refinement, politeness, courtesy, justice, culture, general
enlightenment and protection of life and person to any man, regardless
of his color or nationality. It is enough for a civilized community to
know that you are a human being, to pledge surety of physical and
political safety to you, and this has been the sequence in all ages
among civilized people. But such is not the condition of things as
they apply to this country, I mean the United States. True, we have a
National Congress, State Legislature, Subordinate and Supreme Courts,
and almost every form of government, necessary to regulate the affairs
of a civilized country. But above these, and above law and order,
which these legislative and judicial bodies have been organized to
observe, and execute justice in the land, we are often confronted
through the public press with reports of the most barbarous and cruel
outrages, that can be perpetrated upon human beings, known in the
history of the world. No savage nation can exceed the atrocities which
are often heralded through the country and accepted by many as an
incidental consequence. Men are hung, shot and burnt by bands of
murderers who are almost invariably represented as the most
influential and respectable citizens in the community, while the
evidences of guilt of what is charged against the victims, who are so
inhumanly outraged, are never established by proof in any court, and
all we can learn about the guilt and horrible deeds charged upon the
murdered victims comes from the mouth of the bloody handed wretches
who perpetrate the murders, yet they are not known according to
published accounts. But enough is known to get from their mouths same
horrible statements as to why this and that brutal murder was done,
and invariably, it is told with such oily tongues, and the whole
narrative is polished over and glossed with such skillfully
constructed lies, that the ruling millions lift up their hands in holy
horror and exclaim "they done him right."
Why, the very judges surrounded with court officers are powerless
before these bloody mobs. Prisoners are cruelly, fiendishly and
inhumanly dragged from their very custody. Sheriffs are as helpless as
new-born babes. I do not pretend to say that in no instance have the
victims been guilty as a whole or in part of some blood-curdling
crime, for men perpetrate lawless acts, revolting deeds, disgraceful
and brutal crimes, regardless of nationality, language or color, at
times. But civilization presurmises legal adjudication and the
intervention of that judicial authority which civilized legislation
produces. And when properly administered the accused is innocent till
he gets a fair trial; no verdict of guilt from a drunken lawless mob
should be accepted by a civilized country; and when they do accept it
they become a barbarous people. And a barbarous people make a
barbarous nation. Civilization knows no marauders, mobs or lynchers
and any one adjudged guilty by a drunken band of freebooters is not
guilty in the eyes of a civilized people. For the ruthless and violent
perpetrators of lawless deeds, especially when they are incarnate, are
murderers to all intents and purposes, and popular approval does not
diminish the magnitude of the crime. Millions may say, "Well done,"
but God, reason and civilization stamp them as culprits.
I confess that the United States has the highest form of civilized
institutions that any nation has had. Let us take a cursory glance at
the institutions in this country. It has common schools by the tens of
thousands; colleges and universities of every grade by the hundred;
millions of daily newspapers are flying from the press, and weekly
papers and monthly magazines on all imaginary subjects; it has a
Congress and President, Governors and State Legislatures without end,
judges, various courts and law officers in countless numbers. Hundreds
of thousands of school teachers, professors, and college presidents,
and Doctors of Divinity, thousands of lecturers and public declaimers
on all subjects, railroads, telegraphs and telephones in such vast
numbers as stagger imagination itself, churches and pulpits that are
filled by at least a hundred and twenty-five thousand ministers of the
gospel, and Bibles enough to build a pyramid that would almost reach
to heaven; a land of books upon every subject scattered among the
people by the billions, and in short, we have all the forms and
paraphernalia of civilization. But no one can say, who has any respect
for truth, that the United States is a civilized nation, especially if
we will take the daily papers and inspect them for a few moments, and
see the deeds of horror that the ruling powers of the nation say "well
done" to.
I know that thousands, yea millions and tens of millions would not
plead guilty of having a part in the violent and gory outrages which
are often perpetrated in this country upon human beings, chiefly
because they are of African descent, and are not numerically strong
enough to contend with the powers in governmental control. But that is
no virtue that calls for admiration. As long as they keep silent and
fail to lift up their voices in protestation and declaim against it,
their very silence is a world-wide acquiescence. It is practically
saying, well done. There are millions of people in the country who
could not stand to kill a brute, such is their nervous sensitiveness,
and I have heard of persons who would not kill a snake or a bug. But
they are guilty of everything the drunken mobs do, as long as they
hold their silence. Men may be ever so free from the perpetration of
bloody deeds, personally, but their failure to object to any
outrageous crime makes them particeps crimines.
