Birmingham state herald. (Birmingham, Ala.) 1895-1897, 1895-10-22
NEGRO DAY IN ATLANTA
Drew Out the Largest Crowd of
the Season.
J. w. E. BOWEN, THE ORATOR,
Did Both Himself and His Race Great
Credit.
THE RACE QUESTION ABB. 2 HANDLED
He Attacked the Theory TSt There Must
Be Amalgamation of Bl S'd to Secure
the Greatest Deve. pnent in
National ssfe.
THE RACE QUESTION ABS HANDLED

Atlanta Oct. 21.-1Negro day WAS the
largest in point of attendance the expo
sition has had. The race made great
success of the day set apart for them.
They had an ode, an oration and address
es by state and exposition officials ard
the blacks did their part of 1t with en-
inent success Their purpose was eX-
pressed in the opening stanza of the ode
by Daniel Webster Davis of Richmond,
Va, who wrote:
where today we come to show the
world what God for us hath wrought,
Here where but thirty years ago we were
as chattels bought"
The orator of the day was Rev. j. w.
E. Bowen, prominent negro educator OF
the south. His subject was IAN Appeal
to the King" The theme was, Has the
negro any place in American life, and II
so what is that place to be-"
Nearly every country in the world mas
a political race problem, said he. Rus
sia has her nihihsts, Germany her so
cialists, France her communism and
England the submerged tenth. In this
country there is the Chinese problem IN
California, the Scandinavian and other
foreign struggles in the nouhwest and
middlewest, the Italian, Hungarian and
Irish problem and in the south the ne
gro problem. The speaker proceeded to
attack the theory that there must be
amalgamation of blood to secure the
greatest development In national life.
please God,' said he, the negro will
have sense enough to stay in this coun-
try and contribute to the correct sou-
tion of this race question until this ma
tion shall become in truth homogeneous
in sentiment. though heterogeneous IN
blood" There is no such thing as per-
feet lifV of individual race. 1nlS
is figment clung to by minds that are
woefully deficient in rudimentary train
ing. 1t was formerly stated that the
negros place in American life was as a.
slave or servant and he must be work
l-er-~-All sensible negroes agree to that
The negro does not shirk from work. All
he asks is an equality of opportunity
We say to the King that the story of our
past fealty is the best answer we can
make touching our future devotion and
interests. 1t is written of us by one of
the greatest democratic presidents, An
drew jackson, that we may be actuated
by lofty purposes, as seen in the noble
defense made by negro soldiers OF New
Orleans in the second British war. 1t
is our record for us that through all of
the social upheaValS between capital and
labor the negro has never been found
with firebrand in hand.
Touching on the education of the negro,
Rev. Bowen declared that it must be on
a par with the education of the white.
1t must begin in the kindergarten, as
that of the white child, and end with uni
versity, as that of the white man.
Abiding to another matter he said:
LAS a representative of the thinking peo-
pie of my race, / take off my hat to the
white man Of this country north and
south, when he swears by all that liveth
that the sanctlty of his home and the pur-
ity of h.s family shall be maintained in
violate at every hazard. We have come
to learn that the purity of woman means
the purity of the family and the purify
of the family purity of the race and ma
tion, and whosoever insults that purity
is an enemy to society and in league with
hell We simply ask that the sins of the
vicious be not charged to the whole race.
Our training on the whole~has not been
what it should have been, but the race is
making a heroic effort to expell from its
system al the virus of degrading sin, and
this far we have made progress. We do
not ask that the criminal escape but
that the court shall put out his crime by
due process of law. We ask that justice,
sure unbiased, remorseless, be meted out
to all criminals, black and white.
Referring to the negro department at
the exposition. the orator said that the
race presented to the country few pro-
ducts of its brain and skill wrought out
under adverse and trying circumstances.
They were rendered as the earnest OF the
races undeveloped power and the proph-
ecy of it's possible future. I'VE record
with grateful recognition the magnanlm-
ity of our southern friends in this OPP
portunty given us to come before the
country in new light This act in it.
self is clear indication of future de-
Velopments."
President Collier made short address
communicating the race on ITS efforts and
the result.
The speech by Rev. Bowen made a
fine impression. 1t was heard by the
largest audience that has yet assembled
in the auditorium.