has the mental capabilities to become one of the leading physicians of
this country. He is the first colored specialist of the eye, ear, and
throat in the United States. He is not only a young man who
demonstrated marked ability as a student, but he is a doctor who
possesses ample means to supply himself with all of the instruments
and literature which are required to advance him in his professional
work.
Dr. Harris is the son of Mr. Sam Harris, the well-known merchant of
Williamsburg, Va., who does probably the largest business of its kind
of any colored man in the United States.
ESPECIAL COMPANY.
(FROM CHICAGO APPEAL.)
Should a young lady accept the attentions of one young man to the
exclusion of all others before betrothal takes place? It is not wise
to do so. A girl may be interested in a man and think that she cares
for him enough to marry him, and yet there may be others whom she
would love more dearly could she know them. She should not deprive
herself of the opportunity to make comparisons. A young man is very
foolish when he insists upon a girl receiving attentions from no one
but himself, even after betrothal. A girl is equally foolish when she
objects to her lover paying attentions to other girls. If either can
become more interested in another, it certainly ought to be known
before marriage. There would be fewer unhappy marriages and fewer
divorces if young people of both sexes could be impressed with the
idea that they must decide what characteristics their happiness
requires in a life partner and that they must not marry until they
have found some one possessing such characteristics. This can only be
learned by companionship, and is seldom considered by those whose
first thought is that no one else can be studied but the object of
their present fancy.
Again, it places a young girl at a great disadvantage to be looked
upon as the "exclusive property" of any young man. An honorable man
hesitates to offer attentions to a young lady under such conditions,
even though he may be sure that the man is not in earnest or that such
a union could not be happy or that the young lady possesses exactly
the qualities which he himself would find harmonious. Under present
social conditions a girl may not make known her preferences unless the
man first declares himself, and if she happens to make a mistake and
is known as the sweetheart of the wrong young man, there is little
chance that she may find the right one. Not only before, but after
betrothal, both parties should feel free to associate with whomsoever
they please, and no objection should be raised by the other simply on
the ground that "we belong to each other now." That such freedom may
be assured, I believe that the betrothal should be kept an absolute
secret between the parties concerned.
[Illustration: CHARLIE JOHNSON.
The Missionary Baptist "Boy Preacher," of Louisiana, who is creating
such a sensation in the South. Age, 13 years.]
THE SPHERE OF WOMAN.
BY MRS. R. E. LAWSON, WASHINGTON, D. C.
The time has come when woman no longer accepts the hearthstone as the
circumscribed arena of her activities. Amid the busy whirl of this
nineteenth century we behold her stepping with well-shod feet boldly
across the threshold where hitherto her ambitions have been smothered
or held in check by social customs and prejudice, taking her place in
the various avocations which bring to mankind peace and happiness,
through an honest dollar for its equivalent in honest toil.
If we will notice the index finger in the plane of human advancement
and limit its progress to the strides made in civilization within the
last forty years, it will be readily acknowledged that the woman
movement during these years has made no insignificant ripple in the
tide of human achievements. There is scarcely a profession which has
not felt the impress of her presence; scarcely a moral reform, from
the antislavery cause of the past to the great temperance movement of
to-day, which has not received her sanction and hearty support.
Wherever she has gone forth she has acquitted herself creditably, and
successfully lived down all attempts to ridicule and cast opprobrium
upon her adventure. This forward march, which has been likened to a
great tidal wave, has carried in its course higher education for
woman, including her entrance to the medical, legal, and clerical
professions, the position as trustee on school boards in various
sections, the restoration to married women of a right to their own
property, and various other reforms tending to broaden her sphere,
increase her activities, and heighten her self-respect.
Side by side with this uniform impulse on the part of woman to know
and to be known in life's arena have come to its twin sister the
progress and unprecedented achievements of the Negro in America. The
school may instruct and the Church may teach, but the home is an
institution older than the Church and antedates the school, the place
where the children should be trained for useful citizenship on earth
and hope of holy communion in heaven.
Our hands have ever been firm upon the rudder, guiding and governing
the education of our youth for years of future usefulness.
I take it that we, as colored women, must regard ourselves as a
peculiar people in these advanced movements. We cannot afford to be
swept along in the current of daily happenings without thoughtfully
comparing our status and conditions with all that surround us,
questioning for a moment whether the experiment will prove an
expensive luxury or wholesome and digestible food. Economy of time,
economy of means, economy of action, must be our constant watchwords.
The Negro woman, being the most potent factor in the intellectual
development of the race, must be aroused to a consideration of the
fact that to improve the intellect and neglect the moral and physical
growth of our youth will be to impose upon society dangerous citizens.
THE MOURNING PREACHER.
BY J. C. M'ADAMS, SHELBYVILLE, TENN.
