The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1915-03-02
Negro Physician Makes
A Notable Address

In a -.otable speech at Little Rock. Arb
on Emancipation Day, DR.. Wilkins, negro
took occasion to administer severe rebuks
to the authors and promoters of reconstrno
ton. He said:
The negroes should not forget those who
had held out to them the hand of real friend.
ship in those Tying days. Those were nro-
tended friends who had the negro to no.
lieve that Mr.. Lincoln's proclamation ever
contemplated the elevation of the ex-slavo
to sudden place and power Such course
only alienated the negro's best friends from
him, and reconstruction in its methods de-
tached the negroes from those with whom
their lots had to be cast. The South was
not responsible for this. Our Southern
friends begged that we listen not to the re.
construction leaders who taught us to trust
not those whom we had trusted and who
trusted us. There had been no friction be-
tween us and the Southern people except for
those who came among US to ALLEVIATE US ana
teach us impossible ambitions.
ION Emancipation Day it is our duty to
free the mind of the white man from the i'm
pressions made on him when our race was
under the vicious leadership of false friends
Unless we do this our Emancipation cele-
bration will not mean anything. Let us GEL
citrate by returning to our first love- and let
us join hearts and hands with them. =
Let us remember the Southern white man
ruined as ne was Dy Cu0 wal, gave. US 1000
and homes. He fed US when hungry, cloth.
ed us when naked, administered to us when
sick, and visited us when in prison. Let us
not forget who our real friends were. Re-
member all you who think that Lincon's
proclamation set you free, that if so our
white friends were our saviors."
Here DR.. Wilkins describes a scene that
took place on every old ante-bellum planta-
ton home. Every one on the farm at that
period will recognize the truth of the follow
ing pathetic story in DR.. Wilkins own
words
please excuse this seeming depression.
remember well, as if it was but yesterday,
when old mistress came into the kitchen and
told my mother:
Aunt Jane, you are free. AS free as |
am. And you can CO..
'She wore a large gray shawl, and as she
turned to go l saw tears on her pale cheeks.
My mother caught hold of her shawl and
with streaming eyes said:
g Miss Jennie, where shall l go? What
shall do? 1 have nine children, and know
no one but you. Why must l leave your
I'VE were all crying now.
ooh, no, Aunt Jane she said, you need
go nowhere. You can stay right here, if you
wish, and so long as have crust of bread
you and your children shall eat. | will pay
you what wages / can. And so long as live
and you stay if you suffer will suffer, too
I'VE stayed, and she did suner, mucn more
than we. This scene was at that moment
being enacted in thousands of homes all over
this broad land. Those words were as the
star of Bethlehem on that dark night to
every negro then on the plantations of the
South, as he stood dumbfounded at seeing
old mistress in tears.
And when old master came to his dilapi-
dated home from the war he said amen to
every word that old mistress had said. And
all was well, until the carpetbagger came
and, with his damnable practices, preaching
and promises, Matched the hell into which
the South was plunged from 65 to rs, and
out of which the negro came reft of the
friendship and help of those whom he knew
and who. knew him. And the scamp fed
with the ill-gotten gains to safer quarters
and left us to shift the best we could and
meet the storm of an outraged manhood.
Today l wish you to celebrate the release
Of our friends from worse slavery, a more
CALLING yoke, than we ever wore. And let US
celebrate by returning to our first and best
love- and let us join hearts and hands with
them and sing with all the soul:
" never will leave or forsake thee,
Where you live 1 will live, your God shall
be my God
And where you die there will be buried"