The colored American., 1903-04-18

man, who wears neither collar nor
cuffs, who went from the South to
Kansas with ninety cents, but now
owns seven hundred acres of the best
land, and this season shipped 10000
bushels of potatoes to market The
largest brick yard in Durham, N. c.,
Is owned by Negro, who, with his
wife, began to build it up when they
were liberated. One of the largest
dry goods stores at Montgomery, Ala,
is conducted by a Negro a few PAGES
from the spot where. Jefferson Davis
took the oath of office to build a gov
ernment, the cornerstone of which was
American slavery. A leather store at
V1cksburg, Miss, is conducted by a
Negro, from whom the wealthy plant
ers are proud to buy their saddles and
harness A Negro at GreenvilIe, Miss.
sells books to white and black in a
region where a few years ago it was
a crime to teach a Negro to read.
At Jackson, Miss, the largest and
most successful restaurant and candy
establishment is operated by a black
man, half of whose clerks are white
In your own city, continued Mr. Wash
lngtOn, two of my fellow black men
conduct prosperous merchant tailoring
shops. But we have gone further than
being merchants; at Birmingham,
Ala, is a bank that started on the
head of a flour barrel, but has grown
until now it has 1900 depositors. You
would never know there was a black
man about until he poked his head out
Of the cashiers window. At Richmond
Va, are three banks owned and opera
ted by colored people. Few business
establishments have a higher rating
than the building and loan association
n6 hxr n1n
ton, Va. Out of these building houses
we formed the Negro Business League,
about 800 strong, which discusses at
it's meeting such questions as econom-
les and banking. Yet l have recently
heard it more than whispered that the
Negro is not making progress enough
to justify the money spent on him by
the northern people My friends, by
what do you measure progress? Ne
groes pay taxes on one twenty-siXth of
the property in Virginia, owning l.,
100000 acres and $15,000,O0O in Geor-
gia. These are tangible and indispu-
table evidences of the progress of my
race"
To the pesSimist who asks what has
the Negro to show for his forty years
of freedom? 1 would say to him, be-
hold our churches through this coun-
try with their steeples pointing to
heaven; our schools, and colleges
training the youth of our land, our
banks, stores, business men, and wo-
men, our teachers, preachers, DOCTORS
lawyers, mechanics, st'enographers
typeWr1ters, musicians, writer's COM
poserS, editors, orators, and states
men; our soldiers, painters, artists,
dressmakers, poets, farmers, and men
and women with bank accounts.
would point to a host OF manly men
and dignified women.
The result of a new generation, I
would point to the True Reformers
Bank at Richmond; to Tuskegee, to
Hampton, to Lynchburg Seminary, to
Fiske, to Spelman, Clarke, Cannon,
Atlanta Baptist College, Morris Brown,
Shaw, Benedict, Arkansas College, and
host of other institutions. 1 would
speak of Wood, the inventor; of Ed
monia Lewis, the sculptress; Frances
Harper, the orator; Geo. w. Williams,
the historian; w. E. Dubois, the sociol-
ogist; Tanner, the painter; Montgom-
cry Jones, the artist; Paul Dunbar and
D. Webster Davis, the poets; of For
tune, Cooper, Taliaferro, e. w. D.
Isaac, John L. Mitchell, White and
Knox, the editors; of Boyd, the pub
Usher; of the A. M. E., the Zion, and
q M hlichinor Of IL