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RE-BIRTH OF
NEGRO IDEALS
BY
Alexander S. Jackson> A A/., Z). D.
, |
ALEXANDER S. JACKSON.
THE RE-BIRTH OF NEGRO
IDEALS
BY
Alexander S. Jackson, A. M., D. D.
1929
THE NATIONAL BAPTIST PUBLISHING BOARD
NASHVILLE, TENN.
COPYRIGHT APPLIED FOR.
GONTENTS
Page
Frontispiece — 1
A Foreword 9
Ideals _ 10
The Re-birth of Negro Ideals 11
A Foreword
This is the first of a series of monographs
I shall write, each of a historic basis, under¬
lying optimistic prophecy and outlook.
I have been a personal and deeply interest¬
ed observer, for my people, my own circle
and myself, of events pertaining to our wel¬
fare for a full half century and more. In
storm and calm, under clouds and patches of
clear sky, I have seen God's sign in the
heavens, and have ever heard His Voice
graciously commanding: "Speak to the peo¬
ple that they go forward."
We can live forwardly and upwardly only
by possessing the element of faith, undoubt-
ing faith in God, mixed with all our en¬
deavors.
Following this series of monographs will
come my book, "Brighter Days," if Provi¬
dence spares me, which will be my one full-
measured message to my times.
ALEXANDER S. JACKSON,
Dallas, Texas, October 13th, 1920.
(9)
Ideals.
"Our real life is but a continual struggle
to reach our ideal. How necessary then, to
our personal welfare that our ideals should,
be correct. The great function of educated
Negroes today is to form for themselves
correct ideals of life and to hold them ever
before the masses."
Dr. C. V. Roman.
"Ideality is only the advent-courier of the
mind, and where that, in a healthy and nor-
male state, goes, I hold it to be a prophecy
that realization can follow."
H. Mann.
"The best and noblest lives are those
which are set towards high ideals."
Almeron.
10
The Re-birth of Negro
Ideals.
Apologists for Slavery.
There are apologists for Negro slavery
in America, who say that the enslaved Race
received benefits from their enslavement
which compensated them for whatever suf-.
fering they may have endured. These apolo¬
gists make particular mention of civiliza¬
tion and Christianity which Negroes learn¬
ed in bondage. But can credit be given to
an institution which was wrong for being
beneficent to its victims?
Native Africans, who were the first slaves
here, were free in their continental homes,—
as free as the tigers which roamed in the
jungles and the eagles which soared and
screamed in the air above them. It is true
that their freedom was barbaric, yet it was
to them a precious heritage and possessed
its excellences. At home they were Afri-
00
12
Rebirth of Negro Ideals
cans under African authority and rule, to
which they gave loyal subjection. They had
tribal pride and with it physical courage
which displayed itself in their tribal wars of
defence and offence; they had their moral
standards with outstanding virtues of sex-
chastity, truth and honesty. These quali¬
ties -suffered disastrously from slavery in
America. By the stern and often cruel use
of physical force, they weri^ taught submis¬
sion to foreign blood. Humiliation and
cowardice took the place of pride and cour¬
age; their sex-life waf .putraged; the sacred-
ness of family ties was destroyed by the
slave-trade, and the relations of fatherhood
and motherhood were reduced to their least
possible meaning; deceit and fawning flat¬
tery, (always the defensive weapons of
slaves), substituted truth and honesty.
But the apologists say that over against
these deplorable losses of virtues, these Afri¬
can slaves and their offspring learned to
work, to wear clothes, to sit on chairs in¬
stead of mats; heard Bibles read, heard
preaching and got religion; they became
civilized and Christianized in bondage.
But in reply to this claim, it may be said,
that both the civilization and Christianity,
Rebirth of Negro Ideals
13
had they been of much better quality, were
poor compensations for the great wrongs
which had been wrought against the Ne¬
gro's primal tribal freedom and the debase¬
ment of his character. True Christianity
with a better type of civilization would have
reached him where he was in his continen¬
tal home, soon enough, Slavery is wrong.
This is the verdict of history. It is better
not to seek to give it credit for any thing
that is good. In America it was a curse to
both races. It told as disastrously against
the one as against th«e' other. Both the
White South and the Black South wear the
deep ugly scars which slavery inflicted. The
blight fell on master and man equally, dif¬
ferent only in phase. The Emancipation
ushered in a period of opportunity for both
races to recover from disastrous and deplor¬
able conditions.
The Reconstruction Period.
The earlier years of this period were
called "The Reconstruction" in the political
sense, because they were occupied with na¬
tional measures, on the one hand, to bring
the newly-emancipated slaves into the status
of legal citizenship, and on the other hand,
to restore to citizenship the men and gov-
14
Rebirth of Negro Ideals
ernments of the South, which they had 3os
by withdrawing from the Union and fighting
to perpetuate slavery. But beyond these
political procedures for the purposes men¬
tioned, the work of Reconstruction was of
deeper import, for it had respect to the task
which lay upon both races,—the task of re¬
covering from the debasement of character
and ideals. This could be accomplished
only by the operation of moral and spiritual
forces from within each race, each working
on itself separately, because slavery had,
in many respects, oppositely harmed the
dominant and subject races.
White leaders of vision and conviction in
the South, have kept their people reminded
of the need and the duty of reforming their
ideals and of becoming renewed in their
spirit. The state of Georgia has the honor
of having a worthy son, who stands well in
the forefront of these leaders. He was the
first to preach the doctrine of the need of a
New South, unless the territory which had
cursed itself with slavery, should lose its
place in the procession of enlightened peo¬
ples. But Mr. Grady was the first apostle of
many others. The Southern Sociological
Congress is, perhaps, the best representative
Rebirth of Negro Ideals
15
body of the reconstruction forces of the
White South, seeking to make their section
progressive along lines of higher ideals. This
organization has opened its doors for Ne¬
groes among its membership to the purpose
that leaders of both races occupying the
same territory, may combine their counsels
for the betterment of those conditions of
life in the South which call for joint treat¬
ment. The writer was in attendance at the
sessions of this congress which met at At¬
lanta, Ga., in 1912, upon invitation of Gov¬
ernor Hooper of Tennessee, who was its
presiding officer that year. There was near¬
ly a score of Negroes of the South present
at the same meeting on invitation from Gov.
Hooper, some of whom made programmed
addresses. It was a revelation of what an
array of the White South's strong intellec¬
tual, cultured leaders, men and women, are
seeking to rectify and broaden the spirit of
this section, and who realize that the en¬
lightened Negroes can help in the great
task.
The situation has been for some years
much like an automobile, with the gear some¬
times in the forward movement and then
getting into reverse, and running backward
16
Rebirth of Negro Ideals
over much of the ground which had been
gained. But it can remain the hope of those
who have faith in righteousness that the
South will yet throw off the debasement
which human slavery entailed upon it.
The task is Herculean and is the business
of both races. There should be a mutuality
of goodwill between them. The man with
a broken arm should feel a sympathy for
the man with a broken leg. True, this is
not so easy to do when the evidence shows
that the man broke his arm with an un-
neighborly stroke which broke the other
man's leg; yet if they are still to live close
to each other on adjoining lots, they must
get as right-spirited towards each other as
possible, else each may keep the other's
wound from healing. Each race should
wish the other well in whatever pertains to
their welfare within the grant of the All-
Father. Christian ethics demand this. And,
after all, the regeneration of conditions in
the South, is but a question of applied Chris¬
tianity. It is the will of God, that, in so far
as they can be agreed, they shall walk to
gether. But God bids the impotent man to
"rise up and walk," whether he must walk
alone or beside his stronger brother.
Rebirth of Xegro Ideals
17
Making a Good Start.
