Shadow and Light: An Autobiography with Reminiscences of the Last and Present CenturyGibbs, Mifflin Wistar
History
Shadow and Light: An Autobiography with Reminiscences of the Last and Present Century
Gibbs, Mifflin Wistar
African Americans
The "New Orleans Item" gives its contemporary, the "States," the
following spanking (with the usual interrogation, "Now will you be
good?"): "The 'States' has evidently failed to profit by the beneficial
lesson taught since the opening of the Santiago campaign. Had our
esteemed contemporary been present in Richmond a few days since; when
the form of a Negro soldier pierced by nine Mauser bullets was tenderly
borne through the streets by four stalwart white infantry men, he would
have heard the lustiest cheers that ever went up from the throats of the
residents of the former capital of the Confederacy. Perhaps our
anti-Negro friend would have learned wisdom from the statement of a
member of Roosevelt's regiment, who declared in an interview with a
press representative, that had it not been for the valiant conduct of
the Negro cavalry at Baguiri the Rough Riders would have found the
routing of the Spaniards almost a hopeless task. The attack of the
'States' on the Negro soldier is vicious and unpardonable. There is no
more intrepid or hardy fighter to be found anywhere than the much-abused
descendant of Ham. He has dogged persistence and a determination to
conquer which triumphs over all obstacles. He is aware of his social
inferiority and never seeks to attain positions of eminence to which his
valor and his spirit of daring do not entitle him. The 'States' presents
one of the most rabid cases of negrophobia extant. It should seek an
immediate cure."
Such indorsements from the white press of the country is not only
timely, but for all time. History of his endurance and endeavor in
peace, and his valor in war, stimulates his demand and strengthens his
claim for equal justice. Such and kindred books as "Johnson's School
History of the Race in America" should be prominent as household gods in
every Afro-American home, that along the realm of time the vista of
heroic effort "bequeathed from sire to son" may gladden hearts in "the
good time coming;" for it is display in endurance, a vigorous courage, a
gladsome self-control, a triumphant self-sacrifice, that mankind applaud
as supreme for exaltation, and the highest types of self-abnegation for
human advancement; for "before man made us citizens, Great Nature made
us men."
Equally as in the realm of war has the race produced its noblemen in the
arena of peace and mental development. For, if it be true that "the
greatest names in history are those who in the full career and amid the
turbid extremities of political action, have yet touched the closest and
at most points the ever-standing problems of the world and the things in
which the interests of men never die," our industrial educators are
fittingly placed.
[Illustration: HON. JOSIAH T. SETTLE, A. B. A. M.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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