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ORGAN OF THE AFRICAN METHODIST EPISCOPAL ZION CHURCH IN AMERICA.
Volume XXII.
_
Charlotte, N. C., Thursday, October 6,1898.
Number 42.
* THE SOUTHERN NEGRO
Some Evidences cf His Progress
Since the War.
ELOQUENT LECTURE. ,
A good-sized audience greeted
Bishop George W. Clinton, D. D.,
of Charlotte, N. C., who lectured
at Douglass Memorial A. M. E.
Zion Church last svening on the
“Evidences of Progress Among
Negroes of the South.” Bishop
Clinton said in part: “There are
two ways by which we must de
cide whether the Negro of the
South has made any substantial
progress. First, h is he made good
use of the help which has been
given him from abroad; second,
has he shown a disposition to help
himself by making good use of his
freedom and the advantages which
freedom has brought him?
“You all know what was his
condition when “reed. He was
homeless, ignorant and debased.
Friends from the North came or
sent means to help him. School
houses and churches have taken
the places of wade places, huts
and slave pens. In thirty-three
years the percentage of ignorance
has been reduced among the Ne
groes so that the progress mado.,
along this line of intellectual cul
ture surpasses anything known in
the history of races. It is ac
knowledged by some not so favor
able to Negro education that he
3as made good use of the help
iven him in the way of school
nouses and churck es.
“The progress of the Negro in
morals and religion has been no
less phenomenal. In slavery time
he,was little more than a human
animal, used to increase his own
er’s wealth. Since freedom has
come to him he has built homes
by the thousand, bought land in
such quantities that in a single
State he owns land enough to fur
nish every family in that State
with eight acres of land. In many
States the Negro is launching in
dustrial enterprises of his own.
“One of the most healthy^ signs
of real progress among the Ne
groes of the South is the new
woman, who is being developed
since freedom came. There is
certainly a new woman in the
South so far as the Negro women
^re concerned, ar d the number is
being increased daily. Three and
five-room cottagus, with intelli
gent wives and cultured daugh
ters are springing up by the score
6ach year.
“The real educated and Chris
tianized Negro is the model citizen
of the South to-day. The so
lalled social problem in the South
is a mere biig-befir. The truth of
the matter is there are growing up
in the South two cultured races.
The cultured white people, as a
rule, do not corns in contact wuth
the cultured Negro in a social way.
The Negro employed by this class
of people are those who^rew wood,
drawT water and wait on the white
-folks. As there are certain white
ij v
people who form a distinct class,
so there is growing up and rapidly
increasing a cultured class of Ne
groes which can mingle only with
itself. This class of Negroes no
more desire or seek the society of
white people than the whites de
sire or seek their society.
“All over the South wealth, ed
ucation and general progress can
be noted. The South is the battle
ground where the Negro is des
tined to reach the highest plane of
progress. The following figures,
which are authentic, will give you
some idea of what the Negro has
accomplished in education. There
are more than 25,000 teachers,
1,512,800 pupils in public schools,
to which may be added 20,000 who
attend private schools, 80,000 at
tending mechanical institutes and
others attending normal schools.
There are 63 Negro college presi
dents, TOO Negro lawyers, and
1,200 graduates in medicine and
pharmacy. In thirty-three years,
according to Dr. Palmore, of the
St. Louis, Mo., Christian Advo
cate, organ of the M. E. Church,
South, the Negro has accumulated
$650,000,000 worth of property.”
—Elmira {N. Y.) Daily Adver
tiser.
SOMETHING WILL DROP VET.
BY REV. J. J. ADAMS.
Some of the leading men of the
Church favor woman ordination,
but happily the opinions expressed
are not the opinions of the Church.
Some twelve years ago the word
“ male ” was eliminated from our
book of Discipline for the purpose
of giving women equal rights in the
“ political economy” of the Church
and this I believe to be right;
for taxation without representa
tion was declared wrong from the
foundation of our free American
government, and is none the less
(true in Church as well as State. It
is this that the advance of all ad
vanced women and some ministers
are taking advantage of just now.
