cause before the bar of public opinion. No people who raise up from out
their midst a cultivated class, who can plead their own cause and state
their own case, will fail of a hearing before the just judgment of
mankind.
The educated Negro to-day represents the first generation grown to the
fullness of the stature of manhood under the influence and power of
education. They are the first ripened fruit of philanthropy, and by them
alone will the wisdom or folly of that philanthropy be justified. The
hope of the race is focused in them. They are the headlight to direct
the pathway through the dangers and vicissitudes of the wilderness. For
want of vision, the people perish; for want of wise direction, they
stumble and fall. There is no body of men in the world to-day, nor in
the history of the world, who have, or ever have had, greater
responsibilities or more coveted opportunities than devolves upon the
educated Negro to-day. It is, indeed, a privilege to be a Negro of light
and leading in such a time as this. The incidental embarrassments and
disadvantages which for the time being must be endured are not to be
compared with the far more exceeding weight of privileges and glory
which awaits him if he rises to these high demands. For such a privilege
well may he forego the pleasure of civilization for a season.
His world consists of 10,000,000 souls, who have wrapped up in them all
the needs and necessities, powers and possibilities, of human nature;
they contain all the norms of civilization, from its roots to its
florescence. His is the task to develop and vitalize these smothered
faculties and potentialities. His education will prove to be but vanity
and vexation of spirit, unless it ultimates in this task. He is the salt
of the earth, and if the salt lose its savor, wherewith shall it be
salted? If the light within the racial world be darkness, how great is
that darkness?
The highest call of the civilization of the world to-day is to the
educated young men of the belated races. The educated young manhood of
Japan, China, India, Egypt, and Turkey must lift their own people up to
the level of their own high conception. They must partake of the best
things in the civilization of Europe and show them unto their own
people. The task of the educated American Negro is the same as theirs,
intensified, perhaps, by the more difficult and intricate tangle of
circumstances and conditions with which he has to deal.
He cannot afford to sink into slothful satisfaction and enjoy a
tasteless leisure or with inane self-deception hide his head under the
shadows of his wings, like the foolish bird, which thereby hopes to
escape the wrath to come. The white race, through philanthropy, has done
much; but its vicarious task culminated when it developed the first
generation of educated men and women. They must do the rest.
These philanthropists spoke for us when our tongues were tied. They
pleaded our cause when we were speechless; but now our faculties have
been unloosed. We must stand upon our own footing. In buffeting the
tempestuous torrents of the world we must either swim on the surface or
sink out of sight. The greatest gratitude that the beneficiary can show
to the benefactor is, as soon as possible, to do without his
benefaction. The task of race statesmanship and reclamation devolves
upon the educated Negro of this day and generation. Moral energy must be
brought to bear upon the task, whether the Negro be engaged in the
production of wealth or in the more recondite pursuits which minister to
the higher needs of man.
The white race is fast losing faith in the Negro as an efficient and
suitable factor in the equation of our civilization. Curtailment of
political, civil, and religious privilege and opportunity is but the
outward expression of this apostasy. As the white man's faith decreases,
our belief in ourselves must increase. Every Negro in America should
utter this prayer, with his face turned toward the light: "Lord, I
believe in my own inherent manhood; help Thou my unbelief." The educated
Negro must express his manhood in terms of courage, in the active as
well as in the passive voice: courage to do, as well as to endure;
courage to contend for the right while suffering wrong; the courage of
self-belief that is always commensurate with the imposed task. The world
believes in a race that believes in itself; but justly despises the
self-bemeaned. Such is the mark and the high calling to which the
educated Negro of to-day is called. May he rise to the high level of it.
Never was there a field whiter unto harvest; never was there louder cry
for laborers in the vineyard of the Lord.
A FEW REMARKS ON MAKING A LIFE[49]
BY ROBERT E. JONES, LL. D.
_Editor Southwestern Christian Advocate, New Orleans, La._
[Note 49: Extracts from Commencement address delivered at Tuskegee
Institute, May 29, 1913.]
I have a story to relate, and at once I want to present to you my
hero,--a hero more inspiring than Achilles of the "Iliad," or Odysseus
of the "Odyssey," or AEneas of the "AEneid."
My hero is not a myth, not a creation of literature, not a tradition,
but not unlike the Grecian hero in that he sprung from the union of a
god and a mortal. My hero is not reckoned among the high and mighty nor
will his name ever be carved on stone or raised on bronze. Neither has
my hero accomplished startling feats. As a hero he may be a paradox.
