face of strong opposition, in his moral development, just as he does
in mental, financial and civil growth, against all the opposing forces
that would hinder his growth and relegate him to the lowest stratum of
mankind, he is forcing his way up the stream. His spiritual and moral
nature is beating under the animal nature which for so long a time
held him as a slave. He now does right for right's sake, and loves the
pure and good. He honors the women of his race and is raising her to
nobler plains in his thoughts and life.
The Negro woman is asserting herself also and is building for herself
a character that rests upon a foundation of personal purity. This she
is doing not only for herself, but for others. The building up of pure
homes is her chief concern and in them she reigns with womanly
queenliness.
Social reform receives her attention, and in these walks she may be
found teaching the young the single standard of purity for both sexes.
Her way is the roughest, her path most closely beset with snares, but
her works show for themselves.
If there had been no advancement along moral lines, the Negro's
material and intellectual attainments would count for very little in
the world of affairs, for he would degenerate to a mere mechanical
factor in human society and become a tool in every case in the hands
of a stronger race. But he has added to his material and intellectual
strength a greater and higher force, viz., that of moral worth, which
at once raises him to higher planes in the social and civil world, and
brings him into contact with his enemies and oppressors.
The Negro has met and overcome the great barriers to his progress one
by one. Despite the snares that are all about his path, and their
hidden evils that seek to hold him in thralldom, yet he bursts his
chains and marches forward with renewed purpose and greater zeal.
Yes, the young Negro is embodying nobler ideas in his nature and
reaching forward after higher ideals because of his superior
advantages. He is to face a future pregnant with struggles of a higher
order and of a more diverse character, than the struggles of an
earlier day. He enters into competition, not with one race only, but
with all the races of mankind. As the knowledge of the fierceness of
the battle comes to him, he raises himself from his lethargy and in
the strength of his manhood he goes forward.
He who doubts not the Negro's growth and development along
intellectual and financial lines cannot gainsay his steady and sturdy
growth in moral and social power.
TOPIC XVI.
THE NEGRO AS A WRITER.
BY REV. J. Q. JOHNSON, D. D.
[Illustration: J. Q. Johnson, D. D.]
REV. J. Q. JOHNSON, D. D.
Rev. J. Q. Johnson, D. D., was graduated from the Collegiate
Department, of Fisk University in 1890; from the Hartford
Theological Seminary in 1893. He taught mathematics at
Tuskegee for one year; the John P. Slater fund published his
report of the fifth Tuskegee Negro Conference in its series
of "Occasional Papers." He has been President of Allen
University, Columbia, S. C. His pastoral work has embraced
some of the strongest and most influential churches in the
A. M. E. connection. Associated with him was his brilliant
and cultured wife--Mrs. Halle Tanner Johnson--the first
woman who ever passed the State Medical Board of Examiners
of Alabama. Her recent death was a loss to the race.
Dr. Johnson is among the foremost men of his church. He is
among the best read men of the race. He is an able preacher
and a strong, forceful writer. One of his characteristic
points is his ability to say much in little. He goes right
to the point without wasting time with needless _words_. He
received Doctor's degree from Morris Brown College, Atlanta,
Ga. He studied two years as a post-graduate student at
Princeton University.
It would be extravagant to set up any claims of greatness in behalf of
Negro writers. The Negro has yet his contribution to make to the
literature of mankind. We fully believe that he has a message to
deliver. The making of a writer is a matter of centuries. England was
a long time producing a Shakespeare or a Milton, Italy a Dante, Russia
a Tolstoi, France a Hugo or a Dumas, Germany a Goethe and a Schiller.
America, active in invention and commerce, has not yet produced a name
worthy to stand by the side of those just mentioned. All really great
writers have not only a national or racial, but also a universal
quality in their productions. So far the greater part of our literary
effort has been of historical compilations. We have accumulated a
large mass of material for the future historians. Williams' "History
of the Negro Race" is an example of this kind. In this way we have
recorded the deeds of distinguished Negroes in every avenue of life.
Such works have kept alive the hope and kindled the aspirations of the
race. A most interesting work of this kind is that of Prof. E. H.
