 Dedication, Preface, and Introduction 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 Devorah Allen. 20th Century Negro Literature, or, A Cyclopedia of Thought on the Vital Topics relating to the American Negro. By one hundred of America's greatest Negroes. Dedication. To all persons of whatever race and of whatever section of our country, who in any way contributed in the 19th century to the financial, intellectual, moral, and spiritual elevation of the Negro, the editor dedicates this book with the ardent hope that before this century shall have ended, the Negro, through his own manly efforts, aided by his friends, shall reach that point in the American civilization, where he will be recognized and treated as any other American citizen. Preface. The idea of putting this book on the market originated in the following considerations. First, there is considerable ignorance on the part of the white people of this country, of the intellectual ability of the Negro, and, as a consequence, the educated Negro does not receive at the hands of the whites that respectful consideration to which his education entitles him. Second, at this time, when the attainments made in the 19th century by the other races and nationalities are being paraded, the friends of the Negro are particularly interested to know something of the attainments made by him in that century. Third, there is a strong desire on the part of those white people who are deeply interested in the American race problem to know what the educated Negroes are thinking on the topics touching this problem, since it is believed that if this problem is to be correctly solved, it will be solved by the combined efforts of the intelligent elements of both races. Fourth, a book in which the aspiring Negro youth of the land can study the character sketches and the literary productions of the scholarly men of their own race, along with their study of the character sketches and the choice literary productions of the scholarly white men of the country, is a desider autumn. Fifth, the majority of the Negroes need to be enlightened on those vital topics relating to themselves, and on those questions touching their development in civilization. The object of this book is therefore, one, to enlighten the uninformed white people on the intellectual ability of the Negro, two, to give to those who are interested in the Negro race a better idea of the extent to which he contributed to the promotion of America's civilization, and of the intellectual attainments made by him in the 19th century, three, to reflect the views of the most scholarly and prominent Negroes of America on those topics touching the Negro that are now engaging the attention of the civilized world, four, to point out the aspiring Negro youth, those men and women of their own race, who by their scholarship, by their integrity of character, and by their earnest efforts in the work of uplifting their own race, have made themselves illustrious. Also, to enlighten such youth on those ethical, political, and sociological questions touching the Negro that will sooner or later engage their attention, five, to enlighten the Negroes on that perplexing problem, commonly called the race problem, that has necessarily grown out of their contact with their ex-masters and their descendants, and also to stimulate them to make greater efforts to ascend to that plain of civilization occupied by the other enlightened peoples of the world. Now, among all the books on the Negro, there is none whose object is so worthy, comprehensive, and specific as that above set forth. In this, the superiority of this book to all others on the Negro may be seen, and the superior value of this book is also apparent from the following considerations. One, this is the only book in which there is such a magnificent array of Negro talent. Other Negro books of a biographical character are objected to, by the intelligent people who have read them, on the ground that they contain too few sketches of scholarly Negroes, and too many of Negroes of ordinary ability. But such a criticism cannot be made on this book, since, as a matter of fact, all of the one hundred men and women appearing in it are among the best educated Negroes in the world. Two, this is the only book from which one can get anything like a definite and correct idea of the progress made by the Negro since his emancipation along all lines. Three, there is no book but this one in which there can be found express the thoughts of any considerable number of educated Negroes on so many political, religious, civil, moral, and sociological problems touching the Negro, which are interesting alike to the politician, the moralist, and the sociologist. But it is not to be understood that the one hundred men and women mentioned in this book are the only Negro scholars in this country. So far from this, there are hundreds of other Negroes who are as scholarly, as prominent, and as active in the work of uplifting their race as the one hundred here and given. These one hundred appear here, rather than others, for no other reason than that they are better known to the editor. Now in sending forth this book, the editor ardently hopes that it will not only accomplish the objects herein set forth, but that it will also do much towards bringing about a better understanding between the two races in the South. D. W. Culp, Pilatka, Florida. Professor W. H. Crogman, A. M. Professor W. H. Crogman, A. M., who occupies the chair of Greek and Latin in Clark University, Atlanta, in Christian character, scholarship in his department, literary ability, general culture, and distinguished services stands, it is safe to say, among the first four, if not at the head of the Negro race. In all the particulars mentioned, he would honor a professorship in any college in the land. Professor Crogman was born on the island of St. Martin, May 5, 1841. In 1855, Mr. B. L. Boomer, chief maid of the vessel, visiting the island, became interested in the boy, then an orphan, and induced him to come to the United States. Mr. Boomer took him to his home in Middleborough, Massachusetts, sent him to district school in the winter, and always took great interest in him. Mr. Boomer's brothers were all seafaring men, captains or officers of vessels. With one of these, the boy, Willie, began to follow the sea. This beginning afterward led to a life of eleven years on the ocean. He visited many lands, and observant and thoughtful, obtained a wide knowledge of various nationalities in parts of the world. His visits included especially England, various points on the continent of Europe, Calcutta and Bombay and Asia, various places in South America and Australia. In 1866, at the suggestion of Mr. Boomer, that an academic education would make him useful, Professor Crogman, then at the age of 25, began to earn means to attend an academy. He worked and laid by money, till two years later in 1868, he entered Pierce Academy in Middleborough, Massachusetts. He remained there two years, taking an English course with French and bookkeeping. After completing his academic course, in the fall of 1870, Professor Crogman started for the South to give his life to the Christian education and elevation of his race. He was recommended by the Boston Preachers' Meeting to the work in South Carolina, and was employed by Reverend T. W. Lewis as instructor in English branches at Claflin University, Orangeburg, South Carolina. Here he remained three years. In this work, he became impressed with the need of a knowledge of Greek and Latin, and began the study of Latin by himself. To gain a knowledge of these branches, he went to Atlanta University in the fall of 1873. This resulted in his completing there the full classical course in 1876. Professor Francis of Atlanta University, who was one of his teachers there, was present at the reception, and in a most happy speech, paid a high tribute to Professor Crogman's manhood, industry, thorough scholarship, and rapid advancement during his college life, completing as he did the four years course in three years. He spoke also with Professor Crogman's carrying off as his bride, one of their noblest and most gifted and cultured young ladies, Miss Levinia C. Mott, of Charlotte, North Carolina. Immediately on his graduating from Atlanta University, Professor Crogman was called to a position on the faculty of Clark University, where he has been ever since, having occupied his present chair since 1880. Letters expressive of their highest appreciation of him and his work were read from several of his students, who now themselves occupy prominent positions. Professor Crogman is author of Talks for the Times, a book in which almost every phase of the race problem is discussed in a very practical and fascinating style. Speaking of this book, the independent says, We notice this collection of talks for the times with unusual pleasure. They are worthy of the strong and cultivated gentleman who is their author. They deal largely with Negro education, educational institutions and educators, but occasionally deal with general topics such as life's deeper meanings. The author speaks of his race and speaks in strong, polished English, full of nerve and rich in the music of good English prose. The California Christian Advocate says, We are minded to say, Here is a volume that must be intensely interesting to all who are interested in the culture and continued advancement of the Negro. But why should we thus write? It would be nearer our deliberate estimate to say, Here is a book made up of manly and vigorous addresses by a vigorous, scholarly and independent thinker. Whoever values the result of scholarly investigation will be interested in this volume. We do not hesitate to say that but for the noble identification of the author with his own people, in such addresses as The Negro's Need, The Negro's Claims, and The Negro Problem, no one who reads this book would guess that Professor Krogman was other than a vigorous-minded Anglo-Saxon. And yet to our thinking it is much to say that talks for the times is the production of a ripe scholar who is of almost pure African blood. A man who almost entirely by his own exertion has climbed steadily up the