Chapter 2

The basis of this revolution must be character. That is the rock on which our whole race in America is to be built up. Our leaders are to address themselves to this main and master endeavor--viz., to free them from false ideas and injurious habits, to persuade them to the adoption of correct principles, to lift them up to superior modes of living, and so bring forth, as permanent factors in their life, the qualities of thrift, order, virtue, and manliness.

But who are the agents to bring about this grand change in the Negro race? Remember, just here, that all effectual revolutions in a people must be racial in their characteristics. You can't take the essential qualities of one people and transfuse them into the blood of another people, and make them indigenous to them. The primal qualities of a family, a race, a nation are heritable qualities. They abide in their constitution. They remain, notwithstanding the conditions and the changes of rudeness, slavery, civilizations, and enlightenment. It is a law of moral elevation that you must allow the constant abidance of the essential elements of a people's character; therefore when I put the query, Who shall be the agent to raise and elevate our race to a higher plane of being? the answer will at once flash upon your intelligence. It is to be effected by the scholars and philanthropists which come forth in these days from the schools. They are the people to transform, stimulate, and uplift, because it is a work of intelligence; it is a work which demands historic facts and their application to new circumstances.

But these reformers must not be mere scholars. The intellect is to be used, but mainly as the vehicle of mind and spiritual aims, and hence these men must needs be both scholars and philanthropists.

Allow me, in the conclusion of this article, to express the hope that He who holds the hearts of all men will give you the spirit to forget yourselves, and live for the good of man and the glory of God. Such a field and opportunity are graciously opened to you in the conditions and needs of our race in this country. May you and I be equal to them!

LAYING THE CORNER STONE.[A]

(FROM THE DAILY AMERICAN.)

Prof. W. H. Council, Principal of the Normal Industrial School, was the principal speaker of the day. Perhaps few men possess such power over an audience. The manuscript part of his address is herewith given. But the most enthusiastic parts of his speech and the most effective with the audience were his extemporaneous effusions that accompanied the delivery.

[Footnote A: Extract from the speech of W. H. Council delivered at the laying of the corner stone of the Negro Building of the Tennessee Centennial, Nashville, Tenn., March 13, 1897.]

_ADDRESS._

These occasions mark the evolution of Southern thought and industry, and the result of the self-directed energy of the negro. Here on this spot the world may see the other side of Negro life than "Sam Johnson, the chicken thief." Here it may see the healthful buds of Negro handicraft, Negro art, science, literature, invention. Here the world may see the hitherto giant energies of a mighty people waking into conscious activity. Here on this spot the nations may place their ears to the ground and hear the industrious tread of millions of black feet--hear the beats of millions of noble hearts beneath black skins and catch the thrill of these on coming millions to be felt in the industrial and literary world.

Here on this spot the old master who followed Lee's tattered banners over the snow-covered hills of Virginia down to Appomattox sacrifices his pro-slavery ideas, and builds a monument to Negro fidelity and industry; and here the Negro brings the product of his brain and hand in grateful testimony to the friendly feelings between us. I challenge the annals of man to present so beautiful a spectacle!

This opportunity given to us to display what we have accomplished in our three hundred years' struggle from barbarism to industrious Christian liberty, right here in the Egypt of our bondage, is one of the bravest acts of the brave and chivalrous people. And I am not slow to recognize the fact that we received much more from slavery than did the slaveholder. Only as we recede from Appomattox, and only as the echoes of Fort Sumter's bloody guns die away in gentle murmurs of the music of love around the altars of faith and hope, only as memories of former hates shall have been drowned in the Red Sea of brotherly love, and the good things which we have done for each other come like angels into conscious view, will the old master and the old slave know what helps they have been to each other. We must love. We cannot afford to hate.

Negro history has solved the Negro problem from the Negro side. There still remains the Caucasian problem. In view of what the Negro has done for this country, in view of what the white man has done for the Negro, will the white man continue and enlarge the work of encouragement to this struggling race? Or will he use the shotgun instead of the Holy Bible; the bloody knife instead of the spelling book? These are problems for Caucasian brains.

