Don't throw stumbling-blocks in the way of those behind you, or try to
impede the progress of those who have gone before you. We are all one
family, notwithstanding some of us can almost pass for other folks.
Again, lay down some of this fighting religion and take up piety.
Think how far you have traveled, and yet how far you are to go.
Thousands of immensely wealthy negroes, some of whom came from peanut
stands, others from the corn and cotton fields, slave men one day,
another free men; ignorant to-day, to-morrow educated; from one
position to another the Negro has traveled until they have produced
some of the best men in the country, and some of them have traveled
all the way from the ditch to the State House in less than a quarter
of a century. With men such as R. T. Greener, J. E. Bruce, T. Thomas
Fortune, J. M. Henderson, of New York; Booker T. Washington, W. H.
Council, Henry C. Smith, of Alabama; George L. Knox. G. L. Jones, Will
M. Lewis, W. A. Sweeney, S. A. Elbert, of Indiana; W. H. Crogman, R.
R. Wright, W. A. Pledger, of Georgia; H. C. Smith, B. W. Armett, J. P.
Green, of Ohio; J. C. Napier, R. F. Boyd, J. T. Settle, of Tennessee;
D. Augustus Straker, of Michigan; John C. Dancy, Isaac H. Smith, of
North Carolina; O. M. Rickets, of Nebraska; John M. Langston, J. H.
Smythe, John Mitchell, Jr., of Virginia; B. K. Bruce, E. E. Cooper,
Robert H. Terrell, R. W. Thompson, Alex Crummell, of the District of
Columbia; John R. Lynch, C. J. Jones, James Hill, of Mississippi; J.
Q. Adams, of Minnesota; N. W. Cuney, of Texas; John S. Durham, J. B.
Raymond, of Pennsylvania; George W. Murray, of South Carolina; P. B.
S. Pinchback, of Louisiana; E. H. Morris, of Illinois; Albert S.
White, of Kentucky; J. Milton Turner, of Missouri; and scores of
others equally worthy, we expect to be on our way very soon to the
White House. Let us start now, to-day. (Boston Advance.)
NEGRO BUSINESS ASSOCIATION.
An Afro-American Financial Accumulating Merchandise and Business
Association was organized in Pittsburg, Pa., June 22, 1896, for the
purpose of accumulating money to establish business among the race.
This association promises to build three large buildings, not to cost
less than $40,000 each. In these are to be carried on all kinds of
merchandise, and our young men and women will be thus employed.
Its object is to accumulate $560,000, which is to be divided into
shares of $52 each, and any person can purchase one or more shares for
10 cents each, for which the association gives the purchaser a
membership certificate. This certificate entitles the person to any
employment which the association may need; also when the holder of the
certificate has paid in $52, his or her certificate will be indorsed
as a paid-up certificate; and the holder will cease to pay any further
dues; and on this certificate he or she draws annual dividends of all
money, over the current expenses, and when the husband dies the wife
receives the same; when the wife dies the children take up the same
certificate and receive the same dividends as long as one of them is
living. Single persons holding certificates receive the same
privilege, and when they die, whoever they designate will take up
their certificate and receive the same dividend.
[Illustration: E. W. JACKSON, ORLANDO, FLA.
First-class Photographer.]
Already $35,000 worth of stock has been taken. The association now has
two coal yards running, four teams and 14 persons employed. It will
open a brickyard and stone quarry in East Liberty this spring and
employ 125 men and 40 teams. It will open coal yards next fall in
Allegheny, Braddock, and McKeesport, Pa. Men, women, boys, and girls
are asked to take shares. You pay 10 cents for a share, then 10 cents
a week. After two years you can, if you wish, draw your money out of
the association. You can also borrow money out of the association.
Rev. J. H. Thompson, 38 Arthur Street, Pittsburg, Pa., is the
President and General Manager. The Afro-Americans will watch the
workings of this association, and if it proves a success similar
associations will likely be established in other sections of the
country. (Star of Zion.)
NEGRO BANKS.
The Nickel Savings Bank, of Richmond, Va., is a prosperous financial
institution of which Dr. R. F. Tancis is President. It affords an
excellent opportunity for the saving of small earnings and is being
liberally patronized.
The Alabama Penny Savings and Loan Company, of Birmingham, Ala., has a
capital stock of $25,000, in shares of $5 each. Interest is paid on
time deposits. The company was incorporated February 16, 1895.
Officers: W. R. Pettiford, President; P. F. Clark, Vice President; B.
H. Hudson, Cashier.
The Capital Savings Bank, of Washington, D. C., has $50,000 capital.
