deemed of higher social standing than the husband, the son
took the maternal surname. Tucker was sent, at a tender age,
to a school located in the family territory. Such was his
rapid progress that in a few years he had acquired English
sufficiently enough to read and write it about as well as
the average child of his age in this country.
In the summer of 1856 he came to the United States to
complete his education. Having just completed the English
course in the public schools of Oberlin, Ohio, he entered
college and completed the course in 1865. He then crossed
over into Kentucky and opened day and night schools for the
education of the newly freed race.
From Kentucky he removed to Louisiana, where the climate was
more congenial to his tropical constitution. During his
residence of many years in that State he was employed most
of the time in the customs service with chances of
preferment to higher and more lucrative posts, which he
never sought nor cared for. His tastes have always inclined
him to the more quiet and private walks of life, where he
can promote the welfare of his fellow men, without show and
the applause of the giddy crowd.
President Grant once advised him that he intended to offer
him the Liberian Mission, but Tucker was so indifferent in
the honor that he made no effort to be commissioned.
Anxious to pass away from official duties, he studied law
and entered on practice in New Orleans. This profession was
so fully in keeping with his tastes he hoped to pursue it
the rest of his days. Finding that his legal training
practically restricted him only to Louisiana, he removed to
Florida and located at Pensacola. He was admitted to
practice, and with it he rose rapidly both in knowledge of
the common law and in securing a paying clientage. He stood
high with the bar, from judge and attorneys to officials. He
saw every prospect of realizing the fond dream of his
ambition when once again a call of duty to serve God's
humble children came in stentorious tones. The State in 1887
had founded a Normal and Industrial School for the training
of Colored teachers. A telegram unexpectedly announced that
Tucker had been elected by the State Board of Education to
take the management of it. He demurred, he objected; but
leading Colored men and the Chief Executive importuned and
requested his acceptance of the place. By patient
perseverance and tact he succeeded in enlisting the hearty
good will of all classes to the maintenance of the
institution. The history of his work is a part of the
educational records. Many men and women of worth and saving
influence in their respective communities in Florida owe
their training to the devoted consecration to duty of this
native of the "Dark Continent." The school itself will ever
remain a lasting monument to his tireless, efficient
devotion to the welfare of his race.
He retired from the field of his labors at the close of the
fourteenth year, carrying with him universal regret for his
departure, and the esteem and respect of the whole State and
the acclamations of good will, especially of the people of
the capital in which the Normal School is located.
It requires no stretch of thought to understand our constant and
earnest interest in everything which concerns our environments. Every
question and issue of national significance have for us a vital
consideration for weal or woe. We scan with greedy eagerness the
expressed policy of the statesman, we hang with bated breath on the
eloquence of the sentiment moulder, we probe with tremulous care the
feelings of the community to find out if we have been pushed to the
rear or given a fair chance in the race to a higher life--our final
place in American life.
While we are not, and should never be, unmindful of all interests
which appertain to others in this vast country of which we form such a
necessary part, it is natural and right that our first thought should
be of our own welfare.
The position we are to definitely assume and maintain in the
distinctive American civilization now in process of formation, is yet
concealed in the womb of futurity; we can neither anticipate nor force
it against the period of its advent. While we are passing through this
slow process of development, it is well at times to take a reckoning
of our race powers by way of encouragement to such as may become faint
and weary in the combat. All are not strong, all are not determined,
all are not forceful. The fiercest courage will now and then lose its
force when battling against steady odds. Moreover, our shortcomings,
like the shirt of Nessus, are not only with us ever, but they are on
constant exhibition to shame, mortify and humiliate us. While it is
not sensible to shut our eyes to these painful reminders of the
obstacles to our progress, while it is even best to invite a searching
scrutiny of them to the end that they may be torn off by heroic
methods, if need be, after all an occasional study of our strong parts
is a help in the struggle.
DISCARD SELF GRATULATION.
