Twentieth Century Negro Literature Part 56

All these questions are in a large degree to the race, as far as interest is concerned, at least, the momentous, the ever-present, ever-burning topic.

No youth of the white race feels the weight of any subject agitating the mind of the public as these colored youth feel this one. What is the omen, when boys and girls alike make it a common question, in some form or other for all their daily work? It has been said that the two races are growing apart, that there is as much race prejudice in the one as in the other. In many respects this is true, though the prejudice on the part of the Negro is a thing of natural growth from certain causes, not an inherent quality. The fact that the Negro is rising without anything like adequate recognition--at least other than a patronizing one--is one of these causes. As here and there the Negro comes, to the white man's higher level, among the best he is confronted with that "Ah-you-are-here." Ah, which means more than words can express and he straightway feels his pulses stirred to the defensive counter spirit of "I-am-and-what-are-you-going-to-do-about-it?" The result is the two mutually draw back from each other.

Among the middle cla.s.ses where the level of the whites intellectually and financially is more readily and more rapidly being reached by the greater number of Negroes there is still more prejudice to be found.

It is here where the Negro has his fiercest battle ground; it is here where he finds his greatest opposition. It is only following out the idea of the French writer who said, "Mediocrity alone is jealous." The constant desire of this cla.s.s of white people to rise to the highest level aggravates them upon seeing a Negro reaching out for or obtaining in any way that which they may have or may be seeking, and they "take it out" by greater a.s.sumption of superiority especially over those of the race who have reached their own plane of living, and here again is a creation of a counter prejudice.

Growing refinement brings with it to the Negro all that sensitiveness which is accorded to refined people wherever found, and naturally he recoils from rebuffs, insults, and contumely, and holds himself aloof more and more only as business demands contact. He has no growing reason to revere the whites as a ma.s.s, and if nations are proverbially ungrateful, what more can be expected of individuals, no matter how much fine theorizing there may be upon the subject of what the Negro owes to the white man.

With this increasing prejudice, for reasons named, there is a growing race pride. This is taking firm root among the young people of the Negro race who are being taught to respect those of their own number who have obtained honor and distinction through merit. The school-boy and school-girl are studying the history of their own race with eagerness. They are finding out that it is not an altogether degraded people from which they have sprung, and with the gathering evidences about them of education, refinement, even wealth, and high character, they see no good reason why they should be despised for mere color or the possession of some imperceptible drops of Negro blood, as in many cases. This is a laudable pride based upon both the past and present and, as we have said, they are more alive to all that pertains to race matters than any other set of young people whom we are able to mention.

What is the omen? Think you that the growing generation will tamely submit to the endless continuance of present and past grievances?

Think you that this thoughtfulness of the Negro youth will be without some sort of fruit? Will these not have as much influence upon their ignorant brother ma.s.ses as have the whites over the ignorant ma.s.ses of their own color? I repeat, the white man does not thoroughly know the Negro. He does not begin to see all that boils and seethes and ferments in the brains of this growing cla.s.s. It is well for the nation to learn wisdom from the mouths of babes and sucklings. And when these prattle of race issues it is an omen not to be unheeded.

TOPIC XXIX.

WHY THE NEGRO RACE SURVIVES.

BY PROF. T. DE S. TUCKER.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Prof. T de S. Tucker.]

THOMAS de S. TUCKER.

Thomas de S. Tucker first saw the light of day at Victoria, in Sherbro, Sierra Leone, West Coast of Africa, on the 21st day of July, 1844. His mother was the youngest daughter of James Tucker, hereditary chief of Sherbro. The founder of the family, about two hundred years previous, was an Englishman, from whom the surname is derived.

On the paternal side, Tucker comes of an ancient n.o.ble family in the east of France, the de Salieres, of Ma.r.s.eilles. His father, Joseph, although descended from this n.o.ble lineage, was an ardent admirer of Napoleon Bonaparte, whose checkered fortunes he followed to the disastrous field of Waterloo.

In accordance with the custom of the country, the wife being deemed of higher social standing than the husband, the son took the maternal surname. Tucker was sent, at a tender age, to a school located in the family territory. Such was his rapid progress that in a few years he had acquired English sufficiently enough to read and write it about as well as the average child of his age in this country.

In the summer of 1856 he came to the United States to complete his education. Having just completed the English course in the public schools of Oberlin, Ohio, he entered college and completed the course in 1865. He then crossed over into Kentucky and opened day and night schools for the education of the newly freed race.

From Kentucky he removed to Louisiana, where the climate was more congenial to his tropical const.i.tution. During his residence of many years in that State he was employed most of the time in the customs service with chances of preferment to higher and more lucrative posts, which he never sought nor cared for. His tastes have always inclined him to the more quiet and private walks of life, where he can promote the welfare of his fellow men, without show and the applause of the giddy crowd.

President Grant once advised him that he intended to offer him the Liberian Mission, but Tucker was so indifferent in the honor that he made no effort to be commissioned.

