THE MINISTRY
THE FI E.L D F O R THE
TALENTED TENTH
By PROF. KELLY MILLER
HOWARD UNIVERSITY
WASHINGTON, D. C.
Price 10 Cents
THE MINISTRY
THE FIELD FOR THE
TALENTED TENTH
By PROF. KELLY MILLER
HOWARD UNIVERSITY
WASHINGTON, D. C.
MURRAY BROTHERS PRESS
Washington, D. C.
THE TALENTED TENTH.
Is it not folly to encourage the "talented tenth" of the Negro
Race when there is no outlet for its talent? The dollar is the
highest common divisor of values, therefore all acquisitions is
useless which is not measured in terms of this standard. Of what
avail is all this vaporous effusion about knowledge and culture
or the refinement of the higher faculties and finer feelings, if it.
can not be reduced to a hard metallic basis according to the re¬
quirements of the market place ? Why waste while in developing
on part of this despised race susceptibilities which transcend
things concrete and material? Can there be a more risible spec¬
tacle under heaven than a Negro, whose income is less than that
of a Pullman porter, reading Sophocles or descanting about Kant ?
If it be rejoined that Socrates in rags proclaimed the gospel of
inner moral freedom; that Jesus redeemed the world without a
bank account, and that Robert Burns, in honest poverty, con¬
tributed an unrivalled share to the glory of his beloved Scotia;—
such rejoinder is waived aside, with the left hand, as being im¬
pertinent, or sacriligious. What has that sort of thing to do with
the benighted Negro in Alabama? And besides what does Wall
Street care about such impractical doctrinaries as Jesus, or Soc¬
rates, or that scalawag of a songster, Robert Burns. They are
quoted by neither Bulls or Bears and have no rating in Brad-
street's. We live in a practical age, whose chief concern as re¬
spects the Negro is to make of him a more valuable material asset.
Every able bodied Negro ought to earn a dollar and a half a day—
merely this and nothing more. A higher compensation is likely
to make him bumptious and forgetful of his place. Away with
your impotent moralizers, and dreaming doctrinaries. We want
4
something that is tangible, concrete and constructive. We have a
million dollars for a workshop, but not one cent to encourage your
talented tenth who produce nothing but vacuous mouthings, in¬
culcating false notions among their people by holding out hopes
impossible of realization. They are a plague to both races.
Such is an interrogative or declarative interpretation of the
prevalent attitude towards the higher side of Negro development.
This attitude is in full consonance with the current philosophy of
the times, which has little patience with ideals not quickly con¬
vertible into a cash equivalent. If Homer's Iliad were now ori-
nally appearing, it would doubtless be listed as the leading serial
in one of the uplift, magazines, and the public would be astounded
fo learn from red headlines that the author was offered a larger
per verba honorarium than a noted explorer received for a de¬
scription of his discovery of the North Pole, or the Intrepid One
for an account of shooting wild beasts in the Jungle. What fabu¬
lous sum would not some enterprising journal offer for the exclu¬
sive copyright privileges on "The Sermon on the Mount," were it
now proclaimed for the first time ?
What more, then, need we expect from the conventionalized
attitude towards a new people, just peeping above the horizon of
the world's consideration, in such a time as this?
Ambition for Rulership.
But despite it all, the talented tenth of any people has an irre¬
pressible ambition to assert and exert itself. The natural outlet
for the energies of the upper ten is always in the higher domain of
government, regulation and control of the lower ninety. What we
shall eat, or drink or wherewithal we shall be clothed has never
engaged the highest energies of the human mind. The functions
5
of the talented tenth has always been devoted to the exercise of
political, intellectual or spiritual leadership and authority over the
masses. The regulative activities of society have always been con¬
ducted by a higher order of talent than the alimentary pursuits.
Even where economic affairs seem to absorb a large proportion
of the higher powers of the people, a closer scrutiny will disclose
that the superior minds are devoted to leadership, guidance and
control within the economic and industrial domain. This is the
law of human evolution to which the Negro forms no exception.
A capable and enlightened leadership is the first prerequisite.
"For just experience proves in every soil
That those who think will govern those who toil."
