of which he was a pupil. It was, quote, a boy can make of himself whatever he has a mind to, end quote. George said to himself, I will make speeches too. Since that time, Captain Robinson and Bishop Smith have delivered many addresses together. They spoke at the Emancipation Celebration in Nashville, 1st of January, 1892, which took place in the representative hall of the Capitol. They were the principal speakers. An afternoon paper on the second said, the ablest address of the occasion was delivered by Captain George T. Robinson on Abraham Lincoln, the speaker electrified the audience. Cap Robinson graduated from Fisk University in 1885 and from Law and Central Tennessee College, now Walden University, both of Nashville, Tennessee. He is a professor of law in the university. In 1875, he refused a seat in the legislature of Mississippi in order to complete his education. In 1886, he delivered the commencement address at Lane College, Jackson, Tennessee. The same year, he began the publication of the Tennessee Star in Nashville. In 1887, he was made a captain in the Tennessee National Guard by Governor R. L. Taylor. In 1988, he was on the invitation committee to invite President Cleveland to Nashville and served on General W. H. Jackson's staff as commander of a division in the parade. In 1893, he was a nominee on the citizen's ticket for the city council. In 1896, he was appointed a member of the executive committee of the Negro Department of the Tennessee Centennial and was chairman of the military committee. But the entire committee resigned before the exposition opened. Settling in Nashville in 1886, he soon forged his way to the front and became a champion of Negro rights. Honorable George N. Tillman says of him, he is one of the best and ablest men of his race in the state. Bishop Evans Tyree says, Professor Robinson is a giant physically and mentally. Mr. Robinson's fame rests on his journalistic career. The Star was regarded as one of the ablest edited Negro journals ever published. After several years of successful work for God and humanity, it consolidated with the Indianapolis Freeman. The Star made its advent in the midst of a big social scandal with a pastor of the most prominent Baptist church in the city, the central figure. With the large following the divine had, it was not only unpopular but dangerous to fight him, especially since he had been acquitted by the courts and a large majority of his congregation endorsed the verdicts. The editor routed the opposition. He told the preacher that he had to quit the pulpit and leave the city. This was the beginning of a reformation in colored society in the city which was far reaching and brought editor Robinson into prominence. He woke up one morning and found himself famous. His article, A Pure Ministry Caused the Reformer to be Welcomed to Nashville as a Moses. I answer this question in the negative. There are some exceptions, but proof is too abundant to gainsay the assertion. In the first place, all of the machinery of the law is in the hands of the white man. He is judge, jury, sheriff, constable, and policeman. Race, prejudice, and antipathy so override reason that the average dispenser of justice is blinded to a sense of right, especially when a white man appears against an accused negro. What is Sop for the white man is not only Sop for the black man. As a matter of fact, the black man is discriminated against in everything in the south and it would be unreasonable to expect the courts would do otherwise. The presumption of law is that the accused is innocent and that presumption stands as a witness in his favor until overcome by credible proof. But in the average court of the south, this applies to white men only. The negro is presumed to be guilty and the burden of proof is placed upon him to establish his innocence. Cases have come under my observation where the accused negro was not only tried without being represented by counsel, but on ex parte evidence, the black defendant not being permitted to testify in his own behalf or to introduce proof. These cases were not in courts of record. The organic law of the land guarantees not only trial by jury on an indictment or presentment, but entitles the accused to be heard by himself and counsel and to introduce witnesses. In some instances the accused is not even in court. The matter is prearranged and the imprisoned wretch is informed afterward and forced into agreeing to the sentence as the easiest way out of trouble. It is a rare thing now to see a negro on a jury in the south. Even the federal courts are ignoring him. A white man does not consider a negro his peer. Then from a white man's standpoint a colored man tried by a white jury is not tried by his peers. The constitution is violated in letter and spirit in order that the criminal negro may not be justly dealt with. The greater the demand to keep the convict ranks filled up, the more unjustly is the black criminal dealt with in the severity of the sentence. The very fact that negroes are not permitted to serve on juries, even when all the parties are black, proves that it is for the purpose of preventing justice being done the accused negro. One of the most popular courts in the south is the Court of Judge Lynch. The Court comes pretty nearly voicing the sentiment of the section where it thrives and does a large business. Members of this court are summoned as jurors to try negroes in legal courts and thus the mob spirit is carried into the very temple of justice and is meted out to the black criminal in the name of the law. In such cases who could expect a just verdict. Again the professional juror believing his job depends on the number and severity of the convictions of negroes is always ready to strain a point in order to convict. Instead of giving the accused the benefit of the doubt, he seeks to ease his guilty conscience by wrapping criminal laws. The negro who outrages the person of a female is worthy of death, illegal death. His crime is no less heinous because his victim is colored. The crime in either case is blacker than the hinges of midnight. A mob composed of white men takes the ravisher of a white female and burns him at the stake or hangs him and riddles his body with bullets or dismembers his body. In such a case the criminal is not only unjustly dealt with for both the moral and civil laws are violated but a great sin is committed against society. The moral sensibilities are blunted and the crime intended to be suppressed is given new impetus. Mob violence is the violation of every penal law. The victim has no show whatever. A mob is not composed of men who have it in their hearts to respect the rights of the victim of their fury. This is the cause of so many innocent, inoffensive negro men, women and children perishing at the hands of mobs. Mob violence leads to the utter disregard for law and order and increases crime, making criminals of some of the best citizens. There can be no such thing as dealing justly with the criminal negro as long as the rule is to deal unjustly with all negroes. For instance, take the black laws, notably the Jim Crow car laws and the infamous election laws, the most outrageous ever inflicted upon a free people. The negro has been legislated out of the legislative halls, leaving the white man clear sailing in enacting unjust laws which discriminate against all negroes alike, regardless of condition, culture, refinement, wealth, position or station. The law places the mark of cane upon him. His aspirations and ambitions must be curbed in spite of his fitness by character and training. The worthlessness of the negro does not cause the opposition that the prosperity of the best of the race does. The legislator and constitution maker names his darts at the latter class. This state of affairs obtains in every southern state and the fact that the ballot, our only safeguard, has been taken from us, shows that the criminal negro need not expect to be dealt with justly. The nearest approach to fair play is to be had in the larger towns and cities of the south even here the chances are against the negro. But it will not always be thus. A change will come sooner or later. Let us be courageous, do our best and trust in God. End of Topic 6, Third Paper Topic 6, Fourth Paper of 20th Century Negro Literature This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Phyllis Vincelli. 