citizens was weighed on the Roosevelt standard testing machine of 100
per cent Americanism with weights of paper, silver and gold money; then
surely the two hundred twenty-five million dollars and more in cash
that was dumped into the American scales of Liberty Loan Campaigns,
Thrift Stamps, Red Cross Drives and other War Work activities, by the
Colored people in the United States, pushed high above the level the
opposite scales that contained Negro one hundred per cent Americanism.
Thus did the Colored people at home give their over-flowing measure and
extra weight of money toward the putting down of a threatened world
autocracy and the establishment of a hopeful universal democracy. And
justly may those Colored people, who stayed at home in America during
the World War and so unselfishly gave of their strength and money,
truthfully and consolingly repeat that beautiful, fifty-fifty and
“square deal” law of King David’s found in First Samuel, thirtieth
chapter, twenty-fourth verse: “But as his part is that goeth down to
the battle, so shall his part be that tarrieth by the stuff; they shall
part alike.”
(All quotations, facts and figures contained in this chapter titled
“In The World War At Home”, unless otherwise stated herein, are
extracts taken from Work’s Negro Year Book, 1918-1919 edition,
pages 14-45-46-47-48-49-50.)
[Illustration]
IN THE CHURCHES
FRESH AIR RELIGION
The preachers of to-day now seek
Fresh air within God’s House to keep;
And not hot rooms with germ-filled airs
In sermons and their church affairs.
--_Harrison._
Even during the Revolutionary War, George Leile, a Baptist slave who
had been freed by his owner, preached to slaves in Savannah, Ga. From
that time on up the Negro pulpit has been wielding among the masses of
Colored people in America an influence for good that is the first of
all influences that has the greatest hold upon the Race.
Some of the other early preachers who helped to lay the rock foundation
of this ruling influence were Lemuel Haynes of Connecticut, a wonderful
orator and honored veteran of the Revolutionary War; Richard Allen and
Absolem Jones of Pennsylvania, Allen having founded the famous old
Bethel Church in Philadelphia and was ordained in 1816 the first bishop
of the A. M. E. Church; Amanda Smith of Maryland, who won thousands
of Colored and white converts over to God as a result of her powerful
sermons and temperance lectures in England, Scotland, Africa and India
as well as in America; John Chavis of North Carolina, who on account
of his superior education won fame and recognition as a school teacher
of rich white Southern boys and girls and also as a powerful pulpit
preacher to enslaved men and women of his own race; and John Gloucester
of Tennessee and Pennsylvania, who was the first Colored minister of
a Presbyterian church in the United States. Thus were the ways those
early God-Fearing men and women of days before and right after the
Civil War blazed the plain guiding marks in the forests of ministry, in
order that the clear-sighted and sure-footed gospel leaders who have
since followed them might have no trouble in choosing the right paths
through which to lead their trusting and loyal congregations.
The following is an article quoted from the August 6, 1921, issue
of the _Chicago Defender_:
“_C. T. Walker, Noted Pastor, Dies in South._”--“Augusta, Ga., Aug.
5--The Rev. Charles T. Walker, often referred to as the greatest
preacher of his time, died Friday July 29, at his home here.
“Dr. Walker was vice-president of the National Baptist convention of
the United States and pastor of the Tabernacle Baptist church here for
the past forty years, excepting five years when he was pastor of the
Mount Olivet Baptist church, New York City.
“He founded the Y.M.C.A. in New York City for our people, traveled
extensively in Europe and the Holy Land, and was the author of a number
of books of travel as well as sermons.
“As an evangelist, he was widely known, and no other minister ever drew
larger crowds when he spoke. His church in this city was often visited
by Northern winter tourists, among them former President Taft and John
D. Rockefeller. It was the latter who paid an artist to paint pictures
of the Christ Child on the walls of Rev. Walker’s church.”