The Controlling Agency*
Political government is the controlling agency in society. The
regulation of the religious and more intimate life of the people
is relegated to the church whose sacred sanction is supreme within
the sphere of its operation. The secular and sacred phases of
government are so nearly equal and parallel in their influence and
power that we frequently observe that state craft and priest craft
are united in a common control. The boast of America is that
Church and State are separate and distinct institutions, each
dominant within its own domain. But when we consider segre¬
gated elements of our population, like the Jew, the Catholic, and
the Negro, the sacred sanction is intensified, in proportion as it is
felt that the obligations and responsibilities of secular control are
usurped or assumed by the large embracing body.
Self-Government.
All peoples, or segregated part of peoples desire self direction
and leadership. That governments derive their just powers from
6
the consent of the governed, passes, or used to pass, as a political
axiom. That no people or class ever gives their unconstrained
consent to have others rule over them, is equally axiomatic.
Whenever such a people are shut out from the general equation
of the political government, they inevitably fall back upon the
inalienable right of control over their own more intimate and
social affairs. No wise ruler of a subject people ever attempts to
interfere in the sacred sphere of such matters, so long as they keep
within the established bounds of law and order. The Negro is a
subject class in the American body politic, and is practically ex¬
cluded from the political equation. Let us pass by, for the present,
all ethical or even prudential considerations involved in this con¬
dition, and confine ourselves to the plain facts which are known
and acknowledged of all men. This state of things is likely to
continue as far into the immediate future as our powers of pre¬
vision can penetrate. In order that any class may form an effect¬
ive part in governmental control it must not only possess the
right of franchise, but must contribute to the personnel of the
governing body. The right of suffrage is only political power in
the passive voice ; the active voice of government is vested in the
officiary corps. No class of people may consider themselves an
effective political factor unless a goodly number of the talented
tenth may reasonably aspire to the pursuit of the Scinece and Art
of government as a career. For the Negro this is practically im¬
possible. In the state of Georgia, where there are over one mil¬
lion Negroes constituting almost one half of the population, there
are 1,527 government officials; of this number only 54 are colored.
It is well known that these are mostly in minor clerical positions
under the federal authority, and that the number is likely to
diminish rather than increase. There is probably not a single
7
Negro in governmental place under State, county or municipal
control. Out of 1,500 careers required for the government of
this commonwealth, not a single one is open to the ambitious
Negro youth. It may be safely assumed that only those who find
a livelihood in any pursuit are likely to follow that calling as a
career. Elimination from'office means elimination from politics.
No Negro can hopefully aspire to be a Senator, Congressman,
legislator, judge, diplomat, an officer in the Army or Navy or
even to hold important appointive administrative positions. He
is almost as completely blocked from the game of politics as the
female sex. Rash indeed would be considered that counsellor
who should advise an ambitious Negro youth to engage in politics
as a vocation.
The Field
Assuming then his inherent desire for self-leadership, and that
the more highly endowed youth of this blood seek to exploit their
powers in the direction, regulation and control of their fellowmen,
where is the field to be found? Evidently within the circle of
racial life and interests. The Church furnishes the widest arena.
It is seriously to be questioned whether any people in the present
stage of the Negro race, can be efficiently governed without the
elements of priestcraft. The Negro broadly speaking is hardly
governed at all by the State, but merely coerced and beaten into
obedience. He is not encouraged to have a sympathetic under¬
standing of or a consenting part in the beneficient aims and objects
of government. The sheriff and the trial judge are the only offi¬
cers of the government with whom he is familiar, and he meets
with these only when his property or his liberty is in jeopardy.
If it were not for the Church, the great masses of the Negro race
8
would be wholly shut off from any organized influence touching
them with sympathetic intent. As imperfect as is the Negro
Church in many of its features, it is the most valuable ally of the
government. Eliminate the Church and the task of governing
this people on part of the State would be more than doubled in
difficulty.
Within the Church the opportunity for the talented ten is almost
unlimited. The Negro preacher has a larger influence and func¬
tion than his white confrere. He is not only the spiritual advisor
of his flock, but also their guide, philosopher and friend. Almost
every feature of leadership and authority comes within his pre¬
rogative.
Those who stand in the high places of moral and spiritual
authority among the people ought to represent the highest intelli¬
gence, character and manly powers. In this arena the talented
tenth may exploit its talent without let or hindrance. Here is
the one unlimited field already white unto the harvest. Let none
imagine that because people are ignorant and lowly that their
moral and spiritual leaders do not require all the discipline, learn¬
ing, culture and practical wisdom that the completest education
can afford. The more ignorant the led, the more skilful and
sagacious should the leader be. If the blind lead the blind, will
not both fall into the ditch? To partake of the things of God
and show them to this simple souled folk requires the deepest
insight into things- scientific, social and spiritual. No one can be
too learned or too profound to whose direction has been com¬
mitted the temporal and eternal destiny of a human being.