ladder of scholarship until he is no mean exponent of the culture of our day. Introduction by Professor W. H. Krogman I am requested to write an introduction to this volume of essays, written by representative men and women of the Negro race and touching almost every phase of the Negro question. Certainly it is a hopeful sign that the Negro is beginning with some degree of seriousness to turn his eyes inward, to study himself, and try to discover what are his possibilities, and what the obstructions that lie in the way to his larger development. Undoubtedly this is a rational method of procedure, and the one most likely to reward his effort, for it is only in proportion as we become interested in ourselves that we enlist the interest of others, and only in proportion as we respect ourselves that we command the respect of others. The story is told of a Negro who at some time during the War of the Rebellion, being asked why he did not enlist in the army, replied, denorph and assail from two dogs fight no or bone, denigram to bone, and takes no part into conflict. That this is not the language of an intelligent Negro is quite evident, if indeed it be the language of a Negro at all. So common has it been in this country to caricature the black man, to represent him as a driveler in speech and a buffoon in action, that I am always loath to accept as his those many would-be-witty sayings, which too often originating with others have been attributed to him. But be the author of that remark, whosoever he may, one thing now is perfectly apparent. The Negro has reached beyond the bone stage. He is no longer content with being a passive observer, a quiet looker on, while his character and interests are under discussion. He is now disposed to speak for himself, to take part in the conflict. Anyone desiring evidence of this will find it in the following pages of 20th-century Negro literature. This book will do good. It will enlighten many of both races on topics respecting which they seem to be profoundly ignorant. Not very long ago, a Negro delivered an address in one of the largest churches in Atlanta. It was an occasion in which a goodly number of white people was present. They expressed themselves as being delighted. One man said to a colored bishop that he didn't know there was a Negro in the state that could have delivered such an address. The fact is, both the good bishop and the writer of these lines might have found him twenty who could at least deliver an address as good, and ten probably who could deliver a better. Well, we don't know each other, we white and black folk. We are neighbors, yet strangers. Our thoughts, our motives, our desires are unknown to each other. Between the best white and black people, in whom alone vests the possibility of a rational and peaceful solution of the race problem, there is absolutely no communication, no opportunity for exchange of views. Herein lies the danger. For both people as a consequence are suspicious the one of the other. Not infrequently, with much uncharitableness, we attribute wrong motives to those who are truly our friends. Were we acquainted with one another, as we ought to be, we would doubtless be surprised to discover how little we differ in our thinking, with reference to many of the vexed questions confronting us. Indeed, it has always been the belief of the writer, frequently expressed, that neither of the races is as bad as it appears to the other. May we not hope, then, that twentieth-century Negro literature may have the good fortune of falling into the hands of many white friends. On the other hand, the book must be stimulating to the Negro people, especially to those of the younger generation, now blessed with large educational privilege. It must awaken in them self-respect, self-reliance, and the ambition to be and to do. By the perusal of its pages they will be led to see more clearly the path of duty, and to feel more sensibly the weight of responsibility resting upon them. The first generation of Negroes after emancipation exhibited to a painful degree the spirit of dependence, an inclination to lean on something and on somebody. Now on the politician, now on the philanthropist. The reason for this, of course, is not far to fetch. The spirit of dependence is invariably a characteristic of weakness. It was not to be expected that the first generation emerging from slavery would possess all the heroic qualities. Gradually, however, the Negro is realizing the importance of self-help. Good books, among other agencies, will deepen this impression, and ultimately lead him to imbibe in all its fullness the sentiment of the poet. Destiny is not about thee, but within. Thyself must make thyself. The contributors to this volume are worthy of notice. They are among the best we have. Some of them are personally known to the writer. They are men of experience, scholarly men, shunning rather than courting notoriety. Just the class of men to guide a people, alas, to easily let astray by pretentious ignorance. From a number so large and so meritorious, it would seem invidious to select any for special mention. It may not be out of place, however, to say a few words with reference to the editor and compiler, Dr. D. W. Culp. Born a slave in Union County, South Carolina, like many a black boy, he has had to forge his way to the front. In 1876, we find him graduating in a class of one from Biddle University, the first college graduate from that school. In the fall of the same year he entered Princeton Theological Seminary, and at the same time pursued studies in philosophy, history, and psychology in the university, under the eminent Dr. McCosh. His first appearance in the university was the signal for a display of race prejudice. To the Southern students especially, his presence was very obnoxious. Several of them immediately left the college and went home. To the credit of their parents, it should be said, they were led to return. Before the expiration of three years, Mr. Culp, by exemplary conduct and good scholarship, won the respect and friendship of the students in both university and seminary, the Southerners included. He was graduated from the seminary in 1879, and immediately found work as pastor under the Freedman's Board of the North Presbyterian Church. He served in the pastorate several years in different states, was for a time principal of a school in Jacksonville, Florida, the largest school in the state. Becoming, however, more and more interested in the physical salvation of his race, he entered upon the study of medicine in the University of Michigan, but was finally graduated with honor from the Ohio Medical University in 1891, since which time he has followed the practice of medicine. For a passionate love of knowledge, and for persistent effort in trying to secure it, Dr. Culp is a noble and inspiring example to the young and aspiring Negro. Clark University, South Atlanta, Georgia, December 16, 1901. End of Dedication, Preface, and Introduction. Topic number one, the 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 Michelle Fry, Baton Rouge, Louisiana in October 2018. 20th century Negro literature. Topic number one, first paper by Mary B. Talbert. Did the American Negro make in the 19th century achievements along the line of wealth, morality, education, et cetera, commensurate with his opportunities? If so, what achievements did he make? By Mary B. Talbert. Mary Burnett Talbert was born in Oberlin, Ohio in 1866. Her father's family having gone there from Chapel Hill, North Carolina. She has descended on her maternal side from Richard Nichols who compelled Peter Stuvescent to surrender New Amsterdam and who for a short while was the governor of the state of New York. She graduated at the early age of 16 from the Oberlin High School and through the generosity of ex-president James H. Fairchild was enabled to attend Oberlin College. When applying for admission to the class of trigonometry, the instructor doubtfully admitted her as so many of the high school pupils had found the subject very hard and preferred a review of other mathematics. She entered the class, however, on trial and made a terms record of 5% with an examination of 5.5%, 6% being the highest mark for lessons in college. During the next term she entered the class of mechanics and made a perfect record for terms work and examination. While attending school she was well liked by her classmates, being made treasurer of Aeolian, one of the two college societies for young women, and was also one of six representatives chosen for class day exercises. She was given the place of honor upon the program and recited an original poem, The Lament of the Old College Bell, once first, now second. Mrs. Talbert graduated from Oberlin at the age of 19, being the only colored member of her class after withdrawal of the late Lieutenant John Alexander. She started out in life equipped not only with a great love of learning, but with all the encouragement which made it possible for her to follow the inclinations of her mind. In 1886 she accepted a position in Bethel University, Little Rock, Arkansas. Some women make themselves teachers, but Mrs. Talbert was a born teacher. The late Professor John M. Ellis in writing of her said, she is a lady of Christian character and a pleasing address. As a student she has an excellent record and standing in her class, showing good abilities and industry and fidelity in her work. She has the qualities natural and acquired to make a superior teacher. In January 1887 she was elected assistant principal of the Little Rock High School, the highest position held by any woman in the state of Arkansas, and the only colored woman who has ever held the position. Mrs. Talbert resigned her place after her marriage to Mr. William H. Talbert, one of Buffalo's leading colored young men, and was urged after marriage to reconsider her resignation and take up her work again. Leading educators and literary men such as Charles Dudley Warner, Samuel A. Green of Boston, L.S. Holden of St. Louis, and others who visited her classes and having seen them at work registered their names with written comments. Professor Albert A. Wright of Oberlin writes his follows, quote, Mary Bonette