The Race has had to address itself to its
own part of the task of which we have
spoken. How well the work has been begun,
the records will tell. The important ques¬
tion now is—What are the prospects for
the next half century? The spirit of free¬
dom has deepened and broadened and re¬
born ideals arise from the deep dark chaos
of former conditions. This was the answer
of a small Negro boy to the question of Gen¬
eral Howard away back in the sixties. The
general had ended an address to a meeting
of Negroes in a Southern city, when he ask¬
ed them the question'—"What shall I tell
your white friends in the North when I re¬
turn?" After a brief silence the small boy
arose and said: "Tell 'em we are risin'. "
That was an apt reply. The eventful
early years of the Race were marked by the
beginning of an upward movement. In many
places schools for rudimentary instruction
were opened and taught by those who knew
a little more than the masses. There were
day-schools for children, afternoon sessions
for women and night classes for men and
youths who had to work of days. These
were followed in due time by academies, col-
18
Rebirth of Negro Ideate
leges and universities for higher education,
established largely, if not entirely by north¬
ern philanthropy. The first teachers in
these institutions were white men and
women from the North. These were the
cream of the earth. They were God's elect.
Theirs was the true spirit of helpfulness.
They were careful to first get in cordial touch
with the Negro preachers and the newly or¬
ganized churches, so that from the beginning
the Christian spirit was fortunately infused
into the educational work. This fact has
meant much to the Race in the kind of lead¬
ers who were first prepared in these institu¬
tions.
To those old preachers, who encouraged
and co-operated with those white Christian
teachers and missionaries, who came from
the North, too much credit and praise can¬
not be given. They had been prepare'd for
their pioneer work in the fiery furnace, and
like Moses, had come with their people up
out of the Egypt of bondage, with faith and
purpose to lead aright, under God. These,
with the God^sent helpers from the North,
were a strong force, who knew and felt
their responsibility. They wrought upon the
mind and heart of the people, and kept the
Rebirth of Neyro Ideals
19
freedmen surcharged with the idea that a
new day had risen upon them and that they
must make good use of it, proving to all men
that they were worthy of the grant of op¬
portunity which freedom had brought. They
were urged to see the beckoning hand of
Liberty and take the forward paths. The
upward and onward looks were assiduously
cultivated.
The Star of Hope Stood Out in Their Sky.
During the later years of the agitation
against slavery, the star of hope began to
twinkle in the Negro's sky. As the war be¬
tween the North and South was drawing to¬
wards its close, their skies brightened above
them. They were times of faith and wait¬
ing. At the prayer-meetings, held by
stealth on the plantations and in the towns,
under cover of the night, this song of trust
and hope would be song soft and low:
"I've come out tonight,
To honor God aright,
Good news, good news,
And I mean for to stay,
Till the breaking o' the day,
For there's good news
A coming from the throne."
20
And when the "good news came, which
was the Emancipation Proclamation, their
star of Hope became a constellation of full-
orbed planets. The new day broke. The
morning sky was radiant.
By act of the Republican Congress, a judi¬
cial institution was established throughout
the South, known as the "Freedman's
Bureau." These were paternal petty federal
courts for the protection of ex-slaves in
their newly-given freedom. The judges in
the bureaus were mostly white men from
the North, who had been living in the South
for years, known to be in sympathy with
the work of abolitionists, and who were
avowed friends of the welfare of the freed
people. In these courts a kreak-water was
set up between the judicial power of the
ex-master class and the former bondmen.
In them were held the trial of all cases of
disorder among the freed people them¬
selves, and all such matters between them
and the white people, (except major criminal
deeds). All contracts for labor, with wages
on the free basis, and all the elementary
rights of the new citizenship which had
been conferred, were kept under the super¬
vision of the "Freedman's Bureau." This
Rebirth of Negro Ideals
21
provision kept the Race out of the hands of
unjust judges and shielded their liberties
from the despoilation of their enemies and
gave assurance of the reality of their free¬
dom.
Another fact which tended to remove ap-
prehensions and create those confident con¬
ditions of mind and spirit for forming plans
and entering earnestly upon the great task
which lay before the Race, was that the
South remained well-garrisoned with mili¬
tary posts drawn from the Union Army and
strategically located throughout the terri¬
tory whose rebellion had been suppressed,
till these states should return to their former
allegiance to the Federal Government.
The effect was good upon both races. The
emancipation was accepted as an accom¬
plished fact. Both races felt that the old
order was gone never to return and that the
new order was being erected on a foundation
which would stand. In some instances it
was required of masters by the military
commanders, that they should line up their
former slaves, call the roll and say to them,
"You are now as free as I am." That was
doubtless a hard requirement for some mas¬
ters, but those words were the beginning
22
Rebirth of Negro Ideals
of the South's assent to what had came to
pass, against all their heavy sacrifices to
prevent it,—the loss of their human prop¬
erty. This assent was the best sort of philos¬
ophy. Many ex-masters, who had formerly
been measurably kind to their slaves, per¬
suaded them to remain with them on their
plantations and work for shares or for
wages. Many remained. The prospect was
promising, for it looked as if the spirit of
the old order and the spirit of the new order
would come to a settlement which would be
mutually satisfactory.
Storm-Clouds In The Morning Sky.
Just then President Grant blundered. The
great victory which he had won over the
Confederacy with his sword, he gave away
at one most important point, by the ill-advis¬
ed appointment of two judges to the Supreme
Court bench of the United States. The Presi¬
dent seems to have regarded these men,
Judge Bradley of New Jersey and Judge
Wait of Ohio, as opposed to the heresy of
States' Rights, but it turned out that they
were both disciples of that political doctrine.
In order to give substance to the mean¬
ing of the amendments which had been
Rebirth of Negro Ideals
23
written into the constitution of the nation,
for the permanent establishment of the
emancipation, Congress had enacted the
"Bill of Rights" and these were being duly
enforced in the South, with fine prospect
that the whole solution would be accomplish¬
ed, although the problem was difficult. But
the keen-eyed leaders of the South, who,
though whipped on the hattle-field out of
the practical working of their belief in the
sovereignty of states, had not abandoned
the principle, saw their opportunity in the
constitution of the membership of the
Supreme Court, with General Grant's two new
appointees, that with others already of
their opinion on the bench of that tribunal,
there was a majority, who stood for the
rights of states. They knew that that
court is the place for the trying out of all
the laws of the land as to rights of citizen¬
ship; that from its decisions there is no ap¬
peal, because its decisions are final. Appeals
from the enforcement of the "Bill of
Rights", which Congress had enacted, began
to reach the Supreme Court at Washington
from the South. To the amazement of the
North and the grief of the Negroes, in every
such appeal to this high tribunal the decis-
24
Rebirth of Negro Ideals
•ion was against the new law. The amend¬
ments to the federal constitution had made
the emancipated Negroes citizens of the na¬
tion; but those Supreme Court decisions
placed their citizenship back in the hands of
the states of the South. Then it was that
something which bore marked resemblance
to the Biblical description of hell, broke loose
throughout ex-slave territory. If a great
meeting shall ever be called for the Race to
review its experiences of those times, per¬
haps Jews, the Russian peasants and the
Armenians might be able to qualify for
representation with Negroes from the South
in such a convocation for such a purpose.
The South broke its arm and the Negro's
leg. The sea was grotesquely spectacular for
•some while, while the furious storm raged.
Kukluxing, bull-dosing, night-riding, lynch¬
ing and other forms of terrorism ran riot.
It seemed that what the Race had counted
gain must be reckoned as loss, all but the
Emancipation. The result of this reaction
was much confusion among the newly-freed
and their friends. Yet, though abashed,
they were unafraid; though retarded they
were not disheartened. There came at this
time a revelation to the leaders and the
Rebirth of Negro Ideals
25
masses of the Race, that they had a grant of
freedom and with it a program of trials and
tribulations which must be worked out with
patience, fortitude and determination. This
revelation was but a truth of history enter¬
ing into the consciousness of the Race. Lib¬
erty for all peoples, has its ups and downs,
its deep rivers to cross and high mountains
to scale. Only those who are willing to work
out such a program, can have it.
The Banishment of Slave^Fear.
