I I mtLkwi* ^ '^^ A qV o • » ^. ■^ ....?v\^^^ ^u, ^-yiW^ ."^ L ' e U_ A A P Y « o ^-^^x. y o o v5 . ->; ^- .0' ^ '^ • ' A A '^v ^' %> ' • • * < :»v 4> -X. ^ O u o ff y 1 o .f L ' « 13 O "T V , V c • O ^ 0^ ^ ^ .^ .'- -.^ V .'^ / .^ A V "^ • 1 o . .^^" „':^- oK ° (FS ^ ',^" .7 ^•' O 'O . y* A 0_ , ^ , " c ^ ^ . ^ c, vP 2 O L / a to ^^ - ± 1- N -O-^ -^ V' 'to^^^° / vix —BY— C. F, GRAVES PRESIDENT ROANOKE COLLEGIATE INSTITUTE Elizabeth City, N. C. Price 10c. ■(o //■ COPYRIGHT APPLIED FOR 1918. NOV -7 1918 THE POLICY OF TBE YOUNG NEGRO In all parts of the world today principally, with undeveloped races there is a ceasiess state of unrest. And this apparent restless- ness seems bedded chiefly in the blood and fi.bre of the young. All classes or our read- ing public have been watching with unabs.ted interest the rising tide of dissatisfaction among the Balkan states of Europe. Thej^ are also appraised of the portentions awak- ening of the young blood in China, Ja.pa.n and Korea. In Haiti and Cuba yet lie the smouldering fuse of rebellion and disturb- ance, and even in Egypt and in India the spirit of progress and aggression runs rife in the rising generations; so that practically in all corners of the earth, there seem to be certain manifestations of unrest and a desire for supposedly better things in gov-- ernment and society possessing the people. The evolution of this feeling has frequent- ly demonstrated itself in these nations by violent outbursts of passion and general dis- order against the parent rule, sometimes with sad and unexpected reverses and some- times with immeasurable success, but alv/ays in my opinion with a dauntless and a harm- less spirit. It might be asked by some why is it that these nations or races which w^e consider thus inadvertently bring about a disturbing chaotic frame of mind in their governments and against their countries car-ng forth the quality of international pity c iid some time intern?„tional intervention either by treaty or by bloodshed? The ansv/er is not far to seek. For the young blood in these na.tions is be- coming thoroughly saturated with the spirit of progress and with the spirit of the ad- vanced civilization which is remaking the map of the hemispheres, chaining together both oceans with the wings of the wind and v/resting from the clutches of mystery the vr onderful and unknown know^ledge obtained from science, art, invention and reproduc- tion. These hitherto child races are av/aking both to the rapidity and immensity of the onrushing, maddening quest after the *'holy grail" of knowledge and of self possession. But this emphasis and initiative that is now going on is not confined strictly to the undeveloped races of the eastern hemis- phere, ncr the sea islands, but v/ith the more highly civilized races of America the young are pressing them.selves into service at an admirable and an appreciative ratio so much so until theorists and speculatists like Osier ana Carnegie have endeavored to determine the age hmit of American citizens for serv- ice and there is still further evidence of the emphasis tha+ is placed upon the j^oung by the heads of local governments, States and even municipalities and be it said to the credit of the young in all lands that v/herever there is unrest, discontent or dissatisfaction, that it is generally a brooder of better things. But with rsicrence to the polir^.y of the young American Negro there is very much idle and even sometinme erroneous specula- tion. He is perhaps not thoroughly known by his critics, not even by those v/ho touch his life in various ways for mercenary pur- poses. The real life and policy of the young Negro must be unselfishly embraced, free from the bane of preiudice and all of is un- holy and corrupting influences. And it is with this purpose in view that we desire to candidly lay before you the policy of the young Negro. From the foregoing it is not strange then that his acts, feelings and yearnings should crystalize into a policy distinctly his own and yet tempered by all of the old time savory influences that hover around the faithful fathers and mothers of the days of slavery. And too it is just to the American people of v^hich he forms a part that his policy be known and made bare before them. In the first place let us qualify the young Negro as that class, which is y:iing in years, who knows nothing of the cdious require- ments of bondage, that class though old in age, yet fresh and rich in thought and material, that class which is meeting the requirements of all thoughtful and sane people, that class which is filling the schools with patient and diligent students the churches with devout and humble worship- ers, the home v/ith neat efficient and industri- ous inmates, that class which is reaching out into the business, financial and the com- mercial world endeavoring to find standing room, that class v\^hich is inhabiting the lands and preparing a permanent place of resi- dence for himself and his kind, that class of Negroes v/ho go through life with his head high up and his heart swelling with the patri- otic blood in it conscious of the fact that God made him to be a man. In cur discussion of the policy of the young Negro, we do not disclaim any of those dearly bought virtues that have passed over to us from our fathers who were once the bone of contention the haughty lordlings pride and the proud man's contumely! We do not deny nor disown the hard and furrowed brow, the bowed form, the sunken cheek the