Negro History Bulletin 1942-03: Vol 5 Iss 6

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122

THE NEGRO HISTORY BULLETIN
MARCH, 1942

Volume V

The Association for the Study of
Negro Life and History
1538 Ninth Street, N. W.,

Published by |
|
Washington, D. C.

PURPOSE: To inculcate an appre-
ciation of the past of the Negro.

EDITORIAL BOARD
Albert N. D. Brooks
Lois M. Jones
Florence R. Beatty-Brown
Carol W. Hayes
Esther Popel Shaw
Wilhelmina M. Crosson
Carter G. Woodson
Managing Editor

The subscription fee of this paper is
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Published monthly except July, August
and September, 1538 Ninth St., N. W.,
Washington, D. C.

Entered as second class matter Octo-
ber 31, 1937, at the Post Office at Wash-

ington, D. C., under the Act of March
3, 1879.

CONTENTS |
A PRACTICAL PHILOSOPHER

A Girt WuHo BECAME A GREAT WOMAN
By H. V. Feger

Tue NEGRO IN THE LAND or CorTon
By C. G. Woodson

DISTINCTION IN SouTH CArRo-
LINA: JOSEPH H. RAINEY, ROBERT
Brown E.iorr, ROBERT SMALLS,
GrorGE WASHINGTON MurRRAY and |
THoMAS E, MILLER

MEN OF

WORKERS OF MERIT IN GEORGIA: JEFFER-
son F. Lona, by B. A. Jones; H. M.
TuRNER, by C. A. Bacote; Witu1amM H.
CrRoGMAN, by B. H.
Hope, by William S. Braithwaite; and
JOHN W. E. BOWEN

Two LEADERS IN FLORIDA: JONATHAN C,
GipsBs and JosiaAn T. WALLS, by Irene
A. De Coursey

ALABAMA CITIZENS OF ACHIEVEMENT:
BENJAMIN S. TuRNER, JAMES T. Ra-
PIER, WILLIAM H. CouNcIL

MEN OF WORTH FROM MISSISSIPPI: HI-
RAM R. ReveE.s, B. K. Bruce, JoHNn R.
LyNcH, and IsalAH T. MONTGOMERY

MEN OF WoRTH IN LOUISIANA: Oscar J.
DuNN, CHARLES E. Nasu, P. B. S.
PINCHBACK, JAMES LEwIs, by Marcus
B. Christian

NORRIS WRIGHT CUNEY OF TEXAS

Tue Necro History BULLETIN

| A PRACTICAL PHILOSOPHER

| HAT are you talking about?” inquired a white clerk
at work forty years ago in the Chicago Post Office,
after having heard a fellow worker, a native of the
South, denounce the Negro as an undesirable.

“The people from your section,” said he further, “are always
making uncomplimentary remarks about the Negro. I have traveled
through the entire South; and the outstanding achievement that I
found in all that section was the work of a Negro—Tuskegee In-
stitute.”

A few years later, Mary Church Terrell happened to be in a
conversation with a young Negro who took occasion to denounce
Booker T. Washington in scathing terms because of his advocacy
of practical education for the masses of Negroes. At the close of
this youthful outburst Mrs. Terrell asked the young man:

“Have you ever seen Tuskegee Institute? Have you ever
examined thoroughly what Booker T. Washington has built up
there?”

“No,” was the reply.

“Then,” said she, “I shall not discuss Booker T. Washington
with you because you do not know what you are talking about.”

Not long thereafter the young man availed himself of the op-
portunity to visit Tuskegee Institute, and so startled was he at
what he observed that he became an ardent admirer of the founder
of Tuskegee.

A few years later this same young man happened to be in
Frankfort-on-the-Main while traveling in Europe. A friendly
stranger, seeing that he was having some difficulty with German, ap-
proached and assisted him as an interpreter to transact the difficult
problem at hand. This stranger, moreover, invited the young Negro
to his home, entertained him at dinner, and spent the afternoon show-
ing him the attractions of that city. At the close of the day when
the traveler went to the station to take a train for the next point, the

Nelson; Joun | new acquaintance said in taking leave of the Negro-American:

“You may wonder why I have been so much interested in you
and why I have spent so much time with you today. The explana-
tion is that some years ago when I was a bookseller in Copenhagen,
I sold a translation of Booker T. Washington’s Up from Slavery,
and I enjoyed reading it more than I did selling the large number of
copies that my customers required. I found it one of the most
charming stories I have ever read. It gripped me so that I could
not stop reading until I had finished it. When I saw you standing
in the station I knew that you were one of his people, and I wanted
to become acquainted with you and to help you in every way that
I could. You belong to a people who have made much progress,

QUESTIONS ON THE FEBRUARY ISSUE |

Book OF THE MONTH

and you have a great future which Booker T. Washington has helped
to build.”

Marcu, 1942

A GIRL WHO BECAME A GREAT WOMAN

ANY years ago there lived in Macon,
M Georgia, a little girl named Lucy Laney.
She was born a slave and while she was
still a small child her father and mother moved to
Savannah, where they worked for the Campbell
family to whom they belonged. Her father, be-
sides doing his daily work on the plantation, was
the pastor of the Negro church. Lucy was one of
a very large family—the seventh of ten children.
As a very small child Lucy showed an aptitude
for reading and when she was four years old she
was taught to read and write. Her mother was a
maid in the Campbell home, and very often Lucy
went with her mother. As Mrs. Laney busied her-
self with the housework little Lucy would climb into
a big library chair and there all cuddled up and
comfortable she would soon be lost in stories so
charming to children. In this way she learned
about people and places in other parts of the world.
This love for reading remained with her all her life.
When she was fifteen years old she entered At-
lanta University and was a member of the first
class to graduate from this now famous school.
There were four members in the class. The year
was 1873. She had made a splendid record in her
work,

Lucy Laney became a teacher in the public
schools of Savannah, Georgia. Later when her
health began to fail she moved to Augusta. When
her health improved she decided to remain there
and to open a private high school for Negro youth.
At first she planned to take girls only, but when
some poor, ragged but eager boys came she took
them in also.

In the second year she had enrolled two hun-
dred fifty pupils. However, she found it very
hard to keep the school going as she had no money
and very little help.

Finally being desperately in need of funds, she
went to Philadelph’a. Later on and as a result of
this trip the Freedmen’s Board gave $10,000 for
the school. It was named the Haines Normal and
Industrial School after Mrs. F. E. H. Haines, a
close friend of the founder.

There were not many good Negro teachers in
those days, and Lucy Laney decided to prepare

better ones. Some of her graduates are now
teachers, Y. W. C. A. workers, and others who
are filling worthwhile positions, and all of them are
splendid examples of the work done in this school.

Lucy Laney was a pioneer. A pioneer, as you
know, is one who leads the way. A pioneer works
at a time when the work is hard to do, but Lucy
Laney had courage and faith in God. She died
October 23, 1933. She is buried on the campus
and now sleeps with her head pillowed on the soil
of her beloved school. People remember her be-
cause she loved children and believed in them; be-
cause she had faith; because she lived simply and
suffered much that others might have an oppor-
tunity.

The school still stands, and a great woman’s
dream still comes true. os YS See

_——
} ’

LUCY LANEY

Tue Necro History BULLETIN

THE NEGRO IN THE LAND OF COTTON

The Negro in the Lower South
does not present so much differen-
tiation in development as in the
Upper South except so far as in-
fluenced by peculiar conditions ob-
taining in certain cities and towns.
During the early years of the other
settlements there were no English
colonies to the South except South
Carolina. Georgia, until settled in
1732, was a highway between Brit-
ish influence in South Carolina and
Spanish influence in Florida. The
one opposed the other, As early
as 1680 Negro slaves began to es-
eape from South Carolina across
the frontier to the Spaniards in
Florida where they were welcomed
and set free in order to weaken the
British. So many of such refugees
came that the Spaniards settled
them at a point not far from St.
Augustine at what was called Mosé.
They established a fort there for
the protection of the frontier and
assigned these Negro fugitives a
priest to instruct them in religion.
This community continued until
after Georgia was founded in 1732
and developed enough force to
press down on Florida and destroy
this settlement.

At first Georgia had little to do
with Negroes. The colonists in the
beginning did not want them as
slaves because it was thought they
would weaken the colony and im-
poverish it. Later to compete with
the other colonies the Georgians
brought in slaves, and then the peo-
ple had more problems than the
other states. Negro slaves contin-
ued to flee across the frontier
where they joined the Indians af-
ter the Spaniards had been re-
moved. One of the prolonged prob-
lems before the states after the
American Revolution was the mat-
ter of reclaiming fugitive slaves
who constantly escaped to the In-
dians. Often the Indians were
rounded up and told to give up
these fugitives. This they refused

to do, since Negro women were es-
pecially attractive to Indians as
wives who bore

them children.

Sometimes when compelled to give
up the men and women they would
go to war before they would suf-
fer their children by these women
to be taken back to slavery. These
Indians said, ‘‘They are bone of
our bone, flesh of our flesh, and
blood of our blood; and we will die
before we permit them to be taken
from us.”’

This situation continued as a
vexing question as long as the In-
dians were in Florida and in the
territory between the Georgia
frontier and the Mississippi River.
It finally culminated in a bloody
conflict. Some bold slave-catching
agents invaded an Indian camp
where Osceola had made himself a
great leader among the Indians
and took away his Negro wife. He
appeared before Johnson, the In-
dian Agent on the ground, and pro-
tested so boldly against the act that
Johnson took umbrage at Osceola’s
words. Osceola, likewise stirred
up, stuck his dagger in Johnson’s
desk, and defied him, Osceola was
soon captured, but by a ruse he es-
eaped and organized the Indians
against the agents of slavery. This
was the outbreak of the Seminole
War in which Negroes took an ac-
tive part with the Indians. At one
time a troop of Negroes on the fron-
tier occupied a fort on the Apa-
lachicola River and controlled that
area.

The Indians were defeated, how-
ever, and Osceola and his Negro co-
horts who were not exterminated
during the war had to yield. The
outcome was that the Indians who
had long resisted the attempt to
move to the area west of the Mis-
sissippi, where most of them still
remain, had to yield by 1838 and
go out of the territory directly west
of Georgia. With these Indians went
a considerable number of Negroes,
many of them being classified as
Indians themselves, and their de-
scendants are still with them. Some
Negroes became prominent among
these Indians. The most noted of
these was probably Negro Abra-

ham, who served the Indians for a
long time as an _ interpreter in
their dealings with the Federal
Government in Washington and
elsewhere.

With the Indians removed, the
Lower South felt more secure with
their slaves and could participate
more freely in the effort to make
cotton king. The Cotton Kingdom
as a whole was one and the same
picture regardless of the state bor-
ders—large plantations cultivated
by slaves under overseers and driv-
ers concentrating on the one crop.
This product Whitney’s cotton gin,
invented in 1793, had made a staple
of universal value. The wealth of
the South was reckoned in cotton
and slaves. Social position and po-
litical advancement were deter-
mined by one’s status with respect
to these possessions.

Inasmuch as the Lower South,
with little exception, was developed
after the invention which brought
new life to cotton production, the
plantation life could be organized
there on a larger scale than in the
Upper South, where land was less
abundant; and in this new region
the one-crop system had not had
the chance to wear out the soil, A
great boom followed. The Upper
South profited by having the op-
portunity to dispose of surplus
slaves no longer needed on worn
out lands. The migration of
younger slaveholders carrying their
bondmen to these new and inviting
fields, is a long chapter in the his-
tory of the South.