I forgot to say in cataloguing the crimes committed in the United
States that persons for the simple color of their skin are thrust
into what are called Jim Crow cars on the public highways and charged
as much as those who are riding in rolling palaces with every comfort
that it is possible for man to enjoy. This is simple robbery on the
public highways and the nine United States judges have approved of
this robbery and said, "well done," by their verdict.
Such being the barbarous condition of the United States, and the low
order of civilization which controls its institutions where right and
justice should sit enthroned, I see nothing for the Negro to attain
unto in this country. I have already admitted that this country has
books and schools, and the younger members of the Negro race, like the
younger members of the white race, should attend them and profit by
them. But for the Negro as a whole, I see nothing here for him to
aspire after. He can return to Africa, especially to Liberia where a
Negro government is already in existence, and learn the elements of
civilization in fact; for human life is there sacred, and no man is
deprived of it or any other thing that involves his manhood, without
due process of law. So my decision is that there is nothing in the
United States for the Negro to learn or try to attain to.
SECOND PAPER.
WILL IT BE POSSIBLE FOR THE NEGRO TO ATTAIN, IN THIS COUNTRY, UNTO THE
AMERICAN TYPE OF CIVILIZATION?
BY BISHOP L. H. HOLSEY.
[Illustration: Bishop L. H. Holsey]
BISHOP L. H. HOLSEY.
Bishop Holsey was born a slave near Columbus, Ga., July 3,
1842. In 1862 he was married to Miss Harriet Turner, a young
girl who belonged to Bishop Geo. F. Pierce, of the M. E.
Church South, who performed the marriage ceremony in his own
house. His early life was spent in Sparta, La. He was
licensed to preach in 1868 in the M. E. Church South, and
served the Hancock circuit for nearly two years. In 1870 he
pastored the church in Savannah, Ga. Early in 1869 he became
a member of the colored conference which belonged to the M.
E. Church South. This conference was composed entirely of
colored ministers. At this conference Bishop Holsey was
ordained deacon by Bishop Pierce and a year later he was
ordained elder. In the fall of 1870 his conference elected
him a delegate to the first General Conference of the
Colored Methodist Episcopal Church, held in America. This
conference was held in Jackson, Tenn., where the first C. M.
E. Church in America was organized. In 1871 he was sent to
Augusta, Ga., as pastor of Trinity Church and served there
until in 1873 he was elected Bishop of the C. M. E. Church.
In 1881 he was sent to London, England, to represent the C.
M. E. Church in the first ecumenical council. In that
council Bishop Holsey represented his church well. He was
also sent as delegate to the same council, which met in
Washington, D. C., in 1897. He is the founder of Paine
College in Augusta, Ga., which is now in a flourishing
condition. Bishop Holsey has always taken an active part in
all that concerns the C. M. E. Church. He has written all
the messages but one to the General Conferences and has
suggested its entire legislation up-to-date. He also wrote
the Manual of Discipline, and composed the hymnal of the
church, and he is the author of a book of Drawings and
Lectures, containing an autobiography. He has written much
for his church and done many other good things, too numerous
to mention here.
This question is one of pre-eminent importance and interesting alike
to both races. Civilization means culture and refinement. The American
type of civilization is somewhat different from the European and
Asiatic; but, in the main features or characteristics, the world's
great civilizations have always been the same in tone and design.
Patriotism, religion, and a thirst for power are the most prominent
features of all civilizations. All civilizations have their
imperfections. One of the strong features of the American type of
civilization is the widespread and terrible social prejudice, which
seems to be greatly increasing.
In this country the negro is despised and rejected, simply because he
has a black skin, and social traits that distinguish him from other
races. We cannot see, neither do we believe, that it is possible for
the Negro to attain unto the American type of civilization, while he
lives in the same territory and in immediate contact with the white
people. This, however, applies especially to the former slave states.