20th Century Negro Literature Topic 6, Fourth Paper by Attorney J. Thompson Hewan. Is the criminal negro justly dealt with in the courts of the south? J. Thomas Hewan was born in Dinwitte County, Virginia, December 24th, 1871. His parents were slaves. He was left an orphan at the age of 13 with no knowledge even of the alphabet. At the age of 17 he was seized with a desire for an education, finding no opportunity for mental improvement. He went to Richmond, Virginia in 1889 where he found employment in a stone quarry. He took his books with him and studied at mealtime. In the fall he became janitor of a business college. Finding that he could do his janitor work mornings and evenings, he entered the public school of Richmond and afterward graduated from the Richmond Normal School as valedictorian of his class. So thrifty was Mr. Hewan that when he graduated from school he had a bank account of $1,375 to his credit. He also graduated from the Boston University Law School and after returning to his native state was admitted to the bar. He was especially helpful to the unfortunate of his race. He organized in Richmond the Anti-Deadly Weapon League among the young colored men of the place for which he received the commendation of the press and people. He is a member of the Baptist Church, an ardent worker among his people, a power as an organizer and an orator of the Frederick Douglass type. For a man of color to approach a subject of this kind, first of all he must crucify self. He must not imagine that he is writing to suit the whims, fancies, and caprices of a single individual, but must confine himself to the pure and unadulterated truth. To discuss this question from a lawyer's point of view, it is to say, by detailed cases would be unintelligible to an ordinary layman's mind. Therefore we must confine ourselves to the subject from a layman's way of understanding legal matters. The Negro occupies today a peculiar position in the body politic. He is not wanted in politics because his presence in official positions renders him obnoxious to his former masters and their descendants. He is not wanted in the industrial world as a trained handicraftsman because he would be brought into competition with his white brother. He is not wanted in city positions because positions of that kind are always saved for the white ward-healing politicians. He is not wanted in state and federal offices because there is an unwritten law that a Negro shall not hold an office. He is not wanted on the bench as a judge because he would have to pass upon the white man's case also. Nor is he wanted on public conveyances because here his presence is obnoxious to white people. But let us not lose sight of our subject which is Is the criminal Negro justly dealt with in the courts of the South? Permit the author of this article to say that there is no section in this country where there is not some prejudice against the Negro. Whether the Negro be tried for a crime he commits in the North or South he will get as fair a verdict upon the law and evidence as presented in a Southern court as in the courts of any state in this union. When we see such awful examples of brutality and inhumanity as occur in some sections of our common country against the Negro we do not wonder that people who live in distant lands say that there can be no justice for a Negro in the Southern states. This assertion has been repeated so often that now it is a common thing for men to say that a Negro can get no justice in the South. Yet it is important for us to note that not one of these miscarriages of justice is traceable to the partiality of the courts. They are the result of men's prejudices who are not willing for the Negro's case to be tested upon its merits because they know that in nine cases in ten he would be acquitted in a court of justice. And for this reason they take the law into their own hands rather than submit it to an intelligent, cool and unprejudiced judicial body as every court is. Is there a man under heaven who would charge this state of affairs up against the courts of the South? Certainly no one can be found who would do it. It has been my experience in my state in the trial of criminal cases that in nine cases out of ten the white juries are in sympathy with the poor ignorant Negro. I think the game rule will hold good in other Southern states. When we approach the subject of criminal law we must constantly bear in mind that the object of every criminal prosecution is twofold. One, to reform the criminal. Two, to make an example of him so that the public will be deterred from the commission of the same offense. It is not the severity of a criminal prosecution that deters crime but it is the certainty of punishment when crime is committed. While it is true that the courts of the South as constituted at present give the Negro equal justice upon the law and facts of his case yet we must bear in mind that a criminal prosecution is not ended with judgment in the courts. There are other humane principles to be put into operation in order that the criminal may receive the benefits of his punishment. The relation of the Southern courts towards the Negro in this respect is particularly weak. Splendid examples of this may be seen in the convict lease system prevailing in the states of South Carolina, Arkansas, and other Southern states. Under this system a Negro may be convicted of a felony calling for a minimum term of imprisonment and yet serve out a lifetime in prison. It is a system which instead of reforming the Negro gradually re-enslaves him. It has become such an outrage upon justice and common decency that the eyes of the civilized world are upon the United States to see how long a democratic government will tolerate such an outrage upon common justice and a defenseless people. Yet when we, at home, begin to trace the causes of this evil we invariably ascribe them to the courts of the South. Wrong! Wrong! The courts of the South are not legislative bodies but judicial bodies whose function it is to interpret the laws made and not to make laws. That right in a republic like ours belongs exclusively to the legislative department and not to the judiciary. The failure on the part of the public to distinguish between the legislative and judicial branches of the government accounts in a large measure for the criticism that has been made upon the courts of the South in their dealings with the criminal Negro. It is well for us to bear in mind that a court cannot make a law that can only confine its opinion to the law as it is. It is a well-known fact that the United States and the several states composing the same are governed by written constitutions. Also, that in a constitutional government all laws must be uniform in their operation. Hence, no law can be made that will operate more harshly upon an Negro than upon a white man who is guilty of the same offense. The criminal Negro naturally thinks that he has dealt with unjustly in the court. I have never seen in my practice a Negro who did not think that a white judge and a white jury were not his enemies and that they were looking for false evidence upon which to convict him and were not desirous of passing upon his case on the law and evidence as presented. This, in a large measure, accounts for the enormous fees paid by Negroes to white attorneys for the simplest trouble they may get into. They believe that a white man has more influence in a court than a Negro lawyer as though the laws were based upon favors and ideals rather than upon fixed rules of judicial construction. As for the judiciary of other states, I cannot speak. But, for Virginia, I can, and I will say that for the integrity of her judiciary a fairer and more impartial set of men cannot be found in this country. For in my life has any one of them treated me amiss in their courts. Nor can I point to a single case where snap judgment was meted out to a man of color for the simple reason that he was colored. The experience of my brother members of the bar in other states seems to tally with mine in this respect. Though I did once read of a Mississippi judge who told some colored men who had assembled in his court to listen to the trial of one of their race that this was a white man's country and that Negroes had no business in a courtroom unless they're on business. Lest we forget it, we will say it now that the greatest of all virtues is charity. The numerous complaints we hear about the maltreatment of the Negro do not come from within, but from without. They come from people who know nothing of the position we occupy in the South. They tell us that the Southern people are our enemies, that they are doing us all the harm that can be done to any people. Worst of all, our people in many instances are silly enough to believe them, ignorant of the fact that their success depends upon making their next door neighbors their friends. The same people take this charge and lay it to the courts of justice. Shame that in a democratic government like ours a free people should be slaves to such tricksters whose only object is to create discord among a poor and defenseless people. When we hear people charging the Southern courts with treating the Negro unjustly it reminds us of an old colored lady who was once warning a young colored man about dying in his sins. The young man wanted to know if the fire in hell was hot. The old lady said, Honey, the old sinners fetch their fire with them. If the Negro gets a harsh verdict at the bar in a Southern court it is because he brings his fire with him. Just why it is that the Negro cannot see things in the same light, I do not know. It is a rule of physics that action is equal to reaction and in the contrary direction. By the side of that we can put the statement that a man is worked upon by that which he works. The Negro, as a rule, labors under the belief that he is an object of persecution and proscription and in turn that insane belief so works upon him that it is useless for anybody to endeavor to make him believe otherwise. There is one thing I must say before I close and that is this that if the Negro wants to break down the great undercurrent against him in the courts of the South he must do all in his power to establish among his own people the element of caste, a line between the good and bad. He must frown upon those who do wrong and uphold those who do right. He must lay aside the old adage that you must never do anything against your own color. If a man is my color and he is wrong I am against him. If a man is my color and he is right I am for him. Let the Negro adopt this as a maxim and justice in the courts of the South is his, now and forever. End of Topic Sixth, Fourth Paper. Topic Seven, First Paper of 20th Century Negro Literature. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Mary Patterson. 20th Century Negro Literature. Topic Seven. To what extent is the Negro pulpit uplifting the race? By Bishop George Wiley Clinton. M-A-D-D. The career of Bishop George Wiley Clinton. A-M-D-D. Firmishes indisputable evidence that merit wins success and that industry joined with native and acquired ability cannot be denied preeminence. His is a story of a man who, starting life with a definite goal in view, has allowed neither the blandishments of flattery nor the frosts of discouragement to hinder his progress. But, impressing his great personality upon all with whom he came in contact, he moves steadily forward and is now one of the best examples of erudition, eloquence and practicability in the Negro pulpit. This remarkable man was born March 28, 1859 in Lancaster County, South Carolina. As a child, he was religiously inclined and thoughtful beyond his years, and none who knew him was surprised. When at the age of ten years, he became a member of the AME Zion Church. When quite young, he went to private school and afterwards to a private school where he remained until 1874 when he entered the South Carolina University. In 1876, when the Democrats succeeded in electing Wade Hampton Governor, all the college students were forced to withdraw from said university and thus. After finishing the junior classical year, he went to Brainard Institute, from which he graduated with very high honors. Young Clinton finished his education by taking theology, Greek and Hebrew at Livingstone College. Realizing that the urgent need of his people was education, he became a successful and conspicuous educator. For ten years with all of his energy, he was engaged in the public education of his people, being at one time the people of Lancaster, South Carolina, High School, and Industrial Institute. And he held a similar position in the Howard Graded School of Union, South Carolina. Both of the above schools made marvelous advancements while under his management. He founded a private school at Rock Hill, South Carolina, out of which has come the widely known Clinton Institute. As a writer, Bishop Clinton is easily among the best, which the race has produced. In his style, there is wonderful richness, energy, and variety. His chased, pleasing, and conservative writings made the leading papers of his states seek his contributions. He founded the AME Zion Quarterly Review, which he issued for two years with increasing success, and in 1892 he transferred it, free of debt, to the General Conference. His eminence as an editor was so pronounced that said General Conference elected him editor of the Star of Zion. During his incumbency in this office, he added to his fame as a thoughtful, versatile writer, and inaugurated the plan by which the AME Zion publication was established. Naturally, his greatest fame was made in the pulpit, for he is the most eloquent man and possesses much magnetism. Added to the most prepossessing personality and a sonorous but well-modulated voice, the bishop has all the graces of a finished orator and all the charms of a deep earnest scholar. Like Martin Luther, he intended to study law, but the Bible overshadowed Blackstone. He began to preach at twenty years of age and in 1896 was elected bishop in the AME Zion Church. In spite of the multiplicity of duties, the bishop finds time to serve as president of Atkinson's College and so well has he supervised and managed its affairs that it is enjoying great popularity and is maintaining a high intellectual standing. He was married February 6, 1901 to Miss Marie Louise Clay of Huntsville, Alabama. His wife is a highly accomplished lady and a soloist of National Repute. He has one son, George William, being the issue of his former marriage to the late Mrs. Annie K. Clinton. The bishop lives in becoming style at Charlotte, North Carolina, where he owns some valuable and well-located property. His mother, for whom he has always manifested the deepest affection, makes her home with her distinguished son. Bishop Clinton is yet young and the church and the race have every reason to hope for many more years of the distinguished services of this brilliant leader. From the establishment of the gospel system the pulpit has occupied an important, unique and potential position in all things pertaining to man's well-being along moral, social and spiritual lines. It has not failed to concern itself about other affairs that tended to man's betterment. It may be stated in brief that at one time or another the pulpit has taken a deep interest and exerted a helpful as well as a healthy influence in whatever has tended to man's highest and best welfare. Speaking of the Christian ministry, Daniel Webster on one occasion said, The ministers of Christianity departing from Asia Minor, traversing Asia, Africa and Europe to Iceland, Greenland and the poles of the earth, suffering all things, enduring all things, raising men everywhere from ignorance of idol worship to the knowledge of the true God and everywhere bringing life and immortality to light have only been acting in obedience to the divine instruction and they still go forth. They have sought and they still seek to be able to preach the gospel to every creature under the whole heaven. And where was Christianity ever received? Where were the truths ever poured into human hearts? Where did its waters springing up into everlasting life ever burst forth except in a tract of a Christian ministry? Did we ever hear of an instance? Does history record an instance of any part of the globe being Christianized by lay preachers or lay teachers and descending from kingdoms and empires to cities, countries to parishes and villages? Do we not all know that wherever Christianity has been carried and wherever it has been taught by human agency, that agency was the agency of the ministers of the gospel. In the above high tribute, from one of the greatest American statesmen, since the Republic began its existence, we have set forth the peculiar work as well as the grand achievements of the pulpit. But as has been stated in the previous paragraph, the pulpit has ever sought to uplift man on every line where his uplifting meant his highest good. The Negro pulpit has not been an exception in the great work of uplifting mankind, especially that part of mankind with which it is ostensibly identified. No other pulpit ever had a more difficult task or labored under greater disadvantages than the Negro pulpit. In the very beginning, the Negro pulpit had the leadership and the enlightenment of the race and spiritual and intellectual knowledge thrust upon it when it was neither qualified nor regularly organized. Despite the disability within and the disadvantages without, the Negro pulpit became the pioneer in the first movements to better the condition of the race by lifting it from the degradation and disorganized state in which it was left by slavery. In almost every effort and successful plan which have been inaugurated since the race began its life of freedom, the Negro pulpit has been the prime promoter and the advanced guard. When other leaders have faltered, failed or retreated, the Negro pulpit has remained steadfast and redoubled its efforts. As is indicated in the quotation from America's greatest orator, Daniel Webster, the chief and first work of the pulpit is spiritual instruction. As an evidence of the success of the Negro pulpit along this line, the race may point to a larger percentage of Negro Christians according to population than is true of any other people in this Christian land. While it is true the Negro brought the Christian religion over from slavery as the best heritage which that cruel system bequeathed to him, it remained for the Negro pulpit to give shape, tone and organic significance to Negro Christianity. And organizing the Negro into separate and distinctly racial societies for the conduct of religious worship in church government, the Negro pulpit did a work which has given the race greater prestige and more clearly demonstrated its capabilities and possibilities than any other work which has been done by or for the race toward uplifting it. When the Negro proved his ability to organize and conduct successfully, a religious denomination of great size and strength, it proved its capacity to develop and govern itself along any other line. Surely the words of the prophet in which he speaks of a people scattered and peeled, a nation met it out and trotted down, seemed fittingly applicable to the condition of the Negro just emerged from slavery. It was this people, thus situated, that the Negro pulpit took hold of and formed into church societies and religious denominations which now have followings which number up into the 100,000s and possessed property valued at millions of dollars deeded to and held by and for the race. Quickly seconding the work of organization followed the work of education. Before the free school began, the Negro preacher became a teacher of his people to the full extent of his ability. Those who were sufficiently qualified found employment as public school teachers. While the more progressive and better qualified began to plan for institutions of higher grade to better qualify themselves and prepare teachers and leaders for the future well of the race. Whether we point to Wilberforce at Xenia, Ohio, secure to the AME church through the late lamented Bishop D.A. Payne, D.D., Livingstone College, over which that Prince of American Orators and foremost