Inconspicuous, humble in station, modest, hid far away from the
maddening, jealous, curious, bickering, taunting, striving, restless
crowd of life. Too long already I have held him from you. His name? I do
not know. His birthplace? I do not know. His age? I do not know. Is he
living now? Here my ignorance is painful. I do not know. My hero,
however, is an actual man of flesh and blood. I met him but twice in
life, but was so charmed I did not ask his name. His personality
thrilled and he in a measure has become my patron saint. He is not a
hero of large and commanding stature, but a cripple--doubly so. His arms
were palsied and turned in so that he could not use a crutch, his lower
limbs turned in also. He sat in an ordinary cane-bottomed chair and
could easily move himself about by throwing the weight of his body from
one back leg of the chair to the other, lifting the front legs at the
same time. I saw him along the train side at Spartanburg, S. C.
A beggar? No, my young friends, beggars are seldom heroes. He was a
merchant prince. He carried his goods around his neck and shoulders and
in his outer coat pockets. He was selling shoe-strings and pencils. If
you gave him a dime he would insist on your taking one or both of the
articles he had for sale. In his activities he was a fine lesson of the
first requirement of life. He was self-sustaining. By the sweat of his
brow he earned his bread.
Did he complain of his lot? Not a bit of it. His handicap he did not
make nor could undo. He therefore accepted his condition
philosophically; he was self-respecting. He knew his limitations; he
knew what he could do and what he could not do; he was self-knowing.
Knowing his handicap and that it was quite unlike any other man's and
that he needed a means of locomotion, he found it; he had, therefore,
initiative. He leaned not upon the strength of others, but used his own
resources; he was therefore self-reliant. He did not wait for business
to come to him, he put himself in the path of business; he was a
hustler. He saw life through a cheerful lens and kept a stout heart; he
was optimistic. He recognized his own personality apart from the
personalities of the crowded throng through which he passed; he was a
self-contented individual. He had but one life to live and he was making
the most of life. When I left him I crowned him, honored him, and I love
him for his worth as a true man.
"I like a man who faces what he must,
With step triumphant and a heart of cheer;
Who fights the daily battles without fear;
Nor loses faith in man; but does his best,
Nor ever murmurs at his humble lot,
But, with a smile, and words of hope, gives zest
To every toiler; he alone is great
Who by a life heroic conquers fate."
When once away from my hero, as I thought of him in my deepest soul, I
cried:
"Thou art my chastiser and my inspirator. Thou art simple yet great;
untaught thyself, thou art the teacher of all. Henceforth thou shalt be
my hero and guide. Doubting myself, bemoaning my limitations, depressed
by my failure, ashamed of my achievements, my seeing you has given me a
new interpretation of life. I own you my friend, my life's inspiration
and hero."
There is my hero. You ask his color? What difference does it make? Men
have often refused to recognize worth because of color. But to satisfy
you I will tell you. He is a Negro. Give a seat of honor to my hero.
Gather inspiration and learn from him the lessons of life, if you will.
Here is an individual doubly afflicted, without a word of complaint, or
a fret or whine, depending upon his own initiative and resources, making
the most of life under the circumstances which surround him.
Upon the basis of what has been said, in closing this address to the
graduating Class of 1913 of the Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute
I desire to offer a personal word:
In the first place, you will know a year from now, more than you can
realize at this present moment, that this is a commencement. This is not
the climax of your life. It is but the beginning, and however
paradoxical it may seem, you are not at the top of the ladder, you are
at the foot. We are here to applaud you to-day not so much on what you
have already accomplished as to give you a send-off for the strenuous
tasks that lie before you. To be frank with you, young men and young
women, the life in earnest that awaits you without will tax every bit of
your strength. Your moral strength will be drawn upon, as well as your
intellectual resources.
Secondly; had I my way I would have each of you burn your diploma and
never refer to it as an indication of what you are and what you know. Do
not attempt to pass through the world on your diploma or your class
standing. The world cares little for these. I would urge that you prove
to the world what you are by what you can do--that you let your
achievements point to your diploma.
Thirdly; you go forth to-day as a representative of this institution,
mantled with all the sacred honors, prestige, and commendation that this
institution, State, and your admirers can bestow. See to it that you
keep the honors of this hour unsoiled and that you disgrace not the
noble history of your alma mater.
Fourthly; I do not believe that this institution is fostered with the
idea that the few students who gather here from time to time only shall
be reached. I rather suspect that the dollars that come from the State
and generous friends come with the hope that as you have been helped and
lifted to culture and refinement, you in turn will carry culture to
those who may never be permitted to stay in these walls. You are to
carry light into dark places and unto those who sit in darkness. By your
arm of strength you are to lift the poor who are beneath you. And then
your education comes not for self-culture, not for self-enjoyment, not
for self-use, but for the betterment of those who are about you.
Fifthly; you go forth as the embodiment of a new generation. You stand
to-day upon the foundation built by those who have gone before you. They
have wrought well. By their toil and suffering you are blest. You are to
carry your generation one notch higher and thus help the onward march of
the world's progress. Be thou faithful. Lift your eyes heavenward and
aspire to do the best and be the noblest according to God's heritage to
you. There are no chosen depths, no prescribed heights to which you may
climb.