Officers: Hon. John R. Lynch, President; James T. Bradford, Vice
President; L. C. Bailey, Treasurer; Prof. James Storum, Secretary;
Douglas B. McCary, Cashier. Directors: John R. Lynch, W. McKinley,
Robert H. Terrell, Wyat Archer, J. A. Lewis, H. E. Baker, H. P.
Montgomery, L. C. Bailey, W. S. Lofton, James Storum, John A. Pierr,
A. W. Tancil, J. H. Meriwethe, J. A. Johnson, W. S. Montgomery.
Deposits are received from 10 cents upward. Interest allowed on $5 and
above.
NEGRO WEALTH BY STATES.
The following statistics as to the diversified wealth of the New Negro
in the Union have been given out as official: In Alabama, $10,120,137;
Arkansas, $9,810,346; California, $4,416,939; Colorado, $3,400,527;
Connecticut, $550,170; Delaware, $1,320,196; Florida, $8,690,044;
Georgia, $15,196,885; Idaho, $16,411; Illinois, $11,889,562; Indiana,
$4,404,524; Iowa, $2,750,409; Kansas, $4,296,644; Kentucky,
$10,976,411; Louisiana, $19,918,631; Maine, $196,732; Maryland,
$10,392,130; Massachusetts, $9,904,524; Michigan, $5,200,122;
Minnesota, $1,210,259; Mississippi, $16,742,349; Missouri, $8,366,474;
Montana, $132,419; Nebraska, $2,750,000; Nevada, $276,209; New
Hampshire, $331,731; New Jersey, $3,637,832; New York, $19,243,893;
New Mexico, $395,244; North Carolina, $13,481,717; North Dakota,
$84,101; Ohio, $8,580,000; Oregon, $93,500; Pennsylvania, $16,730,639;
Rhode Island, $3,740,000; South Carolina, $16,750,121; Utah, $82,500;
South Dakota, $136,787; Tennessee, $11,446,292; Texas, $32,852,995;
Vermont, $1,112,731; Virginia, $10,932,009; Washington, $623,515; West
Virginia, $6,164,796; Wisconsin, $156,312; Wyoming, $243,237; District
of Columbia, $5,831,707; Indian Territory, $761,111; Oklahoma,
$4,213,408; thus giving a total of over $400,000,000, free from all
incumbrances.
NEGRO SCHOOL-TEACHERS.
The Negro school-teacher is the bright star of hope and promise for
the Negro race in America. There are now 25,000 school-teachers in the
United States, and 1,512,800 pupils in the public schools. Besides
this number, add 20,000 who are attending private schools, and 80,000
who are attending mechanical or art institutions, and as many more who
are all attending normal schools and academies. There are sixty-three
Presidents of Negro colleges, and yet thirty years ago not one in a
thousand of us could read. In 1897 we find that there are six hundred
negroes who are members of the Bar Association. There are also deans
in law colleges, court commissioners, and many common attorneys. There
are one thousand graduates of medical colleges. We are gradually
climbing up. (George Knox, Indianapolis, Ind.).
[Illustration: EMMA O. KENNEDY, MEMPHIS, TENN. Teacher at Le Moyne
Institute.]
HOW TO TEACH OBEDIENCE.
Be careful about the commands given; study, think, and pray. Be sure
that it is a right command, and one that the child can obey. A mother
said to her boy: "Bring in that stick of wood on the porch and put it
on the fire." The stick was too large, and he came and said: "Mamma,
it is too heavy." His mamma hit him a blow and told him that he was
lazy; but when she came to look at the stick, it was too large. This
mother should have apologized to her child, but she did not. Be sure
that the child understands your command. Be patient and repeat the
command, and then ask the child to tell you in his own words what you
want done.
A child is not obedient if you find it necessary to tell him twice,
provided he understands that you want it done immediately. Prompt
obedience should be required. "John, bring me the broom," said a
mother. "Yes," said the boy, and went on with his own work. "John, how
often must I tell you before you obey?" asked the mother impatiently.
