'wH A/ii' B1 v. wm mm. K*mm\ m» ■msk -,|r>' yi^". |:% J/;P1 ''Vv T^0>:■:>"- ' .'"5'4RI ar/jf %M* r'il v% &*:w The College of Life OR Practical Self= Educator A MANUAL OF SELF-IMPROVEMENT FOR THE COLORED RACE FORMING AN Educational Emancipator and a Guide to Success GIVING EXAMPLES AND ACHIEVEMENTS OF SUCCESSFUL MEN AND WOMEN OF THE RACE AS AN INCENTIVE AND INSPIRATION TO THE RISING GENERATION INCLUDING AFRO=AMERICAN PROGRESS ILLUSTRATED THE WHOLE Emb rac i n g Business, Social, Domestic, Historical and Religious Education BY Henry Davenport Northrop, D. D., Hon. Joseph R. Gay, AND Prof. 1. Garland Penn. EMBELLISHED WITH HUNDREDS OF SUPERB ENGRAVINGS HOLLINGSWORTH & PORTER BESSEMER, ALABAMA -ENTERED ACCORDING TO ACT OF CONGRESS, IN THE YEAR 189 &* HORACE C. FRY IN THE OFFICE OF THE LIBRARIAN OF CONGRESS, AT WASHINGTON, D. C., U. S. DEDICATION TfO the Great African Race, numbering many millions in the United States of America, from whose hands the shackles of slavery have I fallen within the present generation, and whose progress in that ,hort period has astonished the world, and challenged its admiration And to the millions of souls of the same race in the "Dark Continent" to whom those of America will carry the light of Christianity o disenthrall them from the bonds of savagery and superstition: And to yet other millions now groaning under the yoke of slavery in semi-civilized countries and in the islands of the sea—to all the sons and daughters of Ham wherever they are found and whatever their Condition—1 We send this Volume with our Greeting 1 | Happy indeed should be the African Race in this closing decade of the nineteenth century. From the long dreary night of past ages of barbarism and slavery the darkness is passing away—the morning light has broken and the sun of liberty and enlightenment is rising gloriously in the heavens. To these People, among whom the spirit of liberty has so recently )een boin and over whom the star of hope is smiling; To that Great Nation, which we believe, shall rise like a triumphant Phenix from the ashes which smoulder over the superstitions, the pet- *ecutions ana the barbaric ruins of ages past,— This Volume is hopefully DEDICATED BY THE AUTHORS TO THE READER, In preparing this volume for the Eight Millions of Afro-Americans in this country certain well-defined objects were in view, as follows: To advise, encourage and educate the thousands of young people of the race and to inspire them with a desire to better their condition in life by Self-Improvement; To afford the valuable information needed by the large class of men and women who are engaged in the responsible duties of active life, and to place within the reach of parents a valuable guide for the successful training of their children, and a Family Educator for the Home. With the above purpose in view portraits of many successful men and women of their own race, with sketches of their achievements in life, are given as examples of what may be accomplished through education, patience, perseverance and integrity of character. Many engravings illustrating Afro-American Progress are introduced as object lessons ol the great advancement of their own people, impressing them with the fact that they must educate and elevate themselves if they would attain success in life. Thir volume is intended as a Self-Educator and is in no sense a history or book of biography ; therefore it cannot be expected to include the portraits or mention all prominent men of the race, nor describe all historical events. Sufficient portraits and sketches of successful Afro-American men and women are given as a Guide to Success, and illustra¬ tions of places, objects and events are given for the purpose of inspiring ambition and as an incentive for the sons and daughters of the race. Some subjects concerning the race, but not concerning Afro-American Progress, have been purposely omitted, as it is believed these subjects are not in accord with the purpose of the book. To the future the race must look forward. Let each individual prepare for it by Self-Education. Within this volume will be found "A College of Life," embracing the following departments : Thirty Years of Advancement, Afro-American Progress Illustrated, Negro Department Cotton States and International Exposition, Achievements of Successful Men and Women of the Race as a Guide to Success. Rules of Etiquette for all Occasions, Marriage and Domestic Life, The Care and Management of Children, Bible Stories for the Young, Household Economy, Athletic Sports, Physical Development, How to be Healthy -and Strong: Bookkeeping and Penmanship, Correspondence and Letter Writing, The Correct Use of the English Language, Sentiment and Culture of Flowers, Amusements and Pastimes, How to Organize Societies, Practical Suggestions for Home and School, Masterpieces o! Eloquence Selections from the World's Best Authors, and an Encyclopedia qf Valuable Information and Important Facts for Reference, iv CONTENTS OF THE PRACTICAL SELF-EDUCATOR Fhirty Years of Advancement 17 Afro-American Progress Illustrated 28 Clergymen and Churches 28 Bishop Richard Allen 28 Bishop H. M. Turner 29 Bishop Alexander Walters 30 Bishop B. T. Tanner 31 Bishop B. F. Lee 33 Bishop J. A. Handy 34 Rev. John T. Jenifer 35 Rev. James M. Townsend 36 Quinn Chapel, Chicago 39 Rev. H. H. Garnett 43 Rev. Richard DeBaptist 43 Rev. Alexander Crummel 44 Rev. Allen Allensworth 44 Rev. Pierre Landry 45 Rev. Augustus Tolton 47 Rev. Preston Taylor 48 Rev. Emperor Williams 48 Rev. W. D. Johnson 50 Rev. D. A. Graham 51 Rev. M. C. B. Mason... 52 Rev. J. F. Marshall 53 REV. 3. A. J. Nixon 53 St. Paul's A. M. Church, Raleigh, N. C... 53 Rev. John Jasper o4 Rev. E. W. S. Hammond 55 Afro-American Colleges and Industrial Schools 56 Prof. Booker T. Washington 60 Prof. J. D. Chavis 62 Prof. A. W. McKinney 64 Prof. T. J. Calloway 64 Claflin University and Industrial Insti¬ tute 67 Central College of Tennessee 69 Our Educational Progress 70 Secret Society Organizers and Officers 71 Rev. W. W. Brown 73 j. j. C. McKinley 73 Naval and Military Heroes 74 Toussaint L'Ouverture 74 Hon. Robert Smalls 77 Col. James Lewis 78 Capt. R. A. Paul 79 Major M. B. Delaney 80 The Educational Progress of the Afro- American Race 81 ItyiiMAL Educatjo?T 81 PAQB College Education 82 Professional Training 82 The Industries 83 Northern Philanthropy 83 Southern Appropriation 84 National Government Aid 84 Self-Education Support 84 In Northern Institutions 85 Our Boys and Girls 85 Rise and Progress of Afro-American Lit¬ erature 86 International Exposition, 1895 91 Noted Afro-Amercan Women and their Achievements 95 Mrs. C. A. Johnson...... 97 Mrs. Cora L. Burgan 98 Miss Gertrude J. Washington 98 Miss Ida B. Wells 99 Mrs. W. E. Matthews 102 Mrs. Katie C. Davis 102 Mrs. N. F. Mossell 302 Miss Phyllis Wheatley „. 103 Mrs. Frances E. Preston 100 Mrs. Fannie B. Williams, 107 Mrs. Zelia R. Page 107 Mrs. Map.tha Ann Ricks 108 The Guide to Success Ill Hon. Frederick Douglass 112 Educate Yourself 114 Honesty 115 Self-Reliance 117 Perseverance 118 Force of Character 120 Industry and Thrift 121 Carve Out Your Own Fortune 123 Prof. I- Garland Penn.. 124 Patience 127 Mental an^ Physical Culture 131 Bishop B. W. Arnett 131 Pres. S. T. Mitchell 13? Pennies Saved Make Dollars 136 Cultivate Your Best Qualities 138 Independence 140 John Mitchell, Jr 142 Help Your Fellow being 143 Have a Definite Aim 146 Self-Respect 149 Business First, Pleasure Afterward 152 Natural Ability 155 S^lf-Denial 15$ CONTENTS OF THE PROPER CONDUCT OF LIFE. BOOK I. Rules of Etiquette for All Occasions. PAGE "Manners Make the Man" 17 The True Lady 23 The True Gentleman 30 Introductions and Salutations 35 Calls and Visits 41 Evening Parties 47 Dinner Parties 55 Etiquette oe Weddings and Funerals 63 How to Converse Well 69 Etiquette oe Correspondence .. ... 73 Proper Forms for Letters.., 81 BOOK II. Courtship, Marriage and Domestic Life. Man and Woman, or Sensible Rules eor Love-Making Ill Who Are, and Are Not Adapted to Each Other 121 The Model Wife 153 The Model Husband . 1(13 The All-Important Nursery 179 Home Occupations for Leisure Hours .95 Home Pastimes and Amusements 211 Helps for the Household.. 227 House-Building, or How to Obtain a Home 269 BOOK III. How to be Healthy and Strong. Healthy Dwellings 283 Importance of Exercise 291 How to Strengthen the Muscles 301 The Famous German Pan-Gymnastikon, or Swing and Stirrups... 317 Healthful Athletic Sports 327 How to Nurse the Sick 351 How to Give Aid in Emergencies 357 BOOK IY. Business Rules and Forms. Meaning of Terms Used in Business 365 PAGB Business Rules and Laws for Daily Use.. 371 Bookkeeping 373 Forms for Business Letters 401 Agreements or Contracts 407 Laws of Partnership 412 Bills of Sale, Bonds and Assignments 416 Deeds and Mortgages 420 Rights and Duties of Landlords and Tenants 427 Agencies and Collection of Debts 434 Last Wills and Testaments 439 Form of Constitution for Lyceums 445 Parliamentary Rules and Usages 450 Forms for Resolutions and Petitions 454 How to Conduct Public Celebrations 458 BOOK V. Manual of Practical Suggestions and Useful In¬ formation for the Home and School0 Art of Writing Well and How to Express Written Thoughts in a Correct Manner 461 Art of Writing Poetry, with Practical Instructions for Composing Verses 493 Language and Sentiment of Flowers 500 Care and Culture of House Plants and Flowers 510 Care and Management of Birds and other Household Pets 526 Encyclopaedia of Valuable Information.. 542 Synonyms of the English Language 574 Foreign Words and Phra.-es in Common Use 594 Abbreviations Used in Writing and Printing • „ 599 Conundrums 600 BOOK VI. Choice Selections of Poetry from the World's Best Authors. qqq Masterpieces of Eloquence 657 Bible Stories for the Young gag THE COLLEGE OF LIFE OR Pracbical Selj^=Eclucabor. K MANUAL OF SELF-IMPROYEMENT FOR THE COLORED RACE. THIRTY YEARS OF ADVANCEMENT. rT[^HE Hon. Frederick Douglass once I said in a great public meeting in I New York, "The colored race will not crawl forever in the dust. It is honorable to do whitewashing, but there is no reason why my people should do that and nothing else. Their day will come, and they will be found in all pursuits, achieving distinction and showing capabilities which they never were supposed to possess." A loud burst of applause greeted these words. Douglass stretched himself to his full height of six feet, and with every nerve quivering, exclaimed, " The destiny of the colored race is in their own hands. They must bs,i? and suffer ; they must toil and be patient; they must carve out their own for¬ tune, and they will do it." Already the words of the gre^. orator and prophet are coming true. Many are the ) names of Afro-Americans who have distin- ' guished themselves as business men, teachers, clergymen, lawyers, editors, authors, legisla¬ tors and agriculturists. The reader will find in these pages a glowing record of their proud achievements, which should inspire the masses of the colored people to aim high B and march onward and upward, by showing them what others of their race have already accomplished. Before giving the biographies and describing the successes of those who have climbed high upon the ladder of fame, let us note the general advancement made by the Afro-American people during the thirty years that have passed since their liberation. For most of the facts and figures that follow, we are indebted to the brilliant Afro-American author, Prof. I. Garland Penn. What the Figures Show. To determine the progress of the race in education it is necessary to know the relative progress in the increase of population since Emancipation, the number who could read and write, and the number who were in school. According to the census reports > there were in this country in *850, 3,638,808 Afro-Americans. i860, 4,441,830 " 1870, 4,880,009 " 1880, 6,580,793 " 1890, 7,470,040 " The census of i860 shows an increase 17 ts THIRTY YEARS C 703,022 in ten years; that of 1870 shows an increase of 438,179 in ten years ; that of 1880 shows an increase of 1,700,784 in ten years; that of 1890 shows an increase of 889,247 in ten years. From 1850 to 1890 the race increased 3,831,232 persons. Schools for the Colored Race. It was hardly considered probable that any considerable number of the freedmen vould at once seize the opportunity for im¬ mediate education as they did when the first ray of hope and light beamed upon them from the philanthropic North. Yet the Afro-American at once availed himself of the opportunities which were offered under the Freedmens' Bureau, the first organized effort to educate the freedmen. With this effort came in close succession efforts of the church and those of a general character, so that we now have the following schools for the training of Afro-American youth: The American Baptist Home Mission Society; the American Missionary Association; the Presbyterian Board of Missions for Freed¬ men ; the Freedmen's Aid and Southern Educational Society; the Colored Evangel¬ istic Fund (Southern Presbyterian Church) ; Negro Education and Evangelization So¬ ciety (Christian Church); the Educational Society in the United Presbyterian Church ; the Protestant Episcopal Commission; the African Methodist Episcopal Church; the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church; the Colored Methodist Episcopal Church in America; the Colored Baptist Church. In the non-denominational schools of the United States the number of schools for the Higher, Secondary, Normal, Graded and Common Schools' training is about 400. More than one-third of the teachers are Afro-Ameri¬ cans The number of teacherc in the Public ? ADVANCEMENT. School system of the United States, reported by the United States Census, in 1890, was 23,866, and the number of pupils seeking education under the free school system was 1,460,447. Year by year the Afro-Ameri- can is becoming more awakened to a sense of duty in respect to the training of his off¬ spring. Taking the census figures for '90 as a basis, and adding the Afro-American teach¬ ers in denominational and non-denomina¬ tional schools, we have a sum total approxi¬ mation of 25,000 Afro-American teachers in the United States with 1,600,000 pupils. The showing as to teachers is a bright ray of hope for the Afro-American's future, when the fact is considered in all of its bearings, that these 25,000 teachers have been pre¬ pared and put into the field during a quarter of a century, very little more than the school life allotted an individual. Very Rapid Advancement. As to pupils the showing is more remark¬ able. Five years after the war closed, in 1870, only a tenth of the Afro-American children eligible to school opportunities were actually reported therein. In 1890, we find that within a fraction, one-half of the eligi- bles are reported in school. Figures can be given to authenticate this statement. In 1870 there were, according to census figures, 2,789,679 persons of color above the age of ten years who could not read or write. If we should make an approxima¬ tion of a million, for persons of color under ten years (which we think every fair minded reader will accept as just), we should have 3,789,679, who could not read or write in the year 1870. With a population of 4,880,009, we should have one and a tenth million of people of African descent, who could read and write in '70. It is unfair to say that the increase from '70 to '95 should THIRTY YEARS OF ADVANCEMENT. 19 be less than four times that of '70, under great and constantly increasing educational facilities in all the departments of state and church education. If the reader accepts the statement that the great educational endeavors of twenty- five years in all departments and all lines, justify an increase four times as large as that of '70, we shall have four and four-tenths millions of Afro-Americans who can now read and write. The writer maintains that of the balance of illiteracy, a majority are ex-slaves ; elderly persons who may not read the letter but who are yet intelligent by con¬ tact and association. At least two hundred thousand boys and girls of the race to-day are private students. In a certain city there are ten private night schools in which an aggregate of 300 boys are training in the light of knowledge and education by night, for habits of industry by day. Bishop Atticus G. Haygood says, "The most unique and altogether wonderful chap¬ ter in the history of education is that which tells the story of the education of the Ne¬ groes of the South since 1865." Rev. C. C. Smith, D.D., Cor. Secretary of the "Negro Education and Evangelization Society" of the Christian Church, carefully studies the problem and awakens to find himself making this admission that " The Negroes' desire for education, considering his past environments, is 'The Eighth Won¬ der.' " The Professions. The black man's desire for professional training has been a subject for adverse criti¬ cism. It has been alleged that he is acquiring too much professional training for the support which conditions among the race offer him. The professions in which he is most largely represented, are the ministry and teaching. These claim our largest numbers for many reasons; prominent among them is the pat¬ ent fact that a people who would rise must have religious and secular training. An admission that these professions for the first few years after the Civil War were besieged, because of the ease by which employment could be obtained in them is, perhaps, just, but for the past ten years these charges are met with the declarations of Conferences, Conventions, Associations, Pres¬ byteries, Synods, Superintendents, School Boards, etc., that none need apply except the well-equipped. Of the 25,000 common school teachers in the Union, two-thirds are Normal and High School graduates. The Theological institutions have graduated over 600 preachers, and five times as many left school in their second and third years, who are now in the ministry doing yeoman ser¬ vice. Practice of Medicine. These professions have been again most largely followed for the reason that the facilities were greater, help larger and such training more easily obtained. Since and prior to the organization of schools for train¬ ing of Afro-American physicians, 500 gradu¬ ates in the practice of Medicine have come forth, occupying to-day honorable stations1 in the medical profession of our common country. There are not twenty-five Afro' American physicians who are failures, either as to their knowledge of medicine or finan¬ cial condition. Their practice takes the wide range of from $1,000 to $5,000 per annum. Their residences are generally the finest and most representative in the towns in which they are located, and they rapidly accumu¬ late wealth because they are skillful and successful in their profession. The Medical Afro-Americans are yearly organizing state associations and bringing their interests closer together. A graduate 20 THIRTY YEARS OF ADVANCEMENT. of Meharry Medical School, now practicing physician at Jackson, Tennessee, publishes a Medical Magazine, known as the Medical and Surgical Observer, while a staff of col¬ ored physicians and trained nurses, manages one of the best hospitals in Chicago—the Provident Hospital. In dentistry there are practicing physicians in the South, and also in the North. In Pharmacy over 100 have been graduated. Judges and Lawyers. The profession in which Afro-Americans have met the sharpest opposition and the strongest competition has been Law. There have been graduated from the Law Schools together with those who have taken private courses, upwards of 300, among whom we find men of eminent legal ability, one a Circuit Court Commissioner, several Judges, numbers of Clerks of Courts, several District, Commonwealth and City Attorneys. They are also Deans and Professors of Law in their legal schools, the students of which have not been turned down by any Court or Board in examination. Greater credit, perhaps, is due these advo¬ cates for a successful stand maintained, than is due those of any other profession. Besides sharp competition with white lawyers, open and free before a white jury in a land preg¬ nant with prejudice, the Afro-American lawyer has had also to contend with his black fellow citizens, whose lack of confi¬ dence in the black lawyer is evident, for the reason that prejudice, fear and oppression have been elements sufficient in themselves to arouse and determine a pre-judgment. An eminent newspaper of the South makes the statement that 250 black lawyers in the Union have practice ranging from $1,000 to $20,000 per annum. As in medicine so in law, State Bar Associations are being formed ! in almost every state of the South for legal advice, union and strength. In Literature. Our history shows that prior to 186, there had been thirty-five works of Afro- American authorship published and sold. In the earlier days of 1792, America's first poet was Phillis Wheatley, a little black girl, who was brought to this country in a slave ship. After careful education by her white friends, she published a book of poems. The purity of style, simplicity of expression, and refine¬ ment of feeling shown in these poems, caused many to doubt their, authorship. This doubt was set at rest by her master John Wheatley of Boston, and the leading ministers of the city. They wrote a letter in which they declared Phillis to be the author of the poems published by her. Near the same time Benjamin Banneker, a Negro of Virginia, made his own measure¬ ments and calculations, and published an almanac. Since 1865 over 100 books have been published by Afro-American writers. They have been mainly histories of the race, autobiographies, poems, and works on science, fiction, religion and general litera¬ ture. A Greek Grammar for beginners, by W. S. Scarborough, of Wilberforce, Ohio, is in use in the schools of Ohio. In Journalism. The first journal published in race interest was Freedom's Journal, issued in 1827, in New York City. At the present time there are over 200 journals and magazines pub¬ lished by the colored people of the country. At a meeting of the State Press Association of Virginia, the statement was made that the Afro-American newspapers of that state owned property amounting to $25,000. At least two-thirds of these publications are THIRTY YEARS OF ADVANCEMENT. 21 made in their own offices and on their own presses. Several of our journalists hold responsible positions on the leading dailies as editors of departments and reporters. Essays, short stories and poems by race writers have appeared in the North American Review, Arena, Harper's, Forum, Atlantic Monthly, Frank Leslie, Our Day, The Independent, The Sunday School Journal of the Metho¬ dist Church, and other magazines of the country. Afro-American Churches. Bishop Haygood;~of M. E. Church South, very truthfully writes in one of his books that all of the Negro's interest, particularly his social life, centers in his church. The denominations in which the Afro-Americans are most largely found are: Methodist Epis¬ copal, African Methodist Episcopal, African Methodist Episcopal Zion, Colored Metho¬ dist Episcopal Church in America, the Metho¬ dist Protestant, the African Union Methodist Protestant, the Union American Methodist Episcopal Church, the Zion Union Apostolic Church, the Evangelist Missionary Church in America, Congregational Methodist Church, Christian Church, Protestant Epis¬ copal, Cumberland Presbyterian, Presbyterian Church in America, Presbyterian Church in the United States, United Presbyterian Church, Lutherans, Congregationalist and Regular Baptist Churches. The numbers in these denominations are in some instances very large and in others small. The division and separation, particu¬ larly in the Methodist Churches, are upon very slight and inconsequential grounds. Of these denominations there are about 22,000 organizations, 22,200 church edifices, with a seating capacity of perhaps six millions, [since an estimate cannot be made in some cases on account of the absence of separate statistics on this last item). The African Methodist Episcopal, African Methodist Episcopal Zion, the Colored Methodist Episcopal Church in America, the African Union Methodist Protestant Church, the Union American Methodist Episcopal Church, The Zion Union Apostolic, the Evangelist Missionary Church in America, the Congregational Methodist Church, the Cumberland Presbyterian Church and regu¬ lar Colored Baptist Church, own 920 halls with a seating capacity of 78,289. Number of Church Members. The value of the Afro-Americans' church property may be approximated at $2*2,570,- 882 ; the number of church members, 2,613,154. This estimate exceeds that of Dr. H. K. Carroll, Special Agent for the U. S. Census Bureau on Churches, in the Forum by over two thousand members, for the reason that special care was taken in the separation of Afro-American membership from those of the whites, where no separate returns are given in the U. S. Census bulle¬ tins. The churches built by Afro-Americans are very fine. The Afro-American who makes five dollars per week, usually contri¬ butes a fifth of that to his church. There are twenty-six bishops in the dis¬ tinctively Afro-American Methodist bodies. The general officers are men of ability. Their colleges, normal schools and academies are manned by Afro-American presidents, principals, professors and instructors. Their members contributed for the last eight years over $600,000 for the cause of education, in churches where the Anglo-Saxon and Afro- American are still blending their interests Four Afro-Americans are at the head of four of the Methodist Episcopal schools, Profes¬ sors hold responsible chairs, and writers are 22 THIRTY YEARS OF ADVANCEMENT. being recognized in the the literary channels of the church. In the Presbyterian Church a similar con¬ dition prevails. At the General Assembly, which met in Washington, an Afro-American President, Dr. D. J. Saunders, was heard in behalf of his school and its endowment, etc. He was there and then pledged $400,000 for the benefit of Biddle University, Charlotte, North Carolina. There are fifty-seven Afro-American Presi¬ dents of Afro-American colleges, denomina¬ tional and otherwise. About $100,000 are yearly contributed or expended in Afro- American education by various societies, denominations, etc., nearly one-half of which is contributed by the Afro-American himself. Many of the largest edifices and finest church buildings are those owned by Afro-Ameri¬ can congregations. "In three large cities of the South (said a Southern man in the writer's presence) the finest churches are ' Nigger' churches." One of the seven finest Sunday-schools in the 27,463 of the great Methodist Episcopal Church is an Afro- American School, the plan of which has been adopted by several leading Anglo- Saxon Sunday-schools. Wealth and Business Interests. The wealth of the Afro-Americans has been fixed by statisticians at the following figures : Alabama ......... $9,200,125 Oregon 85,000 Connecticut 500,155 Delaware 1,200,179 North Dakota 76,459 Florida 7,900,040 Utah ......... 75,ooo Iowa 2,500,372 Chicago, alone 2,500,000 Indiana 4,004,113 Kentucky 5,900,000 Maine 175,211 Missouri 6,600,340 Minnesota 1,100,236 Montana 120,000 New York 17,400,756 New Mexico 290,000 Nebraska 2,500,000 Massachusetts 9,004,122 Rhode Island 3.400,000 South Carolina ...... 12,500,000 Tennessee ... ... 10,400,211 West Virginia . . . c . . 5,600,721 North Carolina ...... 11,010,652 Nevada 250,000 Arkansas 8,100,315 California 4,006,209 Colorado 3,100,472 District Columbia 5,300,633 South Dakota 175,225 Georgia 10,415,330 Illinois. 8,300,511 Indian Territory 600,000 Kansas 3,900,222 Louisiana ........ 18,100,528 Mississippi 13,400,213 Maryland 9>9°o,735 Michigan 4,800,000 New Jersey 3,300,185 New Hampshire 300,125 Virginia 4,900,000 Ohio . . 7,800,325 Pennsylvania ...... 15,300,648 Texas 18,010,545 Vermont 1,100,371 Washington 573,000 Wyoming 231,115 The total amount of property owned by the race is $263,000,000, showing a sur¬ prising growth in the accumulation of wealth. This report, which is an underestimate has been accepted as a most remarkable showing. It is an underestimate by at least ten millions. For instance, in the State of Virginia, according to the report of the Auditor of Public Accounts, the Afro- American property in the State was valued at $9,425,578. This is over four million and a half more than the above table. In Texas the property interests of the Afro-Americans are estimated at twenty millions, two millions more than the above table gives. The Comp¬ troller of South Carolina informs the writer fHIRTY YEARS OF ADVANCEMENT. 