Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-03-30

Conducted by Grace Livingston HilI-Lutz.
For Sunday. March 81 1907
American. Psalm cxvi 1919.
16 o Lord, truly am thy servant; am
thy servant, and the son of thine hand
maid: thou hast my bonds.
II. l will offer to thee the sacrifice of
| thanksgiving, and will call upon the name
of the Lord.
49, L Will pay my vows unto the Lord now
in the presence of all his people.
H. In the courts of the Lords house. in
the midst of thee, o Jerusalem. Praise We
the Lord.
The Lesson.
few days ago the newspapers an
nounced that the Rhodes scholarship for
the state of Pennsylvania had been this
year awarded to a colored man. His name
Is Alain Leroy Locke, resident of Phila-
deiphia. and at present student in Har-
ward University, from which he will be
graduated in June, having completed the
Tour years course in three years.
In the provisions of the will of Cecil
Rhodes color makes no difference The
examinations are a severe test requiring a
wide knowledge of arithmetic, algebra,
geometry, Greek and Latin. About fifty
look the examination, but only five passed.
or the five the young colored man was
deemed best fitted to receive the award
Not only scholarship, but character man
liness and popularity with fellow students
as we'll rank in athletic sports, had a
part In the final selection of the candidate
and the committee of decision was COM
posed OF Provost Harrison of the Univer-
sity of Pennsylvania DIR. Moffat president
OF Washington and Jefferson College;
President Swain of SWarthmore College
President Russell of Westminster College
President Haas of Muhlenburg College
The scholarship provides for three years
course at Oxford University, ST. 500 year
being Its value He is the first colored man
TO receive one of the American Rhodes
scholarships. The young man says he in
tends to devote himself to study while in
England, and on his return to this country
to devote himself to the lettering of the
condition and general education of his race.
IhlS anordS most convincing fact with
which to head our list. The Afro Americans
have material among them of which to be
proud. Who shall say but in the coming
years we shall as a nation point to the race
which was once enslaved, proud that they
are our brothers, one with us in this great
free commonwealth?
During the great ecumenical missionary
conference held in New York in 1900 a num-
Der of missionaries from Africa spoke
strongly upon the need of native workers
in Africa. and suggested that the American
negro was the one to do the work One Of
them said:
Il believe that God in His providence has
been intending and preparing the American
negro to assume large place in the evan
gellzation of Africa. Within twelve miles
of Lovedale | saw an American negro who
last year, baptized some three hundred
people in that country. And as l sat in
his house the native men and women came
and squatted the floor and perched on
the trunks and chairs, and there was such
a freedom and lack of formality as would
be impossible in the house of any other
missionary than black man. The
prejudice in South Africa will force our
missionary societies to recognize that the
American negro can do a work there that
no other people can do. Only one
man is practically immune from the deadly
African fever, and that Is the black man.
So when | the negroes of our southern
states, people who came here naked saw
ages, having no word of the language and
having no idea of God, and who today are
four millions in number, redeemed, regen-
Grated, disenthralled, l believe that God is
going to put it into the hearts of these
black boys and girls in the schools of the
south to go with the message to South
Africa, and to West Africa. and vndicate
American slavery far as it can be vim
dicated by taking across the ocean the
stream of life.
This certainly is a great work for the
American negroes to do. Not all of them
can be missionaries, but those who cannot
can work to send the rest, and the many
institutions which are doing such good
work among them are helping to cultivate
In them a desire for the higher things. AL
ready their warm, loving natures are going
out in desire to help the race from which
this earth they will be able to read in the
pages of Gods great history why they were
allowed to go through the trials of slavery
that In the end they might be changed and
fitted 10 carry back the news of life to
those of their people who sit in darkness.
Since the days of Fiske University. when
work among the negroes was new and
prejudice was bitter and hard to work
against there have sprung up great inst-
tutions where the Afro-American may
learn to be all that he is capable of being
Ana the instance of young Locke is enough
TO show that he is often capable of being
all-and in some cases more-than his white
brethren.
At Mayesville, S. c., there is a good work
going on under the direction of Emma Will
son and corps of colored teachers IT
| began with a few little children that Miss
| Wilson gathered about her in their old
| church. and it soon grew into an institu-
| ton that has almost the dignity of q COL
| lege, and is doing "A great Industrial and
! educatlonal work 1t has the sympathy of
| the white people about because they see in
| II the honest and Intelligent effort of the
! colored race to help itself
| Ihls year the session opened with 52O
| children and young people crowded into the
buildings. OF these 100 are boarders Some
! of the teachers are graduates from Hamn-
| ton and Tuskegee. Here they are given a
! good English education, and the BOYS are
| taught bricklaying shoemaking or car
penterlns or biacksmithing, and the girls
! Learn to cook and sew. This year the army
| worm, which made terrible ravages and the
| floods and storms have made 1t necessary
| among the people to exercise the strictest
| economy, yet many have succeeded in
| scraping together the small sums to send
| their children. One boy whose parents are
too poor TO pay for his board at the school
walks eight miles morning and night to at
tend the school. That Is more than many
white children could be induced to do In
order to obtain an education. Many of the
scholars trudge nearly as far as this boy
twice a day to attend the school. The sad
49, fn l.ot1 ftr,aAO hNx-c nr rr1,
on foot from distance. having heard of
the school, and hoping to enter and pay
for their board and tuition by work, and
when they get there there is no room and
no work left. And yet II costs but $35 TO
provide board and teaching here for one
school year. Here truly Is an opportunity