In the attempt to reflect on the staying powers of the race, I have
not the remotest idea of pandering to conceit or vanity, to the
contrary, I decry any disposition to extol and magnify whatever we
are subjectively, and whatever we have achieved. The fierce conflicts
we have undergone and the terrible crucible through which the cruel
hand of fate promises to pass us, dispel the idea of self gratulation.
Life for us in the conflict ahead is all stern and serious. Wounds and
scars will for generations yet to come be the decorations for our
leaders in thought and action; there is no niche in the edifice
consecrated to our present and coming heroes for fulsome, windy
flatteries airing their importance to the galleries. Hearts true and
stout charged with big emotions to raise and elevate their suffering
kind to a higher plane, should be the only thinkers to claim our
considerate attention and command our homage.
THEME UNDER CONSIDERATION.
In the theme I have chosen for this paper, I shall endeavor to show
that the latent and active attributes of the negro eminently adapt him
to be classed among the survivals of the fittest in the family of
races. Before proceeding, however, to a formal discussion of the
subject, it might not be amiss for a minute or two, to take a running
retrospect of the race since its advent into its present civil life.
The three decades which mark the close of our Civil War have perhaps
not only written history more broadly in the behalf of humanity in
general as interpreted by Christian civilization, than any other
similar period, but they have been the most momentous in shaping the
national life by moulding and settling policies of a lasting nature.
The admission of millions, of what is termed an alien race into the
solution of an untried problem of government by the people, rendered
that problem still more difficult, hence, wild and extravagant
speculations bearing on the future of the Negro and the questionable
influence of his changed relations on American life, became the
current literature of the country for two decades. Friends spoke in
fulsome praise or doubtful measure, according to conviction, while
enemies protested in exultant tone that a generation or two hence
would suffice to write the Negro's epitaph. But even in that early
period of his infancy, had the nation been disposed to study him with
other than preconceived, erroneous views, it might have perceived
traits which justified the wisdom implied in his changed condition.
Thus far, if he has not risen to the dizzy heights to which the hopes
of ardent enthusiasts invited him, he has at least, not only belied
the gloomy fate of inglorious extinction, but he is going forward with
steady strides to realize an honorable destiny in common with the many
other people of the Republic.
ORIGIN OF A STRONG RACE.
A strong race, like marked personality, is the product of varied and
opposing agencies. As in nature when conflicting elements struggle for
the mastery and bear the impress of the strongest, so in the evolution
of a forceful people, its character takes on the form of the means
that has been most efficacious in moulding it. There is no instance in
the authentic annals of the human family where a masterly people has
emerged into greatness from the tame school of gentle methods. Trials
keen and severe, have first slashed, cut and tortured the entire being
in mind and soul to fit it for the new life it is to enjoy in
accordance with its destined end. What has ever been thus will always
be so.
QUALITIES INDICATING THE NEGRO'S SURVIVAL.
In this law of nature, in the formation of dominant powers, the Negro
has no favor to expect. He must pass through the fiery furnace and be
shorn of dross to leave the solid matter which is to constitute the
framework of his strength. First among the many qualities of survival
which distinguish him as an enduring race, is patient endurance and
fortitude under affliction. The elastic temperament of the race in the
ability to adapt itself to varying conditions, in swaying with the
force of the tempest until the fury of it is spent, in seizing with
instinct on circumstances that tend to save, is something not only
amazing, but marvelous. No oppression however heavy, no ebullition of
wrath however fiery, can swerve him from the road he has chosen to
attain his purpose as a part of the pulsating life of this nation.
From a dogged determination to butt aside forces which contained the
elements of his salvation, the Indian has passed into a retreat closed
to contact with the active life of the dominant power of the land. On
the other hand, the future of the parent race of the American Negro in
the dark continent is bright with hope from its ready assimilation of
the civilizing agencies of European civilization. In obedience to this
self-evident law of survival, Japan has entered on a new existence,
while its neighbor, China, the home of a kindred race, bids fair to
become the easy prey of Western greed.