23 that the figures above given for South Caro¬ lina are very much below the real estimate. With these corrections and one or two exceptions the figures are in the main cor¬ rect, and we should have an estimated wealth of not less than $275,000,000 for the Afro- American population of the United States. This added to church property would give $300,000,000. Until the failure of the Penny Savings Bank of Chattanooga, due to money loaned and inability to make collections, the Afro- Americans had five banking institutions. The remaining four art doing a splendid business. There are not less than thirty-five Building, Loan and Co-operative Associa¬ tions on a firm footing and doing legitimate business, subject to the regular state and municipal investigation. Lack of space pre¬ vents the details of the operations, assets and liabilities of each of these efforts. This has been accumulated in spite of the failure of the Freedmen's Savings Bank. This bank was established under the Na¬ tional Government in 1866, with branch offices in the different states. In this bank the colored people deposited in the five years succeeding the war, nearly fifty-seven million dollars. As the result of bad management it failed in 1871, and the savings from the Negro's scanty wages were thus largely swept away. The confidence thus shaken in the outset has never been entirely restored. Tradesmen and General Laborers. Until recent years the Afro-American has had a monopoly of the general trade labor of the South. Of late skilled labor has been the demand, and in many instances he has been driven out of the field, but in every southern citv there are Afro-Americans who can do the best work in all trades. The Writer knows of an instance in which a very large church was remodeled and a handsome pressed brick front was a part of the improve¬ ment. There could not be found in a city of 22,000 inhabitants, masons who could lay these brick satisfactorily. In response to a telegram four Afro-Americans were secured, and the front was completed. A more beau¬ tiful piece of work of its kind has not been done in the city. One of these men was a graduate of one of our best industrial schools. Supply of Skilled Labor. The dearth in recent years of our mechan¬ ics is due to age, infirmities and death of those who were taught the trades in slavery; but the large and intelligent class of me¬ chanics, who are being sent out from our mechanical schools, men whose heads, hearts and hands are trained, is remedying the deficiency. Nearly 6,000 of our young people are enrolled in the Industrial depart¬ ments of the various Afro-American schools and it is a fortunate thing that nearly all of the large schools of the South now have their industrial departments. Rev. J. C. Hartzell, D.D., Secretary of the Freedman's Aid and Southern Education Society, was heard once to say, "A man said to me, ' I will tell you one thing, you cannot make a mechanic out of a Negro.' I took a wheel out of my pocket and showed it to him. I said, 'There came into our shop at Central Tennessee College, a black young man with no white blood in his veins, who had never seen such a machine before as that required to make this wheel. The manager had a lot of these wheels to make. This wheel must be made very exact; there must not be the least variation in any of its parts. The manager asked the young man if he could make wheels, and he said he would try. He did try and cut twenty-six hundred of these cogs before he made a variation. I 24 THIRTY YEARS OF ADVANCEMENT. wonder if there is any other wheel of the kind ever made by a Negro. We are proud, first, that we have such places, and second, because such places are filled up with black boys." This was done in the school of Mechanic Arts, at Central Tennessee College, Nashville, Tennessee. From the same school the writer saw a ten inch telescope exhibited at the General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church at Omaha, Neb., May, 1892. This telescope is now in the obser¬ vatory at Laurence University, Appleton, Wisconsin, having been built for that pur¬ pose. Three of the professors' homes at Clark University, Atlanta, Ga., were built by the industrial students. Schools with Industrial Departments. The largest agricultural and industrial features are connected with the following schools: Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute, Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute, Bishop College, Central Tennessee, Clafiin University, Clark University, Shaw University, Spellman Female Institute, Straight University, Talladega College, Tougaloo University, State Normal and Industrial School (Alabama) and others. These with others are yearly sending forth skilled laborers who demand a consideration and can easily compete in all lines of indus¬ try, where prejudice does not debar them. Tuskegee Institute, situated in the heart of the "blackbelt" in Alabama was founded by Booker T. Washington, an Afro-American. From a small one-room beginning he has a school property there of twenty-one build¬ ings, and 1,400 acres of land, and this prop¬ erty is valued at $180,000. Of this school, Mrs. A. J. Cooper, in "A Voice from the South," the ablest book yet wn^ten by a Negro, on the Negro, says: •* L? tbe heart of what is known as the ' Black Belt,' of Alabama, and within easy reach of the great cotton plantations of Georgia, Mis¬ sissippi and Florida, a devoted young colored man ten years ago started a school with about thirty Negro children assembled in a comical looking shanty at Tuskegee. His devotion was contagious and his work grew; an aban¬ doned farm of 100 acres was secured, and that gradually grew to 640 acres, largely wood¬ land, on which a busy and prosperous schooi is located; and besides, a supply farm was added, of heavy rich land, 800 acres, from which grain and sugar cane are the main products. What Becomes of Them. "Since 1881, 2,947 students have been taught here, of whom 102 have graduated, while 200 more have received training to fit them to do good work as teachers, intelligent farmers and mechanics. The latest enroll¬ ment shows girls, 247 ; boys, 264, Of the 102 graduates, 70 per cent, are teachers, ministers and farmers. They usually com¬ bine teaching and farming. Three are print¬ ers (learned the trades at school), one is a tinner, one a blacksmith, one a wheelwright, three are merchants, three are carpenters, others are in the professions or filling miscel¬ laneous positions." The following statement from one of the leading journals of Washington, entitled, " Farms of Negroes ; Nearly all of them are Free from Debt," is of interest as showing that the colored race are capable of thrift and good business management: " It is an interesting fact that of all the homes and farm property in the United States that which is the least incumbered by mortgages is owned by colored women in the South. The statis¬ tics of the census office shows that 27.97 per cent, of all the homes and farm property in the country is mortgaged—that is, about THIRTY YEARS OF ADVANCEMENT. 25 72 out of every 100 homes and farms are free of incumbrance. The percentage of property owned by colored men without mortgages is 88.58, and the percentage owned by colored women without mortgages is 92.26—that is of all the farms and homes owned by colored women in the United States 36,831 are free Vom debt, and only 3,080 carry mortgages. This percentage is a great deal better than that of the while race, either men or women. The percentage of mortgaged property owned by the entire Negro population is only 10.71 —that is, less than eleven homes and farms owned by Negroes in the United States out of one hundred are incumbered by debt, and as an evidence of the thrift of the race it appears that nearly all these mortgages represent deferred payments of purchase money. Farms and Homes. Of the 12,690,152 homes and farms in the United States 1,186,174 are occupied by pure blacks and 224,595 by mulattos. Of the full blooded Negroes 207,616 own their farms and homes and 978,558 pay rent. Of the mulattos 56,672 own, and 167,923 rent. Of the Negro owners 167,705 are men and 39,911 are women. The largest number of colored home owners is found, of course, in the southern states, and it is noticeable that the proportion of farms owned by Negroes in the South is much larger than Jhe homes, wh'^e the reverse is the case in the North. "It is also a fact that the proportion of Negro home-ownership in cities is much smaller than in the rural restricts. The fol¬ lowing table shows the g jographical divisions of Negro property free and incumbered, and the reader will be struck with the large pro¬ portion of farms not mortgaged : No. of No. of free farms mortgaged farms and homes. and homes. 5,808 3,921 107,084 8,032 20,060 9,691 100,591 7,608 1,204 289 234,747 29,541 Another institution founded by the race is the Provident Hospital, of Chicago. Preju¬ dice because of color has denied our doctors opportunity for practical surgical work, and refused our young women who wish to become trained nurses, admittance to the hospital training schools of the country. Out of this necessity grew the Provident Hos¬ pital, which is owned and managed by colored men. Patients of every color and all creeds are treated by Afro-American nurses and physicians, and the cures there effected have attracted more than local atten¬ tion in the medical world. The training school has graduated a number of nurses and has many more applicants for training than can be accomodated. All Kinds of Labor. As a general laborer, the Negro needs no introduction. He has built the railroads of the South, watered and nurtured its fields, reclaimed its swamps, beautified its cities, and caused the waste places to blossom as the rose. Besides what the race has accomplished as general laborers and skilled artisans, it has a most creditable record in inventions. There is not space here to enumerate all the patents that have been granted to colored men, bu<" these are sufficient to show that the race is not deficient in mechanical invention. To one skilled mechanic alone, Elijah McCoy, of Detroit, Mich., fifteen patents have been granted for railway lubricating cups. States. North Atlantic . South Atlantic . Northern Central Southern Central Western . . . Total . . . . 26 THIRTY YEARS OF ADVANCEMENT. With most meagre incentive, our race has many amateur artists who possess great native talent, and several who have won recognition for their ability as professionals. E. N. Bannister, of Providence, Rhode Island, had a picture in the Centennial Exhibition, of Philadelphia, in 1876, which was awarded one of the medals of the first class. This picture, " Under the Oaks," was purchased for fifteen hundred dollars by a wealthy Boston gentleman. C. E. Por¬ ter, of Hartford, Connecticut, exhibits in the National Academy of Design of New York, in which city he has a studio. A Celebrated Artist. H. O. Tanner, of Philadelphia, studied in his native city, at the Academy of Fine Arts, and has exhibited in the art galleries of New York, Chicago, Louisville, Cincinnati, Wash¬ ington and Paris. He spent several years abroad, prosecuting his studies under Ben¬ jamin Constant and Jean Paul Laurens, in the Institute of France. On his return to this country they gave him a letter of recom¬ mendation. He belongs to the American Art Association in Paris, and won the prize for a sketch of "The Deluge," from the Julian School of Art in 1892, and another for a sketch of "Peasant Life in Brittany." Mr. Tanner thinks the picturesque in our own race life can best be interpreted by one of ourselves, and has a picture representing one phase of Negro life. He has called it " The First Lesson." As a study, it is re¬ garded by art critics as an admirable piece of work. We have a number of excellent crayon portrait painters who have made little effort to acquaint the world with their gifts. We also have a representative in the art of sculpture. Miss Edmonia Lewis, a young, ignorant girl, saw the statue of Benjamin Franklin on a first visit to Boston, and exclaimed, " I can make a stone man!" Wm. Lloyd Garrison introduced her to a leading Boston sculptor, who gave her some clay and the model of a human foot, which she copied. From this beginning, Miss Lewis has now a studio of her own in Rome. Here she has executed work which has brought her the patronage of noted men and women. Her best works are busts of Charles Sumner and Abraham Lincoln, " Hiawatha's Wooing," " Forever Free," " Hagar in the Wilderness" and the Madonna. Gifted in Music. " Blind Tom," our musical prodigy, imi¬ tates on the piano all sounds, and plays the most difficult classical music after hearing it once rendered. He has composed the ".Battle of Manassas," in which the firing ol cannon, marching of troops and playing of the bands are perfectly reproduced. Madame Selika, " The Black Patti " (Madame Jones), and Mrs. Nellie Brown Mitchell are the best of numbers of splendid vocalists who are training every year in the art the race loves best. Gussie L. Davis is one of the most popular song writers of the day. The Fisk Jubilee Singers made the music of the Ameri¬ can Negro known throughout the world. So eminent an authority as Dr. Antonin Dvorak, the great Bohemian composer, voluntarily says : "I am now satisfied that the future music of this country must be founded upon what are called the Negro melodies. This must be the real foundation of any serious and original school of com¬ posers to be developed in the United States. When I first came:, here I was impressed with this idea, and 1 has developed into a settled conviction, "hese beautiful and varied themes are the tocjUct Qf SQ^ THIRTY YEARS OF ADVANCEMENT. 27 They are American. I would like to trace out the individual authorship of the Negro melodies, for it would throw a great deal of light upon the question I am deeply inter¬ ested in at present. " These are the folk songs of America, and your composers must turn to them. All of the great musicians have borrowed from the songs of the common people. Beethoven's most charming scherzo is based upon what might now be considered a skill¬ fully handled Negro melody. I have myself gone to the simple, half-forgotten tunes of the Bohemian peasants for hints in my most serious work. Only in this way can a musi¬ cian express the true sentiment of his people. He gets into touch with the common humanity of his country. A Noble School of Music. " In the Negro melodies of America I discover all that is needed for a great and noble school of music. They are pathetic, tender, passionate, melancholy, solemn, re¬ ligious, bold, merry, gay or what you will. It is music that sets itself to any mood or any purpose. There is nothing in the whole range of composition that cannot be supplied with themes from this source. The American musician understands these tunes, and they move sentiment in him. They appeal to his imagination because of their associations. "When I was in England one of the ablest musical critics in London complained to me that there was no distinctively Eng¬ lish school of music, nothing that appealed particularly to the British mind and heart. I replied to him that the composers of Eng¬ land had turned their backs upon the fine melodies of Ireland and Scotland instead of making them the essence of an English school. It is a great pity that English musicians have not profited out of this rich store. Somehow the old Irish and Scotch ballads have not seized upon or appealed to them. I hope it will not be so in this coun¬ try, and I intend to do all in my power to call attention to these treasures of melody which you have. " Among my pupils in the National Con¬ servatory of Music I have discovered strong talents. There is one young man upon whom I am building strong expectations. His compositions are based upon Negro melodies, and I have encouraged him in this direction. The other members in the com¬ position class seem to think that it is not in good taste to get ideas from the old plantation songs, but they are wrong, and I have tried to impress upon their minds the fact that the greatest composers have not considered it beneath their dignity to go to the humble folk songs for motifs. Minstrels and Melodies. " I did not come to America to interpret Beethoven or Wagner for the public. That is not my work and I would not waste any time on it. I came to discover what young Americans had in them and help them to express it. When the Negro minstrels are here again I intend to take my young com¬ posers with me and have them comment on the melodies." The facts and statistics here presented furnish but a faint idea of the magnificent possibilities of our race. The Negro has marvellous native ability. Let him have equal ambition and determination. Then will his future be assured. He will become a power for good in these United States. He will win his way by undisputed merit. He will command an approbation and secure a position and distinction that cannot justly be denied him. The golden dawn of a new and better day "stands tiptoe on the hills." Afro-American Progress Illustrated. CLERGYMEN AND CHURCHES. THE materials for illustrating the pro¬ gress of our race are so ample that one finds a difficulty in deciding where to begin. Turn whither we will, the eye discovers illustrious names, shining like galaxies in the firmament. In nearly all pursuits and professions the Afro- American has distinguished himself, and a great array of shining examples are thereby presented for the encouragement and inspira¬ tion of the great masses of our colored race, especially the young. When we consider the disadvantages under which our people have labored, the lowly life into which they were born, the little opportunity they have had for educating themselves until within the last few years, and the prejudice that has confronted them at every step, it must in truth be said that the progress they have made is the marvel and the miracle of modern times. If the Negro can accomplish so much in the face of such opposing forces, what might he not do under favorable conditions and circum¬ stances. Among the many names that give lustre to our Afro-American race, we place first of all the Bishops of various churches—noble, Self-sacrificing, eloquent men, who, by their earning, their ability in the administration of church affairs, their oratorical pre-eminence and unsullied lives, have gained the highest position in the gift of the different religious bodies to which they belong. The sketches of these distinguished men here presented furnish lessons of weighty meaning. They < 28 rose from poverty and obscurity to places of vast power and influence. From the lowly cabin they have come forth to stand among the great ones of the earth. The first to be mentioned is one who lived before the present generation, but whose noble work still endures. BISHOP RICHARD ALLEN. This manly, dignified, staunch friend to the Afro-American race, and the founder anf promoter of the African Methodist Epis¬ copal faith, was born in Philadelphia in 1760. He united with the Methodist Church at the age of seventeen, and at twenty-two began preaching and travelled extensively through the Middle States. His influence as an orator was great ^ven in youth, and at the time of his conversion his master was so struck by his eloquence that he allowed him to preach to him, and was afterward converted under his preach¬ ing. It is open to doubt, however, as to whether or not the divine influence took entire possession of the white man, as Mr. Allen was obliged to purchase his freedom. Richard Allen was ordained deacon in 1799 by Rt. Rev. Francis Asbury, Bishop of the Methodist Church. At the organiza¬ tion of the A. M. E. Church, A. D. 1816, he was elected the first African Bishop in America. In withdrawing from the church in which he was refused the respect that was his due as a man and an humble and zealous worker for the cause of Christ, he took a step that was new and fraught with dangers AFRO-AMERICAN PROGRESS ILLUSTRATED. '29 that cannot, at this time, be fully estimated; but his friends, Rev. A. Jones, William White and D. Ginnings, stood by him, and his ultimate success is a matter of history. The growth of the A. M. E. Church is a splendid tribute to the Negro genius. Of all the denominations under the name of "Methodist," white or black, it has seemed ro touch the heart of the Negro and make him a man of power. Its institutions and laws are the result of Negro genius, and also are the exhibition of his executive ability and abundant wisdom. When Richard manifested his faith in the future and declared himself no longer willing to have the body and blood of Christ prostituted by being withheld from him until his white brethren (?) were served, he put his foot on the neck of hell-born preju¬ dice, and from that moment a new era dawned for the Negro, and a new song was given to the angels in fieavsn. This was in the early days of 1816, when the times were not favorable to the expression of a dis ¬ sent from anything a white man said or did in church or state. Bishop Allen is revered by the African Methodist Episcopal Church as the founder of their faith. Says one of their scholarly writers: " If Luther was the apostle of mind free¬ dom, and Wesley of soul freedom, then Allen was the apostle of human freedom or liberty of mind and body. If Luther's motto was, 'The just shall live by faith,' and Wesley's, 'The world is my parish,' Allen's was, ' I perceive of a truth that God is no respecter of persons.' The sons of Allen, through Bishop Pane, have formulated the sentiments of the three as follows: I 'God, our Father; Christ, our Redeemer, and Man, our Brother.'" BISHOP HENRY McNEAL TURNER, D.D., LL. D. One of the most influential men in the United States was born near Newberry Court-House, South Carolina, February I, 1833. Though free born, owing to the Rev. Richard Allen, First Bishop A. M. E. Church. absence of a father's care, he was deprived of many of the advantages accorded to boys of his age. He was bound out to the hard¬ est kind of labor in cotton fields and at the blacksmith's trade until his manhood. He was possessed of a craving for knowl¬ edge, and having procured an old spelling book, an old white lady and a boy with whom he played taught him the alphabet and to spell as far as two syllables, but he 30 AFRO-AMERICAN PROGRESS ILLUSTRATED. got no farther then as he was discovered in the act. He found an old colored man who did not know a letter but was a prodigy in sounds and could pronounce anything spelled to him. This helper was removed to another plantation and he was again left to his own resources. His mother hired a white lady to give him lessons every Sabbath but the neigh¬ bors were so indignant that they threatened to have the law on her, as it was then against the law to teach a Negro the alphabet. Rev. Henry McNeil I'urnek, O.D., LL.D. Bishop A. M. E. Church. Three years from this time, at the age of fifteen, he was given work in a lawyer's office, at Abbeyville Court House. The men in the office were impressed with his excellent memory and taught him, in defiance of the law, to read accurately his¬ tory, theology, and even works on law. He continued to pursue his studies alone, and later went to New Orleans, thence to South Carolina, and still later to Baltimore where he had charge of a small mission. Here he studied grammar, Latin, Greekj Hebrew, German and theology under emi¬ nent private teachers. He joined the M. E. Church, South, in 1848, while but a boy and was licensed to preach in 1853. Pie was ordained deacon in i860, ordained elder in 1862, and was ordained Bishop in 1880. He received the title of LL.D. from the Penn¬ sylvania University in 1872, and the de¬ gree of D.D. from Wilberforce University in 1873. He was appointed United States Chaplain by President Lincoln in ^863, and served faithfully through the war. After being mustered out, he was re- commissioned United States Chaplain by President Johnson, but gave up that place to work for the church and the race. He travelled and preached, building up schools \nd churches all over the State. He was for several years Bishop of the A. M. E. Church. He has held many political positions and as an orator has reaped an immense harvest of favorable comment and hearty praise. He was married to Miss Eliza Ann Peacher in 1856. His oratorical ability is wonderful. He has been considered by many one of the best, if not the very best orator of his class in the United States. Certain it is that he is forcible, eloquent and impres¬ sive, and has a pleasing and sympathetic address. BISHOP ALEXANDER D.D. WALTERS, Rev. Alexander Walters, D.D., Bishop of the A. M. E. Zion Church, was born August i, 1858, at Bardstown, Ky. At an' early age he manifested deep concern about the Bible and Spiritual things, and was often heard to say : " I am going to preach." AFRO-AMERICAN PROGRESS ILLUSTRATED. Al the age of eight years a proposition was made by the teacher of his town, Mr. Rowan Wickliffe, to the Trustee Board of the A. M. E. Zion Church, that he would teach, free of charge, any boy who might be chosen by them to be educated for the min¬ istry. Young Walters was chosen. He remained in school four years, and at twelve years of age joined the church. For four years he worked in hotels and on steamboats at Louisville. In 1876 he moved to Indianapolis, Ind., and began the study of theology under private tutors. In 1877 he married Miss Kate Knox, of Indianapolis; was li¬ censed to preach May, 1877; joined the Kentucky Annual Con¬ ference of the A. M. E. Zion con¬ nection, at Indianapolis, Septem¬ ber, 1878, and was sent from that conference to Croydon, Ky. He remained in this appoin' ment for two years, and wa ordained a deacon at St. Louis in 1879, and was appointed h Cloverport, Ky., in 1880, where he remained one year. In 188 r he was appointed to the Fifteenti Street Church, Louisville. In 1882 he was elected secre¬ tary of his conference and treas¬ urer of Zion's Banner. In 1883 he was transferred to Stockton Street A. M. E. Zion Church, San Francisco, Cal. This church is the largest colored church in the West; in three years he was successful in raising $15,000 to liquidate a mortgage which has been on the church for many years. ' In 1886 he was transferred to Tennessee and stationed at Chattanooga, where he be°"an a revival on his first Sabbath which resulted in 175 conversions. Sickness pre¬ vented him from remaining longer than one year in this charge, and he was sent from Chattanooga to Knoxville, where he met with the usual success and was transferred to New York City in 1888. Bishop Walters has been a member of the General Conference several times, and held the office of secretary on two occasions. Rev. Alexander Walters, u.D., Bishop A. M. E. Zion Church. He is the most popular and successful pastor who has ever held the pulpit of the A. M. E. Zion Church. Bishop Walters, when chosen, was the youngest member of the Board of Bishops. BISHOP BENJAMIN TUCKER TAN- NER, A.M.. D.D. Vvithout doubt, one of the brightest, grandest, noblest men in the ranks of Negro 32 AFRO-AMERICAN PROGRESS ILLUSTRATED. Methodism is Dr. B. T. Tanner, the veteran journalist of the colored race. His fame has extended from the lakes to the gulf, and from the Atlantic to the Pacific. He was born in Pennsylvania, and was not a slave. He spent five years in study at Avery College, Alle¬ gheny City, Pennsylvania, where he paid his expenses by working at the barber's Rev. Benjamin Tucker Tanner, Bishop A. M. E. Church, chair. At this time his father was dead, and he was obliged to care for his widowed mother. His whole nature was independent, for he might have smoothed his path ; but he pre¬ ferred to work and win. Mr. Avery, the founder of Avery College, offered to pay his expenses at the college, but he refused. The feeling of independence prevented him. After spending one year at Avery College, he took a three years' course at Western Theological Seminary. His birthday being December 25, 1835, he was twenty-five years of age when he received his first appointment from Bishop D. A. Payne to the Sacramento Station in the California Conference. He did not fill the appointment because of the dis¬ tance and expense, and was "supply" for the Presbyterian Church of Washington, District of Columbia, for eighteen months. April, 1862, he united with the Baltimore An¬ nual Conference, and was appointed to the Alex¬ ander Mission, E Street, Washington, D. C. In 1863 he was pastor to the Georgetown, D. C., Church, and in 1866 had charge of the "big Balti¬ more," after resigning which charge he became principal of the Annual Conference School at Frederickstown, Md. His addresses showed thought, learning and rare gifts; so that when the General Conference met in the Nation's Capi¬ tal in 1868, he was not only made chief sec¬ retary, but editor of the church organ—The Christian Recorder—by acclamation, and this honored position was thrust upon him in succession until he had served sixteen years. In 1870 he was given the degree of A.M. at Avery College, and Wilberforce University conferred upon him the degree of D.D- sometime in the seventies. W, Www A.M., D.D., AFRO-AMERICAN PROGRESS ILLUSTRATED. 