Three Relations.
The Negro in his church affiliations sustains three more or
less distinct relations to the great ecclesiastical organizations
with reference to control.
9
1. In the Presbyterian, Congregational, and Episcopal
churches, he sustains a dependent or missionary relationship.
The parent organizations in large measure supply the means
for supporting the churches and furnish general direction
and control. The Negro minister has complete charge over
the immediate matters of his individual congregation, but in
the larger matters of g-eneral plans and policies he has little
or nothing to say. His numbers are so small that he is re¬
garded as a neg-ligible quantity in the general equation.
2. The colored membership of the Methodist Episcopal
Church constitute a sufficiently large element to impress con¬
siderable influence on the general life of the connection.
They enjoy all but complete local. independence, in their
quarterly and annual conferences. The white bishop does
little more than register the decision of his colored cabinet,
and serve as a guarantee that the proceedure shall be in
harmony with the connectional discipline. The colored
churches are self-supporting and have a proportional voice
in all of the deliberations of the General Conference. They are
numerous enough to be reckoned with in all important plans
and policies for the g-eneral life of the church. In the mis¬
sionary and educational work the two races are brought
in friendly and helpful relations. The Negro element has
the opportunity to study at first hand the intimate workings
of one of the greatest organizations in the world.
3. The great bulk of Negro church members belong to those
denominations which have cut loose wholly from all white
control. These organizations are manag-ed and manned from
top to bottom by Negro officials.
Each of these modes of relationship has its advantag-es and
its disadvantages. But the logical and inevitable tendency
is towards Negro ecclesiastic autonomy, and must continue
so, as long as the evil spirit of prejudice seeks and finds
lodgement in the Christian church.
10
Ecclesiastical Independence.
There are 30,000 Negro religious organizations reporting over
3,600,000 communicants. The value of the property involved
amounts to $56,000,000. This wonderful religious development
is found mainly in the Baptist and Methodist denominations,
which from the start assumed ecclesiastical independence. The
Presbyterian, Congregational and Episcopal denominations which
have enjoyed the greatest measure of white contact and control
have thriven but feebly, at the expense of much watering, as a
root out of dry ground. While there is a certain orderliness and
decorum of procedure, the spirit and pusiance which spring from
the conscious power of self-propulsion is wanting.
They fail to arouse the people and inspire them with
spiritual enterprise and aggression. The more thoughtful
leaders of these denominations are beginning to appreciate
the heavy handicap of their subordinate positions. Annual
conferences are being held of the colored segments of these
several bodies in which the sprouting spirit of ecclesiastical
self-control is beginning to assert itself. There are nearly
200,000 Negro members of the Methodist Episcopal Church
who, up to the present time, have maintained loyal vassalic
relations to the parent body. But the more ambitious and
aggressive spirits among them are becoming restive, even un
der such a complaisant subordination, and are already formu¬
lating a declaration of ecclasiastical independence.
The Negro church is the most effective expression of the de¬
sire for self-government. It has been abundantly demonstrated
that the church life of the race will not thrive on any other basis.
Business Talent Required.
The Negro minister in the conduct of his church often trans¬
acts a greater volume of business than any other member of his
race in the community. He should be a business man as well as
11
a spiritual advisor. Because of the general business inexperience
of his membership, it is necessary for him to understand business
principles and methods in church management. The most strik¬
ing indications of worldly success among Negroes is not seen in
the business places which thejr conduct, but in the magnificent
churches which they control. Whatever claims may be made for
the ministry on its sacred side, in its financial feature it is as
much a business as any other material interest. By virtue or his
confidential relation to his membership the minister often becomes
their financial adviser. He inculcates the spirit of economy and
thrift—advises the inexperienced men of his congregation to start
bank accounts and directs them in the purchase of property. The
ministry affords a splendid field for the educated Negro to exer¬
cise business as well as spiritual talent.
This immense religious estate requires 20,000 ministers and
managers to conduct its affairs. In the larger cities there are
costly edifices ranging from $.">0,000 to $100,000 in value with an
annual fiscal budget from $5,000 to $20,000.
The Baptists.
