The Kansas City sun. (Kansas City, Mo.) 1908-1924, 1918-04-06
BLIND BOONE COMPANY.

EdltOr Kansas CITY sun:
The interest taken in my previous
letter to YOU seems to indicate a live
appreciation of the signs of progress,
social, economic and political that the
careful observer finds in the racial
life in the Southland.
Since writing you, the Blind Boone
Company, after spending three months
along the Gulf ~tidewater, arrived in
Montgomery, Ala, n of the most
progressive places, from the racial
standpoint, we have found in the
South.
The atmosphere of the racial life
accurately reflects the dynamic influ-
ence of its superior school environ
ment. The location of the State Nor,
NAL within its limits and the proxim-
ity of Selma University, with an en-
rollment of about five hundred stu
dents, and Tuskegee Institute with,
this year, about fifteen hundred stu
dents, reacts upon the racial life of
Montgomery, as it is in one of the
most used lines of approach to each
of the larger institutions named.
The average intelligence is higher,
and more practically progressing than
in many places of larger racial popu-
lation. The religious side manifests
itself in the ownership of handsome
and substantial modern church edi.
fices; and the First Baptist, Rev,
Stokes, the treasurer of the National
Baptist Association, as pastor; Old
Ship, A. NJ. E. Zion, Rev. Matthews
as pastor; Dexter Street Baptist
Church, Rev. Callahan, as pastor; st
John A. M. E.; First Church, A. NJ. Z
T., Rev. Marshall, pastor, are fine
types of the hope of the future OF
church of the race, progressive and
liberal-practical in appointment ant
$ breadth of view of both pulpit anC
pew.
, Rev. Stokes appeals to your consid
5 Grafton, first, as just a great big monty
= man-sincere, high minded and cap
:! able-a natural leader of men; ecsond
ly, as a Christian gentleman in the
fullest sense of the term, sincerely
: contentious in assuming the profes
sion of a minister-for it is II o
! the greatest possibilities for good Of
evil in life, deifying or hooking re
3 ligion; thirdly, as a philosopher, al
altruist, an economist, giving, out o
!. the broad experience of mature years
q his people the benefit in money, pub
, lie service and ideals, the things t.
- / a1nuatn on InfnrfT,ata n anl n,ndi
fly a hostile environment.
S The following is a case in point o
one of the many varieties of service
rendered: 1t seems to be the custom
in the Southland to celebrate tn,
Christmas time much after the fash
ion the Fourth of July is celebrated
in the Northern States; hence, New
Years Eve is the occasion of nue.
fireworks and .hilarity. 1t is ais,
about the time that the Northern tour
lists begin coming south for the win
e ter.
Among the plans of local committee
{ (white) to entertain the visitors an
about forty thousand soldiers of tn
d National Army, stationed at Fort Shel
idan, close by, was the idea of havin
a basket toting' contest.
> For the benefit of those unfamilia
y with the idea, l wish to explain tina
it is a contest to determine who ca
carry the largest and heaviest bundl
or basket on his or her head; @
4 course, the winner usually receive
some inconsequential amoun of none
for being the champion basket toter,
!, etc. You "a easily imagine what
basket toting contest would be lik
= on Main street in Kansas City, an
also about what class of individual
q would be the "toters"; you can ais
appreciate the mental attitude of tn
spectators, the press account and tn
) consequent moral effect of the same.
Thinking of the bunch of unframe'
q pictures who would qualify as "prC
! ~fessional toters," and the %consequen
reflection upon what the race has az
complished or attempted in fifty years
you can better appreciate the indigns
y ton and reset ment with which Rev
h Stokes of the First Baptist Churc'
d addressed his congregation, assemble
at the Blind Boone concert on NeN
D Years Eve night in the church chape
concerning the duty of the race towar
a. such parading of the direlects of tn
race before the world as the racia
10 type, especially before the Nofther
d visitor-many of whom NJ doubt hav
contributed much towards those gran
UNCONVENTIONAL schools that first rail-
le ed a light darkness, and who are sti
,e the educational first line of defens
ID in the South.
Ie Big, brave. courteous. but positive
he made plain to the humblest min