33 In 1881 he visited England and Conti¬ nental Europe, and attended the Ecumenical Conference. His spare time was spent in writing books of use to his denomination, among which we mention " The Negro's Origin," "An Apology for African Meth¬ odism," "The Negro, African and Ameri¬ can," and he is also editor of the A. M. E. Review since 1884. He is a member of the New England Historical Society of the M. E. Church, and fills many important stations in his own church. Dr. Arnett has said of Dr. Tanner: " He has risen from a successful barber to be the king of Negro editors; his pen is sharper than his razor, and his editorial chair is finer than the barber chair. The church and race will long remember Dr. B. T. Tanner for the part he has taken in the reconstruction of the South and for his words of encouragement." BISHOP BENJAMIN F. LEE, A. B., D. D. This remarkable man went to Wilberforce University as hostler, and was not allowed to sleep with the students; and in thirteen years became president of the University. Benjamin F. Lee was born at Gouldtown, New Jersey, September 18, 1841. His father died when he was ten years old, and in 1852 he began the battle of life alone, and since then has never spent more than six months together at the old homestead. He spent his winters in country schools until he was fifteen years old, and from that time until he was twenty-one he was em¬ ployed on farms and in factories. During this time he studied algebra and read many biographical and historical works. Being ambitious for more learning he entered Wilberforce University in 1864, where his recitations were confined to night (lasses for one year, during which time he r supported himself by working hard at all jobs he could secure during the day. In 1865 he entered as a regular student and finished in 1872, taking the degree of A. B. The only financial aid he received during his school life was about $175. He often walked four to eleven miles during vacation to do a day's work in the corn field of at harvesting. After becoming sufficiently advanced he taught school. During one period of six Rev. Benjamin F. Lee, A.B., D.D.. Bishop A. M. E. Church. months he taught school, worked Saturdays and at odd hours to pay his board, and kept up with his class at the college. He joined the church of the A. M. E. faith in 1862, and in 1866 was permitted to exhort. In 1868 he was licensed to preach, in 1870 was made deacon; in 1872 he was ordained an elder, and was appointed to the pastoral charge of the Salem circuit, including Salem, Ohio, and Bridgewater, Pennsylvania. In 1873 he was called from the charge of Frankfort, Kentucky, to which he bad been 34 AFRO-AMERICAN PROGRESS ILLUSTRATED. appointed at graduation, to occupy the chair of pastoral theology, homeletics and eccle¬ siastical history at Wilberforce, which posi¬ tion had been made vacant by the resigna¬ tion of Professor T. H. Jackson. He re¬ mained here two years, and then took charge of the A. M. E. Church in Toledo, Ohio. In 1876 he was called to the presidency It was said of President Garfield that h_>i the Afro-American people and the esteem of the best citizens of Chicago. At the end of the third quarterly confer¬ ence, Rev. J. T. Jenifer, who had so earn¬ estly labored with the congregation, was called to the Metropolitan Church, in Wash¬ ington, D. C., the connectional church, by the Bishops. Rev. G. C. Booth, a former pastor, was appointed to fill out the un- expired term or last quarter of the conference year of 1893, In the meantime the boards were soliciting the services of Rev. J. M. Townsend, then located at Richmond, Ind., ; nd their wishes were granted. After Conference in 1893, he 00k charge of the church, and although everything and everybody seemed to be at a stand still, Dr. Townsend went to work. .Never before in the history of Quinn Chapel were its affairs so prosperous. Dur¬ ing the revival that started on New Year's night, more than 500 persons joined the church, and, in spite of the dull times, during the last third of the conference year the trustees raised over $4000, or more than they formerly raised dur¬ ing a year of prosperity. This money did not include the stewards' collec tions and money taken in for charitable pur poses. The auditorium of tKe church which was nothing but bare walls and naked floors was converted into as fine a church as any in the connection, and ranks with any church in the city of Chicago, without regard to the de- Rev. Henry Highland Garnett, D.D., Iyate U. S. Minister to Liberia. AFRO-AMERICAN PROGRESS ILLUSTRATED. 43 REV. HENRY HIGHLAND GARNETT, D.D. This celebrated preacher and states¬ man was born in slavery in Kent County, Md., December 23, 1815, but his father, by the aid of Thomas Gar¬ rett, a Quaker, succeeded in bringing him and the other members of the family to freedom. They lived for £ time in Bucks County, Pa., but soo?r' moved to New York, where ne studiei for a while in the Mulberry Stree School. He was obliged by the poverty oi his family to work as cabin boy, anc afterward endeavored to gain an edu¬ cation, but was unsuccessful until he Went V< the Oneida Institute at Whites- boro, He graduated in 1839, and, as he had in meantime lost his family through the slave hunters, he settled in Troy. He studied theology diligently, and in 1842 was licensed to preach and became ■pastor of the Liberty Street Church, with Which church he remained for ten years, publishing the Clarion. He was pastor of the Shiloh Presbyterian Church of New York for twenty-six years, and only resigned this charge to go to Liberia as resident minister. Rev. Richard DeBaptist, D.D. well be proud. He was born November 11, 1-831, and received a fair education in Vir¬ ginia under the guidance of his father and in secret. He was ordained to the ministry at Mount Pleasant, and taught public school for colored youth in this place for three years. Here he first exhibited those sterling traits of character which have since distinguished him and placed him in the front rank. He was pastor of the Baptist Church in Mount Pleasant for four years, and then took nomination. The great pipe organ and the sun burners add a great deal of beauty to the place and the sanctuary, which is built in the shape of a semi-circle, is very beautiful, and besides this the pews and all the rest of the furniture are of the highest order of excellence. On the whole it is indescribable, and for a person to appreciate the same it must be seen. A great victory has been achieved not only by the A. M. E. connection, but by the Afro-Americans of.Chicago in general, and the people of other places will join in the triumphant praise. He did not live long after sailing, but he has left an example for others of his race that should be followed. He was an elo¬ quent and charming speaker, and, although a cripple for life, this only seemed to add to the brilliancy of his mind. REV. RICHARD DeBAPTIST, D.D. This well-known clergyman is a man of mark, of whom Fredricksburg, Va., may 44 AFRO-AMERICAN PROGRESS ILLUSTRATED. the pastorate of the Olivet Baptist Church of Chicago, which charge he held from 1863 to 1882. During this time he built two church edifices, at a cost of $33,000, and brought into membership more than 1700 persons. He has held the position of Corresponding Secretary of the Wood River Association ever since his election in 1864, and was President of the Baptist Mission four years. He has been editor of several religious and Rev. Alexander Crummel, D.D. secular periodicals. He was married in 1855 to Miss Georgiana Brische of Cincin¬ nati, Ohio, but lost her November 2, 1872. He was married again in 1885 and his wife died in 1886, leaving him with three children. REV. ALEXANDER CRUMMEL, A.B., D.D. This prominent representative of the P?ok2stant Episcopal Church was born in New York City. His father was an African prince and his mother was a free woman. At an early age he entered the Mulberry Street School in New York, and in 1831 attended a school which had been founded for the purpose of giving advantages to the colored youth for the study of the classics. The instructions were not what met with the approval of his parents and he was sent to Canaan, N. H. Here he stayed but a. few months when he was forced to leave on account of race troubles. In 1836 he entered the Oneida Institute and remained three years. He was rtceived as a candidate for holy orders in 1839 by Rev. Peter Williams, and was admitted to priestly orders by Bishop Lee of Delaware. Afterward he was able to enter and graduate from Queen's College, Cambridge, England, and went to Africa, where he achieved great success as a missionary. In 1862 he published a valuable col¬ lection of addresses which are fitting evidences of his simple, touching faith, his intense personality, and devoted Christian spirit. REV. ALLEN ALLENS WORTH, A.M. The subject of this sketch was born of slave parents, in Louisville, Ky, April 3, 1843. He evidenced a thirst for knowl¬ edge at an early age. When the Ely Nor¬ mal School was established in Louisville, he was its janitor and among its first pupils. While serving as a missionary in Kentucky, he was appointed by President Grover Cleve¬ land to the chaplaincy of the Twenty-fourth United States Infantry. He was selected by the Republicans as an elector on the Garfieid AFRO-AMERICAN PROGRESS ILLUSTRATED. 45 and Arthur ticket. Recognizing his success in life, and appreciating his course as a Chris¬ tian and a man of scholastic habits, the Roger Williams University conferred upon him the honorary degree of Master of Arts. Mr. Allensworth furnishes another striking illustration of what may be accomplished by a young man in humble life who has the right kind of stuff in him, who is studious, reliable and determined to succeed. In every responsible position he has shown himself to be master of the situation, and has gained the confidence and respect of the entire com¬ munity. REV. PIERRE LANDRY. The subject of this sketch, who stands first among the colored citizens of Ascension Parish, Louisiana, by reason of his abilities and the prominence of the position in life they have given him, was born on the plant¬ ation of the late Dr. F. Provost, opposite Donaldsonville, April 19, 1841, and was reared by Pierre Damas Bouziac and Zaides, his wife, free people of color. The boy was sent to a school on the plantation, cortducted by Mrs. Reno for the benefit of free colored children, and was later taught the trade of confectioner and pastry cook. At the Provost succession sale, May 16, 1854, young Landry was offered to the highest bidder, and became the property of the late M. S. Bringier, one of Ascension's wealthiest sugar planters, the purchase price being $1,665. The boy was at once installed as chief pastryman of the Bringier mansion, and was subsequently appointed superin¬ tendent of the yard and the servants charged vith its care. Some time afterwards he formed a com¬ mercial partnership with the chief butler, Joseph Burbridge, and they conducted a store on the plantation, dealing in such arti¬ cles as they were permitted to sell to the other slaves. The latter were entitled to one pint of molasses each per day, and were privileged to trade at the store to the extent of this allowance, which, by an arrangement with the overseer, remained in the sugar- house subject to the orders of the firm. A moss-press, broom factory and wood yard were also established in connection with the store, and the work of plantation ditch¬ ing by contract carried on, the principals dealing with the overseer and sub-letting contracts to the plantation hands. After a prosperous career the firm of "Joe and Rrv. Allen Allensworth, A.M., Chaplain United States Infantry. Caliste" was dissolved by mutual consent in 1862. Young Landry early developed a taste for mechanics, and in i860 obtained his release from house and yard duty and served apprenticeships under Mr. Ursin Boudreaux, head carpenter of the plantation, and Mr. James Lear, the well-known and skillful engineer and machinist. He remained on the plantation until 1866, having made three futile efforts to enter the army, and in that year moved across the river to this town, where he has maintained his domicile ever since. 4G afro-american progress illustrated. At the municipal election in 1868 he was elected mayor of the town and commissioned by General Rousseau, then commanding the Department of the Gulf, being the first St. Paul's Church, Shreveport, La. colored man to hold such a position in this State. He served out his term of one year, and was subsequently Justice of the Peace, Town Tax Collector, member and President of the Board of School Directors of Ascen¬ sion Parish, member and President of the Police Jury of Ascension, Postmaster of Donaldsonville four years ; was selected to the House of Representatives in 1872; to the State Senate in 1874, and again in 1878; to the Constitutional Convention in 1879, and again to the House of Representatives in 1880 and 1882. He was converted in 1862 and be¬ came a member of the Methodist Epis¬ copal Church under the pastorate of Rev. Thomas Kennedy, the first colored preacher appointed by Bishop Thomp son, in 1866. Mr. Landry was one ol the founders of the St. Peter M. E. Church, of Donaldsonville, and occu¬ pied every one of its offices succes¬ sively. He was elected a lay delegate from the Louisiana Conference to the General Conference held at Brooklyn in 1872; joined the travelling connec¬ tion in 1878 and received an appoint¬ ment from Bishop W. L. Harris, serving three successful years as pastor of St. Peter. At the Annual Session of the Louisi¬ ana Conference at Shreveport in 1881, he was appointed Presiding Elder of the Baton Rouge District by Bishop C. D. Foss, served the limit of four years in that position, and in 1885 was appointed Presiding Elder of the Shreveport District by Bishop W. F. Mallalieu. After four years faithful ser¬ vice in that capacity he was ap'pointed pastor of the St. Paul Church at Shreve¬ port, and in two years completed the building of that edifice and rebuilt the parsonage at a total expense of $7000, superintending the work himself and turning over at the expiration of his term one of the best pieces of colored church property in the Louisiana Conference. AFRO-AlviERICAN PROGRESS ILLUSTRATED. 47 At the Annual Conference at New Orleans, January 14, 1891, Mr. Landry was appointed Presiding Elder of the South New Orleans District, by Bishop John P. Newman, D.D., LL.D., and was continued on the same mission by Bishop Mallalieu, D.D., at the last session of the Louisiana Conference at New Orleans, January 13, 1892. At the same session he was elected one of the [ {three ministerial delegates to the General Conference which met at Omaha, May 1 to 31, 1892. Rev. Mr. Landry is an incorporator and member of the Board of Trustees of the New Orleans University, one of the lead¬ ing institutions for the education of colored youths in this country, and deservedly enjoys the confidence and esteem, not only of the people of his own race, but of all classes, wherever he is known. Mr. Landry has been greatly aided in his important work by the kind counsel and wise efforts of the two noble women who have been united to him in marriage. His family is a remarkable one, not merely in size but in other ways. In complying with our request to furnish some facts con¬ nected with his successful career, he writes: " I am the father of sixteen children— two dead; was twice married, first to Miss Amanda Grigsby, of Ascension, who died December, 1883, and again to Miss Florence A. Simpkins, of Mansfield, La., in 1886. "By the grace of God, I have been aL.e to give a liberal education to my children, and am still doing so. Five of them are married and are prosperously engaged in educational and other pursuits." REV. AUGUSTUS TOLTON. The first and only Afro-American Catholic priest was born April 1, 1854, in Ralls i, County, Mo. His father died at a hospital i during the war, and when Augustus was s seven years old his mother with two other ,, children started out to liberate herself and Rev. Augustus Tolton, First Afro-American Catholic Priest, children. She travelled on foot through many dangers until she reached Quincy, 111. Here Augustus was reared, and from the age of seven to nineteen he worked in a tobacco factory, studying all his spare time. 48 AFRO-AMERICAN PROGRESS ILLUSTRATED. In 1872 his health failed, and, following the advice of friends, he stopped work at the factory and gave his time to study. He attended a Catholic school for a time, but race troubles drove him from there to a non- Catholic institution. Father McGirr, hearing of it, at once Opened his school to colored children. Augustus pursued his studies, with the aid of Catholic friends, until, through the kt-v. ?ri£ston Taylor. influence of Father Meichal Reinhardt, he secured admission to the Propaganda Col¬ lege, Rome, where he entered the priest¬ hood. Father Tolton is a man of sterling worth and a scholar of rare intelligence. He has met with many difficulties, but has overcome all obstacles, dignifying every position he has held by hi manly bearing, his earnest and enthusiastic spirit-, and con¬ spicuous abilities. REV. PRESTON TAYLOR, was born of slave parents on November 7» 1849, at Shreveport, La. He was taken to Georgia at the age of one year. He served in the war as drummer boy and afterwards learned the stonecutter's trade, but was una¬ ble to secure employment on account of prejudice. He worked as porter on a railroad train for four years, and was so well liked by his employers that at the expiration of that time he was given a pass for an extended trip which he took through the North. Re¬ turning he took the pastorate of the Christian Church, of Mt. Ster¬ ling, Ky., which position he occu¬ pied for fifteen years. He was also chosen General Evangelist of the United States for this faith. Mr. Taylor has written for many periodicals and is an influential Mason and Odd Fellow, holding state offices in both lodges. His headquarters are at Nashville, Tcnn., where he has the pastoral oversight of the Gay Street Church. Mr. Taylor is an enterprising business man, having in connec¬ tion with his sacred calling acted in the capacity of railroad contrac¬ tor, understanding fully that there is nothing derogatory to the ministry in secula / pursuits if carried on in the right spirit, while the gains thus acquired are used for benevo¬ lent purposes. For rare ability, honest dealing, kindly spirit and everyday usefulness, he is ? bright example, and does credit to his race REV. EMPEROR WILLIAMS. Rev. Emperor Williams was born a slave in 1826, in the family of General Gaines, AFRO-AMERICAN PROGRESS ILLUSTRATED. . 49 Nashville, Tenn. He went to Louisiana in 1839, and was sold to a negro for $600, in 1840, who treated him badly. He was sold in 1841 to James Macintosh, a builder. Williams was a master mason, and from 1846 to 1858 was the trusted foreman of his owner. He joined the church in 1 845, and had been promised his freedom for years, and that boon came in 1858 under peculiar circum¬ stances. His master had a difficult piece of cornice work and none of the white men ;ould put it up. Williams said he could, nd his master replied that if he did he should have his freedom. He took the plans of the difficult piece of work and laid them on the floor of his cabin and studied them all night, until he got every part per¬ fectly in his mind and the next day took his gang of men and accomplished his diffi¬ cult task. The promise was redeemed and our friend was a free man. In 1849 he married a slave woman, who was, like him. self a remarkable character. After he was free he offered $2000 in gold for his wife, but her owners would not sell her. Not long after, in 1862, Butler took New i i" Orleans, and Emperor Williams got his wife ■ for nothing, and took his money and bought a home. He had Learned to Write. While a slave Williams sometimes car¬ ried a pass written by himself, which was as follows: "Permit the boy, Emperor, to pass and repass, and oblige, Mr. Williams." His master, whose name was Williams, saw it, and the following colloquy took place: "Where did you learn to write like that?" "While I was collecting your rent, sir." " My name is that." "No, sir; that is not your name, but mine. I would not commit a forgery." d His master gave him a seventy-five dollar suit of clothes and a nice cane, and said: "Go and preach until you die; I am tired of you and your God bothering me any more." Afterwards, when dying, he sent for Williams and told him that slavery was wrong and bade him good-bye. In 1866 the Methodist Episcopal Church was organized in New Orleans, and Emperor Williams was one of the original twelve. A large portion of his time he has been presid- Rev. Emperor Williams. ing elder. He was a member of the Gen¬ eral Conference in 1866. He is a man of great natural ability, thoroughly trustworthy and impartial in his judgment of men and measures. When ground was broken for the new university building, on St. Charles avenue, in New Orleans, he was one of the speakers. He is not a fluent speaker, except occasionally in times of great enthusiasm, and when deeply moved the few words he utters make a pro- 50 AFRO-AMERICAN PROGRESS ILLUSTRATED. found impression. Here are some of his sentences on that memorable occasion. Lift¬ ing his hands to the heavens he said : " I wonder if this is the world I was born in. For twenty years I was a slave on these Streets. It was a penitentiary offence to educate a Negro. I have seen my fellow ser¬ vants whipped for trying to learn, but to¬ day, here I am on this the greatest avenue in this great city, with the Bishops and the elders and people of the Methodist Episcopal Mission Church, Charleston, S. C. Church, speaking at the breaking of ground, where a building is to be erected for the education of the children of my people. I wonder if this is the world I was born in." REV. WILLIAM B. JOHNSON, D.D., Secretary Board of Education. William Decker Johnson was born March 19, 1842, in Calvert County, Md., and at an early age removed with his parents to Balti¬ more, where he attended private schools. He was converted in 1861, and the same year, by Bishop A. W. Wayman, received license to exhort. In 1862 he entered Lin¬ coln University, Pennsylvania, graduating as valedictorian in 1868. He was the favorite student of the Hon. William E. Dodge, of New York, who educated hundreds of young people for Christian work. Dr. Johnson had been for sixteen years pastor of various churches, when in 1884 the General Conference at Baltimore elected him secretary of education. He at once organized the department, and has been twice re-elected to the position for terms of four years. Bishop Atticus G. Haygood, D.D., LL.D., speaking of his management, says: "More than most men, he grasps a great problem. His plans are great, but nol chimerical. His methods look to the long run, and, with God's favor, will issue in blessings to the whole people." Mr. Nor¬ man W. Dodge, son of the Hon. William E. Dodge, says : " Rev. William D. John son has been well known and much esteemed by our family for years. My father took a particular interest in him, and helped him in his good work at different times." A Born Orator. Mr. Johnson has many such recommenda¬ tions, which have been of great service in the educational work. While at college he developed consider¬ able power as a speaker, and has ever since continued on the same line. The Nashville American, August 2, 1884, speaking of him, says : "He is a born orator, and a man of superior literary attainments." He has spoken with acceptance in the Y. M. C. A. halls in Philadelphia and New York, in the Sam Jones Tabernacle at Cartersville, Ga.; Dr. Talmage's Tabernacle, Brooklyn, N. Y. ; before the Unitarian AFRO-AMERICAN PROGRESS ILLUSTRATED. 51 REV. D. A. GRAHAM. National Conference at Saratoga, N. Y., and the Centennial Conference of Methodism at Baltimore, Md. His greatest effort was made when a delegate from his church to the General Conference of the M. E. Church South, sitting in Atlanta, Ga. That address, bearing on the race problem, was copied into all the news¬ papers and translated into several foreign languages. Mr. Johnson has at dif¬ ferent times represented his work in the National Edu¬ cational Association and the American Association of Educators of Colored Youth. During the World's Fair he read papers before the religious and educa¬ tional congresses, and also delivered an address in the Hall of Columbus, Art Pal¬ ace, Chicago, on the Negro Element of the American People. ington, Ind., in the last two places attending to the pastoral work of the church while serving as principal of the school. In 1882 he united with the Indiana A. This noted divine was born in Princeton, Ind., January 11, 1861. His father was born a slave in Tennessee, but came to Indiana and settled in the early days of that State, where he became one of the most influential Afro- Americans in that vicinity. Young Graham was the first Afro-Ameri¬ can youth graduated in the town of his "nativity. He first followed teaching for six years in Princeton, Washington and Bloom- St. Paul's Church, Columbus, o. M. E. Conference at New Albany, Ind., under Bishop James A. Shorter. After serving four years in the pastorate in Indiana he was sent to Michigan by Bishop Campbell, and was one of the charter mem- 52 AFRO-AMERICAN PROGRESS ILLUSTRATED. bers of the Michigan Conference. His four years in that State were a brilliant success, and it is the common verdict that he was the Rev. D. A. Graham. most popular Afro-American preacher ever located in Michigan. The famous temper¬ ance lecturer, Mrs. Lucy Thurman, several tiipes stated this fact publicly, during her Bethel Church, Chicago. work in Chicago. He was alike popular with white and colored, on fhe platform, as well as in the pulpit. From Michigan he was transferred by Bishop Brown to Minneapolis, and stationed at St. Peter's. The minutes of the Michigan Conference describe his departure from that body in Saginaw as being like a funeral, so dearly was he beloved by the entire con-' ference. When Bishop Wayman was looking for a pastor for Bethel Church, Chicago, he con¬ cluded that Elder Graham could fill the bill. His appointment was a great surprise to Rev. M. C. B. Mason. every one, and especially to himself. So young a man had never pastored Bethel, nor any of the churches of equal rank in the connection. But his success has been almost phenomenal, both spiritually and financially, and Bethel has never had a pastor whose influence was so potent, nor of whom she was so proud. REV. M. C. B. MASON, A.M., B.D. Rev. M. C. B. Mason, A.M., B.D., Field Agent Freedmen's Aid and Southern Educa- GRADUATES OF ATLANTA BAPTIST COLLEGE AND SPELMAN SEMINARY COPYRIGHT 1894, B V KUKZ & ALLISON BATTLE OF OLUSTEE, FLA., FEBRUARY 24TH, 1864 GALLANT COLORED TROOPS COMMANDED BY GENERAL SEYMOUR; CONFEDERATES BY GENERAL GARDNER GRAVES HALL, ATLANTA BAPTIST COLLEGE R. R. WRIGHT LATE PAYMASTER IN THE UNITED STATES VOLUNTEER SERVICE* NOW PRESIDENT OF THE GEORGIA STATE INDUSTRIAL COLLEGE AFRO-AMERICAN PROGRESS ILLUSTRATED. 53 tion Society, was born a slave in Louisiana. As soon as an opportunity offered he began to study. He took the full classical course in the New Orleans University, and the theo¬ logical course at Gamon Theological Semin¬ ary, Atlanta, Ga. He is a forcible speaker and is doing good work for the society. Such men indicate the possibilities of the race. Tens of thousands who will die in obscurity would have done equally well if they could have had the advantages of an education. REV. JULIAN FRANKLIN MAR¬ SHALL. The Baton Rouge District, Louisiana, has made a splendid record, due mainly to the energy and intelligent work of its able and painstaking presiding elder. Mr. Marshall was born in Virginia in 1847, but has lived since his second year in Louisiana. He was blessed with a pious praying mother whose religious instructions have been a constant stimulant to him all through his life. He has always been studious, a lover of good books and blessed with a splendid memory; he has performed a prodigious amount of literary work. Indeed, he may be reckoned among the ablest ministers of the church. From 1877, the year in which he was admitted into the Louisiana Conference, lie has ably and successfully filled some of the most important appointments within its bounds—Alexandria, Shreveport, New Or¬ leans ; and in the office of presiding elder since 1886 he has rendered excellent ser¬ vice. He was a delegate to the General Conference of 1888, and was chosen by Bishop-Elect J. P. Newman, D.D., to repre¬ sent the General Conference in the services of his consecration. In all the positions he has filled lie has rendered excellent service, and has been highly esteemed. REV. B. A. J. NIXON, B.D. The following in brief are the positions that have been held by this well-known preacher and educator: Twenty years teacher in Tennessee; President, Turner High School, Shelbyville, Tenn.; Trustee, Turner High School; Trustee, Wilberforce University, Wilberforce, Ohio ; Member, General Educa¬ tional Board, A. M. E. Connection; Presi¬ ding Elder, Columbia A. M. E. District, Nashville, Tenn. He is a man of fine presence and varied Rev. B. A. J. Nixon, B.D. gifts. Zealous, devoted and thoroughly educated, he has exerted a wide influence and in a marked degree commands the re¬ spect of all associated with him. ST. PAUL'S A. M. CHURCH Raleigh, N. C. This edifice cost $32,000. The corner¬ stone was laid June 24, 1884. The dimen¬ sions are 65 by 97 feet, with chapel on west side. The chapel, 40 by 65 feet, contains Sabbath-school and class-rooms, all under slate roof. The chapel is a part of the main 54 AFRO-AMERICAN PROGRESS IJL^QSI RATED. building, and can be used in times, of large congregations. This large and commodious building REV. JOHN JASPER. The theory that the sun moves has been advanced by many, but the theory of Mr. reflects great credit upon the congregation, Jasper differs from that of nearly every other by being advanced as a Bible argument. Rev. John Jasper was the youngest of twenty-four children, and was born on the Fourth of July, 1812, in the County of Fluvanna, Va. He began his career as cart boy, but was soon made house boy, and further dignified by the promotion to table waiter, tending garden in his spare time. He hired himself out to work by the year and continued in this kind of service for several years. He was always of an astronomical turn of mind, and if he had had the advantage of education, would, doubt¬ less, have made one of the foremost scientists of the times. He was con¬ verted in 1839, and began preaching. He was very successful and was very impressive, especially in funeral sermons, and was in great demand at the time. He has been married three times. He was called to preach in the Third Baptist Church in Petersburg in 1874. His life has been full of arduous work, and from his position as a slave he has risen to considerable wealth. His theory with regard to the move¬ ment of the sun is unique, and he ad¬ vances some very good arguments in favor of it. He has travelled through the North lecturing, and has visited most of the leading cities in the Union. He is very earnest and a man of sound judg¬ ment and good hard sense. MT. ZION A. M. E. CHURCH, JACKSONVILLE, FLA. Mr. Jasper affords a striking illustra- being one of the most attractive church edi¬ fices in the city. It is admired for its con¬ venient arrangements which afford the best facilities for carrying on its work. tration of .what can be accomplished by steady industry and perseverance. From the humblest surroundings in early life he has risen to a position of influence. AFRO-AMERICAN PROGRESS ILLUSTRATED. 