Morris tribune., 1908-11-28

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 its
educational, but above all for its In
dustrial and moral betterment. 1t Is
to the great interest Of the white peo-
pie no less than of the coIored 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 shown
by their own success in life how a
colored man can raise high his stand
ard of good citizenship. It 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.
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, white
mans paper, there is description in
an issue of couple of years ago of
Mound Bayou under the heading of
'The Most Remarkable Town in the
South This paper describes how
the town has been founded, populated
and managed purely by men of the
negro race. 1t is thriving, growing
town of 1000 people. There is not a
saloon nor vicious resort of any kind
in the town. There are some 5000
people on the tract of land of which
the town is the center. This tract
includes about forty square miles, all
of it owned by the colored people
themselves. Ten thousand acres of
land are in a high state of cultivation
There is big cotton crop and in ad
dftion the colony produces four-ffths
of the corn and hay it needs, with
many hundred of horses, mules, cattle
and hogs. In the town itself there
are six churches and three schools.
There is a bank with capital stock
of $4,000, which does a thriving busf-
ness. The assessed value of the land
in the town itself is nearly $4,000.
There are saw mills, gins, blacksmith
shops, bakeries; all without a white
inhabitant in the neighborhood. The
people are prosperous and singularly
law abiding. Their. white neighbors
have treated them we'll. The county
sheriff employs colored man to act
in the town in the capacity of deputy
sheriff; and the railway and express
company have a colored man in their
Office since the depot was established
in the town; while the board of su-
pervisors appoint colored road over
seers. The town has forty-four mer-
camille and business houses, big and
little, of all kinds, which do an aggre- |
gate annual business of about $780, !
900. Surely such showing by an ex-
colored community means !
very much for the future of the col
ored race. OF course the founders of !!
the community were picked men. /
it Is an object lesson
full of hope for the cOlored people !
and therefore full Of hope for the |
white people too, for the white man |
Is almost as much interested as the
colored man in seeing that the latter
rises instead of falls.