received her education in the public schools and the college of this place where her parents have resided for many years. She has won the respect and approval of her teachers by her successful accomplishments of the tasks set before her, end quote. Mrs. Talbert received a degree granted to students of the literary course in 1894 and is a member of the Association of Collegiate Alumni, being the only colored woman in the city of Buffalo eligible. And now Mrs. Talbert's paper. As the hand upon the dial of the 19th century clock pointed to its last figure, it showed that the American Negro had ceased to be a thing, a commodity that could be bought and sold, a mere animal, but was indeed a human being possessing all the qualities of mind and heart that belonged to the rest of mankind, capable of receiving education and imparting it to his fellow man, able to think, act, feel, and develop those intellectual and moral qualities such as characterize mankind generally. Let us glance at the intellectual Negro and see if he has made any progress commensurate with his opportunities during the 19th century. Intuitively, we turned that great historian of our race, who for seven years worked with such care and zeal to write a thoroughly trustworthy history of the American Negro, and today stands as our first and greatest historian, George W. Williams. In prefacing his second volume, he says, quote, I have tracked my bleeding countrymen through widely scattered documents of American history. I have listened to their groans, their clanking chains, and melting prayers, until the woes of a race and the agonies of centuries seemed to crowd upon my soul as a bitter reality. Many pages of this history have been blistered with my tears, and although having lived but a little more than a generation, my mind feels as if it were cycles old. A short time ago, the schools of the entire north were shut in his face, and the few separate schools accorded him were given grudgingly. They were usually held in the lecture room of some colored church or thrust off to one side in a portion of the city or town towards which aristocratic ambition would never turn. These schools were generally poorly equipped, and the teachers were either colored persons whose opportunities of securing an education had been poor, or white persons whose mental qualifications would not encourage them to make an honest living among their own race, end quote. It will not be necessary to enumerate the various insults and discouragements which faced the noble pioneers of our race, who seeing their fellow men denied the opportunities and privileges of securing an education, scorned by the press and pulpit in public and private gatherings for the ignorance set about to lift the Negro from his low social and mental condition. The Negro turned his attention to the education of himself and his children, schools were commenced, churches organized, and a new era of self-culture and general improvement began. In Boston, we see Thomas Paul, Leonard A. Grimes, John R. Raymond, Robert Morris, and John V. DeGrasse. In 1854, John V. DeGrasse was admitted to the Massachusetts Medical Society, being the first instance of such an honor being conferred upon a colored man in this country. In New York, we find Reverend Henry Highland Garnett, Dr. Charles B. Ray, Charles L. Reason, and Jacob Day, doing what they could to elevate the Negro and place him on a higher intellectual plane. Philadelphia also added her quota to the list of noble men who were striving to show to the world that the American Negro, although enslaved, was a human being. We find such men as Robert Purvis, William Steele, and Stephen Smith. In Western Pennsylvania and New York were John Peck, John B. Vashon, and Peyton Harris, and all through the North, each state held colored men who were anxious to do what they could to elevate the race, and it seemed as if God gave each one a special duty to perform, which combined made one mighty stimulus to the young colored youth to do what he could to build up the Negro race. Do you ask if the Negro has advanced intellectually? I need only refer you to the showing made by the men and women of our race today. The works of Frederick Douglas, John M. Langston, Lange K. Bruce, J. C. Price, are living testimonials of what the Negro accomplished a generation ago. When we consider the fact that the Negro was of such import that laws were made making it a misdemeanor to educate the Negro, both before and after the Civil War. When we consider the Greek text books of Professor Scarborough, a Wilberforce used by one of the oldest colleges in America. When we consider the presidents and principles of various Negro schools in our country, such as Livingston, North Carolina, Spelman Seminary, Atlanta, Georgia, Wilberforce, Ohio, Virginia Normal and Collegiate, Shaw University. When we consider the place that our honored clergy occupy among the intellectual men of the world. When we consider the work of Booker T. Washington, we must admit that the love of knowledge seems to be intuitive. No people ever learned more in so short a time. Every year since the Civil War, the American Negro has been taking on better and purer traits of character. The Negro of today is materially different from the Negro of yesterday. He delights in the education of his children. And from every section of our Southland come letters asking for competent colored teachers and educated ministers. The young men and women who educate themselves in our northern colleges and normal schools do not always have to turn their attention to the far South to seek fields of labor. But in an honest competition, gain places of honor and trust in the North. Think of the scores of young colored women all over our northern states teaching the young idea how to shoot and not a black face in the class. We find colored women with large classes of white pupils in St. Paul, Minnesota, Chicago, Illinois, Detroit, Michigan, Cleveland, Ohio, Buffalo, New York, and other northern cities. From the state of semi-civilization says Williams, in which he cared only for the comforts of the present, his desires and wants have swept outward and upward into the years to come and toward the mysterious future. Several hundred weekly newspapers, a dozen monthly magazines, conducted by Negroes, are feeding the mind of the race, binding communities together by the chords of common interest and racial sympathy. The conditions around which the Negro was surrounded years ago have disappeared. And the Negro is as proud of his own society as the whites are of theirs. Sociological study and laws have given to our present generation the will power and tenacity to establish and maintain a social standing equal with any of the races of the world. Without a question of doubt, he has shown moral qualities far in advance of those which dominated in slave history and under which he was constantly subjected. Has the Negro made any achievements along the lines of wealth? Needs only a review of statistics to answer the above question for where once was the crude cabin, the one-room hut. We now see the beautiful homes with well-kept stock and farm, hygienic stables, as well as artistic lawns. The first experiment the general masses of Negroes had in the saving of money was under the institution known as the Freedman's Saving and Trust Company. The institution started out under the most favorable auspices. The depositors numbered among its rank and file, day laborers, farmers, mechanics, house servants, barbers, and washerwomen. Thus showing to the entire country that the emancipated Negro was not only working but by industry and economy was saving his earnings. We know too well of the misplaced confidence in that bank and how after a short time the bank failed and thousands of colored men and women lost their earnings. During the brief period of its existence, 57 million dollars were deposited, although the Freedman's Bank caused many a colored person to shrink from any banking institution, yet some were hopeful and again began to save money. Throughout the entire South we find scores of colored men who have excellent farms, elegant homes, and small fortunes. In Baltimore a company of colored men own a ship dock and transact a large business. Some of the largest orange plantations in Florida are owned by colored men. On most of the plantations and in many of the large towns and cities colored mechanics are quite numerous. The total amount of property owned by the colored people in all of the states is rated at over 400 million dollars. In the north, east, and west we see many colored men with handsome estates run high into the hundred thousands. Almost every large city and town will show among her population a Negro here and there whose wealth is rated between five and ten thousand dollars or more. Reverend A. J. Davis of Raleigh, North Carolina in an address in the North Carolina Agricultural Affair, said, quote, scan, if you will, the long line of eight million Negroes as they march slowly but surely up the road of progress and you will find in her ranks such men as Granville T. Woods of Ohio, the electrician, mechanical engineer, manufacturer of telephones, telegraph, and electrical instruments. William Still of Philadelphia, the coal dealer, Henry Tanner, the artist, John W. Terry, foreman of the iron and fitting department of the Chicago West Division streetcar company, J. D. Baltimore, engineer, machinist, and inventor of Washington D.C., Wiley Jones of Pine Bluff, Arkansas, the owner of a streetcar railroad, racetrack, and park, Richard Hancock, foreman of the pattern shops of the Eagle Works and manufacturing company, and draftsman, John Beek, the inventor whose inventions are worth tens of thousands of dollars, W. C. Atwood, the lumber merchant and capitalist, end quote. And now in review let me add that the social conditions of the American Negro are such that he has shown to the world his aptitude for study and general improvement. Before character education and wealth, all barriers will melt, and these are necessary to develop the growth of the race. End of topic one, first paper. Topic one, 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 Phyllis Vincelli. 