The Nashville globe. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1906-193?, 1912-04-19

INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE.
Continued from Page y
that they might be more helpful to
their own people either as teachers
or in some other capacity, when they
return home
] mention these facts here because
they indicate to my mind, not so
much an interest in any one particular
institution or in one particular form
of education, but rather a very wide
spread unrest in regard to education
al matters in general, and at the
same time a hope and faith that there
are opportunities for broadening, i'm
/ proving and applying education to the
actual needs of life, in ways which
we are just beginning to realize the
possibilities.
! This is the reason, ! take it, that so
many Of you have come from distant
narts of the world; from Europe,
from Africa and the West Indies, to
attend this Conference. You have
1 come to Tushegee, in other words,
not so much because you believe we
have discovered or invented any new
and specific remedy for the problems
YOU have encountered in the differ
ent lines of work in which you are
engaged, but rather because you have
heard that we have been trying ex
1 periments, and that we are earnestly
seeking to add something to our
knowledge of what education can
practically do, particularly in the solu-
ton of the some of these new and
difficult problems, which have sprung
up in different parts of the world
as a result of the closer contacts of
the white and colored races.
A Distinguished Africans View of
This Meeting.
One CT the interesting portions of
the program was the reading of the
letters from the persons who were
| invited or who heard in some way
about the Conference, but were not
able to come. Very few of these
letters are of the ordinary formal
sort. Many of them give interesting
glimpses into the life of the native
peoples and suggest something of the
ideas and aspirations that are stirring
in the back of the black mans brain.
in many parts of the world. For ex-
ample one of these lettes is from
DR.. Edward B'yden, written shortly
before he died, an exile from his
home in Liberia, at Sierra Leone,
West Africa. DIR. Blyden, who was
born in the West Indies and emigrat-
ed to Liberia was one of the most
distinguished and earned Negroes in
the world has yet produced. He was
at different times President of the
Liberian Republic, Ambassador to
France, and head of the College of
West Africa. He was a deep student
of Arabic, and had travelled far and
wide among the Mohammedan Blacks.
He had peculiar theory to the effect
that the Negro could never become a
Christian because, as he pointed out.
in all Of the imagery of the Christian
Church, the religious paintings, the
statuary, and so forth. Christ and the
angels are represented as white.
There are no black angels, and for
that reason, he said, the masses of
the black people are not going to
believe in the Christian Heaven. DR..
Blyden was inclined, in his latter
years, to the creed of Islam. which
is strong among the native African
peoples. He favored Mohammedan
ism, because it forbids the use of
images, pictures or symbols of any
kind in connection with religion.
To Or. Byden, the significance of
this Conference seemed to be the fact
that a Negro school should have be-
come so widely known that without
any one regarding it as strange or
unusual, it was possible to invite peo-
pie from all over the world to visit
it. Dr.. Blyden said
am not surprised to get a letter
from you on the important question
to which you have been good enough
to call my attention.
In the first place, / may say, | am
very proud that a member of the Ne
gro race has risen to such a position,
as to be able to summon to his home
the whole world to discuss with him
the Negro question. Secondly. be-
cause l have seen the invitation pub.
iished in several English papers, and
not one has either by implication or
directly given any sign of objection
to the right of DR. Booker T. Wash
ngton, to summon the whole Chris
tian world to meet together to deal
with the question which concerns not
only the Negro race in America. but
the whole African Continent.