The Twin City star. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1910-19??, 1918-05-18

shows the patriotism Of the st. Paul
Negro and his loyalty to the nag and
country, while the organization of two
colored companies of Home Guards
demonstrates his determination to pro-
tect his country at home as well as
fight for it abroad.
In fine one who knows them must
say of the Negroes in st. Paul that
they areApeaceful, thrifty, law-abiding
progressive citizens, conscieGEiously
contributing their part to the great
progress that st. Paul is making.
But this progress and determination
Is not confined to the Negroes OF st.
Paul, for one of the most gratifying
phases of the case is that all over the
country the Negro himself is bending
his energy toward fair solution of
the problem in the acquiring of home,
churches and the promotion of insti-
tutions of learning. OF all the spec
tacles in the world today, of all the
scenes in history, there is nothing
more dramatically interesting to the
careful observer of my people than the
picture of the colored race making
the discovery of it's long-buried self.
For while dazed and confused by
the liberty into which it was thrust
and which 1t knew not how 70 use,
stupefied by the anodyne Of bondage
still lingering in its blood, it now is
beginning to stir from It's lethargy and
emerge from its bewilderment.
At last the dawn is beginning to
break, and he who has been asleep
or cropping binding in the night is
coming forth into the morning. The
light of new day is upon his face
and that cheer, which made possible
the bearing of the burden of the
schackles Of slavery, and softened the
sting of the overseer's lash, IL still
in his heart. Iy
The Negro is loyal in time of peace
and patriotic in the time of war. He
vies with every other American citi-
zen in allegiance to the constitution,
in honor to the American flag. and
offers his life and resources to the
government for the maintenance of
ing about the world democracy for all
mankind.
Did 1t ever occur to you that what
you and / commonly know as the Nc
gro race is not a Negro race. Web
ster's Standard dictionary defines Ne
gro as Zone of the black races in
Africa" The colored people in
America are not a black race. They
are a multi-colored race, peculiar in
that they vary in color and in other
important particulars.
All other peoples have some or sew
eral peculiar racial marks that are
characteristic of that certain people,
most races can be told by their sur
name, as for instance Murphy, o.
Toole, Flanagan, plainly denote the
Irish, and LaBatty, st. Julian and De-
Baptist, the French; Olson, Johnson
and Anderson, the Swede; Goldbloom,
Simon and Cohen, the Jew; with Wag-
ner, Betz and Herman the German.
But there Is no name that is peculiar
to the American colored man.
All other races have some peculiar
facial feature, hair or distinctive
color that marks them Enthusiastically,
but the American colored man has
the facial features Of every race un-
der the sun. He has hair from the
texture of the Coarsest wool to soft
ness of silk, and in all colors from
black to golden He varies in COM
plexion from the darkness of an Egyp-
tian night to as fair as the lily, and
because of these variations you pass
many of them on the streets day af-
ter day with never even a suspicion
that they belong to that race Of peo-
pie commonly called Negro in this
country. And this condition, having
been created by the American white
man, it therefore appears to me that
this race variety was MADE I'M
AMERICA, and that we are race
without nationality save that which
we have acquired under hard condi-
lions upon the soil of this country.
We owe neither allegiance nor SYM
pathy to any foreign prince, poten-
tate or power. We hate tyranny be-
cause we have been the victims Of
tyranny. We have no prejudices &C.
CURED abroad, no affiliations with an
older civilization, no prepossessions Of
language, religion or philosophy or
kultur to mitigate our Americanism
therefore, We are simon-pure one hun
dred per cent American.
We now have nearly a hundred
thousand such Negroes in the camps
and across the seas somewhere in
France" and at this hour $4,000, more
are on their way from their homes in
the south to the various training camps.
And although compelled to wait for
their trains in separate, dingy and
dirty waiting rooms, and to ride in
jim-crow cars through the States Of
Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Loui-
shna and Tennessee, states made in
famous by the lynching and burning