20th century Negro literature. Topic one, second paper by Josephine Salone Yates. Did the American Negro make, in the 19th century, achievements along the lines of wealth, morality, education, etc., commensurate with his opportunities? If so, what achievements did he make? Mrs. Josephine Yates, youngest daughter of Alexander and Parthenia Reeve Salone, was born in Mataluk, Suffolk County, New York, where her parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents, were long and favorably known as individuals of sterling worth, morally, intellectually, and physically speaking. On the maternal side, Mrs. Yates is a niece of the reverend J.B. Reeve, D.D., of Philadelphia. Mrs. Salone, a woman of education and great refinement of character, began the work of educating this daughter in her quiet Christian home, and both parents hoping that she might develop into a useful woman, spared no pains in endeavoring to secure for her the education the child very early showed a desire to obtain. And with this end in view, she was sent to Newport, Rhode Island, in her fourteenth year, having already spent one year in the Institute for Colored Youth in Philadelphia. And Mrs. Coppin, then Miss Fanny Jackson, with her vigorous intellect, aided the inspiration the mother had begun. In 1877, Mrs. Salone graduated as valedictorian of a large class from Rogers High School of Newport. And although the only colored member of her class and the first graduate of color, invariably she was treated with the utmost courtesy by teachers, scholars, and such members of the school board as Thomas Wentworth Higginson, Tee Kageshell, and others. Two years later she graduated from the Rhode Island State Normal School in Providence, and soon began her life work as a teacher. During the eight years spent in Lincoln Institute, Jefferson City, Missouri, she had charge of the Department of Natural Science, and was the first woman to be elected to a professorship in that institution. In 1889, Miss Salone was married to Professor W. W. Yates, principal of Phillips School, Kansas City, Missouri, and removed to that city, where since she has been engaged in either public or private school work. From the age of nine years she has been writing for the press, and her articles have appeared in many leading periodicals, for a long time under the signature R. K. Potter. Mrs. Yates has long been a zealous club worker and is well known as a lecturer east and west. She was one of the organizers and the first president of the Kansas City Women's League, and in the summer of 1901 was elected president of the National Association of Colored Women, which organization she had already served as treasurer for a period of four years. Mrs. Yates is the mother of two children, whose education she carefully super intends, and is ever ready to comfort the sick or to stop her round of duties, to give counsel or render help along any line possible to the many young people and others who seek her door. The measure of the success of a race is the depths from which it has come, and the condition under which it has developed. To know what the Negro actually accomplished in the nineteenth century, one must know something of his life and habitat previous to the year 1619, when against his will or wish he was brought to the Virginian coast, must also know his life as a slave, and his opportunities since emancipation. History shows that the Negroes brought from Africa to this country to be sold into slavery were at the time in a more or less primitive stage of uncivilized life. While the methods used to capture and transport them to this land of the free and home of the brave, recently revived through the vivid pen pictures and other illustrations running in serial form in Scribner's, Pearson's, and other reliable periodicals, accounts which bear the impress of truth and are hardly liable to the charge of having been written within too close range of time and space, or vice versa, to be strictly truthful, indicate the demoralizing and debasing effects of the system from its initial period, this followed up by the blighting influences of slave life, even under the most favorable conditions, for nearly 250 years left upon Negro life and character just the traits it would have left upon any other people subjected to similar conditions for the same length of time. It may be said, and with truth, that slavery gave to the Negro some of the arts of civilized life, but it must be added that denying him the inalienable rights of manhood, denying him the right to the product of his labor, had left him no noble incentive to labor at these arts, and thus tended to render him improvident, careless, shiftless, in short, to demoralize his entire nature. It is further stated that the system gave him Christianity. Did it give him piety? Could it give him morality in the highest sense of these terms? Constantine could march the refractory Saxons to the banks of a stream, and give them their option between Christianity and the sword. But the haughty monarch soon found that a religion forced in this peremptory and wholesale fashion did not change the moral nature of the soldier. And we submit that Christianity, language, and the arts of civilized life, absorbed amidst the debasing influences of a cruel and infamous bondage, could not be productive of a harmonious development of body, mind, and soul, of strong moral and intellectual fiber, or of ideas of the dignity of labor, of habits of thrift, economy, the careful expenditure of time and money, or knowledge of the intimate relationship of these two great factors in the process of civilization. These are results attained only where the rights of manhood and womanhood are acknowledged and respected. The lack of these results or basic impulses to advancement represent defects in the negro character, preventing a more rapid development in the nineteenth century and directly traceable to his enslaved state. And the origin or cause, the growth and subsequent development of these and other defects, must be taken into consideration before the negro is stamped as the greatest criminal on earth, wholly irredeemable, before he is condemned in wholesale manner for not having made more rapid strides toward advanced civilization in little more than one generation of freedom. Indeed, it speaks well for the intrinsic merit of the race that although public opinion freely admits that the natural outcome of bondage is a cowardly, thieving, brutal, or abject specimen of humanity, even in the darkest hours of slavery there were many, many high-born souls who, if necessary, at the price of life itself maintained their integrity, rose superior to their surroundings, taught these same lofty sentiments to others. Emancipation and certain constitutional amendments brought freedom to the material body of the erstwhile slave. But the soul, the higher self, could not be so easily freed from the evils that slavery had fastened upon it through centuries of debasement. And because of this soul degradation the negro, no less than the south, need to be physically, mentally, and morally reconstructed. Reconstruction, the eradication of former characteristics, the growth and development of new and more favorable ones, is with any race the work of time. Generations must pass, and still it need not be expected that the process will be full and complete. Meanwhile, what measure of success is the negro achieving? Were his achievements in the nineteenth century educationally, morally, financially, and otherwise at all commensurate with his opportunities? The year 1863 saw four million negroes come forth from a state of cruel bondage with little of this world's goods that constitute capital, with few of those incentives to labor that universally are requisites to the full and free development of labor and capital. The knowledge the negro had of agriculture, of domestic life, and in some cases his high grade mechanical skill gave him something of a vantage ground. But for nearly two hundred and fifty years he had been so worked that it would be expecting too much to demand that he at once comprehend the true dignity of labor. Nor was it to be expected that to his untutored mind freedom and work were terms to be intimately associated. Then there was a certain amount of constitutional inertia to be overcome, a natural heritage of the native of a tropical or semi-tropical climate, but quite incompatible with the fierce competition of American civilization, or with the material conditions of a people who owned in the entire country forty years ago only a few thousand dollars, and among whom education was limited to the favored few whose previous estate either of freedom or by other propitious circumstance had rendered its acquisition possible. Organizations for business enterprise or any purpose of reform and advancement outside of the northern cities was practically unknown. Evidently one of the first things to be done by which the negro could be reconstructed and become an intelligent member of society was to educate him, teach him to provide for himself, making him more provident and painstaking, teaching him self-reliance and self-control, teaching him the value of time, of money, and the intimate relationship of the two. Certainly not a light task. These lessons could only be learned in the practical school of experience, then not in a day. And what has been accomplished? Forty years ago there was not in the entire Southland a single negro school. Before the close of the nineteenth century there were twenty thousand negro school houses, thirty thousand negro teachers, and three million negro school children happily wending their way to the Payerian Spring. Under the system, generally speaking, it had been considered a crime to teach the negro to read or write, and the census of 1870 shows that only two tenths of all the negroes of the United States over ten years of age could write. Ten years later the proportion has increased to three tenths of the whole number, while in 1890 only a generation after emancipation forty-three percent of those ten years and over were able to read and write. This proportion before the close of the century reached forty-five percent. To wipe out forty-five percent of