Crogman, "The White Side of a Black Subject." In this book we have the
serious and earnest efforts of the race recorded. Here we learn of
educators like Booker T. Washington and J. W. E. Bowen, lawyers like
T. McCants Stewart and S. A. McElwee, women physicians like Halle T.
Johnson and Georgia Washington. Books of this kind are in almost every
Negro home in the land.
The Negro as a writer of prose is nowhere seen to a better advantage
than in Dr. Blyden's "Christianity, Islam and the Negro Race." Here we
find the Negro in command of the best English style. Whatever may be
said of his opinions, his mastery of a forcible, spirited, nervous
expression reminds one of Macauly and Addison. Probably the best book
from the standpoint of scientific, historical investigation is the
work of Dr. DuBois on "The Suppression of the African Slave Trade."
Bishop B. T. Tanner, in his "Dispensations in the Church," has made a
real contribution to our race literature. In this he establishes
the Hamitic origin of the ancient Egyptians and shows that Ham is
not one whit behind Japheth and Shem in achievement. Dr. R. L. Perry's
work, "The Cushite," is a very excellent work along the same line. In
this department there is yet much work for the Negro scholar.
In Paul Lawrence Dunbar, the race has struck its highest note in song.
A high and worthy tribute has been paid this writer by William Dean
Howells. His lyrics have not only a genuine race flavor, but at the
same time they appeal to the universal heart. Dunbar's work is of the
first class. He has made a real contribution to the literature of the
country. His name must now appear in any Manual of American
Literature. The success of this writer is a matter of note. His poems
and stories are in most of the popular magazines and his books on all
news stands. It is clear from this that, whenever a Negro writes
anything worth reading, his productions will be in constant demand.
Mention must here be made of the commendable work of Chas. W.
Chestnutt, another popular writer of the race. The lamented Dr. A. A.
Whitman and Mrs. Frances W. Harper are two poets well-known to the
public. Some think that Whitman is a greater poet than Dunbar.
In a short sketch like this, it is impossible to do justice to the
literary achievements of the race. A whole volume might be written on
the great work done by the Negro press. Here we have many strong
writers--men of such mould as Fortune, Stewart, Mitchell and H. T.
Johnson. Then, too, there are noted names as magazine
writers--Scarborough, Kelly Miller, D. W. Culp and B. T. Washington
and H. T. Kealing.
The Negro has been a failure nowhere. In war, there stands Toussaint
L'Overture and Maceo; in education, B. T. Washington; in oratory,
Frederick Douglas; in art, H. O. Tanner; in letters, Phyllis Wheatley
and Paul Lawrence Dunbar. These and others like them are our prophets
of the future. Being thus judged by our best men, it doth not yet
appear what we shall be. The Greeks are great in a large measure
because they wrote of themselves. So the Anglo Saxon, and any race for
that matter. The Negro must do the same. His story will not be
adequately told till it is done by himself. The Negro poet, novelist
and historian have a vast wealth of material before them. Every
southern city and plantation are vocal with the past history of our
race. From the past and the present, from our achievements and our
suffering, the Negro writer, whether poet, novelist or historian, will
deliver our message to the world.
SECOND PAPER.
THE NEGRO AS A WRITER.
BY WALTER I. LEWIS.
[Illustration: Prof. W. I. Lewis]
WALTER I. LEWIS.
Walter I. Lewis was born near Chester, S. C. No record
having been kept, it is not possible to determine the date
of his birth. Walter is the third of seven children that
were born to William Charles and Mollie Lewis who were
slaves to a man by the name of W. T. Gilmore.
He successfully passed from the common schools to the
preparatory department of Biddle University.
Walter I. Lewis graduated with the second honor of his class
of five from Biddle University, in Charlotte, N. C., and at
once began his life-work, public school teaching, at
Spartanburg, S. C.
After teaching in that city for three years, two of which he
succeeded in securing a sufficient donation from the Peabody
Fund to have the school term increased from five to nine
months, he accepted an appointment under the Freedmen's
Board of the Presbyterian Church, to take charge of their
parochial school in Columbia, Tenn.