STRENGTH, NOT WEAKNESS.
Now this easy swaying to conditions, when his welfare is in hazard,
and for which the superficial thinker twits the negro with lack of
manliness, is one of the strongest elements of his being. Were he less
malleable than he is, less ready to concede where contention can only
work him woe, were he wont to resent in wild and reckless fury, real
or fancied wrongs, were he too obtuse to perceive and profit by the
passing advantage, were he to remove his cause from the bar of reason,
and the verdict of a calm judgment he would neither be imbibing the
civilization of his native land, nor would he have achieved a tithe of
the wonderful progress which is to-day the vindication of his freedom,
and at the same time the shame and confusion of those who foretold his
ignominious passing away. Patience pure and simple, coupled with, and
gracing a quiet heroism, has enabled him to bridge over the earlier
days of his trials, and confirm his status in the body politic to the
general acceptance of the American people.
THE NEGRO'S WARFARE, MORAL AND MENTAL.
The honor which waits on material contest counts for little to the
Negro's advantage. Indeed, if the strife with which he is confronted
were to be waged on such an issue, the result could be foretold in
advance. His warfare is moral and mental, and by the arts of peace he
is to be left a cipher or rise in triumph to honorable destiny.
Physical courage which the negro shows largely in common with other
races has its trophies blazoned in marble and brass only to crumble
beneath the corroding tooth of time. The warfare of mind and heart
which ever calls in evidence only the highest courage of man's nature
leaves its achievement to immortal fame to grow with the ages till
time surrenders it to Eternity.
WHAT HAS BEEN ACCOMPLISHED.
By the exercise of this gentle but potent virtue of learning to labor
and to wait, we have mined our way into the heart of educational
authorities to grant such of our sons and daughters as are competent
the privilege of becoming preceptors to the youth of the race. By the
nurture of the same virtue, our slender means have tickled the greed
of capital to call us away from obscure streets and narrow lanes that
we may enjoy a wider range of selection of homes befitting higher
tastes and growing ambition. Go, if you will, into the Southern
section of our country where the bulk of our race resides, and there
you will find by this same sturdy persistence to wait on time for a
reward that schools, colleges, churches and business enterprises are
being built and maintained. Prejudices which retard our progress are
crumbling to pieces.
THE OPTIMISTIC TEMPERAMENT.
The cheerful sunny temperament of the Negro is another of the many
sturdy qualities which declare his fitness to withstand the blows of
adverse fortune. His long training in the school of mental and moral
darkness wherein he had need to cultivate a sanguine temperament to
buoy him up, stands proof against dark forebodings and pessimism. The
grotesque and the ludicrous find in him a joyous patron. Where others
count and bewail their woes, he sees only sunshine. Gloom and sorrow
melt away at his approach, while his features are ever radiant with
mirth and joy. His head is up and erect with every sense attuned to
the bright, and dead to the doleful. He thanks God that the lot
apportioned him is fashioned by infallible wisdom, while he munches
with contentment the humble crust that honest toil has brought him.
Malevolence towards his fellow men is at the most a passing emotion.
Wealth and the happiness attendant on it, he neither envies nor mars.
He asks a chance to live, no matter how sumptuously others may fare
beyond his condition. Such a being is forever beyond the pale of
anarchy, and other tendencies which work to the detriment of society.
In this portraiture I have drawn no ideal, but the average Negro as he
is known of all men.
In peace and in war such a being is an invaluable factor in a nation's
well being. As he does not envy the class which fortune has blest with
good things of this world, he therefore breeds no feeling of ill will
by which he might seek to level conditions, while he is equally ready
to assume his share of the dangers consequent on the maintenance of
the existing order of affairs.
PATRIOTISM OF THE RACE.