of Negro educators, Dr. Joseph Charles Price, presided from its permanent organization to its universally mourned death, the State University, the Chief Negro Baptist School located in Louisville, Kentucky or the scores of other schools of high grade, it is a fact beyond dispute that the Negro pulpit began the initiative and has exerted the most helpful and controlling influence since they were founded. A majority of the college seminary and high school presidents and principals, as well as some of the strongest members of the several faculties, are men from the pulpit or men who do double duty serving as best they can the pulpit and the school room. In politics as well as in other spheres, some of the most effective work which has been done for the uplifting of the race has been done by the Negro pulpit. To the writers' personal knowledge, some of the ableist, most faithful and useful men found in the constitutional conventions, legislatures and county offices during the reconstruction period were men from the Negro pulpit. The Reverend James Walker Hood, A.M.E. Zion, now Bishop J.W. Hood, D.D.L.L.D., in the constitutional convention of North Carolina, in the legislature and as Assistant Superintendent of Education for the State did a work which contributed not only to the uplift of the race but to the best interest of the people of the state. Reverend Henry McNeil Turner, D.D.L.L.D., A.M.E. Church, as legislator in Georgia, exerted an influence which is still felt in that state. Bishop B.W. Arnett, D.D., A.M.E., whose efforts in the Ohio legislature secured the repeal of the black laws Reverend D.I. Walker, A.M.E. Zion, as school commissioner and state senator from Chester County, South Carolina, Reverend J.E. Wilson, A.M.E., as school commissioner and postmaster at Florence, South Carolina, Reverend William Thomas, A.M.E., and R.H. Kane, A.M.E., legislator, congressman and later bishop, Reverend H.R. Rebels, A.M.E., United States senator whose deportment in the United States Senate and in other walks of life called forth the highest encomiums from the Southern press, Reverend Henry Highland Garnett, Presbyterian, and Reverend M.G. Hopkins, Presbyterian, and Owen L.W. Smith, A.M.E., Zion, United States minister to the Republic of Liberia, each and all have contributed much to the uplifting of the race in the political sphere. But the Negro pulpit has not confined its efforts along the line of race organization to the religious sphere. Knowing as every thoughtful leader and man of the race must know that material possessions, financial standing, and social combination for material well-being are indispensable. The Negro pulpit has not failed to project, foster, and encourage organizations of a character to benefit the race along the above lines. In Masonry, the Negro pulpit has ever held a commanding influence and served a most useful purpose. The same is to some extent true in odd fellowship and other societies which have been helpful to the race. But the most substantial organization now operated by and for the Negro race in this country are the True Reformers, Galilean Fishermen, and Birmingham, Alabama, Penny Savings Bank. The well-known and much lamented Reverend William W. Brown, M.E., C.C. Stewart, A.M.E. Zion, W.R. Pettiford Baptist, where the chief factors in founding and firmly establishing these healthy and helpful race institutions which are still doing a thriving and widening business which is not only uplifting the race but benefiting the community at large. The Hale Infirmary established by the widow and late elder Hale A.M.E. Zion of Montgomery, Alabama in compliance with the expressed wish of her husband while living. The orphanages of Charleston in Columbia, South Carolina established and now being managed by reverence Jenkins and E.A. Carroll Baptist in the above cities also the orphanage of Oxford, North Carolina established by ministers of the Baptist church according to information obtained by the writer. The Episcopal Industrial School of Charlotte, North Carolina founded by Reverend P.P. Alston Episcopal are but a few of the many ways in which the Negro pulpit is uplifting the race. In the literary sphere the pulpit has made numerous invaluable contributions which stand to the credit of the race and add to American literary productions. Bishop's Pane whose history of the A.M.E. church and domestic education BT Tanners several works Levi J. Copens Key to the Bible and Baptized Children W.J. Gaines' Negro and the White Man Dr. H.T. Johnson's Logos Reverend Whitman's Works Reverend T.G. Stewards' Works Bishop J.W. Hood's A.M.E. Zion Negro in the Christian Pulpit History of the A.M.E. Zion church and Apocalypse Revealed J.B. Small's Pulpitier Human Heart and Predestination Dr. W.J. Simmons' Baptist Men of Mark Bishop Holsey's C.M.E. Sermons and Addresses Dr. C.H. Phillips' C.M.E. C.M.E. Church History D.L. Blackwell's A.M.E. Zion Model Home Reverend George C. Lowe's Congregational Poems Reverend J.D. Carothers' A.M.E. Zion Poems Reverend W.H. Nelson's M.E. A Walk With Jesus Dr. Alexander With Scores Of Books I Cannot Mention For Lack Of Space.Besides Other's I Have Not See Or Heard About Are Contributions Which Cannot Help But Inspire And Uplift The Race.The Greatest and Most Widely Known Race Organization That Is Endeavoring To Uplift The Negro Along Social Lines And Combat The Prejudices Cast Regulations And Other Efforts To Crush Out and turn back the hand in the dial plate of the Negroes' progress is the Afro-American Council headed by that born leader of men, the eminently pious and ever-aggressive race leader, Bishop Alexander Walters, DD, AME, Zion, and his most substantial following is made up of representatives of all the Negro pulpits in America. In the Negro Press Association, the Negro pulpit is largely and ably represented, and the preacher's editors are doing their work well. The above brief and partial, but partial only for lack of broader information and more space, is but a feeble testimony to what the Negro pulpit is doing toward uplifting the race. In the religious sphere, the Negro pulpit stands out in bold prominence as the chief agency in the work of uplifting the race. In organizing and perpetuating existing organizations, the Negro pulpit now, as before, leads all other agencies. In the work of education, the progressive pulpit is always a patron and supporter, as well as a workman which needed not be ashamed. In the endeavor to constrain the people to a settled condition, instill the principles of Christianity and all the affairs of life and promote peace and harmony between man and man, regardless of race, the Negro pulpit is doing a work which is ever adding new stones to the grand building of race progress and influence. I know no single agency which is accomplishing so much in the task of uplifting the race as the Negro pulpit. But the great Negro religious and social organizations are doing, especially in such establishments, as the AME Zion, AME and Baptist Publication establishments at Charlotte, North Carolina, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Nashville, Tennessee, and Jackson, Tennessee is due largely to the management and business skill of the Negro pulpit. Now as in the past, the Negro pulpit constitutes the true leadership of the race. Having been the pioneer in almost every race uplifting enterprise, it will ever heartily cooperate with those who have come along in the paths blazed out by the Negro pulpit until the race shall take its place among the foremost peoples of the earth in every good work for the advancement of man and for the glory of God. End of topic seven, first paper, recording by Mary Patterson. Topic seven, second paper of 20th century Negro literature. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Mary Patterson. Topic seven, second paper. To what extent is the Negro pulpit uplifting the race? By Reverend J. B. L. Williams, D.D. Reverend John B. L. Williams was born in Baltimore, Maryland, November the 22nd, 1853. His parents, John W. Williams and Elizabeth Williams, were examples of piety and were of prominent family connections in Baltimore. At an early age, he was placed in a Roman Catholic school. Later in life, he attended the city public schools and Douglas Institute. At 17, he was converted and joined the Methodist Episcopal Church. At 18, he was divinely impressed with a call to the ministry. At 19, he became an apprentice at cabinet work and undertaking and completing his apprenticeship engaged in business for three years in Baltimore. In his 22nd year, he was licensed to preach by the quarterly conference of John Wesley Ammi Church in Baltimore. In March 1876, he abandoned his business and left Baltimore to accept an appointment at Oak Hill, Georgia. The same year, he joined the Savannah Conference and its organization by Bishop Levi Scott and he has rendered efficient service in the leading charges of the conference. Noonan, three years, Lloyd Street, Atlanta, one year. Presiding Elder Atlanta District, four years, Ammi Church at LaGrange, five years. He was honored by his brethren to the election of secretary of the conference 15 successive years. While pastor at Noonan, he was principal of the city public school. At LaGrange, he served two years as a member of the faculty of LaGrange Seminary and one year its principal. In 1882, he entered Clark University, taking studies in the college preparatory course. The same year, he entered Gammon Theological Seminary and graduated in 1885 with honor. In 1891, he was transferred by Bishop H.W. Warren