Special inducements were offered him to take a position in
the newly organized graded schools of that city, and he
resigned the parochial school after serving one year, and
accepted work with the graded school. This he found
congenial and won special distinction in using the phonetic
method of teaching primary pupils, that system being newly
introduced there then.
Having a turn for political contests he vigorously entered
local political campaigns, generally on the winning side,
and won some distinction as a campaign orator.
Mr. Lewis came to Florida in 1890, as corresponding
secretary of the Afro-American Chautauqua Association, whose
president was the lamented Dr. J. C. Price.
The failure of that enterprise was a withering blow to Mr.
Lewis.
After remaining in Florida for nearly a year, at
Tallahassee, Mr. Lewis became field correspondent and agent
for the Florida Sentinel, then published in Gainesville.
In 1892, Mr. Lewis got a position as city editor on the
Labor Union Recorder of Savannah. For a time his activity
seemed to be equal to the task of redeeming that paper, but,
the entailments of indebtedness were too great. It went
under.
He was urged to go to Jacksonville to enter the office of
the Jacksonville "Advocate"; the inducements being
flattering he went. He served the "Advocate" until the
"Daily American" was established. He was on the "Daily
American" as its city editor, and was on deck when that
sheet went down.
In the winter of 1895-96, necessity demanded a better daily
news for the colored people of Jacksonville. This was
secured at the office of the "Metropolis," one of the most
successful afternoon papers that is published in the whole
South.
Mr. Lewis was put on as reporter for his race, on the staff
of the "Metropolis," and has held this place continuously
ever since.
He is a firm believer in the survival of the fittest in all
things, and declares this is the key to the solution of the
race problem.
On the stage, on the platform, in the pulpit and in conversation, the
Negro has demonstrated a power in the use of speech that has well won
him a merited distinction. This fluency and force of language, so
often found in striking disparity to his other attainments, has armed
critics and students of his racial peculiarities with the opinion that
talking is his peculiar forte.
Such an opinion does not obtain, however, in the face of noble
examples of this race who have the art of forcibly and correctly
writing great thoughts.
The great cause of the Christian religion has furnished the field for
more writers of this race than any other. This is noted, not as a
fault, but rather to confirm the fact that since the emancipation, the
training of the Negro, both at school and in his home, has been
largely religious, owing to his inborn susceptibility to religious
impressions, and his well known proneness to abide by the teachings of
his fathers; it is no marvel that the major portion of his written
thoughts should be deeply tinged with religious ideas.
Even in his occasional contributions to current literature, and when
he is making an attack or a defense, right often does the religious
effusion predominate.
Until about twenty years ago, rare were the instances where Negro
writers had produced books and other productions on other than
religious subjects. And even at the present the number of secular
writers is not large, considering the opportunities for writers of
this class and the profits available. There are certain advantages,
strange to relate, that the Negro has, that might be called natural.
The great realm of thought, through which fiction and mental analysis
holds undisputed sway, is not circumscribed by caste and other
invidious discriminations as are most other avenues, through which the
bravest souls essay to traverse, but are either crushed down or are
ejected. Perhaps this is why, in cases that have doubtless come under
the observation of all readers of the productions of Negro writers,
there is a tendency toward recklessness.
But it will be equitable and fair to take under consideration only
those Negro writers, who have won more or less distinction as such,
while discussing the Negro as a writer.
From Alexander Dumas to the latest celebrity among Negro writers, the
close observer of racial traits is furnished with vivid evidences of
methods of thought that are peculiar to this people. In imagery, there
is that floridity that goes dazzling to the sublime with a brilliancy
that is captivating. If sorrow is depicted, his course through its
horrible depths brings a shudder over the most listless reader. If
happiness is to be portrayed, the coziest nook in Elysium is laid
bare. If anger pleads for expression, no bolt from Vulcan's anvil has
ever fallen with so crushing a clang.
The Negro writer is prolific in detail. Situation follows situation in
rapid success, demanding close attention to keep clear of the meshes
of involvement. The writings of the Negro are full of soul. If, at
times, there is a lacking of aptness in conventional adjustments, the
hiatus is beautifully abridged with a freshness and wealth of
expression that fully atones.
