Wichita eagle., 1888-07-25
PROGRESS OF THE CoLoRED RACE.

| To the Editor Of the EAGLE.
| Again the question, "What will be the
destiny of the African race in America, F"
has been raised by the rather heartless
manner in which Wade Hampden treats
the subject in his lengthy article III the
July number of the Forum. The article
| aforesaid savors decidedly of ante-war
prejudices, and the old aristocratic no.
| tons Of the southern slave owners, that
the black race was, and ever must con-
tinue to be, inferior to the white; fit only
for the degrading tasks of servitude.
We cannot wonder that those who for
years held race in bondage, compelling
them to obey their every behest and ex-
acting from them the often unwilling
admittance of their inferiority, should
cringe ON that race being placed on a
der that at this day. when in the eyes Of
the whole world they have demonstrated
their fitness to occupy the position OF
citizens and to discharge the duties of
citizenship worthily, they should be ex-
posed to such unmanly invective.
And when, in endeavoring to prove
this necessary inequality, the southern
people go back to the very moment of
their emancipation for the burden of
their proof. it is very unfair, to say the
least. 1t is this sort OF evidence by
which the above mentioned writer at
tempts to carry his point.
1t is not strange, but rather natural,
that on gaining their freedom they
should rush into every extreme, break
over every hated precedent and assert in
ways not the most pleasant to their
former lords nor creditable to themselves
the liberty which thousands of them
subsequently died to obtain perma-
nently.
Referring to his own race, the colored
poet, Albery A. Whitman, in the preface
of his poem, ''Twasinta's Seminoles,"
says: 81 am in active sympathy with
the progressive colored man. | have a
mind to think that he has calling among
his fellow-men. abhor the doctrine that
he is but cypher in the worlds great
ness-a captive in the meshes of domi-
mating influences. abhor it because it
is arrogantly asserted on the one hand,
while too often tacitly admitted on the
other. Yet confess that living instan-
ces of real merit only will correct the
worlds judgement and force its re-
spect."-
These are the eloquent words which
Bryant said had the soul of a poet, and
surely he may be taken as the exponent
of the most refined Of his race. To him
the thought of perpetually bearing the
stigma as being considered as one of an
inferior, non-progressive race, was I'M
endurable, but he was forced to admit
that the only way in which his race
could obtain recognition was by fighting
upwards at fearful odds, and overcom-
ing prejudices by actual successes.
This shows that they are willing to be
judged by what they have done and are
doing, and who can deny that they have,
since the war in which their freedom
was bought with blood, shown that it
was worth all it cost? Have they not
forced the southern press to say that the |
Africans are making giant strides in the
direction of intelligence and morality? !
That even the old birth-marks so char |
acteristic of the negro are being lost and |
that in contact with the whites they are !
becoming more and more their equals:
But a greater evidence of advance /
ment is the fact that in every avenue of .
trade, and in almost every branch Of the |
public service Though less under Bour- !
bon sway than formerly, the hand and !
brain of the dusky freedman successfully
with his white brother. The !
colored people may boast of statesmen,
orators, authors and painters. Here in |
Wichita we have reason to be proud of |
many colored men who are marching to
the music of progress with step as firm
and purpose as grand as ever did that of /
any king, and we find them in the front |
ranks of progress in every city in the
land. Not only have they desire to adj
vance, but they have proven themselves
to have the capacity to do SO, and no
true hearted American will try to stop
their progress. Z. +. j.