Even in the smaller cities and towns, especially among the
Baptists, it is easy to find churches counting from 500 to 2,000
members over whom the pastor exercises as complete and as
effective control as many a king on a. first-class throne. When we
consider that a Colonel in the army has under him only a thousand
men, the influence and power of the Negro Baptist preacher be¬
gins to loom upon us. According to the policy of the church, the
local pastor is supreme in his jurisdiction, and the larger oppor¬
tunities for connectional activities afforded by the more highly
organized bodies are counterbalanced by the intensity of his local
sway. Altho his principality is small, there is no authority higher
than that of the prince.
12
The Methodists.
The Methodist churches have a smaller membership, but s
more perfect scheme of organization. There are 26 bishoprics
in these several bodies. A bishop controls more persons and
exercises greater authority than a General in the Army. These
positions carry with them more authority, dignity and power
than any other openings to which the Negro youth can reasonably
aspire under our civilization. These 30,000 pulpits and 26 bish¬
oprics, together with numerous collateral and connectional offices
must be filled in this generation; and they ought to be filled by
the most highly endowed and gifted of the race. Every man of
them should be a worthy workman that maketh not ashamed.
The Unlettered Negro Minister.
This vast estate has been built up by comparatively unlettered
and untrained men. This is indeed the one miracle of the age.
Here was a set of men without preparation or announcement, like
Melchidadeck of old stepping at one bound, from the cotton patch
into the pulpit, and from the barbers chair to the Bishop's-bench,—
from the humblest to the highest human pursuits; and with all of
their disabilities, they have succeeded in organizing and holding
together so great a body in Christian fellowship. That there have
been imperfections, grossness and grotesqueness, goes without
saying. But the great, outstanding, concrete fact remains that
this religious estate has been developed and handed down to the
rising generation as its most valuable inheritance.
When the Church history of the past fifty years shall have been
written these humble unlettered priests of God will be accorded
a high meed of praise, which is their just due. All the money
and effort that have been expended for missionary purposes
13
throughout the world for the past two generations have not
brought as many souls into the folds of Christian Churches as
these ignorant black preachers who are too often held up to
ridicule, by the more haughty Christian co-workers who are dis¬
posed to hide even as it were their very faces from them.
Righteousness of Doctrine.
I have listened to Negro preachers of every degree of igno¬
rance and ungainliness. I have heard them indulge in many
utterances that seemed to me to be crude, grotesque and absurd.
But I have never in a single instance heard the pronouncement of
a doctrine that did not point in the right direction. It is doubtless
true that in many instances the lives of the preacher did not
square with his preachements. Even the Apostle Paul appreciates
the possibility that he might himself be a cast out while being the
means of saving many.
The ignorance of the Negro Ministry of the generation just
past and now passing is the kind of ignorance that God himself
winks at; but he will not wink at this ignorance if it;is allowed
to continue in the generations to come. Great indeed will be the
condemnation of this generation if it allows this sacred office to
be conducted by ignorant and incompetent men. Their forbears
whose prayers, in the darker days, went up to the throne ofGod
from the low grounds of sorrow, will rise up and condemn such
spiritual degeneration. But great as will be the condemnation
of this generation, it will be exceeded by its folly, if it neglect
so great an opportunity.
Let me repeat here what I said in another place :* "The church
is not merely a religious institution, but embraces all the complex
functions of Negro life. It furnishes the broadest field for the
* Race Adjustment.
14
exercise of talent, and is the only sphere in which initiative and
executive ability. Frederick Douglass began his public life as a
local preacher in the A. M. E. Church, and if a wider career had
not providentially opened up to him, he doubtless would have risen
to a position of ecclesiastical dignity and power. In politics,
education and business the white man manages and controls the
Negro's interests; it is only in the church that the field is undis¬
puted. Upon the failure of the Reconstruction governments, the
Negro politicians sought careers in the church as the most invit¬
ing field for the exercise of their powers. The Negro preacher is
a potential politician, whose natural qualities of organization and
leadership being denied scope and exercise in the domain of secu¬
lar activity seek them in the religious realm. When the Negro
preacher makes occasional excursions into the political field we
are apt to condemn his conduct as irrelevant to his calling, but he
is merely giving vent to pent up powers on the slightest show of
opportunity or pretext of duty,"
Spokesmen of the People,
The Negro preacher will be the spokesman of the people be¬
cause his support comes directly from them. The teacher, on the
other hand, whose stipend is controlled by the officers of the state,
dares indulge only in such utterances as will not displease those
upon whose good graces his tenure of place depends. If the hon
est untrammeled voice of the race, stating its own case and plead¬
ing its own cause, is ever to be heard and heeded, it will come
from or be supported by the Negro pulpit. There can never bt
stable equilibrium until the center of gravity falls within the
base of support. He will be the daysman and peacemaker betweer
the races. The uplift of the race is largely in the hands of th'
clergy. If the pulpits and bishopric and other high ecclesiastica
stations could be filled by the men of the best intelligence, characte
and consecration within the race, all of its complex problem
would be in a fair way towards solution. It is a sad day in tb
life of any people when "the best they breed" do not seek the higl'
IS
est and holiest of all callings; but sadder still will it be for a re
tarded people if its ministry remains in the hands of those ill)
prepared to exercise its high functions.