literacy in less than forty years, to find millions of children in the common schools, to find twenty thousand negroes learning trades under the sole inspiring banner of free labor, to find other thousands successfully operating many commercial enterprises, among these several banks, one cotton mill, and one silk mill, to find negroes performing four fifths of the free labor in the south, thus becoming a strong industrial factor of the section is to furnish proof of achievements in the nineteenth century of which we need not be ashamed, and considering the restrictions of labor unions, the fields or classes of labor from which the negro was practically barred, regardless of section, quite commensurate with the opportunities afforded him during the period in question. Within forty years the system of instruction in the American schools has undergone some radical changes for the better, and if the system in vogue at the beginning of this period, with the study of the classics as the pivotal point, did not fit the practical needs of the average Anglo-Saxon youth, with his heritage of centuries of culture, it is not strange if some blunders were made in attempting to shape this same classical education into a working basis for people emerging from a state of bondage in which to impart even the elements of education considered a crime, generally speaking. Industrial, manual, or technical training had not, forty years ago, taken firm hold upon the educational system, and school courses for negroes were planned after classical models, perhaps better suited in many instances for students of a more advanced mentality and civilization, for humanity at large can scarcely hope to escape the slow and inevitable stages and processes of evolution. Individual genius, however, bound by no law, may leap and bound from stage to stage, and we point with pride to negroes whose classic education in the early decades of freedom served not only to prove their own individual ability, but the capacity of the race for ends susceptibility to a high degree of culture at a time when such demonstration was a prime necessity. We do not consider that any mistake was made in it once providing for the classical or higher education of those who were mentally able to receive it, and as brilliant achievements of the nineteenth century from an educational standpoint, we refer with a keen sense of gratification to the two thousand five hundred and twenty-five or more college graduates who are helping to raise the standard of the race from all points of view, to the real genius of the race that has given us Douglas, Langston, Bruce, Washington, Tanner, Scarborough, Page, Grisham, Miller, Dubois, Wright, Bowen, Crogman, Johnson, Dunbar, Chestnut, and others too numerous to mention whose names should be enshrined in the hearts of present and future generations, to the forty thousand negro students pursuing courses and higher institutions of learning, to the twelve thousand pursuing classical courses, to the one hundred and twenty thousand taking scientific courses, to the one hundred and fifty-six institutions for the higher education of negroes, to the two thousand practicing physicians, to the three hundred newspapers and the five hundred books written and published by negroes, to a gradually increasing discrimination in all those matters of taste and form which mark the social status of a people and give to the individual or the mass the perhaps indefinable but at the same time distinctive stamp of culture. These achievements alone within less than forty years of freedom serve to demonstrate our fitness for civilization and also that as the years pass there is still a greater necessity for negroes who possess a broad, a liberal, a well-balanced education and at the same time a similar need for negroes possessing shrewd business ability, a high degree of mechanical skill, extensive knowledge of industrial arts and sciences and of profitably invested capital. From the early years of freedom a few leaders, as at Hampton, realized that the great mass of negroes needed first of all experimental knowledge of the dignity of labor such as could never result from labor performed under the conditions of slavery, that they needed to know more of skilled labor in order to be able to meet and enter the fierce competition of American industrial life or even to live upon the plain of American civilization and in spite of adverse criticism these leaders proceeded to establish industrial and manual training schools for the negro with such elementary training as from their point of view seemed most beneficial, that the methods chosen have been rich in results it is only necessary to know something of the deep and extensive influence of Hampton, Tuskegee, normal and other industrial schools in directly or indirectly improving the environment and daily life of the masses. The insidious and ultimate effect of slavery upon the normal and spiritual nature of the enslaved is to blunt to entirely efface the finer instincts and sensibilities to take away those germs of manhood and womanhood that distinguished the lowest savage from the beasts of the field. Continue this sole debasement for centuries, deny the slave the right to home, the right to family, ties which universally prove the greatest stimulus to courage, patriotism, morality, civilization, then declare the emancipated slave a brute for whom education does nothing because in little more than a generation he has not wiped out all of the degradation that the conditions of generations instilled and intensified. Criminologists discussing the apparent increase of crime in this country assert that this apparent increase is largely due to the more complete records kept of criminals within the last forty years than formerly, and the better facilities for ferreting out crime and for subjecting offenders to the penalty of the law. And it may be added, in the Negro's case, as recently stated by a Kansas City judge, a native of Georgia, noted for his unprajudiced views and fair dealing, quote, it takes less evidence to convict a Negro than it does a white man, and a longer term in the penitentiary will be given a Negro for the same offense than will be given a white offender. That is why I have been so frequently compelled to cut down the sentence of Negroes, end quote. The entire history of the chain-gang system corroborates these statements. A system that helps to increase the reported number of criminals, and although race riots, lynchings, and massacres may seem to indicate the opposite to the uninitiated, the Negro is not a lawless element of society. In the United States, a natural restlessness has possessed him since emancipation, and it requires time to work out and adjust conditions under which he can develop normally from the standpoint of morality, as well as from other points of view. Meanwhile, the prime necessity to raise the moral status is the development and up-building of that which in its highest embodiment was denied him in the days of bondage, the home. We need homes, homes, homes where intelligence and morality rule, and what was accomplished in this line in the nineteenth century. From owning comparatively few homes forty years ago, the Negro advanced before the close of the century to the position of occupying one million five hundred thousand farms and homes, and of owning two hundred and seventy-five thousand of these. Many of them, as shown by views, forming a part of the exhibit at the Paris Exposition and elsewhere, compare favorably with the homes of any people. As to the intelligence and morality that constitute the environment of the great mass of these homes owned by Negroes, the statistics of education and of crime show that Negro criminals do not, as a rule, come from the refined and educated classes, but from the most illiterate, the stupid, and the besotted element, from the class that has not been reached by the moral side of education, if at all. Says the compiler of the eleventh census, of juvenile criminals the smallest ratio is found among Negroes. This speaks well for the general atmosphere of the home life of our youth, while the bravery displayed by the colored man and every war of American independence has demonstrated his ability to risk life fearlessly, in defense of a country in which too many states permit his exclusion from the rights of citizenship. Such sacrifice presupposes a moral ideal of the highest type. The position of the woman of the race, always an index to the real progress of a people, in spite of slanderous attacks from unscrupulous members of her own and other races, is gradually improving and was materially aided and abetted by the liberal ideas that especially obtained in the latter half of the century with reference to the development of women, irrespective of race or color, along the line of education, the professions, the industrial arts, etc. As to the advancement of the Negro from a financial standpoint, it is possible that his achievements during the period in question might have been greater, yet both from within and without there have been many hindrances to overcome in the matter of accumulating wealth. One of the greatest crimes of the slave system was that in practically denying to the slave the right of the product of his labor or any part thereof, it, to all intents and purposes, destroyed his acquisitive faculty. Thus he had small incentive to labor when free. And as the years went by, accumulated little in the shape of capital, showed little interest in profitable investment of his savings if he were so fortunate as to have any. The great number of secret orders and other schemes for the unwary, the main object of which apparently was to bury the people with great pomp and show, drained his pockets of most of the surplus change. The Freedman's Bureau sought to establish Negroes as peasant proprietors of the soil on the farms and plantations of the stricken south, and dreams of forty acres and a mule for a long time possessed the more ambitious only, in many instances, to meet a rude awakening. But notwithstanding the fact that the system of renting land, combined with the credit system of obtaining the necessities of life while waiting for the