Eight-tenths of the Negroes are at present in the old slave states,
and if they remain there, which is very questionable, they will never
be brought into the political, religious and social fabrics. They can
never become full-fledged and free citizens like the white people. As
a race, the Negro cannot enjoy in this country, like the Anglo-Saxon,
the immunities and privileges guaranteed to him by the Constitution.
The civil rights, the ample protection and the broad and liberal
sentiment that protect and inspire the white people, are nowhere in
America accorded to the black man. He is everywhere proscribed,
because he is a Negro. No matter how much culture and refinement he
may possess, he does not receive at the hands of the prejudiced whites
that respectful consideration to which his culture entitles him. If we
enter the field of legislative enactments by the Southern people, we
find the prejudice still more pronounced.
Every enactment that has found its way to the statutory documents of
the Southern States, where the rights and privileges of the two races
are involved, shows race prejudice; then this thing is getting no
better, but worse. As the Negro rises from the darkness of the past
and approximates the American standard of civilization, the feeling
against him becomes more intense, bitter and decisive, which does not
speak well for the American civilization.
No Negro, however highly accomplished, can be brought into the social
fabric. The lowest Greek, the dirtiest Jew, the vilest Russian, and
the most treacherous Spaniard can be absorbed and assimilated into the
social compact, but the Negro, because he is black, cannot enter into
this compact.
Unless the Negro can enter the political and social compacts in some
part of this country, there is no way for him to attain unto the
American type of civilization. Can this be done? We think not, because
as the Negro migrates to the North or to the Northwest, the process by
which he enters the arena of full citizenship annuls and destroys his
social characteristics in a greater or less degree.
There is, at present, among the majority of Negroes in the South, an
unrest. Millions of them are waiting and wishing for somebody to lead
them from the land of oppression and proscription to some more
congenial clime, outside of the land of their nativity, but they do
not want to depart, unless they can be assured that by so doing, they
can better their condition. As it is, many are going to the North,
East and West, and the time is fast approaching when the Black Belts
of the South will be things of the past, unless the white people
change their way of treating a Negro. The cotton fields and sugar
farms now maintained by the Negroes will eventually be deserted by
them, if the whites continue to oppress them. This, perhaps, would be
beneficial to the South, as it would relieve them of the perplexing
Race Problem. Now, if the Negroes were as free and as safe in their
homes; if they had the same feeling of security of life and property;
if they had the same treatment before the courts and had all the
rights and privileges of a full citizen, as the white man, he would
not be long in attaining to the American type of civilization. All
Southern people, and many Northern people, for that matter, do not
believe that the Negro is capable of as high a degree of civilization
as the Anglo-Saxon. They believe him to be by nature inferior to the
white man. But I contend that the Negro is not by nature inferior to
the white man, but that he is as capable of reaching the American type
of civilization as the white man. This is obvious from the phenomenal
strides made by him within the past thirty-six years along material,
moral and educational lines.
No one seems to take on and absorb the American civilization more
readily than the American Negro, and if he has the same advantages and
was allowed to enjoy the same full and free citizenship along with his
white neighbor, his advancement in civilization would be as rapid as
that of the white man.
There are to be found now not a few Negro men and women whose culture
and refinement would not suffer by comparison with that of the best
white people of this country. It is not native incapacity and the want
of vital manhood that limit the Negro's progress in civilization, but
it is the fight made against him on the ground of his previous
condition. Remove this and give the Negro the white man's chance and
he will keep pace with the white man in his march toward civilization.
THIRD PAPER.
WILL IT BE POSSIBLE FOR THE NEGRO TO ATTAIN, IN THIS COUNTRY, UNTO THE
AMERICAN TYPE OF CIVILIZATION?
BY R. S. LOVINGGOOD, A. M.
[Illustration: R. S. Lovinggood, A. M.]
PROF. R. S. LOVINGGOOD, A. M.
Prof. R. S. Lovinggood was born in Walhalla, S. C., in 1864.
He came to Clark University, Atlanta, Ga., in 1881, and
remained in school nine years, completing the college course
and taking a course in carpentry. Immediately after
graduating, he began to publish the "Atlanta Times," a
weekly paper, which he continued for two years. He sold out
his interest in the paper, and was elected principal of a
city school in Birmingham, Ala., where he taught with great
success for three years. Here he was married to Miss Lillie
G. England, in 1894. In the fall of 1895, he was elected to
the chair of Greek and Latin at Wiley University, Marshall,
Texas, and entered upon his work with enthusiasm. His wife
died in January, 1896, leaving him a boy only ten days old.