This development is evident
when one notes the rapid produc-
tion of cotton during these years.
In 1791 only 38 bales of cotton were
produced in this country. By 1809
the production had reached 218,723
bales. In 1816 the country export-
ed $24,106,000 worth of this staple.
The production of cotton was
doubled by 1820, doubled again by
1830; and still again by 1840. The
census of 1790 showed that in all
the West exclusive of Georgia there
were only 109,368 inhabitants, but

et

Marca, 1942

by 1815 the same territory had a
population of 1,600,000. The peo-
ple of the Lower South so rapidly
inereased in both wealth and popu-
lation that states were soon carved
out of this area. Mississippi came
into the Union in 1817, Alabama in
1818. Louisiana came into the
Union in 1812, but its early admis-
sion, somewhat like that of Texas
much later, was due to its develop-
ment in foreign hands. In Louisi-
ana as in some other parts of the
South corn also was important for
home consumption, and that state
was especially adapted to the ecul-
tivation of sugar and rice.

In this land of systematized cot-
ton culture based on Negro forced
labor slavery reached its most un-
desirable stage. Hardships for the
slaves increased in the proportion
as men grew all but mad in the ef-
fort to produce the largest cotton
crops possible. Owners were hard
on their drivers and overseers, and
they in turn bore down cruelly
upon the slaves. An overseer was
sometimes rewarded in proportion
to what he could produce. This ac-
counts for the temptation to over-
work the slaves. Absentee owner-
ship, moreover, which often left
the slaves at the mercy of these
overseers sometimes brought things
to a terrible state and justified the
picture of the Simon Legree type
of cruelty.

Here and there, however, were
exceptions to this rule. Z, Kings-
ley in Florida was known to be
kind to his slaves. Jefferson Davis
and his brother conducted their
plantations on a more humane or-
der than their neighbors, and so did
Leonidas Polk and MecDonogh of
Louisiana. Exceptions to the rule
of cruelty were found in all the
slave states, but these were shining
lights in the depths of darkness.
The system at best offered the slave
very little hope for a brighter day.
The rule in this area was to treat
the slave more as property than as
a human being.

Just as there were plantations on
which the Negro slaves received
some consideration so were there
towns and urban centers where
they likewise fared better—cities

like Charleston, Savannah, Mobile,

and New Orleans. While the state
of South Carolina showed some of
the worst tendencies under slavery
Charleston had a more kindly dis-
posed element which permitted
there a progressive group of free
Negroes. Savannah in the state of
Georgia, likewise referred to for
eruel practices during those days,
was very much like Charleston.
The favorable conditions in Mobile
and especially in New Orleans re-
sulted for two reasons. In the
first place, it was provided under
the treaty of purchase of Louisiana
that the privileges which the citi-
zens of that territory had enjoyed
under France should be enjoyed
when the territory became a part
of the United States. When the
slaveholding rulers later tried to

curtail the privileges of the free .

colored people of the state the lat-
ter cited the treaty in their de-
fenee, and their rights were tem-
porarily respected. In the second
place, some of these people of color
while under the French and Span-
ish in Louisiana had risen to a high
level as merchants and planters
owning slaves themselves and were
too influential to be kept down.
When the pinch came some of them
moved to France. The close rela-
tions of the quadroon and octoroon
elements to whites in their social
functions in New Orleans furnish

G. W. CARVER AT WORK IN HIS LABORATORY

more romance than this short story
can present.

The free people of color in the
cities had made themselves essential
to their communities. In _ those
parts, where the well-to-do whites
held themselves above work and de-
spised the poor whites in almost all
capacities, the free colored people
made themselves indispensable as
mechanies and artisans. They built
the homes, made the furniture,
fashioned the clothes and produced
the shoes worn by the people. Lo-
eal manufacturing was largely in
the hands of these colored people.
Some effort was made to develop in-
dustry with slave labor in the
South, but the Civil, War came be-
fore that experiment had a good
trial.

The Civil War brought emanci-
pation and the consequent upheav-
al in the social, political and eco-
nomic order in the South. The Ne-
gro had proved to be a good soldier
fighting for his freedom, and now
he was to have a new day. Most
Negroes when declared free re-
mained on the plantations where
they were to serve their former mas-
ters who in an impoverished state
had very little to give but what
they could return in kind. Not a
few Negroes, however, felt that in
order to become actually free they
should go as far away as possible
from the plantations where they

126

had been held in bondage. This
ereated a new problem for the rea-
son that these refugees had no par-
ticular place to go and nothing to
sustain them on the march. Some
few made their way to the free
states. At first most of those set in
motion migrated to nearby cities
and towns. Poverty and disease
overtook them there, and in certain
localities a considerable number
died out rapidly. Persons struck
with this condition predicted that
the Negroes in America would soon
die out altogether.

This situation did not become so
alarming in the Lower South as in
the Upper South or Border States
where the migrating Negroes could
more easily pass into the North and
find help or employment. The Low-
er South was so far removed from
that apparently more favorable
area that Negroes there were more
rapidly integrated in the new eco-
nomie order. The Lower South,
moreover, was a more promising
agricultural area than the Upper
South where the lands had been
worn out for lack of scientific agri-
culture.

Soon came some improvement
from a gradual readjustment. The
Negroes received a new boom in se-
euring help through the Freed-
men’s Bureau and the Reconstruc-
tion measures of Congress which
made Negroes citizens who could
vote and hold office. The most nat-
ural thing to do was to use the gov-
ernment to their own advantage.
This could be easily done for the
time being since the Reconstruction
measures prohibited the participa-
tion of the active Confederates
when they enfranchised the Ne-
groes. Negroes, then, in cooperation
with native whites and others who
eame from the free states to try
their fortunes in the South con-
trolled for a few years some of these
states. They elected members of
their race and friends of their cause
to the state legislatures in order to
enact laws favorable to the freed-
men. One of the most important
laws which they passed provided
for the education of all children at
publie expense. These Negro voters
not only controlled local and state

ROBERT C. DeLARGE

offices in some of these parts, but
also sent 23 Negroes to sit in the
United States Senate and the House
of Representatives.

Only in South Carolina and Mis-
sissippi did the Negroes and their
friends have complete control for
any considerable time. In _ those
states the Negro population was
larger than that of the whites. In
Florida, Alabama, Louisiana and
Arkansas, too, the participation of
the Negro in the government was
considerable though much less than

GEORGE W. MURRAY

Tue Necro History BULLETIN

in Mississippi and South Carolina.
To name all who held important po-
sitions would make a rather long
story. Sufficient unto our purposes
here will be the mere mention of
the most outstanding. In Georgia
and Texas the Negroes did not ad-
vance far in polities.

Some of the highest positions at-
tained should be noted. In South
Carolina F. L. Cardozo served as
Secretary of State and again as
State Treasurer. Henry E. Hayne
served there also as Secretary of
State. J. J. Wright became Asso-
ciate Justice of the State Supreme
Court. Both Alonzo J. Ransier and
R. H. Gleaves attained the position
of lieutenant governor. Joseph H.
Rainey, Robert Brown Elliott, Alon-
zo J. Ransier, Robert C. DeLarge,
R. H. Cain, Robert Smalls, Thomas
Miller and George W. Murray rep-
resented South Carolina in the
United States Congress. A few Ne-
groes, chief among whom was H.
M. Turner, were elected in stormy
fashion to the Georgia legislature,
and Jefferson F. Long was elected
to Congress. A larger number
reached the Florida Legislature and
Josiah T. Walls was elected to Con-
gress. A still larger number sat in
the Alabama Legislature ; and Ben-
jamin F. Turner, James T. Rapier,
and Jeremiah Haralson were elect-
ed to the United States Congress.
James Lynch became Secretary of
State of Mississippi, a number of
Negroes were sent to its General As-
sembly. John R. Lynch represented
the state three terms in the United
States House of Representatives.
Hiram R. Revels was sent to the
United States Senate to fill out an
unexpired term of two years and
B. K. Bruce to serve a full term in
that body. In Louisiana Dubuclet
was elected State Treasurer ; Oscar
J. Dunn, C. C. Antoine and P. B.
S. Pinchback were elected as lieu-
tenant governors, and Charles E.
Nash to serve in the United States
House of Representatives. Pinch-
back was elected to the United
States Senate but he was not seat-
ed. No such high positions were
reached by the Negroes in Texas,
but a few of them, among whom

(Continued on page 140)

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Marcu, 1942

127

MEN OF DISTINCTION IN SOUTH CAROLINA

Joseph H. Rainey

Joseph H. Rainey achieved the
distinction of being the first Negro
to serve in the United States House
of Representatives when he took his
seat as a member of Congress on
December 12, 1870. He was born
of slave parents at Georgetown, S.
C., June 21, 1832. He received
a limited education. He began life
as a barber, but he learned much
by observing the educated men with
whom he thus came into contact.
The Civil War worked a change in
his career. He was compelled, in
1862, to work on Confederate for-
tifications. From this work he es-
eaped, going to the West Indies,
where he remained till the end of
the war.

In the West Indies he applied
himself to further study. Upon his
return to the United States, he en-
tered politics and was chosen to
serve in first one local office and
then in another. He grew in favor
with the public and was elected to
the 42nd, 43rd, 44th, and 45th Con-
gresses. In Congress Rainey made
a favorable impression. James G.
Blaine highly praised him in the
Senator’s Twenty Years in Con-
gress. Rainey made several speeches
in trying to advance the cause of
the oppressed. His most important
utterance in that assembly was his
informing discourse on the value of
education. He died at Georgetown,
S. C., August 1, 1887.

Robert Brown Elliott

Probably the most brilliant Ne-
gro to serve in the United States
House of Representatives was Rob-
ert Brown Elliott. He was born in
Boston, Massachusetts, August 11,
1842. He was educated at Eton
College in England, and upon his
return to the United States entered
into the politics of the State of
South Carolina. Mr. Elliott was
elected to the 42hd Congress and
resigned before the term had ex-
pired ; he was re-elected to the 43rd
Congress and again resigned, this

JOSEPH H. RAINEY

time to accept the office of sheriff
at home. In thus changing his po-
sition so often he was trying to
serve where he could do the most to
advance his party and the cause of
his people. In Congress Elliott
proved to be excellent in debate
with those who were not yet pre-
pared to grant the Negro full citi-
zenship. His outstanding speech
was his reply to Alexander H. Ste-
phens in discussing the Civil Rights
Bill. When defeated in South Car-
olina Elliott settled to the practice
of law in New Orleans and there
he died.

ROBERT B. ELLIOTT

Robert Smalls

Robert Smalls was born a slave
at Beaufort, South Carolina, April
5, 1839. The law of that day did
not permit him to attend school,
but he availed himself of such lim-
ited educational advantages as were
possible. In 1851, he moved to
Charleston, worked as a rigger, and
thereafter led a seafaring life.

In 1861, Smalls became connect-
ed with the Planter, a steamer ply-
ing in the Charleston Harbor as a
transport. With the daring of a
soldier for freedoni he took this ves-
sel over the Charleston bar in 1862
and delivered it to the commander
of the United States blockading
squadron. This was one of the most
thrilling incidents of the war, and
Smalls was long hailed as a hero.
He was appointed a pilot in the
Quartermaster’s Department of the
United States Navy, and remained
in the service till 1866. Meanwhile
he rose to the rank of Captain.