“To Pastor A Large White Church”
“Toronto, Can.--To fill the pulpit of one of the largest Presbyterian
churches (white) in Toronto for five weeks with one of our ministers
is the interesting departure from the general rule of supply for the
summer months that Knox church is making this year. For last week and
all of August, Rev. Joseph J. Hill of Roawohe Baptist Church, Hot
Springs, Ark., will occupy Knox church pulpit. Dr. Hill has been a
professor of science in a southern university, and is a graduate of the
Academy of Music. He is a quiet, appealing and persuasive preacher with
a message all his own, which he delivers with great eloquence. During
the summer holidays, last year, he preached in the Moose Jaw Methodist
church, with a seating capacity of 1,000 which was crowded at all
services.”
The above is extracted from the Cleveland Gazette issued August 6, 1921.
As soon as Sunday School children of the Race have grown old and large
enough to understand and bear more weighty religious burdens, they
are at once invited to join the present four million Colored church
members, who are only too anxious to take in new members under the
Divine leadership and protection of the fourty-three thousand churches
owned by people of the Race in the United States. When it is proved by
facts and figures that about one-third of the Colored people in this
country are members in churches and that they have put over eighty-five
million dollars of their hard earned money into these present church
properties they own; it is plainly seen that people of the Negro race
still have perfect faith and trust in and are continuing to work for
and with the God, Who inspired the immortal Abraham Lincoln to free
their slave working and hopeful praying foreparents.
(Ref.: Work’s Negro Year Book, 1918-1919 edition, pgs. 1-234-5-6-7).
Colored ministers of today, on account of their all-around advancements
have been able to bring about a better understanding and knowledge of
the true teachings of the Bible. For instance, they are teaching their
congregations that the timely, proper and equal uses of emotional and
practical religion are necessary. Thus the masses of people attending
Colored churches are fast learning from their pulpits that there is
just as much needs for Christianity in practical business and social
dealings with each other on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday,
Friday and Saturday, as there is for Christianity in their church
emotional ceremonies conducted among themselves before the altars on
Sunday. Also ministers of today have long since come to differ from
most of those “old school” ministers (God blessed them for doing the
best they knew how) who taught their people to live, think and say, to
other races, “Give us Jesus and you can take the dollar.” So the “new
school” and more businesslike ministers of these times are patiently
teaching, fast convincing and gradually converting their congregations
in the belief and truth that it is just as much Christianity in the
honest earning, the frugal saving, the fair investment, the wise
spending and the merciful sharing of a dollar with the poor and needy,
as there is need for Christianity in the saving of their souls and the
spreading of the gospel.
Along other practical lines these gospel leaders are having remarkable
success, especially in large cities where many Colored people live.
It is wonderful to see how these practical ministers have taught their
congregations that they are showing as much reverence to God when they
pass out of their churches after services and go quietly and orderly
to their homes (instead of great numbers of them stopping right in
front of their church doors with loud talk and laughter and blocking
the whole pavement, against people who wish to go by, for fifteen
and twenty minutes) as they do when sitting quietly and dignified in
their church pews listening to the sermons. Such gospel leaders in
every instance finally win their members over to their sides in such
matters by pleasantly and plainly pointing out that people of other
races seldom attend Colored churches of today and see the polished
and refined ways people of the Race deport themselves. But if just
two or three dozen members of a church come out after services and
thoughtlessly block the side walks, go along the streets or ride in
the trolley cars roughly laughing and loudly talking their church and
private affairs to each other from one end of the car to the other;
they are seen and heard by other races who class not only the church
but the whole Negro race with those few loud-mouthed, absent-minded
and sometimes vain Colored people who often use such shameful public
manners to attract attention to themselves and their clothes; just like
the same class of uncouth white people do.