"Honor and shame from no condition rise,
Act well your part, there all the honor lies."
Make the most of life!
EMANCIPATION AND RACIAL ADVANCEMENT[50]
BY THE REV. ERNEST LYON, D.D., LL.D.
[Note 50: An address delivered upon the invitation of the citizens
of Brownsville, Pa., on the occasion of the Fiftieth Anniversary of the
Emancipation Proclamation and also to celebrate the event of Decoration
Day, May 30, 1913.]
_Mr. Chairman, Members of the Celebration Committee, Ladies and
Gentlemen:_
We are not here to-day in the capacity of the priest performing the
funeral rights over the graves of the dead; neither are we here simply
to offer tribute to their memory, by the time-honored custom of
decorating their graves with the faded tokens of a nation's love and
gratitude; but we are here, ladies and gentlemen, to cheer the hearts of
the living--not by an optimism impossible of realization--but by a
candid and truthful report of the conduct of that legacy of freedom,
which came to us fifty years ago, through the sacrifice and death of the
patriots, living and dead, whose memories are honored to-day all over
this broad land of ours.
The civilized world will watch for the newspaper reports of to-morrow to
learn the sentiments of the American people uttered to-day upon many of
the burning issues before the Congress of the United States, relating to
our domestic and foreign policies. The opportunities, which this day
gives, will be seized by national orators to record their convictions
upon matters of morality, politics, and diplomacy. Japan will listen
with keen, diplomatic interest to every utterance, official or
unofficial, touching the vexing problems involved in the so-called
"Yellow Peril" and in the Anti-Alien Land legislation, which, like
Segregation and the Jimcrowism of the South, have been enacted into laws
discriminating against citizens, not aliens, but citizens of the United
States of America, such as we are.
Many to-day believe that the gravity of these international matters will
force the Decoration Day orators to ignore the Negro question, which, in
some form or other, has been the livest question in American politics
for nearly three centuries. In this belief I think they will be
disappointed, for no question before the American people to-day, whether
national or international, can overshadow the Negro question in America,
and no day as historic as this would be complete in its observance
without some reference to it.
We, therefore, gladly welcome the Japanese, or any other members of the
colored race in the earth, to come and share with us that notoriety
which our presence begets in this country, for no other people on the
face of the globe, so far as the United States is concerned, will be
able to dispossess us from the limelight of public discussion. We have
not only helped, but we have made history in this country. We are
wrapped up in the history of the United States of America, despite the
attempt in certain quarters to deny us a respectful place therein. There
is not a single page, from the period of its colonial existence to its
present standard of greatness and renown, from which we are absent. From
the landing of the Pilgrims at Plymouth Rock to the advent of the
Cavaliers at Jamestown; from the stirring periods of the Revolution,
which resulted in the emancipation of the colonists from British
imperialism, to the Rebellion in 1860--resulting in the salvation of the
Federal Union--we have ever and always been a potent factor in the
history of this country.
Our presence here has made this day possible. There would have been no
Decoration Day had the American kidnappers left us in Africa--our
fatherland. The world must, therefore, hear from us upon these special
occasions. So, like other elements of the population, we come to-day to
make our annual report. We come, in company with the others, to review
the past, to study the present, and, if possible, to forecast the
future. In measuring the progress of any successful commercial
enterprise, the mode of procedure is to compare beginnings with
balance-sheets. Commercially speaking, it is to take an inventory. What,
therefore, is true of any commercial enterprise is equally true of races
and individuals. The _modus operandi_ is the same. In fact, we proceed
by comparing beginnings with beginnings; environments with environments,
and the advantages and disadvantages of the past and present. This is
the mode by which the progress of a race or the attainments of an
individual must be measured, and the Negro race offers no exception to
this rule.
It was Wendell Phillips, one of America's greatest statesmen, jurists,
and orators, who said in that marvellous lecture on Toussaint
L'Ouverture--beyond doubt the greatest military genius of the nineteenth
century--that there are two ways by which Anglo-Saxon civilization
measures races. First, by the great men produced by that race; secondly,
by the average merit of the mass of that race. In support of the first
he bravely summoned to his presence, from the regions of the dead, the
immortal Bacon, Shakespeare, Hampden, Hancock, Washington, and Franklin,
offering them as stars, who, in their day, had lent lustre in the galaxy
of history. And with equal pride he gloried in the average merit of
Anglo-Saxon blood, since it first streamed from its German home, in
support of the contention of the second way.