to the Florida Conference to take charge of Ebenezer Ammi Church in Jacksonville. He served Ebenezer Church five years, during which time its membership was doubled the last year, being marked by a great revival which lasted two weeks and resulted in the conversion of 130 persons. His next charge was Trinity Church St. Augustine, where he served five years with success. He is now pastor of Trinity Ammi Church for Nandino. As a preacher, he is deliberate, convincing, persuasive, and instructive. His sermons are well constructed, choicelessly worded, rhetorically polished, full of thought and eloquently delivered. He was honored with the degree of Doctor of Divinity by Wiley University of the Methodist Episcopal Church, Marshall, Texas, May 20th, 1895. The Christian Pulpit has ever been acknowledged to be a great power for good among all people. Coming as it does, divinely commissioned and bearing to man a divine message. It has a claim upon the attention and the acceptation of mankind. Its claim to be heard is founded on the fact that it has something to say, some truth to communicate about God, his character, his purpose concerning man, his unbounded goodness and infinite love, about man, his duty and his destiny, and the great salvation offered to him. The Christian Pulpit is peculiarly and inseparably interwoven in the social life, moral deportment, and religious growth of the people. In its character, it is to be the representation of the highest standard of ethical deportment and the best example of religious life. From it the people are to receive their inspiration for that which is pure, exalted, and ennobling. Under the Christian Pulpit the people look for the loftiest ideals of life, and this respect, the Negro more than any other people, has been largely depended upon the pulpit, emerging as he did more than a quarter of a century ago from a thralldom which fettered his body and imprisoned his intellect and buried him in ignorance. It was the Christian Pulpit represented at that time by the good old fathers of those dark and trying days to whom the good and lamented bishop Hagrid paid high compliment in one of his addresses. They it was who saved their people from conditions which would have been vastly more deplorable, but for such moral and religious instruction as they were able to impart. As a race, we have moved an amazing distance from that period. Schools, seminaries, and universities have sprung up as if by magic. Educated young men and young women have gone forth from these institutions determined to do their best for God and humanity. The Negro press has also arisen and swayed a mighty influence for moral and religious good, but neither the school nor the press has been recognized as an efficient substitute for the pulpit. What was true as regards the place and power of the pulpit to uplift the people and the dark days of the past is equally true now in these days of light and knowledge. The educated and Christian pulpit is an indispensable factor in the elevation of the race today. The extent to which the Negro pulpit is uplifting the race is to be seen in the gradual but certain impermanent reformation taken place in the social and moral life of the race. Mental distinction based exclusively upon moral character is being clearly defined and rigidly observed. The moral standard has been elevated and the conceptions of the race in relation to ethical life has been greatly improved and beautifully exemplified in the lives of thousands. The home life of the race is purer and the sacredness of the marriage vow is gaining preeminence over the divorce system. The home life of the masses is gradually being touched and improved by the far-reaching influence of the Negro-Christian pulpit and there are signs and indications of better things and happier conditions. From these pulpits the gospel goes forth with simplicity and power. Its truth and teaching is made to touch, shape, and direct the practical side of Christian life. The evils which exist and which are a menace to the best and purest modes of life are strongly denounced and openly rebuked by the Negro-Christian pulpit and the race is being led to understand that sound moral character is the foundation upon which to build a strong symmetrical well-rounded manhood. The religious life of the race is being uplifted by the Negro-Christian pulpit. Sound is being displaced by sense in the pulpit, senseless emotion by thoughtful and reverential worship in the pew, and a clear conception and deep knowledge of divine truth is being gained by the people. The individual of pessimistic temperament may say that the masses are not being influenced and uplifted by the Negro pulpit, but this would be a mere statement and not an actual fact. The pessimist lives in an unwholesome atmosphere. He will not see the sunshine because he prefers to stay down in the valley beneath the cloud of doubt and surmounted with the fog of hopelessness. The educated Negro pulpit is mainly optimistic and sees beyond its immediate surroundings. It sees to it that the leaven of sound doctrine and moral ethics are being put into the meal and from personal developments believes that in the process of time the whole lump will be leavened. The Negro pulpit is awake to the gravity of its responsibility and it is putting forth its best efforts and mightiest endeavors to uplift the race socially, morally and religiously. Evidences of this aim and purpose are not difficult to be seen in all communities. End of Topic 7, 2nd Paper. Topic 7, 3rd Paper of 20th Century Negro Literature. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Mary Patterson, 20th Century Negro Literature, Topic 7, 3rd Paper. To what extent is the Negro pulpit uplifting the race? My Reverend R. P. White, Doctor of Divinity. Robert P. White was born near Oxford, the county seat of Granville County, North Carolina. His father was a carpenter by trade and early taught his son the use of tools. In his humble home he was taught the dignity of labor, fidelity to duty, obedience to God and faith in prayer. These simple lessons shaped the course of his life probably more than any other influence. For a while he attended night school as he worked in the day in order to earn the means to buy his books and to pay other necessary expenses. Robert was ambitious to excel. From the night school he went to a private school in Henderson, North Carolina. This school was conducted by the Reverend J. H. Crawford, a Presbyterian minister. Here Robert prosecuted his duties with eagerness, fitting himself to enter the preparatory department of Biddle University. The president of the university, Reverend S. Mattoon D.D., became interested in Robert, known he esteemed as a promising student and assured him that no worthy student should leave school for the want of means. After graduating in 1877 his first thought was to enter the medical profession, but afterward he abandoned this idea and began seriously to consider the call to the ministry. After teaching school for a short period he returned to the seminary and took the full course in theology. He was licensed and ordained by the Presbyterian of Catawba and was called to the pastorate of 7th Street Presbyterian Church at Charlotte, North Carolina. The degree of A.M. and the honorary degree of D.D. were conferred upon Reverend R. P. Weich by Biddle University. He is at this time moderator of the Synod of Catawba. He married Miss Bell Butler, a popular educator who unites with her husband in every measure for the true elevation of the Negro. The question has been raised as to the part taken by the pulpit in the uplift of the race. The most casual observer must conclude that there are influences at work which are elevating the Negro race, and it is interesting and instructive to trace out the work which is done by each individual agency. The pulpit has long been recognized as a potent factor in the formation of character and the Negro pulpit is not an exception to the general rule. Its influence may be elevating or degrading. The character and the ability of the man in the pulpit will determine the nature and extent. The office itself implies an active interest in the elevation of man from the lower to the highest stage of life. But the uneducated ministry proved itself unequal to the task of teaching and leading the people along the difficult path to true excellence. Some of the most stubborn opposition to the progress of the race was found in that class who had good reasons to fear the loss of power as the race advanced in intelligence. All of the higher interests of the people suffered at the hands of this class of leaders. But let us now turn to another and better class of leaders. There are ministers who have enjoyed the benefits of a Christian education. This class of men form a strong factor in the elevation of the Negro. The present attainments of the pulpit are far reaching in the beneficent influence upon the race. The Negro pulpit is absolutely necessary to the higher moral development of the Negro. This development should lie at the foundation of all his attainments, for men cannot reasonably hope to rise permanently along other lines while they neglect moral culture. The moral influence of the pulpit is now creating correct views of life in the Negro and leading him to good citizenship. The practical pulpit teaching along this line is having its effect in the moral uplift of the Negro. In this way the pulpit is serving as an uplifting force. Moral stability is the only solid foundation of an enduring elevation. Considered