Iowa state bystander. [volume] (Des Moines, Iowa) 1894-1916, 1911-03-17

4
splendid bit Of congregational singing
with 'Blest be the Tie That Binds" as
the hymn, then several selections by the
large chorus, composed of the choirs of
/ all the churches. Rev. /. N. Daniels
presided. Rev. T. L. Griffith and Rev.
Samuel Bates offered prayers, Rev Le
Roy Woolrich read the scripture and
John L. Thompson made the various
church announcements.
| Praises Choir.
After Mr.. Washington had expressed
his appreciation of the splendid audi
ence, he turned first to the choir to
praise it's singing and then with char
| acteristlc humor and good nature he
rallied the negroes for giving up and
forgetting their own songs for others.
"I feel like asking you to sing. Sing
some Of our own songs, not songs Of
other folks. Some people have to hire
others to sing for them. We can sing
for ourselves and we have our own
songs TO sing.
TWO-Bystande Mar 16-G l.
"Let me plead with you not to get
to the point where you re ashamed Of
the old songs of our race. They are
fine; there are none finer anywhere.
Don't grow so intelligent and pros
porous that you III be ashamed Of the
race to which you belong. There are
just two types Of men with whom
have no patience. One is the man who
is ashamed of his race; the other is
tho man who is ashamed Of his own
history. Every race has it's music, it's
peculiar racial songs; the German has,
so has the Irishman, the Frenchman,
the Russian. But no race has finer
music than my race. The Irishman and
the German are not ashamed of their
race songs. Why should any black man
be ashamed of hiss''
Don't Be Ashamed.
When the applause that interrupted
Mr.. Washington at this point had sub
sided, he expanded his idea and drove
home the thought that the negro ought
not to be ashamed of his race any
more than Of his songs.
"Sometimes I have reasonable sue
cess in public speaking. am asked
how I attain it. I always answer this
way: Il speak on subjects that the
other fellow knows the least about and
l know the most about. A lot Of our
people are singing other people g songs
and doing other things Of other peoples
in third class way instead of singing
their own songs and living their own
course in a first class way.
81 know some people of our race who
would rather be third class limitations
Of white people than to be first class
negroes. One can never gain the re-
spect and confidence of any race BY
trying to hide the fact of his own
real identity. If / could 20 back to tho
world from which came on to this
and choose again what kind Of mani
I would be, I d say, Make me again
an American black man. Nc s
Friends, I'm proud Of this race Of
mine, and never more so than tonight
as l look into your faces and hear your
chorus sing.
IT am proud and glad to see that you
have been able to come into this cold
country, !" and Mr.. Washington empha-
sized the "cold' again and again, evil
IDENTIFY having been impressed by the
days raw March winds. "We are pc
culiar people with mysterious strength
and strange ability to adapt our
selves. We seem to live anywhere and
flourish anywhere. You come, many Of
you, from warmer regions, and yet you
adapt yourselves to this. No other race
whatsoever has shown the ability to-
adapt itself to new conditions that our
race Of black or colored skinned peo-
pie who ever lived alongside the Anglo
Saxon, looked him squarely in the eye
and survived. History shows that
every other race of dark skin that un-
dertook to live with and in the midst
Of the Anglo-Saxon is either gone or
going, We have the peculiar distinc-
tion as race not only Of living along
side the Anglo-Saxon, but Of having
gotten something from the white man
to make us better and stronger