Then John went for the broom. But he had disobeyed, and his mother
should have laid down her work and taken John alone and explained what
obedience meant; indeed, he deserved to be punished, if this was his
usual way of obeying. But the mother never explained that needing to
be told twice was disobedience. Most parents are thoughtless about
commands, and after they have given a wrong or unwise command they are
too proud to confess it. I heard a mother say these wicked words: "If
I promise my child a whipping and find afterwards that he was not to
blame, I will whip him anyway to keep my word good." No sensible child
can have any respect for such a parent. A bad promise is always better
broken than kept. "Thomas," said a mother in my hearing the other day,
"I promised to let you and Mary visit Cousin John to-morrow, but I
forgot that these clothes must be taken home to-morrow evening, and I
will need you both to help. It was careless in me to make the promise
without thinking. I am sorry to disappoint you." "Well, mamma," said
Thomas, "sometimes I promise without thinking, and then I can't keep
my promise; so all right. I will stay and help." "God bless you, my
dear boy; I know we both see now how important it is to think before
we promise," was the mother's kind reply. You can see how this plan
brought the child in sympathy with the mother. When the child is old
enough, you should take time to reason with him about the justice of
your commands; but when very young, "Mamma says so" is reason enough.
(Hope. Nashville, Tenn.)
HINTS FOR OUR GIRLS.
It's not such a difficult matter to keep your room in order. After
your own particular domain is in order, learn to keep it so. Learn to
dispose of things as you handle them, and while dressing yourself you
will at the same time unconsciously be setting your room in order.
Have a dainty little catch-all upon the bureau, or hanging near it,
and whenever you see a stray thread or bit of dirt, which you can pick
up, don't neglect it, but let it's place be in the catch-all. This
precaution will make sweeping an easy task and save your room from
ever having a littered look. There will be no days of "putting things
to right," for they will be right all the time, and your room will be
a continual pleasure to you, as you will not count the time it
requires to keep it so any more than you do that which you give to
insure personal cleanliness.
It will be easier to keep your room nice than to let it go after you
once know the pleasure of an orderly, dainty room, kept so by your own
hands. (The Guide, Baltimore, Md.)
[Illustration: IDA B. WELLS BARNETT, CHICAGO, ILL.
Editor _Conservator._]
WHAT NEGRO WOMEN ARE DOING.
BY H. R. BUTLER, ATLANTA, GA.
There are, according to the latest statistics, 1,280 Afro-American
women secretaries and clerks.
No less than one dozen newspapers are edited by intelligent colored
women.
Seventy-five Afro-American lady dentists, some of whom have a large
practice among the best white people, are an honor to the profession.
Sixty Negro women proclaim the gospel to dying sinners with telling
effect.
There are 4,314 colored lady musicians in the land of the "Father of
his country."
There are 111 colored women who are regular practicing physicians in
the United States.
In 1870 there was not a colored lady bookkeeper in this country.
To-day there are 347.
There are 18 Afro-American women who are competent land surveyors.
Statistics show that there are no less than seventy stenographers
among the colored women, most of whom are employed on good salaries.
The census of 1890 shows that there are 3,949 actresses in this
country, more than a score of whom are women of the race.
Besides the above-named avocations, we have sculptors, painters,
lawyers, architects, merchants, and, in fact, our women are filling
with success and ability almost every avocation and profession of
to-day, and the day is in the near future when the service of
thousands of others will be in still greater demand.
WHAT RACE NEWSPAPERS HAVE DONE.
(FROM BALTIMORE CHURCH ADVOCATE.)
The history of the colored newspaper is one of pathetic but vigorous
struggle. Upon the whole, with all of its drawbacks and want of proper
support, it has ever been one of the most potential arms of race
progress. It has been the means of throwing open to the race the
columns of the great Anglo-Saxon newspapers hitherto closed against
them. It has educated both races. It has been a mirror to reflect the
advance made by the race from time to time. Like the Negro pulpit, it
is far from being perfect. But its slow but steady progress
constitutes the very best commentary on racial life, its hopes and
fears.
RACE EVILS.
BY REV. G. W. JOHNSON, AUGUSTA, GA.
One trouble with us as a race is that we are not enough interested in
our progress, not enough interested in our standing among other races.
We are too easily satisfied, and not very anxious to get far away from
the fleshpots of Egypt. Every race must have its leaders, defenders,
and champions. If they have them not, they must produce them.
We should begin with childhood. Every criminal was once an innocent
child, and when he first commenced to do wrong, he found it hard and
difficult. Conscience called, alarmed, and remonstrated; and even
after wrongs were committed, conscience, the interior judge, held
court on the inside. He arraigned the prisoner at the bar of reason
for trial; but he continues to do wrong, and in early manhood he
stands a criminal. Step by step he was led away.