production and sale of the crop, is not conducive to the ownership of land on the part of the tenant. Notwithstanding the very natural tendency on the part of the Negro to disassociate ideas of freedom and of tilling the soil, added to a desire to segregate in large cities in place of branching out to the sparsely settled districts of the great west and northwest, there to take up rich farming lands and by a pioneer life to mend his fortunes in company with the peasants of other nations who are thus acquiring a firm foothold and a competence for their descendants. We repeat, in spite of the facts mentioned, before the close of the century the Negro had accumulated farms and homes valued in the neighborhood of seven hundred and fifty million dollars. Personal property valued at one hundred and seventy millions and had raised eleven millions for educational purposes. From these and such other statistics as are available, relative to the achievements of the Negro in the United States during the nineteenth century, bearing in mind our first proposition, the measure of the success of a people is the depths from which it has come. We conclude that educationally, morally, financially the Negro has accomplished by means of the opportunities at his command about all that could be expected of him or any race under similar conditions. That the Negro has made mistakes goes without saying all races as well as all individuals have made them, but let the dead past bury its dead. The great problem confronting this and future generations is and will be how to surpass or even equal our ancestors and bringing about results that make for the upbuilding of sterling character. How with our superior advantages to make the second forty years of freedom and the entire future life proportionally worthy of honorable mention. Quote, Build today, then strong and sure, with a firm and ample base, and ascending and secure shall tomorrow find its place. Thus alone can we retain to those turrets where the eye sees the world as one vast plane and one boundless reach of sky. End quote. End of topic one, second paper. Topic one, third 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 Fencelli. Twentieth century Negro literature. Topic one, third paper by the Reverend J. W. E. Bowen D. D. Did the American Negro make, in the nineteenth century, achievements along the lines of wealth, morality, education, etc., commensurate with his opportunities? If so, what achievements did he make? Dr. John Wesley Edward Bowen was born in New Orleans. His father, Edward Bowen, went to New Orleans from Washington, D.C. He was a free man, a boss carpenter and builder by trade, and able to read, write, and cipher. He was highly esteemed, was prosperous in business, accumulated some money, and lived in comfort. Dr. Bowen's mother, Rose Bowen, he says, was the granddaughter of an African princess of the Jalafur tribe on the west coast of Africa. When he was three years old, his father bought him and his mother out of slavery. When he was thirteen, he went to the preparatory school of New Orleans University for colored people, established after the war by the Methodist Episcopal Church. When he was seventeen, he entered the university proper, and five years later he was graduated with the degree of A.B. At the age of seventeen, he was converted in a Methodist Revival Meeting, and nine months later was licensed as a local preacher, and has been preaching ever since. Soon after his graduation, Dr. Bowen became Professor of Latin and Greek in the Central Tennessee College at Nashville, in which position he remained for four years. In 1882 he resigned his professorship and entered Boston University, where he studied four years taking the degree of B.D. in 1885, and the degree of Ph.D. in 1887 from the School of All Sciences of Boston University. He also did special advanced work in Greek, Latin, Hebrew, Childe, Arabic, and German, and in Metaphysics and Psychology. He was the first colored man in the Methodist Church to take the degree of Ph.D. and the second colored man to take the degree in any university in this country. Soon after leaving the university, Dr. Bowen joined the New England Methodist Conference and was appointed pastor of the Revere Street Church. While in New England, he also preached acceptably in many white churches, serving one for a month and was asked to become their pastor after this period. After serving St. John's Colored Church in Newark three years, he became pastor of the Centennial Methodist Episcopal Church in Baltimore and at the same time Professor of Church History in the Morgan College for Colored People in that City. During this pastorate he conducted a phenomenal revival in which there were 735 conversions. Dr. Bowen next was the pastor of Asbury Methodist Episcopal Church in Washington for three years and at the same time Professor of Hebrew and Howard University for Colored People in that City. He here acquired a national fame as a scholar, orator, and thinker. During this pastorate he pursued the study of the Semitic Languages in the School of Correspondence of Dr. W. R. Harper then at Yale University. When he resigned his positions at Washington, he became for one year a field secretary of the Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church retaining his Washington residence. Dr. Bowen was next elected Professor of Historical Theology in Gammon Theological Seminary for Colored People at Atlanta, Georgia, which position he still holds. In consequence of the resignation of the President, the reverend Dr. Thierkeld, he has been for several months the chairman of the faculty and the executive officer of the institution. He is also the secretary of the Stuart Foundation for Africa, a member of the American Negro Academy, and a member of the American Historical Association, which last society numbers among its members some of the most learned men in this and other countries. Dr. Bowen received the degree of AM from the University of New Orleans in 1886 and that of D. D. from Gammon Theological Seminary in 1892. Amid all these engrossing occupations, Dr. Bowen has been a voluminous writer and an indefatigable lecturer. His publications include a volume of sermons and addresses, plain talks to the colored people of America, appeal to the king, the comparative status of the Negro at the close of the war and today, the struggle for supremacy between church and state in the Middle Ages, and the American and the African Negro. He has now ready for the press a volume of university addresses and a volume of discussions and philosophy and theory. Also the history of the education of the Negro race. Dr. Bowen was voted for at the last general conference for bishop. He stood second on first ballot. His friends predict that he will be elected at the forthcoming general conference. Inference and conjecture are the stock methods of argument of the unintelligent or the superficially informed. Such indisposition or incapacity leads to erroneous conclusions. Nothing but an appeal to facts involving careful and painstaking labor and a wise sifting of facts that myth and legend be eliminated should claim the attention of thinking men. It must be confessed, however, that in any discussion that relates to the comparative status of the Negro over against his standing in slavery full and accurate data are lacking. The statistical science of today was unknown then, and it is next to the impossible to affirm positively the relative superiority or inferiority of present day growth over those of that day. This statement is not made to deny the truth of the immense stride of the latter times, but it is made as a reasonable offset to those prejudicial and dogmatic declarations of the superior conditions of slavery over those of freedom. Dogmatism is the argument of the bigot. It is not wide of the truth to say that the claims of certain writers that the Negro has retrograded physically, morally, and socially lacks the confirmation of veritable data. It is admitted that the modern diseases of civilized life have made inroads into his hearty nature, but the universal declaration of inferiority is not proved. It is also true that in isolated cases physicians of that day noted the comparative freedom of the blacks from the maladies of NUI and Bacchanalian feastings. But no half-kept record of that day is before us to justify the statement that the Negro of today is superior to his mighty sire of antebellum fame that stood between the plough-handles all day and danced or shouted all night. The increase of zymotic diseases is admitted, but there has been a corresponding increase of power in many lines that will more than counteract this baleful growth. Again, over against this admission may be placed another statement, a fact, not to minify the truth already alluded to, but to illustrate the futility of basing an entire argument upon one arm of a syllogism. These the Negro's numerical growth, since freedom sung in his ears, is a clear evidence of physical vitality. This growth has kept pace with the glowing prophecies of statisticians. Let us subdivide the subject that the facts may be grouped in a logical order. Let us study the growth of the race under three heads, numerical growth, material growth, moral and social growth. Growth in numbers is growth in power of resistance, and this is basal in the life of any people. If there be not found in a people a power to resist the forces of death and to reproduce itself by the natural laws of race increase, then such a people should not be counted in the struggle of races. In other words, race fecundity contains the germs of intellectual and national existence. At the distance of forty years from slavery, the declarations of the early extinction of the Negro under the conditions of freedom are comical and absurd. It was affirmed with all the authority of divine prophecy that the Negro race could not exist under any other condition in slavery, and this concern became a basis for contending for his continued enslavement. The unvarnished facts brought to light by cold mathematicians are now before us, and a few interesting and startling discoveries are placed before us. In the next place, growth in material productions