The Negro writer has it largely in his power to demonstrate the higher
possibilities and capabilities of his race. As long as there is a
Charles W. Chestnut, or a Paul Lawrence Dunbar, a T. Thomas Fortune,
and others, whose writings are read by the thousands of literary
people of this country and England, so long will there be an
irrefutable argument for the intellectual worth of the Negro race.
It is within the power of the Negro writer to practically and
profitably demonstrate the oft repeated aphorism, "Genius is not the
plant of any particular soil."
It should be a matter of some congratulation to the Negro that the
great publishing houses of this country are not, and never will be,
located at the great centers of race prejudice. A manuscript of merit
can easily find publication. Within recent years it has been noticed
that the vein of seriousness that has run through the writings of
Negro authors is fading away, and a jollity that is his own is taking
its place. Most of the men and women of the race, who have written
enough to win public notice, are known to be persons of a cheerful and
jovial disposition. For such a person to live in the role of the
miserable is at least a misrepresentation.
The Negro's aptness in detecting the facetious, even in things that
are serious; his laughing soul that places a bouquet of joy and
sunshine where the somber draping of woe would so often be found, is
his God-given stock in trade upon which he can do business for
generations to come. This secret is being discovered by him. This
discovery will yet furnish the great world of letters with men and
women of this race, who will place millions under tribute to
graciously acknowledge the beneficence.
The way to favor and preferment for the Negro writer is to be made by
himself. The epic of his race awaits a writer. The drama of an
unwritten history covering about four centuries will welcome the
facile pen of some gifted son or daughter. The well nigh inexhaustible
field of folk-lore of his own people is ready to be told to the world,
whether in the crude dialect of the race, or in Americanized English,
it matters little. It will make no difference. The English speaking
people of both continents will read it if it is written by a master.
It is not at all taken for granted, admitted, or intimated, that the
Negro writer of the present century is oblivious to any of these
facts. Just as the "coon" melodies have captured the musical realms of
this country, and will remain in the saddle for some time yet; just as
Negro singers and actors are honorably invading the progressive end of
the American stage, so will Negro writers swarm in the great field of
writers, bringing with them a supply of freshness of genius, that will
rejuvenate and give fresh life to the literature of this country.
This is a domain that mocks at legislative restrictions, caste,
exclusionism and what not. Those who will enter and maintain their
ground will be few. All of the stars in the heavens are not fast
flying meteors. There never was such a thing as an army of sages.
Mindful of the fact that his antecedence is small in the world of
letters, the Negro writer is the more ardently inspired when he looks
beyond and catches sight of golden fields into which no swarthy hand
has thrust a sickle.
The world wants more joy; the world cries for more sunshine; the world
begs for a laugh. Mankind gloats over the depiction of deeds both
noble and ignoble. The world delights in that which is novel. The
Negro is a son of caloric. His presence is sunshine. He tells a story
leaving nothing out. He is himself a novelty, and it will not be too
far in the twentieth century before he will take pity on the world and
mankind and write them what they like.
THIRD PAPER.
THE NEGRO AS A WRITER.
BY G. M. McClellan.
[Illustration: Prof. G. M. McClellan]
GEORGE MARION McCLELLAN.
The objection is often raised against schools of higher
education for the Negro race that these people need
instruction, not in Latin, history, geometry and moral
science, but in scientific farming and geometric bed making.
The leaven of truth in this assertion makes a plump denial
hard to return; while its leaven of error is a reminder of
the old antislavery assumption that till the end of time the
Negro must be a hewer of wood and drawer of water, with no
mental life to speak of. This error is best confuted by
proof of the race's actually wide range of intellectual
demands, imaginative sympathies, moral questionings; and for
this reason, if for no other, one thanks Mr. George Marion
McClellan for venturing on the publication of his verses.