One heroic victory had been won, which
was to be of saving grace to all the remain¬
ing work to be done. That fear, which the
institution of slavery had made its main
effort to instill, was gone forever from the
heart of the Race. The psychology of the
complete disappearance of the fear which
had been an essential part of the training
of slaves, is to be found in the events of
the Reconstruction era in the South. Dur¬
ing the time that the states, which had gone
out of the Union, were kept under military
government, Negroes were encouraged to
take part in politics. They entered this
new field of privilege with enthusiasm, under
the lead and direction of white men generally,
2g Rebirth of Negro Ideals
and also capable men of the Race. Many
of the white leaders of their new political
life were men of northern birth and a con¬
siderable number were white men of south¬
ern birth. The way was open. These men
had the wish to lead and, as a rule, they
had the ability to do so. The Negroes fell
right along with them, glad to be encourag¬
ed to exercise their new citizenship. They
voted these white leaders and a goodly per¬
centage of eligible men of the Race, into all
kinds of official positions in cities, counties,
state and federal, ranging from petty places
to governorships, judgeships, congressmen
and United States' senators. The records
of those days will show a high average of
efficiency and integrity among these officials.
The output of legislation in the states of the
South, where this new Negro civic tide had
sway, will compare more than favorably
with that of later legislatures under white
domination, for in those laws, there was no
discrimination attempted. There was no class
work. The simple truth is that the work of
the Reconstruction legislatures was intend¬
ed for the equal good of all the people. This
must go down to their credit in the unbiased
history of those times, that when Negroes
Rebirth of Negro Ideals
27
made the laws of the South, they followed
the Golden Rule, in letter and in spirit, more
nearly than it has been followed since in the
same territory. There was next to no plund¬
ering of the public funds such as became
rife after whites got back into their hands
the reins of government. During the Re¬
construction a great majority of the masses
of white people, under the influence of many
of their leaders, refrained from participa¬
tion in political affairs in the South. These
leaders invented the cry of "Negro Domina¬
tion." But it was not domination, for as a
rule, the Negroes preferred to make officials
of white men, and many of them as good
men as white domination has ever put in
office since those days. No, it was not "Ne¬
gro Domination," but it was open, hilarious,
friendly exercise and enjoyment of the new
citizenship. They were glad to participate
in elections. Any friendly southern white
man, whom they felt they could trust to deal
with them justly, could get into office by their
votes, if he wished to, as many men of good
character and prominence did, for the good
they felt they could do in the new start which
the South was compelled to make. The
charge, therefore, that the Negroes were
28
Rebirth of Negro Ideals
romping over the whites of the South was
never true. It was but well-intentioned,
whole-hearted participation in politics. There
was some sure enough romping done' but
it was the romping over his slave-fear which
those days witnessed. The Negro lost all
fear of his former masters and lost that
fear once for all times. That loss of fear
was the unspeakable boon which the Recon¬
struction brought to the Race. Henceforth
they could work out their salvation in the
fear of God.
Let the narrative turn back from this re¬
view of the civic start which was made and
catch up the truth about the spiritual start
that was made.
From Rural To Urban Life.
The new era of freedom was opened with
a high note of joy resounding throughout
the liberated Race. Except comparatively
small numbers, they had been accustomed to
life in the country. It was now a tempting
privilege to go into the towns and cities.
To these centers they soon resorted in large
numbers, to meet and sing and shout aloud
the great joy which freedom had brought to
them. It was pious, exuberant gladness. It
Rebirth of Negro Ideals
29
was a repetition of the overflowing happiness
of the Israelites when they had gotten over
the Red Sea, out of Egypt, expressed in the
Song of Deliverance, which was led by the
sweet-voiced Miriam and other women, or
like the abounding joy of the early Chris¬
tians at Jerusalem after they had received
the Spirit, when they went from house to
house, breaking bread together in fellowship
of the mighty gladness that filled their hearts.
They were great "camp-meeting times"
throughout the Southland. Most of the
emancipated people had come from their
former plantation homes into the towns and
cities with no intention of remaining longer
than it required to take part in the rejoicing
for a season. But it quickly occurred to
great numbers of them that their new life
would be safer and their progress better
elsewhere than in the old plantation homes.
They decided to live in the cities and towns.
They had little or nothing to go back after,
so they remained. It was the open season
of the year. Many of them lived in booths
for a while. Thus almost suddenly an im¬
mense rural population was transformed into
an urban population.
30
Rebirth of Negro Ideals
A New Economic Situation.
This created a new economic problem.
JBut work was providedj houses were built,
such as they were, before the winter came
on. The trans-plantation from country to
urban conditions was soon accomplished fair¬
ly well. This change, has been pronounced
by a class of economists as very unwise, and
they charge against it the blame "for the
Race not having made much greater pro¬
gress in the acquisition of wealth, holding
that life on the farms would have put the
record of material advancement far beyond
what it has been. But the change gave edu¬
cational, social and religious advantages. It
was much easier to reach these aggregations
through the first .schools and churches and
to impart to these masses their first "book
learning" and promote their better religious
development and give them rudimentary
training for good citizenship. There are some
things which are of more importance than
wealth and property. Such were the church¬
es and schools and fellowship of endeavor
to qualify for the new life with its new op¬
portunities and obligations. Yet a consid¬
erable number, at the first, remained on the
same plantations and moved upon others.
Rebirth of Negro Ideals
31
Over them the rustle of the corn and the
smell of cotton blooms had thrown a poetic
charm, which they could not cast off. As
schools and churches were later established
in the rural portions of the South, the Ne¬
groes were content to remain permanently
in the country, who had not come out in the
beginning. Many who were educated in the
better institutions at the large centers, have
been following the establishment of country
schools to teach in them and make their
homes among the people whom they are
helping. Thus the rural situation is improv¬
ing educationally and religiously. It is this
rural population which has been too fre¬
quently disturbed. They and their offspring
are, so far as labor goes, the backbone of the
agricultural interests and welfare of the
South and the authorities will do well to
bring on the better regnancy of just laws
for them and to encourage their general im¬
provement, else they will go hunting for
better conditions of life elsewhere, as they
are already beginning to do, particularly
since the world-war when other sections of
the country found a scarcity of labor. Nor
is the spirit of going confined to Negroes
who live in the country. The Negro's map
32
Rebirth of Negro Ideals
has enlarged almost suddenly. He is ee
ing the need of much more geograp y. 6
old proverb down in Dixie, that there is no
place like the South for the Negro, is fast
losing its force. The Race is acquiring the
age-long Caucasian habit of going where
fortune beckons. And, as the Negro sees it,
the best fortune is to get where he can have
an equal chance to make good.
Constructive Forces Within.
From the beginning of the new career it
was realized that there was much construc¬
tive work to be done by the Race within it¬
self by itself. Much good labor has been
expended with gratifying results. Among
these we shall make mention of the follow¬
ing:
a—Rebuilding The Family.
Slavery had wrought havoc with the fami¬
ly, God's primal human institution. Proper
marriage was denied; the conjugal, the
parental and the filial relations were not al¬
lowed to have serious meaning. The slave-
trade mocked at the sacredness of these
natural relations. Only in Louisiana, with
a few other places perhaps, was Christian
marriage provided for slaves by any law.
Rebirth of Negro Ideuls
33
In the state named, the Code Noir, (the Black
Code), devised by M. De Bienville, provided
for ceremonial Christian marriage for slaves.
And too, heavy penalties were levied against
masters or their superintendants for violat¬
ing the virtue of slave women; and it was
made unlawful to sell separately slave hus¬
bands and their wives, or to separate slave
parents and their small children by sale.
But generally outside of Louisiana, there was
no legal recognition of the ties of family.
The inhuman domestic slave-trade scattered
the members of families far apart, with no
means of communication except by chance,
in occasional cases. It was unlawful to teach
slaves to read and write, and very little
freedom of travel was permitted them, so
that the possibility of communication by
correspondence was reduced to the min¬
imum. Freedcim brought the opportunity
for re-assembling, so far as was possible,
these scattered fragments of broken family
circles. And what a volume of the writing
of letters of inquiry! The few who could
write and the friendly white people who
would help, were kept busy everywhere.
