The Madison daily leader. [volume] (Madison, S.D.) 1890-current, 1908-11-27

justice is meLGd out TO the cOlOred |
han, the same justice that he would |
receive if he were not colored; and !!
upon the colored man is imposed the |
duty to make himself useful citizen, |
to SO behave as to win the respect of !
his white neighbor. The performance
of duty should be the test applied to
white man and colored man alike and
each individual should be judged not
by the fact of his color, but by the
way In which he meets these demands
of duty; and the first duty which each
colored man owes both to himself and
his race is to work for the betterment
both of himself and his race; for it's
educational. but above all for it's in
dustrial and moral betterment It is
to the great interest of the white peo-
pie no less than of the colored people
that all possible educational facilities
should be given the colored people;
and it is of even greater interest to
both races that the colored man
should steadily strive for his own in
dustrial and moral uplift.
Negro Town Success.
To teach by preaching is never as
good as to teach by example. No
words of advice and encouragement
on my part can count in any way COM
pared to what has actually been done
| by those colored men who have Slown
| by their own success in life how a
| colored man can raise high his stand
ard of good citizenship. 1t is the col
| ored man himself and no outsider who
| can do most for the colored race. |
want to call your attention and the
| attention of all who care to listen to
me to the noteworthy record of the
| town of Mound Bayou, In Mississippi.
I stopped at Mound Bayou year ago
| while going through Mississippi.
Twenty years ago the place was all
| wilderness. Now thriving and pros
porous town has been built, with a
thriving and prosperous country round
about; and every man in the town
every man in the country round about
| is colored man. In the Planters
Journal of Memphis, Tenn, a white
| mans paper, there is a description III
an issue of a couple of years ago o.
Mound Bayou under the heading o
'The Most Remarkable Town in the
South" This paper describes how
the town has been founded, populated
and managed purely by men of th'
negro race 1t is a thriving, growing
town of 1000 people. There is not
saloon nor vicious resort OF any klnt
In the town. There are some 500
people on the tract of land of whicl
the town is the center. This trac
includes about forty square miles, a.
of it owned by the colored peopl
themselves. Ten thousand acres @
!; land are in a high state of cultivation
There is big cotton crop and in ac
!, dition the colony produces four-fifth
of the corn and hay it needs, wit
: many hundred of horses, mules, catti
and hogs. In the town itself ther
are six churches and three schools
: There is bank with a capital stoc
. of SIC, 1000, which does thriving bus
ness. The assessed value of the Ian
/ III luG tOWH itSCll 40 hOoA ~ %No'""N
There are saw mills, gins, blacksmit
/ shops. bakeries; all without whit
: inhabitant in the peighborhood. Tn
people are prosperous and singularl
| | law abiding. Their white neighbor
/ have treated them we'll The count
, sheriff employs colored man to az
7 | in the town in the capacity of deput
+. | sheriff; and the railway and expires
t company have a colored man in the
: Office since the depot was establishe
r in the town; while the board of 81
/ pervisors appoint colored road owe
2 seers The town has forty-four me
t camille and business houses, big an
. little, of all kinds, which do an aggr
gate annual business of about $500
900. Surely such a showing by an e
clusively colored community NEAR
VERY much for the future of the CO
Iored race. OF course the founders
the community were picked me
J Nevertheless, it is an object lessc
: full of hope for the colored peop
land therefore full of hope for II
white people too, for the white ma
, is almost as much interested as II
colored man in seeing that the iatt'