 Topic 15 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. 20th Century Negro Literature. Topic 15 Third Paper by Reverend E. C. Morris, Doctor of Dividity. Is the young Negro an improvement morally on his father? On May 7th, 1855, near Spring Place on the Canisoga and the Chestnut Hills of North Georgia, of slave parentage was born E. C. Morris. Now the President of the National Baptist Convention, which is the largest deliberative body of Negroes in the world. The President is the current Chief of the Sunday School Series, issued by the National Baptist Publishing Board, the President of the Arkansas Baptist State Convention, and Pastor of the Centennial Baptist Church of Helena, Arkansas. His early education was through the Common School, but practically from nature and necessity. In his earliest childhood, he was peculiarly interested in men and things. Hence, now possesses a large stock of knowledge concerning human nature. He is an advocate of prudence, conservatism, and manliness in all affairs, varying upon the relation of the races in this country. He stands for self-help and racial integrity and believes that when man has acknowledged his inability and failure to ameliorate the ill conditions in this country, God will settle the same and cause the deserved recognition of all men, black and white. Now, with his father, the first train that passed through North Georgia, though respectful, was quite an amusing draft on his youthful nerve, for, says he, had I been older than five years, it is questionable that my father, by whose hand I was led, could have detained me from the urgent business I felt I had back home, when that mysteriously terrible locomotive came rushing down the track, seemingly intent upon spending its fury upon no one else but me. When Elias was ten years old, his parents, James and Cora Morris, moved into Alabama, settling at the little town of Stevenson, but Elias had a short while before begun living with the late Reverend Robert Caver, his brother-in-law, at Stevenson, and so lived until he arrived at the age of twenty-one. Mr. Caver taught the young man the shoemaker's trade, and the latter earned his bread upon the shoemaker's bench, thirty-and-three years old. He fell a call to the gospel ministry immediately upon his conversion at the age of nineteen, which took place just at the time when he had grown so inimical and impatient toward a revival that had been going on for several days in the church at Stevenson that he had plotted mischievous disturbance of the meeting. He grew in grace and general ability, and in 1879 accepted a call to the pastorate of the Centennial Baptist Church of Helena, Arkansas, which position he has held continuously to the present time. His ability as an organizer is fully recognized among his people. He established and for the first two years edited the first religious paper published by the Negroes in the state of Arkansas. In 1884, he organized the Arkansas Baptist College, and for sixteen years has been chairman of its board of trustees. For nineteen consecutive years, he has been annually elected president of the Arkansas Baptist State Convention. In 1894, he was elected president of the National Baptist Convention, whose constituency numbers about a million and a half, and has been elected every year since to the same position. Under his leadership, this society has been firmly unified and has enjoyed the greatest prosperity in its history. It was his address before this convention at Washington in 1893 that inspired an indomitable and uncompromising determination in the minds of the colored Baptists to begin publishing interests of their own. It was his active brain that conceived the idea of the National Baptist Young Papers Union Board, which board is located at Nashville. His progressive acts have multiplied as he has advanced in age and responsibility. Dr. Morris is an acknowledged advisor of the colored people of his community in all matters relating to their general uplift. He is a friend to humanity and a lover of his race. He is a possessor and advocate of wholeheartedness and sincerity, being charitable to a difference or a fault. His influence begins at home and spreads abroad and all distinctions that he bears are born with gentlemanly modesty, believing leadership to him a duty rather than an honor. The subject of this article is a very important and delicate one. Important because it forms the base from which all the advancement made by the race for the past 36 years must be measured. And delicate because it makes comparison between father and son. If there has been no improvement in the race morally since its emancipation from slavery, then no real advancement has been made. And to say that the Negro has made no advancement would be sufficient to call forth universal derision. It must be admitted in the beginning that to do full justice to the subject, much study and space is required. In the absence of comprehensive statistics on the subject and the time in which to compile the same, several standpoints of reasoning must be assumed. And these will be taken up in no regular order, one being important as the others. I do not attempt to go upon or set up a system of scientific theories, either, but simply to state and connect obvious facts. The past and present moral status of the race is involved, but I shall not go beyond that period in which the race was emancipated, and will include as the fathers such as were the heads of families at that time, and those who were born about that time constituting largely the heads of families now as the respective parties to the comparison. What is here said in comparison of father and son is not intended as unfavorable criticism, even where the language may appear uncomplementary, but rather to make a truthful statement of the virtues found in both. I wish also to be understood as placing myself with those who have faith in the race to the extent that I believe a large majority of the freed men and their descendants are moral and should be counted with good and upright in heart. Such a decision cannot be reached, however, from a surface examination or outward appearances, for it is a notorious fact that in all the years of the Negro's life in this country, he has been subjected to the most menial occupations such as would in a large measure prejudice the disinterested observer against any high opinion of his morals. The subject is by no means a new one, but has been investigated and discussed for a long time by great writers and thinkers. Opinions have been expressed which are by no means favorable to the race, by no means favorable because of the ignorance of the party expressing the opinion. Many of these opinions have been formed and influenced by what is seen of the Negro in the crowded streets of great cities at railroad depots or at steamboat landings or upon the great cotton, rice, and sugar plantations where thousands of Negroes who are employed only as day laborers meet. But these do not represent the majority of the Negroes nor should opinions be formed of the moral status of this people out of what may be seen of them at places as above referred to any more than the morals of a great city like New York or Chicago should be judged by what is seen of the motley crowds that gather about the wharfs and in the congested streets and other places where the lowest element of society is to be seen in the majority. The Negro fathers of 40 years ago were as good as the circumstances and conditions of that day required and many of them showed themselves to be superior to the requirement. It is to be admitted that environment and teaching had much to do with moral development and that neither of these were, as a rule, favorable to the fathers. The contraband life of the Negroes during the war was perhaps the best that could be provided at that time, but it was far from being conducive to good morals and was not, in a moral sense, an improvement upon the plantation life prior to the war when almost all the slaves were huddled by families in one room caverns of what was known as the Quarters. It was fortunate for the race and the fathers that the contraband life was of short duration and the heads of families among the Negroes as fast as they could get their loved ones together began to settle in families all over the Southland. The privilege of being a free man to come and go at will had its evil effect upon the fathers for a few years, but they soon became enveloped with the desire that their children become educated and otherwise cultured, as were the children of their white neighbors. The desire to educate and accumulate for the good of the children became the restraining point in the lives of the fathers and a very appreciable change for better morals was noticeable in the later 60s and early 70s. Immediately following the close of the war, a great many missionary agencies set to work among the Negroes for the purpose of improving them morally and intellectually. These agencies operated among the old and young alike, but not with the same results for it soon became known that very little change could