When General Conference meets
in 1900 in Washington, D. C., if I
am not mistaken, somebody will
hear something drop. I believe
in advanced thought and an ad
vanced Church, but when they get
ahead of Christ who established,
and is the head of the Church, then
it is time to stop. Woman was
created as a helpmeet for man, and
in her sphere is the equal and
ofttimes the superior of man. Be
yond this she cannot go without
meeting a just criticism that for
gets her sex. She should always
remember that while prudence,
modesty and virtue are her jewels,
she will ever be the queen before
whose throne honest men will pay
their greatest homage. Some of
us are only waiting to get to the
next General Conference.
Petersburg, Va.
A collection amounting to $165.00 was
taken at West Street A. M. E. Zion
church, Sunday, for church indebted
ness.—Carlisle (Pa.) Sentinel.
DON’T LUKE THE NAME
I Have Unalterable and Abiding
Faith in My Race.
BY BRUCE-GRIT.
My Lear Friend, Dr. Smith:
I thank Eishop Walters most sin
cerely for his great kindness and
good intentions in including my
name among those whom he is
pleased to denominate as “Afro
Americans,’ and as composing the
friends, supporters and sympa
thizers of the movement which
hears this hyphenated name. But
I beg to say that I am, on general
principles, opposed to the term
“Afro-American,” and have no
sympathy for and no interest in
the work of the so called Afro
American League, or its succes
sor, the Afro-American Council;
therefore, I could not consistently
accept the very cordial invitation
extended or threatened, through
the columns of your deservedly
popular ne\!/spaper, to assist with
my humble influence in making
this name popular or in giving en
dorsement to the views set forth
by its late President, Mr. Fortune,
on the question of mixed mar
riages.
1 am unaltewbly and unequivo
cally against Ihe intermarriage of
the Anglo-Saxon, so-called, and
the Negro, and I do not believe it
will ever become fashionable in
this country. I have no quarrel
with those % ho believe that they
see in this course hope for the fu
ture of the Negro, and the ulti
mate breaking down of color-caste
and race proscription. We simply
do no not agree as to methods—
that’s all. Unlike Mr. Fortune I
have unalterable and abiding faith
in my race-f the Negro race—and
I am not yet prepared to denounce
it or renounce it. In all human
history it is families, nations,
races to whom Almighty God has
given mission, and as a race we
have a mission.
i It is the indication of long stand
ing prediction that in art the Ne
gro is destined to a conspicuous
future. What he needs is oppor
tunity—freedom for dais wings.
He carries with him everywhere
the largest germs of the artistic
in poetry and eloquence. All he
needs is training and he is sure to
take a most distinguished place in
the family of nations.
It is a lamentable fact that the
Negro in America has lost self
estimation, and he will have a
mighty struggle to make to retain
it. His greatest hindrances are,
first, the contemptuous opposition
of his formidable enemies; second,
the loveless pity, not seldom con
temptuous pity, of his assertive
white friends (with whom some
“Afro-Americans” would have us
assimilate in order to destroy our
nice type); third, the ignoble atti
tude of these “Afro-Americans”
who are always loud-mouthed Ne- 1
groes when place, or power, or „
office, or money can be gotten on
being, or seeming to be Negroes,
but are only “Afro-Americans,”
when superiority or social posi
tion are aimed after.
The primal need of the Negro
for some years to come is absorp
tion in civilization in all its several
lines as a preparation for civil
functions and the use- of political
power. Just now he is the puppet
of white demagogues and “Afro
American” sycophants.
Nothing is so I disgusting in
American politics to-day as these
professional Negro politicians, so
called. The gross and abominable
selfishness, the low cunning, the
brazea, impudent effrontery, the
open ind .heartless abnegation of
race, the skillful opportunism of
these creatures is something amaz
ing to contemplate.
The civilization under which we
live is white, both consciously and
intensely so, and all the Afro
American Leagues, Afro-Ameri
can Councils, or “Afro-American”
anything else that human ingenu
ity can invent cannot divert that
civilization from the course it has
marked out for itself.