Of course, when white men and women appear in public places acting and
talking in noisy, unrefined and vulgar ways, the Colored man or woman
(no matter how little learning he or she may have) who sees and hears
such actions, never judges and stamps the intelligent, refined and
well-behaved portion of the Caucasian race as a whole group of people
also to be ignored and discriminated against. But when a person of
color sees and hears such vulgar actions on the part of a white person,
that Colored person merely comments to himself; “There is a human being
who is a sample of the worse element among the white people and is
far from being a fair and pure sample of the best people in the white
race.” Then that broad-minded Colored person will at once throw the
incident off his mind. He will then turn his back on the uncouth white
person with disgust and in facing about will the very next moment
give the fullest consideration, the most humane treatment, the most
polite manners and the deepest respect to the white lady or gentleman
whose Christian speech and civilized actions warrant and deserve
such courtesies. And this is only one of the countless (big) little
instances in which the American Colored people are daily showing their
practical use of the Golden Rule; (cornerstone in the foundation and
keystone in the archway of the white man’s Christianity).
Thus the brotherhood actions and manners of the masses of Negroes,
(from the hod-carrier to the president of a university and from the
scrub woman to the president of a national organization) in being
broad-minded and big-hearted enough to fair-mindedly apply the Golden
Rule to the Caucasian race, so as to mentally separate and treat
accordingly the good white people from the bad, are certainly proving
that the Colored people as a whole are daily putting into practical
usages the Lord’s Golden Rule in much more Christlike ways than the
white race is itself. Of course, there are exceptions in both races,
but considering both from the standpoint of masses the above assertion
cannot be truthfully denied.
A present day exception on the white side may be cited as
follows:--During the summer of 1920 when Southern white savages turned
Paris, Texas into a human slaughter house by lynching, torturing and
burning alive of human beings, Rev. R. P. Shuler, (white) a prominent
Methodist minister living in that community fearlessly denounced the
mob at the time of its heathenish actions and at the risk of his own
life. Later, when speaking of a former statement he had made regarding
the lynching, according to an article in the July 24, 1920 issue of the
Chicago Defender, he said:
“The above statement, I make in the face of the advice that has
come to me from many friends that such a policy is and will be at
present unsafe for me. I am informed that my life has been numerously
threatened if I make such a statement. I am told that the mob used my
name repeatedly in such a manner as to very much concern my friends. I
can truthfully say that the attitude of this mob toward me does not
in the least concern me. Better men than myself have died when far
less was at stake. I am only concerned in doing my God-appointed duty
in this situation. Therefore, without apology or plea for quarter, I
unhesitatingly condemn the burning of these men in our city as an act
of lawlessness, which if carried to its legitimate ends, would destroy
our government and damn our civilization. And in making this statement
I ask for neither the protection of my friends nor the mercy of my
enemies.”
If all other white ministers were to take such fearless and open stands
against such savage doings, that are heaping as much shame and stain
on the United States as such crimes in Europe ever heaped on Turkey,
they could in a few years make these United States a truly Christian
land. And in taking such stands such ministers (if they showed the
same kind of faith in God as Rev. Shuler did who is still living and
preaching) they would also be delivered from a threatening mob. But
where within the recent past or the present have there stepped out from
the white ministry two Rev. Shulers? Among all the nationally famed
white evangelists, which one or three of recent times have in preaching
in all parts of the United States proved himself a second Henry Ward
Beecher, an Elijah P. Lovejoy or a C. T. Torry, who fearlessly and
fruitfully preached against all national as well as local sins, crimes
and lawlessness that came under their notice?
Among all the white ministers in the United States, only they
themselves can tell how many of them peacefully feel within their
secret hearts and contentedly feel within their reasoning minds that
they are giving full reverences to God, full honor to their calling
and full service toward all weak and suffering humanity through their
Sunday preachings against all sins and crimes? And among them only they
can tell how many of them, through advising words in reasoning talks,
are trying each Sunday (if only for five minutes) to blow out and drown
the sinful sparks of jealousy, envy, malice and hate that instantly
flame up in the breasts of so many of their church members as soon
as they see a Colored person, even if that person is well-behaved,
well-educated, well-dressed and well-to-do. Such feelings merely on
account of color are not natural and God has not meant for such to be;
for if He had, He would have made the brown earth white, the green
grass white, the blue sky white, the yellow sun white. These are the
greatest things in the world and all of them are colored. Even the
water, that covers three-fourths of the earth (while it is supposed
to be colorless) is more colored than it is white. Those white people
who wish that there were no colored on earth should remember that God
in His infinite wisdom fully realized in making the universe that if
He made all things white the glare would be so great and intense that
every seeing thing would be driven totally blind. So God put soft and
blending colors on earth in order that humanity might retain its sight
to see His works and learn to love them but not to look upon any of His
works with scorn and hatefulness.
