The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1906-08-01
NEGROES TALK OF
ADVANCES MADE
Bishop Gaines Names Enemies
of Race in South
GRAVES MOST DANGEROUS
Says TiIIman, Vardaman, Davis nd
Dixon Are Avowed Enemies of
the Negro. Bonaparte
Makes Speech.
GRAVES MOST DANGEROUS

Washington, July 31.-The negro Young
Peoples Christian and Educational Con-
gress, having for its object the education
and moral uplifting of the race, began a
five days session here today Several
thousand delegates are in attendance rep
resenting every state in the union, and
some have come from foreign lands. The
first days session was devoted to ad-
dresses of welcome and speech making.
Bishop Wesley Gaines of Atlanta and
Secretary of the Navy Bonaparte were
the principal speakers.
In his quadrennial address Bishop
Gaines, who presided over the congress,
spoke of the fact that the negro race had
been brought through many difficulties
and trials since the last meeting in At
lanta, four years ago.
On Brink of Despair
I'VE have stood almost on the brink of
despair" he said, ''but l thank God that
In the darkest hour we have been able
to gather courage and stand firm in the
hope of future of better understandings
and better days"
In spite of obstacles he said the race
had made progress. even in four short
years.
we should feel encouraged" he ad-
ded, 'as our statistics show not only
an increase along material lines, but there
is every evidence of mental and moral
growth In forty-one years of freedom
our people have accumulated about two
billion dollars worth of property and we
have advanced so that more than 90 per
cent of our people can read and write. If
our race has improved SO much in less
than fifty years, what may 1t not achieve
in another half century?
Submit to Awful Humiliation.
I'VE look for Christianity to soften the
hearts of the white people so as to give
us a chance to help ourselves and not
to strive with unchristian spirit to crush
us and prevent us from doing what we
can. We have had to submit to the
awful humiliation arising from separate
car laws on both railroads and trolley
lines, but we must not be discouraged.
The mob laws, the hangings and the
burnings at the stake of negroes in many
southern states, though terrible to reflecs
upon, must not darken our minds so that
we despair.
I'VE have said that we have made
great progress but we still have a giant
burden of ignorance and lawlessness to
carry, and to endeavor to destroy as we
move upward. Yet | find that
thank God that though we have so many
enemies, we are not without friends. [
must say that we could not stay in this
county were it not for our white friends
and their strength of character"
Bishop Gaines then specifically named
as avowed enemies of the negro Senator
Tillman of South Carolina, Governor
Vardaman of Mississippi and Governor
Jefferson Davis of Arkansas and Thomas
Dixon.
He added that John Temple Graves
could be counted among them as the
most DANCE. rs of the group, because
he is the most 4. shly educated"
Bonaparte Speaks of Future.
Secretary Bonaparte then spoke on Lhe
future of the negro race in America.
He said that the part 1t will play in
civilization is a~question no less difficult
than interesting. He doubted whether
anybody can give more than crude
conjecture about what the "fates" have
in store for the race and the country.
Mr. Bonaparte declared that the negro
race is the only one which has been able
to live with white people Wherever, as
in the temperate and cold regions of
America, South Africa, Australia and the
islands of the South Sea the white man
can make himself and has made himself
home his presence has been fatal TO
all other races. except the negro race.
Indians and Australians and Polycenians
had died off before the white man, but
the black race had not. He therefore
argued that the negro could not afford
to be lazy and ignorant and vicious. for
all around him, pressing him on every
side, was a race with which he had to
compete whether he wished to or not,
and which it would tax all his energies
to struggle against.
There is no room In America for people
who can't take care of themselves" he
declared.