Why do our educated ministers "mourn" when preaching? There are
honorable exceptions, but the rule is as stated. We have heard
ministers whose educational qualifications were all that could be
desired, whose exegeses were faultless, who in their perorations would
depart from all standards. They exhume the dead, they picture the
beatific splendors of the New Jerusalem, they paint the horrors of
hell, they describe deathbed scenes, etc. They do this whether or not
it has any connection with the subject in hand. Then it is that the
"spirit" comes. I do not think that I have overdrawn. I have heard
some of our best ministers, and the general statement is true. Our
educated ministers are making a serious mistake. This pulpit mannerism
is a relic of the days of slavery, and the minister who indulges in it
is simply perpetuating a barbarism and is retarding the religious
progress of the race. It is true, perhaps, that in most of our
congregations large numbers of people love to hear the "tone," but
when and how are the people ever to become acquainted with higher
religious ideas? How can a minister elevate his congregation when he
persistently clings to the practices of thirty years ago?
These ministers seem not to know that nine-tenths of the young,
educated, and progressive classes are disgusted with them. This
explains the lethargy manifested by the above-minded classes toward
the Church. The Church, like all other institutions, must be
progressive. The fact that these men are keeping the Church back in
the dingy past puts them out of sympathy with it. I recently heard a
well-known minister, after howling and ranting and mourning to his
heart's content, speak of himself as the "wild presiding elder." He
certainly made that impression on several of his audience.
[Illustration: REV. J. M. CONNER, LITTLE ROCK, ARK.]
One of the great mistakes of our religious life is our mistaking noise
for religion. With many of our unthinking classes it is the "mourn"
which they enjoy in the sermons. Instead of carrying home some
practical thought and trying to weave it into their lives, they become
infatuated with certain tones and give vent to their "feelings" by
making the welkin ring. If this is religion, I have been mistaken. If
this kind of preaching is an inspiration, it is peculiar to us as a
people. If noise and demonstrations are necessary parts of religious
worship, then other races are largely wanting in this essential.
The mourning preachers will admit in private that there is no virtue
in the mourn, and that they do it simply to "touch up" the old folks.
They ought to be ashamed. Such conduct is sinful. They should hate the
sins that make them mourn, and drive them from their breast. The
religious status of a people is a pretty good index of their
civilization. If there are idiosyncrasies in our religious life--in
short, if we are not up to the standard--we will be judged
accordingly. Though my voice be as one crying in the wilderness, I
wish to suggest this religious slogan: "Down with the mourning
preacher!"
OUR GREATEST DRAWBACK.
BY E. E. BROCK, NEW YORK, N. Y.
I doubt if there has ever been an enterprise started by
Afro-Americans, no matter how lofty the aim or however honest the
intentions, that there were not a few envious souls that stood ready
to cry it down. This is to-day the greatest barrier to Afro-American
success and the chief reason why we are no further advanced in
commercial spheres than we are. In this advanced age of civilization
and enlightenment such a state of affairs is sadly to be deplored, for
we find that not only among the illiterate class does this exist, but
in a greater and more marked degree by those who claim superior
intelligence and are looked upon as leaders and shining lights of the
race. If one attempts to gain a certain goal, there always stands
another ready to pull him back. "You must and shall not get above me"
seems to be their fixed motto. Ah! brothers and sisters, you have much
yet to learn. If you cannot help another up the hill, you certainly
will gain nothing by trying to pull him back. Enviousness is a demon
and a monster, and until you learn to live in union and love thy
neighbor as thyself, you may never hope to win the respect and esteem
of other races.
THE RACE PROBLEM.
Views of Several Prominent Negroes.
In a speech recently delivered before the graduating class of Meharry
Medical College, at Nashville, Gov. Taylor said: "There is no Negro
problem of the South. That has been settled long ago. I belong to a
generation that has grown up since the war, a generation of young
white men who thank God that the shackles of slavery have been
stricken from the limbs of the black man." I have observed that in any
community where our people respect themselves and encourage the
enterprise of each other the white people not only patronize and
encourage us, but they treat our women respectfully, and the lives of
our men are as safe as if we were white; but where we act the brute
and traitor to each other the race, both good and bad, fare hard, and
nothing more is to be expected by any sensible person. It is human
nature for the strong to prey upon the weak. Hence the Negro must be
his own first strength by his moral life and faithfulness to each
other. Unless this, we are as a race doomed either in Africa or
America. (Caesar A. A. Taylor, Ocala, Fla.)
* * * * *
The race problem is a moral one. It is a question entirely of ideas.