Take the murderer. He occupies his cell hardened by crime. Sentence
has been passed; the day of execution comes. The sheriff enters the
prison, reads the death warrant, pinions his hands, and the slow and
steady death march begins. The scaffold is reached, steps ascended,
and the prisoner takes his place on the center of the death trap; the
black cap is securely tied over his face, and the rope around his
neck, and as the trapdoor is sprung, the unfortunate man leaps into
darkness. This criminal was once the idol of a mother's heart, who
bowed over his cradle, taught him to walk and to say his prayers. She
looked forward to the time when he would grow up to manhood and make
himself felt among the world's great men; but alas! those hopes are
blighted. The boy begins the downward way keeping bad company, and
staying out late at night. He associates with gamblers and drunkards,
and soon becomes both. He goes to jail, to the chain gang, to the
penitentiary, and finally to the gallows. Much of the dishonesty is
due to the negligence of parents in early training.
I want to call your attention to that craze for fine dressing. If
parents would teach their daughters that a beautiful character is the
best and greatest ornament, and that a pure heart beneath the most
common costume is to be prized above silk and satin at the price of
virtue, we would have a better and purer race.
We have many enemies of the race who are members of the race. I will
call your attention to them by classes.
We have a class of women who boast of their association with white
men, and yet demand honor and respect from men of the race. Some of
our churches have been so loose as to give them membership, and every
now and then some fool Negro man will marry one. This class of women
hinders the progress of the race, and is indeed a curse to it, and
many of the white men who seek to lead astray every good-looking woman
in our race frequently refer to the immorality of colored women. The
race must frown upon this class of women, and make them feel their
isolation at all hazards. They should be treated as the lepers were
and are treated in the East to-day--put off to themselves; and all who
associate with them should be pronounced unclean.
The next class is the professional pimps. This class is represented by
a number of men and women who make a business of leading astray every
girl they can, disregarding their destruction and the sorrow brought
to the hearts of parents and friends, the disgrace to the race, just
since they receive some money for their hellish work. Some of these
professional pimps are members of some of our churches, I am told. I
would suggest that every father and mother, and every man who has a
sister, resolve to make it extremely hot for this class of the devil's
agents. Hand them around; blackball them; sound the alarm of mad dog.
Get them out of the church; have no association with them. Keep your
daughters from about them. Greet them as you would the devil, for they
are devils wrapped up in human flesh. I warn you against these men and
women who carry notes to girls for white men, and who lay snares for
the destruction of our girls. Have nothing to do with them.
The next class among our race that is a hindrance and a barrier is
represented by a number of men. These men seem to regard themselves
called to win the affections of light-headed and light-hearted girls,
get engaged to them, and after destroying their characters betake
themselves to others for marriage. The man who destroys the character
of a woman has as much right to be put aside and excluded from society
as the woman, and that society which recognizes such a man, and yet
ignores the woman, is rotten and demoralizing. We can never purify
society until we have good men as well as good women. We have too many
men in our race who delight to speak disreputably of nearly every
woman when they themselves have a very unsavory reputation, and should
be regarded with great diffidence. There are many women in our race
who are just as pure, and whose characters are just as irreproachable
as the women of any race, and our men owe it to these women and to the
race the duty of defending and protecting them, even to the risk of
our own lives. We should always speak of them in complimentary terms,
and allow no one to speak otherwise in our presence without positive
resentment.
The next class I want to discuss is the idle, lazy, shiftless, vagrant
class. The class I refer to are those who will not work, and yet hate
every man and woman who will labor and strive to accumulate something.
As a race, we are too jealous and grudgeful of each other's success
and prosperity. The prophet in his vision saw the image of jealousy
set up. In lifting the veil of futurity he must have seen the
condition of the Negro in the closing years of the nineteenth century.
Our children must be taught to work, and to love work. They must be
taught that work is honorable. The working people of any community are
the mainstay and backbone of that community. Paul said: "If any would
not work, neither should he eat." Christ, our glorious example, was a
working man, the carpenter of Nazareth, a busy man, a man
distinctively of the common people. Christ did not have among his
disciples a single gentleman of leisure. They were all working men. In
the early history of the church the great majority of believers were
from among the working people. Peter, Andrew, James, and John were
fishermen; Paul was a tent-maker; Moses, the greatest human legislator
the world ever produced, was once a shepherd; Elisha was a farmer, and
was called from the plow to succeed Elijah. Joseph and Daniel were
servants before they were made prime ministers. Martin Luther was a
miner's son. Cardinal Wolsey was the son of a butcher. John Bunyan was
a tinker. William Carey was a shoemaker. Jeremy Taylor was a barber.
Dr. Livingstone was a weaver. Every man ought to engage in some kind
of work, either braincraft or handicraft.
TWO CULTURED RACES.
