San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1893-06-22
EMANCIPATION GRAFTON.
Delivered by DIR. j. 7. Walton, at
Riverside Park, June 20, 1898.

Riverside Park, June ~, 1875.
Mr.. President, friends and fellow
citizens Time in its rapid flight
melting out to us the successive
days, weeks, months and years, has
again brought us to the month OF
June, and to the birthday Of Oul
freedom. Again do we gather tC
commemorate the anniversary OF
the illustriOus event which made
of us free men and women and saw
the dawn of a new emancipation
We reach the 2Sth milestone to-
day-are % years old, as it We're
in the prime of our freedom, our
faces aglow with enthusiasm,
which, "like a thread of all sus-
tanning beauty, runs through all
and doth all unite" we assemble
to take retrospective views of the
painful past, discuss the all i'm
portant present and lift the veil of
the future. With light hearts, then,
oblivious, at least, for the time
being, of distressing cares and the
sundry burdens of life, have you
assembled on this glorious gala
day. AS l look out before
me at this vast sea of faces, wit
ness the various demonstrations
that you are waking, as | note the
eagernesss and interest which
seems to animate your entire
being, catch the inspiring strains
of music furnished by your excel
lent band, | am reminded that you
are entering fully into joys and
spirit of this occasion; that your
hymns of thanksgiving to the
divinity which has so happily
shaped your ends are today being
freely sung-that your latch string
is pendant from your doors and all
the world made welcome to your
feast of merriment.
1t is difficult for us to believe
seeing as we do so much that de-
notes intelligence, progress and
activity, that our dark past was
not a dream, a creature of our
imagination, or that we were ever
slaves-that the chain had ever
fettered our limbs or we knew
aught Of the lash. We look about
for the handkerchief head and see
it not, the typical Sambo and
Diana are, to use the common eX-
preston, "small potatoes and
few in a hill" and the terms
massa and missus are well nigh
obsolete. The bible beater and
hymn book abuser have each been
relegated to well merited OBSCURE
ty, and the intelligent divine
graces your pulpit. Were it not
for few survivors in whose faces
time is tracing it's burrows and
whose locks it is silvering we
should be led to question whether
we were the real slaves, Orif some
mistake in identity had not been
made, for it is possible that any
people could make so much pro-
gress in so little time. This de-
mOnstratiOn today reminds me
that. many of our friends are learn
ing to unlearn many of the absurd
things they used to believe about
us; we seem no longer too kthick
headen to learn, we are hardly re-
garded yet Except by our morn
ing daily as an eXcrescence upon
the body polite, as sort of I'M
natural fungus or marketable
goods but rather as men and as
such part and parcel of this
great commonwealth.
Thus guided blythe benificent hand
of and allwise Creator are we work
ing out our own destiny and grad
ually unravelling the tangled skein
which forms the so-called negro
problem.
Our history is no less peculiar
than it is interesting. DecOyed
from our fatherland into a strange
country, put on the block and sold
at market value, like so many
cattle, held in bondage for a mum.
Der of years. subsequently enamel,
pated, tits true, but ignorant, pen.
niless and superstitious, we have
thrown off this thralldom, risen
PhGnix-like, and today we pre-.
sumo the prestige and level occu,
pied by the proud and accomplished
of any other race. With education
and enlightenment as our watch,
word, each, like the patient artist
before the frowning canvass, bend
ing himself with unremitting yea
to the making Of man of himself
and the redemption of his race we
have pushed ahead to a newer, 6
better, a brighter, a higher life
new emancipation. Nor have
our skins changed their color, o.
our hair its texture in order to de
fhiS NAn a 70 lnnmrnnc still cliIrh n :,