“I have long noticed the tendency in colored institutions, as well as
others, to repress and discourage the colored man’s ambition to be
something more than a subordinate, when he is qualified to occupy
superior positions. It is a part of the old spirit of caste, a legacy
left us by slavery, against which we have to contend. It is all the
more difficult to meet because in colored institutions under white
control, it usually assumes the guise of religion and a pious regard
for the happiness of the object of its disparagement. These people play
‘Miss ’Phelia to Topsy.’ They would have us among the angels in Heaven,
but do not want to touch elbows with us on earth.”