The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-11-27

cording to our ability and as far az the conditions will permit. to secure to the man of one color who behave. and with foresight, the same oppor- tunify Tor reward and for living DIS life under the protection of the law that would be his if he were of an- other color. The avenues of employ ment should be open to one as to the othsr; otas,,5 th the protection protection of the aT trs other. Each should be given the right his capacities are. and should bs the reward which he iegltimately earns if he behaves well; each should be judged with the same severe im- fsir Ra trestmens m ns 0sheSid should be accorded both, and every effort made to give equal opportunity to those of equal capacity and character. It Is the duty justice is meted out to the colored man, the same justice that he would receive If he were not colored; and duty to make himself a useful citizen, of white neighbor. The performance
 s S assy 5 shG1s snS eCes S s sa sss sPRed PRs an sG 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 dustriai 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 and 1t is of even greater interest to both races that the colored man should
 steadily thrive for his own industrial To teach by preaching Is as good as as to teach by example. No words of ad- vice and encouragement on my part can
 count in any way compared to what has actually been done by those colored men who have shown by their own success in life how q coiored man can raise high his standard of good citizenship. It is the
 colored man himself and no outsider who can do most for the colored race. l want to call your attention and the attention of all who care to listen to me to the note- worthy record of the town of Mound Beyou
 in Mississippi. stopped at Mound Bayou . year ago while going through Mississippi Twenty years ago the place was all wilder ness Now a thriving and prosperous town has been built, with thriving and pros-
 porous country round about; and every man in the town, every man in the country round about, is a colored man. In the Planters Journal of Memphis. Tenn,
 white mans paper. there Is description in an issue of couple of years ago ot
 Mound Bayou under the heading of The most remarkable town in the South" This DaDeT describes now the town nAS Deeh
 founded. populated. and managed purely by men of the negro race. It Is thriving
 growing town of 1000 people. There is
 not. not = saloon no. vicious resort or, or aSS SoS
 people on the tract of land of which the town is the center. This tract incdludss
 hD0Ot h0 ,hs s0rS eS,ogeS ' oeopIs themselves Ten
 thousand acres of land are in high state
 of cultivation. There is a big cotton cror.
 fifths of the corn and hay 1t needs, with
 many hundreds of horaes mules. cattle.
 and hogs. In the town itself there are six
 churches and three schools. There is a
 bank with a capital stock of S10.ooo. which
 does a thriving business. The assessed
 value of the land in the town istelf in near
 ly S25.000. There are sawmills. gtnz black
 smith shops. bakeries; all without a white
 inhabitant in the neighborhood. The peo-
 pie are prosperous and sipgulaxly law-abid-
 them well. The county sheriff employes
 a colored man to act in the twon in the
 capacity of deputy sheriff; and the rail-
 way and express company have a colored
 man in their office since the depot was established in the towni while the board
 of supervisors appoint colored road over seers The town has forty-four mercantile
 and business houses. big and little. of alt kinds. which do an aggregate annual busi-
 ness of about six hundred thousand doliars
 Surely such a showing by an exclusively colored community means very much foy
 the future of the colored race. Of course the founders of the community were picked men Nevertheless it is an object lesson
 full of hope for the colored people and
 therefore full of hope for the white peo-
 pie too. for the white man Is almost as much interested as the colored man In
 seeing that the latter rises instead of falls.
 Mound Bayou has taken the lead in es-
 tablishing the Mississippi Negro Business
 League Its members are not content with
 taking care of the business interests of the
 community. They have recently sent out
 a circular addressed to the negro farmer.
 the circular being signed by Mir Charles
 Banks. the president of the Business League
 This circular concludes with the following
 admirable advice: "See to 1t that your
 poptatoes are weel housed for the winter
 Xiii enough meat to not be forced to cali
 on the merchant early as in former