ebon hue and the facial features of you who sit before me ! It is not our purpose do dwarf nor minimize the importance of your cries away in some lonesome valley or upon the hilltop calling upon the Lord for your a.nd my deliverence, you prayed for deliverence when deliverance seemed impossible and through the faith and insistence of your humble and earnest prayers deliverance did come a.nd out of your mufHed appeal to Almighty God in the 17th, ISth and 19th centuries have come able and le3.rned theologians to deliver the glad tidings of good things, fine educators, orators, and scholars, doctors, lawyers, skill- ed artisians and tradesmen. And if I can but place a wreath upon the heroic services of the men who had the brav- ery, the hardihood and the endeavor to face cannon, gra,pe and gun on our behalf, let me not be tardy in the task to speak a word for the men who endured hardness, hunger, priva tion and even death itself in order to make a way for liberty. The services of the Negro soldiers to this government should never be blotted off of the records of earth. In my humble and circumscribed imagination the days between 1861-1865 were seasons that tried mens very souls, — when as they march- ed in sight of each other on opposing lines and as they advanced the general ordered "Fire!" The volleys are ma^^o the smoke bajiishes men are dead on tho right and left shrieking in pain and weltering in blood, and grimly clasping on to the straggling object in sight between life and death, being trampled upon by the satanic, maddened host serving as a funeral pyre in aiding to a closer fight for surviving comrades, I candidly sub- mit that only the highest moral courage could have been equal to the task — all of this and unspeakably more you underwent, brave fathers in order that this day might be ours and justly you deserve the honor and may my tongue become impotent and cleave to the roof of my mouth should I fail to indulge in the most flattering ebulitions of praise touching upon your soldierly valor. And may the people of this Republic for all time to come sing of the valor of the Negro soldier in beatific and seraphic strains, sing of it beyond the Jordan! Sing of it beyond the stars. So much indeed for a glimpse at our reUcs of slavery. Let us ask why does the young Negro need a pohcy somewhat dehneated from his fathers? We have it from the Bible that the wayward and murmuring people who came up from Egyptian slavery under Moses that after they had lived among and seen and heard other people, they too desired a king like other people, which request was granted in the person of Saul. Whether the analogy is true and wholesome the young Negro desires to have something, to do some- thing and to be something. He therefore needs a policy of his own that he may exhibit himself as a freeman and to this plain and logical path he is -inexorably dedicating all his energies. He knows nothing of slavery as an institution. He knows that this instit- ution undignified and inferrorized his people and he needs to acquire a character of such a kind that will vindicate his people and serve to uneducate the world that he is of inferior quality. His pohcy is therefore beside being innate with himself accentuated by the great Apostle Paul, by Thomas Jefferson and by Jehovah himself — it is to feel that he is made in the image of God and that he is a free moral agent responsible primarily to His Maker for his acts. This is his policy toward himself, that in the exercise of his duties and obligations, he looks upward unto God from which source all blessings come and con- stantly ask to guide his steps aright, while we keep our faces toward the morning of progress. Then again the young Negro feels that while he is a free agent, he is individually re- sponsible for his influence upon others. The ideal young Negro of whom we speak feels it his duty to become a permanent citizen, to keep the peace, pay his taxes, assist in bring- ing the guilty to justice, secure a home, to be industrious in whatever profession he chooses, be manly, honest, earnest in all of his transactions. He realizes that others are watching his acts and are becoming in- fluenced by them as he is watching the acts of others. Therefore he becomes a perman- ent and responsible resident and not a float- ing idler, he is orderly and law abiding and presentable along the public highways, he works and earns a living honestly and honor- ably and demands a just transaction. How- ever we frequently see on our streets droves of hearty young men with upturned trousers, collar open, shirt bosom, ha-t over the right eye, playing tlie bully, apparently unmindful of the great responsibility resting upon them to be an intelligent, responsible member of society. Such an exhibition of apparent un- concern represents none of the higher aspir- ations of the young Negro and with such demonstrations of tl:.riftlessness and vag- rancy the young Negro is directly not in sympathy. He has formulated his ideals of greatness from the greatest examples of men of his own and other races ever recorded or dreamed of in histories and in all of his striv- ings, he pants for such a station that will bring him justly up to his peers in all races and assign him a permanent and enviable place around the shrine of the great parliament of man, and therefore in all con- sideration today one hears the cry of Negro manhood. This declaration is not meant to create friction, but simply to disabuse the