We as a race cannot afford to let this great undertaking fail. We will not let it fail. Do not hesitate to send your exhibits because you feel that they are not perfect. Do the best you can in getting them up, send them, and leave the result of their defects to the Great Judge, who knows the depths from which we have come, the heights to which we are aspiring, and the condition of our environment. We have the ability, the means, and the opportunity is at hand to erect a monument to the race. During the century we are about to celebrate, we acted as heroes for others. Why not play the man for ourselves now? Why not as citizens of Tennessee join in the celebration of the birth of our State? She was born into the Union June 1, 1796. She has been in one hundred years (minus the year of secession), and we, as a race, have been right along with her. Not only have we been connected with Tennessee, but we have been identified with the whole country since 1620, and have assisted in producing peace, prosperity. We have helped to clear the forests, till the soil, level the mountains, fill the valleys, bridge rivers, build railroads, factories, schoolhouses, churches, towns, and cities. We have labored assiduously to make this country bloom as a rose. This fact is admitted by multiplied thousands of the best white people in the whole South. We are not ashamed of our record in the history of our State, neither do we wish it to be ashamed of us. [Illustration: OFFICERS OF THE WOMAN'S BOARD.--1. Mrs J. C. Thompson, President; 2. Mrs. J. S. Lovell, Fifth Vice President; 3. Mrs. W. H. Key, Treasurer; 4. Mrs. Lizzie E. Robinson, Seventh Vice President; 5. Miss Nannie E. Perkins, Recording Secretary; 6. Mrs J. Ira Watson, Sixth Vice President; 7. Mrs. J. C. Tate, First Vice President; 8. Miss Laura B. Hobson, Corresponding Secretary.] We have done well, but we can do better. A thousand years shall not erase from the pages of history the part that we have played upon the American stage of action. Do not falter now, my brethren, but rush to the help of the Negro Department with your banners floating in the breeze. We are pronounced an unsolved problem. We are quoted as a vexatious question, and the eyes of the world are upon us. We can solve this problem, we can answer this question, and we can charm the gaze of the world. When? May 1, 1897. Where? In the Negro Building. How? By filling it with suitable exhibits. We are making history. The historian may neglect us, but there is a hand that is writing upon the wall--not our destruction, neither does it require a Daniel to read it. With the golden pen of time it dips into the crystal fluid of sympathy, and writes us as a nation, making rapid strides Out of darkness into light, Out of weakness into might.