In 1868 Smalls entered politics
and was later elected to the 44th,
45th, 47th, 48th, and 49th Con-
gresses. Sir George Campbell, a
member of the British Parliament,
often visited Smalls when traveling
in South Carolina. He found
Smalls to be a gentleman whom he
stamped as well qualified to repre-
sent those people in Congress.

In the State militia of South Car-
olina, Smalls held successively the
commands of _lieutenant-colonel,
brigadier-general, and major-gen-
eral, the latter terminating with the
reorganization of the militia in
1877. Smalls was a delegate to sev-
eral National Republican Conven-
tions. His last public office was
that of collector of the port of
Beaufort.

George Washington
Murray
George Washington Murray was

born of slave parents, September
22, 1853, near Rembert, Sumter

THOMAS E. MILLER

South Carolina. At the
age of eleven years, he found him-

County,

self free, bereft of parents, com-
pletely dependent upon his own re-
sources. His early life, therefore,
was one of great trials and sacri-
fices.

Possessed, however, of a determi-
nation to live and learn, young Mur-
ray availed himself of every oppor-
tunity to improve his meagre stock
of knowledge. So well did he sue-
ceed that his first day in school was

ROBERT SMALLS

spent as teacher rather than as a
student. In later life, he acquired
a good education, entered into the
service of the public schools of his
county and was finally elected to
the 53rd Congress. Murray was
elected also to the 54th, but secured
his seat only after a successful con-
test with a leading Democrat of his
State.

Murray, of course, faced a more
determined opposition than his Ne-
gro predecessors because hostility
toward the Negro was mounting by
leaps and bounds in his day. He
was a fearless fighter, however, and
the only way his political enemies
could get rid of him was by
trumped up charges which a cor-
rupt court sustained. Murray left
the state and settled in Chicago
from which he went forth as a lec-
turer on Negro affairs. He re-
mained there in business until his
death from general decline.

Thomas E. Miller

Thomas E. Miller was born in
Beaufort County, South Carolina,
at Ferrybeeville, June 17, 1849. He
had some opportunity for early
schooling as did most free colored
people of that state. He completed
the course at Lincoln University in
Pennsylvania in the class with Dr.
Walter H. Brooks, the pastor of the
Nineteenth Street Baptist Church
in Washington, D. C. Miller stud-
ied law, but gave most of his atten-
tion to education and business.

After acquiring a good educa-
tion, he entered politics. Miller
held many loeal and State offices,
and was nominated by his party,
in 1878, for the office of Lieuten-
ant-Governor of the State. Due,
however, to riotous actions of the
Democratic party throughout the
elections that year, the ticket was
withdrawn. Miller was elected to
and was seated in the 51st Con-
gress after a contested election with
Col. William Elliott. He made sev-
eral attempts thereafter to reach

Tue Necro History BULLETIN

ALONZO J. RANSIER

Congress again but he was always
defeated or counted out.

In 1896, he was elected president
of the State Colored College at
Orangeburg, South Carolina, and
achieved much good there in organ-
izing this first institution estab-
lished by the State for the eduea-
tion of the Negro. Miller was gen-
erally prosperous, maintained his
family above want and died in com-
fort at his home in Charleston on
April 9, 1938.

R. H. CAIN

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Marca, 1942

WORKERS OF MERIT IN

Jefferson Franklin
Long

Jefferson Franklin Long was
born a slave in Knoxville, Georgia,
on March 3, 1836. At an early age
he moved to Macon where he ob-
tained a job in the firm of Robert
Salisbury, a merchant-tailor. Here
he acquired a meager education and
an expert knowledge of tailoring.
During the Civil War he operated
a tailor shop in the back room of
what is now the home of the Macon
Telegraph. After the Civil War he
became interested in politics, and
it was not long before the qualities
of leadership which made him the
recognized leader of the Republi-
can party in middle Georgia came
to be known.

In 1870 Long was nominated to
run on the Republican ticket as the
Congressional Representative from
his district which included Bibb
and Crawford counties. Already
Ku Kluxism was rampant in Geor-
gia and the local Klan was deter-
mined to prevent his election. On
the night before the election, sched-
uled for December 20, Long ad-
dressed a meeting of Negroes in
Macon. In a fiery speech, during
which he reviewed the many out-
rages committed against Negroes in
Macon, Long declared, ‘‘If you will
stand by me we will take the polls
tomorrow and we will hold them.”’

On the following day, the day of
the election, the Negro voters gath-
ered in a long line before the City
Hall and, upon the appearance of
Long, marched in a ‘‘solid pha-
lanx’’ toward the Courthouse. On
the way there the Negroes were at-
tacked by a group of white people
and a fierce fight followed.

When the battle ended, seven
persons lay dead and among the
several missing Negroes was Long,
who had been the object of the furi-
ous attack. At the beginning of the
battle Long had sought refuge in
the belfry of the Courthouse, and
it was from this shelter that he was
rescued by members of his family
and spirited away through an un-

JEFFERSON F. LONG

completed sewer section. He re-
mained in seclusion until the race
feeling had subsided.

Despite the brutal attack by the
whites Long carried Bibb county,
of which Macon was the county
seat, by a majority of 50 votes and
the entire district by a majority
vote of more than 900. He thus led
the fight for the right of his people
to full citizenship ; and, although it
was a great risk, he won that battle.
Others, following his example, like-
wise stood their ground.

On January 16, 1871, Jefferson
Franklin Long took his oath as the

H. M. TURNER

GEORGIA

first and only Negro Congressman
Georgia has ever had. On February
1, 1871, he rose to make his first
major speech in‘ Congress. This
speech was made in opposition to a
proposed law removing the test-
oath required of all Confederates
before they could take public office.
Long described the conditions in
Georgia and told of the way in
which lynch law had grown to such
proportions that it was no longer
safe to be a loyal citizen in Geor-
gia. ‘‘Already,’’ he said, ‘‘since
emancipation, over five hundred
loyal men have been shot down by
disloyal men there, and not one of
those who took part in committing
these outrages has ever been
brought to justice. If this
House removes the disabilities of
disloyal men by modifying the test-
oath, I venture to prophesy you
will again have trouble from the
very same men who gave you trou-
ble before.’’ In commenting on the
speech, the New York Tribune de-
clared, ‘‘In a manner he was per-
fectly self-possessed. His voice was
full and powerful, filling the Hall
with ease, while his enunciation was
quite good.’’

While in Congress, Long sup-
ported the enforcement of the Fif-
teenth Amendment, universal suf-
frage in the District of Columbia
and a number of other proposed
laws which were of benefit to the
nation as a whole. In March, 1871,
at the expiration of his term, Long
retired from Congress and never
again sought public office. Instead,
he devoted himself to his business
as a merchant-tailor and the fur-
ther development of his cultural in-
terests. He did find time, however,
to attend several political conven-
tions where he continued to give
wise counsel.

On February 5, 1900, Long died
at his home in Macon. At the time
of his death he had ‘‘accumulated
a magnificent library and was a
constant reader of fine literature.’’

B. A. JONES
Atlanta University

130

Henry McNeal Turner

Henry MeNeal Turner was born
in Newberry Court-House, South
Carolina, on February 1, 1833.
When he was quite young his par-
ents moved to Abbeville, South
Carolina, and young Turner, al-
though his parents were free, was
bound out to a slave owner. Here
he was required to work side by
side with slaves until he was fif-
teen years of age. In this work he
suffered many abuses from cruel
overseers but not without resisting
them, for he was determined that
no man should inflict harsh punish-
ment upon him without his making
some effort to defend himself.

When Henry was fifteen years
old he ran away from his master
and hired himself out to some law-
yers in Abbeville. It was while
working in this law office that he
was able to acquaint himself with
such subjects as history, theology,
and law. Turner always regarded
this as the most beneficial experi-
ence during his early days.

Turner joined the Methodist
Episcopal Church, South, in July,
1848, on six months’ probation.
Evidently Turner was not ready
for the church at that time, be-
cause, as he said himself, he was the
‘‘worst boy at Abbeville.’’ It was
not until he heard a sermon deliv-
ered by the Reverend Samuel
Leard, a missionary in the South
Carolina Conference, in 1851, that
he was led ‘‘to the feet of the par-
doning Jesus.’’ In 1853 he was
licensed to preach at Abbeville
Court-House. On a visit to New
Orleans in 1857 he met the Rever-
end H. R. Revels, under whom he
transferred his membership from
the Methodist Church, South, to
the African Methodist Episcopal
Chureh. He was admitted to the
Missouri Conference in 1858 and
then transferred to the Baltimore
Conference. While here he estab-
lished better cultural contacts by
enrolling in Trinity College, Balti-
more, Maryland. In 1860 Turner
was ordained deacon by Bishop
Payne in Washington, D. C.; and
two years later was made an elder.

W. H. CROGMAN

At the General Conference which
met in St. Louis in 1880, Turner
was elevated to the bishopric.

His religious activities were va-
ried and interesting. He was the
first Negro to be appointed a chap-
lain in the United States Army, re-
ceiving the appointment from Pres-
ident Lincoln in 1863. In the fall
of 1865 he was mustered out of
service, but President Johnson im-
mediately recommissioned him as a
United States chaplain, being as-
signed to the Freedmen’s Bureau

JOHN HOPE

THe Necro History BULLETIN

in Georgia. Turner believed, how-
ever, that his services were needed
more in the church and thus re-
signed his commission. In 1876 the
General Conference of the A.M.E.
Church elected him manager of the
Publication Department of that
body. When he became bishop he
built up the largest Negro confer-
ence in the world.

Turner’s interest was not lim-
ited to the church. In the field of
polities he was to become almost as
prominent as he was in religion.
In 1867 the National Republican
Executive Committee appointed
hira to superintend the organiza-
tion of Negroes in Georgia. Turner
knew that the salvation of the new-
ly emancipated Negroes rested in
their use of the ballot. He organ-
ized political clubs and wrote many
campaign documents. He served as
a member of the Georgia Constitu-
tional Convention of 1867 and 1868
and in the legislature from 1868
until 1870.

In spite of his busy life Turner
found time to write several books
and numerous articles. During his
lifetime such national publications
as Harper’s Weekly and Frank
Leslie’s Weekly honored Bishop
Turner by printing short sketches
of his achievements.

CLARENCE A. BACOTE
Atlanta University

Dr. William H.
Crogman

A scholar, ‘‘living-teacher,’’ and
an inspirer of youth—these were
the accomplishments of William H.
Crogman who gave fifty-three of
his ninety years of life for the up-
lift of the Negro race.

William H. Crogman was born a
Negro on St. Martin’s Island, Brit-
ish West Indies, May 5, 1841. His
parents were people of ordinary
means and common ancestry. Mis-
fortune left him an orphan at the
age of twelve. The need of support

(Continued on page 142)

Marcu, 1942

TWO LEADERS IN FLORIDA

Jonathan C. Gibbs

The portrait of Jonathan C.
Gibbs hangs in the foyer of the Ad-
ministration Building at the Flor-
ida Agricultural and Mechanical
College. A glance at a small white
ecard will give one some under-
standing of the worth of the man
whose mere facial expression de-
mands respect and admiration.
Pupils in the Elementary Training
Schol hear the name of Jonathan
C. Gibbs in the early stages of their
development; in later years the
name is still heard. By this time
the piece-meal facts become a whole
life story and the character, per-
sonality of the man takes on addi-
tional meaning.