be brought among the aged ones whose superstitious notions of religious worship and peculiar ideas about white folks' religion made it a difficult task to teach them. Notwithstanding their superstition, the aged Negroes were singularly kind and respectful to their white neighbors and permitted the white teachers, for nearly all teachers were white at that time to have absolute control of their children, both as to home and school life. One of the attributes of morality is a happy conscience or happiness, for there can be no true happiness where there is no morality. Hence there existed an appreciable element of morality among the fathers, for as a rule, no happier or more contented people could be found anywhere. I speak of the whole race. One may be a good servant or a good neighbor, and yet not a good man. Opportunities have much to do with developing the attributes of the soul. Many of those noble qualities which go to make a good man were latent in the fathers, for there had been no opportunity for the development of these qualities. The home is the foundation place of all that is good and grand in race or nation. Wisdom and virtue are inseparable from a good home, hence to make the comparison which my subject calls for. We must inquire into the home and religious life of the present generation. The young men from 18 to 21 years of age who are, so to speak, in embryo with respect to questions affecting the progress of the race are not included in the summary we make and should not be considered the status of the race. As to the homes of the fathers 40 years ago, very little can be said. But late statistics show that there are over 300,000 homes and farms owned by the Negroes in the United States which indicates that nearly 2 million of the 9 million of our people live in their own homes. The figures are very significant when it is remembered that the race started 40 years ago 4 million and a half individuals with practically no homes. The property value of the homes now owned is conservatively put at $1 billion. Not a bad showing for a people who commenced 40 years ago at zero in wealth. But the accumulation of wealth does not always mean that the owner is moral. Yet the accumulation and maintenance of good homes present a better argument in favor of the good moral inclination of the people accumulating and maintaining these homes than can be produced in words. These mean more than the mere ownership of a house and lot or a 60 acre farm. A respect for the first institution set up by the creator is thereby shown and that in that institution the family is one to love and honor. And that there an altar is to erected around which all are to kneel and worship God. They mean that morality the foundation of all two greatness is to be enthroned there. The establishment and maintenance of so many Christian homes among our people has brought forward a demand which is a barometer of the moral changes that shows conclusively that the race is improving morally. This demand is for the right kind of men as preachers and teachers. The time was when a man who could read and write no matter what his character could find a place to preach and teach among our people. This does not obtain now as much as before. And the people are demanding that their teachers and spiritual advisors be men and women whose lives and characters are living epistles of virtue. If proof of this point were necessary one would need only to refer to the continued upheavals in various communities in the schools and churches where war has been made upon those persons whose lives have been such as to arouse suspicion that they were unworthy the office's health. The fact that these demands are being made for a pure ministry in a competent and worthy core of teachers is encouraging. In passing judgment upon the moral status of a man who is black or black or in comparing this status with that of the father who has gone from the stage, we will necessarily have to apply the multiplication process for it will require a life fully lived in all its details to constitute the sum total of a well built character. The truth about the morals of the present generation will be known only to the next. The processes used in the moral development of the race have been gradual and almost imperceptible in progress but they have been in progress nevertheless and promise great results. The man who sowed prosperity does not expect to reap a harvest tomorrow. Gultifaction is to follow planting. The warm spring rains, the hot rays of a summer sun, are to come and moisten and warm the soil around the roots, cause the blade to shoot forth and then harden the stalk and the grain. These are to be followed by winds and frosts of autumn before harvest comes. The planting of moral principles in the present generation of Negroes has been done. The cultivating process is now going on by means of the buying of homes entering into business and agricultural pursuits building churches and schools and in educating the youth. These facts point to the moral trend of the mind of the present generation but perhaps none of them in the same degree as the religious desire of the colored man. A large percent of the Negroes in this country are members of the Christian churches than of any other race of people. Not even the criticism to the contrary. They are as practical in their Christianity as any set of people. The matter of divorce has been a great problem to many of the most thoughtful men of the race and the frequent resort to the courts to obtain divorces has been used as an argument against the growth of the moral sentiment of the race. But the very fact that such meets with opposition and is disapproved by the good people is evidence in favor of the Negroes' morals. Then again, the class of Negroes who have but little respect for the marriage vow are as a rule, those who are indolent, worthless and without a home and making no effort to obtain one. But halfway, this class form but a small minority. Another virtue of the Negroes' character which comes only from a moral sentiment is gratitude. He loves his benefactors and would gladly repay them for all they have done for him if he were able to do so. If the mind was filled with sensuality deception, hatred, and like vices there would be no room for that noble characteristic gratitude which is so prominent in the present generation. His gratitude extends beyond the individual benefactor to the flag of his country overlooking present conditions and remembering past favors. He is always ready to dare and die for his country's honor. We conclude by saying that the fathers who came up out of slavery unlettered and untrained did well. The present generation of fathers or heads of families by reason of superior advantages are doing far better. The race as a whole for the past 36 years has made a history for itself which will form the apex of its glory when it has passed through a century of training under its changed conditions from slavery to freedom. End of topic 15 Third Paper Topic 15 Fourth Paper 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 Shasta Oakland, California 20th Century Negro Literature Topic 15 Fourth Paper This is Ariel S. Bowen. Is the young Negro an improvement morally on his father? This is Ariel Serena Hedges Bowen, wife of Dr. G. W. E. Bowen of Gammon Theological Seminary Bowen in Newark, Jersey. Her father was a Presbyterian clergyman in that city. He had graduated from Lincoln University, Pennsylvania, and had organized churches in New York state. Her mother represented one of the oldest Presbyterian families in that state. Her grandfather in the Mexican war and was a guard of honor when Lafayette revisited the United States. Her parents removed early to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where she attended the Avery Institute. She completed the academic course of this school. Her parents then moved to Baltimore, Maryland, where her father became pastor of Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church, and finally Grace Presbyterian Church. She was sent to the high school of Springfield, Massachusetts where she remained and graduated with honor in a large class in 1885. She also took the teacher's course and examination, and passed a credible examination and was favorably considered as teacher for one of the schools of that city. She was then called to teach history and English language in the Tuskegee Institute, Tuskegee, Alabama under Professor B.T. Washington. In the year 1886 she was married to Dr. J.W.E. Bowen. She became a life member of the Women's Home Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church. She removed two Atlanta with her husband in 1893. She became Professor of Music in 1895. She is the State President of the Georgia W.C.T.U. Number two. She has written very largely, among which may be mentioned music in the home, the ethics of reform, etc. She is an accomplished vocalist and musician with the piano and pipe organ. She is busily engaged in temperance and reform work, together with training and fitting her family of one boy and three girls for life. She is regarded as one