The Kansas City sun. (Kansas City, Mo.) 1908-1924, 1914-09-26
A PROPHETIC GRAFTON
ENTHUSES LARGE AUDIENCE in HISTORIC
FANEUIL HALL
Reverend Reverdy C. Ransom Discusses the Future
Of the Negro - Presages Wonderful Achieve
ments-A Fitting Finale to the Boston
Garrison Memorial Meeting.

valuable as a free man than as a
slave. What kind of Negroes do
the American people want? Do
white men believe that 100000
blacks, after having imbibed the
spirit of American institutions,
and having exercised the lights
of free men for more than gen
Grafton, will ever accept place
of permanent inferiority in the
Republic? Taught by the Decla-
ration of Independence sustained
by the Constitution Of the United
States, enlightened by the educa-
ton of our Schools, this Nation
can no more resist the advancing
tread of the hosts of the oncom-
ing blacks than it can bind the
stars. or halt the resistless motion
of the tides
What kind of an American
does the Negro intend to beY The
answer to this question he must
seek and find in every field of
human activity and endeavor. He
does not intend to be an alien in
the land of his birth nor an out
cast in the home of his fathers.
He will not consent to his elimina-
ton as political factor; he will
refuse to camp forever on the
borders of the industrial world !;
as an American he will consider
that his destiny is united by in
dissoluble bonds with the destiny
of America forever; he will strive
less to be a great Negro in this
republic and more to be an in
fluential and useful American.
As intelligence is one of the chief
safeguards of the republic, he
will educate his children. Know
ing that people cannot perish
whose morals are above reproach,
he will ally himself on the side
of righteousness, having been the
object of injustice and wrong, he
will not be the foe of anarchy and
the advocate Of the supremacy of
law. As an American citizen, he
will allow no man to.protest his
title, either at home or abroad.
He will insist more and more, not
only upon voting but upon being
voted for to occupy any position
within the gift of the Nation. AS
an American whose title to citi-
zenship is without a blemish or
flaw, he will resist without com
promise every law upon the sta
tute books, which is aimed at his
degradation as az. human being
and humiliation as a citizen. He
will be no less ambitious and as
piring than his fellow country
men; he will assert himself, not
as Negro, but as a man; he will
beat no retreat in the face of his
enemies and opposers; his gifted
sons and daughters, children of
genius who may be born to him,
will make their contribution to
the progress of humanity on these
shores, accepting nothing but the
honors and rewards that belong
to merit. What kind of an Amer
lean does the Negro intend to beY
He intends to be an American
who will never mar the image of
God, reproach the dignity of his
manhood, or tarnish the fair title
of his citizenship, by apologizing
to men or angels for associating
as an equal, with some other
American who does not happen to
be black. He will place the love
of country above the love of race (;
he will consider no task too diff
cult, nor sacrifice too great in his
effort to emancipate his country
from the unchristlike feelings of
race hatred and the American
bondage of prejudice. There
nothing that injustice so much
respects, that Americans so much
admire, and the world so much
applauds, as a man who stands
erect like man, has the courage
to speak in the tones of man
and to fearlessly act a mans part.
If Americans become surfeited
with wealth, naughty with the
boasting pride of race superior
ity, morally corrupt in the high
places of honor and of trust, ener-
waited through the pursuit of
pleasure or the political bondmen
of some strong man plotting to
sieze the reins of power, the Ne
gro American will continue his
steadfast devotion to the flag and
the unyielding assertion of his
constitutional rights, that this
Government of the people, for the
people and by the people may not
perish from the earth. '--T The
Transcrint.