Jonathan C. Gibbs was born in
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He
finished the course at Kimball
Union Academy, Hanover, New
Hampshire, in 1848, at Dartmouth
College in 1852 and at Princeton
Theological Seminary in 1854. He
was tall, and his general manner in-
dicated the influence of New Eng-
land culture. In a rare book found
in the library collection at the Flor-
ida Agricultural and Mechanical
College one will note that he was
installed as pastor of the Liberty
Street Presbyterian Church, Troy,
New York, in 1855.

His far-sightedness and eager-
ness to help his people in a larger
field led him to Florida. He soon
entered politics, and in 1868 he was
a member of the constitutional con-
vention. William W. Davis, in his
book, Civil War and Reconstruction
in Florida, states: ‘‘The most eul-
tured member of the convention,
probably was Jonathan Gibbs, a
Negro.’’ Under the Republican
Governor of Florida he served as
Secretary of State. He filled this
office for four years. On January
23, 1873, he was appointed State
Superintendent of Public Instruc-
tion, He died while in office.

Jonathan C. Gibbs’ son, Thomas
Van Gibbs, was one of the co-found-

JOSIAH T. WALLS

ers of the State Normal School, now
the Florida A. and M, College.

Because of Jonathan C. Gibbs’
valuable contributions in the field
of religion, politics and education,
he will continue to be one of the
idols of his race.

In the Gibbs family was another

JONATHAN C. GIBBS

prominent member, M. W. Gibbs,
the brother of Jonathan. This
brother was not so well educated as
the statesman in Florida, but he
was a man of great force and enter-
prise and educated himself. M. W.
Gibbs went in the Gold Rush to
California where he accumulated
wealth and later to Vancouver in
another such rush where he also did
well. He studied law and settled
in Little Rock, Arkansas, where he
was elected municipal judge and
established himself in business.

Josiah T. Walls

Josiah T. Walls was born at Win-
chester, Virginia, on December 30,
1842. He was born of very poor
parents and therefore his opportu-
nities were limited. He moved to
Florida. Through determination
and ambition he was able to receive
a common school education. He was
a farmer, but having the forward
movement of his people as the thing
nearest his heart, he also spent some
time delving successfully in poli-
tics. In 1868 he was elected a mem-
ber of the State Constitutional Con-
vention. In the same year he was
elected a member of the House of
Representatives of the State Legis-
lature. After serving one year, he
was elected to the State Senate for
four years. Finally he was elected
to the Forty-Second Congress as a
Republican from the state of Flor-
ida in 1872,

W. W. Davis in his text, Civil
War and Reconstruction in Florida,
speaking of J. T. Walls states that,
‘*Negro leaders from practical ex-
perience in polities were gaining in
aggressiveness and independence. ”’
In another section of the same book
he asserts that, ‘‘At this time Ne-
groes played an important role in
dictating party nominations.’’

Josiah T. Walls was a man of
vision and foree. He did a good
work in his adopted state.

IRENE A. DECourRSEY
Florida A. & M. College

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MarcuH, 1942

CHILDREN’S PAGE

A Calendar to Color

‘*PickIna CoTTON’’

The calendar pictures the cotton
pickers harvesting the crop. If hec-
tograph copies are made for each
child, the following color scheme
may prove helpful. Crayon or
watercolor may be used. The man
in the foreground wears a blue
shirt, brown hat and trousers, yel-
low suspenders and black shoes.
The woman wears an orange blouse,
a purple skirt and a yellow hat.
The two women in the distance
wear dark blue skirts, pink or green
blouses and yellow hats. The man
wears black trousers, a white shirt
and a dark brown hat. All cotton
sacks and baskets are brown. Out-
line the cotton plants with a pale
blue, the twigs and complexions are
brown. The cotton remains white.
Tint the trees in the distance a soft
green. The clouds are white and
the sky is a pale blue. The path is
brown.

Render the lettering and num-
bers in brown. The birthday dates
may be in orange. They are as fol-
lows:

MARCH 1. The Abyssinians de-
feated the Italians at Adowa,
1896.

MARCH 1. B. K. Bruce, United
States Senator, born, 1841.

MARCH 1. Cudjoe, leader of the
Maroons in Jamaica, brought the
Jamaican Government to terms
in 1738.

MARCH 5. Crispus Attucks, a Ne-
ero seaman, fell in the Boston
Massacre, 1770.

MARCH 7. Little Stephen, a Ne-
ero, set out to explore the South-
western part of the United
States, 1539.

MARCH 10. El-Hadj Omar, Tuku-
lor Conqueror, started his empire
with the capture of Segu, 1861.

MARCH 12. Benjamin Banneker
came with L’Enfant to lay out
Washington in the District of
Columbia, 1791.

MARCH 14. Menelik became ruler
of Abyssinia, 1889.

MARCH 17. Texas, as a republic,

abolished the slave trade, 1836.

MARCH 18. Gabriel de la Concep-
cién Valdes (Placido), poet, born
in Havana, Cuba, 1809.

MARCH 23. The abolition of slav-
ery in Porto Rico, 1873.

MARCH 25. Slave trade abolished
by British Parliament, 1807.

MARCH 25. Samori, the builder
of the Wasulu Empire, signed
with the French the Treaty of
Bisandugu, 1887.

MARCH 28. Samuel Sewall, anti-
slavery author, born, 1652.

MARCH 28. Thomas Clarkson,
British abolitionist, born, 1760.

MARCH 30. Promulgation of the
Fifteenth Amendment, 1870.

About Cotton

Questions
1. Where does cotton grow?
2. How is it planted?
3. What do you know about its
growth ?
4. What happens to the cotton af-
ter it is picked?
What is done to the cotton after
the seeds are taken out?
6. What are some of the uses of
cotton ?

wr

Answers

1. Cotton grows on plants in the
South.

2. The cotton seed is planted in
rows very much as corn is plant-
ed. April is the month for
planting. After a two week pe-
riod the plants are thinned and
kept free from weeds through-
out the summer.

3. The little green ball that is left

after the blossoms drop off is’

ealled the ‘‘eotton boll.’’ It
turns brown in autumn and has
a hard shell. This shell splits
into five parts and out comes
the fluffy white ball of cotton.
4. After the cotton is picked it is
put into baskets or bags which
are stored in the sheds until
they can be sent away to have
the seeds taken out.
After the cotton comes from
the ginnery where the seeds
have been taken out, it is baled.

Oo

133

Questions on the Feb-
ruary Issue

1. Compare and contrast the struggle
of the Negro in the Upper South
with the struggle and achievements
of the Negro in the Border States,
Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and
New York.

2. Comparatively speaking do you
think it is just as hard or harder
for a Negro to find employment in
some lines of work today as it was
during slavery?

3. What was the Scotch-Irish belief
in freedom and opportunity as far
as the Negro was concerned? What
was the significance of this?

4. Note the pioneer progress made by
the Negro in the Upper South in
politics, secial work, education, re-
ligion, and the professions.

5. In one sentence state the contribu-
tion of the following to the part
played by the Negro in the devel-
opment of American culture: John
Chavis, George Moses Horton, John
S. Leary, Henry Plummer Cheat-
ham, George H. White, John Mer-
rick, J. W. Hood, Samuel L. Low-
ery, Josiah T. Settle, Joseph C.
Price, Samuel A. McElwee, James
C. Napier, Richard H. Boyd, John
Wesley Work, Sr., and Isaac Lane.

6. What have you done all the year
toward the integration of the his-
tory of the Negro and World Cul-
ture or American Culture in pre-
paring for Negro History Week?

Book of the Month

Big Ben (Philadelphia: The West-
minster Press, 1942), by Earl Schenck
Miers. Interest indicated by a second
biography of a man now living is
tribute indeed. To Paul Robeson this
merited tribute has been paid.

First, Mr. Robeson’s life story was
told by his wife, Eslanda Goode Robe-
son. Big Ben, Earl Schenck Miers’
second, fictionalized version of the
singer’s college life, leaves the more
complete story made possible by later
years to another writer. Miers tells
the life of Robeson (“Ben”) on the
athletic field, at his studies, finding
through human kinship his character
moulded and triumphant over adver-
sity.

The author of Big Ben is himself a
Rutgers man, to whom the Robeson
tradition has a special sacredness. In
this, his third novel he shows both that
impress and a special skill in writing
fiction for younger readers; this skill
probably was developed under tutelage
of fellow alumnus Earl Reed Silvers.

Miers had Paul Robeson’s counsel
and confidence during composition of
Big Ben, which has some weaknesses
in item and philosophy, and is the in-
tended tribute to the largeness of its
hero’s soul. In impact, Big Ben is a
wholesome and forceful contribution
in racial relations. It is a whooping
good yarn, should be picturized, and
should not be sold short.

Victor Lawson

Benjamin Sterling
Turner

Alabama does well to remember
Benjamin Sterling Turner. He was
a substantial citizen who by energy
and perseverance showed his worth
to his community. He was born a
slave at Halifax, North Carolina,
March 17, 1825. In 1830, he moved
to Alabama, where by clandestine
study he obtained a fair education.
He became a prosperous merchant
whom the people highly respected.
When the Negroes became free and
attained citizenship Turner was
brought forth as a leader. He was
elected to various local offices in
which he made a fine record for
honesty and sincerity of purpose.
Next the people of his district de-
cided upon him as the proper man
for still higher honors. He was ac-
cordingly nominated and elected to
the 42nd Congress. He was defeat-
ed for the 43rd. Thereafter he con-
fined himself to his business at
which he was very successful.

James T. Rapier

James T. Rapier was another dis-
tinguished Negro member of Con-
gress. He was born at Florence,
Alabama, in 1840. At an early age
he was sent to Canada to be edu-
eated, and while there was given
the opportunity to recite before
King Edward VII, then Prince of
Wales, who was at that time visit-
ing the United States and Canada.
Rapier was one of the best pre-
pared leaders of his day.

Prior to his election to Congress,
Rapier held several local offices in
Alabama and also aspired to become
Secretary of State. In this contest
he was defeated by Nicholas Davis,
a white man. Rapier was a parti-
san in the split in the Republican
Party in his State, aligning him-
self with Spencer, a Republican
leader. Failing in this contest, he
lost also his ability to win votes and
accordingly was defeated in his at-
tempt to secure his re-election to
the 44th Congress. Thereafter, Ra-

BENJAMIN S. TURNER

pier gave his attention exclusively
to farming at which he was highly
successful,

William Hooper
Council

William Hooper Council was an
educator. He was born of slave
parents July 12, 1849, at Fayette-
ville, Cumberland County, North

JAMES T. RAPIER

THE Necro History BULLETIN

ALABAMA CITIZENS OF ACHIEVEMENT

Carolina. His father escaped to
Canada where he hoped to earn the
money with which to purchase his
family; but he could never do it,
and the mother and children passed
from the hands of one owner to an-
other. The mother all but died
heartbroken for being separated
from two of her sons after all the
remainder of the family had been
sold into Alabama at Huntsville.
On the death of the remaining
brothers as well as the mother, Wil-
liam was left alone. When the
Union Army invaded North Ala-
bama, he reached the Federal lines.
He entered a Freedmen’s school at
Stevenson, Alabama, and made rap-
id progress in learning. At the
close of the war William worked as
the attendant of an officer for a
year’s food, clothing, and school-
ing. By 1886 therefore he was able
to take charge of a school.