of the foremost and best cultured women of her race. She reads Greek, Latin and German with facility and is a superb housekeeper. The most important and vital factors in the development of a race are physical strength, intelligence and morality. These three, but the greatest of these is morality. The individual or the race possessed of either the first two and that utterly ignores the third can never attain to the full status of man nor reach the zenith of full racial development or the pinnacle of civilization. Today we hear much about the survival of the fittest and the superior race and the inferior races. The earnest thoughtful student of life and its affairs immediately raises the question to whom the such title fittest, superior and inferior refer and why. The history of a people shows the advance and growth of that people. Their development can be traced from the crude barbarous or semi-barbarous state in which physical prowess predominated through the period of intellectual development where the mind begins to grasp new ideas and where new ideals of higher and nobler purpose are sought after. Then came the greater perfection, the purer aspiration, the purer, higher civilization growing out of the purer thought and purer life of a purified people. This is true of all races therefore the Negro race is no exception and is entitled to the same justice that is accorded to every race that has its rise and fall. The writer takes it that the young Negro and his father are to represent only the antebellum and the postpbellum Negro to go beyond that to take him in his earlier state in the native wiles of his fatherland before the Anglo-Saxon mission ever reached him and gave to the world a true picture of his morality would be to present to the world some startling facts that were not only put to shame the young Negro, but also the hosts of men of all nations who glory in the progress they have made in morals. It can be proven by the best authorities that many of the heathen Africans, though crude in ethics were pure morally, but the discussion resolves itself into two very important questions. What was the moral condition of the Negro before the war and what is his moral condition today? Before the war what a picture comes before us at these words what a panorama of deeds passes before our mind's eye. Years of gross darkness, darkness that deepens into the blackness of the pit. Those days this seemed like a hideous nightmare to the hoary-headed and the story of which sounds to the youth like a heart-rending and nauseating recital. Yet it was not all dark, some would say perhaps not, but the bright spots only tended to intensify the darkness. Those were chattels expected to have and who gave to these chattels their moral code? It was certainly not of their own making. What could be the moral condition of a race to whom family rights were forbidden and whose business, next to labor, was to propagate solely for the master's gain. Father were used only in the language of the big house. Womanhood, the foundation stone of moral eminence, passed through a crucial ordeal and it is to be grateful wondered at that the Negro woman emerged with even the crudest type of moral capacity. Every line on every page of the history of those dark days teem and reek with the abandon of licentiousness, nor could this be otherwise. It was the natural sequence of a debasing system. It is no disparagement upon the noble few whose garments were kept unspotted, nor upon those who would have reached toward higher ideals if they had been masters of themselves to say that the antebellum Negro did not possess a great degree of morality. There can be no other conclusion drawn from such demoralizing conditions. The moral status of the Negro is today an all-absorbing theme and is discussed pro and con by friend and enemy in other races and by the optimist and pessimist of his own. Comparisons concerning his morals and moral growth are made as all other comparisons are made concerning him between his present and former condition, nor between his condition and that of any other people at the same stage of development under the same conditions and environments. On the contrary, inconsistency is ever present in the attempts to show the world existing facts. Whenever an attack was made upon the system of slavery, the defenders of the system immediately pointed to the poor slaveholder and the dearth of Negro criminals as points in favor of a time when the Negro enjoyed the blessings of a mild and humane system. When the progress of the black race in America is placed in the balance, the lowest and most degraded and careless of the masses who have not come out of a state of inertia are brought into comparison with the noblest types that have ascended the scale of life. What wonder then that there is so much criticism? What is needed is a search for facts and an unprejudiced putting of all that are pertains to the Negro and a just acknowledgement of the results attained. That the American Negro has made in advance along all lines that make for the higher development of a people he denied. He has improved morally in a corresponding way. The limit of this paper will not permit a statistical comparison but a few points may be noted in passing. His moral instinct is quickened and his moral nature asserts itself in higher forms of life than the new conditions. He has started at the fountain head and the purity of his home and hearthstone in a magnificent memorial to the purity of the black woman. Were it possible to give in numbers the correct estimate of these beautiful homes and their characters even the most bitter of his enemies and the pessimists of his own race would look without upon the pernicious libels disseminated in the periodical literature of the day. The dark picture of the Negro's shortcomings is thrown on the canvas and so familiar has it become the not a few seldom thing that there is another picture which the Negro himself knows to be truer to life and more prophetic of his real nature taken from real life and one that ought to give inspiration and hope to all seekers of the facts. The Negro ministry has made and marked progress in moral achievements for itself and also for the race in their wider influence upon the same. There is a constant and ever increasing demand coming from the people for a higher and nobler service in the pulpit and the demand is being met in a comparative measure. Moreover, there are professional men whose lives prove the possessors estimate of virtue and are being spent in bringing others up to these lofty ideals. The noble army of teachers most of whom are women are not to be overlooked or underestimated. Next to the faithful mother these noble women have lived and worked through the race. They have proved themselves ever against untoward conditions. Their work and worth should not be reflected against because of a few whose lives are not up to the standards of true womanhood. It is undeniably that the virtues of Solomon's virtuous women may be duplicated in multitudes of our women teachers. A word concerning the criminal record of the Negro might be worth considering. It is here that the moral weakness of the race is said to be most manifest. We are told that figures cannot lie and an appeal from the records is not to be considered for a moment. Yet he who wants facts and is in search of the truth must appeal and must make personal investigation. As yet statistics, the press and history have not given a truthful, unbiased record of the Negro of today as he really is. One side has been faithfully followed and elaborately and painfully portrayed, but the other side only here and there an item, a reference and a charitable surmise, rewards the seeker after knowledge. A careful study of the environments of the so-called criminal class also the courts of justice before which the criminals are arraigned would develop some interesting, not to say startling facts. For example, it has been shown by Professor Branson of the Georgia State Normal School that while the illiterate Negro population of the state furnished three convicts per thousand. The Negroes who have profited by the public schools furnish only one convict per thousand. Many of the criminals start from the courtroom and are the victims of injustice. Such untoward conditions serve rather to out every vestige of nobility rather than inspire to a reaching out after higher ideals. The young or postbellum Negro is steadily improving morally in the face of strong opposition in his moral development just as he does in mental, financial and civil growth against all the opposing forces that would hinder him his growth and relegate him to the lowest stratum of mankind. He is forcing his way up the stream. His spiritual and moral nature is beating under the animal nature which for long a time held him as a slave. He now does right for right's sake and loves the pure and good. He honors the women of his race and is raising her to nobler planes in his thoughts and life. The Negro woman is asserting herself also and is building for herself a character that rests upon a foundation of