The Story of a Rising Race

This is a reproduction of a library book that was digitized by Google as part of an ongoing effort to preserve the information in books and make it universally accessible. https://books.google.com Thestoryofarisingrace JamesJeffersonPipkin COUNCIIA.W.H. SOMENOTEDEDUCATORSOFRACE.THECOLORED T.WASHINGTON.BOOKER WESLHYHOFFMAN.JOHN THE STORY OF A RISING RACE THE NEGRO IN REVELATION, IN HISTORY AND IN CITIZENSHIP WHAT THE RACE HAS DONE AND IS DOING ARMS, ARTS, LETTERS, THE PULPIT, THE FORUM, THE SCHOOL, THE MARTS OF TRADE WITH THOSE MIGHTY WEAPONS IN THE BATTLE OF LIFE THE SHOVEL AND THE HOE A MESSAGE TO ALL MEN THAT HE IS IN THE WAY TO SOLVE THE RACE PROBLEM EOR HIMSELF REV. J . J . WPKIK WITH INTRODUCTION BY GEN. JOHN B. GORDON Former Major-General Confederate Army, United States Senator from Georgia. Ex-Commander United Confederate Veterans, Author "War Reminiscences," Etc. ^ CatJogua Proe. (JOPYHTUHT, 1902, BY N. ]).THOMP»ON PUBLISHING OOMPAN V NOT A TERM OF REPROACH. Supposing that this term (negro) was originally used as a phrase of contempt, is it not wilh us to elevate it? How often has it not happened that names originally given in reproach have been afterward adopted as a title of honor by those against whom they were used, as Methodists, Quakers, etc. t But as a proof that no unfavorable signification attached to the word when first employed, I may mention that long before the slave trade began travelers found the blacks on the coast of Africa preferring to be called Negroes. And in all the pre- slave trade literature the word was spelled with a capital N. It was the slavery of the blacks that brought the term into dis repute and now that slavery is abolished, it should be restored to its original place and legitimate use. —Dr. Edward W. Blyden. It is not wise, to say the least, for intelligent Negroes in America to seek to drop the word ' 'Negro. ' ' It is a good, strong and healthy word, and ought to live. It should be covered with glory: let Negroes do it. — George IV. Williams. PREFACE. IN RECENT years much has been written about the Negro — some of it fanciful, some ill-considered, some malicious, and some utterly fallacious, misleading, aud dangerous. It is a deplorable fact that notwithstanding community of interests and daily association, the white people of to-day do not fully understand the negro, and are, therefore, too ready to adopt opinions and entertain feelings that are dangerous to his peace and prejudicial to his prosperity; and we have sought to present a fund of information which will lead to a better understanding and make for the lasting good of both races. To the fair-minded white man and woman the facts set forth in 1'his volume will be a revelation, and induce more liberal views as to the Negro's capabilities, his honorable ambition to improve, his enterprise, and his remarkable progress. What the Negro needs is encouragement in every line of lawful endeavor, all the aid that can be extended to him by generous whites without inducing idleness, an open recogni tion of whatever manhood he evinces in the inevitable strug gles of the poor and lowly, and the arousing of renewed determination to do his part in the uplifting of his people. If we can show him what the men and women of his race have achieved in the past, what they are achieving in the present under circumstances less favorable than those en joyed by the dominant race, we awaken the feeling that he too ought to be up and doing, with the definite and noble aim of meeting the obligations that rest upon even the humblest citizen. The author is a Southern man, born and bred, and he has been subjected to all the influences that are supposed to breed race prejudice; he is a Democrat of the old school; but PREFACE. in the name of white men North, South, East and West, he protests against everything that tends to degrade the Negro, and either rob. him of self-respect or excite his animosity. We write as a follower of the Great Master who taught good will to all men, as a minister of the gospel, as a patriotic American citizen. We endeavor to show: That in the past the Negro has achieved much, in divers fields, to vindicate his claim to character and ability and mark him as a man; That, considering the circumstances in which he found himself when freedom came to him, and the obstacles he has had to overcome, his progress has been remarkable; That there are mighty agencies at work — the school, the church, and promising fields of labor — still further to pro mote his advancement; and That for him also there is the possibility of a great future. Our material has been gathered from many sources, and we are under obligations to so many who have aided and encouraged us that we forbear to mention names, lest we inadvertently omit some and so seem to do injustice. To all we tender acknowledgments and sincere thanks. Mart, Texas. J. J, PlPKIN. INTRODUCTION. [N ORDER that we may know what the Negro can do and become, it is well to consider what he has done and is doing, and what he has become and is becoming. He has been free in the Southern States now more than the third of a century. For two hun dred and fifty years he worked under the limitations of slav ery and became under humane white tutelage the most obe dient, patient and useful servant ever known. But for forty years he has found himself outside the walls of bondage. He has been hemmed in by no barriers other than such as are placed about every man by the conditions of life. During nearly half a century he has been the master of his own fate. By a decision, fixed forever through the clash of contending armies as brave as ever met on a field of battle, his destiny was taken from the hands of his former master and placed in his own. Through a generation of the most eventful time in the history of the world, he has been under the necessity of making his own way in the presence of a strong, conquering race, which won its freedom and achieved its civilization in the struggle and conquest of thousands of years. We are at a sufficient distance from the war to pause and take stock of the colored man's achievements. What use has he made of the liberty which came to him as an incident of the great struggle? What progress has he made in solving the problem of himself and his future? What data has he furnished, as to what he has done and learned and become, upon which a reliable opinion can be based concerning his future career? Has he moved forward or gone backward? Has he furnished grounds for hope, or reasons to despair of vii viii INTRODUCTION. hirn? Where does he stand at the beginning of the Twenti eth Century? This book, to which I am asked to write the introduction, is a record of the Negro's doings. It is not a work of fine spun theories on the race question, but it is a summary of the actual accomplishments and attainments of the colored man. We have a representation of what the Negro has wrought with his hand and thought with his brain and aspired to in his heart. We have brought to our atten tion what the Negro has done as a farmer, as a mechanic, as a doctor, as a lawyer, as a teacher, as a literary man, as a poet, as a preacher and as a president and organizer of great industrial colleges. No such an all- round survey of the Negro's work, has, according to my knowledge, been so successfully made before. The circula tion of the -book, both among the colored people and the white people, will do good. The doctrine here taught, by the undoubted testimony of facts, is, that the Negro, in common with members of every other race, must work out his own destiny. All that the white man can do for him is to give him an opportunity and a fair chance. The so- called Negro problem has loomed so prominently in public attention, largely because other than colored people have, since the close of the war, been trying to work it out. Those who have religiously taken upon themselves the self-ap pointed task of working out the Negro problem, have seem ingly proceeded on the assumption that the Negro had neither head nor hands nor individual initiative. If that were the case, all the doctrinaires on earth could never work out his problem. There are thousands of Negroes all over this country, but mostly in the South, who are neither prob lems to themselves, nor to their white neighbors. They are such as save their earnings, buy homes for their families, and make themselves useful and upright citizens. There are farmers whose only problem is that of seeing how many bales of cotton they can make each acre of land INTRODUCTION. Jx they cultivate produce. Their problem is with the weeds and the grass, which, by honest toil, they seek to keep from choking to death their young plants. Theorists have been trying to solve the colored problem at the points of their pens. This is the ink solution. The Negroes themselves have gone about solving it at the points of their scooter plows, which they are sticking deep down in their fields for bread and the comforts of life.

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