and the possession of the fruits of civilized life deserve attention. The story of the burdens and disadvantages of the Negro at the beginning of his days of freedom has not yet been committed to paper. It will require a black writer to perform this deed, but it is within the limits of truth to affirm that history can furnish no burdens upon a race's shoulders parallel to those upon the shoulders of the untutored black man when he was shot out of the mouth of the cannon into freedom's arena. A Hindu poet of English blood has written a beautiful poem upon the white man's burden, but it is poetry. The black man's burden is a burden that rests upon his heart, and like the deepest feelings of the human heart it cannot be reduced to cold type. Thomas Nelson Page describes the untoward beginnings of the race. Quote, No other people ever had more disadvantages to contend with on their issue into freedom. They were seduced, deceived, misled. Their habits of industry were destroyed, and they were fooled into believing that they could be legislated into immediate equality with a race that, without mentioning superiority of ability and education, had a thousand years' start of them. They were made to believe that their only salvation lay in aligning themselves against the other race and following blindly the adventurers who came to lead them to a new promised land. It is no wonder that they committed great blunders and great excesses. For nearly a generation they have been pushed along the wrong road. But now, in place of political leaders who were simply firebrands, is arising a new class of leaders, which, with a wider horizon, a deeper sagacity, and a truer patriotism, are endeavoring to establish a foundation of morality, industry, and knowledge, and to build upon them a race that shall be capable of availing itself of every opportunity that the future may present and worthy of whatever fortune it may bring. Slavery did not teach him economy. On the contrary, it taught him profligacy, and where he learned to economize it was in spite of the system. His wastefulness is not yet a thing of the past, but he has made commendable advance in learning how to save. What are the facts? In the state of Georgia alone, the Negro has dug out of the hills more than thirty million dollars of taxable property. This amount represents, more than five times the entire wealth of all the Negroes of the United States, North and South, bond and free, taxable and personal, at the birth of freedom. But when we collect together the wealth of the entire race, the figures read like romance. Some facts for reflection. Four millions of slaves were valued at three billion five hundred million dollars. Negroes own eighty-seven percent of their homes in fee simple, eighty-nine percent of their farms are unencumbered. They own three banks, five magazines, four hundred newspapers, value of libraries five hundred thousand dollars, value of drug stores five hundred thousand dollars, value of school property twenty million dollars, value of church property forty two million dollars, one hundred and sixty thousand farms four hundred million dollars, one hundred and fifty thousand homes three hundred and fifty million dollars, personal property two hundred million dollars. With these facts undisputed, the question has the Negro kept pace with his opportunities contains its own affirmative answer. It is an incomparable achievement that the Negroes should have accumulated and saved this vast amount of wealth within the short space of forty years. In the social and intellectual life the Negro has surpassed all hopes. There can be furnished by the race a thoroughly equipped man for any chair of learning for a university. He began with the blue back-spelling book and has steadily grown in learning and power until he now occupies a respectable position in the literary world. But the pivotal point that is determinative in this discussion and that which is considered the conclusion of the whole matter is the moral and social question as well as the domestic virtues of which women is the queen. The accumulation of property and the achievements in the world of letters admirable as they are in themselves and for purposes of civilization are secondary and valueless in the final analysis if there is no corresponding moral development and social power. The evolution of the family based upon monogamy is one of the chief glories of Christianity over against the libertinism and polygamous practices of paganism. Speaking of the woman of our race we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard. With Dr. Crummel, quote, in her girlhood all the delicate tenderness of her sex has been rudely outraged. In the field, in the rude cabin, in the press room and in the factory she was thrown into the companionship of course an ignorant man. No chance was given her for delicate reserve or tender modesty. From her girlhood she was the doomed victim of the grossest passions. All the virtues of her sex were utterly ignored. If the instinct of chastity asserted itself then she had to fight like a Tigris for the ownership and possession of her own person and often times had to suffer pains and lacerations for her virtuous self-assertion. When she reached maturity all the tender instincts of her womanhood were ruthlessly violated. At the age of marriage always prematurely anticipated under slavery she was mated as the stock of the plantation were mated not to be the companion of a loved and chosen husband but to be the breeder of human cattle for the field or auction block, end quote. Has this condition of affairs changed? I answer inequivocally yay a thousand times yay. A negative answer would be the quintessence of ignorance. From a recent careful survey of every southern state through nearly one hundred trusty observers I have the testimony that the young women are pure in large numbers and are rapidly increasing in an intense desire and determination to preserve themselves chaste and pure from the lustful approaches of the sinner and that the number of legally and lovingly married families purely preserved in the domestic and social virtues among husbands and wives sons and daughters is so far beyond the days of slavery that a comparison would minify the difference. The marvel is that the negro has sufficient moral vitality left to cut his way through the whirlpool of licentiousness to the solid rock of Christian character. From the harem life of promiscuous and unnameable sins of slavery some of which were the natural and fatal growth of pagan vices others the fruit of prostitution to the making of one clean beautiful noble and divine family and home covers a period of intense moral spiritual and intellectual development more significant than the geologic transformation of ages be it known that this one family can be duplicated by a hundred thousand and more the moral and social darkness has not been increased either in quality or intensity the splendid results of philanthropic effort have served only as a small tallow candle which has been brought into the darkness of this Egyptian night and the darkness has thickened relatively only because the light has been brought in that faint and flickering light reveals how great the darkness has been and is some think that the shadows are lengthening into eternal night for the negro but that flickering light within has upon it the breath of God which will someday fan it into the white and penetrating blazes of the electrocarbons searchlight that shall chase away the curse of slavery thus from every point of view the growth of the negro has more than kept pace with his opportunities end of topic one third paper topic one fourth paper of 20th century negro literature this is a Lieberbach's recording all Lieberbach's recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit Lieberbach's.org recording by Shasta Oakland, California 20th century negro literature topic one fourth paper by Reverend mcb mason did the american negro make in the 19th century achievements along the lines of wealth morality education etc commensurate with his opportunities if so what achievements did he make? Reverend doctor mcb mason senior corresponding secretary of the freedman's aid and southern education society of the Methodist Episcopal church was born of slave parents near Houma Louisiana March 27th 1859 in 1857 two years before young mason was born his father purchased his own freedom paying $1,350 the papers were never legally made out and his father had to wait with other members of the family for the emancipation proclamation to secure their freedom young mason was 12 years of age before he had ever seen a schoolhouse having entered school in july 1871 and mastered the alphabet the first day subsequently he attended a school of higher grade and in 1888 graduated from the new orleans university from the regular classical course two years afterward he entered the gammon theological seminary in atlanta georgia graduating there from in 1891 immediately after his graduation he matriculated in the syracuse university at syracuse new york taking the non resident course leading to the degree of doctor of philosophy in july of the same year he was elected field agent of the freedman's aid society in the Methodist Episcopal church being the first colored man ever called to such a position so successfully did he prosecute his work that at the general committee meeting which met in new york in 1893 he was elected assistant corresponding secretary and in may 1896 at the general conference in cleveland composed of 537 representatives only 69 of whom were colored he was elected corresponding secretary with a majority of 104 votes against 11 competitors all of whom were white four years later at the general conference which assembled in chicago dr mason was reelected and made senior corresponding secretary receiving the largest vote ever given to any general conference secretary in the history of the Methodist Episcopal church this is all the more remarkable when it is remembered that there were 14 candidates in a body composed of 701 representatives of whom only 73 were colored it will be remembered also that the salary paid a general conference officer of the