The Appeal. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. ;) 1889-19??, 1889-10-26

Every now and thsn Colored man
snatches victory from the grasp O. his
fellow men even when they are men,
bers of the Anglo-Saxon race. Such is
the case of Clement Garrett Morgan who
has just been chosen as orator for Har-
wards class of 80, numbering $50 stu
dents.
Morgan is the son of a former slave
now living in West Washington, d. c.,
where the young man was born, and at
tended and graduated from the high
school. In Washington he learned his
trade as barber and worked in bar
Der shop there. Later he taught school
in st. Louis. His ultimate object being
the earning of money enough to go to
Harvard. He came TO Boston in 1884,
entered the Latin school and graduated
in 1886 with honorable rank. He en-
tered Harvard in the fall of 1886, and
during his vacation worked in a Sara
toga hotel. He also earned money de-
livering lectures in New England on the
"Color Problem" .....
Morgan first attained prominence last
May at the annual
BOYLSTON PRIZE SPEAKING
contest of Harvard University. This is
an annual competition which takes place
in the college theatre and is open to all
the students OF the academic depart
ment in the three upper classes. some
1000 in number. The candidates first
have to present themselves to the elo-
cutionary department of the university
and receive certain amount of train
ing. The department then decides on
the forty or fifty best candidates and
they receive further drill. A second
trial then is had before committee OF
Evolutionary teachers and exper s anu
the best twelve to sixteen are allowed
to compete in the public contest. The
public contest is decided by some dozen
or SO prominent men chosen from the
various walks in life and including such
men as the Governor of the State, lead
ing clergymen, literary men, merchants,
etc. These gentlemen each keep pri-
vate record, marking on fixed scale.
After the speaking they meet and the
sum total of the marks is made, and
with that as a basis the prizes are award
ed. Morgan unanimously received the
first prize of $500 at the public contest.
His oratorical powes were considered
remarkable and made a gaeat impress
sion on the entire audience. At the
SANE contest one Of the second prizes
was taken by another Colored student.
This was quite remarkable, as there were
but fouror five Colored students in the
entire university. Morgan spoke ''Ihe
Emancipation Proclamation" of Carl
Schurz. His success in this contest was
commented on the country over.
The elections for the honor are most
exciting and display as much feeling and
varied electioneering methods as will
be found in the outside worlds political
contests, on one occasion such bitter
fight being waged that the day was
abandoned for that year as com promise
was impossible. Under these =circum-
stances Morgan's election is really re-
markable triumph for him, for it gives
his ability distinct social recognition in
making him the orator or spokesman of
class of $50 men on the great social day
OF their collegiate course. The tickets
to the exercises are limited bv the size
of the theatre to less than 900, are
much sought after and often bring very
high prices.
It might be of interest to note that
the grand total of CoIored students that
have been aud are now at Harvard is
probably inside dozen.