While intelligent preachers of the Race upon quietly and carefully
looking about them see that practically the entire earth is one mass
of colors--the majority of internal and external earth elements,
the foods, the clothes, inside and outside building materials and
furnishings are colored; yet these Negro ministers teach their
congregations that the white color God has placed here has as much
right on earth as the big majority of colors. And there are such
advising and logical talks going on every Sunday from the Colored
pulpits in order to keep down race prejudice and friction. And Colored
ministers are silently and hopefully praying to God that He will
finally soften, melt and move the hearts of the white ministers so that
they will at last come forward and do their parts by logic reasonings
with their white congregations a few minutes every Sunday regarding
the rights of all colors of peoples to live unmolested and progress
unhindered here on earth. It has been left for the white press to
come forward and take the lead (which it is nobly and increasingly
doing) in this movement of reasoning with the masses of white people
in America regarding racial discriminations and injustices. But the
entire world, including the American white press itself, is looking on
in puzzled and wondering silence as it continues to hopefully wait for
the American white ministry to dutifully and courageously come forward
in a mass and take its rightful lead in this Christian movement to
help bring about a closer brotherhood co-operation, a truer Christlike
understanding and a smoother racial adjustment between the white and
Colored people living in the United States. The influence of the white
church is the greatest human power in the world--it unintentionally
encourages mobs and rioting in America by continuing to keep silent
on the question, but it can intentionally discourage and prevent
in a very short time the occurence of a second Arkansas, Atlanta,
Chester, Chicago, Duluth, East St. Louis, Houston, Philadelphia, Tulsa,
Washington and other race riots, if it will come out as a whole all
over the country and speak to its congregations Sunday after Sunday
against such barbarism and heathenism being constantly carried on here
in the United States.
According to notices that have recently appeared in the white press,
The Federal Council of the Churches of Christ in America, spurred on by
the barbarisms carried on at the riot of Tulsa, Okla. of a few months
ago, has boldly come forward and denounced such sins and crimes. In
order to bring about better relations between the two Races and help
to prevent such future occurences, this Council has already appointed
a Commission that has held a meeting in Washington, D.C. It is planned
to hold conferences, composed of white and Colored clergymen, all over
the country, and an effort will be made to have the white churches to
educate their audiences regarding the sins of race prejudice and the
crimes resulting therefrom. So just as God in His own time answered
the prayers of American slaves that they and their children would some
day become free; He is gradually and surely answering the prayers of
persecuted Negroes of today that the white ministry will come forward
and take its proper place as a leader in helping to swing into the
right channels the public sentiments of white people regarding their
Christlike treatments of Colored neighbors. Colored people must
continue to work and pray and be hopeful that out of this movement will
eventually come a second Henry Ward Beecher of modern times.
On the following pages are named some of the highest men in the
Colored ministry, who have been for years using every Christlike means
within their powers to help bring about more mutual understandings and
feelings between the two races:
Bishops J. W. Alstork, W. W. Beckett, G. L. Blackwell, P. A. Bouldin,
I. P. Brooks, W. S. Brooks, C. S. Brown, R. B. Bruce, J. S. Caldwell,
A. J. Carey, R. A. Carter, W. D. Chappelle, E. W. Chaver, N. C.
Cleaves, G. C. Clement, G. W. Clinton, J. M. Connor, L. J. Coppin,
M. W. Clair, E. Cottrell, Archdeacons H. B. Delaney and E. T. Denby,
Bishops Derrick, J. A. Ellison, J. S. Flipper, W. A. Fountain, A.