The cultured class of white society in the South, as a rule, comes in
contact only with the hewers of wood and drawers of water of the Negro
race, and are prone to judge the rest by what it sees. A great
mistake. There is a large and growing cultured class of Negroes in the
South, which can mingle only with itself. When the strength of these
cultured classes--living in the same section, but separate and
distinct, and ignorant of each other--become more equal, as it surely
will in the future under the present specially fine educational
advantages now being engaged by the Negro, what is going to be the
effect? I believe that, in time, we will have in the South two almost
universally cultured races. That is the trend. (Smith Clayton [white],
Atlanta, Ga.)
[Illustration: L. J. BROWN, WASHINGTON, D. C. Manager Henrietta Vinton
Davis Concert and Dramatic Company]
THE NEW COLORED WOMAN.
BY FANNIE BARRIER WILLIAMS, CHICAGO, ILL.
In nothing else is our progress more happily signalized than in the
growing interest in the new usefulness of our women.
Ten years ago colored women were little heard of as useful members of
society, except in the work of teaching, religious interests, and the
domestic arts. Ten years ago the conscience of womankind among us was
scarcely aroused to the opportunities presented for multiplying our
activities in all the questions that concern social improvements. Ten
years ago the interest of colored women in each other was personal or
individual, and not racial or social. The great forces that are now
shaping all things toward newer and better conditions, that teach new
duties and suggest new opportunities for the exercise of all the
virtues of heart and mind have begun to affect our women in a
wonderful way. This year has witnessed a remarkable exhibition of the
spirit of unity in colored women. They have effected a truly national
organization of representative women. The organization is genuine in
its representative capacity, sincere in purpose, and positive and
practical in its proclamation of principles.
The National Colored Women's Association possibly means more to the
social order and improvement of the colored race in this country than
anything yet attempted outside of the churches. It has already
succeeded in making important many things that have been too long
neglected. It has succeeded in calling attention to the fact that the
Negro race has a good deal more intelligence and virtue than it uses
for its own advancement. The controlling spirit of this new
association of colored women is first of all for self-improvement. It
is the most distinct voice of self-admonition and self-examination yet
uttered by a national body of Afro-Americans. In other words these
women coming from all parts of our country and from various conditions
of the people, seem burdened with an earnestness to make pure and
strong and beautiful the home life and all the social relationships of
the race. Perhaps it is not necessary thus to call attention to this
association and its work after all that has been said and written
about it. But it seems to me that it cannot be too strongly urged that
the association needs for its success the enthusiasm and hearty
support of all of our women. The special organ of the association and
all of its other functions need the co-operation of colored women
everywhere. The questions outlined in its resolutions and address to
the public should be themes of wide and helpful discussion wherever
our women meet together. The way to make a great national movement
truly national, important, and effective is to talk about it and try
to realize in each community the high and important purposes of that
movement. That is the secret of the enormous success of such bodies as
the W. C. T. U., the Federation of Women's Clubs, the National Council
of Women, and others like them. Every community where earnest women
dwell is made to feel the living and active presence of these
organizations. Let our women everywhere give the National Association
of Colored Women power and permanency by every available means of
encouragement and support.
[Illustration: DR. GEORGIA E. L. PATTON, MEMPHIS, TENN.]
HAVE COURAGE.
If any race of people on this earth need to have courage, it is the
Negro.
Have the courage to say "No" when you are tempted to drink.
Have the courage to wear the old suit of clothes, rather than go in
debt for a new suit.
Have the courage to acknowledge your ignorance when asked about
something of which you do not know.
Have the courage to pay a debt when you need the money for something
else.
Have the courage to be polite, though your character may be assailed.
Have the courage to speak the truth, remembering the command: "Thou
shalt not lie."
Have the courage to own that you are poor, and thus disarm poverty of
its sharpest sting.
Have the courage to own that you are wrong, when convinced that such
is the case.
Have the courage to be good and true, and you will always find work to
do.
Have the courage to say your prayers, though you may be ridiculed by
man.
Have the courage to tell a man why you will not lend him money instead
of whipping the devil around the stump by telling him that you haven't
a cent "in the world," calling one of your pockets "the world."
Have the courage of your convictions. "According to a man's faith, so
be it unto him." This is true on every plane of life, from the lowest
to the highest. A man's power in everything is measured by his
convictions. The statesman who has the profoundest convictions is
surest of bringing others to see as he sees on any question which he
discusses before the public. The minister who can most completely
identify himself with his people, if he has the courage of his
convictions, is the one who is most likely to be successful.
(Afro-American Encyclopedia.)
THE SOUTH GIVEN THE PREFERENCE