from an intellectual point of view, the pulpit is of great value to the Negro race. The example set by the Negro pulpit in acquiring its intellectual status is worthy of imitation and the youth of the rising generation will profit by it. The positive instruction and counsel coming from safe and trusted leaders will certainly yield its fruit. We cannot estimate the worth of the pulpit as the molder of the thought, the character and the destiny of the race. The financial status of the pulpit under existing conditions may be considered comparatively good. It has been made what it now is by industry, economy and self-denial and stands as an object lesson for the benefit of those wishing to better their condition. The salaries paid Negro preachers are usually small, even less than the wages of mechanics, but these small earnings are carefully saved and wisely invested. As a result, many of the Negro preachers have comfortable homes while others of them have small bank accounts. The Negro minister has learned the dignity of labor and does not hesitate to labor with head and hands in order to attain to the position of usefulness and influence in the world. The people are taught in this practical manner the lessons of industry and economy more forcibly than in any other way and they are thus led to secure homes to enter into business and to educate their children. Our elegant church edifices are largely due to the taste, tact and business qualities of the pulpit. These beautiful edifices exert a refining and uplifting influence upon the lives of men. The spiritual power of the pulpit, this is the chief power that it is expected to wield in the world for its mission is spiritual and this great fact should ever be remembered. Our deepest needs are of a spiritual nature and the pulpit offers to supply these deep seated needs and to assist us to rise to the rank of the sons of God. The gospel is the divinely appointed means to elevate men in Christian character. The promulgulation of the gospel and the exhibition of practical Christianity are the essential elements to an onward and upward progress. End of Topic 7, Third Paper. Topic 7, Fourth Paper of 20th Century Negro Literature. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Mary Patterson, 20th Century Negro Literature, Topic 7, Fourth Paper. To what extent is the Negro pulpit uplifting the race? By Reverend I.D. Davis, Doctor of Divinity. The subject of this sketch was born at Lawrence, South Carolina in 1858. His parents were Nelson and Sarah Davis. In 1870, Reverend Charles Thompson, a Presbyterian missionary from the North, came to Lawrence and began services in a part of the town known as Tin Pot Alley. The first to be enrolled in his Sunday school was the subject of our sketch. After Reverend Thompson left Lawrence, our little hero went to school to another veteran, Mr. Wright, who soon learned to regard him highly. The late Reverend D. Gibbs now took charge of the church, and our subject was the first to enter his Sunday school. While the Reverend Gibbs was boarding at his father's home, the seed of the Presbyterian ministry was planted. He now entered school under Reverend and Mrs. McDowell and began the study of the shorter catechism. A polyglot Bible was offered for the most perfect recitation of the catechism, and he won the first prize. In 1874, he took the examination and won the county scholarship for the state normal at Columbia. From this examination, he was given a teacher's certificate and taught his first school in the country. At the close of the school, he accompanied Reverend and Mrs. McDowell to Statesville, North Carolina, and in November, Reverend McDowell had a range for him to go to Biddle University, Charlotte, North Carolina. He returned home every summer and taught, so acceptable were his services that scholars were offered to him and held until his return from school. In 1877, on account of failing health, he remained out of school and was chosen as the principal of the city school at his native home. He was always known as the mockingbird of Lawrence. He was the chorister in Sunday school and church. According to Biddle University, in the fall of 1878, was taken under the care of Cattaba Presbytery as a candidate for the ministry and graduated with a degree of AB in 1881. In October 1881, he entered the seminary of Biddle University, was licensed to preach the gospel in 1883, and was placed in charge of the Pleasant View Church, Greenville County, South Carolina, where he served so acceptably that he was desired as a settled pastor. In 1884, he graduated from the seminary and was ordained to the full work of the gospel ministry the next day after graduating. He took charge of the work at Lincolnton, North Carolina, where he served six years and six months conducting both church and school and was then reelected principal of the city school. The new church at McClintock was built under his administration. He was chosen moderator of the Presbytery of Cattaba at Monroe, North Carolina and in 1887 was sent as a commissioner from Cattaba Presbytery to the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the United States, which met at Omaha, Nebraska. In 1888, the degree of AM was conferred by Biddle University. In 1890, he accepted the call to Windsboro, South Carolina, continuing in the church and schoolwork here for four years very acceptably. In 1892 was sent as commissioner to the General Assembly at Saratoga, New York. In 1894, he accepted the work at Goodwill Sumter County, South Carolina, where he now serves the largest colored Presbyterian church in the United States. He administered communion to 2,000 communicants. In connection with the church, he is charge of the Goodwill Academy with an enrollment of about 100 students. In 1895, he was chosen stated clerk of Fairfield Presbytery, which position he fills with accuracy and ability until today. In 1900, the degree of DD was conferred upon him by Biddle University. He has been moderator of Fairfield Presbytery and Atlantic Synod. He is secretary of the Sunday School Convention, chairman of the Committee on Vacancies and Supplies of the Fairfield Presbytery and chairman of the Committee on Foreign Mission Atlantic Synod. The influence of the Negro pulpit on the race is immeasurable. It is to the race what the lighthouse is to the ship laden with human souls upon the tempestuous sea. At the close of war, when the Negroes were in darkness, the Negro preachers were the first to come forward to lead them to the light. Whatever may be said to the contrary, the Negro preachers have done more for the Negroes uplift since his emancipation than any other class of persons. We delight to boast that the Negroes pay taxes on $400 million worth of property, that they have thousands of well-educated men and women, that their illiteracy has been reduced 45 percent, that they have hundreds of newspapers, that they have 400 or more skilled physicians who are making good money, that they have hundreds of men who are engaged in business enterprises, that they have thousands of honest, sober, upright Christian men and women. Now to whom are we more indebted for all this than to the Negro preachers who have faithfully taught their people to save their money and buy homes and lands, who have constantly advised them to send their sons and daughters to the schools, who have urged their people to patronize Negro business enterprises and Negro physicians and lawyers, who have shown their people the importance of taking Negro papers, who have enjoined them to be honest, sober, industrious citizens. End of fourth paper. End of topic seven. Topic eight first paper of twentieth century Negro literature. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Phyllis Vincelli. Twentieth century Negro literature. Topic eight first paper. Is it time for the Negro colleges in the south to be put into the hands of Negro teachers? By Professor N. B. Young. Nathan B. Young was born in New Bern, Alabama, September 18th, 1862. He was educated in the private schools at Tuscaloosa, Alabama, at Talladega College and at Oberlin College. She has taught school in Mississippi, Georgia, Florida, and Alabama. He is now president of the Florida State Normal and Industrial College, Tallahassee. The answer to this question depends upon what is meant by placing these schools in the hands of Negro teachers. If it means that they are to be manned and managed by them, I answer no. If, on the other hand, it means that they should have some hand in managing these schools, I answer yes. For two reasons I claim that the time has not arrived for the passing of these institutions into his sole control. The first is a financial reason. The second is an intellectual or cultural reason. At present, the majority of the Negro colleges and institutions of higher and professional learning are supported by white people, either directly or indirectly, and the withdrawal of white faculties and boards of trustees will mean a withdrawal of white supporters. Whether this withdrawal will be logical or ethical, it will nevertheless be a fact. Those whose duty it is to collect funds for these schools can testify to the certainty of such a result if the experiment should be made. The white man is a very careful giver to charitable institutions of any kind, and he takes every precaution to see that his donations are wisely expended, and that too according to his standards. Hence, when he makes a charitable contribution, he feels safer when one of his own race is a trustee or dispenser of the contribution. This