The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1905-05-10
DISCUSSING NEGRO QUESTION
First Problem Brought Up Before the
Episcopal Congress.

EHb FToolem bfOuNnt I'd beIOre inc
Episcopal Congress.
The twenty-third congress OF clergymen
OF the Protestant Episcopal Church Of
America is holding sessions in the hall Of
the Young Mems Christian Association.
st the corner Of Bond and Fulton streets,
Brooklyn.
Last evening the topic for discussion
was The Future Of the Negro in America
Bishop Lines said that there were only
100000 negroes in the country when the
civil war ended, as against 1900, 900 now,
and yet In 1895 there were more negro
communicates OF the Protestant Episcopal
Church than there are in 1905.
Bishop Co6djutor Strange said that be
did not agree with those who thought that
the solution Of the negro problem was to
De through emigration, amllgdmatlon or
the dying out Of the race. He said that
the Southern man with his ultra gloomy
view, and the Northern man, with his ultra
optimistic view were both right and both
wrong. They were looking at reverse
The Rev. John Wesley johnson OF New
York who followed DR.. Strange, is negro
OF excellent education, fluent address and
q certain dry humor in his intonation which
caught bis bearers from the start. He as
strongly pronounced negro features, but
is a mulatto.
I notice that many Of you white men
who talk about the negro problem, said
Mr.. johnson, start oil by telling US we
must have race prde-that we must think
a good deal of ourselves. You 90 that in
one breath, and then in the next breath you
explain to us how our race thousanCs OF
years back never amounted TO anything
You tell US we may vote, but that we must
60 to Africa to do IL.
Now, II anybody reading history as
written by q Caucasian gets any impression
at all, Il Is that the only race on earth that
amounts to anything IL the Anglo-SaXon
race, Japhet is the only one who counts
in those histories, Shem and Ham don't
count--they're no account al all. have
lost a good deal Of faith In the Caucasian
historian when he starts out 60 tell what
{ the negro Is. They talk about negro in
feriority, but ! think it is just because the
whites have a big bank account and might
on their side-might acquired by 200 years
Of Christian civilization and intelligence.
The comparison with the negro on that
basis j. net fair. Compare the negro with
any ether race as close in touch with bar
haric past as IL the negro and the negro
race is a strong race. It ia race nobody
| need be ashamed to belong to. They have
said of US that we were going to die on;
but we are not diving of. ! was up at the
Charity Organization Society the other day
the Society for the Prevent ION Of the Spread
! Of tuberculosis.
'sShe had a lot OF statistics-figures on a
paper that looked like cbimneys. Each
/ race had oneof the chimneys, and the negro
/ tuberculosis smokestack was about twice
( as large as anybody else's. But you had
| had lecturers going around telling the
! Germans and the Italians and the Jews and
the Irish how not TO have tuberculosis.
/ But nobody had told the negroes that.
/ The negroes didn't get any tuberculosis
( lectures. Yet, even Without any lecturingr
we had got almost up to the Irish
J There is not much danger Of our dying
I out If you will give US little lecturing
| When the negro looks down the race an
| Inhalation lane. he thinks he will take some
other path through the woods. He doesn't
| like the scenery along that road.
| Now, the negroes are an aspiring people
| They don't want 10 progress backward.
! When we came here we found Indians
| here. We didn't follow the indians; we
| followed you. That reminds me Of what
an old colored barber down South said 70
me, He said: The white man can't get
( away from me. It's no Use for him 20 try
/ II saw the white man going up TO Heaven
on a cloud I'd catch hold OF his coat tails
| and 20 along, too.