55 REV. EDWARD W. S. HAMMOND, D.D. Rev. Edward W. S. Hammond, D.D., editor of the Southwestern Christian Advo¬ cate, is a member of the Lexington Con¬ ference, and was born in Baltimore, Md., February 14, 1842. He is the son of Christian parents, who had formerly been slaves. He was converted at an early age, and attended the schools taught in his native city for the benefit of free col¬ ored people. Through the munificence of the late Hon. William E. Dodge, of New York, he was enrolled as a stu¬ dent of Lincoln University (neat Oxford, Pa.) in 1864, where he pur¬ sued a collegiate and theological course until 1867. In 1872 he was admitted into the Washington Con¬ ference, and appointed to Union Chapel, Cincinnati, Ohio, where he had marked success. He afterward filled the following appointment ; Paris, Ky., 1874-76; Hardinsburg, Ky., 1876-78; Lexington, Ky., 1878-80; Presiding Elder of the Indiana District, 1881-84; Coving¬ ton, Ky., 1884-86; Presiding Elder of the Ohio District, 1887—92. He was elected reserve delegate to the General Conference of 1876, and delegate in 1880, when he made a speech in favor of the election of a colored Bishop which attracted general attention. He was elected reserve delegate to the General Conference of 1884, and a delegate to that of 1888 and that of 1892, from which body he was elected editor of the South- ivestern Christian Advocate. He received the honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity from New Orleans University in May, 1888. ^-Je has written extensively for the religious and secular press, and has been generally successful in the several positions to which he has been called. The foregoing examples of successful Afro- Americans speak for themselves. Says the Hon. Frederick Douglass: When we con-j sider that, during two centuries, the colored people of this country were doomed to igno¬ rance and illiteracy, the record presented seems almost incredible. No one, fifty years Rev. John Jasper. ago, could have imagined the possibility of such intellectual energy and activity among them. The eager and persistent efforts of these people to avail themselves of the power ol education is a matter of amazement. The gates of knowledge were scarcely ajar when in they rushed pell mell, almost trampling upon one another in the race to reach its most exalted benefits. 56 AFRO-AMERICAN PROGRESS ILLUSTRATED. AFRO=AMERICAN COLLEGES AND INDUSTRIAL SCHOOLS. WHAT our people can accom¬ plish by education has been shown during the last genera¬ tion. There is an old saying that "what has been done can be done again." A large number of our race have proved their ability to master not only the ordinary branches of learning, but also to meet the demands of the "higher education." This is an undeniable fact, and is valuable as showing that the colored man can be taught ( and trained for all professions and pursuits. He has that inquiring mind, which is one of the first essentials for obtaining knowledge. He has a praiseworthy curiosity for prying into what he does not know already. He is eager to learn. Wherever and whenever educational advantages have been placed within his reach, he has made diligent use of them. Common schools and higher institu¬ tions of learning have only to be thrown open to him and lie will walk in, proud of his new and grand opportunities and ambi¬ tious to succeed. His mind and heart are stirred by the new era that has dawned upon him, his look is upward, and he begins to understand that the noblest manhood and the highest posi¬ tions of citizenship, wealth and social influence, can be gained only by self-culture and education. What is thought upon this subject by one of the leading Afro-American educators may be learned from the following article by Principal F. G. Snelson, of the Public School, Cartersville, Ga. The article is entitled, "What Ground, in what Studies should be Covered by a Grammar School Course?" and is taken from the columns of the Negro Riucatioual Journal. Principal Snelson is a representative man of our race, and this renders his views upo.i the importance of primary education of special interest. Mr. Snelson says : The importance of a thorough and comprehensive Grammar School course is becoming more and more apparent every year. In the Higher Insti¬ tutions of learning, in Trade Schools and Business Universities pupils who have mad" a thorough mastery of the fundamentals of the Grammar School course seldom fail of marked success in the completion of their courses of studies and in their business careers. Every working man needs to know far more than the trade he has learned. If he has not a brain educated to think, he will surely be outwitted by the superior intelli¬ gence of contractors. " Hand-skill is essen¬ tial but hands must be moved by a thinking head," says one very wisely. The Ground to be covered demands : In the Form of a Story. Thorough preparation—the bringing to¬ gether all the helps, materials and incentives necessary to incite the acute interest of the teacher and prepare him for the lesson. The pupil himself must be prepared also; his interest fully awakened and his expecta¬ tions of receiving some good covetously aroused. The Ground to be covered requires the powers of admirable presentation. The German idea is that the teacher shall relate the lesson in the form of a story—thus hold¬ ing out the idea of a far higher grade ol teaching force and showing the demands foi better Normal training. The Ground to be covered will suggest the clearest association of those notions and AFRO-AMERICAN PROGRESS ILLUSTRATED. 57 ideas that have a resemblance, brought together, compared, and absorbed and truly assimilated from the broad and enchanting- field of knowledge. Stoy's watchword, "Repetition, repeti¬ tion, eternal repetition," will strengthen immensely in one harmonious whole and into the conscious possession of full knowl- has been learned. The recent scientific term is apperception, by which is meant the intellectual appropriation of all the informa¬ tion acquired. Its products may be called habits of body and habits of thought, or the true discipline of the head, heart and hand. It may be called culture, produced by ideas inter'"1 !v assimilated like food eaten, digested Jubilee Hall, Fisk University, Nashville, Tenn. edge, the memory and logical powers of She pupil. It will give completeness, it will vinite the old and the new, it will organize disconnected materials into a system and turn the mental possessions into elements of power. The Ground to be covered should ever keep in view the familiar application of what and wrought into blood, bone and sinew o. perfect usefulness. Our Grammar School course demands the greatest attention, because the vast majority of our school population will never reach beyond its narrow confines. It is the chosen few who enter the colleges; it is the select alone that ever are blessed with 58 AFRO-AMERICAN PROGRESS ILLUSTRATED. the advantages of trade and professional education. Therefore the potent elements of the successful lives of the great army of our youth must be forcefully impressed by the grammar school teacher. As regards the number of studies used, our working watchword should be, Non multa scd multum, not a superfluity, but an appropriate selection and excellence of text¬ books. What is known in modern pedagogy co-ordination of studies should be of spe¬ cial consideration. The program or course of studies may be divided into two classes : ist, those studies which deal with objects of thought and that furnish the best material of knowledge; 2d, those studies which deal only or for the most part with simple expres¬ sion. Among those of the first class may be named geography, history, arithmetic, natu¬ ral history, physics and physiology. Among those of the second class may be mentioned reading, drawing, spelling, penmanship, music and composition. The purpose of the "thought" studies is to furnish food material and stimulate concepts. The purpose ®f " expression " studies is to intensify impres¬ sions made, facilitate analysis of concepts, and make them more definite and clear. Geography should be the outgrowth of the natural sciences; political geography should be the outgrowth of physical geogra¬ phy, and both should be the stepping-stones to history. Such co-ordination involves, ist, the teaching of clay modeling of the various grand divisions of the earth in its physical phenomena; 2d, the teaching of spelling with composition ; 3d, the teaching of composition with all the "thought" studies, with a comprehensive exercise of Chrisman Hall, Clark University, Atlanta, Ga. AFRO-AMERICAN PROGRESS ILLUSTRATED. 59 the simple applications of grammatical con¬ structions of subject, predicate and object; 4th, the insertion of general reading matter bearing directly on thought studies; and, 5th, the weaving of such moral ideals from all the studies, separately or in combination, as will display to the pupils the practical manifestations of good will, benevolence, justice, temperance, charity, etc. The field of school ethics is exceedingly narrowed, Simon N. Pattin. of the University of Penn¬ sylvania, declares that children can be edu¬ cated to form higher combinations of things which, taken together, give much larger sums of pleasure, etc. The Ground to be covered in the Gram¬ mar School course should embrace the sub¬ jects of taxation, its purposes, rightfulness, methods, justice, its benefits and necessities; what role these have played in wars and Morgan College, but there remains a ray of hope for efficient moral training. The will must be moved by motives of the truest moral stamina. Mythology, that idealized history, the legends, folk-lore, fairy tales and dramas, are all freighted with ethical lessons of the bless¬ ings of good-will, and the curses of ill-will and injustice; the inevitable return of the deed upon the doer; and the moral grandeur of those who obey the laws of conscience with unswerving determination. Professor Baltimore, Md. revolutions, and what the rights and duties of true citizenship are, and thus prepare every pupil who completes the Grammar Course for the active duties of life as though he would never enter the school-room again as a student. Patriotism [ The kind of patriotism neces¬ sary is that which, while inspiring the chil¬ dren with enthusiastic love for their own country and its institutions, carries their sympathies beyond the barriers of territory, 60 AFRO-AMERICAN PROGRESS ILLUSTRATED. race or language, and which will make them feel that all nations are a part of a great whole or communism called Civilization, and that every American must " act well his part" toward making his own nation a strong contributor to the best forces of all Christendom. Well might the distinguished satirist of the Renaissance declare that the aim of education is a complete man; who fears, loves and serves God and loves his neighbor as himself; skilled in art and industry; pos¬ sesses the greatest amount of knowledge, and constantly strives for greater perfection in it. Finally the Ground to be covered should ultimately, invariably teach the love of God: Could we with ink the ocean fill; Were every stalk on earth a quill; And were the skies of parchment made And every man a scribe by trade— To tell the love of God alone, Would drain the ocean dry, Nor parchment could contain the whc^e, Though stretched from sky to sky. To the foregoing may appropriately be added here sketches of several leading Afro- American educators. The first to be named is PROF. BOOKER T. WASHINGTON. Principal Washington of Tuskegee, Ala., was born a slave at Hale's Ford, Va., April, 1857. The place of his birth and early childhood, was a small one-room cabin, with a dirt floor—there being an opening in the middle of the floor where the sweet potatoes were kept in the winter. He belonged to a family by the name cf Burrows. Very soon after the war he went with his mother, Jane Ferguson, his step-father and the remainder of his family to Maiden, W. Va., to live. Here he worked in the salt furnaces the greater part of each year, and went to school during three or four months. Mr. Washington usually secured some one to teach him at night when not permitted to attend school in the day. After working in the mines and furnaces for a considerable time, he secured employment at the house of Mrs. Viola Ruffner, a lady of New England birth and training, and who, though very exacting regarding all matters of work, was very kind and showed her interest in the education of young Washington in a number of V?ys. Slept Under the Sidewalk. In 1871, in some way Washington heard of Hampton Institute in Virginia He at once made up his mind to enter that institu' tion. With his own small earnings, amount¬ ing to six dollars per month, and with what his family were kind enough to give him, he found himself in Richmond, Va., but friend' less, shelterless and homeless. Casting about, however, he soon discovered a hole under a sidewalk that offered a night's sleep. As luck would have it, when he awoke next morning he found he was near a vessel un¬ loading pig iron, and application was at once made to the captain for work, which was given. Mr. Washington worked here until he had enough money to pay his way to Hampton Institute, which place he reached with a sur¬ plus of fifty cents. He remained at Hamp¬ ton three years, working his way through, and graduated with one of the honors of his class. After graduating and teaching in West Virginia, his old home, for a while, and spending a year in study at Wayland Seminary, Washington, D. C., Mr. Wash- ington was invited to return to Hampton as a teacher. In this capacity he remained at Hampton two years, till 1881, when appli' cation was made to Gen. S. C. Armstrong 1. T. Thomas Fortune, Journalist. 2. Booker T. Washington, Educator. 3. Hon. Frederick Douglass, Statesman. 4. I. Garland penn, Author, Orator; 5. Miss Ida B. Wells, Chief Commissioner. Atlanta Exposition. L,ecti:rer, Defender of the Race. REV. B. W. ARNETT BISHOP OF AFRICAN M. E. CHURCH, ORATOR AND STATESMAN REV. SAMUEL T. MITCHELL, A.M., LL.D., Distinguished Colored Educator, President of Wilberforce University, Wilberforce, Ohio. DR. D. H. WILLIAMS, of Chicago, Leading Colored Physician. HEROIC CHARGE OF THE TENTH CAVALRY (COLORED) AT SAN JUAN AFRO-AMERICAN PROGRESS ILLUSTRATED. 61 by citizens of Tuskegee, Ala., for some one to start an institution at Tuskegee, on the plan of Hampton. Mr. Washington was at once recom¬ mended for the position. Upon reaching Tuskegee, he found neither land nor build¬ ings, nothing but the promise of the state to pay $2000 annually toward the expenses of the school. The school was started in an old church and shanty with thirty students and a teacher. and wealthy people throughout the country. This is attested by the fact that he succeeds in raising from $50,000 to $60,000 each year with which to carry on the school work. Several individuals give from $3000 to $10,000 each annually toward the support of the school. Mr. Washington's services are in constant demand to speak at associa¬ tions, clubs and prominent churches. The speech that brought him first into prominence was before the National Edvca- Main Building, New Orleans University, La. The history of the school and its present condition are already known far and wide. It is enough to say that the institution with its 1900 acres of land, its 28 or more large buildings, with its 1000 or more teachers and pupils, its wealth in live stock, and its valua¬ tion of over $250,000 is a prodigy of devel¬ opment. Principal Washington has met with un¬ usual success in making the acquaintance and securing the confidence of prominent tion Association, Madison, Wis., in 1884. Soon after he was invited to address the Boston Unitarian Club, the most intelligent and wealthy club in the world he being the first colored man to address the club. He has also spoken at Plymouth Church (formerly Henry Ward Beecher's), Trinity Church, Boston (formerly Phillips Brooks'), and many other of the most prominent churches in the country. Mr. Washington is regarded as one ol the 62 AFRO-AMERICAN PROGRESS ILLUSTRATED. leading men of this country, and is held in high esteem everywhere, as was shown by his being made on one occasion the guest of honor at the table of the Governor of Massa¬ chusetts. Surely then, if we take into account his great work, it is not going too far to place Mr. Washington among the foremost men of his country and time. Probably there is no man in the United States that has done more for our people than Prof. Washington. We take the fol¬ lowing complimentary notice from the Daily Herald, Quincy, 111.: when he entered slavery and when he camr out. He interested every one greatly in the subject/' PROF. J. D. CHAVIS, A.M., B.D. This distinguished educator was born in the vicinity of Greensboro, N. C., August 9, 1863. He was born of free parents, William and Nellie Chavis, but under the peculiar circumstances and laws which have existed in North Carolina and all slave-hold¬ ing States. This gave him no advantage over the unfortunate slave. Philander Smith Coll "Earnestness, simplicity and common sense characterized the man and his addresses at the Congregational Church. Very large congregations greeted him both morning and evening, and no one could have more atten¬ tive listeners. He speaks with great rapidity, with much emphasis, but weaves in his humor so that he is never wearisome. His stories were full of wit and always to the point. Some passages were exceedingly eloquent, especially one last evening where he described the contrast between the Negro 5e, Little Rock, Ark. On his father's side he is thought to be second cousin to Rev. John Chavis, a prominent colored Presbyterian minister, a true educator, who taught some of the best white families in the State before the war. Young Chavis, in 1875, having acquired the rudiments of education under great dif¬ ficulties, while sitting on his ox-Tvagon loaded with wood, saw the foundation of Bennett College being laid. He there deter¬ mined some day to go to that college. Two AFRO-AMERICAN PROGRESS ILLUSTRATED. 63 School of Printing, Claflin University white boys with him laughed, and ridiculed his ambition. A few years later he graduated from that same institution; completed his course in In the fall of 1889 he was elected Princi¬ pal of the City School in Winston, N. C. From there he was called to a professorship in Bennett College. This position he Clark University in 1887, with the degree of A.B.; spent three years in Gammon 'Theologi¬ cal Seminary and graduated from there in 1889 with the degree of B.D. acceptably filled for three years. In the fall of 1892 he married Miss Cornelia Elizabeth Dorsette, an accomplished lady and teacher, herself being a graduate of Bennett College,, School of Paintjng, Claflin University. 64 AFRO-AMERICAN PROGRESS ILLUSTRATED. having taught in North Carolina and in Tus- kegee Normal Institute, Ala., for a number of years. In 1893 Prof. Chavis was appointed Presi¬ dent of Bennett College, toward which his ambition was directed years ago. His executive ability and business tact, shown in his work of former years, give him pre-emi¬ nent fitness for the responsible and honora¬ ble position of president of the institution, which position he now successfully fills. PROF. A. W. McKINNEY. This very successful teacher and clergy¬ man was born February 6, 1853, in Frank¬ lin County, Ala. His parents were slaves, and when he was about four years old they were sold from him, and he never saw them again till long after the Emancipation. By his own unaided efforts and diligent study he obtained a common school educa¬ tion. After earning and saving some money he went to Grenada, Miss., and entered a high school taught by a Northern lady. While here he worked evenings, mornings and Saturdays, and helped to pay his board, and continued his studies. Here, in the year 1873, he was converted and joined the M. E. Church under Rev. Gilbert Brooks. It was through the advice of that good man that he entered Central Tennessee College at Nashville, Tenn., in the year 1874, where he was in regular attendance till 1877, when he was elected Principal of Nimrod Institute at Eutaw, Ala. In 1881 he was elected Principal of the City Public School at Marion, Ala. Dur¬ ing these years of educational work he also served as pastor of Soulis' Chapel, Eutaw, and Marion, respectively. His three years at the place last named were years of marked success. In 1882 he returned to Central Tennessee College and graduated in 1884. In 1885 he was appointed pastor oi Lakeside M. E. Church at Huntsville, Ala., which place he served two years. In 1886 he was elected President of Central Alabama Academy, which he now holds. Under his care the school, which was at one time advertised for sale, has been regularly main¬ tained with an increased attendance, and the buildings, grounds and facilities greatly improved. In 1888 he was chosen as the ministerial delegate to the General Conference of the M. E. Church, which met that year in the City of New York. In the year 1892 he was again honored by his brethren of the Central Alabama Conference, who elected him as their delegate to the General Confer¬ ence, which met that year in the City of Omaha, Neb. PROF. THOMAS J. CALLOWAY, A President Calloway was born August 12, 1866, in Cleveland, situated in the mountain¬ ous district known as "East Tennessee." The subject of this sketch experienced the usual routine life of a farmer's lad. His parents were ex-slaves and could neither read nor write. They managed, however, to keep their four boys and three girls in the town school five to six months in the year, using them during the remaining months to do the work on the farm. Thomas Junius was the fifth child and third son, and was quite early regarded a? the "Yankee" brother. At the age of six teen, through a wise enactment of the Ten¬ nessee Legislature, granting scholarships to each Senatorial District, he was enabled to enter Fisk University. While in that insti¬ tution he was elected for three years business manager of the Herald, a college publica¬ tion, and enjoyed the hearty confidence of all-' H^ graduated in 1889, after a schoa1 AFRO-AMERICAN PROGRESS ILLUSTRATED. G5 life of many difficulties, but surmounted by | ored High School of Evansville, Ind., and his characteristic energy. Mr. Calloway was at once employed. The After graduation, desiring to perfect him¬ self in practical education, he went to Chi- Evansville schools being somewhat "in poli¬ tics," and thus suffering from outside inftu- School of Art, Claflin University. Dress-Cutting School, Claflin University. cago, and by working at odd hours was enabled to complete the course of Bryant and Stratton's Business College. At this time there happened a vacancy in the Col- ences, he resigned in May to accept a pcsitior. in the War Department, Washington, D. C tendered him through the Civil Service Com mission, he having stood a high examination AFRO-AMERICAN PROGRESS ILLUSTRATE!.. During his service for the Government he I used his spare hours, first, to take special studies in law and afterward to establish and maintain quite a flourishing educational In the spring of 1894 he wa^ elected Secretary of Tuskegee Normal and Indus¬ trial School, Tuskegee, Ala., of which Pro¬ fessor Booker T. Washington is Principal, School of Bricklaying, Claflin University. Steam Laundry, ( bureau, styled the "Colored Teachers' Agency," designed to aid colored schools in every part of the United States, in selecting the best available teachers, and likewise fur¬ nishing positions for deserving teachers. .aflin University. Before assuming charge of his duties at Tuskegee, the trustees of Alcorn Agricul¬ tural and Me ;hanical College, near Rodney, Miss., elected him President of that institu¬ tion. This college was established in iS;m, 1 . - I pi. HbB • 1 AFRO-AMERICAN PROGRESS ILLUSTRATED. 67 as a result of purchase by the State, of Oak¬ land College, a famous old institution for white boys, founded in 1828 by Southern Presbyterians, and sold to the State because of the loss of endowments through results of the war. It comprises 21 buildings, over 300 acres of land. Fifteen teachers are employed and over 300 students are enrolled. The courses are Academic, Scientific, Preparatory and Business. Agriculture is taught theoreti- elected at Tuskegee, upon his election to the Presidency of Alcorn College. He is now devoting his energies and talents to the development of that institution with much success. As one of the evidences of his ability he has through his efforts secured for his school the donation by Congress of a township of land amounting to twenty-three thousand and forty acres, which it is hoped will realize a hundred thousand dollars. Pharmaceutical Laboratory, Meharry Medical College, Nashville, Tenn. cally and practically; so also are carpentry, blacksmithing, printing, shoemaking and dairying. The institution aims to prepare young people to take charge of public schools of the State and to make useful and thrifty citizens. While the shops do not aim to produce mechanics they develop skill that enables many of the students to follow trades. Mr. Calloway resigned his position in the War Department, Washington, D. C., and also the position to which he had just been CLAFLIN UNIVERSITY AND IN- DUSTRIAL INSTITUTE. This institution of learning is located at Orangeburg, S. C. The property consists of nearly two hundred acres of land and thirty school and industrial buildings. The cam pas is pleasantly located and well shaded The existence of the institution is due largely to the Hon. Lee Claflin and family, of Boston. The faculty is composed of six¬ teen members. Twenty persons are em¬ ployed in the mechanical and1 industrial 63 AFRO-AMERICAN PROGRESS ILLUSTRATED. departments. There are more than iooo students in annual attendance. printing, painting and graining, brickmak- ing and laying, blacksmithing^ tailoring, African Boys Being Educated at Central Tennessee College. First Engine Built at Central Tennessee College. Twenty trades and industries are taught, some of which are as follows: Carpentry, shoemaking, cooking, domestic economy, dress cutting, fitting and making, crochet rabinetmaking, building, steam laundry, ing, artistic painting and needle work. Th< AFRO-AMERICAN PROGRESS ILLUSTRATED. 69 industrial department does most of the building and all of the repairing. All furni^ ture needed in the dormitories is manufac¬ tured by the students. The institution has proved the practicability of teaching the trades in connection with the literary studies. CENTRAL COLLEGE NESSEE. OF TEN- The president of Central Tennessee Col lege writes'. "The Meharry Phar¬ maceutical Department of Central Tennessee College has been in operation for two years. During the past session nine students were en¬ rolled, three of whom completed the required course of study. The jemand for colored pharmacists far exceeds the supply, and during the past year I have re¬ ceived applications from five different States, ask¬ ing for young men to take charge of drug stores; but, as all of our pharmaceutical graduates were already provided for, I was unable to supply these medical graduates have largely indebted for our present buildings, grounds, apparatus, aid in support, and the beginning of an endowment." The school building is supplied with work benches, tool room, offices, etc. It is heated by steam and ventilated by swinging win¬ dows in the cupola above. The building was founded by, and is under the control of, H. G. Sedgwick, an accomplished mechani¬ cian. The magnificient outfit of machinery was given by Professor Sedgwick, who con- Telescope Made at Central Tennessee College. demands. Our opened, and are now successfully conducting two drug stores 1 in Atlanta, Ga., two in Nashville, two in Arkansas, one in Greenville, Miss., one in Galveston, Tex., one in Macon, Ga. The Meharry Dental and Pharmaceutical De¬ partments of Central 1 ennessee College take dieir name from the generous and philan- trophic Meharry family, to whom we are secrated it by his own splendid genius to the work of Christian education. Mr. Sedgwick is a Methodist minister, and in entering upon this work was impelled by a profound consciousness of duty. The course is for four years. It is noticed that the students who stand highest in their liter¬ ary classes take the most interest in the department of mechanical arts, thus com¬ bining mental and manual training. 