I know of no element in noble human character which is not found in the Negro race. Indeed, he has been placed under greater strains of conscience and taxed more severely in honor and integrity than any other race known to history. Did it ever occur to you that the South is even wild in its praises of negro fidelity in the days when it was prostrate in civil strife and its defenseless women and children committed to the care of the black men of the South? Is there a single case of treachery or infidelity recorded against us? Did it ever occur to you that the Northern soldier could always trust his life in the hands of a black man, wherever found? Is there a single case of treachery or infidelity recorded against us by the North? He would defend and feed "old mistress" committed to his charge. He would hide the cattle and food and valuables in the hollows and in the thickets, and then pilot the Northern army by these hidden goods safely through the mountains out of danger. Has ever human nature been so taxed before? No other citizens in this great country have better right to rejoice at her prosperity than the Negro.

The South owes her industrial significance largely to the Negro. King Cotton sits on a throne of gold held aloft by the strong black arms of the Negro and shakes his snowy locks over the commercial world. And our beloved South may yet call upon ebony sinews to beat back the enemies of her peace, prosperity, and happiness, and again stand between starvation, danger, and death, and her defenseless wives and little ones; and the Negro will again manfully, cheerfully, faithfully answer the call.

From this spot must radiate higher hopes, broader ideas, nobler aims to teach, inspire, and exalt Negro muscle, Negro brain, Negro heart--to soften asperities, to generate greater tolerance, and to make the South a "new earth" until the "Fatherhood of God" and the "brotherhood of man" shall bring the "new heaven."

No people can rise in the world and maintain creditable standing alone with the saw, the hammer, and the plane; as cooks, washerwomen, and nurses; as farmers, bootblacks, hotel boys, and barbers. These are necessary, but there must be strong intellectual giants in the pulpit, at the bar, in the schoolroom, in medicine--as scientists, linguists, artists, inventors--in order that any people may be accorded a creditable standing in the society of races.

Whatever any other people need the Negro needs. We want the Negro to have higher industrial education. He must be taught to smelt iron ore, build locomotives, ships, telescopes, microscopes, steam engines of every class, all kinds of mechanical engineering, farming machinery and appliances, and do all work in glass, brass, gold, and silver. This kind of higher industrial education is the only kind that he needs now and is essential to his salvation. This kind of industrial education is the only kind that can give a people permanent strength.

Teach the Negro boy the sacredness of human life. Teach him that man must be as precious in the sight of man as he is in the sight of God. Teach obedience to law, obedience to legally constituted authority, which alone can give protection to life and property and security to society. Teach him that the human mind can form no loftier ideal than that of the triumph of right through the supremacy of law--that no one who violates the humblest law of the land can be an ideal man. Teach him that the transmission of a disregard for law is the transmission of the spirit of the mob, the spirit of riot, the spirit of hate, the spirit of internecine murder, the overthrow of the state, the birth of chaos and pandemonium. Teach him that men and races grew from within; that man grows by expansion from within; that congressional enactments cannot make us a race. The race must make itself. Teach him that he belongs to a glorious race, which stands before its God with its hands unstained in human blood. Teach him to honor and revere this record, and hand it untarnished down to the remotest posterity. Teach him that it is better to be persecuted than to persecute. Teach that neither race nor color will rule future man, who will be the evolution of the wisdom of all the past ages; but that man, that race, which will furnish the most brains, the most virtue, the most honor, the most truth, the most industry, will stand highest and longest before God and the judgment bar of the future righteous intelligence of the world.

Teach him to love, not to hate. Teach him that the man who hates him on account of his color is far beneath him, but the man who hates his condition and strives to lift him up may be his superior. Teach him that any coward may insult him, may wrong him, may send a bullet crashing through a man's brain, may warm his dagger in a brother's lifeblood, but it takes a strong man to take the weak and unfortunate by the hand and say: "Stand on your feet, my brother, and be a man." Teach him that that man, that race, is superior which does superior things to lift mankind to superior conditions. Teach him that that is the superior man, the superior race, which does most for its country, fights noblest for man, and lives closest to God.

THE TENNESSEE CENTENNIAL.

Its Benefits to the Negro.

The people of Tennessee will celebrate the one hundredth anniversary of the admission of their State into the Union by holding, at Nashville, the capital, in 1897, for a period of six months from the 1st day of May, a great Centennial and International Exposition.

A structure to be known as the

NEGRO BUILDING

will be one of the most attractive in the exposition, and will occupy a delightful and commanding position on the east bank of Lake Watauga.

The cut on page 28 will give the reader some idea of its magnitude. It is amply sufficient to accommodate the vast variety of exhibits which the Afro-American will have to display to the world. The purpose of this department is to show the progress of our race in the United States from the old plantation days to the present.