Negro's CT.n mind of any aspersion of in- feriority. Again the policy of the young Negro is to do something. Scholars have classed the present generation from the seventies as the fastest age the world has known. We take it to mean that because of the discoveries of men in their various lines of v/ork due to long appUcation, powerful and immense in- dustrial and commercial institutions have grown up, so too the minds of men have be- come powerful and immense; pov^erful in that they desire to enlarge upon whatever interests they may have and immense be- cause of the disposition of mankind to want more power. Then the policy is to do some- thing such as other free men have done. In the world of men even from time dating al- most beyond the haze of civilization,, men have done things and their works still live after them and the poUcy of the young Negro is not to die. Look now over the records a hriel moment and there before your eyes are the deeds of men in all walks of life almost astonishing in contemplation. I n Babylon there were the hanging gardens of Nebuch- adnezzar, like beautiful myths displayed in natural harmony. In Egypt there stand the great piles of massive stone in the form of a pyramid to mark the last resting place of the mighty Pharoah. In China there are the pagodas and temples of worship as shrines of puzzUng arcitecture. In Greece besides being the "land of scholars and the nursery of arms" there stands the Areopagitica, the Mars Hill of all ages, hewn out of the rocks, coming to Rome, without mentioning her orators, poets and historians, there is today upon and extending outward from her seven hills the architecture and industrialism that might fill volumns with the story of its fabrication of beauty. England, France, Germany and the rest deserve mention and here in America the young Negro is diligently striving with all his might to emulate the in- dustrialism and the wonderful strides along- all lines of power of his brother of the white race, and to this end he is dedicating all of his energies until today he has a knowledge of the manipulation of stocks and bonds, of corporations and banks, of books and busi- ness that he could not acquire, did he not have something definite in his mind and something tangible before him. What is there to prevent the execution of this policy on the part of the young Negro in America? He has the same call running in his blood urging him to climb the sights as that of other races. He has friends, he has his own premonitions of greatness, his life is guided by the same hand of Providence that holds the rest of the world still, he is becoming stronger in intellect, in wealth, and in morals as a race of 50 years ago of free and un- trammeled development. Is he weak? Is he powerless to prove his valor in reemancipat- ing himself from a m.ore extsperating system of poverty of ideas, of admirxiSLration and of execiitiveness in this free country/? I sub- mit that the young Negro is suffused with the spirit of doing things. There were times when examples were few but suffice it that in nearly all sections the American people are appraised of the enterprises of various kinds from the cross roads grocery to the wholesale establishment, from the burial society to the insurance company, from the little one room log school to the universitly, from the miserly savings tied up in the red bandanna handkerchief to the endless enter- prises owned and controlled by the young Negro. Furthermore it is in the soul of the young Negro to have something purely his own. The young Negro wants something and he is fast acquiring it and who can hinder him? The "Bock of bocks" teaches us thptt "the earth is the Lords and the fulness-thereof" and he who keeps nearest to the Lord will reap some of the fruits thereof. The young Negro wants a farm and he has one, he wants a residence and he ha.s one, he wants horses, cattle and vehicles and he has all kinds, he wants to pursue the various pro- fessions in life and he pursues them v/ith credit, he wants a fine church and he has one. he wants a school, a store, a corpora,tion, a town and so on and he has one. He wants an education and he gets it and gets it good and these possessions have wonderfully in- creased his appetite and his desire for more beyond; and it should also be remembered that all of his earthly belongings have been secured with credit to the community in which he lives, for in nearly every instance no one knov/s of the occupancy of the home church and school from the exterior, nor does any one know from the looks of the animal v/hether he belongs to Mr. A or Mr B. Some one might ask hov/ is it that the young Negro has these possessions, when his ancestors had no money nor any thing above earning power save muscle? It will be remembered that the Negro brought over from the days of slavery the habit of self ab- negation with other things and in order to acconipilsli certain well established ends he can restrain himself. I do not advocate here that any Negro can or ought to live on less than any other healthy man lives but in a number of instances he practices self depri- vation of supposed luxuries until he clutches firmly the goal of his cherished ambition. Then too, the young Negro is interested about his neighbor and he has candidly asked himself who is my neighbor? And the answ- er has ccnie to him in plain and unequivocal terms that it is the man next to him and he is bent on conserving the friendship and pro- tection by