Grant, J. S. Green, T. L. Griffiths, C. R. Harris, W. H. Heard, J. J.
Higgs, L. H. Holsey, John Hurst, J. A. Johnson, W. D. Johnson, Wyatt
Johnson, J. H. Jones, R. E. Jones, L. W. Kyles, Isaac Lane, B. F. Lee,
W. L. Lee, J. W. Lee, C. A. Moore, R. P. Morgan, H. B. Parks, C. H.
Phillips, J. F. Ramsey, I. N. Ross, B. T. Ruley, Archideacon J. S.
Russell, Bishops C. S. Smith, B. T. Tanner, P. Taylor, E. Tyre, W. T.
Vernon, A. J. Warner, R. S. Williams, W. N. Winston and P. H. Wright.
From among the thousands of Colored ministers all over the country,
the names below are those sent to the author from the following large
cities, where immense congregations are ministered unto by their
spiritual leaders, who are also Sunday after Sunday calmly pacifying
and patiently advising their congregations in order to keep them
on peaceful and frictionless relations (without sacrificing their
citizenship rights) with the white people with whom they daily come in
contact:
Alexandria, Va.: Revs. H. A. Haynes, L. A. King, S. B. Ross.
Atlanta, Ga.: Revs. R. S. Brown, P. J. Bryant, H. W. Evans, E.
Hall, J. A. Lindsay, H. C. Lyman, R. H. Singleton, S. D. Thorn.
Atlantic City, N. J.: Revs. J. W. Brown, J. N. Deaver, J. P.
Gregory, W. E. Griffen, A. L. Martin, L. C. Scott, W. Tyler.
Augusta, Ga.: Revs. Dorsett, C. Floyd, C. T. Walker, R. S. Williams.
Baltimore, Md.: Revs. G. F. Bragg, J. T. Colbert, M. H. Davis, W.
H. Deane, J. R. L. Diggs, J. H. Dovey, J. Gray, J. W. Hill, Harvey
Johnson, Earnest Lyons, C. E. Stewart, J. H. Dorsey, C. R. Uncles.
Birmingham, Ala.: Revs. C. W. Brooks, L. G. Duncan, J. W. Goodgame,
R. N. Hall, F. W. Riley, T. W. Sherrill.
Boley, Okla.: Revs. J. S. Dawson, T. C. Martin, N. J. Johnson.
Boston, Mass.: Revs. A. R. Cooper, L. Ferguson, D. S. Klugh, W. D.
McLain, A. L. Scott, M. M. Shaw, B. W. Swain, C. A. Ward.
Buffalo, N. Y.: Revs. E. R. Bennett, H. Durham, E. J. Echolson, H.
A. Garcia, J. Nash.
Brooklyn, N. Y.: Revs. J. B. Adams, N. P. Boyd, W. C. Brown, W. S.
Carpenter, G. F. Miller, H. H. Procter, W. P. Wallace, A. K. Warren.
Camden, N. J.: Revs. J. S. Braithwaite, H. W. Cummings, G. Morris,
W. S. Saunders, J. R. White.
Charleston, S. C.: Revs. E. L. Baskerville, J. E. Beard, C. A.
Harrison, D. J. Jenkins, W. J. Jones, R. Kemp, T. D. Nelson, J. R.
Pearson, C. H. Uggams.
Charleston, W. Va.: Revs. M. W. Johnson, E. H. Whitefield, C. H.
Woody.
Charlotte, N. C.: Revs. F. L. Brodie, G. D. Donowa, J. E. King, A.
Mason, M. D. Melodona, W. M. Miller, R. P. Wyche.
Chattanooga, Tenn.: Revs. C. G. Bell, W. H. Heath, J. H. Henderson,
J. L. B. Johnson, C. M. Robins, C. C. Stewart, C. C. Tucker.
Chester, Pa., Revs. J. R. Bennett, E. E. Durant, H. J. Ryder, T. M.
Thomas, H. Tyree.