His troubles, however, had not
ended. The Ku Klux Klan was ac-
tive. This agency of disorder inter-
fered with all efforts to help the
Negro to rise. Council operated for
some time with another secret or-
der which eventually broke up the
Ku Klux Klan in northern Ala-
bama. Council worked on, however,
during the summer and attended
school a few years longer to equip
himself for more advanced teach-
ing than that of the fundamentals
taught in his first school. He stud-
ied privately.

Instead of confining himself to
teaching, he went into polities. He
became the enrolling clerk in the
Alabama Legislature in 1872 and
also in 1874. He was associate edi-
tor of The Negro Watchman, a Re-
publican paper, in 1874. That same
year he became the nominee of his
party for the Legislature. He was
one of the secretaries of the Na-
tional Equal Rights League Con-
vention in Washington in 1873, In
1875 he was appointed by President
Grant as receiver of public monies
for the northern district of Ala-
bama, but he declined the position

(Continued on page 143)

oul

5 MEP RTA Het SATE VY

Marc, 1942

MEN OF WORTH FROM MIUEISSISSIPPI

Hiram R. Revels

Hiram R. Revels has the distine-
tion of being the first Negro to serve
in the United States Senate. He rep-
resented the state of Mississippi for
the short term from February 25,
1870, to March 3, 1871. In the Sen-
ate he manifested interest in the
measures proposed to promote na-
tional development, and he was es-
pecially interested in the extension
of amnesty to the Confederates in
order to heal the breach between
the sections and strengthen the na-
tion.

Revels was born at Fayetteville,
North Carolina, on September 1,
1822. He began his education in
his home town, but for more thor-
ough training he moved to Indi-
ana where he attended a Quaker
seminary and then to Dark County
in Ohio. Some say that he attend-
ed Knox College, but that school
has no record of such a student, but
a Revels with different initials was
once a student there before the Civ-
il War.

After completing his education
Revels became a minister in the
African Methodist Episcopal
Church. He preached and lectured
in Missouri, Maryland, Kentucky,
and Kansas. While in Maryland
about the time of the outbreak of
sectional strife Revels helped to
form a colored regiment for service
in the Union Army. He next
taught school in St. Louis in 1863
and 1864, and then moved into Mis-
sissippi. He followed the army, or-

ganizing churches and opening
schools. At this task he labored so

hard that he had to go North to
recover his health.

Returning to Mississippi about
the time that the military Governor
Ames took charge, Revels was ap-
pointed to several minor positions
in which he faithfully discharged
his duty. Next he was elected to
the State Senate. His ability dis-
played in this body convinced the
Legislature that he was the right
man to be sent to the United States
Senate. At the close of this term

HIRAM REVELS

Revels functioned as the president
of Alcorn College. From this posi-
tion he went to a pastorate in Rich-
mond, Indiana. He died January
16, 1901, at Aberdeen, Mississippi.

B. K. Bruce

The State of Mississippi is distin-
guished for many reasons. One of
the things for which it should be
proud is that it sent to the United
States Senate the only two Negroes
ever to serve in that body—Hiram
R. Revels and B. K. Bruce. Revels
served for an unexpired term of

B. K. BRUCE

two years and Bruce served a full
term of six years. Bruce was born
in Farmville, Virginia, on March
1, 1841. He owed his rise mainly
to self-education after attending
school for a limited period. At an
early age he made his way to Mis-
sourl. He began his career as a
teacher, but he proceeded to Mis-
sissippi by 1868, and there went in-
to polities. One position of trust
came to him rapidly after another
—sheriff, tax collector, county su-
perintendent of schools, sergeant of
arms of the State Senate, and com-
missioner of elections:

In all these positions Bruce so
highly pleased his co-workers that
in 1875 he was chosen by the Legis-
lature to represent that state in the
United States Senate. As a mem-
ber of this august body Bruce took
an active part in all important mat-
ters proposed for the advancement
of the nation, and he originated im-
portant measures himself. In his
speeches he showed that he was
broadminded and liberal. He
worked for the prohibition of the
liquor traffic, for the improvement
of the navigation of the Mississip-
pi, for the education of the Indian,
and against the Chinese exclusion
bills. For his own people who were
so much in need of assistance and
protection he introduced various
measures. He was especially active
in protecting the interests of the
Negroes who had made large de-
posits in the defunct Freedmen’s
Bank.

In 1878 Bruce married Josephine
B. Wilson of Cleveland, Ohio. They
had one son whom he named for
Roseoe Conkling, the senator from
New York, who had the courage to
show Bruce the courtesy of escort-
ing him to the desk to take the
oath when his Mississippi colleague
failed to do so. At the close of his
term in the United States Senate,
Bruce settled in Washington, and
there served twice as Register of
the United States Treasury and
once as Recorder of Deeds in the
District of Columbia. He died in
office March 17, 1898.

136

John Roy Lynch

In many of the Libraries is
found an interesting book called
Facts of Reconstruction, by John
R. Lyneh. Who was he? Lynch
was one of the participants in that
effort to rehabilitate the former
slave states. The work was both
interesting and significant to him,
and he found so many untruths
written about the Negroes and their
friends in that effort that he wrote
this book to give the real story as
experienced by one of the impor-
tant actors in that drama.

Lynch was born a slave in Lou-
isiana on September 10, 1847. His
parents were Patrick and Catherine
Lynch. Ile was sold with his
mother to a man in Natchez, Mis-
sisippi in 1863. There he remained
until the Union troops got control.
[Immediately came the opportunity
to attend school. He studied hard
privately and thoroughly educated
himself in the fundamentals. He
began his career as a photographer
in 1869, but he had shown so many
qualities as a leader that when
Governor Ames took charge of
things in the state he appointed
Lynch as a justice of the peace for
Adams County.

Before he could finish the term
of that office Lynch was elected to
the Legislature that year, and he
was reelected in 1871. The Repub-
licans found his record so satisfaec-
tory that they elected him to the
3rd Congress and reelected him to
the 44th. In 1880 he was elected
to represent his district in the 47th
Congress. In Congress he con-
dueted satisfactorily
that he became a national figure.
He served as State Chairman of
his party in Mississippi, and once
as temporary chairman of the Re-
publican National Convention.

himself so

When the Negroes were reversed
in polities in the South, Lynch set-
tled in Washington and practiced
law. He married Emma W. Som-
erville, who died early. He mar-
ried Cora E. Williamson of Chi-
cago in 1911. He once served the
Federal Government as Fourth
Auditor of the Navy, and in the
Spanish American War as paymas-

JOHN R. LYNCH

ter with the rank of major. He
went through life with an honor-
able record, and died in Chicago
at the age of 92, respected by all
who knew him.

Isaiah T. Montgomery

Isaiah T. Montgomery was born
a slave of Joseph Davis, the broth-
er of Jefferson Davis, the president
of the Confederacy. Montgomery’s
owner was not very much of a pro-
slavery man. He kept abreast with
things by reading the literature
on both sides, going so far even as
to read Uncle Tom’s Cabin after it
had been proscribed in the South.

In order to make Isaiah T. Mont-
gomery useful Joseph Davis dared
to have him trained in accounting
to serve as the keeper of records of
the plantation.

When freedom came, Isaiah T.
Montgomery was well prepared to
function as a self-sufficient citizen.
His former owner had so much
confidence in him that he placed
Isaiah T. Montgomery and Ben-
jamin Green, another of his for-
mer slaves, in charge of the planta-
tion, ‘‘Brierfield.”” They managed
the plantation successfully, but
whatever was to be gained was lost
in the ever recurring floods in the
Mississippi Valley. Davis decided,
therefore, to give these Negroes an

THE Necro History BULLETIN

opportunity to buy from him cer-
tain parts of his land and establish
a settlement of their own. The ex-
tension of the Louisville, New Or-
leans, and Texas Railroad through
that area brought into the proposal
another factor, Major George Me-
Innis, of that company.

In July, 1887, therefore, these
persons finally reached the conelu-
sion that it was a good idea to es-
tablish this proposed settlement
which later became Mound Bayou,
Most of the Negroes who first came
were former slaves of the Davis
Bend Plantation, and others came
from Alabama and Georgia. The
settlement started out under the
inspiration of Isaiah T. Montgom-
ery and Benjamin Green, but at
the end of ten years Green was
killed, and the guidance of the set-
tlement came as a duty almost sole-
ly to Montgomery who lived an ac-
tive and useful life in that town
and in the state of Mississippi un-
til his death in 1924. The town
increased in population to the ex-
tent of a thousand and had a peace-
ful career until the recent family
trouble which resulted in the death
of one of Montgomery’s daughters
and that of E. P. Booze.

NEGRO ART, A CHARLESTON
STAIRWAY

a tn ie ai

Marca, 1942

MEN

Oscar James Dunn

Oscar James Dunn was born in
New Orleans, Louisiana, in 1826.
He belonged to that class of Ne-
groes who were known as free peo-
ple of color. While very young he
served a rigorous apprenticeship as
a plasterer. He also learned the
trade of house-painter. The life of
an apprentice before the Civil War
was very much like that of a slave.
During the time that the appren-
ticed person was learning his trade
he might be whipped cruelly, or
otherwise punished severely. This,
of course, depended upon the na-
ture of the person who had con-
tracted to teach him. Dunn’s life
was probably no exception to this
rule.

When Dunn was fifteen years of
age he ran away from the man to
whom he had been apprenticed.
His thoughtful brown face seemed
so mature that his temporary mas-
ters placed his age between twenty
and twenty-one when they adver-
tised a five-dollar reward for his
eapture. The knowledge Dunn had
acquired of painting and paster-
ing enabled him to make a comfort-
able living for many years. To-
wards the end of the Civil War,
however, he opened an employment
office where ‘‘good servants and
field-hands’’ were hired out. About
this same time he also organized a
bakery company with a capital
stock of $10,000.

He took a leading part in the
early struggle of Louisiana Ne-
groes for the ballot. He was one of
the founders of the Universal Suf-
frage Association, and treasurer of.
its State Central Committee. In
1865 he took money from his own
pockets and gave freely of his time
in order to carry out the first regis-
tration of Louisiana Negroes for
voting purposes. This action on his
part proved of great importance to
Negro suffrage throughout the na-
tion.

OSCAR J. DUNN

Because of Dunn’s prominence in
local Negro affairs, and perhaps be-
cause of his experience as a labor
agent, he was given a position by
the Freedmen’s Bureau as a travel-
ing agent. He traveled through
Louisiana in this capacity, visiting
cities, towns, and _ plantations,
studying labor conditions. Ne-

P. B. S. PINCHBACK

OF WORTH IN LOUISIANA

groes, applying for redress against
wrongs done them by the planters,
were always received with sympa-
thy and got immediate action when
they applied to Dunn. Thus, at a
time when farm laborers were paid
$15 a month and often cheated out
of that, Dunn was very active in
unearthing many hidden abuses of
the plantation system. He later
served as a member of the Advisory
Committee of the Freedmen’s Bank
of Louisiana.

