The last great duty is COURAGE. Dear man of my people, if all else should fail you, never let _that_ fail. Much as you need preparation and prevision you are more in need of Courage. This has been, and is yet, A DOWNTRODDEN RACE. Do you know what a down-trodden race needs most? If you are not sure, take down your Bible and read the whole story of Gideon and his band. You will then understand that, as Dunbar, says: “Minorities since time began Have shown the better side of man; And often, in the lists of time, One Man has made a cause sublime.” You will learn the full force of what another American meant when he told the young men of his age: “They are slaves who dare not choose Hatred, scoffing and abuse, Rather than in silence shrink From the truth they needs must think, They are slaves who dare not be In the right with two or three.” A people under the heels of oppression has more need of heroic souls than one for whom the world is bright. It was in Egypt and in the wilderness that Israel had need of Moses, Aaron and Joshua. No race situated like ours, has any place of leadership for those who lack courage, fortitude, heroism. You may have to turn your eyes away from the fleshpots of Egypt; you may be called on to fight with wild beasts at Ephesus; you may have to face starvation in the wilderness or crucifixion on Calvary. Have the courage to do that which the occasion demands when it comes. And I make you no promise that “in the end you will win a glorious crown.” You may fail, fall and be forgotten. What of it? When you think of our heroic dead on Messines Ridge, along the Aisne and at Chateau Thierry—how does your heart act? It thrills! It thrills because “Manhood hath a larger span And wider privilege of life than Man.” and you, young Negro Men of America, you are striving to give the gift of manhood to this race of ours. The future belongs to the young men. —January, 1919. CHAPTER VII. OUR INTERNATIONAL CONSCIOUSNESS.