0 AFRO-AMERICAN PROGRESS ILLUSTRATED. The telescope made by colored students Specimens of Work, Central Tennessee College. now in use at tne observatory, Law¬ rence University, Appleton, Wis. The en¬ tire mounting, with the exception of the object glass, the eye-piece and the steel tube, was built at the machine shops of the School of Mechanic Art, Nashville, Tenn. All of the polishing and nickel- plating, and all of the surface work as done by the students. Specimens of Work. Explanation : I. Steel hammer, forged by hand. 2. Cold chisel, forged by hand. 3. One end of crobet file, polished. 4. Iron nail, electroplated, first in copper, then in nickel, then in silver, after being polished. 5, 6. Steel hammer, forged by hand. 7, 8, 9, 10, 12. Parts of clock¬ work. 11. Graduated scale. 13. Dia¬ mond point angular lathestool. 14. Steel octagon prick punch, forged by hand. 15. Steel calipers, forged by hand. 16. Brass cog-wheel for tower clock. 17. Steel hammer, forged by hand. 18. 19, 20. Specimens of brass, silver and gold electroplating. 21. Steel ham¬ mer, forged by hand. These choice specimens of handicraft were all made by Afro-American students connected with the School of Mechanic Arts, Central Tennessee College, Nash¬ ville, Tenn. OUR FDUCATIONAL PROGRESS. As illustrating the advancement made by our race in education, the following facts from Johnson's "School History of the Negro Race in America" will be of interest: Can the Negro learn anything? was the first question he had to answer after schools were established for him. The fact that every slave State had laws against his being taught before the war and AFRO-AMERICAN PROGRESS ILLUSTRATED. 71 that they opposed it afterward ought to be a sufficient answer. But if this is not sufficient, think of the deeds of Professor Scarborough, of Macon, Ga., author of a series of Greek text-books which have been adopted at Yale; George W. Williams, author of the " History of the American Negro;" Joseph T. Wilson, author of " Black Phalanx;" C. G. Morgan, class orator at Harvard, 1890, and a host of others. The high schools, seminaries, colleges and professional schools for colored people num¬ ber nearly two hundred. Many of them are controlled entirely by colored faculties as Livingstone and Bennett Colleges, North Carolina; Morris Brown College, Georgia ; Tuskegee Normal School, Alabama; Wil- berforce University, Ohio; Virginia Normal and Collegiate Institute; Kittrell's Normal and Industrial Institute and Shaw Univer¬ sity, except its president, who is white, but one of the first presidents to recognize the ability of young colored men to teach the higher branches. The plan works admirably well and, besides, teaches the race to confide in the ability of its own educated men and women. It affords lucrative employment to many who are by nature and choice fitted, for the work of teaching. The colored people of the South have made more progress in education since the war than in anything else, and they are still thirsty for knowledge. The schools every¬ where are crowded. The love of knowledge seems to be instinctive, and thousands of faithful mothers spend many weary hours at the ironing board and wash-tub in order to get money to help their children obtain an education. With the start they now have 'Y- twenty-five years more of earnest work will show marvellous changes in the educational condition of the race, attended by marked improvement in every respect. SECRET SOCIETY OR GA OUR people have not been slow to see the advantages arising from combined effort. They believe in societies for mutual improve¬ ment, for dispensing charity to aid the unfortunate, for protecting their civil rights, for aiding one another in business and for elevating the race. They welcome every organization that promises to secure for them any political, social or material benefits. The history of secret societies proves that many of them possess a value and confer benefits that are something more than imaginary. Otherwise these various orders could not have flourished as they have. Their members are devoted to them, spend much time and money in maintaining them, and show in other ways that they are receiving sflZERS AND OFFICERS. some real advantage by continuing their membership. Afro-Americans are especially interested in societies whose prominent feature is prac¬ tical benevolence, for example, the care of the sick and aged poor, the assistance needed by those who for the time being are out of work, and the help required by them in the effort to obtain employment. Taking the different church societies, of which there is a vast number, and the secret orders of a more general character into account, it is safe to say that a very large proportion of our people are enrolled as members of organizations, of one form or another, all aiming to promote the moral, social and material welfare of those connected with them, and helping to sustain them. XV. AFRO-AMERICAN PROGRESS ILLUSTRATED. Charles H. Brooks, Grand Secretary G. U. O. of Odd Fellows of America Thus the great fact has not escaped our people that " in union there is strength.*' The finest achievements are brought about by combined effort, by uniting energies and directing them to a common object. The colored man. as all know, is emphatically a social being. He is happy in the society of his kind. His nature peculiarly fits him for uniting with others in joint efforts for bettering his condition and securing benefits that he could not obtain if acting independently and alone. It is not surprising, therefore, that he is ever ready for united action. The great benevolent orders have a Charm for him. He likes the air of mystery thrown around a secret society. He is attracted by the charming regalia and the brilliant o o parades. He takes pride in the order to which he belongs, and if there is any political organization that aims to advance his interests, secure his rights and elevate him to the full measure of a noble citi¬ zenship, he throws into it all his energies, and is faithful to his duties and obligations. Who can estimate the immense benefits thus derived, or the noble impulses thus given to our race ? We have space for mentioning only one or two prominent organi¬ zers and officers, but take pleasure in presenting the following brief sketch from a contemporary jour¬ nal. George Bryan Mills, Esq., Founder of the Order Esdros, Baltimore, Md, AFRO-AMERICAN PROGRESS ILLUSTRATED. 73 REV. W. W. BROWN. "We are pleased to note," says the jour¬ nal above mentioned, " that our people are beginning to appreciate the power there is in well-managed organizations. The bane of the race has been in its division, but necessity is now driv¬ ing our people together into societies and associations for mutual benefit and advancement. The great race organizer is Rev. W. W. Brown, the Grand Worthy Master of the True Reformers, who is now bending his energies in the direction of instill¬ ing business principles into a peo¬ ple who have not been taught the true value and virtue of amassing wealth. " There is another feature among the True Reformers that should not be overlooked, and that is the fact that through that organization many members of our race obtain remunerative employment, who would otherwise be without work, and that is an important item in the history of race progress. The organization is growing, and we expect to see, ere long, well- equipped banking establishments under its supervision and direction. We favor the movement of the True Reformers, because it tends to bene¬ fit the masses, and is doing a great work for the race." We also take pleasure in men¬ tioning another name favorably known in the Order of Odd Fellows. J. J. C. McKINLEY. Mr. McKinley was born in Russellville, Ky., March 5, 185*2. He attended the common schools of Louisville, and entered the University of Berea in 1870. In 1875 he accepted a position in the public schools of Louisville, where he has since taught. Mr. McKinley is one of the most promi Rev. W. W. Brown, Founder of the Order of True Reformers. nent Odd Fellows in the State. In 1881 he was elected Secretary of the Kentucky Grand Lodge. He has written a number of books on Odd Fellowship. 74 AFRO-AMERICAN PROGRESS ILLUSTRATED. J. J. C. McKinley. From the foregoing sketches it will be seen that many of the most prominent colored men, many of the lead¬ ers, who may justly be consid¬ ered the wisest, the most far- seeing and the most devoted to the interests of our race, advocate friendly societies, and look with favor upon the different fraternities, the objects and aims of which tend to the improvement of the masses and the bettering of their condition. Such societies have become numer¬ ous and are well supported. They find among their members those who make good and careful officers, active, reliable and efficient. And these fraternities are also schools of education. They teach the art of combined effort, the proper control of finances, and the rules that should govern organized bodies of men. They promote a spirit of brotherhood and of active charity. They interweave the mu¬ tual relations of separate individuals, bring them closer together, and teach the great lesson that the welfare or mis¬ fortune of one is the common concern of all. NAVAL AND MILITARY HEROES. AS a race the Afro-Americans are not ■ ambitious for military glory. Our people are peaceable and willing to settle their difficulties without any resort to arms. The character of the race must not be judged by exceptional instances of violence and bloodshed. Yet when driven to it, the race has shown great fighting qualities and has displayed a valor equal to that of the most renowned chieftains of other peoples. Among the famous commanders who have shown the most brilliant military genius, the first to be named is that grand historic char¬ acter who was called the Napoleon Bona¬ parte of his race. TOUSSAINT L'OUVERTURE. This celebrated soldier, statesman and martyr is supposed to have been born in the Island of Haiti, or San Domingo, May 20, 1743. Though very delicate in his extreme youth, he became stronger with years and always showed a kind and open disposition. His real name was Toussaint Breda, from the estate on which he worked as a slave tending AFRO-AMERICAN PROGRESS ILLUSTRATED. 75 flocks and herds. He was made coachman by M. De Libertas, and later steward of the sugar house. He married a widow with one son and learned to read. In 1791 the revolution broke out and he joined the soldiers, first working among them as physician, but was afterward called to the front to lead them. Under his leadership the revolution was successful and he restored the island to peace and became the ruler. All San Domingo was prosperous and happy under his rule until Bonaparte issued a decree in 1801 restoring slavery to the island and sent French troops to carry the order into effect. Made a Prisoner. L'Ouverture's property was destroyed, his family scattered and himself taken to the borders of Switzerland and thrown into a dungeon, where he died April 3, 1803. His noble character is shown in his last words to his son, "Some day you will return to San Domingo and you must forget that France murdered your father." It is difficult to do justice to this extraor¬ dinary man who left a profound impression upon his countrymen and his time. His passion was the love of liberty. In the great struggle for freedom in San Domingo he allied himself with France, believing he had more to hope for from this nation than from England, but he was basely deceived. It was through an act of treachery that he was seized by the French Commanding Officer, in order that he might be transported to France, thus permitting slavery to be re¬ stored in the Island. By the sheer force of his native ability and integrity he rose to the highest position among his people, and it is not too much to say that no nobler leader ever marshalled an army or struggled for independence. Not merely great military genius, not merely great ability as a statesman appeared in his marvelous career, but above all his exalted character shone resplendently, and he was too honest to be bribed, too courageous to surrender, and too devoted to the welfare of his race to count his life dear to him. Speaking of him as a soldier, Wendell Phillips has said: Cromwell manufactured his own army: Napoleon at the age oi Toussaint L'Ouverture. twenty-seven was placed at the head of the best troops that Europe ever saw. They were both successful. " But," says Macau- lay, "with such disadvantages the English¬ man showed the greatest genius. Whether you will allow the inference or not, you will at least grant it is a fair mode of measure¬ ment; apply it to Toussaint. Cromwell never saw an army until he was forty. This man never saw a soldier until he was rifr\*. 76 AFRO-AMERTCAN PROGRESS ILLUSTRATED. and sent him home con¬ quered ; at the most warlike blood in Eu rope, the French, and put them under his feet; at the pluckiest blood in Europe, the English and they skulked home to Jamaica." The sol¬ diers were proud of their general and under his guidance performed niracles. It seems as if he never slept. The title "L'Ouverture" was given him because an officer said that wher¬ ever Toussaint goes he always makes an open¬ ing, the word means "the opening." President mppoi.ite, San Domingo. Cromwell manufactured his own army, out of what? Englishmen—the best blood in Europe out of the middle classes of Englishmen—the best blood of the Island. And with it he conquered what? English¬ men—their equals. "This man manufactured his army out of what? Out of what you class a de¬ spicable race of Negroes, debased and demoralized by two hundred years of slavery. One hundred thousand of them imported into the Island within four years, unable to speak a dialect intelligible even to each other. Yet out of this mixed, as you say despicable mass, he forged a thun¬ derbolt, and hurled it at what? At the proudest blood of Europe, the Spaniard, Major F. C. Revells, Washington, AFRO-AMERICAN PROGRESS ILLUSTRATED. 77 l Would call him Napoleon, but Napoleon «iade his way through a sea of blood. This man never broke his word. "No Retaliation" was his great motto and the rule of his life; and the last words uttered to his son in France were these: "My boy, you will one day go back to San Domingo : forget that France murdered your father." I would call him Cromwell, but Cromwell was only a soldier, and the state he founded went down to him into his grave; I would call him Washington, but the great Virgin¬ ian held slaves. This man risked his empire rather than permit the slave trade in the humble village of his domin¬ ions. You think me a fanatic to¬ night, for you read history not with your eyes but with your prejudices. But fifty years hence, 'when truth gets a hearing, the muse of history will put Phocion for the Greeks, Brutus for the Romans, Hampton for England, Fayette for France, choose Washington as the bright consummate flower of our earlier civilization, and John Brown as the ripe fruit of our noon-day; then dipping her pen in the sunlight, will write in the clear blue, above them all, the name of the soldier, the statesman, the martyr, Tous- saint L'Ouverture. HON. ROBERT SMALLS. The daring exploits of this distinguished representative of his race date back to the early days of the Civil War. He was born in Beaufort, S. C., April 5, 1839. Being a slave he had little opportunity for obtaining an education, but was possessed of a high order of intelligence and those traits which characterize every born leader of men In 1851 he moved to Charleston where he familiarized himself with ships and ship¬ ping. At the outbreak of the war he was employed on the Confederate Steamer Planter, a vessel plying in Charleston harbor. Smalls being in sympathy with the Federal cause, determined to watch his opportunity and deliver the vessel to the U. S. naval officer of that district. This bold exploit gave him wide repute. He was made captain of the Hon. Robert Smalls. vessel, and was highly esteemed by his supe¬ riors for his good sense, intelligence and bravery. After the Planter was put out of commis¬ sion in 1866, Captain Smalls was elected a member of the State Constitutional Conven¬ tion. He was of course the hero of an important act in the drama of the late war, and his people always delighted to hear him in his own style, the story of the cap- 7S AFRO-AMERICAN PROGRESS ILLUSTRATED. ture. His zeal, good sense and pure disin¬ terestedness, easily made him the idol of nis people, whose faith in him was unbounded. It was reported in the newspapers that two colored men, partisans of his, were talking on the corners. Said one to the other, " I Sergeant Wm. H. Carney, Fifty-fourth Massachusetts Regiment. tell you, Smalls is the greatest man in the world." The other said, "Y-e-s, he's great, but not the greatest man." " Pshaw, man," replied the first speaker. "Who is greater than Smalls?" said No. 2. "Why, Jesus Christ." "O," said No. I, "Smalls is young yet." At the general election in 1868, he was elected to a seat in the House of Represen¬ tatives of the State, and signalized his efforts by the introduction of the Homestead Act, and introduced and secured the passage of the Civil Rights bill. He continued in this capacity until Judge Wright was elected as associate judge of the Supreme Court of the State, when he was elected to fill his unexpired time in the Senate in 1870, and, at the election in 1872, he was elected Senator, defeating General W. J. Whipper. His record here was brilliant, consistent, and indeed he led in all the most prominent measures. His debating qualities were tested, and he was acknowl¬ edged a superior and pow¬ erful talker. He was on the " Committee on Fi¬ nance," chairman of the "Committee of Public Printing," and a member of many other leading com¬ mittees. Mr. Smalls was elected as a Republican to the Forty-seventh, Forty- eighth and Forty-ninth Congresses, and took high rank among the leaders of the House as a wise and patriotic statesman. COL. JAMES LEWIS. He was born in Woodville, Wilkinson County, Miss., in the year 1832. At the age of fifteen his work on the river began. At the time of the emancipation he was working AFRO-AMERICAN PROGRESS ILLUSTRATED. a« steward on board the Confed¬ erate transport, De Soto, and at the glad news at once made his way to New Orleans and petitioned the commanding officer to allow him to raise what he maintains was the first regiment of colored troops that en¬ tered the United States Army. Mr. Lewis raised two companies and was mustered in at the head of < ne as Captain of Company K. In 1864 he returned to the city and became a custom-house broker until he was appointed travelling agent foi the Educational Department of the Freedmen's Bureau, in which capacity he travelled all over the State and established schools. At the close of his work with the Bureau, he was made by the Hon. William P. Kellogg, United States Inspector for Customs. This place Captain R. A. Paul Richmond, Va. Colonel James Lewis. he held to 1869. He became Sergeant of the Metropolitan Police and was pro¬ moted to the captainship. He later held the positions of Colonel of the Second Regiment, State Militia, and Adminis¬ trator of Police and Public Improve¬ ments. In 1877 he was appointed Naval Officer of the Port by President Hayes, and was afterward made Super¬ intendent of the United States bonded warehouses in New Orleans. CAPTAIN R. A. PAUL. Robert Austin Paul, late Commander of State Guards, Richmond, Va., was born at Livingston, Nelson County, Va., No¬ vember 3, 1846. His parents were slaves 80 AFRO-AMERICAN PROGRESS ILLUSTRATED. and at an early age he was bound out under circumstances very unfavorable to the ac¬ quirement of knowledge, which was his chief ambition from early youth. After the war, with the assistance of his mother, who had been allowed by her master to acquire a fair education, he soon equipped himself for his active and useful Major Martin R. Df.i.anf.v. career. He entered politics early and has been identified with all important political movements in his State, being the only Afro- American to hold the messengership at the Virginia State House. Through his influence the Legislature created the State Guards of the City of Richmond, and he was made Captain. This organization has taken part with credit in nearly every competitive drill in the State, besides having taken part ill national drills. Captain Paul gave up his military life sub¬ sequently and became one of the most efficient mailing clerks in the Richmond Postoffice. He has marked literary ability and has contributed largely to magazines and papers. He is Past Master of the Masonic Lodge at his home and is very much esteemed. MAJOR MARTIN B. DELANEY, M.D. This distinguished sci¬ entist and lecturer was born at Charlestown.Va., May 6, 1812. He was the son of an African Prince and a Golah woman of high rank. He was married to Kate A. Richards in 1843. In 1818 he first began to take instructions and studied in secret until it was found out, and his mother moved to Cham- bersburg, Pa., where they lived for fifteen years and where he attended school. In 1831 he went to Pittsburg and entered school, and in 1834 was officially connected with the first temperance society among the Afro- American race. In the next few..years he studied medicine and lectured on physiologi cal subjects. In 1843 he started Mystery, an Afro- American weekly, and continued editing it for some years. He received the appoint¬ ment ol Major from President Lincoln ani was connected with the Freedmen's Bureau. The Educational Progress of the Afro-American Race By Prof. I. GARLAND PENN BECAUSE of the very great develop¬ ment of the Afro-American from slave to educator, a chapter on this subject cannot fail to be an eye-opener to the ignorant and a wonderful inspiration to the youth of the race. His condition at emancipation, the help he has commanded and received in one way or another, the prejudice confronting him, the inconsistencies with which he has had to deal without and within—all emphasize the educational chapter of his history. To briefly state the case as it stood at emancipation, he was degraded, superstitious, ignorant, with all the base influences of slav¬ ery about him, with here and there a spark of intelligence which had come to some in¬ dividuals by reason of contact with the Mas¬ ter in the " Big House," as house servant, butler, etc. Compelled to live without learn¬ ing the letter, deprived of the right to cultivate in the most modest way his mind, that he should have made the educational progress which is evident, is nothing less than won¬ derful. The acceptance at once of such educa¬ tional proffers as came to him from the North, was itself a proof of his capacities, for dullness and stupidity would not have so eagerly grasped the opportunity, when to grasp it was a voluntary matter with the individual and not compulsory. It was compulsory that he should be deprived ; it f was voluntary that he should accept. When the Afro-American was emancipated there came into the field help from all sources to educate him. Societies that were already organized in the North for work transferred the base of their operations South. These societies have been multiplied, and through them millions of dollars have been spent upon the race. Though compara¬ tively ignorant, the Afro-American finds himself in the period of reconstruction a large factor in the Legislatures of the South. To him is due the credit of throwing his voting strength in favor of a public free school sys¬ tem, which has not only proven his great benefactor in the South, but indeed the white man's as well. The effect has been to write a chapter of educational progress that will not grow dim with time. The statistics respecting elementary schools and education have already been given in this volume under the title, "Thirty Years of Advancement." NORMAL EDUCATION. In dealing briefly with the various kinds of education given our race in this hour of their need, we shall discuss the normal training, since it is most popular, and rightly so, because the demand is greater. The thing necessary for any race emerging from dense ignorance, and ushered immediately into the light of citizenship, is liberal training. 81 THE EDUCATIONAL PROGRESS. such as will fit them for intelligent use of their rights and privileges as good citizens. The quick preparation of teachers and preachers became an urgent necessity. Many friends of the Afro-American to-day believe that an education in the English branches is all that he needs to have. The colored people are largely responsible for this exist¬ ing sentiment. In many cases the classical training given members of the race has un¬ fitted them for the duties which the common people demanded, in that they have been shooting over the mark and missing the obiect. The Training Needed. There has also been another class who, thus educated classically and, finding occu¬ pations in an educational way not compati¬ ble with the character of their training, have found themselves eventually in the lower strata of pursuits, as waiters, barbers, etc., rather than in the higher walks of life. It is presumed that a man will make a good waiter if he is well up in English branches, without the necessity for a knowledge of the dead languages, science, etc. The argument that normal education is the training that should be given seems justified, as a large majority of those who are most successful are normalites. The most successful Afro- American to-day is a normalite. Thus in this field the wisdom of good normal training is justified. In 1894 there were in round numbers 12,000 colored youth in normal and preparatory normal classes in the institutions of the South. Of this num¬ ber 4000 were in the normal course proper. This estimate does not include the 2000 students in public high schools, which num¬ ber is made up from partial returns. The total would, therefore, give us 14,000 normalites in school during 1894. COLLEGE EDUCATION. What has been said under the previous heading was in no wise an argument against classical education. Our statement of the facts in the case was simply to show.that the argument for the sentiment in favor of nor¬ mal education is apparently justified by the conditions which exist. There are abundant proofs of the necessity for classical training among the race, but not so general as in the other case. The classical training of many and their success as linguists, scientists, etc., have proven beyond doubt a capacity for higher training, which has been in dispute ever since emancipation. The eminence of Prof. W. S. Scarborough, of Wilberforce University; Prof. W. H. Crogman, of Clark University; Prof. D. B. Williams, of Vir¬ ginia Normal and Collegiate Institute, as Greek and Latin scholars; Prof. Turner, of Clark University, as a scientist; Prof. Kelly Miller, of Etoward University, as a mathema¬ tician, and many others, is abundant proof of capacity to "dive deep and build sure" in the higher education. In the college courses of the institutions South there were 510 students in 1892, and 610 from only partial returns in 1894. PROFESSIONAL TRAINING. In professional life the Afro-American has been very active during the years of his emancipation. Into these fields he has largely gone and not without a great meas¬ ure of success. His active interest in secur¬ ing a professional training has been adversely criticised, upon the ground that the race has not builded wisely and sufficiently sure to guarantee the support which professional life demands. The truth of this claim we do not argue, except to say that the facts or condi¬ tions which exist do not justify the position as to several of the professions. THE EDUCATIONAL PROGRESS. H'6 It is certain that the educated ministers of worth are needed to push out the vicious and ignorant man who now in many cases holds forth in the pulpit, a giant of influence over a deluded people. The physician is needed to crowd out the " quack " and the " herb " doctor, whose practices among the ignorant and superstitious yet obtain. It is a happy omen of progress in the race that the educated minister is fast getting the pulpits of the denominations to which his intelli¬ gence and his character entitle him. i Success in Medicine. The colored physician is a decided success. Failures are the rarest exceptions. As a professional man he is not only appreciated by his people in that he gets employment, but he is paid comparatively better than any other class who are relying for support prin¬ cipally upon the race. To their credit it may be said that for the most part the physi¬ cians are public spirited and engage very largely in helps for their people. In the medical schools of the land there were fully four hundred students in 1895, and the statement of those in charge is that evidences point to very