Overshadowed: A NovelGriggs, Sutton E. (Sutton Elbert)
General
Overshadowed: A Novel
Griggs, Sutton E. (Sutton Elbert)
African Americans -- Fiction
Here he paused for an instant, and then resumed, "But the greatest
objection we have to the Negro is that his nature does not seem to have
in it the seditious element to any appreciable degree. He will move
along patiently, enduring evils and debating his right--actually his
right--to rebel against oppression. He has an abnormal respect for
constituted authority. He does not admit to himself the inherent right
to throw off the hand of an oppressor. He stands and looks pleadingly at
him, waiting for the time to come when the better sense of the oppressor
will assert itself. He really expects for the tyrannous spirit to
develop forces within that will overthrow itself. Ignorant of history,
he does not know that the spirit of oppression will yield only to force
or the fear of it. The Anglo-Saxon has never gotten anything for which
he did not fight, or impress the party concerned that he was ready to
fight for it.
"Now, our Union wants it distinctly understood that what we labor for WE
MUST HAVE. We shall have it if we ignore all laws, defy all constituted
authority, overthrow all government, violate all tradition. Our end MUST
be attained, at whatever cost. If a foe stands in our way, and nothing
will dislodge him but death, then he must die. That is the dictum of the
Anglo-Saxon. The Negro, lacking this spirit, has no place in our ranks."
John Wysong had heard every word of the conversation up to this point,
but his mind could go no further. It was in a whirl. Over and over again
the words of the Master Workman rang in his ears: "If a foe stands in
our way and nothing will dislodge him but death, then he must die." The
clatter of the horses' hoofs seemed to say this; the revolving wheels of
the carriage seemed to repeat it over and over, and the hum and noise of
the city seemed to be but a loud echo of the sentiment that had fallen
into Wysong's already disordered brain. Time and again he had to be
hallooed to by the policemen to keep in the line mapped out for the
parade. His hands trembled with nervous excitement, and his eyes were
red and wild-looking.
At length the parade was over. The Mayor suggested that the Master
Workman go to the City Hall and enter the tower, rising two hundred feet
in the air, so that he could have a view of the entire city. John Wysong
heard the suggestion and it made him tremble all the more violently, his
heart thumping loudly the while. "If a foe stands in our way and nothing
will dislodge him but death, then he must die," kept ringing in his
ears.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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