The Grenada sentinel. [volume] (Grenada, Miss.) 1868-1955, 1918-03-22
NEGRO EDUCATOR
MAKES PATRIOTIC
ADDRESS.

President of College for Negroes In
Piney Woods Talks to Consrega-
ton at A. M. E. Church on Why
the Colored Man Should Get Un-
re.ervedly Behind the War. Was
Heard by Several White Citizens.
A highly interesting as well as
instructive address was delivered Sun
day night by Prof. L. c. Jones, col
ored College President, at the A. M.
E. church in Grenada. By invitation
several Of the white citizenship OF
Grenada were present among whom,
besides the ladies, were: Prof. A. b.
Campbell, Messrs. W. NJ. Dubard. J..
T. Thomas, J. G. Wilson, II. H. Heath
and O. F. Lawrence. Prof. Jones
was educated at Ames, Iowa. He
came to the piney woods section OF
Mississippi, apparently with no other
desire than to be the means OF up
lifting his own people and thereby
contributing to the general better
ment of Mississippi and the South:
He talks fluently. He reasons well
and there is just enough Of humor
in what he says to keep the mind OF
his hearers on the alert. He speaks
as one vino thinks he has message
to deliver and he goes about his duty
with a precision and deftness. He has
q valuable school property at Brax-
ton consisting Of nearly 1900 acres
of land and some handsome build
inps. All features of industrla! work
are given attention and agriculture,
of course, is not being overlooked.
FPvl IL
dents in attendance and from what
Prof. Jones says, he must have the
work highly systematized and the
absolute cooperation, as well as the
good wishes of the white citizenship
of that immediate locality. No doubt
much money has been put into this
school enterprise by various citizens
of the North but it is a we'll known
fact that many of the best white cit
izens in Mississippi have for several
years been putting money into this
school.
Prof. Jones was presented to the
audience by Rev. H. H. Buckingham
in a few appropriate remarks. The
speaker expressed his great pleasure
at seeing some of the white citizen
ship present, He then gave just a
little insight into his own life and
told his people that he came to them
not as a representative of the gov
ernment OF as anybody's hired man,
but that he came beacuse he telt IL
his patriotic duty to lift his voice
in behalf of his country in this try
ing hour. He said that the war need
ed the colored man but he would also
have the colored man remember that
he could not afford not to do all IN
his might for the United States at
this time, lest when victory came the
colored man would not be in posi-
ton to receive the benefits that We're
in store for his race as result OF the
war. He said that the white race had
done the great things that it had be-
cause it had an ideal and because
it had a record to sustain. He sad
that the white people were Justly
proud of their family history and he
implored his own people to so l!ve
as to have a family history to which
they might refer with pride. he
talked of the American fag-its stars,
its stripes and what each represented :;
he said that there was not a single
thing in the flag that the white peo-
ple were not proud of. He insisted
that the colored people had something
to do with, making that fiag-that
they had part in the War OF the
Revolution, in the war OF 1917 ana
that they had fought valiantly In Gu
ba during the Spanish American war
All these things, the speaker said,
should be an inspiration to the col
ored people to respond nobly to the
Nations call at the present time. he
said that there was nothing else for
the colored people to do except to
STAY in this country and that they
Jared better in the South than else
where. He said that while he was
reared in Iowa that he would have
the colored people know that when
any great body of them got into the
North that they found conditions
there the same as in the South. he
said that the white man was the same
wherever he was found. He talked
very plainly and very practically
about social and econ o m c
conditions confronting the negro, but
he insisted that the Negroes destiny
was within himself; that he must
show himself worthy of higher and
bigger things before they would be
entrusted to him. The speaker stat
ed that the war gave every negro
an opportunity just as it was giving
every white man and that he believed
that the negro who showed the great
est patriotism would do the most for
his race. He said that outside of car
rying a gun in the army, that there
were hundreds, yea thousands, OF 9th
er things that the government needed.
He said that this was no time for
the loafing negro, that if that sort
of a negro ever had place it was
gone now. He 'enjoined his people
TO take the message of food crops
out into the high ways and the by
ways. He said that he greatly de,
plored the fact that the negro had
heen so wasteful but be plead for
them to save something of whatever
thew made now He said that the
first thing white man saw in a dol
lar was church and school house.
e. Xasx