explains the fact that in cases where Negro schools under Negro management make an appeal for large endowment funds, they find it necessary to appoint a white endowment committee to manage the fund. The Negro has no standing in the financial world because he has made no financial record. This is not so much his fault as it is his misfortune. He is without the financial experience that he would need in order to manage successfully large sums of money such as he would be called upon to collect and to manage in colleges. Without aid from the white donors, these colleges would be unable to do the work of a college. In other words, with possibly one notable exception, it takes a white man to get a white man's money, and since it is necessary to get a white man's money to support these institutions, it is also necessary to put their management into his hands. This condition will gradually change as the Negro race accumulates wealth within itself. This will naturally bring with it that experience which will eventually enable him to be a successful manager of these institutions. It is generally known among those who are familiar with college management that the financial feature is the most difficult feature in this work. It requires a rare combination of qualities in a man to carry on successfully this phase of college work. The managing boards of white colleges find it exceedingly difficult to find white men fully equal to the task. If this takes place in the green tree, what may we expect in a dry? At present the Negro race, to say the least, is too poor to take on itself the complete control of its colleges. Such a transfer would be a calamity indeed, for under the white management these institutions are leading only a tolerable existence, are progressing but slowly and some of them not at all. To take these feeble institutions then, and to connect them with a poorer source of supply, would be practically to destroy them, certainly seriously to handicap them. Besides, even if their financial support were guaranteed, at present a more serious obstacle would present itself. It would be impossible from the present supply of educated Negro men and women to get faculties for them. I mean to get faculties every whit prepared for their progressive management. Men up to date college must have not only strong financial backing, but it must also have strong intellectual and moral backing. Each teacher should be so trained, intellectually and morally, as to have a very keen appreciation of the deep significance of the work in which he is engaged. This means that he must, in addition to a careful formal training, have a sort of intellectual and culture background to cause him to stand out in clear relief before his students as an embodiment of what he would have them become. He should, in very truth, be a scholar and a gentleman. The fact that a man or a woman is a graduate from some of these misnamed southern universities or brevet colleges does not argue that he has a liberal education. The fact is that there are no Negro universities in this country and less than half a dozen bona fide colleges. These reputed universities and colleges are but indifferent high schools for the most part, and their graduates, without additional study, are not prepared to take a place on a college faculty. Strange to say, very few of these graduates feel the necessity of doing additional study before becoming anxious candidates for presidents of colleges or for professorships. I stand by the statement that there are not enough really educated men fully equipped to manage the colleges such as we have, not to say anything of those that we ought to have. The race is not yet far enough removed from slavery to have that intellectual and moral background necessary to the bringing out of college professors and college presidents. It has taken the white man many generations to develop an Elliot, a Dwight, a Hadley, and an Angel. Not to say anything about the Butler's, the Harris's, and the Wheeler's. These men are developments, the very cream of the intellectual history of the Anglo-Saxon race in America. As I have indicated elsewhere, the trustees find it hard to fill their places when vacant. The incipient Negro teacher and educator might as well admit the fact of their incompetency and with the admission bend themselves with renewed energy to hard study, laying aside all bogus degrees and meaningless titles, and acknowledge the fact that they are yet intellectual pygmies. If they will do this, perchance they themselves may not only add to their own stature, but they may also become the ancestors of intellectual giants fully competent to occupy the positions which they feign would hold in the educational world. Although the time has not yet come, as I believe, for the entire management of Negro colleges by Negroes, yet the time has come when he should have some hand in managing both as teacher and as trustee. It would be a sad commentary upon the Negro race and upon its white teachers to have these schools remain permanently under white tutelage and management. It would also be a sad commentary upon the Negro to have an alien race to continue giving its money to educate his children. He must be brought gradually to see the necessity of his supporting and managing his own institutions of learning. The only way to do this is to gradually place the managing of them upon his shoulders. Every Negro college ought to have one or more Negro trustees on the board, as well as one or more Negro teachers on the faculty. The only way to learn how to swim is to go into the water. The only way for the Negro to learn how to manage his institutions is for him to have a hand in managing them. Of the large number of Negro youth that are graduated every year from our colleges, there are not a few among them who have in them the making of fine professors if they were stimulated by the sure hope of securing a place on the faculty of their alma mater. It is the imperatives duty of the faculties of these schools to inspire these men to their best efforts, and when they have done so, it is the duty of the trustees to give them a place on the faculty. I would not, however, make vacancies for them by moving efficient white teachers, but when these white teachers fall out because of age or other reasons, I would appoint in their places competent Negro men. This policy would at once keep the support of the white donors and also the support of the Negro patrons. The Negro must have a larger hand in managing his institutions of learning even from the lowest to the highest. I answer then that the time has not yet come for the complete transfer of Negro colleges to Negro management because the Negro is not yet able to assume the financial control of these institutions nor the intellectual control, but he is able to have a larger hand in controlling them as donor, as trustee, and as teacher. This policy is being pursued by some of the educational agencies now at work in the South. The efforts of the Negro churches, especially of the AME Zion Church, the AME Church, of the CME Church, and a wing of the Baptist Church are to be commended insofar as they do not assume a hostile attitude toward other agencies which pursue a slightly different policy. There cannot be too much educational activity among Negroes for Negroes, and there certainly should be no antagonism among these agencies growing out of differences of opinion as to policies and methods of work. They should all make a long pull, a strong pull, and a pull altogether for the educational, moral, and spiritual uplift of the masses of the Negro people. End of topic 8, First Paper. Topic 8, Second Paper of 20th Century Negro Literature. This is a LibriVox recording. LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Phyllis Vincelli. 20th Century Negro Literature. Topic 8, Second Paper by Professor D. J. Jordan, M.S.L.L.B. Is it time for the Negro colleges in the South to be put into the hands of Negro teachers? Nature has not been extravagant in her gift of geniuses. What has come to most of our leading men has come by hard work. Although Professor D. J. Jordan possesses talents about the average, he owes his successes largely to persistent work. He was born near Cuthbert, Georgia, October 18th, 1866. His father was Reverend Giles D. Jordan, who was for 25 years a highly respected minister in the AME Church in Georgia. He inherits many of his excellent traits of character from his mother, Julia Jordan. In his early life he was unable to attend school more than three months of the year, but by close application while in school and faithful study during vacations he was always able to make the next higher class at the beginning of the following school year. After finishing the English branches he attended Payne High School at Cuthbert. In 1892 he graduated at Allen University, Columbia, South Carolina with the degrees of B.S. and L.L.B. His record at this institution was in many respects remarkable. He was successful in passing the written examination given by the Supreme Court of South Carolina and was admitted to practice in all the courts of that state, May 1892. After his graduation he returned to his native city, taught a term, and made preparations to enter upon the practice of the legal profession, but he was prevailed upon to accept a position on the faculty of Morris Brown College in 1893. He served here as Professor of Science and Dean of Law until November 1895 when he resigned to accept the presidency of Edward Waters College at Jacksonville, Florida. He