Pulpit Uplifts the People.
The uplift of Negro ministry means the uplift of Negro life:
the downpull of this ministry means the pulling down of the peo¬
ple. The most effective way to improve the general moral, in¬
dustrial and social tone of the race is to elevate its pulpit. Outside
philanthopy can not be indifferent in the proposition if its pur¬
poses to aid the race efficiently. Philanthropy can only furnish
the first aid. It encourages the leaders; they must do the rest
The only help that is helpful in the long run is that help which
helps the helped to help themselves.
Slighting the Ministry.
Educated Negroes are not entering the ministry in such num¬
bers as might be expected when we consider the opportunities
afforded by this high calling. There is on the other hand a
tendency away from the ministry on the part of the Negro youth
with splendid educational equipment. During the past twenty-
five years the colored public schools of Washington, D. C., have
not furnished half a dozen candidates for the ministry, out of the
several thousands who have completed the High School courses
within that time. I do not now recall a Negro graduate from a
Northern College within the past ten years who has entered upon
the sacred office. A very small proportion of the graduates of
the Negro colleges are turning in that direction. The educated
men have not yet in considerable numbers turned their attention
to the larger opportunities of the Baptist and Methodist Churches.
This indifference or neglect is due to the natural feeling which the
educated man has against too close affiliation with the more igno¬
rant body of the clergy now filling these stations. It is also in part
due to the prevailing tendency of the times which seems to be
away from the Church. The white race is complaining that it
16
is almost impossible to induce the ablest young* men to enter the
theological seminaries preparatory to the sacred office-
Attractive Secular Pursuits.
Among' the whites, however, there are various other lines of op¬
portunity which prove equally or even more enticing to the aspira¬
tions of ambitious youth. Politics, business, law, medicine, journal¬
ism, literary and leisurely pursuits conspire to rob the ministry of its
former claim as an exclusive field for high powers and talents.
In the earlier years the graduates of Harvard, Yale and Princeton
mainly recruited the ranks of the ministry, not so much because
they were more pious and consecrated then than now, as because
the ministry at that time afforded the one great field for educated
men. The Negro race today is in the same relative position which
the white race occupied a hundred or more years ago. The min¬
istry requires and can maintain a larger number of educated youth
than all the other so-called learned professions combined.
When the talented tenth awakens to a realizing sense of the de¬
mands and opportunities of the situation then will the tide turn
towards the ministry as to a harvest field ready for the reaper.
The Higher aims of the Ministry.
I have so far avoided dealing with the mystic side of religion
or of the sacredotal office. The Negro has a high religious and
emotional endowment. Those who are endowed or endured with
a double portion of this power will feel the "cosmic urge" impell¬
ing them to consecrate themselves to the work of moral and
spiritual awakening. Without a conscious sense of this endure-
ment, the pursuit of the ministry as mere enterprise is unworthy
the contemplation of an honest mind.
It has been my purpose in this paper to point out in concrete
c^rms the opportunities which the ministry affords the talented
tenth, which will, of course, be doubly enhanced by the higher
claims of the sacred office, which always renders the devoted
priest "more skilled to raise the wretched than to rise."
PAMPHLETS
BY
The Rev. FRANCIS J. GRIMKE, D. D.
1. The Negro: His Rights and Wrongs. The Forces For Him and against
Him. Price 25 cents.
2. The Lynching of Negroes in the South: Its Causes and Remedy.
25 cents.
3. Some Lessons from the Assassination of President William McKinley.
10 cents.
4. The Roosevelt - Washington Episode, or Race Prejudice. 10 cents.
5. A Resemblance and a Gontrast; or the Duty of the Negro to Contend
Earnestly for his Rights Guaranteed under the Constitution. 10 cents.