great increase in the coming years. The pharmacist accompanies the practitioner in his lucrative practice. No Southern State is now without the druggist. Eighty graduates in pharmacy is the record. Nor is the colored man behind as a dentist. There are thirty-six in the South, with the field only partially examined. The success of the Afro-American in the law has been more conspicuous and more creditable to him than in any field. That he should face a judge and jury, if not them¬ selves prejudiced, yet influenced by a preju¬ diced sentiment, and gain his case, is nothing less than creditable to him. As a jurist he has found himself a Judge, District and City Attorney, Commissioner in Chancery, Cir¬ cuit Judge, Clerk of Courts and successful practitioner of domestic and international law. There are over 300 colored lawyers before courts of justices in the United States. In 1894, 103 were enrolled in the law schools of the land. THE INDUSTRIES. The sentiment of the country has been in favor of industrial education for the race with as much zeal as it has been for an English education. The advocacy has been for a literary education that would help the intelli¬ gent application of industrial training. Upon the score that our people should receive a good industrial training, millions of dollars have been given them by those who would like to see the race build upon absolutely sure foundations. They have wisely given. It is a fact that needs little argument that without men in the trades a race is building on sand. The only thing that can be urged against our labor is that it is not skilled. It is faithful, honest and peaceful. It is there¬ fore wise to make it skilled. The industrial schools of the South are meeting that demand. An approximation of returns as to the work of industrial schools shows that at least 30,000 have learned trades. There is an average of 15,000 boys and girls in industrial schools. NORTHERN PHILANTHROPY. Too much credit cannot be given the North for the part she has played in the education of her black brethren in the South. Except from interest in humanity, she was not compelled to thus help the race, and this emphasizes the help she has furnished since emancipation. The historian can never tell the whole truth as to the philanthropy of the North. Even in organized channels it is 84 THE EDUCATIONAL PROGRESS. difficult to secure accuracy as to the amount Tvhich has come from the North in the inter¬ est of education in the South. In 1892 the statistician of the American Association of Educators of Colored Youth reported that, as far as the records were open to him, the total sum of $12,975,401 had been expended through organized channels. If to this large amount we add the $991,562 expended in the scholastic year of 1893- 1894, it will be seen that we have a magnifi¬ cent total, and this is but part of the story. The total valuation of property under the care of societies and churches for the educa¬ tion of the race is $6,692,759. SOUTHERN APPROPRIATION. To the credit of the South, she has been also liberal to Afro-American education. She has not dealt as unjustly in this cause as some have pictured. The difference in the aid she has extended and that of the North is simply that Northern aid was vol¬ untary, while the South, in obedience to laws made by herself, is compelled to pro- ride for her black population. It is to her credit that she has done well when it is remembered that there is no comparison between the taxes upon Afro-American property and the expenditure upon the free education of the race. She ought to have credit for establish¬ ment and maintenance of State normal schools and colleges. When the hot-headed have advocated their abolition the cooler heads have pleaded for fair play to the col¬ ored people. She should have credit for employing colored presidents and professors in her State schools. More than any sec¬ tion has she given evidence in favor of classi¬ cal training, however much she may have been charged with failure to encourage such training. The fact remains that a market for the classically trained has been found in the State normal and industrial schools and colleges. The South has founded a school property for the race amounting to $657,- 030, and appropriations annually of $ 138,7 50 for their maintenance. In every Southern State very liberal appropriations obtain, with Virginia in the lead, which appropriates an¬ nually $25,000. The expenditure in public school education of our youth in 1893-1894 was ten million dollars. NATIONAL GOVERNMENT AID. The failure of Congress to pass the Pub¬ lic Educational bill offered by ex-Senator Blair, was somewhat crushing to our people, who were in need of its benefits. On this account it may be interesting to know just how much and in what way the United States Government is helping toward the education of the race. Howard University, Washington, D. C., receives on an average per annum an appropriation of $25,000. Under the new Morrill Act of Congress, funds accruing from certain government lands are appropriated to agricultural and industrial institutions of the land. Colored schools receive from this fund $66,100, mak¬ ing a total from the Government of $91,100 for Afro-American education. SELF-EDUCATION SUPPORT. In recent years philanthropists have main¬ tained that our race after years of help, and because of the accumulation of property, ought to be willing to help themselves. Now, it has been ascertained that for the scholastic year 1892-1893, one-third of the amount spent upon the colored normal and higher schools was furnished by the race. This was also the case for the next scholastic year. That this is a fact, and that the grow¬ ing tendency of the race is to do more toward BEFORE THE WEDDING. The Bride. WAITING FOR THE MINISTEP The Bridegroom. JOHN G. JONES OF CHICAGO THIRTY-THIRD DEGREE MASON. HIGHEST COLORED MASON IN THE UNITED STATES MORRIS BROWN COLLEGE, ATLANTA, GA. THE EDUCATIONAL PROGRESS. 85 self-educational support, is acknowledged by- many of the societies in their annual reports. IN NORTHERN INSTITUTIONS. Reference was made in the item on classi¬ cal training to the fact that the race had de¬ monstrated a capacity for higher education. If additional proof of this capacity. in com¬ parison with other races is needed, we have only to consult the records of Northern schools in which the Afro-American has been a student. It is a fact well known that he has never failed to be among the leaders. Morgan and DuBois, of Harvard; Grimke, at Princeton; Palmer, Jason and Bundy, at Drew; Cook, at Cornell; Bowen and John¬ son, at Boston University; Many, at Univer¬ sity of Pennsylvania; Jackson, at Amherst; Colson, at Dartmouth; Peques and Brawley, at Bucknell, Pa.; and others at Yale, and a host of others in similar institutions are proof positive of the race's capacity. These stu¬ dents have all held high rank, and many white faces have been their followers. OUR BOYS AND GIRLS. In concluding this chapter and knowing as the writer does into whose hands this vol¬ ume will go, he cannot forbear offering a few hints to parents on the apparent one- sidedness of their family education. To the observant man it is not hard to see that more attention is being paid to the training of girls to-day than boys. The girl is educated to eventually become the wife of an uneducated man. Of such unequal yoking the results in life are too plain at first sight to call for much comment. Returns show that in the schools there are more girls than boys, and further, that a greater percentage of girls remain the entire term than boys. The information obtained from a majority of those in position to know is to the effect that the girls are more studious than the average boy. If the education of the race is one-sided, as it appears from such a view, we are not accomplishing the end desired. The side of our race as it relates to intelli¬ gence and character, is to be presented in the men of the race as well as in the women. No argument is offered against the education of the girl, but a prayer and petition accom¬ panies this volume in the interest of the edu¬ cation of the boy, that he may be fitted to worthily represent his race when necessity demands. Side by side let the sexes grow in knowledge and refinement. Rise and Progress of Afro- American Literature By Prof. I. GARLAND PENN. THERE is probably no phase of Afro-American progress that fur¬ nishes so fruitful a theme for thought and meditation as does the rise and development of Afro-American lit¬ erature, yet, notwithstanding this fact, we are as a race, from a literary point of view, comparatively unknown. To the sixty odd millions of our population our literary ac¬ complishments are almost a blank, if not a blank entirely. The star which marks the literary horizon is one whose lack of bright¬ ness is its most remarkable characteristic. By this statement I mean to say that few works of Afro-American authorship are known to the masses, while the bulk remains yet to be introduced. One reason for this is that few works have been subjected to ex¬ amination and allowed to come under the critic's eye, or, if submitted, they were found wanting in the scale of literary criticism, which prevented favorable mention or en¬ dorsement. I venture the opinion that much of the literature that is good and commenda¬ ble is not known, simply because it has not been put in the hands of those who are pre¬ pared to pronounce a just and impartial ver¬ dict upon it. I will note the character of our literature, which seems to be necessary before its rise and progress can be discussed. The Afro-American as a slave needed no literature, for he was not allowed to use it, and was not capable of using it. But it will 86 be remembered that the transfer of slavery from North to South left many freedmen in the Northern States. As a slave he was making history, though sad; as a freedman he was making history more pleasant and laudable in character. Thus the character of our literature was early shaped into that of history which remains largely unto this day. Out of these facts comes the rise oi Afro-American literature, yet not its genesis, for two very important works had been issued prior to this time, one of poetry and another of science, of which we should never lose sight. Some thirty odd years before this Phyllis Wheatley had issued a volume of poems and Benjamin Bannaker a work of science. Both efforts were highly com¬ mended and worthily praised by Washing¬ ton, Jefferson and other distinguished states¬ men of that period. First Afro-American Newspaper. Recalling the fact that as a freedman in one section of the Union the Afro-American began to make history and to be the subject for history, as a natural sequence he began to prepare a literature of his own in the absence of any such preparation upon the part of others. The need of a journal was most manifest, which was met in the issuance of the first Afro-American paper, Freedom s Journal, in 1827. In this journal the past efforts, the present condition and the future THE RISE AND PROGRESS OF LITERATURE. 87 of the Afro-American was the one subject considered most important, and hence most discussed. A view of the past revealed the fact that the Afro-American had conducted himself befitting a patriot in the Revolutionary period, who desired to see his land rid of taxation without representation. It was felt that these black patriots should not go un¬ noticed, hence William C. Nell, of Boston, met the emergency with the publication of " The Colored Patriots in the American Revolution." It was a work of 396 pages and was graced with an introduction by Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe. Said she: " This work has been compiled as a means of en¬ lightening public sentiment in an interesting but much neglected department of American history." The Editor and Orator. In considering the present and future, it was plainly seen that to arouse popular sen¬ timent in favor of abolition in the South and equality of rights in the North, the Afro- American must himself produce the editor and orator. It was not long before they were raised in the person of Russwurm, Cor¬ nish, Bell, McCune Smith, Myers, Garnett, Ray, Hodges, Ruggles, Wilson, Remond, Delaney, Pennington, Purvis, Downing, Vashon and the matchless and fearless leader, Frederick Douglass. With forceful editorials and persuasive oratory, these men, in sanctum and on rostrum, created a senti¬ ment for their cause, the results of which are too well known for restatement here. No one will deny that these men made history and were themselves fit subjects for the historian's pen. In the absence of the historian, Fred. Douglass related his own bondage and freedom in a published work entitled " My Bondage and My Freedom," The Wesley an, a deservedly popular paper, said of the book : " This is a splendid work. The personal worth of the author, the de¬ served popularity he has secured throughout this nation, and the universal desire that pre¬ vails to have a memento of one of Nature's noblemen, will conspire to create an unpre¬ cedented demand for this book." Published Works, It was left for Dr. William Welles Brown to relate the deeds and work of the others, which he did in an admirable publication entitled, "The Black Man." Dr. Brown afterwards issued several works, the most notable being the one entitled, " The Rising Sun." Besides these works of history and biography, a careful research and patient investigation reveals the fact that thirty-five works of Afro-American authorships were issued and being sold prior to 1861. Judging from the comments of the news- papers and the ability of the authors, very few of whom live now, most of these works were of an excellent literary character. Among them were efforts of science, poetry and art, and it is but just to say that even under the present changed conditions of Afro-American life, I have found no such efforts in so large and varied forms as those of that unfavorable period. After a few years of educational advance¬ ment and wonderful strides of progress, a history of the race from its entrance in this country was a thing of evident necessity, and the historian was brought forth in the person of Colonel George W. Williams, of Ohio, who wrote the volurhinous history known as " The History of the Negro Race in America from 1619 to 1880." He was also author of the book entitled " Williams' Negro Troops." These works, with the " Life and Times of 88 THE RISE AND PROGRESS OF LITERATURE. Frederick Douglass " and the " Black Bri¬ gade," by Prof. P. H. Clark, served the race most splendidly until 1880, when a revival of Afro-American literature seems to have taken place. The distinctive Afro-American churches had made a history for themselves, and it was felt that this ought to be recorded. Bishop Daniel A. Payne wrote his " Recol¬ lections of Seventy Years;" Bishop A. W. Wayman, "The Cyclopedia of the A. M. E. Church ; " Bishop B. T. Tanner his " Apol¬ ogy for African Methodism ; " Bishop J. J. Moore, "The History of the A. M. E. Church," while Bishop D. A. Payne is the author of a similar work in two volumes. Bishop J. W. Hood, of the A. M. E. Z. Church, has issued a voluminous history of that church which is remarkable for its in¬ trinsic merit. Surprising Advancement. A careful survey of the field from 1880 to 1890 shows an astonishingly large num¬ ber of productions in history, biography, poetry, religious, imaginative and pure liter¬ ature. I have closely calculated the num¬ ber of works published in the ten years, and for every one published prior to 1875 I have found ten published in the decade from 1880 to 1890. Since it is highly probable that much of this literature is not known, I might, with profit to the reader, particularize. In addi¬ tion to the published works in history here¬ tofore mentioned there were added in this decade to the list: " The Black Phalanx," by the late Colonel Joseph T. Wilson, of the Fifty-fourth Massachusetts Volunteers, which recorded the most formidable as well as praiseworthy efforts of black patriots in the wars of 1812 and 1865 ; " The Colored Man in the M. E. Church," by Rev, L, M- Hagood, M. D.; " The Underground Rail¬ road," by William T. Still, a large octavo volume of 780 pages, which tells the achieve¬ ments of that historic society of abolitionists. To these must be added " The Afro-Amer¬ ican Press and its Editors," 570 pages, which gives the story of the race's achievements in journalism ; " Music and Some Highly Mu¬ sical People," by the late Recorder, J. M. Trotter, giving the history of musical men and women of the race and their deeds; " The History of Independent Methodism," by Dr. A. R. Green; " The Black Brigade," by Prof. Peter H. Clark, a work on Afro- American Soldiers. Records of Noble Women. " The work of Afro-American women," by Mrs. N. F. Mossell, of Philadelphia, is another effort of a commendable character. In two other publications monuments are erected to the successes and triumphs of our womanhood. " Women of Distinction," by Dr. L. A. Scruggs, of Raleigh, N. C., is a historical treatise on the work of our women that is well worthy of them. " Noted Negro Women," by Dr. M. A. Majors, of Fort Worth, Texas, is another valuable book. These histories with those heretofore men¬ tioned, give ample food for the rising Afro- American to feed upon in his endeavors to climb the heights. The most of these warks have also touched upon biography, realizing the truth of Emerson's statement that" there is properly no history, only biography." There have, however, been special works of biography. " Men of Mark," by the late Rev. W. J. Simmons, D.D., is the most popular and the only one outside of denomi¬ national biographies. "Our Baptist Minis¬ ters and Schools " is a work by Dr. A. W. Pegues of 640 pages, which is in itself a ref¬ utation of the statement as to the immense THE RISE AND PROGRESS OF LITERATURE. 89 ignorance prevailing among ministers of that denomination. Out of the large number of biographical sketches given in this book I discover few who are not men of training, the same having been acquired in some one of the schools controlled by the American Baptist Home Mission Society. Works of Rare Merit. " Our Pulpit Illustrated," by Rev. E. R Carter, of Atlanta, Ga., is a biographical work of merit. Mr. Carter is also author of a work on the Holy Land and a history of the progress made by the negro in the City of Atlanta. An autobiographical work, en¬ titled " From the Virginia Plantation to the National Capitol," by Hon. John Mercer Langston, ex-Congressman, and the only colored Congressman ever in the House from Virginia, is a large and exceedingly creditable production, not only from the in¬ formation it gives, but, indeed, the compo¬ sition. The late works on " Frederick Douglass as an Orator," by Prof. James M. Gregory, and one entitled " Life and Times of Fred. Douglass," serve well the necessity for a record of the deeds and triumphs of the " Old Man Eloquent," now that he is no more. In poetry we have had some highly cred¬ itable productions during the decade. Mrs. F. E. U. Harper is the oldest and most pop¬ ular in this branch of imaginative literature. Dr. A. A. Whitman's production, " The Rape of Florida," is a painstaking work of literary value. W. H. A. Moore, Esq., of New York, bids fair to be the giant in this field. " Thoughts in Verse," by Rev. George C. Rome, is another book of poems that has received flattering encomiums from both press and people. Paul Lawrence Dunbar is a poet of very great ability. His poems find their way on merit only into the leading magazines of the land. A poem entitled " Negro Love Song," in The Century maga¬ zine, is a great credit to himself and satisfac¬ tion to his race. D. Webster Davis, of Richmond, Va., has a book of poems which are pronounced by all to be brilliant. Other works of a poetical character may be expected from the pens of some of the brightest of the race who have hitherto been content to publish their poems in news¬ papers, without further effort. In theologi¬ cal, sermonic and general religious works the number has been large, and, truth to say, most of them have had large sale among the race and must have accomplished much good. Some of them are remarkable for their breadth of discussion and profound¬ ness of argument, while the language em¬ ployed' is marvellously chaste and refined. Their names are not here given for lack of space. Department of Fiction. In story writing Mrs. A. E. Johnson, of Baltimore, is the author of a very creditable book, widely read and valued by people of both races for its style. There is no author whose productions have brought more credit to the race than Mrs. Johnson's. Their sale has not been confined to the race alone, but are to be found in many white libraries of the land. Her work, known as " The Hazely Family," is a gem. One of the best productions in novel form yet produced by the race is known as " Ap¬ pointed," by two brilliant writers, Messrs. W. H. Stowers and W. H. Anderson, of Detroit, Mich. Of this work the A. M. E. Zion Quar¬ terly says : " ' Appointed ' is typically an American novel, strictly up to date." Mrs. F, E. W. Harper issued another work of 3 90 THE RISE AND PROGRESS OF LITERATURE. novelistic character, entitled " Iola Leroy." It is regarded by many as a work of excep¬ tional merit. Mrs. A. J. Cooper, of Washington, D. C., another polished writer, has published a work which is pronounced excellent by all irrespective of race. It is entitled " A Voice from a Black Woman of the South." She treats subjects bearing upon the race relation, etc., with profound thought and reason. She ranks as one of the greatest women of her time in ripeness of scholarship and the ease with which she treats the problems and ques¬ tions of the hour. In text-book work Prof. W. S. Scarbor¬ ough, widely known, has published the only linguistic work, " First Lessons in Greek; " Prof. E. A. Johnson the only school history, " The School History of the Negro Race in America;" Dr. D. B. Williams, the only scientific work, " Science, Art and Methods of Teaching." " Grammar Land," is the title of a small but interesting treatise for beginners by the late Mrs. L. F. Scruggs, of Raleigh, N. C. These text-books are being used in many of the leading colleges and normal schools of the country. In general literature, "Africa and America," Rev. A. Crummell, D.D. ; "Black and White," Hon. T. T. Fortune; " Don't," Rev. R. C. O. Benjamin ; " Libe¬ ria," T. McCants Stewart, Esq.; " The New South Investigated," D. A. Strater, LL.D. ; "Freedom and Progress," Dr. D. B. Wil¬ liams; "Lectures and Addresses," Hon. J. M. Langston ; " Architecture and Building," R. Charles Bates; "Orations and Speeches," J. W. Ashley., edited by Bishop B. W. Arnett; "Plain Talks," Rev. J. W. E. Bowen, D.D., are among the best and most important. A large number of other works have been issued of history and biography, of a local character, which are well written and have served well the purposes for which they were brought out. Even though our literature has been mainly confined to us as a race, we have hopes that the reader will admit that progress has been made. Of necessity a race literature had to be made in the absence of proper recognition by American historians and writers. I have hopes, however, that this state of affairs will not longer exist, that the scope and influence of our literature may be broadened by a recognition of the Afro- American as a writer, and by his own perse¬ verance in seeking to adjust himself, pure and simple, to American life. I have no doubt that as the idea of citizenship, patriotism, and the responsibility belonging thereto, becomes more natural to the Afro-American and he arrives at the point when he considers him¬ self not as an Afro-American, but an Ameri¬ can citizen, his literature, his politics and his religious life will stand forth in grander pro¬ portions. International Exposition, 1895 By Prof. I. GARLAND PENN TO those who attended the World's Columbian Exposition, held in Chi¬ cago in 1893, it is a well-known fact that the resources of the South¬ ern States were not creditably shown. With State appropriations and a proper compre¬ hension of the magnitude of the Fair, this would seem surprising, but as the Hon. Clark Howell, editor of the Atlanta Constitu¬ tion, puts it in the Review of Reviews for February, 1895, "The South was not ade¬ quately represented at Chicago, because of peculiar difficulties in the organic law of the Southern States." This failure, and a consequent need, well- nigh imperative, for the South to show in what respect it is great, led to a representa¬ tive meeting of the business men of Atlanta, who conceived, brought forth and named the Cotton States and International Exposi¬ tion, which is justly termed the "World's Event of 1895/' It is generally termed by the people of the South, particularly the col¬ ored, the "World's Fair of the South." From an Afro-American standpoint it is truly suggestive, for the relations which he sustains to the mammoth enterprise make it his World's Fair, in the absence of a similar opportunity at Chicago, for which he pe¬ titioned and prayed. Shortly after it had been given to the pub¬ lic of Atlanta and the country in general that the South would try its hand on a great Fair, Bishop W. J. Gaines, one of the most highly'respected citizens of that city, as well as a most distinguished prelate in the Afri¬ can Methodist Episcopal Church, together- with Mr. W. H. Rucker, called incidentally upon Mr. Samuel M. Inman, of Atlanta, a wealthy philanthropic citizen, the head of the greatest cotton house in the world, and suggested to him what a unique and interest¬ ing feature a special exhibit of Afro-Ameri¬ can progress would be as a part of the Fair. The idea was well received by Mr. Inman and further attention given it by all con¬ cerned, which resulted in an invitation to the colored population of America, the South particularly, to take a part in the fourth great exposition held on the American con¬ tinent. A Surprising Spectacle. The significance of the invitation is seen when the striking contrast is made that a people who thirty years ago, in ignorance and dense darkness, were upon exhibition on this very soil as slaves, bartered and sold at will, are in less than three decades asked to show their progress, and to assist in making successful a great exposition by ex¬ hibiting the resources of the country in which they and the dominant class are by implication considered common factors. That they are regarded common factors is not only implied, but acknowledged, as may be seen in the following written us by one of the most wealthy and aristocratic men in the South. Says he : "I feel the greatest inter¬ est in the development of your people, and especially in any movement which tends tc make the white and colored people feel that 91 92 INTERNATIONAL EXPOSITION. their lot has been cast together and their in¬ terests and their future are one." A building covering 25,000 square feet, to cost $9,923, with no charges as to entrance or rent fees, our exhibits, a gift of $4,400, placed at the disposal of our Commissioners, a salaried Chief of the Afro-American Depart* ment, with other incidental items, were the prerequisites of the invitation so generously extended, and so cordially accepted by the Cotton States and International Exposition Company and the colored people respectively. The race was expected to collect their own exhibits and raise the funds therefor, as a substantial evidence of self-interest and self-help, a character so much desired in our people. For this purpose a commission of gentle- 2 men were appointed in each State, g numbering in all 110 persons. x Subsequently, Chief Commissioners ^ were appointed, who formed a Central h Board, which constituted the legisla- jj tive power in the management of the <; building. On January 19, 1895, the h Central Board met in Atlanta, Ga., at < . . 0 Clark University, and organized by ~ the selection of Prof. W. H. Crog- d man, of Georgia, Chairman, and I. D K Garland Penn, Virginia, Secretary. ^ Plans for the collection of the exhibits 5 were well laid. I. Garland Penn was S nominated Chief of the Afro-Ameri- ^ can Department, with headquarters in g Atlanta, at a salary commensurate <1 with his labors. His nomination was unanimously confirmed by the Execu¬ tive Committee of the Exposition Com¬ pany, On motion of ex-Mayor and First Vice-President Colonel W, A. Hemphill, Business Manager Atlanta Constitution. Exhibits in every department of Afro-American progress tell their own story—the thrilling story of marvellous advancement in education, and all that belongs to the highest type of civi lization and refinement. : FROM HIS LATEST PHOTOGRAPH PROF. BOOKER T. WASHINGTON FOUNDER OF TUSKEGEE INDUSTRIAL INSTITUTE, ALABAMA ABRAHAM LINCOLN. CHARLES SUMNER, "The Abolitionist." HARRIET BEECHER STOWE, Author of "Uncle Tom's Cabin." "With Charity for Ai/t, ant> Malice Toward None. MME. DESSERIA PLATO ONLY COLORED SINGER AT THE WORLD'S FAIR A COQUETTISH MAIDEN \VHAT WILL THE ANSWER BE? YES OR IMC INTERNATIONAL EXPOSITION. 