The writer knew some correspondents who
were kept writing day and night such let-
34
Rebirth of Negro Ideals
ters. There was almost frantic effort o
locate relatives who had been sold apar
This brought a new item into the program
of all the church services throughout the
South, the advertising of these letters of in¬
quiry. Soon there began to be also a great
volume of answers to this correspondence.
Much tinje would be spent in crying out
these letters. They were tense periods. In
one "amen corner" an old man gets one; then
another down in the body of the congrega¬
tion; then another and another; mothers,
brothers and sisters, and in some instances,
one great batch of these letters in the large
churches would run the whole scale of kin¬
ship relations in their inquiries and replies.
Whoever could read them were pressed into
immediate service. What glad, shouting
times would take place on the spot, as
mothers learned where their children were
and fathers got in the spirit of the good
news and as others learned where sisters
and brothers were, from whom they had
been long separated, and had never before
heard since they were taken away after
being sold. On these occasions there was
much sadness and weeping too, for some of
the letters would tell of the death of loved
Rebirth of Negro Ideals
35
ones, written by friends who had gotten the
letters of inquiry and answered them, giv¬
ing the facts as they knew them. This cor¬
respondence was the means of the reunion
of families. In the pursuit of the orderly
establishment of the family circles, a thing
both ludicrous and pathetic was of frequent
occurrence. It "was the desire to legalize the
marriage relation. Word had gotten around
from the "Freedmen's Bureaus" that a
ruling had been made at Washington that,
if couples who had never been ceremonially
united in marriage, would take out license
at the Bureau, and get the judge there or
call in a preacher to perform the solemn rite,
this would take away the reproach of irre¬
gular relations between man and woman and
make them lawful husband and wife, and
make their children already born, lawful off¬
spring as also others later born, so that they
would legally inherit whatever their parents
might acquire of this world's goods. What
a marrying time there was! Couples who
had been long consorting together in the
old regime, got married the new and right
way. There were wedding-suppers and
celebrations galore. Frequently among those
witnessing and making their congratula-
og Rebirth of Negro Ideals
tions, were grown-up children of the newly-
weds. After this manner was the genesis,
quite widely, of the properly constitued
family life within the Race following the
Emancipation.
Thus God's primal institution for the
preservation of the social order emerged
from the chaos of slavery days,
b—The Passion For Home.
The craving for homes and ownership was
early manifested by the purchasing of land
in lots in the towns and cities and by
acres in the country near by. The first
homes, for apparent reasons, were simple
in construction and moderate in cost; but
the fact of ownership gave great satisfac¬
tion. It was almost certain to find mottoes
on the walls of these humble habitations
which read—"God Bless Our Home," or
"Home, Sweet Home." Often the buying
of homes was heroic. In many cases the
titles carried the wrong survey statement,
doubtless intentionally so in many in¬
stances; improper receipts would be given
by white persons who pretended to own
land, but who did not seek more than a first
payment, as large as they could get, and
with this in their dishonest pockets, would
37
go their way and never be seen again by the
duped purchaser. After straightening out
questions of surveyor's metes and bounds,
or finding the real owner and getting another
start, with proper receipts for payments,
places would be paid for twice and in the
worst cases, the purchases would come to
three times the original prices. These lat¬
ter cases would occur more in the buying of
farms than otherwise.
But these foxy transactions were not al¬
ways the experience of purchasers. There
was much honorable dealing, which did not
take advantage of the ignorance of Ne¬
groes, at the first, in such matters. The
home-making spirit was persistent. In most
places the classification of "owners" and
"renters" sprung up among Negro popula¬
tions as terms of commendation and re¬
proach respectively. The total valuation of
homes, (and other classes of real estate),
owned by Negroes in the South is a credita¬
ble expression of the domestic aspirations of
the Race. The desire to live under their own
vine and fig-tree was early shown, and in¬
creasingly continues.
c—The Universal Love of Music.
Doubtless there is some love for music in
38 Rebirth of Negro Ideals
every human being. Music is mentioned in
the sacred Scriptures as being prominen
in the celestial life, and since all souls have
the call to come up hither, there capacity
in some degree in the dullest for music.
Certain it is that music hath its charms for
the Negro's soul. He sings at church, at
home, at work; sings in joy and in sorrow;
sings at play and at war; he sings every
where and almost all the time. He sings in
his own way, but he sings. His song-spirit
and habit have kept him good-humored and
pleasant-tempered. In the beginning of his
home-getting, next after buying a bed, a
cooking-stove and some wash-tubs, he
bought a Musical instrument, a reed-organ
or a piano. They bought instruments from
white families, which had been closed in
silence during the war, and after the Eman¬
cipation had hit their fortunes too hard to
keep and enjoy them, they were willing to
sell them. There was the sound of voices
singing, accompanied by some kind of in¬
strument in Negro homes on every hand.
The portable instruments carried by men
and boys were the banjo, the fiddle, the gui¬
tar and "Jew's harp." Owners and renters
alike, seemed to feel that the places where
Rebirth of Negro Ideals
39
they dwelt had no degree, unless there was
some sort of musical instrument in the
house. This habit still persists in their homes.
But all the singing is not now doggerel 01
spiritual songs, for there are within the
Race singers and musicians of acknowledged
talents, some real artists and writers of the
best class of music. Some of these have been,
admitted on their artistic merit into the best
circles of music-lovers in the nation and in
Europe and are increasingly popular
throughout America. Some of these best
representatives of the Race in the musical
world were carefully trained abroad in the
great conservatories in France and Ger¬
many. "Blind Tom" was the most notable
musical prodigy in the South. He was so
much in demand by white audiences, that
the people of his own race Seldom could
have him play for them in his inimitable
piano recitals. He* was never taught. The
gift was born with him, down in Georgia.
Pisk University, whose musical department,
in the earlier years of the institution,
specialized in Negro folk-songs and spiri¬
tuals, gave concerts before the crowned
heads of Europe and music-lovers upon the
Continent, giving an insight into the song-
40
Rebirth of Negro Ideals
life of American Negroes, which was every
where applauded enthusiastically. And at
home, among Southern whites, this gift has
kept unbroken one tie between the two races.
Upon almost any occasion, white people
will come to Negro churches to hear the
singing. Nothing in the category of the
intercourse of the two peoples is of more
frequent occurence than for white pastors
and their congregations, to ask Negroes to
come into their churches and sing for them.
All over Dixie-land this has continued to
be one of the pleasant points of contact, and
mutual appreciation. This gift has made
large room for the Race in the favor of the
better classes of the white people of the
South.
The Negro's temperament, as already said,
most fortunately, has been blessed by his
love of song. Down in Babylon, where the
captive Jews were made to dig ditches for
their masters, in the swampy places, they
were so depressed, as their historians tell,
that they hung their harps upon the branch¬
es of the willow-trees and mournfully ask¬
ed—"How can we sing the songs of Zion in
this strange land?" American Negroes,
under equally hard circumstances, never
Rebirth of Negro Ideals
41
hung up their harps any where. They kept
on singing and harping on their harps, so
to speak. This prevented despondency, it
also prevented the growth of the spirit of
revenge in their hearts against their mas¬
ters, and kept them lively in the praise of
God during all their long night of waiting
and hardship. If spiritual habits of the
present life give training for the life to
come, then the saints of the Race, when they
all get home in heaven, are going to "give
a lift" to the celestial anthem. Indeed that
is what they are expecting to do. One of
their favorite spiritual songs, which they
so love to sing, runs like this:
"When I get to heaven
I'm going to sing and shout
All over God's heaven,
Heaven, heaven, heaven,
I'm going to sing and shout
All over God's heaven."
This universal love of song and the habit
of singing a great deal, has this practical
value in the constructive work, that it keeps
active a mighty force of ethical culture.
42
Rebirth of Negro Ideals
Finds His Place In The Cosmogomy.