6. The Things of Paramount Importance in the Development of the Negro.
Race. 10 cents.
7. God and the Race Problem. 10 cents.
8. The Atlanta Riot. 10 cents.
9. The Progress and Development of the Colored People of our Nation.
10 cents.
10. Equality of Rights for All Citizens, Black and White Alike. 15 cents.
11. The Young People of To-Day and the Responsibility of the Home in
Regard to Them. 10 cents.
12. Christianity and Race Prejudice. 15 cents.
Send order to
KELLY MILLER,
Washington, D. C.
OCCASIONAL PAPERS
OF THE AMERICAN NEGRO ACADEMY
No. 1—Review of Hoffman's Race Traits and Tendencies of the
American Negro. (Out of print) Kelly Miller 25 cts.
No. 2—Conservation of Races. W. E. Burghart DtjBois 15 cts.
No. 3—(a) Civilization the Primal Need of the Race; (b) The Atti¬
tude of the American Mind toward the Negro Intellect.
Alexander Crummel 15 cts
No. 4—Comparative Study of the Negro Problem.
Charles C. Cook 15 cts.
No. 5—How the Black St. Domingo Legio.n Saved the Patriot Army
in the Siege of Savannah, 1779.
T. G. Steward, U. S. A. 15 cts.
No. 6—Disfranchisement of the Negro. John L. Love 15 cts.
No. 7—Right on the Scaffold, or the Martyr of 1822.
Archibald H. Grimke 15 cts.
No. 8—The Educated Negro and his Mission. (Out of print)
W. S. Scarborough 15 cts.
No. 9—Earl}T Negro Convention Movement.
John W. Cromwell 15 cts.
No. 10—Defects of the Negro Church. (Out of Print)
Orishattjkeh Faduma 15 cts.
No. 11—The Negro and the Elective Franchise Symposium.
Archibald H. Grimke, Charles C. Cook, John Hope,
John L. Love, Kelly Miller and Rev. F. J. Grimke. 35 cts
No. 12—Modern Industrialism and the Negroes of the United States.
Archibald H. Grimke
No. 13—The Training of the Negro Ministr}r.
J. E. Mooreland
Send order to—
KELLY MILLER,
Howard University Washington, D. C.
Monographs on Race Problem
By KELLY MILLER
Social Equality - 5 cents while tkey last
An Appeal to Reason, open letter to John Temple Graves.
10 cents while they last
Roosevelt and the Negro -
Forty Years of Negro Education
Ultimate Race Problem - -
The Political Capacity of the Negro
The Ministry a Field for the Talented Tenth
Address Author
10 cents while they last
10 cents while they last
10 cents
10 cents
10 cents
American Negro Monographs
No. 1—"Confession, Trial and Execution of Nat Turner,
the Negro Insurgent" - - 10 cents
No. 2—"Contemporary Evolution of the Negro Race"
By Thomas Greathead Harper, A. M. - - 10 cents
No. 3—"Biography of Benjamin Banneker"
By John H. B. Latrobe - - - 10 cents
No. 4—"The Social Evolution of the Black South"
By W. E. Burghardt DuBois - 10 cents
Send order to—
KELLY MILLER,
Washington, D. C.
RACE ADJUSTMENT
...by...
KELLY MILLER, Howard University
Washington, D. C.
A Standard Book on the Race Question.
]Price S2.00
"Mr. Miller brings to his subject a much deeper study and greater
wis lom in education than have ever before been dedicated to a work of this
kink by any member of his race.''
"It is a volume that will become more and more valuable as years
advance."— Overland Monthly.
"Controversial, brilliantly so.''—New 2"ork Sun.
"Its logic is fairly inexorable."— Chicago News.
"One finds here a less extreme and uncompromising attitude than that
of Prof. W. E. B. DuBois, and a larger horizon, a higher complexity of
insights, than in the severer practicality of Booker Washington. Indeed, the
range of subject is wide and varied. It touches history, poetry, education,
labor, race characteristics, social questions and biographical illustration. The
book is a real contribution to a theme much meditated by the Northern white
man—but it is a contribution this time from the most intellectual Negro author
living."—Booh News Monthly-
"As admirable for its calmness and good temper as for its thoroughness
and skill."—New T~or~k Evening Post.
"There is no book which more fully and correctly represents the wishes
and demands for equal recognition in civil and political rights than this
volume."—Independent.
Agents Wanted Everywhere for Book or Pamphlet.
Liberal Commis sion. Address the Author