personal purity. This she is doing not only for herself but for others. The building up of pure homes is her chief concern and in them she reigns with womanly queenliness. Social reform receives her attention and works, she may be found teaching, the young, the single standard of purity for both sexes. Her way is the roughest. Her path both closely beset with snares but her works show for themselves. If there had been no advance along moral lines the Negro's material and intellectual attainments would count for very little in the world of affairs. For he would degenerate to a mere mechanical factor in human society and become a tool in every case in the hands of a stronger race. But he has added to his material greater and higher force namely that of moral worth which at once raises him to higher planes in the social and civil world and brings him into contact with his enemies and oppressors. The Negro has met and overcome the great barriers to his progress one by one. Despite the snares that are all about his path and their hidden evils that seek to hold him enthralled him, yet he bursts his chains and marches forward with renewed purpose and greater zeal. Yes, the young Negro is embodying nobler ideas in his nature and reaching forward after higher ideals because of his superior advantages. He is to face a future pregnant with struggles of a higher order and of a more diverse character than the struggles of an earlier day. He enters into competition not with one race only but with all the races of mankind. As the knowledge of the pierceness of the battle comes to him he raises himself from his lethargy and in the strength of his manhood he goes forward. He who doubts not the Negro's growth and development along intellectual and financial lines cannot gain say his steady and sturdy growth in moral and social power. End of Topic 15, Fourth Paper Topic 16, First Paper of 20th Century Negro Literature 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 16, First Paper by the Reverend J. Q. Johnson D.D. as a writer. Reverend J. Q. Johnson D.D. was graduated from the collegiate department of Fisk University in 1890 from the Hartford Theological Seminary in 1893. He taught mathematics at Tuskegee for one year. The John P. Slater Fund published his report at the Tuskegee Negro Conference in its series of occasional papers. He has been president of Allen University Columbia, South Carolina. His pastoral work has embraced some of the strongest and most influential churches in the AME connection. Associated with him was his brilliant and cultured wife the first woman who ever passed the State Medical Board of Examiners of Alabama. Her recent death was a loss to the race. Dr. Johnson is among the foremost men of his church. He is among the best red men of the race. He is an able preacher and a strong forceful writer. One of his characteristic points is his ability to say much more. He goes right to the point without wasting time with needless words. He received doctor's degree from Morris Brown College, Atlanta, Georgia. He studied two years as a post-graduate student at Princeton University. It would be extravagant to set up any claims of greatness in behalf of Negro writers. The Negro had his contribution to make to the literature of mankind. We fully believe that he has a message to deliver. The making of a writer is a matter of centuries. England was a long time producing a Shakespeare or a Milton. Italy a Dante Russia a Tolstoy France a Hugo or a Dumas a Gritta and a Schiller. America active in invention and commerce has not yet produced a name worthy to stand by the side of those just mentioned. All really great writers have not only a national or racial, but also a universal quality in their productions. So far the greater part of our literary effort has been of historical compilations. We have accumulated a large mass of material for the future historians. William's history of the Negro race is an example of this kind. In this way we have recorded the deeds of distinguished Negroes and every avenue of life. Such works have kept alive the hope and kindled the aspirations of the race. A most interesting work of this kind is that of Professor E. H. Crogman the white side of a black subject. In this book we have the serious and earnest efforts of the race recorded. Here we learn of educators like Booker T. Washington and J. W. E. Bowen lawyers like T. McCants-Stewart and S. A. McElwee. Women physicians like Hallie T. Johnson and Georgia Washington. Books of this kind are in almost every Negro home in the land. The Negro as a writer of prose is nowhere seen to a better advantage than in Dr. Blyden's Christianity, Islam and the Negro race. Here we find the Negro in command of the best English style. Whatever may be said of his opinions, his mastery of a forcible, spirited, nervous expression reminds one of McCauley and Addison. Probably the best book from the standpoint of scientific historical investigation is the work of Dr. Dubois on the suppression of the African slave trade. Bishop B. T. Tanner, in his dispensations in the church, has made a real contribution to our race literature. In this he establishes the hermetic origin of the ancient Egyptians and shows that Ham is not one whit behind Japheth and Shem in achievement. Dr. R. L. Perry's work, The Cushite is a very excellent work along the same line. In this department there is yet much work for the Negro scholar. In Paul Lawrence Dunbar the race has struck its highest note in song. A high and worthy tribute has been paid this writer by William Dean Howells. His lyrics have not only a genuine race literature, but at the same time they appeal to the universal heart. Dunbar's work is of the first class. He has made a real contribution to the literature of the country. His name must now appear in any manual of American literature. The success of this writer is a matter of note. His poems and stories are in most of the popular magazines and his books on all new stands. It is clear from this that whenever a Negro writes anything worth reading his productions will be in constant demand. Mention must here be made of the commendable work of Charles W. Chestnut another popular writer of the race. The lamented Dr. A. A. Whitman and Mrs. Francis W. Harper are two poets well known to the public. Some think that Whitman is a greater poet than Dunbar. In a short sketch like this it is impossible to do justice to the literary achievements of the race. A whole volume might be written on the great work done by the Negro press. Here we have many strongwriters. Men of such mold as Fortun, Stewart, Mitchell, and H. T. Johnson. Then too there are noted names as magazine writers. Scarborough, Kelly Miller, D. W. Culp, and B. T. Washington and H. T. Keeling. The Negro has been a failure nowhere. In war there stands Toussaint, Louverture, Massio. In education B. T. Washington. In oratory Frederick Douglass. In art H. O. Tanner. In letters Phyllis Wheatley and Paul Lawrence Dunbar. These and others like them are our prophets of the future. Being thus judged by our best men it doth not yet appear what we shall be. The Greeks are great in a large measure because they wrote of themselves. So the Anglo-Saxon in any race for that matter. The Negro must do the same. His story will not be adequately told till it is done by himself. The Negro poet, novelist, and historian have a vast wealth of material before them. Every southern city and plantation are vocal with the past history of our race. From the past and the present, from our achievements and our suffering, the Negro writer whether poet, novelist, or historian will deliver our message to the world. End of Topic 16 First Paper Topic 16 Second Paper 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 16 Second Paper The Negro as a writer Walter I. Lewis was born near Chester, South Carolina. No record having been kept it is not possible to determine the date of his birth. Walter is the third of seven children that were born to William Charles and Molly Lewis who were slaves to a man by the name of W. T. Gilmore. He successfully passed from the common schools to the preparatory department of Biddle University. Walter I. Lewis graduated with the second honor of his class of five from Biddle University in Charlotte, North Carolina and at once began his life work at the University of Spartanburg, South Carolina. After teaching in that city for three years, two of which he succeeded in securing a sufficient donation from the Peabody Fund to have the school term increased from five to nine months, he accepted an appointment under the Freedman's Board of the Presbyterian Church to take charge of their parochial school Special inducements were offered him to take a position in the newly organized graded schools of that city and he resigned the parochial school after serving one year and accepted work with the graded school. This he found congenial and one special distinction in using the phonetic method of teaching primary pupils that system being newly introduced there then. Having a turn for political contests he vigorously entered local political campaigns