Negro parties, Afro-American
Leagues, etc., etc.* have been im
potent in the past ‘and will be
equally so in the future, because
they appear to have overlooked
the "act that our primal need-is
absorption in the civilization by
which we are environed as a prep
aration for civil functions and the
correct use of the political power
we crave and do not now know
how to use.
I am not nearly so wise or well
informed on these questions as
somei of the gentlemen who pro
fess i;o see daylight for the race
within the charmed circle of the
“Afro-American Council,” but I
am wise enough to understand and
to see that such organizations can
accomplish as little good for the
Negro as those that have preceded
them. I am not a pessimist. I
believe in organization. I believe,
too, that there is only one Negro
race in America, and that its des
tiny will be the destiny of all who
are identified with it by blood, no
matter O^hat iheir complexion,
condition or culture. The Afro
American claims to be the “nat
ural bridge” between ‘the white
man and the black man, and to be
superior in morals and intellect to
the Negro. I cannot subscribe to
this view by acknowledging the
superiority in any particular of a
class among us who owe their ori
gin primarily to the two strongest
races on this continent, viz., the
black man and the white man, and
therefore I decline to be classed as
Afrc-American, and prefer to be
known and called a Negro, of
which name I am neither ashamed
or afraid, because it has had a
glorious past. It will neither ab^
sorb the white race nor be ab
sorbed by that race through inter
marriage, but it will, as time
grows old, absorb the civilization
of the white race and become a 1
, i
[continued ON FIFTH PAGE.J 1
OBJECT OF COUNCIL.
The Amelioration of the Condition
of the Negro.
NATIONAL WORK.
Tbe committee on address then
presented the following, which rep
resented the objects of the Council,
and which was adopted in totum:
LYNCHINGS.
The lynching evil is still with
us, the most grievous ill to which
our race is subjected. Added to
the 10,000 victims ■ of mob law,
who have been hanged, shot and
burned to death without judge or
jury within the last twenty years,
the year 1897 gave 167 victims.
The present year averages about
the same number. For the first
time in the lynching history this
year has furnished a_ case "which
will permit action by the United
States Government. Reference is -
made to the case of Postmaster
Baker, who was shot and burned
to death in Lake City, S. C., be
cause he accepted the office of
postmaster in his town. Men have
been apprehended and charged
with being participators in that
dreadful crime, but they are out
on bail. We recommend that the
executive committee be empow
ered to. carry on the agitation
against lynch law throughout the
length and bread th of the land and
Postmaster Baker’s case in partic
ular.
THE CONVICT LEASE SYSTEM.
The second greatest infamy from
which the race suffers most largely
is the convict lease system, in
vogue in many of the States of the
Union. Men, women and children
are slaves to the State rather than
to the individual, with all the hor
rors of the slave system intensified
a hundred fold. We recommend
that Mrs. Clarissa O. Keeler, of
Washington, D. C., be empowered
to gather statistics and facts on
the subject and preset them to
this body at its next annual sitting.
We especially demand a reforma
tory for youthful criminals to
avoid the prevailing contact of
boys and girls with the hardened
criminals.
THE SEPARATE CAR LAW.
We earnestly recommend that
race newspapers and ministers of
the gospel join hands with us in
the crusade against the separate
car law, and urge the race to do no
traveling more than is absolutely
necessary in the States where thi&
law obtains. The dollars thrown
away in the excursions gotten up
too often by our ministers, will go
a long way toward fighting this
evil.
CUBAN IMMIGRATION''
We recognize the possibilities
which open up to American enter
prise and energy in Cuba and the
newly acquired territory of our
nation. We-believe that special
facilities exist there for rapid de
velopment and substantial success
of plans and purposes prosecuted
by colored Americans, and we
commend an intelligent survey of
the field and prompt action in tak
ing front place with other Ameri
cans who shall seek fortune in that
new territory.
LABOR.
The committee deplored the op
pressive discrimination against the
Negro in almost all lines of indus
trial work and asked for the Ne
gro’s cause to be heard before
the bar of public opinion.