The Race has been taught to look upon it¬
self as inferior to others in all those traits
and principles which make people noble and
distinguished. His instructors have given
the precepts with many object-lessons on
the natural lower degree of his kind. Some
have, with great and scornful emphasis, told
them that they were not human beings at
all, applying the Darwinian theory of origin,
but unlike Darwin, denying them progress
upward except a much-limited evolution
from the ape and baboon. But the Race has
come to the light. It has become its own
Columbus, having discovered for itself its
place in the cosmogomy—its new world of
existence. All the declarations by others
of his natural inferiority, find lodgment nc
longer in his mentality, because he has be¬
come a firm believer in the Biblical account
of the origin of the human species. He ac¬
cepts the doctrine of the New Testament
Scriptures which Saint Peter preached to
Cornelius, the gentile, that God is no respec¬
ter of persons, and the truth proclaimed by
the great apostle Paul, that God hath made
of one blood all the nations to dwell upon
the earth. The Negro knows himself to be
Rebirth of Negro Ideals
43
equally addressed, with all others, by the
prohibitive Ten Commandments, and equal¬
ly included in all the benedictions of the Ser¬
mon on the Mount. Next to the Bible, he
harks back to the immortal words of Thomas
Jefferson, taking to himself their meaning,
that all men are born equal, and to those high
human sentiments uttered by the sainted
Lincoln when he made his irrefutable argu¬
ment for the birthright of all men. Ne¬
groes believe that God as truly raised up
and inspired Abraham Lincoln as He did
Abraham the patriarch in the days of old.
The conditions in the South have not been
such as to encourage freedom of speech by
Negroes, so that they have thought a great
deal more than they have talked on many
questions pertaining to themselves. Their
thought has outrun to logical conclusions
all the preaching which they have had to
hear and read about the natural superiority
of others and their own natural inferiority.
He has sustained his self-respect by a style
of philosophy which withstands successful
controversion by all he hears and reads about
his Race, as to their lack of all the human
excellencies. After a half century of even
limited opportunity, he can cite personal
44
examples on the inside of his lines, of every
physical, mental, moral and spiritual trait
and excellence which characterize and dis¬
tinguish the worthy and great, the good and
notable of other races, particularly of the
neighbor-race, whose orators and public
press unceasingly declare his inherent infer¬
iority. He calculates that if he is given time,
with equal opportunity and encouragement,
he will prove to all men that he has the
ability wrapped within his body, mind and
soul, to successfully contradict the false
dogma of his enemies, that he is not a
brother and not entitled to fellowship as
such.
He is now turning a deaf ear to all dis¬
paragements. He feels a steadily increas¬
ing pride of Race. This has not always been
so. He is proving to himself, (if not to
others), what he is capable of being and
doing. Many years ago there was in Alaba¬
ma, a Negro who formulated and announced
this creed:
"Article First; I believe in God.
Article Second; I believe in myself."
It is much along this line that there is a
wide awakening and coming into the faith.
Rebirth of Negro Ideals
45
Believing in God as the Mighty Father of
all men, Negroes are steadily coming into
a greater confidence in themselves as the
sons of God. In the Holy Word it is writ¬
ten, "As a man thinketh in his heart, so is
he." Availing himself of the psychology of
that fact, Negroes are thinking better of
themselves and are going forward in al¬
most every sphere of human activity. There
is progress in industry, business, organiza¬
tion, education, literature, art and religion.
There has come to pass a pronounced pride
of Race which is sure to wonderfully carry
forward effort and achievement in the
whole field. Astonishing strides are im¬
minent in American Negro life, because
this rising tide of pride and self-confidence
create those psychical conditions which fur¬
nish constructive materials for their own
wise leaders and friends to work with.
Race Pride Is Functioning In Various Ways.
The growing pride of Race is stimulat¬
ing many changes for the better. Some of
the many practical improvements may be
mentioned as follows:
46
Rebirth of Negro Ideals
The Better Guarding of the Home.
There was for a long time the popular
habit of buying clothing and household
goods on the installment plan; and the tak¬
ing of industrial insurance policies in com¬
panies operated by white people. White men
came weekly to Negro homes to make collec¬
tions, while the men were away at their
work and the children were much of the
time at school. This exposed the women to
too much familiarity with men not of the
race. These men were not all rude; but
many of them were. The situation is be¬
ing corrected by ceasing those kinds of busi¬
ness. Industrial insurance organizations of
Negroes, doing satisfactory business, have
been given the patronage. Buying with cash
or if otherwise, arranging to make pay¬
ments at the office of the concerns, is tak¬
ing the place of the old way. This secures
a better seclusion of the home-life from that
sort of objectionable invasion. Doors are
much slower to open than formerly to ped¬
dlers who knock, and if opened, a quick posi¬
tive answer, "NO," is what the woman alone
in the house gives, and the door is forthwith
shut, if it had been opened. This improve¬
ment has saved much irritation and trouble
Rebirth of Negro Ideals
47
between the races in the South, for Negro
men are jealous, also in a measure, of the
honor of their women.
The Use of Their Own Professional People-
The pride of Race is turning the respec¬
tive fields of professional service over to the
Negro professional classes. Preachers and
teachers were the first to be almost univer¬
sally accepted. As to the preachers, it was
thus from the beginning of the new life of
freedom. The ex-slaves were glad to rest
from the religious instruction of the white
ministers of the pre-war times, for they had
during the long years of bondage, never fail¬
ed to exhort them from the text, "Servants
obey your masters." The undebated con¬
viction was that freedom was from the Lord
in answer to prayer and this deep convic¬
tion fixed the eyes of the emancipated peo¬
ple upon their own religious leaders and
preachers to give them spiritual advice and
to guide them in the ways of the Lord in
the new career upon which they were enter¬
ed.
As to the teachers, the South's segrega¬
tion laws take the credit for these doing the
educational work in the public school sys-
48
Rebirth of Xegro Ideals
tern; yet it is what the people prefer and the
Race has pride in this professional class.
The Negro physician also, is by this pride
of Race, being fast given the field of
medicine. There is an increasing confidence
in their ability to efficiently perform the
duties of their profession. This is of great
gain to the Race in its health welfare. It
used to be the practice of examining boards,
to let such white medicos as could not pass
creditable tests, go through on license with
the distinct understanding that they would
practice on Negroes the first few years so as
to gain experience and perhaps become able
to practice among their own people. There
can be no doubt that the professional ignor¬
ance of these dull men, turned loose upon
the Negroes, kept the rate of mortality
much higher than it should have been. The
health of the Race is faring a great deal
better in the hands of its own capable physi¬
cians, even though hospitals and sanitaria
are sadly lacking. But the situation as to
these institutions, is improving in the South,
by private enterprise and some well-organiz¬
ed movements are revealing commendable
public interest in this direction.
The most notable of all this employment
Rebirth of Negro Ideals
49
of their own professional people, is the use
of Negro lawyers, who have to go up against
so much prejudice in the court-house where
judges, juries and other officials are of the
other race. Yet these plucky men who plead
for us at the bar, under the handicap of pre¬
judice, have made records of successful
work almost every where; by their correct
knowledge of law and the skillful conduct
of their cases, till they are rapidly gaining
upon the confidence of their own people and
the respect of those before whom they
stand in the court-house. One of these Race
lawyers, it gives great pleasure for them
to know, has won distinction as assistant to
the Attorney General of the United States
at Washington, while many are numbered
among the brainiest men of the nation, in
or out of the Race. It is to the credit of
Southern courts of trial, that before this
galaxy of our professional men, prejudice
is yielding in the sphere of civil practice. It
is in the criminal practice where there yet
remains much to be done in coming into
the use of our own lawyers. But even here
the risks are being gradually taken, and
where they can make their cases strong,
judges and juries, who fear successful ap-
50
Rebirth of Negro Ideals
peals, with reversals and remandings, are
giving our men ground, and every criminal
case won by them, increases the people's
confidence and pride in their attorneys and
the consequent increasing employment of
them. The Lawyers are taking the field by
sheer force of ability. Their prospects
loom bright.
Greater Attention To Personal Appearance.