This building was erected at a cost of over $12,000, and is the work of the management, without any solicitation or money from the Negro himself, which demonstrates an earnest anxiety for our participation in the event. It is expedient that we respond to the invitation by bringing forward the very best specimens of our merit and progress--not for the sake of the temporary praise which our displays may elicit, but for the more substantial benefits which we hope will follow.

The same capabilities which are in other people exist in us, and only want ampler avenues afforded for their exercise. We have abiding faith in the ultimate amelioration of the present conditions by the best sentiments of the American people. But the influencing of that sentiment to a more favorable attitude is in ourselves, and is accomplished more and more as we cause our usefulness to be seen and appreciated.

We hope that our participation in the great event will contribute largely toward establishing a feeling of more tolerance and consideration. This is the key of the aim. If, as we believe, the best impulses of the people are on the side of struggling humanity, and, when awakened, are easily moved to its succor, then a creditable display from us is bound to lead toward this result, both at home and abroad. If the Southern States afford conditions friendly to its ex-slave element, then there could be no stronger proof of it than an exhibition of the progress of the Negro himself. Such an exhibition would not only verify the claims of our home people, and help displace the stigma which perhaps attaches to them abroad on the race question, but its effect is bound to extend further. It elevates us at the same time it elevates them, and creates a current of good will in the direction of a better understanding.

HISTORY AND OLD RELICS.

It is intended to make this department one of the most attractive features in the building. All relics of interest that are owned by colored people are wanted on exhibition. All contributions that will tend toward completing the history of the race are solicited for exhibition.

We desire to have:

1. Sketches of the faithfulness and devotion of the Negro.

2. Biographical sketches of every Tennessee nonagenarian and centenarian Negro.

3. A copy of every book, magazine, and paper published and edited by Negroes.

4. Coins of Negro governments.

5. Stamps of Negro governments.

6. Sketches of Negroes by missionaries.

7. Pottery and utensils used by Negroes everywhere.

8. Sketches and photographs of Negroes prominent in Tennessee history, or any other State.

9. Records of houses and localities connected with Negroes.

10. Bills of sales, passes, manumittance papers of Negroes, and laws of cities and states before and since the war, for or against the Negro.

11. Old papers with advertisements of runaway Negroes.

12. Articles on the Negro problem.

13. Relics.

14. The loan of medals awarded by Congress to Negroes for heroism, also votes of thanks.

15. Histories of slave insurrections.

16. The number of acres of land owned by Negroes, and whether incumbered or unincumbered.

17. Catalogues of schools owned and officered by Negroes, or schools where Negroes are being instructed.

DEPARTMENT OF ARTS.

The managers have designated for this department a space sufficient to show hundreds of pictures and pieces of sculpture. The Art Committee is now receiving paintings, sculpture, and other works of the highest quality from owners and artists of the colored race. The high-class works of art in this department will mark the progress of our education.

MINES AND MINERALS.

We propose to display on a magnificent scale the best specimens of our workmanship. It is the intention of this department to obtain an exhibit from the mine or ore bed in which our people are at work, whether it be coal, slate, marble, fine sand and gravel, ore of iron, copper, tin, zinc, silver or gold, or any peculiar geological deposit.

DEPARTMENT OF DENTISTRY.

The Afro-American will also make an exhibit of dentistry. In this department will be seen gold plates, porcelain plates, rubber and brass plates, gold and brass crowns, gold and amalgam filled teeth, and bridges of various kinds. We expect that this department will help us to show to the civilized world that the Negro is not a failure, nor is he lagging in any of the skillful and most highly honored professions.

THE WOMAN'S BOARD.

Those of our race who have given their time and energy toward brightening the prospects and bettering the conditions of the Negro have all along advocated equal opportunities and advantages for male and female.

No other course would be consistent. No other line would be logical. If the Negro advocates the idea of equal opportunities and advantages for white and black, he must, to be consistent, urge equal opportunities for male and female. He says by this that every human being should be allowed the same privileges and prerogatives, which carries with it the same possibilities and promise in life for every human, all things else being equal.

Those planning the Negro Department acted wisely in establishing a Woman's Department.

Besides the departments already mentioned, there will be a number of others equally interesting, such as Department of Clubs, Department of Agriculture, Department of Live Stock, Department of Marble and Stone, etc.