generally on the winning side and won some distinction as a campaign orator. Mr. Lewis came to Florida in 1890 as corresponding secretary of the Afro-American Chautauqua Association and was the lamented Dr. J. C. Price. The failure of that enterprise was a withering blow to Mr. Lewis. After remaining in Florida for nearly a year at Tallahassee Mr. Lewis became the field correspondent and agent for the Florida Sentinel then published in Gainesville. In 1892 Mr. Lewis got a position as city editor on the labor union recorder of Savannah. For a time his activity seemed to be equal to the task of redeeming that paper but the entailments of indebtedness were too great. It went under. He was urged to go to Jacksonville to enter the office of the Jacksonville advocate, the inducements being flattering him. He served the advocate until the daily American was established. He was on the daily American as its city editor and was on deck when that sheet went down. In the winter of 1895 to 1996 necessity demanded a better daily news for the colored people of Jacksonville. This was secured at the office of the Metropolis one of the most successful afternoon papers that is published in the whole south. Mr. Lewis was put on as reporter for his race on the staff of the Metropolis and has held this place continuously ever since. He is a firm believer in the survival of the fittest in all things and declares this is the key to the solution of the race problem. On the stage, on the platform, in the pulpit and in conversation, the Negro has demonstrated a power in the use of speech that has well won him a merited distinction. This fluency and force of language so often found in striking disparity to his other attainments has armed critics and students of his racial peculiarities with the opinion that talking is his peculiar forte. Such an opinion does not obtain however in the face of noble examples of this race who have the art of forcibly and correctly writing great thoughts. The great cause of the Christian religion has furnished the field for more writers of this race than any other. This is noted not as a fault but rather to confirm the fact that since the emancipation the training of the Negro both at school and in his home has been largely religious owing to his inborn susceptibility to religious impressions and his well-known proneness to abide by the teachings of his fathers. It is no marvel that the major portion of his written thoughts should be deeply tinged with religious ideas. Even in his occasional contributions to current literature and when he is making an attack or a defense, Wright often does the religious effusion predominate. Until about twenty years ago rare were the instances where Negro writers had produced books and other productions on other than religious subjects. And even at the present the number of secular writers is not large considering the opportunities for writers of this class and the profits available. There are certain advantages strange to relate that the Negro has that might be called natural. The great realm of thought through which fiction and mental analysis holds undisputed sway is not circumscribed by caste and other invidious discriminations as are most other avenues through which the bravest souls essay to traverse but are either crushed down or are ejected. Perhaps this is why in cases that have doubtless come under the observation of all readers of the productions of Negro writers there is a tendency toward recklessness. But it will be equitable and fair to take under consideration only those Negro writers who have one more or less distinction as such while discussing the Negro as a writer. From Alexander Dumas to the latest celebrity among Negro writers the close observer of racial traits is furnished with vivid evidences of methods of thought that are peculiar to this people. In imagery there is that fluidity that goes dazzling to the sublime with a brilliancy that is captivating. If sorrow is depicted his course through its horrible depths brings a shutter over the most listless reader. If happiness is to be portrayed the easiest nook in Elysium is laid bare. If anger pleads for expression no bolt from Vulcan's anvil has ever fallen with so crushing a clang. The Negro writer is prolific in detail. Situation follows situation in rapid success demanding close attention to keep clear of the meshes of involvement. Things of the Negro are full of soul. If at times there is a lacking of aptness in conventional adjustments the hiatus is beautifully abridged with a freshness and wealth of expression that fully atones. The Negro writer has it largely in his power to demonstrate the higher possibilities and capabilities of his race. As long as there is a Charles W. Chestnut or a Paul Lawrence Dunbar a T. Thomas Fortune and others whose writings are read by the thousands of literary people of this country and England so long will there be an irrefutable argument for the intellectual worth of the Negro race. It is within the power of the Negro writer to practically and profitably demonstrate the oft repeated aphorism genius is not the plant of any particular soil. It should be a matter of some congratulation to the Negro that the great publishing houses of this country are not and never will be located at the great centers of race prejudice. A manuscript of merit can easily find publication. Within recent years it has been noticed that the vain of seriousness that has run through the writings of Negro authors is fading away and a jollity that is his own is taking its place. Most of the men and women of the race who have written enough to win public notice are known to be persons of a cheerful and jovial disposition. For such a person to live in the role of the miserable is at least a misrepresentation. The Negro's apness in detecting the facetious even in things that are serious. His laughing soul that places a bouquet of joy and sunshine where the somber draping of woe would so often be found is his God given stock in trade upon which he can do business for generations to come. This secret is being discovered by him. This discovery will yet furnish the great world of letters with men and women of this race who will place millions under tribute to graciously acknowledge the beneficence. The way to favor and preferment for the Negro writer is to be made by himself. The epic of his race awaits a writer. The drama of an unwritten history covering about four centuries will welcome the facile pen of some gifted son or daughter. The well-nigh inexhaustible field of folklore of his own people is ready to be told to the world whether in the crude dialect of the race or in Americanized English it matters little. It will make no difference. The English-speaking people of both continents will read it if it is written by a master. It is not at all taken for granted, admitted, or intimated that the Negro writer of the present century is oblivious to any of these facts. Just as the coon melodies have captured the musical realms of this country and will remain in the saddle for some time yet, just as Negro singers and actors are honorably invading the progressive end of the American stage, so will Negro writers swarm in the great field of writers bringing with them a supply of freshness of genius that will rejuvenate and give fresh life to the literature of this country. This is a domain that mocks at legislative restrictions, caste, exclusionism, and what-not. Those who will enter and maintain their ground will be few. All of the stars in the heavens are not fast-flying meteors. There never was such a thing as an army of sages. Mindful of the fact that his antecedence is small in the world of letters, the Negro writer is the more ardently inspired when he looks beyond and catches sight of golden fields into which no swore the hand has thrust a sickle. The world wants more joy. The world cries for more sunshine. The world begs for a laugh. Mankind glottes over the depiction of deeds both noble and ignoble. The world delights in that which is novel. The Negro is a son of caloric. His presence is sunshine. He tells a story leaving nothing out. He is himself a novelty and it will not be too far in the twentieth century before he will take pity on the world and mankind and write them what they like. Topic 16 Second Paper Topic 16 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 History Negro Literature Topic 16 Third Paper by G. M. McClellan The Negro as a writer. The objection is often raised against schools of higher education for the Negro race that these people need instruction not in Latin, history, geometry and scientific farming and geometric bed-making. The leaven of truth in this assertion makes a plump denial hard to return. While its leaven of error is a reminder of the old anti-slavery assumption that till the end of time the Negro must be a hewer of wood and drawer of water with no mental life to speak of. This error is best confuted by proof of the race's actually wide range of intellectual demands, imaginative sympathies, moral questionings. And for this reason, if for no other one thanks Mr. George