The pride of Race is manifesting itself in
the fact that more attention is given to per¬
sonal appearance of body and apparel. The
work during slavery was done by the larg¬
est number in the fields and forests. They
were called "field-hands." Their work was
rough and required much exposure. It was
done mostly under constant drive under the
hired white superintendents. These white
overseers were poor and without smypathy
for the slaves. There was small incentive
to pride of person. It was hard, continual
drive and grind, from dawn till darkness
fell, leaving little or no time for the cultivat¬
ing of habits of cleanliness and neatness of
person and clothing. But freedom brought
a pride which has been working magic
changes in these matters. It has been dis¬
covered that with medicinal aid and proper
Rebirth of Negro Ideals
51
attention, the hair softens and straightens
and the skin loses it roughness, and that
even the pigment of the skin may be bleach¬
ed into lighter shades, (as some of the fasti¬
dious wish). These discoveries of science
are widely used, particularly by the females,
with pleasing results. The amount of soap
used goes on increasing in Negro families
for bath, laundry and other purposes. Some
sage has remarked that the progress of civi¬
lization among all peoples has been marked
by the increasing consumption of soap. By
this measurement, civilization is going for¬
ward in the Race. Just after the civil war,
when the slaves were up from their bondage,
the prevailing idea was to carry a sweet
smell of body and raiment. There arose a
heavy trade in perfumes, colognes and scent¬
ed powders. At church on Sundays, at par¬
ties and weddings, both in the country and
in towns and cities, there was sure to be an
atmosphere odorous with a mixture of all
the varieties of sweet scents. There was not
then so much use of soap. The idea gained
currency later on that the best smell of
body and clothing was no smell at all. Then
it was that the use of soap took a rise. Now,
in the construction of Negro homes the
52
bathroom is given as much attention as the
kitchen or the parlor.
Tired of "The Black Mammy" Talk.
Negroes do not longer care to hear the
talk by white speakers about their "Black
Mammies," in their public assemblies. Those
slave mammies were diplomats, who cared
for the white children who were committed
to their care, because they were children, it
was true and because she had the mother-
soul; but equally so because she hoped by
this careful service, to ameliorate the suffer¬
ings of her people. She held those white
sucklings to her black breast, not most for
their sake, but for the sake of her own black
children, her family and fellow-servants,
that she might influence the mitigation of
the severity of their lot. She has told her
children so, for she would not have her own
feel that the children of other women were
more welcome to her full breasts than her
own offspring. When she was not under
close watch, her own babe got the first
draughts of her rich mother-milk. She
wanted them to have the cream and the
other sucklings to have the milk. She has
told her own children that they were al-
Rebirth of Negro Ideals
53
ways first in her love and that it was because
she was a slave-woman and had to obey the
will of others, that it looked the other way
to them. When grown up white people
come now into Negro assemblies, with their
talk about "My old black mammy," intimat¬
ing that they had her best affection and at¬
tention in their childhood, because they were
white and the slave-woman felt she was
honored in giving them her paps to suck
and whatever else she did, Negroes do not
like to listen to them, because they have the
facts from mammy's own lips, and cannot
share the poetic (?) sentiment of these who ,
use such speech for they suspect that they
allow their conceit of white superiority to
lead them to really believe that their slave
care-taker really cared more for them than
her own children. Then too, with all this
complimentary talk about "My Old Black
Mammy," her intelligent, cultured sons and
daughters find little favor with them. Ne¬
groes feel disgusted with their complimen¬
tary gush. They have their kinship rea¬
sons. So that it is coming to pass that dis¬
cerning white speakers, who come before
Negro assemblies are discontinuing this
complimentary bouqueting of the kindly,
54
Rebirth of negro Ideals
compelled class of bond-women, of the ante¬
bellum days.
Negroes Seldom Enter White Churches.
Negroes seldom go into the churches of
the white people of the South to worship.
They know they would be tolerated, but made
to sit apart in assigned seats, usually in the
extreme rear or up in the galleries; but
they are aware that their presence is not
welcomed,- and so, as a matter of self-respect,
they stay away. Before the Emancipation,
Negroes were allowed afternoon hours for
worship in the churches of the white peo¬
ple, in the towns and cities, when their mas¬
ters and families were not using those
places; but after the Emancipation they
were glad, as soon as possible, to get away
into places of worship of their own, however
humble they were. Now their comfortable
houses of worship fully satisfy them. This
is mutually agreeable to both races. In
building their churches, Negroes usually
solicit funds also from the well-disposed
white people of the community in such mat¬
ters. Employers and merchants often give
Rebirth of Negro Ideals
55
liberally for this purpose. There is, how¬
ever, a growing aversion to having white
ministers of the South to come and preach
to them. This aversion is getting to be
more and more pronounced. Negro pastors
feel that it is good diplomacy to invite these
ministers on occasions to make addressea
in their religious meetings in the churches*
associations, conventions and the like, but
these invitations are becoming increasingly
unpopular with their people. This aversion
towards the white ministers of the South is
accounted for because Negroes think that
they are cowards in their own pulpits in
their treatment of racial questions. They
eould do much in the proper adjustment of
these problems if they had the courage to
try. They pay the utmost respect to wrong
public opinion and do their work more in the
fear of their people than in the fear of
God, and so do not contribute to the Chris¬
tian solution of the problems between the
races which vex the South and trouble the
Negroes. There are some notable excep¬
tion, but they are few. They ean say some
creditable things to the colored people when
they come to speak to them apart, but sel¬
dom, very seldom, do they stand forth bold¬
ly upon the public forum or in the press,
56
Rebirth of Negro Ideals
for fair play and square dealing with the
struggling Race. They make next to no
effort to mould a right public sentiment.
Knowing all this, Negroes care very little to
hear their preaching of pious platitudes in
the churches and other meetings to which
their leaders invite these white preachers.
This, with the reasons for it, is regret-
ably true, for if the men of God of both
races who are the religious leaders, could
earnestly co-operate to point their respective
peoples and all the people to the ways of
righteousness, the inter-racial situation in
the ex-slave territory would be a great deal
different,—a vast deal better. It is seldom
chat the Negro preacher is not the real lead¬
er of his people, openly and boldly counselling
them to practice the brotherhood which God's
Word teaches, and to shape their lives to
conform to the Golden Rule. But along this
line he knows that his white ministerial
brother puts on the soft pedal and plays his
role of subserviency to the race-prejudice of
his congregation, and the unrighteous pub¬
lic sentiment of his people. The Negro mass¬
es know this, and do not care to hear them.
This leads to a confession of a sorry con¬
dition from the inside of the Race, viz: that
Rebirth of Negro Ideals
57
white Christianity in the South is having
small influence over the Negro population
there, because the great majority of the
Race cannot see Christ in the attitude and
spirit of the preachers and churches of the
.white people, who seem to dare not rebuke
wrong openly, when Negroes needlessly
suffer from outrages against them. Negroes
doubt the genuineness of the profession of
religion by their white neighbors in their
churches, and with reason, for he finds less
color-phobia in their stores and banks,
than in their places of worship. Their
churches, in this respect, are on a level with
their hotels and theaters. Very little per¬
sonal religious service, under these condi¬
tions is rendered the Negroes in the South.
The white people do, however give some
money to Negroes for religious and educa¬
tional causes, when solicited, and their mis¬
sion boards make appropriations of money.
So, that in so far as bare money, without
personal service, can do it, the great oppor¬
tunity of Christianizing and uplifting the
"heathen at their doors," is redeemed from
being totally lost.
The Unifying Forces.
Slavery left the curse of disintegration
58 Rebirth of Negro Ideals
upon the Race. Its unification has been part
of its own great task. Organization is one of
the fine arts of our modern civilization. The
Negro has had a comparatively short time
for acquiring experience in this line; but
commendable progress has been made. The
unification of the Race will depend in large
measure upon the growing ability to or¬
ganize wisely. In this direction much has
been accomplished in the field of religion and
education, where churches and schools have
been established and associations and con¬
ventions have been organized. Next in the
progress of the work of welding the people
together in large numbers are the fraternal
orders, with their benefit and social features.
Here also commendable advancement has
been registered and the outlook brightens.