The members of the Negro Department of the Tennessee Centennial earnestly request the encouragement, co-operation, and assistance of the Negroes of the United States and of America. It is very essential that we show to the world what we can do. We have always been willing and ready to help to push the lever of progress, but every one does not see it in that light. This is a way by which we can make the world see, understand, and realize our importance. In the Negro Department we have the privilege of showing our work to such an advantage that it cannot fail to represent us. Therefore we appeal to every Negro man and woman, who has any real pride, to do all in his or her power to make this department a success. Before another centennial celebration others will have our place in the arena of life, and they will love and honor us for this and other examples of patriotism that we may leave on record for their inspiration.

Though the examples we leave them may have been given under adverse circumstances, they will understand it. They will know as well as we that there is no reward without labor, no prize without a struggle, no victory without a battle.

We as a race cannot afford to let this great undertaking fail. We will not let it fail. Do not hesitate to send your exhibits because you feel that they are not perfect. Do the best you can in getting them up, send them, and leave the result of their defects to the Great Judge, who knows the depths from which we have come, the heights to which we are aspiring, and the condition of our environment. We have the ability, the means, and the opportunity is at hand to erect a monument to the race. During the century we are about to celebrate, we acted as heroes for others. Why not play the man for ourselves now? Why not as citizens of Tennessee join in the celebration of the birth of our State? She was born into the Union June 1, 1796. She has been in one hundred years (minus the year of secession), and we, as a race, have been right along with her. Not only have we been connected with Tennessee, but we have been identified with the whole country since 1620, and have assisted in producing peace, prosperity. We have helped to clear the forests, till the soil, level the mountains, fill the valleys, bridge rivers, build railroads, factories, schoolhouses, churches, towns, and cities. We have labored assiduously to make this country bloom as a rose. This fact is admitted by multiplied thousands of the best white people in the whole South. We are not ashamed of our record in the history of our State, neither do we wish it to be ashamed of us.

We have done well, but we can do better. A thousand years shall not erase from the pages of history the part that we have played upon the American stage of action. Do not falter now, my brethren, but rush to the help of the Negro Department with your banners floating in the breeze. We are pronounced an unsolved problem. We are quoted as a vexatious question, and the eyes of the world are upon us. We can solve this problem, we can answer this question, and we can charm the gaze of the world. When? May 1, 1897. Where? In the Negro Building. How? By filling it with suitable exhibits.

We are making history. The historian may neglect us, but there is a hand that is writing upon the wall--not our destruction, neither does it require a Daniel to read it. With the golden pen of time it dips into the crystal fluid of sympathy, and writes us as a nation, making rapid strides

Out of darkness into light, Out of weakness into might.

It writes us as a nation upon the ocean of time, landing without anchor, oar, or sail. Thirty-three years ago, when we started out from the bonds of slavery with a legacy of poverty and ignorance, the canopy of heaven for our shelter, we were in a miserable, helpless condition. To-day we are a great nation, nearly 10,000,000 strong, with nearly $1,000,000,000 wealth. When the products of our hands are seen in the Tennessee Centennial, our government may be constrained to pay not only the debt of gratitude, but the debt of money that she owes us for the two hundred and forty-four years that we served her. Peradventure, she may be persuaded to protect us better as American citizens, and love us more as her hard-working, earnest, loyal sons and daughters, not of Africa, but of beautiful America, the queen of the world.

COTTON STATES INDUSTRIAL EXPOSITION.

Atlanta, Ga., September 19 to December 31, 1895.

This was the first opportunity that the colored people ever had to show the world what they have learned and accomplished since their emancipation, and they made the most of it. Their exhibition attracted as much attention as any other feature of the great exposition. This building was erected by Negro hands, supervised by Negro skill and brain, filled with products, evincing beyond a shadow of doubt the Negro's advancement, and all a decided proof that he is a factor in the American nation--a part of it, and an indispensable part. This building covered a floor space of more than 25,000 square feet, and was erected at a cost of $9,923. There was no charge made for entrance or rent fees. In every State in the South the Negroes were thoroughly organized for the collection of their exhibit, which consisted of all farm products, needlework of all kinds, paintings, inventions, carpentering, blacksmithing, silversmithing, dentistry, surgical skill, pictures of colored men's places of business and residences, industrial products from their schools, and hundreds of other things that show the genius and thrift of the race. Registered stock, such as horses, cows, sheep, and hogs, were on exhibition. All told, there were 110 commissioners appointed, representing the various States. Prof. I. Garland Penn, of Lynchburg, Va., was chief of the department.