As a race, we shall offer no objection to this principle of judgment. In
fact, we cannot even if we so desired. We shall, therefore, accept it
without any reluctance. We think it is a good principle upon which to
base a judgment. The only consideration we demand, in connection with
it, is that the white American, in his judgment of the Afro-American,
shall strictly observe the rule which the race he represents has set for
itself; that is to say, let him measure our race by the great and useful
men it has produced, since the immortal Abraham Lincoln issued that
Proclamation, whose fiftieth anniversary we celebrate to-day, giving
freedom to four and one-half millions of human beings. Let him measure
us by the average merit of Afro-American blood, since it first streamed
from the land of the Pharaohs, whose wills were inscribed in
hieroglyphics--long before Ph[oe]nicia invented the alphabet; long
before the conquest of Alexander the Great had enabled Eratosthenes and
Appollodorus to construct their synchrony of Egyptian antiquity; long
before the construction of the Pyramids (those silent but eloquent
tributes to the grandeur and majesty of the African intellect) had
proclaimed the immortality of the soul.
Our record in this country, Mr. Chairman, must begin with the
Emancipation period. The Emancipation is our birthday. Mankind,
therefore, in measuring our progress, must, in order to be just, make
Emancipation its starting point. Previous to that period we were like
the earth in its primeval condition, as described by Moses, the great
Lawgiver, in the Book of the Generations; namely, that the "Earth was
without form, and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep." So,
too, were we before the issuance of the Emancipation Proclamation; we
were without national form; void of civic rights; and moral and
intellectual darkness covered the minds and souls and spirits of the
race.
What was the condition of the race when the Emancipation Proclamation
was first issued, a half century ago? Commercially speaking, what were
the assets of this race? Had it anything to its credit in the
balance-sheets of human progress, save the evils accruing from a long
period of bondage? The facts will prove that it had nothing to its
credit but the virtues of patience and endurance, under trials and
afflictions, the horrors of which will form one of the darkest chapters
in the history of this country.
The twenty Africans, brought by the slave-traders to Jamestown, in 1620,
representing the introduction of African slavery into the United
States, in two hundred and forty-three years had increased to four and
one-half millions of human souls; and it is fair to presume that an
equal, if not a greater number than this, had perished on account of the
rigors of transmission in crossing the Atlantic Ocean and the
indescribable cruelties of the slave system at home.
The Proclamation of Emancipation found these four and one-half millions
of human beings practically homeless, penniless, and friendless, and
absolutely dependent upon the very same people to whom they were in
bondage for two hundred and forty years, and against whom they had taken
up arms in a civil war. The forty acres of land and two mules, which
were promised by the Federal Government, never materialized. That
promise was like the proverbial pie-crust, made to be broken; and the
descendants of these four and a half millions are to-day entitled, by
every humane consideration, to all the benefits and the equities in the
case. The Federal Government at Washington can only purge itself of this
breach of promise by paying the bill, with legal interest; if not,
according to the legal terms of the agreement (forty acres and two
mules), then in its just equivalents, either by pensioning the survivors
of the slave system--many who are to-day in abject squalor and want--or
by a liberal grant of money to the schools of the land charged with the
educational development of their much proscribed posterity.
What of the race's mental condition at the time of its civic birth?
There were scarcely any at that time who could either read or write
with any degree of proficiency. Not because they were incapable of
learning; not because of any mental inferiority; but because of the
cruel and unjust law prohibiting their education and making it a
criminal offense, not only for the Negro himself, but for any white man
who should undertake to instruct him. Punishment was so severe along
this line that the very sight of a book awed him into fear and fright.
The very existence of such a law was, indeed, an admission of the
educational possibilities of the race. In the year 1863 there were about
twenty members of the race who had received collegiate training.
Mathematically speaking, it took three hundred years to pull twenty
Negroes through the colleges of the land, so great was the combination
against our mental development.
What was our status in the business pursuits and gainful occupations at
that time? The year 1863 is as far back as we desire to go for this
enquiry, when the entire race, with but a few exceptions, were servants,
restricted to menial employment and plantation occupations.
What was the moral status of the race at that period? Here there are two
sides involved in any answer which might be given to this question. The
evidences of unlawful miscegenation present themselves to every traveler
throughout this country, and is in itself a pertinent answer to this
query. Our women have had to fight against indescribable odds in order
to preserve their womanhood from the attacks of moral lepers, who, very
often, were their masters and overseers. Yet, in spite of these
well-known facts, we have produced women among us of pure and good
morals, with unimpeachable reputation for virtue and purity. Sometimes
it is a little amusing to hear the white American expatiate on the
immorality of Negro women. They certainly cannot forget their own record
in their dealings with the helpless Negro women of this country. But
here, we will let the curtain of secrecy fall upon such a scene, while
we shall advance to a higher and nobler plane upon this day when nothing
but good feeling must be allowed a place on the programme.
"Watchman, what of the night?" What tidings does the morning bring, if
any? Has the future nothing in store for America's greatest factors in
her industrial and commercial development?