In business matters, not so much has yet
been done. Individual enterprises, in num¬
erous instances, have done well; but they
are beginning to take seriously to combina¬
tions of capital and work for doing corporate
business. The previous failures in thig
field of organization, have naturally enough,
been on account of the lack of experience,
lack of push and the absence of the quality
of determined continuance in enterprises by
Rebirth of Negro Ideals
59
groups; and unfortunately these failures
have largely been on account of the lack of
integrity in handling funds which have been
pooled for doing business, by the chosen
leaders,—this it is fair to say, rather than
the indisposition of the masses to be used
in business matters. Still, it is hoped that
this unifying force will come into better
operation right along, from now on. New
efforts are following close upon the heels of
unsuccessful corporate business ventures.
The one encouraging fact is that there is
the growing feeling that the self-respect
and pride of the Race dictate that there must
be more and better business done on the
inside. To the churches and schools and
fraternal orders as unifying agencies, there
must be added business ventures on larger
scales, successfully managed, so as to win
the patronage of the masses. The existence,
for some years, of a National Negro Business
League, with its annual meetings, suffices to
indicate that this sphere of helpful organiza¬
tion will not be neglected.
It would be cutting short the survey of
the forces which are making for unification
unless we made mention of the Negro
press,—the newspapers, the periodicals, the
60
Rebirth of Negro Ideals
magazines and the books which are issu¬
ing from it. These are potential though
silent agencies in doing their part in the
work by. gathering the people together
around central ideas. In this field the
largest units are organizations which
supply religious literature, giving to the
people, especially the youth, the inter¬
pretation of God's Word, as our own trained
biblical scholars understand it. There are
many newspapers and a few magazines,
splendidly edited, which add free speech to
independent thinking on all the pending
problems of the Race, as well as giving cir¬
culation to the news occurrences of racial
and general interest throughout the country.
One of the functions of these publications
is to give to the world the bare, ugly facts
about the unreasonable and unlawful treat¬
ment of Negroes by their enemies who are
in power, through unjust legislation and
the maladministration of laws and the fre¬
quent outrages perpetrated against them
to gratify the wicked prejudices of those
who hate them without cause. Some of these
publications, which are domiciled in the
north, because of the flood of light they are
turning on the situation in the South, have
Rebirth of Negro Ideals
61
been forbidden circulation, after the south¬
ern manner, in many localities. But Negroes
are presistent readers of their own press,
however, and these papers and magazines are
doing a wonderful work in their field of
operation. They are solidifying the thought,
the interest, the bonds of sympathy and the
discussion of remedies. They do much to
keep the heart of the people from fainting
and faith of the Race strong in God and their
possibilities. Of the making of books of
serious messages to the masses, there is a
most creditable, though limited output,
which constitutes a commendable beginning
of a permanent literature within the Race.
Though slow in their * permeating mission,
with what history reveals, these will prove
to be of great value.
Religion and Culture.
There is a gradual and perceptible ad¬
vancement in conceptions of religion. The
emotional phase of their religion, on which
the emphasis has been so strongly placed, is
happily giving room to the practical and cul¬
tural elements. The life which earnestly
seeks consistency with the moral as well as
62
Rebirth of Negro Ideals
the spiritual teachings of Christ, is coming
more and more into the understanding, in
meeting the requirements of the Master for*
correct discipleship. It is becoming to be
the accepted conception of true religion, that
the sway of the Holy Spirit is at least equal¬
ly manifest in the quiet, earnest piety, as in
the loud shouting and other emotional de¬
monstrations. The effect of education, under
Christian influence, is producing religious
culture and refinement in homes, churches
and society.
The enlightened leadership of ministers
who have been trained for their holy voca¬
tion and who honor their sacred calling
with becoming morals, is the increasing de¬
mand of the people. Fortunately it is in
this field that there has been the most com¬
mendable progress towards higher ideals.
Leaders in the religious sphere of the life
of the Race, can no longer lead the people
unless they measure well up to good moral
standards in their lives as well as in their
teaching. Such as do not, are being rapidly
retired. It should be said to their credit,
that all this was the hope of that noble
class of preachers, who were the first pas¬
tors of the Race after the Emancipation,
Rebirth of Negro Ideals
63
men who walked with God in high places,
and who, though limited in their intellectual
attainments, had the moral qualities which
won and held the confidence of the people.
Most of these have gone to their reward in
heaven. Blessed is their memory!
Love Of Liberty Increases.
Like a long-caged eagle, the Race lost
some of its appreciation of liberty; but the
love of it was in their hearts, though dulled
by centuries of subjection. God put it there
as part of man's being as Emerson has aptly
phrased it:
"He who worketh high and wise,
And varies not His plan,
Shall take the sun from the skies,
E'r freedom from the heart of man."
In his love of liberty, the Negro has not
yet reached the degree of the alternative of
Patrick Henry, "Give me liberty or give me
death," though his soul is marching up that
way. Rather than to have it with death,
he prefers to live and enjoy it, because he
has had so little of it in America. He de-
64
Rebirth of Negro Ideals
sires it as a living boon for himself, his
children and his kindred. Instead of stand¬
ing upon battle-fields of carnal conflict with
his enemies in the South and fighting for
more liberty to the death, he would rather
go seeking for it where he may find it. But
should there be overt effort , to take from
him what little of liberty he has in the old
home of his bondage, (and this has been
done in individual cases), then he can and
has measured up to the sentiment of liberty
or death. But the prevailing desire among
them is to live and enjoy the little liberty
which they have and hope and wait for
more. The fact that the measure of their
liberties is not increasing where they live
in the old territory of their former enslave¬
ment, is becoming apparent, as the years
pass, and the spirit to go seeking it is fall¬
ing upon them.
"The Love of Liberty Brought Us Here."
These words are quoted from the coat of
arms of the Republic of Liberia. It was the
love of freedom which took those first Ne¬
gro pilgrims across the ocean to that little
African state, which had been dedicated to
Rebirth of Negro Ideals
65
Liberty. The same love is beginning to
draw the Race in large numbers from the
South, where their freedom is limited in
so many ways. This limitation has about
reached the measure of all that they will
stand, without widespread vexation. They
are numerically in the minority, which they
know full well. The Negro keeps himself
under the influence of his deep conviction,
that God, who has begun this good work for
him as a Race, will bring it to perfection in
His own way; and thus believing, he has
kept patient and waited on the Lord. He
is watching the divine leadings. He is think¬
ing much about the historic fact, that God
did not enlarge the liberties of the Israelites
among their oppressors down in Egypt, but
led them out into another country, where He
would be with them and bless them. Parti¬
cularly in the recent world-war he saw a
door which God opened and other doors
which are opening to him. The need of in¬
dustrial workers in the North became the
opportunity. To these new fields they are
going. They are finding acceptance. They
are throwing off the slander which long lay
against them, that they were but sloven
field-hands and unfit for other kinds of
CG
Rebirth of Negro Ideals
work than in the corn and cotton fields of
the South.
The writer made a tour of investigation
last winter of the centers in the North, par¬
ticularly the manufacturing places, whither
tens of thousands of them have gone, to
find that they are giving satisfaction in new
fields of labor. In one place the manager of
one of the largest manufacturing plants in
this country, expressed his satisfaction with
our people who had gone there to work in
his business. I had asked him if the em¬
ployment of these people was an emergency
matter only, or if it would be permanent. He
gave in part this answer: "Now that we
have found what they can do, we are glad to
have them, and plan to keep all we have and
to get many more of them." He then gave
reasons for preferring them. Among the
reasons given were that, in the first place,
they all speak the English language. He
pointed out what an advantage that was to
the management. He said they learned easi¬
ly and quickly and that they brought with
them a delightful social element into the
establishment—that they were cheerful and
good-humored, given to pleasantries and
smging. "They ar§ all good Americans,"
Rebirth of Negro Ideals
67
were his closing words. That is reported to
be the general feeling of appreciation of the
northern employers of the former "field-
hands" of the South. So one large door of
exit has opened. There are others now
standing ajar, which premise soon to open
wide with Liberty standing in them cordial¬
ly beckoning to come. There are the coun¬
tries to the south of the United States, par¬
ticularly Brazil, with its immense espanses
of rich, unsettled lands, awaiting settle¬
ment by an agricultural people such as the
American Negro largely is; there is Mexico,
whose governmental attitude towards peo¬
ple of color, is fair; the extensive West of
our nation, where the spirit of freedom has
always been commendably broader; some of
the European nations which suffered so
heavily the loss of men, would welcome some
of this immigration; and the great warm¬
hearted continent of Africa, with the rapaci¬
ty of the nations under fair way of being
abashed, opens her doors and arms, and in¬
vites all the descendants of her kidnapped
people who would do so, to follow the ex¬
ample of their kindred, who came back
home a century ago and afterwards wrote on
their standard, "The Love Of Liberty
Brought Us Here."