This gentleman is a graduate of Fisk University, as he tells
us in the interesting and modest preface to his volume. Thus
he belongs to the first generation since the War. His
parents, he indicates, were slaves, and his early home was
upon the "Highland Rim" of Tennessee, amid the poverty of a
freedman father's little farm. These things well weighed,
the refined love of nature, the purity of sentiment, the
large philosophy, the delicacy of expression which his poems
display, are sufficiently marvelous. One must, perhaps, deny
him the title of "poet" in these days when verse writers are
many. His ear for rhythm is fatally defective, while, so far
as one may judge from the few dates appended to the poems,
the later productions seem not to be the best. Nevertheless,
his little volume stimulates to large reviews and fair
anticipations. It is a far cry from "Swing low, sweet
chariot"--an articulate stirring of poetic fancy, but hardly
more than that--to Mr. McClellan's "September Night, in
Mississippi":
"Begirt with cotton fields, Anguilla sits,
Half birdlike, dreaming on her summer nest
Amid her spreading figs and roses still
In bloom with all their spring and summer hues.
Pomegranates hang with dapple cheeks full ripe,
And over all the town a dreamy haze
Drops down. The great plantations stretching far
Away are plains of cotton, downy white.
Oh, glorious is this night of joyous sounds.
Too full for sleep Aromas wild and sweet
From muscadine, late-booming jessamine
And roses all the heavy air suffuse.
Faint bellows from the alligators come
From swamps afar where sluggish lagoons give
To them a peaceful home. The katydids
Make ceaseless cries. Ten thousand insects' wings
Stir in the moonlight haze, and joyous shouts
Of Negro song and mirth awake hard by
The cabin dance. Oh, glorious is the night!
The summer sweetness fills my heart with songs.
I cannot sing; with loves I cannot speak."
If many thoughts and feelings such as these lie folded in
Southern cabins, let us not deny, for their unfolding, the
genial influences of literature and history and the
sciences. The race that possesses such powers, even though
undeveloped in the great majority of its members, needs Fisk
and Atlanta educated pastors and teachers.
"The pen is mightier than the sword." It would have seemed idle to
have said this at the mouth of the mountain pass at Thermopylæ with
Leonidas and his immortal Spartan heroes all lying dead amid the wreck
made by the mighty host of Xerxes. A century afterward, at Cannæ, one
sixth of the whole population of Rome lay dead on the battlefield by
the sword thrust. Where was the might of the pen to compare with this?
The might of the sword at Thermopylæ, together with the concluding
events at Salamis, turned back the Persian hordes and thereby saved
the Greek civilization for Europe. Again, after the blood of Cannæ, at
Zama, Hannibal was utterly broken and Carthage, with her attending
civilization, was doomed to everlasting death, while Rome, her mighty
adversary, with her eagles and short sword, carried her dominion and
her splendid civilization from England to India. One more great
movement in the world illustrating the power of the sword is too
tempting to pass by in this connection. From the deserts of Arabia a
fanatical dreamer came forth claiming a new revelation from God and as
a chosen prophet to give the world a new religion. His pretentions at
first caused his expulsion from Mecca, together with a small and
insignificant band of followers. Yet because of these it was not long
until there came from out the desert the sound of the marching of a
mighty host, heralding the approach of the Arab, the despising and
despised. Before these barbarous hordes the principalities of the East
were doomed to crumble and yield up their accumulated treasures of the
ages, and so triumphant were these invaders from the desert they
decided to appropriate for themselves the whole world, and from this
they were not _dissuaded_ until Charles Martel sent them back from
Tours and out of Europe, together with their hateful civilization. So
it would seem from these and all other mighty movements of races and
tribes, men and nations, the sword has ever been the arbiter. Yet over
all the mighty sweep of events and the _stupendous_ results of the
sword-thrust throughout the ages, comes this insinuating claim, "The
pen is mightier than the sword." And when we consider the whole of
accumulated philosophy, the onward march of science and human thought,
and the consequent development of the human race, the comparative
might of the sword becomes insignificant before the less demonstrative
power of the conquering pen. And here comes the question, which in
some phase or other comes up in all great questions of America, "What
part has the Negro in the might of the pen?" Nobody doubts that the
great movements of the world at present, let their primary
manifestations be military or political, scientific or industrial,
have any other great lever than knowledge and sentiment brought into
notice and activity by writers.