The Birmingham age-herald., 1903-07-26

ahead of all the other civilized world. For one hundred years, the great planta- tion schools, teaching carpentry, black smithing, wheelwrighting, farming spin ming and weaving, shoemalxing and all other kinds of trades and avocations did more to elevate and lift up the black race in America than all Christendom ac- complished laundering around dark continent for a thousand years. What ever other men may think, l do not be- lieve that I could devise a better way of bringing millions of human beings from blackest night to the broad daylight of civilization. And, for all this, the south has my blessings and not my curses.
 Tn building up the negro race, we have the experience of the white race, from which to draw. We do possess, hold, and enjoy many privileges which has cost that race years of toll and strug- gle, sacrifice and lives, and for which we have never shed tear. Toll is the price of success. diversity is the prize of manhood, hardship is the road by which every man and every nation will travel to usefulness. As the counter current lifts the kite, majestically and grandly heavenward; so toll and difficult ty lift up a man and a race toward the goal of usefulness in life. God requires a price for every good.
 Racial Suicide.
 "The destiny of the black race Is in its own hands. It will be what 1t makes itself. Racial death will be racial sui eide. No nation dies by the hands of another. It lives as long as it keeps In harmony with the laws Of existence. The American Indian is not in harmony with the laws of existence. He fights and dies commits suicide. The negro Is in har- mony with the laws of existence. He yields and accepts a high civilization, and 1t doth not appear what he will be. He has all the opportunities for racial growth. All else rests with him.
 What negro will be depends entire ly upon the attitude toward himself, as well as toward other people The negro must be a negro. He must not seek to unrace himself, but even seek to devel- op in his own sphere as a negro, after his own nature, and then he will suc- ceed. He should not attempt to get away from his black skin, discard his kinks, be ashamed of his physical features in gen. era1. But let him straighten the kinks on the inside, whiten his face through his heart, adorn his physical features through his intelligence; magnify and exalt himself into the recognition of the
 
 proportion as he respects himself. The white man grows by raith in his own silken hair his blue eyes and strong muscles. He does not seek to run away from himself, but he is true to his own nature.
 American Prejudice a Blessing.
 "American prejudice. which draws a line on negro patronage, is blessing in r1t.. .f restaurant, or the entrance into a thea ter Is nothing but the voice of God call ing the negro to establish these concerns for his own good and amusement; pa- tronize himself, put his own girls and boys Into positions and make himself rich No glass of soda-water shall stand between me and manhood. The refusal of the right to vote can not keep me from being a man. There are greater things than voting. I have the right to hold a deed for land to have a bank ac- count, build up a good character, and good name; and stand as high as any man for right and truth in the communi- ty.
 while the lessons taught by our white neighbors are often severe, they are of great importance to us in bdlding up our people The white man has something sacred. He honors himself. reveres his men of integrity, and holds his women as sacred as he does his God. People who hold nothing sacred can never amount to anything. Honor our good men, our strug- glipg young men. exalt our children, and make sacred our women. This done, the battle is won.
 White Man Makes Himself.
 'I have no respect for the doctrine of intellectual superiority of races. I could not respect a God who would make men different in their intellectual, moral and Industrial capacities, and then hold them to the same industrial moral and inteilec- tual accountabilities. If this were so, the races in superior condition certainly have no credit, but I would rather take the view that races in superior condition have placed themselves there by superior eff forts. They do deserve credit for what they have accomplished. The white man does not enjoy right or privilege which he has not purchased by heart aches, tears and blood He teaches the sublime lesson of overcoming by endurance and forethought Superiority of races must be measured by superiority of conduct He is the superior man who does superior things to lift the world to superlor con- ditions, regardless of the color of the skin in which he Is wrapped
 Every negro should do his best to be