Dunn made entrance into
polities in 1867 when he became
one of the first Negroes to serve as
assistant city alderman. His prom-
inence among Negro and _ white
groups fighting for Negro suffrage
made him the logical choice for a
high State position when the Re-
publican Nominating Convention
met in 1868, and he was nominated
as lieutenant-governor on the Con-
servative Republican ticket. He
was elected to that position in
April of the same year. Dunn
served with such striking honesty
and efficiency as Lieutenant-Gover-
nor of Louisiana that he won the
admiration of many of his enemies,
while his distaste of graft and cor-
ruption in office made him unpopu-
lar with the self-seeking «members
of his own party.

As lieutenant-governor, Dunn
was also President of the Senate,
and as the head of that body exhib-
ited great knowledge and talents
which commanded respect and
praise. It was declared that ‘‘for
dispatch of business in his official
chair, few men in the country have
been his equal.’’ He was not elo-
quent as a speaker, but he was so
remarkable for his sound judgment
and opinions that men of all par-
ties asked his advice on questions
of State. No one ever doubted his
earnestness in the cause of Negro
suffrage. He placed honesty and
love of his fellowmen above per-
sonal gains, and he always re-
mained a poor man. He once de-
clared that he ‘‘thought and acted

his

138

for himself,’’ and ‘‘ would not make
a tool for anyone.’’

At the height of his struggle for
decency, honesty, and equality,
Dunn died on November 22, 1871,
after he had served three of his
four years in the second highest of-
fice of the State. One of the larg-
est crowds ever assembled in the
State attended his funeral the next
day. Among his pall-bearers were
three former governors of Louisi-
ana, the mayor, the postmaster, and
the Collector of the Port. Confed-
erate soldiers and generals were
among those who paid their last re-
spects to his body. A eulogy de-
livered in the United States Senate
declared that ‘‘Duty with him was
more than riches. A fortune was
offered for his signature; but he
spurned the temptation.’’

Charles Edmund
Nash

Charles Edmund Nash was born
at Opelousas, Louisiana, on May
23, 1844. He left his birthplace—
possibly because of the strong anti-
Negro sentiment in the community

and went to New Orleans, where
he received a common school educa-
tion. He next learned the trade of
bricklaying, and this became his
means of livelihood until 1863,
when he enlisted as a private in the
United States Chausseurs d’Af-
rique, Eighty-Third Regiment. He
rose in rank until he finally became
sergeant-major of his regiment,
and was honorably discharged af-
ter the loss of a leg in the storming
of Fort Blakely.

Nash was elected to one term in
the United States House of Repre-
sentatives in 1874 as Republican
representative from the Sixth Dis-
trict of Louisiana. During his two
vears in that body he served on
the Committee on Education and
Labor. He took a positive stand
against the encouragement of sec-
tional and racial hatred. On one

occasion in the House he spoke out
boldly of political conditions in the
South, declaring that the old bitter-
ness of the war was fast passing.
Like a true statesman of the peo-

ple, he cried out: ‘‘We are not
enemies but brethren... . This
country is our joint inheritance.

. Over brothers’ graves let
brothers’ quarrels die. Let there
be peace between us that these
swords which we have learned to

CHARLES E. NASH

use so well, may if used again,
strike only at a common foe.’’
When his term of office ended in
1876, Nash returned to Louisiana.
Ilis party renominated him for a
second term. But persons who
wished to use sectional and racial
hatred for private gain failed to
understand him, and so he was de-
feated. Still seeking peace and un-
derstanding, he withdrew from
polities. He died on June 21, 1913.

Pinckney Benton
Stewart Pinchback

Pinckney Benton Stewart Pinch-
back was born on May 10, 1837. He
was the eighth child in a family of
ten. His father was a white plant-
er of Holmes County, Mississippi.
His mulatto mother had been his
father’s slave and was later freed

by him. Pinckney grew up to be a
handsome boy—fiery, bold, and
impetuous. When he was nine

years old he and his oldest brother,

Tue Nearo History BULLETIN

Napoleon, were sent to Cincinnati,
Ohio, where they attended Gil-
more’s High School. Two years
later, when his father died, he and
Napoleon returned home. But the
children were forced to flee from
Mississippi to Cincinnati in order
to prevent their seizure as slaves in
the settlement of their father’s es-
tate.

Beginning as a cabin-boy of
twelve on a canal boat, young
Pinechback worked on steamboats
from 1854 until 1861, and during
that time he was promoted from
cabin-boy to steward. On May 10,
1862, he abandoned his steamboat
job, ran the Confederate blockade,
and reached New Orleans. About
two months later he enlisted in the
Louisiana Native Guards which
were then being raised by General
Benjamin F, Butler of the Union
Army. He later aided in the work
of recruiting Negroes, and was
promoted to the rank of captain in
the Second Regiment. His stand
for equal rights and privileges for
the men under his command made
his short stay in the army ‘‘stormy
and eventful.’’ At that time Ne-
groes of New Orleans were permit-
ted to ride only in those street-cars
which had a large star painted
upon each side. But Captain
Pinchback’s bold demand that Ne-
gro soldiers be allowed to ride in
any car often held up long lines of
them while he argued with the
mule-drivers. Protests such as this
finally opened up all street-cars to
Negro soldiers and civilians. He
left the army when the commissions
of Negro officers were recalled.

Pinechback journeyed to Wash-
ington in 1865 to see President
Lineoln in regard to raising Negro
regiments in the North, but such
plans were abandoned when the
war ended. Returning to the
South, he made bold speeches at
several places concerning the un-
just treatment accorded his people.

During his twenty years in poli-
ties Pinchback held more offices
than any other Negro in the United
States. He served as delegate to
the Constitutional Convention of
1867-68, and in that capacity intro-
duced the Thirteenth Article of the

)

ce ta

Marcu, 1942

State’s constitution which guaran-
teed civil rights to all persons. He
was State Senator from 1868 to
1871. Elected to the lieutenant-
governorship upon the death of
Oscar J. Dunn, he served in that
position until he was called upon
during 1872-73 to act as governor
for forty-three days. He was elect-
ed to the United States Senate in
1872, but was not seated, although
that body voted him nearly $20,000
to cover his expenses. During his
unsuccessful fight for a seat in the
Senate, he revived his newspaper,
the New Orleans Louisianian, and
published it thereafter for more
than a decade. Pinchback served
as State school board director in
1877, internal revenue agent in
1879, surveyor of customs at New
Orleans, 1882-85, and as a member
of the board of trustees of South-
ern University, a Negro institution,
from 1883 to 1885. In this same
year he entered a law school, and
upon completion of his studies was
admitted to the Louisiana bar in
1886.

Pinchback later moved to Wash-
ington to live. He kept up his in-
terest in politics, He attended the
National Republican conventions
and participated in the quadren-
nial campaigns. He held no impor-
tant positions thereafter except to
serve in the Internal Revenue Serv-
ice in New York under William H.
Taft. Pinchback died in Washing-
ton December 21, 1921.

James Lewis

James Lewis was born at Wood-
ville, Mississippi, in 1832, the son
of a white man and a mulatto
woman. While still a baby he was
earried to Bayou Sara, Louisiana,
where his early boyhood was
passed. When he was fifteen years
old he went to work as a waiter on
the great steamboats that ran up
‘and down the Mississippi River.
Like hundreds of other free men
of color, he went into the Confeder-
ate Army when the Civil War
came, serving under the ‘‘patron-
age’’ of a white officer for a few
months. He served as a steward
on a Confederate transport during

early 1862, but abandoned his post,
and made his way to New Orleans,
then under Federal control.
When General Benjamin F. But-
ler sent for a group of free men
of color in the summer of 1862 and
asked them why were they fighting
to keep their own race in bondage,
the men asked his permission to
raise Negro troops for the Union
Army. When their request was
granted Lewis was among the first
to raise two companies of Negro
soldiers. He became a captain in
the first regiment of the Louisiana
Native Guards. This was one of
the three Negro regiments of the
same name that saw active service
in many battles, the most glorious
of which was Port Hudson. They
were the first Negro troops to serve
the Union cause in the Civil War.
After the war he became a trav-
eling agent of the educational de-
partment of the Freedmen’s Bu-
reau. In this position Lewis trav-
eled all over the State, ‘‘carrying
light into dark places and opening
up schools on every hand.’’ His
life was in constant peril, because
many of the whites did not want
the Negroes to learn how to read
and write. Very often he ‘‘moved
about in the very jaws of death.”’’
He was once seized in North Louisi-
ana, and barely escaped with his
life. ‘‘But the seeds he planted,
the love of learning he instilled,
brought forth good fruit... .’’
Lewis was appointed United
States customs inspector in 1867
and served in this position for two
years, after which he became ser-
geant of the Metropolitan Police of
the city. Because of the honest,
faithful, and efficient manner in
which he discharged his duties, he
was promoted to the position of po-
lice captain within a year. As
captain of the Fifth Precinct he re-
ceived high praise from the Metro-
politan Police Board. Lewis was
appointed a colonel in the Second
Regiment of the State Militia in
1870, and a few months later was
elected Administrator of Police at
a salary of six thousand dollars a
year. He was elected to the post
of Administrator of Public Im-
provements in 1872, and ‘‘devoted

139

himself to his duties with great
energy and industry, having con-
stant care that every dollar expend-
ed should benefit the city.’’ Al-
though he was the only Republican
official in the city council, the
Democratic mayor was so pleased
with his work that he not only paid
him the compliment above, but also
specified instances wherein Lewis
had saved the city more than half
a million dollars during the first
year of his administration,
President Hayes appointed Lew-
is Naval Officer of the Port of New
Orleans, a position which he held
until 1880. In that year he at-
tended the Republican National
Convention at Chicago, Illinois, as
a delegate from Louisiana. He
was later appointed to the superin-
tendency of the United States
Bonded Warehouse. In 1884 Lewis
was confirmed in his appointment
as surveyor-general of the State by
the United States Senate. He died
on July 11, 1914, at the age of

eighty.
gm. Marcus B. CHRISTIAN

Norris Wright Cuney,
a Son of Texas

Norris Wright Cuney was a po-
litical leader. He was born in
Waller County, Texas, in 1846.
There he attended school and grew
to manhood just about the time
when the Negro had been elevated
to the status of citizenship and be-
gan to participate in polities. He
reached the height of his career be-
tween 1876 and 1880. Cuney was
a born leader. He was courageous,
fearless, and unselfish. Because of
these qualities, he was highly re-
spected by the thinking people of
both races. He participated in
every movement concerning the Ne-
gro of that time and fearlessly
championed the cause of racial
equality and human rights through-
out that period.

He went into politics as a Re-
publican. There in those circles
he had a high standing because of
his influence among the Negroes of
Texas. It was largely through his
efforts that Negroes came back to
the Republican party in Texas in
1879 after they had been diverted

140

to the Populist party, At that time
as many as eight Negro members
were elected to the 16th Legislature
of Texas. Cuney himself was a
candidate for the Legislature but
defeated in both 1876 and

Governor E. J. Davis, how-
ever, appointed Cuney as sergeant-
at-arms of the 12th Legislature.
He held several positions in his
party organization.

was

1882.

Cuney was a man who could al-
ways be depended upon to do what
he considered to be right. While in
polities, he did not suffer his con-
He departed
from partisanship when a matter
of right
called

science to be seared.