Anxious to pa.s.s away from official duties, he studied law and entered on practice in New Orleans. This profession was so fully in keeping with his tastes he hoped to pursue it the rest of his days. Finding that his legal training practically restricted him only to Louisiana, he removed to Florida and located at Pensacola. He was admitted to practice, and with it he rose rapidly both in knowledge of the common law and in securing a paying clientage. He stood high with the bar, from judge and attorneys to officials. He saw every prospect of realizing the fond dream of his ambition when once again a call of duty to serve G.o.d's humble children came in stentorious tones. The State in 1887 had founded a Normal and Industrial School for the training of Colored teachers. A telegram unexpectedly announced that Tucker had been elected by the State Board of Education to take the management of it. He demurred, he objected; but leading Colored men and the Chief Executive importuned and requested his acceptance of the place. By patient perseverance and tact he succeeded in enlisting the hearty good will of all cla.s.ses to the maintenance of the inst.i.tution. The history of his work is a part of the educational records. Many men and women of worth and saving influence in their respective communities in Florida owe their training to the devoted consecration to duty of this native of the "Dark Continent." The school itself will ever remain a lasting monument to his tireless, efficient devotion to the welfare of his race.

He retired from the field of his labors at the close of the fourteenth year, carrying with him universal regret for his departure, and the esteem and respect of the whole State and the acclamations of good will, especially of the people of the capital in which the Normal School is located.

It requires no stretch of thought to understand our constant and earnest interest in everything which concerns our environments. Every question and issue of national significance have for us a vital consideration for weal or woe. We scan with greedy eagerness the expressed policy of the statesman, we hang with bated breath on the eloquence of the sentiment moulder, we probe with tremulous care the feelings of the community to find out if we have been pushed to the rear or given a fair chance in the race to a higher life--our final place in American life.

While we are not, and should never be, unmindful of all interests which appertain to others in this vast country of which we form such a necessary part, it is natural and right that our first thought should be of our own welfare.

The position we are to definitely a.s.sume and maintain in the distinctive American civilization now in process of formation, is yet concealed in the womb of futurity; we can neither antic.i.p.ate nor force it against the period of its advent. While we are pa.s.sing through this slow process of development, it is well at times to take a reckoning of our race powers by way of encouragement to such as may become faint and weary in the combat. All are not strong, all are not determined, all are not forceful. The fiercest courage will now and then lose its force when battling against steady odds. Moreover, our shortcomings, like the shirt of Nessus, are not only with us ever, but they are on constant exhibition to shame, mortify and humiliate us. While it is not sensible to shut our eyes to these painful reminders of the obstacles to our progress, while it is even best to invite a searching scrutiny of them to the end that they may be torn off by heroic methods, if need be, after all an occasional study of our strong parts is a help in the struggle.

DISCARD SELF GRATULATION.

In the attempt to reflect on the staying powers of the race, I have not the remotest idea of pandering to conceit or vanity, to the contrary, I decry any disposition to extol and magnify whatever we are subjectively, and whatever we have achieved. The fierce conflicts we have undergone and the terrible crucible through which the cruel hand of fate promises to pa.s.s us, dispel the idea of self gratulation.

Life for us in the conflict ahead is all stern and serious. Wounds and scars will for generations yet to come be the decorations for our leaders in thought and action; there is no niche in the edifice consecrated to our present and coming heroes for fulsome, windy flatteries airing their importance to the galleries. Hearts true and stout charged with big emotions to raise and elevate their suffering kind to a higher plane, should be the only thinkers to claim our considerate attention and command our homage.

THEME UNDER CONSIDERATION.

In the theme I have chosen for this paper, I shall endeavor to show that the latent and active attributes of the negro eminently adapt him to be cla.s.sed among the survivals of the fittest in the family of races. Before proceeding, however, to a formal discussion of the subject, it might not be amiss for a minute or two, to take a running retrospect of the race since its advent into its present civil life.

The three decades which mark the close of our Civil War have perhaps not only written history more broadly in the behalf of humanity in general as interpreted by Christian civilization, than any other similar period, but they have been the most momentous in shaping the national life by moulding and settling policies of a lasting nature.

The admission of millions, of what is termed an alien race into the solution of an untried problem of government by the people, rendered that problem still more difficult, hence, wild and extravagant speculations bearing on the future of the Negro and the questionable influence of his changed relations on American life, became the current literature of the country for two decades. Friends spoke in fulsome praise or doubtful measure, according to conviction, while enemies protested in exultant tone that a generation or two hence would suffice to write the Negro's epitaph. But even in that early period of his infancy, had the nation been disposed to study him with other than preconceived, erroneous views, it might have perceived traits which justified the wisdom implied in his changed condition.

Thus far, if he has not risen to the dizzy heights to which the hopes of ardent enthusiasts invited him, he has at least, not only belied the gloomy fate of inglorious extinction, but he is going forward with steady strides to realize an honorable destiny in common with the many other people of the Republic.

ORIGIN OF A STRONG RACE.