was married December 31st, 1895 by Bishop A. Grant to Miss Cary J. Thomas, principal of one of the public schools of Atlanta. More children have been born to them. He was elected as a lay delegate to the General Conference of the AME Church which was held at Wilmington, North Carolina in 1896. In the spring of 1996 he accepted the position of Professor of Literature at Morris Brown College which position he held until September 1898 when he was appointed Professor of Mathematics and Vice President of the same institution. The degree of MS was conferred upon him by Allen University in 1900. In the summer school held at Clark University in 1901, Professor Jordan was instructor in mathematics. He has developed with the institution with which he has been connected fitting himself for every promotion which has come to him. Professor Jordan has an experience of 18 years in the classroom and is an excellent disciplinarian. The fact that he has filled four different chairs with credit is sufficient argument that he is an able all-round scholar. His greatest strength, however, lies in his knowledge of English. His language is chaste. His diction pure. As one of the best writers and speakers of the race he has contributed articles to our leading periodicals including the Atlanta Constitution, Atlanta Journal, AME Review and Indianapolis Freeman and has delivered several commencement addresses. I am asked to say whether or not it is time for the Negro colleges in the South to be put into the hands of Negro teachers. The education of a people is the greatest question that can possibly concern them. It touches every phase of human interest and holds the key to the solution of every rational problem arising out of man's duty and destiny. The foundations of every helpful institution known to our social system rest upon such conceptions of right and wrong as the people's intelligence has called into being. For true teaching is not only the application of methods for the development of one's powers, but it is also a directing or turning of those powers into proper channels. With any people it will not matter ultimately who now writes the laws, issues decrees or enforces judgments if their youth are kept under wise, efficient instructors. How necessary then must it be to erase so conditioned as is the Negro in America that their schools should be conducted by only those who are most capable and worthy. However, before we attempt to answer the question propounded, it is important that we fully comprehend its meaning. As I understand it, the matter might be stated in other words thus. Should Negroes exclusively be placed now on the faculties of the several missionary colleges which Northern Philanthropy has established in the south since the close of the Civil War? There were then not only no schools for us, but there were no teachers and no money with which to employ teachers. No night in Egypt in the time of Israel was darker than those years immediately following the Negro's emancipation. And what must have been our condition today had not those pillars of light been placed in our starless sky? But what is more, for thirty years the same spirit and the same people who first made these colleges possible among us have continued their aid and still make them possible today. And now let us see what advantages could be reasonably expected from such a change in management as the subject suggests. So far as I know, they who advocate the change establish themselves upon this proposition, namely, Negro teachers are best for Negro schools. And this is true, they say, one, because being of the same race, there must of necessity exist such a spirit of sympathy and helpfulness between teacher and student as we could not reasonably expect were the teacher and the taught of different races. Two, because placing before students competent men and women of their own race as teachers sets before them an example and an object lesson of what the students themselves may become and do that cannot fail to be inspiring. Three, because the employing of Negro teachers in Negro schools furnishes an honorable vocation to a large number of our own people who otherwise would possibly be unemployed. Five, because Negro teachers in Negro colleges, by their presence and work, increase the race pride among ourselves and win for us greater confidence and respect from others. These are weighty considerations and, per se, have my most hearty approval. But however complete may be our endorsement, we must not forget that unqualifiedly acting upon them in the matter under discussion would not be without its losses. Let us now consider what these might be, and then we shall be prepared to decide whether we would not rather bear those ills we have than fly to others we know not of. In the first place, if the people who own and sustain these schools could be induced to sever their connection with them and turn them fully into the hands of Negroes, although the colleges are already built, equipped, and advertised, yet chiefly on account of our poverty, we should have to close the majority of them at once. This would be a most serious loss. The amount of ignorance and the lack of trained leaders among us, together with the small pittance done for us in the direction of even high school education by the states and cities in which we live certainly do not suggest the advisability of ridding ourselves of even one agency for enlightenment. Far better would it be for us and for the country if they were increased tenfold. This view takes into consideration the fact that the great majority of people who give of their means to support the schools do so because they have confidence in the ability, integrity, and experience of those who control them. And if anyone is so credulous as to believe that the schools under the management of Negroes could command the amount of interest and support as they now receive, I would ask him, why have Negroes, from Mr. Booker T. Washington Down, who are trying to gain public confidence and assistance for their work, find it necessary to invite white men to accept membership on their boards of trustees? One need not go far to find the correct answer. In this connection it will be in order to inquire also, if there are, under the control of Negroes, any colleges that receive anything like the amount of money for their support that is received by similar institutions under the management of white men. Furthermore, the placing of the colleges referred to wholly into the hands of Negroes would be an unnecessary drawing of the race line, and would very effectually close our mouths against making protest or complaint on account of our being discriminated against for similar reasons. Again at this time, when there seems to be, on the part of certain persons of influence, a foul conspiracy against the Negro, it is of great importance that we have among us persons whose knowledge of the facts and whose intellectual and social standing with those whose good opinions we value enable and impel them to speak out in our behalf. I recall with much gratification, several instances where white persons connected with Negro schools have used the superior opportunities afforded them by the accident of race to say good things of us at a time when a spokesman who had the ear of the king was sorely needed. If under present conditions this class of people be sent from among us, I fear it might in a measure be with us as it was with a certain people in ancient times when a new king arose who knew not Joseph. And finally, would it not be highly presumptive and insolent on our part to demand of others that they deliver into our keeping without price, property which they have purchased with their own money, and of which we have had the use and benefit for a third of a century. Until we shall be able to buy these colleges and properly support them, even the serious discussion of the question it seems to me is inappropriate and purile. When therefore you ask me, if in my opinion the time has come when the Negro colleges in the South should be put into the hands of Negro teachers, I must answer you frankly no. I would not be understood, however, as placing my approval upon everything pertaining to the management of the schools under consideration. I do not deny that in some cases teachers are employed who are not possessed of the proper spirit for doing the best work among us. They are sometimes haughty, unsocial, and unsympathetic, and find themselves among us because there is offered better pay for less work than was found in their own neighborhoods. But these do not vitiate the schools, they are exceptions. I think too that the faculties of the several schools, together with the boards of trustees, should be as largely composed of competent, worthy Negroes as the interests of the institutions will allow. I am sure that such a policy would both encourage our people and train them in the management of such interests, and would be fully in harmony with the spirit and purpose of the institution's founders. But we cannot state this as a demand based on what is justly ours. Let it stand rather on its soundness as to what is best as a policy designed to accomplish the highest results. Before we find too many faults, though, with these missionary colleges, we ought to show, by our full, loyal support of the few colleges we do control, that we are both able and willing to do the proper thing when the time shall come, if ever, for placing the Negro colleges in the South into the hands of Negro teachers. End of Topic 8, 2nd Paper