Once he
influ-
ence to secure for a friend the ap-
postmaster at Abi-
lene, Texas, to replace the incum-
bent, Mrs. Morrow, the daughter
of Sam Houston. Cuney took the
high ground that ‘‘the lady who
is postmaster there is the daugh-
ter of a man
behalf of Texas are historical, and
not only will I refuse to aid any-

was involved.

was upon to use his

pointment of

whose services in

one to supersede the daughter of

General Sam Houston, but I will
file a protest with the department
against her removal.’’ Such unsel-
fishness characterized his entire ca-
reer, for he received no great com-
pensation in return for the faithful
services rendered the Republican
party except the appointment of
collector of eustoms at Galveston
This posi-
tion passed from his hands when
the Republican party lost control
in the South, and his position had
already been weakened by dissen-

for a number of years.

sion with R. L. Smith, another
prominent political leader whose
antagonism was such that neither

faction could long exercise political
power in Texas.

Norris Wright Cuney married
early in his eareer and had some
children of prominence, His son,
Lloyd Cuney, settled in Washing-
ton, D. C.. as a government em-
ployee and made himself an impor-
tant factor in the religious life of
the community, especially through
the Congregational Church with
which he was identified. N. Wright
Cuney’s daughter, Maud, was born

in Galveston, Texas, February 16,
1874. She was educated in the New
England Conservatory of Music.
She served for a while as director
of music at the State Deaf,

Dumb, and Blind School and at
Prairie View State College. In

1906 she returned to Boston, where
she married William P. Hare.
There she extended her study of
music, gave coneerts, and lectured
throughout the country to ineul-

N. WRIGHT CUNEY

cate deeper appreciation for mu-
sic. She finally collected the data
with which she published in 1936
Negro Musicians and Their Music.

Negroes in the Land
of Cotton

(Continued from page 126)

were W. M. Burton, G. T. Ruby,
Mat Gaines who served in the State
Senate; and Henry Moore, Richard
Allen, Goldstein Dupree, J. Mitch-
ell, Jiles Cotton, A. Wilder, J. H.
Washington, R. Williams, Henry
Phelps, Jacob Freeman, Sheppard
Mullins, Thomas Beck, 8S. Roberts,
Ed. Brown, B. F. Williams, and J.

J. Hamilton in the Lower House.
R. L. Smith and N. Wright Cuney
became influential political leaders
but worked their own undoing by
failing to cooperate.

Tut Nearo History BULLETIN

Neither the majority of the peo-
ple of the North and not even a
small minority of the whites of the
South welcomed the full participa-
tion of the Negro as a voter and an
office-holder. The southern whites
organized secret orders like the Ku
Klux Klan, the Red Shirts and the
like to overthrow the Negroes in
polities by illegal methods. Having
little sympathy with the efforts to
elevate the Negro in polities North-
ern aristocrats did not generally
protest, and in this illegal fashion
the Negroes were gradually thrown
out of polities and reduced to the
position of the free Negroes before
the Civil War. They could labor,
earn a living, secure property and
engage in business, but could not
thereafter participate in govern-
ment in sufficiently large numbers
to change their status.

The taste of freedom which the
had experienced during
these years, however, resulted in
making them a very much dissatis-
fied element throughout the South.
At that time, too, the South was
impoverished as the result of dev-
astation of the Civil War and
the hardships resulting from the
change from one economic order to
another. Some of the Negroes left
these parts of the South for points
in the North when they could find
some way to support themselves and
their families. Many of the former
political leaders went to Washing-
ton to occupy almost any position
at which they could earn a living.
Thousands of them became clerks
in the United States Civil Service,
and this number remained consid-
erable until they were gradually
weeded out when race prejudice in
Washington became so rampant as
to discourage the appointment of
Negroes to such positions.

The only real movement of pop-
ulation of any consequence, how-
ever, was the exodus of 1879. Two
magnetic Negro leaders, ‘‘Pap”’
Singleton of Tennessee, the self-
styled Moses of the exodus, and
Henry Adams, of Louisiana, stirred
the Negroes of the Mississippi Val-
ley to move from the land where
they had suffered such undoing and
to flee to Kansas where freedom had

Negroes

Marcn, 1942

great sway. This exodus affected
especially the Negroes of Louisiana
and Mississippi. So much so that
during the first days of May, 1879,
planters, alarmed at the loss of
their labor supply, called a meet-
ing in order that the leaders of both
races might confer and formulate
some plan for a more harmonious
cooperation of the planters and Ne-
gro leaders of the Mississippi Val-
ley. This situation was alarming,
too, because after repeated efforts
to encourage the immigration of
foreigners into the South to take
the places of Negroes who migrated
considerably immediately after
freedom, such endeavors had failed.
Foreigners, coming into the coun-
try preferred to go West where
they could become independent
farmers themselves. However,
hardly more than a hundred thou-
sand Negroes, although some say
that as many as two hundred thou-
sand, actually left southern planta-
tions for the plains of Kansas. In
the effort to go so far with such a
little and in such large numbers to
one place they suffered about as
much in fleeing from the evils that
they had in facing those they had
not expected. The majority of the
Negroes settled down to making the
most of what they had in the South.

During these years, however, the
real reconstruction had been going
on, and this could not be undone.
The most significant reconstruction
was that which was carried out in
the churches and the schools. For-
tunately Negro ministers could
build upon the foundation laid be-
fore the Civil War by white relig-
ious leaders who even during the
dark days of slavery believed that
the Negroes should have religious
instruction, namely, Bishop Wil-
liam Meade in Virginia, Bishop Wil-
liam Capers in South Carolina, the
Rev. Josiah Law and the Rev. C.
C. Jones in Georgia, and Bishop
Leonidas Polk in Louisiana. The
outstanding Negro workers who
thus figured among the freedmen
were Bishop W. H. Miles, Bishop
R. H. Vanderhorst who first served
the colored Methodist Episcopal
Church, established in 1870; Bish-
op L. H. Holsey of Georgia, a work-

er of the same faith; Bishops A. W.
Wayman, R. H. Cain, and H. M.
Turner, in various places in the
South; J. P. Brockenton and J. J.
Durham laboring for the Baptists
in South Carolina; W. J. White of
the same denomination in Georgia;
and W. R. Pettiford, a worker of
this faith in Alabama. Along with
these toiled scores of others too nu-
merous to be mentioned here.
Those interested in religion, more-
over, were at the same time stimu-
lating the efforts of those who es-
tablished the first schools for Ne-
eroes in the South. These came
through the Freedmen’s Bureau
and the Freedmen’s Relief Asso-
ciations of the various churches be-
fore education at public expense
was provided through the modern
system of public schools. As a cul-
mination of these efforts among the
masses came institutions to provide
for the higher education of the Ne-
ero in the Lower South as well as
elsewhere. Avery Institute at
Charleston ; Ballard Normal School
at Macon, Georgia; Trinity at Ath-
ens, Alabama; Talladega in Ala-
bama; Emerson at Mobile in the
same state; Storrs at Atlanta and
Beach at Savannah came from the
efforts of the American Missionary
Association. From the same source
developed also Knox at Athens in
Alabama; Burrell at Selma, now at
Florence; Straight University at
New Orleans; Tougaloo in Missis-
sippi; Lineoln at Marion, Ala-
bama; Dorchester at McIntosh; and
Albany Normal in Georgia. Sig-
nificant also was the establishment
of the Penn School by friends at
St. Helena Island ; the Laing School
at Mount Pleasant near Charleston ;
the Schofield Industrial School at
Aiken; the Vorhees School at Den-
mark; and the Southland College at
Arkansas. Along came also Atlanta
University. Knox Academy at Sel-
ma, Alabama; and Stillman Insti-
tute at Tuscaloosa were established
by the Presbyterians. Lucy Laney,
educated at Atlanta University,

founded later Haines Institute in
Augusta. The Baptists opened the
Atlanta Baptist College in Georgia
and Leland in New Orleans. From
the teachers and products of these

141

schools came most of the light shed
on the pathway of the Negro dur-
ing the first two generations of his
freedom.

Even with such a stimulus, how-
ever, Negroes were still unable to
cope with the serious situation
which they daily faced. They had
accepted the advice of those who
urged the race to seek religion as a
solution. Next the Negroes had
sought education as the panacea for
their ills; but still the world treated
the race as a problem and denied it
equality and justice. The acquisi-
tion of material things facilitated
by technical training next
urged.

This attitude was greatly popu-
larized by one of the most dramatic
men in the history of the United
States, Booker T. Washington. He
was a Virginian who had been
trained at Hampton and Wayland
Seminary. After teaching a few
years in West Virginia and at
Hampton, he established Tuskegee
as an industrial school in Alabama.
He made popular the idea of pre-
paring the Negro by educating the
hand to work with skill while devel-
oping the power of the brain to plan
and think. He easily made a favor-
able impression with this idea and
established himself internationally
in his famous address at the Atlan-
ta Exposition in 1895 when the ma-
terial progress of the Negro since
emancipation was placed on exhi-
bition in that city.

In the address Booker T. Wash-
ington won the whites by disclaim-
ing any desire of the Negro to force
himself socially upon any race and
urged only that opportunity be giv-
en for the fullest economic coopera-
tion and industrial progress. Tal-
ented Negroes denounced such
teaching. For many years thereaf-
ter the Negroes were thus divided
as to what should be the best plan
of education for the Negro to adopt
for his own good.

During these years, however, the
Negro made considerable material
progress. While all of these efforts
were not due to any particular per-
son or any specific teaching, those
who advocated the progress of the
Negro along material lines had

Was

142

much in their favor when by 1900
Negroes could report the establish-
ment and operation of 25 banks, 82
insurance companies, the ownership
of more land than the area of Bel-

vium and Holland combined, and

the possession of more than a bil-

lion dollars’ worth of property. As
the result of such progress the bur-
dens imposed upon the Negro by
segregating them on the railroads,
street cars, and places of amuse-
ment were somewhat alleviated here
and there. A few Negroes had suf-
ficient means to escape some of
these humiliations, and some whites
in the South became sufficiently lib-
eral not to enforce rigidly such
measures. There has come about
even in the South in more recent
years, moreover, the tendency to es-
timate men not so much according
to their race, as according to their
efficiency. Race distinctions as a
rule, however, are still maintained.

This continuous progress was un-
fortunately brought almost to an
end when this country and the en-
tire world experienced the upheaval
from the mechanization of indus-
try which displaced so many of the
laboring class while bringing tre-
mendous profits to those who con-
trolled the machines. The world
economic order rapidly broke down
in the serious depression which fol-
lowed and contributed to the pres-
ent international self-exterminating
conflict. Negroes like a consider-
able number of whites suffered so
severely that they had to accept
publie assistance, and many of the
enterprises which they organized
years and conducted success-
fully for generations collapsed in
this panicky state. These effects,
however, were not so apparent in
the Lower South as in urban cen-
ters of the North to which the Ne-
groes migrated in large numbers to
supply the demand for labor in in-
dustries during the first World
War. In the Lower South food
could still be obtained in some way
more easily than at the congested
centers, and it has been necessary
sometimes for those seeking their
fortunes elsewhere to return to the
lower South where the pinch of
hunger is not so severe.

ago

Dr. William H.
Crogman

(Continued from page 130)

made him decide to go to sea when
he was sixteen years of age. He
followed the sea for eleven years.
This proved to be a fortunate thing
for young Willie Crogman. It gave
him an opportunity to visit many
lands and learn the ways of many
people. It also gave him a chance
to gain a wide knowledge which
would otherwise have been denied
him. Moreover, he gained the life-
long friendship of Mr. Broomer, a
native of Massachusetts and mate
on the vessel on which Crogman
served. After eleven years on the
sea, Crogman went to live with the
Broomer family in Massachusetts.