68
The going is on. At the bottom of it is
the Negro's re-born conception of freedom
and love of liberty. With better reward for
labor, better treatment as human beings,
and especially a larger measure of liberty,
the movement from the South, with its hate¬
ful discriminations, enacted into unjust
laws, is accelerating. Nothing can stop it.
The South may, in desperation at seeing its
asset in labor leaving, attempt to do some¬
thing rash to prevent it; but that would
make matters worse. If her wisest states¬
men have the courage and stamina to coun¬
sel the repeal of some of the more obnoxious
discriminating laws and all of them in time,
and a more practical, friendly attitude to¬
ward their Negro population and staunch all
this devised legalized humiliation of those
who have served them well and long, per¬
haps many would remain among them, who
would be leaving. But can the white South
readily throw off its mis-education of cen¬
turies? Can the moral curse which slavery
entailed, be removed any faster than it came ?
Can the evil spirit of causeless prejudice be
exorcised before the Negro's patience would
wear out ? The white South is a broad, hard
field for Christian missions.
Rebirth of Negro Ideals
69
The re-born ideals of the Race make it
impossible that they remain much longer
under existing conditions. If they go away,
will it not give to the South an opportunity
to improve its spirit? Is it not better for
the regeneration of both races, that these
•who have in their hearts, this new awaken¬
ing for liberty, to take the paths of hope
and realization, which the divine hand is
pointing them to, even though some of them
lead through the great seas?
The New Self-Estimate.
The Negro has satisfied himself on the
color question. He has lost all his sensitive¬
ness on that subject. He has found a suffi¬
cient explanation of his hue. He has observ¬
ed God's pleasure in variety everywhere in
nature. In the realm of flowers the Crea¬
tor did not make them all of the same color;
but followed out a scheme of color which he
chose, and made them to run through a
large scale of colors, to gratify his own love
of variety and to bring better delight to the
human eye. The enlightened Negro closes
down all questions about his color with the
opinion that all people are foolish who see
TO
jRebirth of Negro Ideals
Any other reason for his being black and
brown, except that these hues, as well as
others, please the artistic taste of God,
(and that He intended that it would also
please man.) He insists that there is noth¬
ing about his complexion for others to
scorn and look down on. He reasons furth¬
er, that if God really has any colored-prefer¬
ence, it is not white but red; because just a
little scratch that goes skin-deep, will find
that color there is all human beings, just
as the Scriptures saith,—"Of one blood hath
God made all the nations." Now, Negroes
generally are beginning to regard pronounc¬
ed color-phobia as the sign of ethnic ignor¬
ance or imbecility in those who show it.
He regards prejudice against him on ac¬
count of his color as very inconsistent. The
writer holds to this opinion. He said so in
his youth in the first public speech he ever
made; that was in the town of Zebulon,
P. county, Georgia, back in the seven¬
ties, when he was teaching a summer pub¬
lic school there. The good old Reconstruc¬
tion times were still on. The Negroes had
called a Republican meeting in the court¬
house. Many white people were in attend¬
ance also, just to see what a Negro Repub-
71
lican meeting looked like. The writer was
made secretary and it was insisted that he
also make a short speech before the meeting
closed. This is about what he said: "I hope
all the people in this county will get along
together in peace and help each other in
every way they can to do well in life. If it
is too much to ask that we, of both races,
shall love each other, it is not too much that
we shall try to like each other. White peo¬
ple like black things; the gentlemen like sleek
black horses, black shining buggies, black
broad-cloth suits and black polished shoes;
the white ladies like black jet beads, black
ink, black silk dresses, black piano cases and
brunettes, with-their beautiful black eyes
and black tresses of hair; and it seems to
me that white people who like so many black
things, can just as easily like black people."
(All the Negroes applauded.) "Black folks
go straight on through with their liking of
white things. They like white teeth, white
shirts and dresses, white chickens, white
paper, white milk, white painted houses,
white bread, white flowers and they keep
straight on down the white line and like
the good white folks too." (Everybody
seemed to applaud, Negroes and the white
73
Rebirth of Negro Ideals
crowd.) "Now I think they ought to get as
good as they give." (All the Negroes applaud¬
ed.) That was his first political speech.
Though he has been the subject of presiden¬
tial nomination and of senatorial confirma¬
tion since, to office under the government of
the nation, he has never made another poli¬
tical speech since that one in Zebulon; but
if anywhere down in Dixie he does ever
make another, he plans to incorporate in it
that first speech, made in Georgia.
The Negro's new estimate of himself
reckons his physical peculiarities as count¬
ing nothing against him, in reason;
but he accepts, as he feels all others ought
to, the poet's declaration that
"The mind's the standard of the man."
A decade ago, the writer was going from
London up to Edinburg and decided to stop
off for a day at Dumfries, Scotland, that in
after years he might have the pleasant
recollection of having visited the town which
was connected with the life of Robert Burns,
the Scotch poet, of whose writings he had
long been an admirer. His guide had taken
him to the house where Burns had lived and
I'cbirth of Neyro Ideals
into the room where the poet had done
much of his writing; then to the mausoleum,
where his body was buried; then started to
the last place to see, which was a modest
monument to Burn's memory, erected at
the watering place in the center of the town.
It was that first memorial to be set up by
the awakened admiration of Scotchmen
after the death of the poet, who had had a
life-long struggle against poverty, the one
concerning which his mother is said to have
remarked on the day it was dedicated, that,
"Bobbie had asked for bread and they gave
him a stone." "Now tell me," asked my guide,
as we walked toward the monument, "which
of Burn's poems do you regard as being his
best?" I made answer, without any hesita¬
tion, that in my opinion, it was his "For a'
that and a' that." "Your judgment is good,"
he replied, "for that is what the Scotch peo¬
ple say, and you will see that that is the
one which we have inscribed on the monu¬
ment, when we get to it." I found it so. I
told him as we stood at the watering place,
that for particular reasons, all American Ne¬
groes regarded that as the great poem of
Robert Burns. I shall close this monograph
with it:
74
Rebirth of Negro Ideals
FOR A' THAT AND A' THAT.
Is there, for honest poverty,
That hangs his head, and a' that?
The coward-slave, we pass him by,
We dare be poor for a' that!
For a' that, and a' that,
Our toils obscure, and a' that;
The rank is but the guinea stamp;
The man's the gowd for a' that.
What tho' on hamely fare we dine,
Wear hodden-grey, and a' that;
Gie fools their silks, and knaves their wine,
A man's a man for a' that.
For a' that, and a' that,
Their tinsel show, and a' that;
The honest man, tho' e'er sae poor,
Is King o' men for a' that.
Ye see yon birkie, ca'd a lord,
Wha struts, and stares, and a' that;
Tho' hundreds worship at his word,
He's but a coof for a' that:
For a' that, and a' that,
His riband, star, and a' that,
The man of independent mind,
He looks and laughs at a' that.
Hebirth of Keyro Ideals
75
A prince can make a belted knight,
A marquis, duke, and a' that;
But an honest man's aboon his might,
Guid faith he mauna fa' that!
For a' that, and a' that,
Their dignities, and a' that,
The pith o' sense, and pride o' worth,
Are higher rank than a' that.
Then let us pray that come it may,
As come it will for a' that;
That sense and worth, o'er a' the earth,
May bear the gree, and a' that.
For a' that' and a' that,
It's coming yet, for a' that,
That man to man, tHe world o'er,
Shall brothers be for a' that.