Methodist Episcopal church is the same as that paid to the bishops and dr mason is no exception to the rule the doctor is quite a success as a money raiser and has secured hundreds of thousands of dollars during the 10 years he has been connected with this great educational institution of the Methodist Episcopal church the freed men's aid and southern educational society has educated hundreds and thousands of men and women of our race and has an average attendance of over 7,000 young men and women of color in its schools every year dr mason is thus but in contact with four young men and women of the race than any other negro in america and the whole race is very largely indebted to him for the work which through this institution he is accomplishing as an orator the doctor has no superiors and few equals he is in great demand all over the country especially in the north we are told that he has been offered six thousand dollars per year with a guarantee for 10 years if he would resign his present position and take the lecture platform this offer he has constantly refused preferring to remain in the work where he can be more useful to his own people during a recent trip to europe he was in constant demand for lectures in london glasgow belfast and among the english colony in france the progress made by the negro since emancipation has challenged the admiration and wonder of the world in all the annals of the world's history there is no parallel to it and this progress remarkable as it is has been in all lines and in all departments of his life and activity indeed it would be quite a problem to be able to declare in what particular line he has made the most progress to secure some adequate conception of what he is today we must compare him with what he was yesterday in no other way can we come to any comprehensive idea of the progress which he has made and the work which he has accomplished a generation ago he had practically nothing he started out is scarcely a name poor ignorant degraded demoralized as slavery left him without a home without a foot of land without the true sense of real manhood ragged destitute so freedom found him he stood at one end of the cotton row with his master at the other and as he stepped out into the new and inexperienced life before him his master still claimed him and the very clothes upon his back under these peculiar circumstances and amid these peculiar difficulties he began life for himself he had however learned how to work so much he brought out of slavery with him and right royal service it has rendered him what is he today from this humble beginning of a generation ago when he had absolutely nothing he has begun to acquire something of this world's goods he has been getting for himself a home some land some money in bank and some interest in stocks and bonds his industry thrift and economy are everywhere in evidence and he is bravely and consciously struggling toward the plane where his vindication as a man and a citizen is what he is and what he has acquired in Louisiana he pays taxes in 12 millions in Georgia on 14 millions and in South Carolina on 13 millions a recent statistician writing for the new york sun estimates his wealth north and south at 400 millions during the last few years much of this accumulation of property is in farmland which everywhere is rapidly increasing in value in this matter of securing a home and some land the negro's achievements are certainly commensurate with his opportunities in education his progress is even more clearly manifest there are today two million nine hundred and twelve thousand nine hundred and twelve negro children of school age in the united states of these one million five hundred and eleven thousand six hundred and eighteen are enrolled in the public schools and the average attendance is sixty seven percent of the enrollment in addition to the one million five hundred and eleven thousand six hundred and eighteen who are enrolled in the public schools fifty thousand more are attending schools under the care and maintenance of the church in this work all the leading denominations of the country are represented the freedman's aid and southern education society of the Methodist Episcopal Church among the first if not the very first to engage in this work has under its care forty seven institutions of Christian learning twenty of which are mainly for the education of the colored people these institutions are scattered all over the sixteen former slave states and have possibly sent out more graduates as teachers preachers physicians dentists pharmacists and industrial workers than any other institution or set of institutions during work in the south in addition to the work of the freedman's aid and southern education society there are the american missionary association under congregational auspices the baptist home missionary society the Presbyterian home missionary society the Lutheran evangelical society all of which support institutions for Christian learning for the education of the colored people throughout the south these schools are mainly for the higher and secondary education of the negro and have accomplished untold good there are today nearly 30 000 negro teachers in the united states and a careful estimate will show that these church schools have sent out over 20 000 of them and these teachers prepared by these church schools commonly so-called were the first to take their places in the public schools as rapidly as they were opened and these in the very nature of the case represent a very large percent of the teaching force even at the present time again distinctively negro bodies of church men especially baptists and Methodists are also carrying forward a commendable work of Christian education among their own people some schools of excellent standing in the African Methodist Episcopal the African Methodist Episcopal Zion and the colored Methodist Episcopal churches are doing most effective work and the results are being felt in all directions the work of industrial education is steadily growing in all sections of the south and is destined more and more to occupy a prominent place in the education of our people the emphasis placed upon this line of education at Hampton Institute Hampton Virginia Claflin University at Orange Bird South Carolina and Tuskegee Institute at Tuskegee Alabama is having its effect in many other places New Orleans Louisiana Wilmington Delaware Nashville Tennessee and several other cities have adopted some lines of industrial education in their public schools and in some places it is compulsory consequently industrial education which a few years ago was mainly confined to a few institutions has been in some form or other adopted in a large number of cities both in the north and in the south the results of this line of work are already seen hundreds of industrial artisans and trained mechanics are scattered here and there all over the south and are practically and effectively solving the problem in addition to the work of general education Negroes have entered all the learned professions and are succeeding beyond the most sanguine expectations of their friends this is especially true in medicine pharmacy and dentistry the Negro lawyer has done well he has had a difficult field and the fact that some have acquired sufficient ability and influence to practice before the supreme court of the United States speaks well for the race in this difficult field but the success of the Negro physician is perhaps the most remarkable in any line of professional work to which he has aspired from the results of careful study made by an eminent statistician it was found that the average salary of white physicians in the united states is about seven hundred dollars and the average salary of negro physicians is one thousand four hundred and forty four dollars per annum the encouraging feature about this whole matter is that as physicians among us increase the greater is the increase in the average salary while dentists and pharmacists have not succeeded quite so well yet the success of the physician is directly open an avenue for the pharmacist and has indirectly helped the dentist consequently in nearly every town of any considerable size in the south today there are four or five prosperous negro physicians with two or three drugstores where negro pharmacists carefully compound their prescriptions and have the confidence and respect of the entire community the negro is progressing morally from whatever standpoint you view him he is getting away from the past and wiping the reproach of egypt from him any careful observer will see at once that in the field of ethics and morals a veritable revolution has taken place among the negroes during the present generation there is still however much room for improvement and to this perhaps more than to any one thing the race must now turn its attention some questions regarding his inability to learn have all been settled by the remarkable achievements which he has made in all lines of intellectual endeavor but it must be confessed that in the field of morals and manners the charge is still made and that not without some semblance of truth the evidences of the essential qualities of sturdy and manly character are not as clearly manifest among us as they should be here the problem comes home and the negro as ever is the most important factor the pertinent question is not what shall be done with the negro but rather what will the negro do with himself this is the question and the answer he gives to it will largely depend in no small degree whether he shall continue to be an insignificant element in this nation or become more a living factor in its growth and development here i repeat it is the question and this is the problem intellectual ability is good but individual purity is better rights and privileges are in themselves good but to make ourselves worthy of them is infinitely better it is encouraging and gratifying to know that so many are getting a correct interpretation of life's deeper meanings and are daily coming into possession of higher and purer ideals who can say that the negro has not made progress commensurate with his opportunities end of topic one fourth paper