Marion McClellan for venturing on the publication of his verses. This gentleman is a graduate of Fisk University as he tells us in the interesting and modest preface to his volume. Thus he belongs to the first generation since the war. His parents, he indicates, were slaves, and his early home was upon the Highland Rim of Tennessee amid the poverty of a freedman father's little farm. These things well weighed the refined love of nature the purity of sentiment the large philosophy the delicacy of expression which his poems display are sufficiently marvelous. One must perhaps deny him the title of poet in these days when verse writers are many. His ear for rhythm is fatally defective while so far as one may judge from the few dates submitted to the poems the later productions seem not to be the best. Nevertheless his little volume stimulates to large reviews and fair anticipations. It is a far cry from swing low sweet chariot an articulate stirring of poetic fancy but hardly more than that to Mr. McClellan's September night in Mississippi. Begirt with cotton fields and guila sits half birdlike dreaming on her summer nest amid her spreading figs and roses still in bloom with all their spring and summer hues pomegranates hang with dappled cheeks full ripe and over all the town a dreamy haze drops down the great plantations stretching far away our planes of cotton downy white oh glorious is this night of joyous sounds too full for sleep aromas wild and sweet from muscadine late blooming jesemine and roses all the heavy air suffuse faint bellows from the alligators come from swamps afar where sluggish lagoons give to them a peaceful home the katydids make ceaseless cries ten thousand insects wings stir in the moonlight haze and joyous shouts of negro song and mirth awake hard by the cabin dance oh glorious is the night the summer sweetness fills my heart with songs I cannot sing with loves I cannot speak if many thoughts and feelings such as these lie folded in southern cabins let us not deny for their unfolding the genial influences of literature and history and the sciences the race that possesses such powers even so undeveloped in the great majority of its members needs fisk and atlanta educated pastors and teachers the pen is mightier than the sword it would have seemed idle to have said this at the mouth of the mountain pass at thermopylae with leonidus and his immortal spartan heroes all lying dead direct made by the mighty host of xerxes a century afterward at cana one sixth of the whole population of Rome lay dead on the battlefield by the sword thrust where was the might of the pen to compare with this the might of the sword at thermopylae together with the concluding events at salamis and back the persian hordes and thereby saved the greek civilization for europe again after the blood of cana at zama hanibal was utterly broken and carthage with her attending civilization was doomed to everlasting death while Rome her mighty adversary with her eagles and short sword her dominion and her splendid civilization from england to india one more great movement in the world illustrating the power of the sword is too tempting to pass by in this connection from the deserts of arabia a fanatical dreamer came forth claiming a new revelation from god and as a chosen prophet to give the world his pretensions at first caused his expulsion from mecca together with a small and insignificant band of followers yet because of these it was not long until there came from out of the desert the sound of a marching of a mighty host heralding the approach of the arab the despising and despised before these barbarous hordes the principalities of the east were doomed to crumble and yield up their accumulated treasures of the ages and so triumphant were these invaders from the desert they decided to appropriate for themselves the whole world and from this they were not dissuaded until charles martel sent them back from tours and out of europe together with their hateful civilization so it would seem from these and all other mighty movements of races and tribes men and nations the sword has ever been the arbiter yet over all the mighty sweep of events and the stupendous results of the sword thrust throughout the ages comes this insinuating claim that the pen is mightier than the sword and when we consider the whole of accumulated philosophy the onward march of science and human thought and the consequent development of the human race the comparative might of the sword becomes insignificant before the less demonstrative power of the conquering pen and here comes the question some phase or other comes up in all great questions of america what part has the negro in the might of the pen nobody doubts that the great movements of the world at present let their primary manifestations be military or political scientific or industrial have any other great lever than knowledge and sentiment brought into notice and activity by writers the chief agencies for the dissemination of thought and discoveries are the newspapers magazines literary journals and books of fiction the newspapers have the most immediate and controlling influence over the action of men in the business and political world to undertake to estimate with anything like exactness the part the negro has in molding sentiment through the press and giving the consequent direction to the action of men would be a task impossible in the very nature of the case it shall be then the purpose of this article to discuss in a general way the negro as a writer in all lines in which he has essayed to express thought it would be easy to dispose of the question in two ways one would be to separate all that he has done as far as that would be possible and put it over against the production of the white race and thus so minimize it by comparison that its power would likely to be underrated another way would be to magnify all that has been done as especially praise worthy because the production comes from the negro thus overrating its significance forgetting that whatever power any writing can have only be in proportion to its real merit in the thought world regardless of all source from which it came overrating the negro is more likely to be done in passing on his attempts in literary art than in any other field but in literary lines the number who can command attention and be worthy of notice is very small one does not have to go far to see that the most effective work so far as creating sentiment is concerned and thereby wielding power in the great moving forces of this age the negro as a writer is best events by the negro press we have many newspapers and after thirty years we have not been able to produce one single great newspaper nor for many good reasons one single great editor who is a power in the land indeed the most of the many papers of ours that come from the press have but little in them that can attract the intelligent minds of the race there is however among us too great a tendency to ridicule the negro press unreservedly and though much of the ridicule may be deserved it remains true that the accumulative power of the negro press is hardly appreciated as it deserves to be they who write for us and fight our battles are essentially our only spokesmen and as ignored as our articles and editorials would seem to be by the white press it is true nevertheless that the white newspapers take close notice of what the negro writers have to say they may not ordinarily deign to appear to take notice but let any publication be made in our most humble sheets that seems to them to be dangerous or too presumptuous to let pass and it will be seen then that the white press takes notice and the power of the colored press will become apparent I have said that we will have not yet produced one single great paper nor one great editor as white papers and editors are great and to this I think there can be justly no exceptions take him for we are lacking in nearly all the accessories to make such greatness possible but we do have a few papers and editors of marked power the two most exceptional papers of power that have come under my notice are the New York age edited by Mr. T. Thomas Fortune and the Richmond Planet edited by Mr. Mitchell these two papers and their editors have been and are yet valiant warriors for the race and of incalculable benefit to the race as a terse caustic and biting editorial writer Mr. Fortune is hardly surpassed by anyone and his paper for years has been uncompromising and fighting all adverse issues in the race question almost the same thing can be said of the Richmond Planet and more than any other perhaps has this paper been valiant and waging war against lynching these two papers together with a host of others have set forth the power of the pen and have accomplished far more to offset the adverse sentiment created by the white press than can ever be fully determined there is another class of Negro writers than those I have mentioned that gets an occasional hearing in the white papers of the south and is of great value to the race anyone familiar with the strictures of the south knows that