The Kansas City sun. (Kansas City, Mo.) 1908-1924, 1916-10-21
AFRO-AMERCAN CULL|NCS


: I'm for taking care of the old folks
that's left behind, helplesslike, in the
South. The old slaves have got to
have a home and, with the help of the
Almighty and some prominent citizens,
I'm going to see that they get it,"
The g~rizzled old Negro drew himself
up sturdily, with a look Of mingled
dream and determination on his face
and the light of faith shining out of
the depths of his sightless eyes-for he
is totally blind, and above fourscore
years of age.
Lymus Wallace was born a slave in
Louisiana eighty-two years ago, and
was thirty years old when President
Abraham Lincoln signed the Enamel
patton proclamation. Lymus didn't
think of learning to read and write UNI
til along in 1865, after the war.
From the plantation of his old mas
ter, Thomas Rutland of Caldwell par
ish, Louisiana, Lymus moved up TO
Memphis, acquired a mule or two, and
started hauling cotton. He gradually
built up the trucking business which
has made him a respected and well-to-
do colored citizen of Memphis.
For eight years he was a member
of the legislative council of the board
of public works--the only Negro elect
ed to that responsible Office. His
blindness came on gradually, beginning
SOM twenty years ago. 1t never feazed
him.
The Wallace home-for Lymus has
a wife living, and a family of grown-up
children-is n coy place at No. 613
South Lauderdale street, Memphis.
Three of the daughters are teachers
in the public schools. One son is in
business, another is a student at Fiske
university.
So you see Lymus himself is not one
of the needy eX-slaves-he is rather a
leader and uplifter of his race, and the
old "uncles' and black mammies have
a childlike confidence in his power to
realize his ambitious dream, which has
become theirs.
"Lymus am progressive up to de
minute" they declare.
He has come north armed with a
Charter from the state of Tennessee
and the Endorsement of prominent
Memphians, to see about raising $685.
600 as a starter for the establishment
of a permanent home for former slaves,
to be located at Memphis.
Stopping over at Washington, D. c.,
Lymus and his guide looked in at the
state department witt a letter of in
PRODUCTION to Hon. William ]. Bryan.
But Mr.. Bryan had just resigned from
the cabinet, and that was his busy day,
so the colored brethren came straight
on to New York to present their Gre
dentials to some well-known Southern
ers, including Rev. Doctor Manning
and F. d. Caruthers, vice president of
the Tennessee society.
How many of the old-time slaves dc
vol reckon are living YETI" Lymus was
asked.
That's what we haven't got figured
out, but there's plenty of 'em right
round where 1 live. There were four
y million after the war, and a consider,
able percentage of these are surviving
yet, for, you know, we's a long-liveC
race.
you see, the trouble is that thu
younger colored people have mostly
left the section and the old ones havt
had to shift for themselves. They die
well enough, at that, for awhile. Blu
then the big floods of 1911 and 191:
came along and drowned 'em out. l
was seeing so many of my generation
of old slaves destitute that first pu
the suggestion of an asylum into m!
head.