93 The impression made on the press and people of Atlanta by the Central Board of Chief Commissioners was a happy recogni¬ tion of the race's advancement and its at¬ tempt to surmount difficulties, scale the mountains of disagreeable environment and triumph in the light of civilization and pro¬ gress. The Constitution said, editorially January 20, 1895, the following: Doing a Good Work. " The brainy and enterprising colored commissioners from many States who are now in Atlanta perfecting their plans for a building at the Exposition to be filled with exhibits by their race are doing a good work, and they are the right men in the right place. Such men as I. Garland Penn, B. T. Wash¬ ington, Isaiah Montgomery and W. H. Crog- man and the other commissioners would be prominent and useful citizens in any commu¬ nity. We are gratified to see that these progressive leaders of their race recognize the benefit that the colored people will derive from the Exposition if they make a first-class exhibit. This is the only opportunity that they have ever had to show the world what they have learned and accomplished in thirty years of freedom, and they should make the most of it. " The colored people of the country now own $300,000,000 worth of property. T iey have made great progress in the arts and sciences and in the learned professions. When we judge them, not from the heights on which we stand, but from the depths out of which they have risen, we must admit that they have made a fine record. These peace¬ able, faithful, intelligent and enterprising peo¬ ple deserve every encouragement from their white neighbors, and they may rest assured that their exhibit will attract as much atten¬ tion as any other feature of the Exposition. They have made a good start with good men at the head, and they will make a suc¬ cess of their exhibit." In its news columns of the same date, putting the finishing touches on the work accomplished, the editor wrote to greater satisfaction than he knew. Said he: " There was a notable gathering of colored men of the South in Atlanta, Friday and yesterday. Some of the finest representa¬ tives of the race were present, and the pur¬ pose of the meeting was to take in charge the important work of collecting from all over the South interesting exhibits, showing the progress and condition of the colored race at the Exposition to be held here this fall. The men who came here to take charge of the work were men of affairs among the Negroes of the South. Nearly every man among them has some large enterprise in hand, and the purpose by which they were all moved, was the improvement and elevation of their people. A Great Feature of the Exposition. " Handled by such able men this credi¬ table effort will doubtless prove one of the most interesting features of the Exposition. The exhibit will be interesting because of its uniqueness and because of its historical value. Special attention is to be given to the ar¬ rangements of the exhibits so that the various stages of progress of the race may be illus¬ trated to the visitor. It was a gathering of men who are interesting to study, men who, by reason of their innate force, have lifted themselves from lowly estates to positions of usefulness and promise." In addition to the organization already referred to, several travelling commissioners were appointed. Notably among them were H. E. Wilson, Esq., of Chicago, and Rev. B. B. Hill, of Oberlin, Ohio. The complete 94 INTERNATIONAL EXPOSITION. organization thus formed, which not only- had the entire approval of the press of the country, but the people as well, was a decided prophesy that the race, if efficiently supported, would be fittingly and worthily represented. It was estimated that the collection of a creditable exhibit for the Exposition meant an outlay of fifty or sixty thousand dollars. That the people have given this is best seen by the exhibit made along all lines and ave¬ nues of life work. It shows the Afro-Ameri¬ can as a business man, as a mechanic, an agriculturist, an inventor, an educator, etc. All Trades and Professions. As a business man, the exhibit shows the banking and real estate interests, boot and shoe interests, druggists, dry goods, hard¬ ware and general merchandise. As a me¬ chanic, the exhibit shows him a machinist, carpenter, wheelwright, cabinet-maker, up¬ holsterer, inventor, blacksmith, stone and brick mason, owner and maker of the finest quality of bricks. As an agriculturist it proves him beyond doubt the bone and sinew of the South. As an educator, the exhibit proves his progress in art, science and literature. His paintings, decorations, etc., in the exhibit and artistic needlework of the women of the race, are a proof of the strides he has made from the pit in which he found himself thirty years ago and the rock from which he has been hewn. As a scientist, the exhibit shows his knowledge of scientific studies and discovery. From an intellectual point of view the ex¬ hibit portrays his proficiency in drawing, pen¬ manship, linguistic studies which are diffi¬ cult, and his knowledge of history, ancient and modern. In literature, the exhibit shows that he has put upon the market a creditable array of books, and that to his credit he has not left unchronicled the his¬ tory of his marvellous progress, since in the general history of the country, of which he is a part, he is neglected and allowed no quarters. Having given the history of the movement and the exhibit of the colored people, it is in no sense an unwise idea to let the reader know why the Afro-American is happy to make such a display of his progress. The Reasons. He has always been patriotic, ready and willing to show up the bright side of his country; thus he is content to help the South, the land of his present and future abode. Thus joining hands with his white fellow- citizens in a common cause, for a common end, he hopes by a positive proof of his interest to cultivate friendly relations with the South. He hopes that the logical result of patri¬ otism and interest in the South will be the placing upon the statute books of every State, laws against lynching and mob violence, and the erasure of such laws of proscription as are directed specifically against him. He wishes to meet and contradict a pre¬ valent impression that he has not made the progress claimed for him. Such an impres¬ sion being not alone in his own country, but in all lands, the opportunity for an Inter¬ national view of his progress has come for the first time, an opportunity which he is quite aware he cannot make for himself. He desires, as it were, to drive the nail by an exhibition of his progress under trying cir¬ cumstances, and clinch it at the same time. Noted Afro-American Women and Their Achievements. WHENEVER women have had good opportunities for self- improvement, they have shown themselves the equals, in many respects, of those who are dignified by the title of "the stronger sex." Some of the brightest minds, many of the best scholars, many who are conferring rich lustre upon the Afro-American name, are women. It would be impossible within the compass of this volume to give sketches and narrate the proud achievements of all who have dis tinguished themselves as teachers, musicians, readers, journalists and correspondents, authors and business managers, or who, as wives and mothers, have made the home a sacred place, and have planted seeds of the noblest character in the minds and hearts of the rising generation. Only a limited number of examples can be given, sufficient to indicate what our women can accomplish. And it must steadily be borne in mind that these, and all other similar examples, are furnished as an encouragement and impulse to our colored people, that they may be urged on to make the most of themselves and obtain a position and influence equal to their capabilities. Although uneducated and poor, Afro- American women have been large hearted and ambitious. The first five dollars that was given to the Lincoln Monument, was given by Charlotte Cushman, an ex-slave. The spirit of kindness and self-denial that animated the bosom of our women, when during the war they divided their crusts and clothes with the Union soldiers, and caused them to hide the soldiers at the risk of their own lives, seemed a part of their natures. Generosity is a characteristic of our women. Rarely indeed does an appeal for help, coming from any source fall unheeded upon their ears. Out of their poverty, they give largely, and no class of women on the globe excel them in benevolence. Self-Sacrificing Mothers. Left penniless at the close of the war, . many of them with large families dependent upon them, instead of wringing their hands in despair, they went cheerfully forward to build homes, to educate their children and if possible to lay by a bit for a rainy day. Like the mother of the late Dr. Simmons, many of our women toiled both early and late at the washtub in order that their chil¬ dren might have the intellectual training of which they themselves had been so unjustly deprived. And how proud of these mothers should these children be, and how grateful for the many sacrifices that have been made for them. Every wrinkle in the dear old face should be regarded as a thing of beauty, and it should be the aim of their after lives to make life pleasant for their parents. But to return, by their frugality and labors their husbands were able to purchase homes, those who desired to do so, and to contribute largely to the cause of the Gospel and of education. Many of these noble women are dead now, but their memory is yet green and 95 96 NOTED AFRO-AMERICAN WOMEN. their children rise up and call them blessed. What can we say of our progress to con¬ vince skeptical friends, black and white, that our women are deserving of credit ? We will touch briefly upon their relation with the religious world. What would be the condition of the churches c*f all races and denominations, if the women were to withdraw their moral and financial support ? The result is fright¬ ful to contemplate ! Our women seem pecu¬ liarly adapted to church work, in fact for benevolent work of any nature. Generous Helpers. It is the women in our churches who assist the perplexed pastor in devising plans for the annihilation of burdensome church debts, and who assume the charge of clothing the pastor and his needy family in a little purple and fine linen occasionally; who prepare at home, little feasts and invite this everyday hero, that he may fare sumptuously at least one day out of the seven, and who often seem to their pastor angels in disguise. By organizing themselves into aid socie¬ ties, known as King's Daughters, Gleaners, Women's Christian Temperance Union, Ep- worth League, Baptist Union and Christian Kndeavorers, they have been able to do much good. It is often seen in the columns of our race journals, that in various places our women have raised immense sums for the erection or renovation of churches or for some Christian enterprise. One women's organization known as the " Women's Mite Missionary Society of the A. M. E. Church" raised $1,525.46 during one year Also we have a female Evangelist, Mrs. Amanda Smith, who has travelled exten¬ sively and who has already published a book, relating her experiences in the Old and New World. There are missionaries living who have immortalized fneir names by their zeal in carrying the Gospel to heathen Africa, women brave and true, like Mrs. Ridgel who accompanied her husband to Africa and succeeded in opening up a girl's school and who has written such inter¬ esting letters home to us. Let us now take a bird's eye view of Afro- American women in educational lines. Religion and education are closely allied. Under this head we will for the sake of brevity consider education in its broadest sense—that is the mental development of all the faculties. We will first speak of that class of women who are known as business women. Capacity for Business. It has been asserted by the enemies of the Afro-American race, that their women have no business capacity. But what are the facts of the case? In almost every avenue of business, our women are rapidly becoming engaged and where they are not, is due to predjudice rather than incompetence. The Dinahs and Chloes of ante-bellum days, who were then justly noted for their exquisite cookery, have bequeathed to their descendants a talent for cooking, which when cultivated, is hard to be excelled by the most accomplished English or French Chefs. Besides those who command good salaries as cooks in public and private establishments, there are those who are engaged in manag¬ ing hotels, boarding-houses, restaurants and catering establishments upon their own accounts. In New Orleans, there are Afro-American women, who earn a fair living by selling through the streets, bread, fruits, cakes and pies. It is impossible to enumerate the vast number who have purchased homes, yes, have become owners of snug fortunes by NOTED AFRO-AMERICAN WOMEN. 97 doing laundry work, this never failing resource and almost universal occupation of the laboring class of our women. Instead of scorning this useful occupation, they have embraced it as a friend and through its aid have realized many cherished dreams. They made the foaming washtub With honest labor ring, ' And in its soapy contents, Saw many a precious thing. Another profitable employment for our women is that of sewing. The women who as slaves so artistically fashioned and draped the silken garments of their mistresses, now have the pleasure of seeing their daughters succeeding in life as dressmakers, owning elegantly appointed shops, and receiving the best of prices for their work. Talent for Fancy Work. Besides dressmakers there are hundreds who sew by the day, earning from fifty cents to $2.00 per day, according to the quality of their work. There are others who earn con¬ siderable by doing artistic needle work, or fancy work, as some call it. As in every other trade, we find that the most competent receive the best pay, for there is always "room at the top." There was never a period in our history when our dress¬ makers were patronized by the women of the race as liberally as they deserved to be, but this ungenerous spirit is being displaced by one of sweet helpfulness, and our dress¬ makers are better appreciated by both Afro- American and white women. Besides, there are women who are clerks, barbers, dealers in second-hand clothing and in various kinds of merchandise. In the face of these facts who shall dare assert that our women have no business capacity ? Verily it doth appear that their ability exceeds their opportunity. What o"r 0 business women need most is our cordial support in every way and when they obtain it they will create a place for themselves in the business world that shall win the admiration of all. In addition to that which they have done already, it is encouraging to note that they are taking the lead in forming co-operative associations for the establish¬ ment of banks, stores, and industrial training ,■ schools. God bless our business women , and may their number increase daily. When we come to musicians we are com¬ pelled to look here and there and select out of the great number of really meritorious musicians whom we know. As a singer and as a teacher of vocal and instrumental music, Miss Nellie Brown Mit¬ chell, a graduate of the New England Con¬ servatory of Music, ranks very high. Miss Mitchell was for two years at the head of the department of vocal music at Hedding Acad¬ emy, New Hampshire, where all of the pupils were white. Madame Sisseretta Jones, the black Patti, whose voice in some elements is said to rival that of Adelina Patti, is un¬ doubtedly, if all press comments are true, the greatest female singer of the race. When Madame Jones appears in public, she wears upon her breast medals that have been be¬ stowed upon her by foreign countries. This gifted creature of song travels under the management of Major Pond, who also con¬ tracts engagements for nearly all the white notables in the lecture field. We take pleasure in furnishing sketches of a few who have distinguished themselves in the musical world. MRS. C. A. JOHNSON. This gifted lady was born in Ironcon, in 1868, and graduated from the Ironton High School in 1886. Her maiden name was Revnolds. She married C. A. Johnson in NOTED AFRO-AMERICAN WOMEN. set " & Mrs. C. A. Johnson. i 886, after graduation, her husband being a teacher in the public schools of that city. In 1887 she went to Missouri where she became the assistant teacher with her husband. She is a proficient scholar in music and is a teacher of music in Washington, D. C. Mrs. Johnson has quite a talent for literature and has contributed several papers. She is noted for her remarkable beauty. MRS. CORA L. BURGAN. This accomplished lady was educated in the Detroit public schools and is a graduate of one of the leading musical conservatories of America. She comes of a musical family, her relatives having been musicians for sev¬ eral generations. For a number of years she taught music in the Texas Blind Asylum for Colored Youth, and is distinguished as the first Afro- American who was offered a position in that institution. She was married to I. M. Burgan in 1889, and became a teacher in the Paul Quinn College. She is a pleasing and courteous woman and takes great interest in the elevation and culture of her race. MISS GERTRUDE JANET WASHINGTON. Miss Gertrude Janet Washing¬ ton (pianist), was born in Chi¬ cago in 1873, her family being |- one of the oldest Afro-Ameri- ff can families of this city. At a very early age Miss Washington showed a remarkable talent for the piano and her mother, wish¬ ing to have it cultivated, engaged the best German professors to teach her little daughter to play. At the age of fourteen Miss Washington began a course at the Chicago Musical Col¬ lege under Doctor Ziegfeld, and at the age of Mrs. Cora L. Burgan. NOTED AFRO-AMERICAN WOMEN. 99 seventeen received her teacher's certificate ; at nineteen received her diploma from the same college. Miss Washington's musical ability is not limited to the piano, but she is also a very brilliant organist and has played in the various Afro-American churches since she was nine years of age, and has had entire charge of different organs since she was eleven. Miss Washington has distinguished her¬ self as a complete master of the piano on various occasions, having played in the Man¬ hattan Building at the World's Fair, New York Day, before thousands of people, the Lady Managers of the Ohio Building being so charmed with her playing that they gave her a special invitation to play for them, and aftei wards tendered her an invitation to lunch with them. An Accomplished Pianist. Miss Washington has played for almost all the principal singers and musicians of the race and always with success. Prof. Dede, the great French violinist, and the greatest musical Negro, said that Miss Washington was the only lady he had met in America who could play his high grade of music correctly. Miss Washington has never travelled, be¬ cause she firmly believes that one should have a thoroughly established reputation at home before going abroad. Many other distinguished vocalists and musicians might be mentioned, among them the charming soprano, Madam Desseria Plato, the prima donna who sang at the World's Fair, and elicited from all hearers the highest encomiums. She has a clear, well modulated voice of great compass and power, which gives evidence of patient cultivation, and is capable of expressing every grade of emotion and sentiment. Coming now to journalism, we enter a field where many Afro-American women have displayed marked talent. Our writers are gifted and successful. MISS IDA B. WELLS. Perhaps no woman of our race is more widely known or more influential than Miss Wells. Her connection with " The Society for the Recognition of the Brotherhood of Man," the large share she had in founding this organization, and her very successful efforts in awakening an anti-lynching public sentiment both in this country and in Eng- Miss Gertrude J. Washington. land, have made her name famous on both sides of the Atlantic. The following sketch is taken from The Afro-American Press, and furnishes some interesting facts connected with her remarka¬ ble career: That "perseverance overcomes all obsta¬ cles," is fully verified in the life and character of Miss I. B. Wells, who was born at Holly Springs, Ark., and reared and educated there. Her parents died while she was attending Rust University, which compelled her to leave school in order that she might support her five brothers and sisters. 100 NOTED AFRO-AMERICAN WOMEN. She taught her first school at the age of fourteen, and with this work and journalism she has been an incessant laborer. She has taught in the schools of Arkansas and Tennessee, and has at various times been offered like positions elsewhere; but prefer¬ ring to teach her people in the South, she has continued to labor there. For six years she followed her vocation as teacher in the City of Memphis. During this time she began to write for the press. Her first article was a "write-up," at the request of the editor, of a suit for damages, in which she was the complainant. This paper was The Living Way, which she contributed to for the space of two years. This engagement introduced her to the news¬ paper fraternity as a writer of superb ability, and therefore demands for her services began to come in. Carries a Pointed Pen. T. Thomas Fortune, after meeting her, wrote as follows : " She has become famous as one of the few of our women who handle a goose-quill, with diamond point, as easily as any man in the newspaper work. If ' Iola' were a man, she would be a humming inde¬ pendent in politics. She has plenty of nerve, and is as sharp as a steel trap." She has been the regular correspondent of The Detroit Plaindealer, Christian Index and The People's Choice. She is also part owner and editor of The Memphis Free Speech and Head Light, and editress of the " Home " department of Our Women and Children, of which Dr. William J. Simmons was publisher. Decidedly, "Iola" is a great success in jour¬ nalism, and we can but feel proud of a woman whose ability and energy serves to make her so. She is popular with all the journalists of Afro-American connection, as will be seen by her election as assistant secretary of the National Afro-American Press Convention, at Louisville, and her unanimous election as secretary of the Press Convention, which met at Washington, D. C., March 4, 1889. Miss Lucy W. Smith says of her: Miss Ida B. Wells, "Iola," has been called the " Princess of the Press," and she has well earned the title. No writer, the male fraternity not excepted, has been more extensively quoted; none struck harder blows at the wrongs and weaknesses of the race. A Most Successful Journalist. Miss Wells' readers are equally divided between the sexes. She reaches the men by dealing with the political aspect of the race question, and the women she meets around the fireside. She is an inspiration to the young writers, and her success has lent an impetus to their ambition. When the National Press Convention, of which she was assistant secretary, met in Louisville, she read a splendidly written paper on "Women in journalism; or, How I would Edit." By the way, it is her ambition to edit a paper. She believes there is no agency so potent as the press, in reaching and elevating a people. Her contributions are distributed among the leading race journals. She made her debut with The Living Way (Memphis, Tenn.), and has since written for The New York Age, Detroit Plaindealer, Indianapolis World, Gate City Press (Mo.), Little Rock Sun, American Baptist (Ky.), Memphis Watchman, Chattanooga Justice, Christian Index, Fisk University Herald (Tenn.), Our Women and Children Magazine (Ky.), and the Memphis papers, weeklies and dailies. Miss Wells has attained much success as a teacher in the public schools of the last-named place. When Miss Wells owned an interest in NOTED AFRO-AMERICAN WOMEN. 101 The Memphis Free Speech an article appeared in May, 1892, that gave offense to a preju¬ diced public. By a mob the newspaper plant was destroyed and the two male editors were forced to flee for their lives. She was warned at Philadelphia not to return, as her life would be in danger. She began lecturing on the wrongs in¬ flicted upon her race and, as already stated, in this country and Great Britain she plead the cause of her people with marked ability and success. The most influential people in many of our cities and throughout England and Scotland gave her their support, anti- lynching organizations were formed, and valiant efforts have been put forth to secure justice for the black man. Galaxy of Bright Women. Other women have also gained high rank' as writers and authors. It seems almost incredible that after so short a period of freedom, there are Afro-American women serving on the staff of prominent white jour¬ nals, as Miss Lillian Lewis, of Massachusetts, and writing stories for magazines like Har¬ per s and Frank Leslie's Magazines, but true nevertheless, and in Mrs. Matthews, better known as " Victoria Earle," we have a writer who writes for the Family Story Paper and •»ther fiction papers. The number of women who contribute poems, essays and stories to race magazines is already large, and it is being constantly increased. Three of our best poetesses are wives of clergymen. Mrs. M. E. Lee is the wife of an A. M. E. Bishop. She is a writer of cul¬ tured verse that is eagerly read. A number of her poems have appeared in the Christian Recorder. Mrs. Charlotte F. Grimke, the author of a number of beautiful poems which are universally admired, is the wife of a Presbyterian clergyman. Mrs. Frances Harper writes both poetry and prose ©f the best type and has published two books of poems, "Forest Leaves" and "Southern Sketches." Mrs. Josie Heard, also the wife of a clergy¬ man of the A. M. E. connection, is a poetess of great merit. Miss Cordelia Ray is the author of a volume of poems entitled " Son¬ nets," that are highly spoken of by the press and Miss Virgie Whitsett, of Iowa, and Miss Mamie Fox, of Ohio, are rapidly winning their way to fame as writers of good and original poetry. Weil-Known Authors. Then we have women who have published original stories. Mrs. Matthews has written a charming Southern story entitled " Aunt Linda," and Mrs. Harper has given to the world " Iola Leroy, or Shadows Uplifted," a story treating of the Race Problem. Mrs. A. E. Johnson has published two of her stories in book form, and Mrs. Cooper, author of " A Voice from the South," is said to have produced the best book ever written by a colored man on his race. In this field the work of our women is barely begun. With their vivid imaginations and quickness of perception, they are destined to fill an important place in the ranks of the literati of this land. But we will have to prepare for the work even as others have had to prepare for it. Literature has its attendant drudgery just as is found in other professions. Non palma sine pulvere, no palms without dust, no crowns without crosses, is as true of literature as of other things. In coming days Afro-American women who faithfully portray the lights and shadows of our own life will receive better compensation, for then their work will be appreciated. As the name of Mrs. Matthews has just 102 NOTED AFRO-AMERICAN WOMEN. been mentioned, the reader will appreciate the following sketch of this gifted authoress : MRS. W. E. MATTHEWS. This successful journalist and author was born at Fort Valley, Ga., May 27, 1861. By reason of the cruelty and outrage of those time's, her mother, Mrs. Caroline Smith, was forced to seek refuge in the North. She went to New York, and after a few years returned to her four children in the South, legally freed them and took them with her to her adopted home. Here by constant work and diligent study she succeeded in educating her family. Mrs. Mrs. W E. Matthews. Matthews, thus early taught the value of constant application, has by perseverance succeeded in writing her way into the hearts of the American public. She has written for many of the leading periodicals both under the management of white and Afro- American editors. Among those to which she has contributed we mention the New York Times, Herald, Mail, Express, National Leader, Detroit Plaindealer and many Afro- American weeklies. She is a very busy woman and finds great delight in the pursuit of her chosen avocation. She is an influential member of the Woman's National Press Association and occupies a position in the literary world which should be the pride of every member of the race. Her ability has not stopped at stories and sketches, but embraces several text-books and school literature. MRS. KATIE CHAPMAN DAVIS Mrs. Davis wrote her first poem at the tender age of thirteen and entitled it "The Dying Child." Since then she has written stories and poems for leading papers. Many of her poems were published in The Appeal. She was educated in the public schools of Mrs. Katie Chapman. Davis. Louisville and the State University of that city. She may be regarded as one of the most gifted women of her race, possessing rare mental endowments, fine imagination and excellent command of language. MRS. N. F. MOSSELL. To every reader of Afro-American jour¬ nals the above name is familiar. Beginning as a journalist when quite young, Mrs. Mos- sell has, for many years, continually written for our race journals, and reported for the foremost white papers in Philadelphia. Her NOTED AFRO-AMERICAN WOMEN. 