the Negroes themselves have essentially no chance to discuss through the white newspapers the great questions which are ever to the front concerning them and their position in the south and also but very little more in the newspapers of the north unless in the south the Negroes write some articles to say amen and highly sanctioned the white man's victims and positions on the Negro questions that happen to be up but there are few who are able to write on some questions in our defense without compromise and yet so skillfully as not to offend in speaking of the attitude of the white press and its representations it is not assumed that there is no disposition of fairness on the part of the writers of the white press many of the great editors mean to be fair from their standpoint the southern white people are prejudiced and super sensitive on some points beyond all reason and in all questions between the Negro and the white man as man to man the assumptions without an exception are arrogant beyond all naming so that it comes about at any point of issue where men differing usually would permit the opponent his views as fitting from his side of the question what the Negro has to say if he is emphatic and decided is called impudence the writer must be skillful then to write uncompromisingly and yet not be of the impudent there are few men among us who are able to write for the southern white papers with reserve yet without compromise greatly to our advantage among those few prominent are Professor G. W. Henderson of Strait University in New Orleans and President W. H. Council of the College Normal and Industrial School at normal Alabama Professor Henderson is a graduate of Middlebury College Vermont and Yale Theological Seminary having taken the fellowship from that institution and studied in Germany two years his writings show his scholarship and refinement he has been persistent and valiant in all race matters especially in educational lines in Louisiana and his articles though uncompromising have from time to time found a hearing and forced respect from the great dailies of New Orleans President Council is the most widely accepted in the southern white press of all Negroes on some points of disagreement between the Negroes and the white people he concedes more to some of the white man's claims than any other Negro who writes secondly he is truly a great man and has gained his right to a hearing in intelligent sources as a writer pure and simple he is forcible and while the whole of his attitude cannot be accepted generally by his own race there is no doubt about his uncompromising attitude and loyalty to his own race first and last and anyone who has followed his articles in newspapers and leading magazines have surely seen that the apparently sometimes too generous bouquet throwing to the white brother is fully offset by the terrible blows given that same white brother for his sins against the Negro race this is especially seen in his symposium article in the April number of the arena 1899 it would be impossible in the limitation of this article to mention the many Negro writers who are acceptable in leading magazines and to a greater extent in the great weekly journals of this country only one or two can be mentioned Reverend H. H. Proctor, pastor of the first congregational church at Atlanta, Georgia is a graduate of Fisk University and Yale Theological Seminary and he is a young man of exceptional ability as a writer on timely questions but as an article writer is often seen in the outlook, the New York Independent and such papers above them all is Bishop Tanner of Philadelphia for diction, fine style, conciseness and logical conclusions one must go far to find his superior in the way of history textbooks on various subjects and scientific presentation not much has yet been done among us Mr. George W. Williams the Negro historian has done more in that field than any other Dr. D. W. Culp has written a treatise on consumption and other medical subjects that have attracted attention and favorable criticism it now remains to speak of the writers in literary art in this field there are many who have certainly made praise worthy attempts and of the ladies who cannot be classed with those who have truly made a place among successful literary artists but whose writing has attracted attention and in character is literary most complimentary things can be said of Mrs. Francis E. W. Harper of Philadelphia of Mrs. Fanny Barrier-Williams of Chicago of Miss Edna Matthews of New York and of Mrs. Cooper Washington D.C Mrs. Cooper's book A Voice from the South is a work in purpose and execution of decided merit in real literary art perhaps there are only two in the whole race who have reached a place of genuine high rank among the critics namely Dunbar and Chestnut there are four poets however who have attracted much attention and favorable criticism and of these I will speak in turn it is an order to speak of Mr. A. A. Whitman first because he appeared first of all and in one particular of excellency he is first of all four his rape of Florida is truly poetry and as a sustained effort as an attempt in great lines it surpasses in true merit anything yet done by a negro and this assertion without one qualifying word he failed as a poet? Certainly Mr. Whitman made attempts in lines in which Shelly, Kate's and Spencer triumphed and with such mediocrity only possible to him in such a highway what else could follow beyond a passing notice though his rape of Florida is a production of much more than passing merit aside from the mediocrity of the work attempted in Spenserian lines the man himself in his lack of learning in his expressible egotism was derogatory to his ultimate success and his styling himself as the William Cullen Bryant of the Negro race was sickening in the extreme Mr. Whitman died recently but not before he had done all in literary excellence that could be hoped from him it remains true however that he was worthy of a much better place than is accorded him as a Negro poet and it is to be regretted that his work is so little known among us ten years after Mr. Whitman Paul Dunbar came forth as a new singer and got the first real recognition as a poet as a poet pure and simple as a refined verse maker in all directions Mr. Dunbar surpasses Mr. Whitman by far in the truest significance in the term poet and he is justly assigned the first place among Negro poets for many reasons Mr. Dunbar is famous and to enter into any extended discussion of his work in this connection is needless Mr. Dunbar is the first Negro to attempt poetic art in Negro dialect to speak the truth however it must be said that there is no such thing as a Negro dialect but in the bad English called Negro dialect Mr. Dunbar has in verse chosen to interpret the Negro in his general character in his philosophy of life in his rich humor and good nature and the world knows how well he has succeeded Robert Burns has shown how the immortal life of all beautiful things can be handed down for all time in dialect but it can scarcely be believed by anyone that great poetry can ever be clothed in the garb known as Negro dialect but for some pathos and to put the Negro forward at his best in his humorous and good natured characteristics the so-called dialect is the best vehicle and in these lines and these lines only is Mr. Dunbar by far greater than all others out of those lines he is still the first poet Whitman not accepted but he is first with nothing like the difference in real merit and the fame he has above all others but in passing from him here is Dunbar at his best dialectic and otherwise when decompones hot day is a time in life when nature seems to slip a cog and go just a rattling down creation like an oceans overflow when the world just starts spinning like a picking in his top and you feel just like a rocker that is training for to trap when your mammy says the blessing and decompones hot when you sat down at the table can a weary lock and sad and use just a little towel and perhaps a little mad how your gloom turns into gladness how your joy dries out to doubt when the oven door is opened and the smell comes pouring out while the electric light of heaven seems to settle on the spot when your mammy says the blessing and decompones hot when the cabbage pot is steaming and the bacon good and fat when the chitlins is a spurlerin so's to show you what day's at take away your soddy biscuit take away your cake and pie for the glory time is coming and it's proaching mighty night and you want to jump and holla though you know you'd better not when your mammy says the blessing and decompones hot I have hired a lots of sermons and I've hired a lots of prayers and I've listened to some singing that has tucked me up the stairs of the glory land and sat me just below the master stone and left my heat of singing in a happy after tone but them words so sweetly murmured seem to touch the softest spot when my mammy says the blessing and decompones hot this is not so great a poem as the codders Saturday night by Burns because the spiritual element and the whole scope of the tenderest