Chicago, Ill.: Revs. W. M. Bennett, S. L. Birt, C. H. Clarke, W. D.
Cook, J. M. Henderson, H. M. Jackson, J. H. Simon, H. E. Stewart,
J. G. Walker, L. K. Williams.
Cincinnati, Ohio.: Revs. J. P. Blackburn, W. L. Brean, E. H. Oxley,
Wilbur Page.
Cleveland, Ohio: Revs. H. C. Bailey, C. G. Fishback, J. S. Jackson,
L. C. Jefferson, P. O’Connell, R. H. Suthern.
Columbia, S. C.: Revs. J. F. Green, M. F. Haygood, M. G. Johnson,
J. R. Jones, H. M. Moore, J. Perry, D. F. Thompson, C. M. Young.
Columbus, Ohio: Revs. J. W. Carter, E. A. Clarke, H. W. Cooper, G.
L. Davis, R. D. Phillips, J. B. Pius, H. W. Smith.
Danville, Va.: Revs. W. E. Carr, J. R. Cooper, G. W. Goods, A.
Murray, J. A. Valentine.
Dayton, Ohio: Revs. J. D. Anderson, D. E. Bass, J. N. S. Belbader,
O. W. Childers, W. H. Riley, T. J. Smith.
Denver, Colo. Revs. W. H. Thomas, S. A. Strippling, I. S. Wilson.
Des Moines, Iowa: Revs. S. Bates, S. L. Birb, D. W. Claybrook, E.
S. Hardge, E. A. Liles, G. W. Robinson.
Detroit, Mich: Revs. T. J. Askew, F. Begnall, R. L. Bradby, A.
Gomez, C. A. Hill, W. R. Rutledge.
Durham, N. C.: Revs. W. C. Cleland, J. E. Kiklaird, J. H. Pacheal,
J. Smalls, R. Spiller, J. L. White.
Evansville, Ind: Revs. F. P. Baker, J. S. Haddison, H. B. Mayes, M.
McIntyre, J. Rouse.
Fort Smith, Ark.: Revs. W. E. Guy, E. D. Hill, J. T. Jones, Wm.
Jones, C. H. Whitted.
Fort Worth, Texas: Revs. A. L. Dotson, S. A. Nelson, S. R. Prince,
M. H. Spencer, W. G. Upshur.
Gary, Ind.: Revs. M. Bolden, A. Kittrell, W. H. Saunders, W. T.
Whitsett.
Greenville, S. C.: Revs. A. R. Burk, C. H. Copeland, C. F. Gandy,
J. H. McAdams, C. F. Rice, S. J. Simkin.
Hampton, Va.: Revs. J. D. Baker, J. W. Brown, E. H. Hamilton, J. W.
Patterson.
Harrisburg, Pa.: Revs. C. H. Fareira, G. W. Cregg, A. J. Greene, W.
Parchment, C. F. Jenkins.
Hartford, Conn.: Revs. R. R. Ball, O. H. Brown, W. Byrd, C. L.
Fisher, C. N. Gibbons, W. B. Reed, J. A. Wright.
Helena, Ark.: Revs. L. S. Arnold, W. E. Briett, H. W. Holloway, E.
C. Morris, D. S. Shadd.
Hopkinsville, Ky.: Revs. M. Brooks, T. H. Copeland, M. Kirby, W. M.
Newell, E. Williams.
Houston, Texas: Revs. C. K. Brown, J. R. Burdett, E. H. Bolden, F.
L. Lights.
Indianapolis, Ind.: Revs. J. S. Bailey, C. S. Dusenberry, B. H.
Ferrell, A. H. Maloney, G. W. Ward, B. J. Westbrook, C. S. Williams.
Jackson, Miss.: Revs. S. C. Greer, R. Isabelle, B. T. McEween, M.
L. Vonadore.
Jacksonville, Fla.: Revs. W. W. Carter, J. E. Ford, E. J. Gregg, J.
K. Salterwhite, S. H. Savage, W. R. Stephens.