Another marked characteristic of race strength is love of country. The
only race in this country which has more than a shadow of excuse to be
indifferent to the nation's welfare is the Negro. Not unlike the dog
in the fable whose devotion to his master's interest was recognized
only after the sacrifice of life in that master's service, the Negro's
love for his country in the civil service, on the tented field, and
wherever sincere devotion should command the highest commendation, is
commonly rewarded with cold indifference, or at least with damnable
praise, and yet when driven, as it were, with brutal kicks and cuffs
from the service and defense of his country's honor, he hangs on to
the outer folds of its flag with a grim determination to maintain its
glory as though that duty had been specially entrusted him by heaven.
And herein again he shows the instinct of self-preservation, as people
who would seek to become an appreciable power in the public affairs of
their country, must be alive to every vital interest pertaining to it.
To become rooted it must maintain an unyielding grasp. That the Negro
is to-day only a passive member in the affairs of government, does not
argue that his unflagging patriotism will not finally gain its reward.
That he is quietly working now at long range to prepare himself for
citizenship, means that he will in due time enter into that rich
inheritance. The foaming stream is not the water carrying most matter
into the ocean; the deep current which gives no evidence on its
surface is the hydraulic force which forms the Delta. And so it is
with the latent influence of Negro patriotism. In every essential
matter pertaining to national welfare, however keen his grievance,
fancied or real, his regard for the honor of the government and the
maintenance of its power, induces him to throw his head-gear in air,
out-yell the lustiest lung in the crowd and attest his enthusiasm by
demoniac courage on the field of battle.
The chief magistrate of the nation is stricken down in the vigor of
manhood and in the fullness of power. In the exercise of his great
office morally and otherwise, without going out of his way, he might
have benefited the race. But although he had no special claim to the
Negro's regard, yet his untimely taking off has been lamented by none
more sincerely than by our race. In country, in town, in state, in
every section, the Negro is broadly American. Nothing that concerns
this country is foreign to him, but with all there is to discourage
him, what is the outcome of such steady, magnificent devotion to duty?
Geologists affirm that the wondrous chasm of Niagara is the creation
of trickling drops of water during myriads of ages. In like manner,
the fervent, unflagging patriotism of the Negro is slowly but surely
crumbling away the granite of American prejudice to give him a
permanent place in the national life of this country. A nation, the
bulb of which comes of a race whose love of fair play is proverbial
and goes with them into every land and clime, will be constrained in
the end to recognize and confirm the merit the race is developing as a
strong pillar in the edifice of state.
In the heat of that terrific contest at Waterloo where charge after
charge of the imperial guard seemed likely to consign the fate of
Europe to the absolute sway of the little Corsican, Wellington
exclaimed, to such of his staff as still remained around him, "Hot
pounding this, gentlemen." But the day was at last won, and the
endangered constitutional liberty of Europe leaped forth from the sea
of blood, to inspire man with new hope and aspiration. As a race, we
are struggling for life. Our hopes and fears are trembling in the
balance against might, power, and moss-covered prejudices. A
continuous pounding, directed by the impulse of a will to do, dare and
succeed, will bring us victory.
But, says the carping critic, if the Negro were less patient,
forbearing and more combative, if he risked less for country, and
gloried more in deeds of heroism for his personal defense, he would
lie truer to his self-preservation. Other races placed in condition
quite similar to the Negroes have tried the experiment, and failed.
They opposed simple brute force to intelligence, and they went down in
the contest either to extinction or to servitude. The Britons gave way
to Saxon numbers and tougher sinews, the latter bent the neck to
Norman intelligence, bided their time and brought the victor down to
an equality of rights and privileges. If the Negro should attempt
another way, he would soon be undone.
ADAPTABILITY TO ENVIRONMENTS.