103 first article, an essay on " Influence," was published by Bishop B. T. Tanner in The Christian Recorder when she was a mere school girl; and up to the present day she has written essays, poems, short stories, and race sketches, which have been published far and near. She was especially sought for, and as¬ sumed the position of editor of the woman's department of The New York Freeman and The Philadelphia Echo. While engaged upon these papers she also reported for The Phila¬ delphia Press and The Times, two of the most widely circulated papers in the country. She has been upon the staff of correspondents of The Indianoplis Freeman, The Richmond Ran¬ kin Institute, and Our Women and Children. Though a regular contributor to these papers she nevertheless writes for other race jour¬ nals, from the great A. M. E. Review to the smallest paper published. Mrs. Mossell has selected journalism as her profession, believing, as she expressed herself once, that the future of women, especi¬ ally of Afro-American women, is on this line of literary work. In her writings she deals particularly with the women and the Afro- American race as a whole. She is alive to all the interests of our race ; and since jour¬ nalism is her mission, she is ever on the alert to ascertain some way in which to make it a ( success. Mrs. Mossell is the author of an excellent book entitled, " The Work of the Afro- American Woman." MISS PHYLLIS WHEATLEY. This remarkable colored girl was brought, in 1761, on a slave ship from Africa to the Boston slave market, and purchased by Mrs. John Wheatley, a benevolent and cultured lady. When bought she was naked except a piece of dirty carpet around her loins, She was thin and sick from a rough, tedious sea voyage, for her constitution was delicate at best. Impressed by her intelligent counte¬ nance and modest demeanor, she was selected from a large number of slaves. She learned easily and early developed a remarkable taste and talent for poetry, being in reality the first poet of the colored race of whom we have any knowledge. Her mis¬ tress, or rather adopted mother, for such she proved to be, sent her on a voyage to Eng¬ land in the hope of benefiting her health, which was not robust. A Remarkable Character. Her poems were first published in Boston in 1770. But her admiring friends prevailed upon her to bring out a second and better edition in London in 1773. This was a small octavo volume of about one hundred and twenty pages, comprising thirty-nine pieces. It was dedicated to the Countess of Huntingdon, and contained a picture of the poetess, and a letter of recommendation signed by the Governor and Lieutenant-Gov- nor of Massachusetts, with many other relia¬ ble citizens of Boston, including her master, establishing the fact that all the poems con¬ tained in the book were written by Phyllis. For the poems were so excellent, strangers were disposed to question their originality. She was certainly one of the most remark¬ able characters in history. Her life reads more like a romance than the statement of historical facts. From a condition of nudity in a slave ship she worked her way up until she conquered the social caste of Boston and London, and in fact of two continents. George W. Williams says of her, " She addressed a poem to General Washington that pleased the old warrior very much. We have never seen it, though we have searched diligently." •04 NOTED AFRO-AMERICAN WOMEN. Mr. Sparks says of it, in his Life of Wash¬ ington, " I have not been able to find among Washington's papers this letter and poem addressed to him. They have doubtless been lost." Thus we see a distinguished biographer, and no less distinguished historian, both searched diligently for the poem and their conclusions were that it had " doubtless been lost." But we are glad to inform our read¬ ers that the poem in question was " not lost, but gone before," to the publisher ; sent by Washington himself. We shall give it in full but will first quote two letters germane to it. Letter From General Washington. " Cambridge, February 28, 1776. Miss Phyllis:—Your favor of the 26th of October did not reach my hands till the middle of December. Time enough, you will say, to have given an answer ere this. Granted. But a variety of important occur¬ rences, continually interposing to distract the mind and withdraw the attention, I hope will apologize for the delay, and plead my excuse for seeming neglect. I thank you most sin¬ cerely for j'our polite notice of me, in the elegant lines .enclosed ; and however unde¬ serving I may be of such encomium and panegyric, the style and manner exhibit a striking proof of your poetical talents ; in honor of which, and as a tribute justly due to you, I would have published the poem, had I not been apprehensive, that while I only meant to give the world this new in¬ stance of your genius, I might have incurred the imputation of vanity. This and nothing else, determined me not to give it place in the public prints. " If you should ever come to Cambridge, or near headquarters, shall be happy to see a person so favored by the Muses, and to whom nature has been so liberal and beneficent in her dispensations. I am, with great respect, your obedient, humble servant, " George Washington." This is about the kind of a letter we would expect from a man who was noble enough to emancipate his own slaves, that they might enjoy that liberty for which he imperilled his life. The following letter accompanied the poem, dedicated to Washington just before he took command of the Continental army : " General Washington, Sir :— 1 have taken the liberty to address your excellency in the enclosed poem, and entreat your acceptance, though I am not insensible to its inaccuracies. Your appointment by the Continental Congress to be Generalissimo of the armies of North America, together with the fame of your virtues, excites sensations not easy to suppress. Your genei osity, there¬ fore, I presume, will pardon the attempt. " Wishing your excellency all possible suc¬ cess in the great cause you are so generously engaged in, I am your excellency's most obedient, humble servant, " Phyllis Wheatley. " Providence, October 26, 1775." His Excellency, General Washington. " Celestial choir ! enthroned in realms of light, Columbia's scenes of glorious toils I write ; While freedom's cause her anxious breast alarms, She flashes dreadful in refulgent arms. See Mother Earth her offspring's fate bemoan, And nations gaze at scenes before unknown ; See the bright beams of heaven's revolving light Involved in sorrows and in veil of night. The goddess comes, she moves divinely fair, Olive and laurel bind her golden hair ; Wherever shines this native of the skies, Unnumbered charms and recent graces rise. Muse ! bow propitious while my pen relates How pour her armies through a thousand gates; As when Eolus heaven's fair face deforms, Enwrapped in tempest and a night of storms • NOTED AFRO-AM Astonished ocean feels the wild uproar, The refluent surges beat the resounding shore ; Or thick as leaves in Autumn's golden reign, Such and so many moves the warrior's train. In bright array they seek the world of war, Where high unfurled the ensign waves in air. Shall I to Washington their praise recite? Enough, thou knowest them in the fields of fight. Thee, first in peace and honor we demand, The grace and glory of thy mortal band. Famed for thy valor, for thy virtue more, Hear every tongue thy guardian aid implore. One Century scarce performed its destined round When Gallic powers Columbia's fury found ; And, so may you, whoever dares disgrace The land of freedom's heaven-defended race. Fixed are the eyes of nations on the scales, For in their hopes Columbia's arm prevails. Anon, Britannia droops the pensive head, While round increase the rising hills of dead. Ah ! cruel blindness to Columbia's state, Lament thy thirst of boundless power too late. Proceed, great chief; virtue is on thy side ; Thy every action let the goddess guide. A crown, a mansion, and a throne that shine With gold unfading, Washington, be thine." Colored Women Physicians. Another field, in which our women find remunerative employment, is that of medi¬ cine. A people numbering eight millions as we do, ought to have at least one thousand female physicians, which would average one for every eight thousand persons. This field is a new one for white women too, and we, like them, should pay attention to this hon¬ orable calling. Instead of educating all of the girls for teachers, let some of them study medicine or dentistry. We have a few Negro women physicians already. Dr. Susan Mc- Kinney, of New York City; Dr. Brown, of Virginia, who by the way is the first woman ever admitted to practice in the State; Dr. Artishia Gilbert, of Kentucky, and Drs. Con- suello Clark and Carrie Golden. Those who would like to adopt these pro¬ fessions must make a way for themselves. ^RICAN WOMEN. 105 Say with the courage of one of old, "I'll find a way or make it." Do not be afraid to venture into untried paths. You will find many loyal friends among the men and women of the race and you will find some good white friends also. As some one has said: "The best way to succeed is to suc¬ ceed." Remember that 1' Laugh and the world laughs with you, Weep and you weep alone." Another branch in which Afro-American women have distinguished themselves is elocution. Three of our women—Hallie Q. Brown, Henrietta Vinton Davis and Ednorah Nahar, are especially proficient in this art, and find no difficulty in entertaining the most cultured and fastidious audiences. It is thought by some who have heard the two ladies, that Miss Brown is as difficult to excel in the rendition of humorous and pathetic pieces as is Miss Davis in those that are tragic. Miss Nahar is the best female con¬ cert manager of which we know, and is a fine elocutionist beside. Lecturers and Preachers. Madame Lois, who is an eloquent woman, Mrs. Fannie Coppin, who has spoken in London, and Mrs. Rogers Webb, preacher of purity, Mrs. Frances Harper, a temper¬ ance lecturer, are the best known of the Afro-American women who now occupy the platform in America. Bat in the future there will be many of our women who will enter this field. Lecturers are or should be edu¬ cators. Their aim should be to instruct rather than to tickle the wit, to be rather than to seem. Such a one, who goes forth with an earnest heart to disseminate truth among the people, should be regarded as a bene¬ factor of mankind. Would to God we had now fifty educated Christian women who 106 NOTED AFRO-AMERICAN WOMEN. would devote their lives to this work, women who would travel from East to West and from North to South, and speak to our people upon subjects that lie near to our hearts, and that retard or improve our pro¬ gress as a people. The important subjects of economy, of temperance, of social purity and of our duty to God and to ourselves—what a grand field for women, and how necessary that we Mrs. Frances E. Preston. should have them as lecturers. One of the best speakers that the race ever had was Sojourner Truth, an escaped slave, who occupied the platform with such great men as Garrison and Phillips, and of whose utter¬ ances it is said that with the same culture, they would have been as undying as those of the African Saint Augustine. Sojourner lives in modern art. She is the original Libyan Sibyl, a statue carved by the cele¬ brated Mrs. Story. To the roll of honor must be added the name of Miss Lucy Thurman, National Superintendent of temperance work; Mrs. M. A. McCurdy, Rome, Ga., editor of the Woman's World; Miss Sarah E. Tanner, Principal and Instructor in English Literature and Industrial Drawing in the Normal and Industrial School, Bordentown, N. J.; and Mrs. Mary H. Valodus, who was licensed by Bishop Williams to preach, and has erected two churches, one at Rome and the other at Amsterdam, N. Y. MRS. FRANCES E. PRESTON. Madame Preston was born in Rich¬ mond, Va., and went to Detroit, Mich., in 1855. Her parents were unwilling for her to go away where the school advantages were better, so her dra¬ matic ability lay dormant until in 1880, at the age of thirty-three years s the habit of economizing and denying one's self that needs to be formed. Economy does not require superior cour¬ age, nor superior intellect, nor any super¬ human virtue. It merely requires common sense, and the power of resisting selfish enjoyments. In fact, thrift is merely com¬ mon sense in every-day working action. It needs no fervent resolution, but only a little patient self-denial. Begin is its device ! The more the habit of thrift is practiced, the easier it becomes, and the sooner it compensates the self-denier for the sacrifices which it has imposed. The question may be asked: " Is it pos¬ sible for a man working for small wages to save anything, and lay it by in a savings- bank, when he requires every penny for the maintenance of his family ? But the fact re¬ mains that it is done Dy many industrious and sober men; that they do deny them¬ selves, and put their spare earnings into savings-banks and the other receptacles provided for poor men's savings. And if some can do this, all may do it under similar circumstances, without depriving themselves of any genuine pleasure or any real enj oyment. These illustrations of the great advantage derived from the culture of the whole man ought to be strong incentives to the rising generations of colored youth. MAKE DOLLARS. How intensely selfish is it for anyone- in the receipt of good pay to spend everything upon himself; or, if he has a family, to spend his whole earnings from week to week, and lay nothing by. When we hear that a man who has been in the receipt of a good salary has died and left nothing behind him—that he has left his wife and family destitute—left them to chance—to live or perish anywhere —we cannot but regard it as the most selfish thriftlessness. And yet comparatively little is thought of such cases. Perhaps the hat goes round. Subscriptions may produce something—perhaps little; and the ruined remnants of the unhappy family sink into poverty and destitution. Look at the Pennies. Letters joined make words, And words to books may grow As flake on flake, descending, Forms an avalanche of snow. A single utterance may good Or evil thoughts inspire; One little spark, enkindled. May set a town on fire. What volumes may be written With little drops of ink ! How small a leak, unnoticed, A mighty ship will sink ! A tiny insect's labor Makes the coral strand, And mighty seas are girdled With grains of golden sand A daily penny, saved, A fortune :iay begin ; A daily penny, squandered, May lead t Master ? He said that God understood himself, and knew His business, and that which was obscure, God would make it plain at His own appointed time. " He believed in personal acquaintance with God and preached that men should know God in regeneration. That they should seek the Lord and call upon His name, and by faith and acceptance make friends with God and become heirs to eternal life through the plan of salvation, given to the world by Jesus Christ, our Redeemer. " For 61 years, Bro. Jasper was in battle on his pilgrimage. He fought his way through on the word of God only. He was born July 4th, 1812, served in the army of sin and satan 28 vears. In THE GUIDE TO SUCCESS. 163 1840 Captain Jesus passed by on His white horse and Jasper joined in under His flag and has been an untiring and faithful soldier ever since. God told him then that no man should exceed him in his day. That He would make him a Moses to this people, and that he should answer the in¬ fidel. He preached 21 years longer than Moses. » "As for Jonah, Joel, Amos, and some others, they must be called and sent again before they can overtake Jasper in dura¬ tion of his ministerial career. John Jasper stood foremost as a preacher in the days of slavery with his race. Some are present, who heard him preach 40 and 50 years ago. His Position on the Sun. " When Science and the Bible failed to agree, Jasper simply held on to the word of God. Philosophers said the sun is stationary, God says the sun moves. The Almighty God, even the Iyord hath spoken and called the earth from the rising of the sun unto the going down thereof. Brother Jasper claimed that God made the sun, moon and stars ; that He holds the destiny of nations in His hands ; that He is the universal benefactor; that He breathes in every wind, thunders in every storm; that He rides upon the wings of the wind, and that the clouds are His chariots. Hence his conclusion was simply this : God knows more about the sun than philosophers do, and here he rested his case." Rev. W. F. Graham thus speaks of Mr. Jasper, his peculiar characterstics and the grand work he accomplished : "Of that wonderful man in personal contact, conversation, in preaching, in exhortation were I to write in detail of how I had been impressed for these nine veais, truly, it would take me weeks and months to tell the whole story. But I shall, however, endeavor to give a few out¬ lines of my impressions of the Rev. John Jasper. " I met him the first time in my life in April 1892, when being in Richmond and having heard of him all my life, I availed myself of the privilege of calling upon him in his humble, but pleasant home on St. James street. I need not say that this had been one of the cherished desires of my life — that of beholding the face of him whose name I had known from my earliest boyhood, even in the states of Mississippi, Tennessee and Arkansas. Noble Features. " On meeting him, I was first impressed by his looks, his appearance. I must con¬ fess that I did not see the face that had be¬ come in my mind's eye the picture of the often heard of Rev. John Jasper, but rather I beheld the face of royal, masterly,honest intellectual bearing, a broad, towering fore¬ head, indicative of mental and brain capacity. " The very brow of his eye bespoke true greatness. His nose, not of the proverbial Negro flatness, but large, well proportioned arch-like, tapering, Roman-like somewhat, which impressed me that he was a man of strength, courage, conviction and invinc¬ ible aggressiveness. And then as I looked upon those thin-cut lips and face covered with partially gray whiskers, somehow or other, there came to my mind the picture of an old patriarch, and old forefather of the early Bible days, called of God to do a mighty work. "How could I be impressed otherwise? For when lie arose to speak with me did 1 not behold in his tall, symmetrical, soldier like form, even to the build of his feet, ^ body in keeping with the facial expression ; 164 THE GUIDE TO SUCCESS. So that his very looks, his bearing and carriage impressed me almost as never man impressed me before. His Appearance as a Citizen. " I never saw him pass on the streets without stopping to watch the stately, in¬ dependent strides of that beautifully built figure. I have seen others of both races do the same. How grand a figure was that grand old man entering and walking down the aisles of his church, hat in hand, shoulders erect, measured and gentle step ! " But my impressions deepened, fixed themselves indelibly as I studied his thought. Here we find the true man, the man more nearly after the order of his Maker. From the first to the last, in all my conversations, in all the discourses I have heard him make, Ih ave studied closely the subjects that concerned Rev. Jasper's thinking powers. He delighted in dealing with the profound theological questions. He thought and discoursed of them in a lofty and intelligent manner ; and then his great mind evinced its superiority in the company it kept. He was at home with the great Bible characters, many of the great church fathers, commentators, theological writers and some of the leading astronomers of that special school of thought. He im¬ pressed me as a man of great thought. He not only had the capacity for pro¬ ducing great thought; he was a great reasoner—he could handle in a skillful and logical way the productions of his thinking powers without having studied logic in the «• schools, he seems by nature to have under¬ stood to perfection the different styles of reasoning. And as for his memory, there was 110 end to it; it seemed to me. All that he ever read, seen, heard of or thought of was his in memory. " It did seem to me sometimes that Rev. Jasper came into the world with a Bible in his heart, head and tongue. In detail, he could recount step by step the history of Richmond, the churches and the Baptist* of Virginia from as far back as sixty years. He could give the history of the city reach¬ ing back seventy years. A most wonderful memory had he !" A Great Reasoner. " If ever there lived in this world an hon - est man father Jasper was one. He was earnest in friendship and in esteem for you. He meant all he taught as to the Bible or anything else ; falling off of unfaithful friends, actions of Baptist associations, con¬ ventions or councils could never turn Brother Jasper from what he regarded as right and just. I admired that in him. He was sensitive, all great men are. He forever remembered those brethren who disre¬ garded the rights of his church and him¬ self as a gospel minister. "Jasper loved the truth, he hated lies; he therefore always continued strong and firm in his attachment to the man who im¬ pressed him as a truthful man, but if Jasper applied the scrutinizing power of reasoning to any man, be he high or low, and found him wanting in veracity from that time on, that man was a weak character in Brother Jasper's judgment. A lie plowed and rumpled his great nature. He could never forget a maker of a lie, especially when that lie interfered with Brother Jasper's work. " He was plain, unvarnished and simple in his greatness. There was never an effort at bombast, trickery and sophistry; what he was he was,—just God's plain Rev. John Jasper, sent to warn the world of the impending dangers of the judgment day. " Heroism ^ Colored Soldiers In our Mar with Spain IN our War with Spain the colored soldiers showed great bravery and acquitted themselves with distin- I guished honor. They proved by their conduct that they possess all the elements of true courage and heroism. The two colored cavalry regiments, the Ninth and Tenth Regulars, were among the most popular soldiers in Cuba. They were quiet, well-mannered, cheerful fellows, these colored troopers, and far sooner than any of the other Cuban veterans they recov¬ ered their spirits and vitality after the cam¬ paign. In an encampment made up chiefly of the sick and half sick, it was inspiring to meet on the road a group of these soldiers jogging along in lively conversation, their white teeth gleaming in smiles. As to their abilities in battle but one opinion was expressed, and almost invariably in the same words: Brave Fighters. "Those colored chaps fought like devils." Many are the stories of their prowess, told by the men of the other regiments. A com¬ pany of the Tenth went into action singing. Two men of another company enlivened their comrades during a very trying halt under fire by executing a double-flop dance, to which the whole company began presently to clap out the time ; their officers, mean¬ while, being wisely blind and deaf to these rather unusual tactics. The Rough Riders were enthusiastic over the Ninth Regiment. When Roosevelt's men had made their rush up San Juan Hill they found themselves in a very bad position, pressed by a superior force of the enemy on both flanks and in front. It is generally admitted that they could not have held their position but for the splendid charge of the colored men to their support. After the worst of the fight¬ ing was over, a Rough Rider, finding himself near one of the colored troopers, walked up and grasped his hand, saying : " We've got you fellows to thank for getting us out of a bad hole." " Dat's all right, boss," said the soldier, with a broad grin. " Dat's all right It's all in de fam'ly. We call ouahselves de Colored Rough Riders." Always Cheerful and Ready. " It was a matter of considerable doubt," an officer of the regular infantry says, "whether the colored troops would acquit themselves well. We of the army knew them to be good Indian fighters, but this Cuban business was no more like Indian fighting than a game of marbles is like billiards. Probably it was because I am from the South that I didn't think much of the colored regiments, but having seen those fellows in action I've changed my mind completely. They were the best, the readiest, the most cheerful, and, I believe, the dead¬ liest fighters in the war. " In the charge up the hill a volunteer who had got separated from his company, who looked pretty badly rattled, got caught in the rush and carried along. A big fellow ii HEROISM OF THE COLORED SOLDIERS. behind him kept spurring him on and trying to encourage him, but the man was badly rattled and tried to get away. That settled him with the troopers, who began to guy him, asking his name and address for pur¬ poses of identification, and assuring him that he would be readily distinguished among the other dead on account of his color. Presently a Mauser bullet clipped the sleeve of the man next to him. The trooper turned to the volunteer: " ( Honey, dat bullet was a-callin' youah name, shuah,' he said. No Shrinking Under Fire. " They tell me that the volunteer finally plucked up his spirits and fought so well that the negroes assured him that in the next battle he'd be an honor to any regi¬ ment. One thing I noticed about the negro troopers was that they evinced less inclina¬ tion to duck when the bullets whistled over chem than the other soldiers showed. A sergeant explained it to me this way : " ' W'en de bullet go along it say, " Pi-yi- yi! Pi-yi-yi! " Nobody ain' goin' to min' dat. But de shrapnel, dat's different. Dat say, " Oo-oo 00-00 ; I want yeh, I want yeh, I want yeh, mah honey ! " Dat's w'at makes a man's head kindah shrink like between his shouldahs.' " However, I didn't see any shrinking that could be identified as such among those men. There wasn't an instant during the fighting that they didn't look as if they were in the very place of all places on earth where they most wished to be." At Camp Montauk the colored men as¬ siduously cultivated the gentle arts of peace. Every night they sat outdoors and sang. The Ninth men staked out a baseball dia¬ mond on the flat near the Life-saving Station and played a most tumultuous game of ball, which would have resulted more definitely if in the third inning the runs hadn't piled up so high that the scorer collapsed with exhaustion and fell asleep. As no two of the players agreed on the score, the game was declared "no contest." The Tenth Cavalryman who had his guitar with him was the centre of a large audience every afternoon, and he was hustling around trying to pursuade some of the banjo and mandolin players to beg or borrow instru¬ ments which could be sent to them, so that he could get up a string orchestra. Certain sportsmen of the Ninth organized cross¬ country hunts after the frog, which abounds in the marshes. They stalked him to his lair, and then swathed him with the unpoetic but substantial club, whereupon he croaked his last croak and rendered up his muscular legs to make a dainty feast. Good Hunters. Two hunters who beat along the little stream flowing back of the Signal Corps bagged no less than forty-seven batrachians, not counting six toads which they killed by mistake. On the whole, the colored soldiers got more out of camp life than any one else in the place. A volunteer whose regiment was brigaded with the Twenty-fourth (colored) Infantry through the Cuban campaign said that " they were better Christians than the white men." "We had a lot of trouble about firewood on the island," said he. It was hard to find, and it often had to be carried two miles to our quarters. Gathering it was a heavy job for our fellows, for most of them were pretty weak on account of the fever. The fellow^ in the white regiment in our command were a little better off than we were—they were regulars, you know—and managed to have HEROISM OF THE COLORED SOLDIERS. fires pretty regularly. If we had had to depend on them we would have put cold rations in our stomachs all the time. " ' Say old man,' I heard said to them, ' let's cook a little stuff on your fire when you're through with it ; won't you please?' " 'And what do you think they'd say ? "'Aw, go hang,' one of'em said to me. ' We ain't got enough for ourselves.' Men with Big Hearts. " It was a good deal to ask of a man, I'll admit. Why, I've seen half a dozen sick men wait around a fire until the men who owned it were through, and then make a rush for the embers, like seven dogs after one bone. But the colored men were different; they had bigger hearts. They stood the campaign in great shape, you know, and it wasn't much for them to gather firewood. They'd build a fire six feet long, and they never crowded a poor weak man out if he wanted to use it. "' Gimme a chance at your fire ?' the fel¬ lows would ask them. " ' Co'se,' they'd say, ' what yo' think we made a big fire fo', anyway ? T' cook our own grub o'ny ? Come on, honey.' " That's just the way they'd say it, and as jolly as you like. The colored soldiers are all right; and I've got a place in my heart for the Twenty-fourth Infantry, I tell you." , The men tell many instances of like kind¬ nesses. They do not begrudge credit to the colored soldiers for their bravery through campaign. And the negroes appreciate