Iowa state bystander. [volume] (Des Moines, Iowa) 1894-1916, 1915-06-04
AFRO-AMER|CAN CULL|NCS

j In the American Magazine appears
an account of Mrs. Dismukes, Negro
laundress in Fisk university at Nash
vile, Tenn, who, out of her sinai
means has given $1,000 toward music
building for Fisk university. Forty
nine other thousands are necessary II
the building is tc be realized, but Mrs
Dismukes has infinite faith that they
will be forthcoming. Following Is an
extract from the account Of what this
woman has done. The article was
written by the late DR.. George A.
Gates, the late president Of Fisk uni
versity:
Her story is almost too sacred TO
put into print. She felt and feels that
all OF life that Is worth while she owes
to Fisk university and what 1t has
revealed to her of the spirit Of high
minded and { nerous men and Wom'
en-. She has felt that all she could
do was too little in return for what
she has received. So this hard.work'
irg, faithful and efficient Negro wom
an has kept her home, her husband
maintaining it with a mans self-re.
spect. She meantime has done her
| full work and borne her full RESPONSE
bility in her place in the institution.
For the last four years she has turned
back her monthly salary check into
the institution, until just now she has
completed her long cherished plan to
give $1,000 as the beginning OF
fund for music building on our
campus.
On the day that the last s2o was
turned into the school treasury, COM
pleting the thousand, Mrs. Dismukes
declared she wouldn't exchange places
with anyone, that she was the hap
piest woman in the world.
The music building has not yet ma
terialized, but her faith is undaunted,
and she frequently remarks to some
teacher in the music department: OF
course that music building is coming!
| know it. fee it. Why, it's bound
to come! But wish it might while
I'm alive to see it,
While Negroes increased numerical
" in the United States between 1900
and 1910 to the extent of liz per
cent, they did not keep pace with the
whites. That was due to immlgra-
ton. On this account there has been
a continuous decrease in the proper
ton of Negroes to the rest of the In
habitants In 1890 Negroes made up
nearly one-fifth of the population; In
1910 they composed slightly over one
tenth.
Further. the number of mulattoes
appears to have increased continuous
ly during the last forty years. OF
the 9,s27,763 Negroes in the country
ut the time of the last counting, more
than one-ifth were Of mixed white
and Negro blood. That indicates how
prevalent is the process of miscegena'
ton, a process through which in the
course of a thousand years or so the
Negro will have lost his color &C
cording to at least one anthropologist
of great reputation.
In 1900 20 per cent OF Negro
homes were owned In 1910 the per-
centage had grown to 224. In Vir-
ginia Alb per cent of all Negro homes
were owned, an extremely high fig
ure
Virginia, however, had fewer Ne
groes in 1910 than it had decade
previous. From Virginia 206,764 Ne
groes migrated to other states during
the ten-year period. Though popular
opinion in the South holds that Ne
groes go North" when they move,
Arkansas. a southern state, showed
the greatest gain from this migration.