Again the adaptability of the race to environments constitutes one of
the means of his endurance. In servitude as in freedom, no conditions
have yet been so vigorous that the negro has not been able to adjust
himself with ease. Indeed, it is not a figure of speech to assert that
wherever he has suffered the most, there he has given the best proof
of his vitality. His acquisition of wealth, his possession of material
means in general, has been most rapid in parts where he has most
obstacles to confront and encounter. He not only laughs at his
misfortunes, but turns them to account. When he is ground down beyond
the point of greatest resistance, he leaves for new and untried
regions, with a radiant hope for a better fate. He goes to the
semi-arctic lands of the West, readily becomes domesticated, and so
insinuates himself into the hard, prosaic customs of the country that
he at once becomes, in so far as he is not debarred from the rules of
labor organizations, a sharp competitor with the wage-earner in the
strife for bread. His blood has no lazy microbes to dam the current of
its movement. Assure him of reasonable compensation, and his brawny
arm is bared to the pick and the mattox. His ax and hoe and plow drag
out wealth from mine and soil.
ACTIVE EVERYWHERE.
Wherever his lot is cast, there he enters with zest into the live
sentiment of the community. No thought born of enterprise within the
scope of his comprehension, no undertaking to enhance the common
wealth fail to enlist his good will. He will at least talk for it and
praise it, even if he has not a cent to invest. However limited by
industrial conditions to few and humble ways of acquiring a
livelihood, his scanty earnings are on the market to give healthy
circulation to the arteries of trade. Merchants welcome him to open
doors, and small dealers meet him with graceful smiles knowing he has
come to apply the move-on ordinance to the jingling coin in his
pocket. In church and school, in the pulpit and on the rostrum, his
desire to fall in with the prevailing spirit to promote the betterment
of the community, is equally pronounced.
Take as a sample the spirit of the race to absorb elevating influence
from the dominant class. The African Methodist Episcopal Church is a
race organization which justly challenges the admiration of every one
of us no matter of what creed or sect. A race which in about one
generation from a condition of base servitude can be so lively to a
sense of its spiritual wants and the public weal as to advance enough
to create such an organization is no mean factor in any age or
country. In the show of this receptive capacity, it declares its
eternal fitness to live and thrive under the blaze of the most
searching civilization in the history of the world.
Take moreover, the many worthy bodies founded in the last quarter of a
century for moral, mental and social elevation. All these have been
inspired by the thought that if the race would hold its own, it must
emulate the spirit of the country and age in which it lives.
Truly, if our coming to this land was involuntary, the genius of our
being has built a home which can only be abandoned at our own will.
THE END.
I am admonished that this paper must come to a close. I am compelled
to omit even by mere mention many of the exemplary virtues of the
race. I have, however, touched on just enough to furnish the enquiring
mind with deductions. Even the pessimist is constrained to admit that,
under the circumstances, as a whole, the race has made a remarkable
record, and that chiefly, because of the qualities with which he is
endowed. Many historic races who have dominated mankind, made less
rapid progress than we, at the point we have reached. This remarkable
advancement may be ascribed in the main to the superior attributes
which give us a flexible and well balanced temperament.
The hardships the race undergoes in this period of development
constitute the necessary training school and the virtues which spring
thence are intended as much for the betterment of the other race as
for our own. We are to soften their stern qualities, while our life is
to take on some of the iron of their soul.
That our nature will be largely modified by the necessities of our
growth must be an accepted fact, but our merit, worth and fitness in
American life will substantially be the product of our qualities as
they are to-day. The past gives us assurance of glorious possibilities
to come. Just how far and to what extent we are to realize the
fruition of our cherished dreams of rising to the full height of
honorable manhood vests chiefly with us. God has endowed us with the
capacity to suffer and undergo the trials incident to race
development. If we can recognize the need for this training, severe
though it be, if we do not chafe and fume and fret and get angry
because our deliverance has not come, we may well be comforted in the
meanwhile that any device of man to deny us a share in the government
of a common heritage in this land consecrated by heaven to suffering
humanity, will prove a complete failure.
TOPIC XXX.
THE SIGNS OF A BRIGHTER FUTURE FOR THE AMERICAN NEGRO.
BY REV. F. J. GRIMKE, D. D.
[Illustration: Rev. F. J. Grimke, D. D.]
FRANCIS J. GRIMKE, D. D.