Its solution will come especially from the domain of principles. Like
all the other great battles of humanity, it is to be fought out with
the weapons of truth; it cannot be settled by extinction of race; no
amalgamation process can eliminate it. The social idea is to be
entirely excluded from consideration. It is absolutely a personal
matter, regulated by taste, condition, racial or family affinities,
and there it must remain undisturbed forever. (W. H. Council)
[Illustration: J. P. NEWTON, MEMPHIS, TENN.
One of the finest photographers in the South.]
The colored race of this country should aim at the highest success and
make themselves the best citizens and the most useful members of
society. We should be guided by right principles and prove ourselves
worthy of the liberty granted us by the emancipation. There should be
no better schools than ours, no grander statesmen, no more shining
lights in professional life, no happier homes, no more cultured women,
no people more moral and upright. It is safe to say that we can do it,
because many noble and worthy men and women of our race have already
achieved great success. They have climbed high in their endeavors,
have grasped the prize held out before them, and by their brilliant
achievements have conferred honor upon their people and have written
their names indelibly upon the hearts of their countrymen. Where are
our rising young men and women? We call them to come forward. We bid
them lift their eyes to the highest of knowledge and power. We point
them to those whose names have become household words, and bid them
press on to the front rank in the struggle for life. Here lies our
hope for the future; and the Negro problem, which is one of the
greatest problems of the present age, will have solved itself. (Harvey
Johnson.)
* * * * *
All that we want is the unmolested enjoyment of the rights and
privileges guaranteed us in the fourteenth and fifteenth amendments to
the national constitution. If we are allowed the exercising of these
in every state in the Union, we will be satisfied, and will in an
almost incredibly short period of time solve for our white brethren
that ever perplexing race problem which, like Banquo's ghost, will not
down. Our Southern white brethren need entertain no fears of "Negro
domination" or "black supremacy" in the government of the Southern
States, for the Southern Negro is rapidly leaving the low and
uncertain plane of political honor or gain for a higher one of morals,
education, and the amassing of wealth. During the past, with the
rights guaranteed us by the constitution nullified in the states
containing the larger portion of the colored population--the black
belt of the South--we have made marvelous progress along the lines of
securing classical and industrial education and the accumulation of
wealth. With these restrictions or nullifications of our
constitutional rights removed, is it either fair or reasonable to
believe that a race with so grand and wonderful a record of progress
along this line of prosperity as ours is at this late day going to
drop into the quagmire of retrogradation? No. We have but begun, and
though the wheels of Negro prosperity may continue to be checked by
the brakes of race prejudice, we will nevertheless continue to climb
upward to the very top of the hill of wealth, honor, and fame.
(National Reflector, Wichita, Kans.)
* * * * *
[Illustration: PROF. BOOKER T. WASHINGTON, TUSKEGEE, ALA.]
The key to the solution of the race problem in the South is in the
commercial and industrial development of the Negro, a development
along this line that shall rest upon the broadest and highest culture.
Under God, as bad as slavery was, it prepared the way for the solving
of the problem by this method. Friction will disappear and the two
races in the South will be as one in all their civil and commercial
relations just in proportion as the Negro, by reason of skill and
educated brains, produces something that the white man wants or
respects; and when you pursue that question to its last analysis one
white man cares little for another white man, except as the other has
something that he wants. In all history we cannot find a race that
possessed property, industry, intelligence, and character in a high
degree that has long been denied its rights. If the possession of
these elements does not bring to the Negro every right enjoyed by any
other class of citizens, then the Bible and the teachings of the Great
Jehovah are wrong. I propose that the Negro take his position on the
high and undisputed ground of generosity, usefulness, forgiveness, and
honesty in all things, and that he invite the white man to step up and
occupy this ground with him. If the white man in every part of our
country cannot accept this invitation, we will thus prove that the
problem is a white man's problem rather than a Negro problem. (Booker
T. Washington.)
* * * * *
The Negro problem, if there is any in the country, from an industrial
standpoint may be resolved into two phases. In the South the race is
allowed unfettered opportunity in almost all trades and occupations.
Whatever other crimes she may be guilty of, she allows the colored
people to work. There we find colored men who take large contracts for
the erection of public buildings. Most of the finest hotels, private
residences, and business blocks represent the work of colored labor
from foundation to roof. In a recent visit to the black belt of
Alabama I was told that in a certain town colored mechanics had
constructed the courthouse and every other important building within
the corporate limits. A Southern white man, pointing out this fact,
remarked that such a thing would be impossible in the North. So strong
is the prejudice against the employment of Negro labor that the
presence of the Negro workmen on a brick wall would cause every white
man to throw down his trowel and quit work. This thing is true in all
the remunerative avenues of life in the North. In respect to the
South, it is there that the Negro will work out his industrial
destiny. He has been and will be the laborer. Such schools as Tuskegee
and Hampton will prepare him to compete with other people in all
trades. We speak so often of the "New South." It is time that we had a
"New North." The Northern people, as generous as they have been in
founding schools for the freedmen, seem to love them best at a
distance. The North will educate us, but will not allow us to work. We
need education, but we also need opportunity for industrial progress.