concerns of the family and of life in that poem are left out of this but in Dunbar's poem where only the festival is pictured the scene is so intensified that one feels the warmth and sees the glow of the evening fire inhales the appetizing odors of the coming homely cheer and can see back of these the tender care and ineffable love of the mammy who puts the crowning touch upon her love with the blessing as far as it goes when the compones hot is great precisely in the same lines that the codders Saturday night is great Mr. Dunbar has also written a number of novels and short stories it has not been my good fortune to see the stories from Dixie but the novels I have bought and read if there were no Charles Chestnut Mr. Dunbar's novels would have to be discussed in this connection and he would have to be put down as the very first Negro novel writer mainly however because there would be no other but with Mr. Chestnut in the field no true admirer of Mr. Dunbar will ever discuss the prolific diffusions of his bearing the name novels in any connection with Dunbar the poet there is only enough space left in this article for the poets to barely mention the names of Mr. Daniel Webster Davis of Manchester, Virginia and Mr. James D. Carruthers of Redbrank, New Jersey and to give a selection from each and let their poems speak for them as writers both of them have received notice in the best magazines and favorable criticism elsewhere both owe their distinction mainly to their work in dialectic verse which I fear is too much like the ragtime music considered quite the proper dressing for Negro distinction in the poetic art here is to The Biggest Piece of Pie by Mr. Davis when I was a little boy I set me down to cry because my little brother had The Biggest Piece of Pie but when I had become a man I made my mind to try and hustle round to get myself The Biggest Piece of Pie and like in bygone childish days the world is hustling round to get ourselves The Biggest Slice of honor and renown and if I fails to do my best but stand around and cry this old world will get away with both the plate and pie and even should I get a slice I must not cease to try but keep a moving fastest life to hold my piece of pie this rougher world has little use for them that chance to fall and while you's getting up again take the plate and all the one more selection from Mr. Davis will show him as a poet outside of dialect a rose the rose of the garden is given to me and to double its value to as given by thee its lovely bright tints to my eyesight is born like the kiss of a fairy or blush of mourn too soon must this scent laden flower decay its bright leaves will wither its bloom die away but in memory twill linger the joy that it bore will live with me still though the flowers no more Mr. James D. Carruthers writes a thanks given turkey Cindy, reach the harm your back and hand me that all almanac while land to Mars thanks given got to get out and make hay don't care what the preacher say we must eat thanks given day use show use use a livin you know why Mars Hudson lives days of turkey die that gives me a heap of trouble some day Hudson's going to miss that audacious foul of his eyes going over there and twizz at gobbler's neck plum double going past that to other day turkey strutting up and say a gobble gobble gobble much as if he mount remark don't you wish at it was dark ain't I tempting sigh you hulk or else they'll be a squabble take and ring your neck right quick light on you like a thousand brick and you won't know what befell you and I went on yet every day when I goes by that away at foul has too much to say and I'm tired of it I tell you gone to go this breasted night and put out that turkey's light and I'll nail him like a cobbler take care Cindy let me pass ain't a gun to take no sass off no man's turkey gobbler and now for the last and the greatest Roman of the mall and literary art Mr. Charles W. Chestnut of Cleveland, Ohio I have never seen him and at present the only personal acquaintance I have with him is a brief letter of a dozen or more lines but Mr. Chestnut revealed by his novels I know well the chief distinction one finds in reading Mr. Chestnut from all other Negro story writers so far as there are such as that he is truly an artist and that his art is a fine art secondly, and this is of the greatest concern to Negroes in any thought of the Negro as a writer he is the best delineator of Negro life and character thought and feeling of any who has attracted notice it is not possible to give in this connection any quotations from Mr. Chestnut's work that may speak for him but it is fitting in this article to speak of the character of some of Mr. Chestnut's stories and as far as possible suggest the ground and purpose of his fiction perhaps to mention the stories the wife of his youth the wheel of progress and the house behind the cedars would serve best for this occasion there are some situations of the Negroes too full of ineffable pity for utterance who has not sat at some time in a Negro church and heard read the pitiful inquiry for a mother or a child or a father, husband or wife all lost in the sales and separations of slavery times loved ones as completely swallowed up in the past yet in this life they still live as if the grave had received them at such a reading though it was given with unconcern one heard the faithful cry of faithful love coming out of the dark on its sorrowful mission and in this realm Mr. Chestnut tells us of a mulatto boy who marries a woman of Negro type and who was old enough for the boy's mother but had at that time youth enough left to make the disparity of age at the time of little objection especially in the times and situation where there was little objection to marriages of any sort but the youth escapes from slavery and in the far north receives education development and culture and in time earns a competence that makes life desirable and opens up vistas to new happiness for the old life is now only a memory of what the new man once was and the new man is on the borderland of new love and marriage and all his advancements while the mulatto slave boy the slave girl the black slave wife and the slave connections are left forever behind but in all these 25 years the black slave wife is still living still ignorant and yielding all the while to age until she is an old woman but there was one thing that did not yield to age and time and that was her love for her boy husband and what was more her sublime and unwavering faith in the constancy of her yellow Sam after whom she sends inquiry after inquiry and year after year tramps from place to place in her search with faith and love divine ever leading her on to one day in a northern city to which place she had finally traced him she stopped at his very door to humbly inquire of the strange gentleman she saw for her yellow Sam never dreaming that it was he to whom she spoke though he knew her and had to face the bitter tragedy of it all but Mr. Chestnut's art enables him to take care of so sorrowful a case satisfactorily the wheel of progress touches another phase of pathetic situations arising out of the mixture of people and sentiments in the south the story tells of an ostracized northern white teacher who from young womanhood labors away her life for the negroes until her age and health reach that degree of disadvantage that her position as teacher once her medium of charity becomes her only means for a living in the meantime the negroes whom she and others helped to uplift and develop and to whom because of race distinction most all avenues outside of menial labor are closed except preaching and teaching to become her competitors in the conflict that arose over the reappointment of the white missionary teacher and a young negro to the place the pitiful situation is again taken care of by Mr. Chestnut's fine art the house behind the cedars until his latest the marrow of tradition was his most ambitious attempt in this book the story of an octaroon family is put forth in all the pathos and tragedy that is the lot of so many negroes who belong wholly to neither race Mr. Chestnut's latest book the marrow of tradition is a strong and vigorous presentation of the colored man's case against the south in the form of a dramatic novel this book especially deserves a wide reading among the negroes who have none too many friends to plead their cause Mr. Chestnut as one truly high rank novelist among us ought to have such a hearing among the eight millions that would give him all the advantages of a successful novelist from a financial standpoint as a return for his labor which is by no means himself alone in closing it is but fair to say while the artists of high rank among us are few in number in an article discussing the negro as a writer in mentioning names at all it must necessarily follow that there are very many names not here mentioned that would deserve to be if in such an article as this there were any intention or necessity to mention the whole list of negro writers who write well and with power in every department of letters end of topic 16 third paper