A strong race, like marked personality, is the product of varied and opposing agencies. As in nature when conflicting elements struggle for the mastery and bear the impress of the strongest, so in the evolution of a forceful people, its character takes on the form of the means that has been most efficacious in moulding it. There is no instance in the authentic annals of the human family where a masterly people has emerged into greatness from the tame school of gentle methods. Trials keen and severe, have first slashed, cut and tortured the entire being in mind and soul to fit it for the new life it is to enjoy in accordance with its destined end. What has ever been thus will always be so.

QUALITIES INDICATING THE NEGRO'S SURVIVAL.

In this law of nature, in the formation of dominant powers, the Negro has no favor to expect. He must pa.s.s through the fiery furnace and be shorn of dross to leave the solid matter which is to const.i.tute the framework of his strength. First among the many qualities of survival which distinguish him as an enduring race, is patient endurance and fort.i.tude under affliction. The elastic temperament of the race in the ability to adapt itself to varying conditions, in swaying with the force of the tempest until the fury of it is spent, in seizing with instinct on circ.u.mstances that tend to save, is something not only amazing, but marvelous. No oppression however heavy, no ebullition of wrath however fiery, can swerve him from the road he has chosen to attain his purpose as a part of the pulsating life of this nation.

From a dogged determination to b.u.t.t aside forces which contained the elements of his salvation, the Indian has pa.s.sed into a retreat closed to contact with the active life of the dominant power of the land. On the other hand, the future of the parent race of the American Negro in the dark continent is bright with hope from its ready a.s.similation of the civilizing agencies of European civilization. In obedience to this self-evident law of survival, j.a.pan has entered on a new existence, while its neighbor, China, the home of a kindred race, bids fair to become the easy prey of Western greed.

STRENGTH, NOT WEAKNESS.

Now this easy swaying to conditions, when his welfare is in hazard, and for which the superficial thinker twits the negro with lack of manliness, is one of the strongest elements of his being. Were he less malleable than he is, less ready to concede where contention can only work him woe, were he wont to resent in wild and reckless fury, real or fancied wrongs, were he too obtuse to perceive and profit by the pa.s.sing advantage, were he to remove his cause from the bar of reason, and the verdict of a calm judgment he would neither be imbibing the civilization of his native land, nor would he have achieved a t.i.the of the wonderful progress which is to-day the vindication of his freedom, and at the same time the shame and confusion of those who foretold his ignominious pa.s.sing away. Patience pure and simple, coupled with, and gracing a quiet heroism, has enabled him to bridge over the earlier days of his trials, and confirm his status in the body politic to the general acceptance of the American people.

THE NEGRO'S WARFARE, MORAL AND MENTAL.

The honor which waits on material contest counts for little to the Negro's advantage. Indeed, if the strife with which he is confronted were to be waged on such an issue, the result could be foretold in advance. His warfare is moral and mental, and by the arts of peace he is to be left a cipher or rise in triumph to honorable destiny.

Physical courage which the negro shows largely in common with other races has its trophies blazoned in marble and bra.s.s only to crumble beneath the corroding tooth of time. The warfare of mind and heart which ever calls in evidence only the highest courage of man's nature leaves its achievement to immortal fame to grow with the ages till time surrenders it to Eternity.

WHAT HAS BEEN ACCOMPLISHED.

By the exercise of this gentle but potent virtue of learning to labor and to wait, we have mined our way into the heart of educational authorities to grant such of our sons and daughters as are competent the privilege of becoming preceptors to the youth of the race. By the nurture of the same virtue, our slender means have tickled the greed of capital to call us away from obscure streets and narrow lanes that we may enjoy a wider range of selection of homes befitting higher tastes and growing ambition. Go, if you will, into the Southern section of our country where the bulk of our race resides, and there you will find by this same st.u.r.dy persistence to wait on time for a reward that schools, colleges, churches and business enterprises are being built and maintained. Prejudices which r.e.t.a.r.d our progress are crumbling to pieces.

THE OPTIMISTIC TEMPERAMENT.

The cheerful sunny temperament of the Negro is another of the many st.u.r.dy qualities which declare his fitness to withstand the blows of adverse fortune. His long training in the school of mental and moral darkness wherein he had need to cultivate a sanguine temperament to buoy him up, stands proof against dark forebodings and pessimism. The grotesque and the ludicrous find in him a joyous patron. Where others count and bewail their woes, he sees only sunshine. Gloom and sorrow melt away at his approach, while his features are ever radiant with mirth and joy. His head is up and erect with every sense attuned to the bright, and dead to the doleful. He thanks G.o.d that the lot apportioned him is fashioned by infallible wisdom, while he munches with contentment the humble crust that honest toil has brought him.

Malevolence towards his fellow men is at the most a pa.s.sing emotion.

Wealth and the happiness attendant on it, he neither envies nor mars.

He asks a chance to live, no matter how sumptuously others may fare beyond his condition. Such a being is forever beyond the pale of anarchy, and other tendencies which work to the detriment of society.

In this portraiture I have drawn no ideal, but the average Negro as he is known of all men.