We want a fair chance in the race of life. How can we ever make any
headway if we are all shut up to one or two lines of service? A
citizen of the town some time ago said to me that years ago the Negro
and the Irishman came to Princeton with nothing. The Irishman has
accumulated real estate, but the Negro still has nothing. One of the
reasons is simply this: the Irishman has ten chances to the colored
man's one. What is true of this community is practically true of the
whole North. (Rev. J. Q. Johnson, in the Christian Recorder,
Philadelphia, Pa.)
* * * * *
The Negro question is but another name for the labor problem in the
South; and it is not so serious as the labor problem of the North. The
Negro is the Southern laborer. His color preserves his class
distinction. As a workman, he is fitted for the warm climate and
agricultural pursuits of that region. He is shiftless and improvident
because so long trained to live dependent upon a master. He is doing
better work as an employee than he did as a slave. He is happy,
peaceable, and content. There are no socialistic or anarchistic traits
in his blood. His wants are few, and he is able to cover a life of
hardship and penury with the flowers of melody and the foam of
unceasing mirth. The troubles of the South do not arise in the Negro,
but in the white men. There is a class of "white trash" who have all
the fierce and unruly instincts of that robber race, the Saxons, at
whose door the lynchings and political uproars may be faithfully laid.
The better element of Southern people have no part in these. Thus it
is the same class that raises disturbance in Alabama that does the
same in Chicago. The Negro and the better whites have no part in
either case. What the final outcome of the race question will be is
impossible, of course, to surmise. The probabilities are that the
African will remain a hewer of wood and a drawer of water until his
face shall pale--and it is paling rapidly--and he shall cease to be a
social factor. No two races ever lived antagonistic, yet in contact,
without the stronger either annihilating or absorbing the other.
(Chicago Conservator.)
* * * * *
The United States and not the Negro is responsible for the Negro's
identity with this country and also for his past and present condition
in America; and, having of her own accord made us citizens and
participants of this government (because we have merited both as
slaves in the forest and as armed soldiers and patriots on the field
of battle, protecting a flag which up to that time had never offered
us protection--by these means we have merited a citizenship) God and
the civilized world will hold the United States and the several states
responsible as our guardians to the heights of true civilization. As
for adaptation to and responsibility of civilization, the Negro is
receiving the highest mental and social culture. I call your attention
to the thousands of colored professional men and women who are rare
models of social culture and intellectual worth--men of learning and
distinguished for intelligence, men known and honored by the civilized
world for their mental merits. Blind Tom is the greatest musical
prodigy the world has ever seen. Regardless of his race and identity,
I believe that Rev. J. C. Price, D.D., was as fine an orator as
America ever produced, and Douglass the peer of any statesman. There
has been something very peculiar about the history of American issues
for the last one hundred years. Though the Negro himself has kept
silent, yet there has scarcely been in that length of time a decisive
issue before the American Congress that would have affected the entire
nation that was not either the outcome of our presence in this country
or a corollary thereto in some phase. The nation, not the Negro, is
responsible for the so-called Negro problem. Therefore it is the
nation's problem, and the nation must solve it. America bought the
whistle, and she must pay for it. The Negro has been and will ever be
the Pharaoh's plague to America, until the nation recognizes the
declaration of the fathers and the design of God in bequeathing to all
men justice in equity and the fullest recognition of citizenship to
all who are made a part of this government by constituency and
responsibility. This done, we will have but one problem, and that will
be how to better advance the glory of one common union. To-day we
stand beneath the American eagle, which bears in his talons the stars
and stripes, for which more than two hundred thousand of our fathers
and brothers have fallen on yonder battlefields. We stand here begging
for peace, protection, and a just recognition of manhood. We stand
here under the flag for which our fathers fought in common with the
white man, and plead for civil rights. Yea, in the name of God and the
blood of our dead we ask a shelter beneath thy wing. Shall the stars
of the American flag, our only hope as guides to higher manhood, the
reflective rays of American civilization and liberty, hide their
shameful faces behind the clouds of American prejudice and bring to us
night at noon? Shall your red stripes, O flag! a worthy token of our
fathers' blood, which has mingled with the white in all American
conflicts, now be used as a signal of welcome and protection to
non-Americans, anarchists, and socialists, while the sons of American
slaves, soldiers, and citizens are left standing without protection
and rightful recognition, reaching forth the brawny hands for labor in
vain? O may the goddess of liberty hear us to-day, and may the true
American pulse be found forcing life, liberty, and protection through
every artery of American sentiment! (Bishop Petty, A. M. E. Zion
Church.)
* * * * *