When he was twenty-five years
of age, Crogman desired to attend
school, a desire which his benefac-
tor, Mr. Broomer, encouraged. He
saved his earnings for two years
and in 1868 entered the Pierce
Academy in Massachusetts for his
first formal training. After com-
pleting the academy course, Crog-
man decided to come South and
help educate and elevate the Negro
race which was just then emerging
from the darkness of bondage and
servitude. He knew the Negro
needed the guidance and sympa-
thies of trained teachers.

During the next ten years Wil-
liam Henry Crogman taught at
Claflin University, attended Atlan-
ta University (where he completed
the four year classic course in three
years), and was appointed profes-
sor of Latin and Greek at Clark
University.

It was as a teacher at Clark Uni-
versity, beginning in 1880, that Dr.
Crogman rendered his most valua-
ble service to the Negro race. He
served as a teacher there from 1880
to 1903; and in recognition of his
service and ability was appointed
the first Negro president of Clark
University. He served in this posi-
tion until 1910 and then became a
teacher again, teaching until he was
retired by the University in 1921.
He died in 1931 at the age of nine-
ty years.

Dr. Crogman made his greatest

Tue Necro History BULLETIN

contribution to the Negro race
through the influence which he had
upon the many students who sat at
his feet and sought his guidance
during fifty-three years as a teach-
er. The classroom was his field and
arena for service. He felt that the
education of the Negro should have
a deep spiritual meaning and
should inelude training in the high-
er arts and culture. He opposed
those Negro leaders who appeared
to overemphasize industrial educa-
tion for the Negro.
B. H. NELSON

John Hope

In a difficult period of education-
al opportunity and growth for Ne-
gro youth John Hope was an in-
spiring leader. From a stimulating
teacher in the class-room to the ex-
ecutive wisdom and tact of a col-
lege and university presidency, his
career was woven into the ideals
and aspirations of both the racial
and national life, through which
his personality shone with a moral
energy and unselfish service.

Born at Augusta, Georgia, June
2nd, 1868, John Hope was edueat-
ed at Worcester Academy, in Mas-
sachusetts, and Brown "University.
From the latter institution he re-
ceived an honorary A.M., and elee-
tion to Phi Beta Kappa. Ilis dis-
tinguished service to education was
recognized by the bestowal of hon-
orary degrees from many of the
leading colleges and universities in
the country.

He became associated with More-
house College, Atlanta, Georgia, as
a teacher in 1898, and served as its
president from 1906 to 1931. Dur-
ing the First World War he served
in France, with the Y. M. C. A., in
the interest of the Negro troops.
His work on the Council of the
Y. M. C. A. during the post-war
years of rehabilitation was of high
value and lasting influence. Few
men of the race during the last
three decades were of such high
consultive, as well as practical, val-
ue towards the inter-racial good-
will and progress of the South, as
was John Hope.

Marcu, 1942

As a teacher of Negro youth, he
knew its hopes and aspirations, as
well as its limitations and oppor-
tunities; and he strove with an un-
derstanding inspired by that inde-
finable quality and zeal we call
genius, to compose and resolve these
varying elements into progressive
action and achievement. When the
aims of this achievement came into
conflict with the prejudices and de-
nials of Southern opposition and
customs, he possessed both the fore-
sight and power to transmute the
differences into a workable program
that served the interests and co-op-
eration of both races for the com-
mon good.

The monumental achievement of
John Hope as an educator, was the
directing into an affiliation, of sev-
eral academic units, the Atlanta
University system, and the wisdom
with which, as its first president he
served, during the earlier years of
its existence. In this he laid the
permanent foundation for the
growth of the greatest academic
centre for the education of Negro
youth in the South.

Following his death in February,
1936, his eminent career was recog-
nized by the posthumous award of
the Spingarn Medal.

Wituiam STANLEY BRAITHWAITE
Atlanta University

John Wesley E.
Bowen

In any sketch of distinguished
Negroes of the South John Wesley
E. Bowen must be ‘included. He
was born in New Orleans. His fa-
ther, a free Negro carpenter, had
moved from Washington to New
Orleans to work at his trade. There
the son was born December 3, 1855.
Young Bowen studied at New Or-
leans University, taught two years
at Walden College, and then con-
tinued his education at Boston Uni-
versity. There he finished the
course leading to the degree of
Bachelor of Divinity in 1885. In
1886 he received from that institu-
tion the degree of Doctor of Philos-
ophy. He specialized in Hebrew,
Philosophy, and Metaphysics.

Bowen pastored a church while
studying in Boston, and later served

Methodist congregations at Newark,
Baltimore, and Washington, D. C.
Next he functioned as Secretary of
the Foreign Mission Society of the
Methodist Episcopal Church. Then
he went to Gammon as a professor
of Historical Theology and as Sec-
retary of Stewart Missionary Foun-
dation for Africa. At Gammon he
served for forty years, training
hundreds of men to preach. For
four years he was president and for
several more vice-president. He
was a scholar, a fluent speaker and
a popular lecturer of the thinking
class. He led a life of self-restraint
consecrated to Christian service.
He died July 20, 1933.

William Hooper
Council
(Continued from page 134)
to become principal of the colored
city schools of Huntsville.

Going back to the schoolroom was
the turning point in Council’s ca-
reer. In 1876 he was elected presi-
dent of the State Normal and In-
dustrial School at Huntsville. Yet
he was still a man of many inter-
ests. He was a minister of the Afri-
ean Methodist Episcopal Church.
From 1878 to 1883 he edited The
Huntsville Herald. He became a
lawyer and was admitted to prac-
tice before the Supreme Court of
Alabama in 1883. He devoted
much time to Sunday School work.
Yet after 1876 his chief interest
was education and with this school
as a base he did much for the train-
ing of the Negro in northern Ala-
bama. Save Booker T. Washington
no one left a deeper impression on
the educational system as it con-
cerned Negroes in that state.

In 1884 Council married Maria
H. Weeden of Huntsville. Several
children came from this union. One
of them, a daughter, married W. S.
Buchanan, a Harvard graduate,
who succeeded Council but later
moved to Pittsburgh to engage in
business.

Land-Grant Colleges

In the South have slowly devel-
oped the Negro Land-Grant Col-
leges. The South never looked

143

favorably upon the education of

the Negro by Northerners. The
‘Yankee School Marm’’ was hated
as much as the Carpetbagger, but
the South was so indifferent and
poor that for about two generations
the higher education of the Negroes
was provided by philanthropists.
Finally came the allocation of funds
from income accruing to the Fed-
eral Government from its lands as
provided in the Morrill Act. This
sum was meagre, and what was due
the Negro for his share was often
illegally diverted. In the meantime,
however, Negro State Colleges had
been established in all these states
and were contending for this aid.
In addition to what the Federal
Government distributed most of the
States appropriated sufficient funds
to assure at least slow development.

The story of one of these schools
is practically the story of all. That
of Missouri claims to be the first in
that it opened in 1866. The Land-
xrant Colleges in Arkansas, Ala-
bama, Virginia, Mississippi, and
Texas emerged during the seven-
ties, but did not make much more
progress than those of Louisiana,
Florida and Kentucky which fol-
lowed in the next decade. The lat-
est to be established were those of
Georgia, West Virginia, South Car-
olina, Oklahoma, and Tennessee.
The date of founding had no par-
ticular significance. With the
World War of 1914 came renewed
interest in the education. Through
these Land-Grant Colleges, the Ne-
ero, the weakest link in the national
chain, was to be strengthened.

In some states the interest was
greater than in others. West Vir-
ginia, Louisiana, North Carolina,
Tennessee, and Texas first modern-
ized the equipment of their schools
and provided better salaries to se-
eure adequately prepared persons
to instruct the youth. All the states
with Land-Grant Colleges soon fol-
lowed a similar policy. Within less
than two generations, therefore,
these schools have become the best
institutions for the education of the
Negroes in the South—the greatest
achievement in education since the
day of Booker T. Washington.

144

Tue Necro History BULLETIN

Negro History Week Lingers as Negro History Year

ITH the people throughout the coun-

try Negro History Week grows as a

national effort of great significance.
The State Departments of Education and the
school authorities in the large cities have given the
effort more and more official support as the years
have gone by, but the rural schools now bid fair to
outstrip those in the cities.

The most significant step thus taken was the
action of Governor Lehman of New York who
proclaimed the observance as fitting for all citizens
in order to inculcate more appreciation of the Ne-
gro’s contribution to the making of America and
to learn how this race has become entitled to share
with other elements of the population the benefits
of democracy. Thus he showed how we can weld
this nation into the strong unit now desired for the
defense of America and the triumph of its ideals.

At various points in the country the observance
assumed different aspects. Of course, there were
those chiseling organizations which take advantage
of everything that comes along to exploit the pub-
lic. In most centers of educational progress, how-
ever, the theme of the occasion was not forgotten.
The people themselves have advanced sufficiently
in recent years to direct their efforts in the right
way, and know how to avoid the abuses of the ex-
ploiter who is always on hand to profess interest in
the advancement of the Negro race when he is
merely trying to advance himself. The teachers
and students in the schools are now the best judges
as to when they are properly served by those offer-
ing their tongues for the usual fee, or working up
exercises for personal gain.

The most fortunate aspect of the celebration was
that there was less public speaking than ever. The
speaker of the hour has become less and less in de-
mand. The public is now devoting more time to
what can be developed locally as a demonstration
of what it has learned about the Negro throughout
the years of the study of this long neglected work.
Certain centers, however, did close or open their
exercises with appropriate addresss which were in
keeping with the other features of the program of
these seven days. All these addresses have not been

reported to the national office and cannot be men-
tioned here.

It is known at this date, however, that Dr.
Charles H. Wesley opened the Week in Pittsburgh.
Dr. Mercer Cook likewise served Detroit. Dr. L.
D. Reddick filled engagements at St. Augus-
tine and Shaw in Raleigh. The Director of the
Association and the Haitian Consul, M. Rulx de
Leon, closed the exercises of the New York area
with addresses at the Annual Negro History Week
Breakfast on the 15th when 350 or 400 persons
attended.

A most desirable result from the celebration is
the growing dissatisfaction with those who would
restrict the attention given the Negro to just one
week of the year. Both parents and teachers are
approaching boards of education for the proper in-
tegration of the study of the Negro with the social
science program of the regular curriculum. Some
go much further in demanding that the same at-
tention be given the Negro that we give to the
Hebrew, the Greek, the Latin and the Teuton. We
study these nations seriously in one way or another
from the time we enter the kindergarten until we
leave the university, and they have not done any
more to bless the world than the Negro has. They
have conquered, exploited, and destroyed more peo-
ple than Negroes have, but such crimes and misfor-
tunes do not make the world any better. These
nations have not done any more than the Negro has
done to lift man from drudgery unto ease and com-
fort, and out of selfishness unto altruism. Herein
lies the test of the good which a nation actually
achieves.

It is encouraging that both state and local boards
of education are adopting more and more books on
the Negro to make possible this more extensive
study of the race. When we think of the fact that
South Carolina has adopted five of such books,
Virginia six, Philadelphia six, New York City thir-
teen, and that Chicago and Dayton, preparatory
to the same, are working out courses on the Negro,
we are convinced that some of the schools mean to
take up the study of the Negro in a systematic way.
In this effort members of the staff are active.