He continued his work at Wiley University for five
consecutive years. His success was notable in this position.
He wrote a work which has received favorable mention in
several papers of high grade. The title of the work is "Why
Hic, Halc, Hoc for the Negro?"
He was married a second time on April 25, 1900, to Miss
Mattie A. Townsend of Birmingham, Ala. In the fall of 1900,
he was elected to the presidency of Samuel Houston College,
Austin, Texas. His success here has been notable. Though
this is a new school, he enrolled 205 the first year. This
is its second year, and the enrollment will doubtless reach
300.
Prof. Lovinggood is a good scholar, a fluent speaker, and an
earnest Christian. He was a delegate to the General
Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church in Chicago in
1900. He is quite popular with the preachers and the people
wherever he goes. A bright future is before him and the
young school of which he is president.
I presume it is not necessary to show in detail what the American type
of civilization is, or will be. Whatever that type is, or may be; will
the Negro attain unto it in this country? Of the American type of
civilization this much may be said, that this is a "government of the
people, for the people and by the people; that all men are created
with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty
and the pursuit of happiness;" that governments derive "their just
power from the consent of the governed;" that in such governments each
individual is entitled to all the rights vouchsafed to any other
individual in that government; that every one is entitled to stand on
his merits as a citizen of the government.
Taking this view of the American type of civilization, will it be
possible for the Negro to attain unto it? Will the time ever come when
the Negro will stand on his merits in our government? Will it ever be
that the Negro will stand the same chance to be Mayor, Congressman,
Senator, Governor, President? That he will be tried for crimes as
other men are tried? No one who believes in the innate capacity of the
Negro to achieve as high a type of civilization as any other race,
will question that it will be possible for him to achieve the
American type of civilization along the lines of invention, commerce,
philanthropy, scholarship, etc. The Negro _can be_ industrious,
patriotic, courageous. He can be useful in the community in which he
lives. He can be as good as anybody else. No one doubts that he can be
as meritorious as any other. Geographical lines cannot prevent the
Negro from being meritorious. Now, if he is meritorious, will he be
treated according to his merits in both church and state? Is it
possible in this country that he will be treated according to his
deserts? I take this to be the gist of the question, and it is a hard
one to answer. The prejudice against the Negro is more severe than
that against any other people, and the prejudice grows stronger. Even
the Christian churches are yielding to it. I remember that the
Plebeians in the Roman Empire, though of the same blood as the
Patricians, were excluded from the Comitia, the Senate and all civil
and priestly offices of the state for several hundred years. Though of
the same color, the statute of Kilkenny prohibited the Irish and
English from intermarrying in the fourteenth century. Prejudice ran
high, and has not ended yet. The wail of sorrowful Ireland continues
to go up before England for justice. I remember the sad story of
Kosciusko and the Poles. The Poles were white.
Here we are of a different color, ex-slaves, poor, beaten back by
prejudice. Who can tell our future? We can only hope and give the
reason for the hope that is in us.
I believe it is _possible_ for us to succeed in America. I should
despair if I did not believe this. Why do I believe it? Here is my
ground for hope: First, the Negro is the only race that has ever
looked into the face of the blue-eyed Anglo-Saxon without being swept
from the face of the earth. There is that docility, that perseverance,
that endurance, long-suffering patience and that kindness in the Negro
which rob the pangs of the hatred of the white man of much of their
deadly poison. The Negro thrives on persecution. He never loses faith.
Individuals may lose hope, but the race will never. The Negro does not
run against the buzz-saw of destruction, and this fact should be put
down to his credit. The saw will not whirl forever.
Second: The success of the last thirty-seven years gives hope of
ultimate triumph. The Negro has increased in intelligence, in wealth,
in moral worth, in population, etc. It is useless to give figures. All
right-thinking men admit this.