all reasonable and m3.nly methods. He is determined to deal fair with the man next to him. lie is bent upon having his neighbor understand that he can be trusted and that he is anxious to draw nearer along lines that will bring God's peace into the world. The j^oung Negro is in the gi^eater sympathy with his neighbor than he thinks him to be. He is anxious about the success and stability of whatever community in which he may live, for he resides in such a place for business and for settling of his family the same as his neighbor and he is solicitious about intruders and unsettled con- ditions as any other man. His contact with College life and manly sport has tempered out the narrowness and class hatred, has given him to the Vv^orld inured to the hard- ships and conflicts which is the common lot of all, so that the American people today are actually into contract with a class of young people whom they may trust as confidently as the fathers of old and it is also true that they are facing them under new^ conditions and that they, too, must adjust themselves to tlieir nevr conuiticns with the new Negro. There is nothmg whatever to be feared from the pohcy of the young Negro whom v/e bring before you, save that he means to scale along the heights that others have with patience, long suffering, tenacit^^ and dog- gedness of determination and ability scaled. He means to be kind, corteous, respectful, honest and industrious toward his neighbor and is in 2.II courtesy and gentiliiy going to demand the same from his neighbor. He asks for equal accommodations and court- esies as a man, as his neighbor exacts from him, these things done and all will go well. Then finally it is needless to say that the young Negro is going to forget God. This has never been a part of his reckoning. Ke looks up to and serves the same God of his fathers. He rehearses and consoles himself with the same old story of love for the un- seen a-3 I::':: fathers did. He will never lose the saving grace that purchased his liberty, he is going to serve His Maker as devotedly as of old and he feels that the Lord will bless and preserve him and his posterity. Fre- quently, we hear it asked what is going to become of the young Negro after all of the old heads die out. This is said, we are aware at a time when despondency and gloom cast a shadow over the people because of the haughty and stiff necked, and uncivilized at- titude of a certain class of young people who represent no wealth, nor intelligence and are generally good for nothing save to put more caliber into the fiber of them v/ho are endeav- oring to represent the best ideals i:i the race, such a class might be found in all races and by such a class the representative young Negro is not to be judged no more than the worthless of other races; but let us tell you v/hat will become of the young Negro. If you seek an ansv/er look around you! Behold the enduring monuments of enterprise he is setting up! See his beautiful residence, go into that home a,nd you will see elegantly caparisoned drawing rooms and parlors tap- estried with the most costly material, and tarry awhile and you will discover all of the ear marks of the cultured Christian family. Go into his church and you will notice fine angular and arcade cushioned peY\^s, arched w^alls embracing all of the architesture from Doric, Gothic and Corinthian to American, you will w^end your way down carpeted aisles while your footsteps are hushed as if usher- ing into the presence of the Eternal shrine, you will hear the loud and deep toned in- strument piling the air with its volume, then the choir will break forth into rich and ecstatic strains of heavenly music, and you will listen to a discourse for scholarship wisdom, eloquence and spiritual power worthy 'of Spurgeon, Luther, Wesley, Talm- age, Beecher, Moody and the great. Go into his school room and there you will find his dissertations and deftness in dealing with the occult as lucid and explicable as Maecenas, Pythagoras, Pestalozzi, Mann, Dwight or any of the famous educators. Go into his place of business, his store, his office, and you will observe well laden shelves, courteous and efficient clerks; by the bed- side you will find the disciples of Aesculapius fully and successfully emulating the great in medicine; before the bar Blackstone, were he sitting around, would delight to fellov»,'Ship and accentuate the shrewdness and knowl- edge of the eboned sons in law, upon the stage you will find that the young Negro is as clever a.nd entertaining as Euripides or Shakespeare and in various other answer- able ways the young Negro is meeting the conditions satisfactory to himself and his most sanguine admirers and if he strictly adheres to the policy of trying to be some- thing, to have something, and to do some- thing, like Milton, "Me thinks I see in my ininds eye a noble and puissant race arising out of her dull slumber and stretching her- self like an eagle pruning her wings and casting her eye upward toward the burning sun and shaking herself and preparing to soar aloft." C. F. GRAVES. 48 n^ TX NO TYPEPRTNTERY B y Jack ^\^ 1 1 s 507 E. Peariu^ Street Elizabeth City. N C 1 / o ^'*^^'^^;i^ ri. ^^^t^i^'^-,'' » V ^ ti» •'S'^'-« '-^ '^' -^""^ii lifts' > «.' <;^ - . ^°-;^ I ^\ ^y^-.> (^^ ^ o " c ^ ^ . J a I '^ 'Wi:- %,^^ " 4 c) < c t ~l » «i * n ■ '^'^ *» ^^x. DOBES BROS LIBRARY B A , o " c ^ <^ -^ c o ';^ Co ST. AUGUSTINE FLA. O • i ^^gr 32084 LIBRARY OF CONGRESS Ml 011 643 821 5 ir ■J