I take no part in that view of a few pessimists, that the Negro race
grows worse; that the "old time Negro" is better than the young "new
Negro." The old Negro was submissive because he was not allowed to be
otherwise. There is no character in slavish goodness. Character must
be developed in freedom of action. Under freedom, a few young Negroes
have gone to excess, but, thank God, under freedom, hundreds of
thousands of young Negroes, in schools and out of schools, are
struggling up the hill of virtue, of industry, of learning, not goaded
on by the lash of the master, but impelled by a holy ambition that
does not halt at temporary defeats.
Third: So I believe the Negro will be as good as any. He will produce
his poets, historians, philosophers, inventors, his men of commerce,
his humanitarians. His present disenfranchisement will keep him along
these lines. The best people in America are helping him. Besides the
Negro's own efforts in such organizations as the A. M. E. Church, the
American Missionary Association of the Congregational Church, the
Freedmen's Aid and Southern Educational Society of the Methodist
Episcopal Church, the Home Mission Society of the Baptist Church, and
many other organizations are behind him with millions of dollars, with
prayers and with the souls and the flesh and blood of the best men and
women of the world. There are good men North and South--white men--who
desire the Negro's success. Their number will grow. With these helps
the Negro can become noble in character. He can merit the best at the
hands of the American people. If he is as good and useful as any other
class of people, will he be treated as any other class?
Fourth: Now, I will go a little further and say I know it is
"possible" for the Negro to attain unto the American type of
civilization; but, is it "probable"? I even believe it is probable.
The Negro is included in the "all men are created with certain
inalienable rights." He is included in the "Our Father." He is
included in the "Whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you, do
you even so unto them." Now, if the nation adopts some separate and
unjust manner of treatment of the Negro, it must repudiate the
Declaration of Independence. It must repudiate the Lord's Prayer. It
must repudiate the Golden Rule. Can it do that and survive? Can it
practice injustice upon the Negro and survive? Sin recoils upon the
sinner. Injustice to the Negro will destroy the Nation. For that
reason good white men and women are striving to bring the Nation up to
that high plane of righteousness where justice is meted out to all
alike. These good white men and women ought to conquer. I believe they
will. Not to-day, but to-morrow. Thus the Negro, striving to be the
best in the community, the white men, striving to reduce to practice
the Golden Rule, may it not come to pass that "They shall beat their
swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks," and that
the country of Lincoln shall thus become the "land of the free and the
home of the brave," where all men of all races shall be treated in all
departments of life according to their worth?
FOURTH PAPER.
WILL IT BE POSSIBLE FOR THE NEGRO TO ATTAIN, IN THIS COUNTRY, UNTO THE
AMERICAN TYPE OF CIVILIZATION?
BY BISHOP J. W. HOOD, D. D., LL. D.
[Illustration: Bishop J. W. Hood, D. D.]
BISHOP J. W. HOOD, D. D., LL. D.
The subject of this sketch was born in Kennett Township,
Chester County, Pa., May 30, 1831. His father's house being
near the line between freedom and slavery was a station of
the Underground Railroad. Hence, the boy was very early
impressed with the evils of slavery and imbibed an intense
hatred toward that institution, and an intense love for his
afflicted race. This sentiment has been a great factor in
shaping his conduct through life. His moral and religious
convictions were fixed in early life. He was sensible of a
call to the ministry, but hesitated a long time because he
felt a lack of necessary qualification. He was licensed to
preach in 1856; ordained a deacon in 1860; elder in 1862,
and bishop in 1872. He entered upon a course of studies soon
after he was licensed, and has been a hard student ever
since.
His first appointment was to a mission in Nova Scotia. In
December, 1861, he was appointed to missionary work in the
South. Following the army, he reached New Berne, N. C.,
January 20, 1864. As a traveling minister he always had
encouraging success, especially in North Carolina, in which
State his denomination has a larger following than in any
other. Two of its most important institutions are located
there, namely, the Publication House at Charlotte and
Livingstone College at Salisbury. Bishop Hood is one of the
founders of the college, and has been President of the Board
of Trustees during its entire history.
He has been married three times, and has six living
children, all of whom have been mainly educated at this
institution. The Bishop is an untiring worker, and has
traveled as much as 20,000 miles a year. He once preached
forty-five sermons in thirty-one days, driving from five to
twenty-five miles a day. He is a natural presiding officer
and governs his conferences with an ease and quietness that
is astonishing.