- Title
- Era of progress and promise, 1863-1910 : the religious, moral, and educational development of the American Negro since his emancipation
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- Date
- 1910
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- Creator
- ["Hartshorn, W. N. (William Newton), 1843-1920."]
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- Place
- ["North Carolina, United States"]
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Era of progress and promise, 1863-1910 : the religious, moral, and educational development of the American Negro since his emancipation
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ABRAHAM LINCOLN UP ^rom Obscurity and squalor he fought the battle of every
An Appreciation by BOOKER T. WASHINGTON ot^ier individual and race that is down, and so helped to pull
up every other human who was down. People so often forget
[Excerpts from an address before the Republican Club of New York, February 12, 1909] that by every inch that the lowest
ШаП
Crawls Up he makes it
X T OU ask that which he found a piece of property and easier for every other man to get up. To-day, throughout the
j[ turned into a free American citizen to speak to you to- world, because Lincoln lived, struggled, and triumphed, every
night on Abraham Lincoln. I am not fitted by ancestry boy who is ignorant, is in poverty, is despised or discouraged,
or training to be your teacher to-night, for I was born a slave. holds his head a little higher. His heart beats a little faster,
My first knowledge of Abraham Lincoln came in this way: his ambition to do something and be something is a little stronger,
1 was awakened early one morning before the dawn of day, as because Lincoln blazed the way. .
I lay wrapped in a bundle of rags on the dirt floor of our slave In so far as the life of Abraham Lincoln emphasizes patience,
cabin, by the prayers of my mother, just before leaving for her long-suffering, sincerity, naturalness, dogged determination,
day’s work, as she was kneeling over my body, earnestly pray- and courage, — courage to avoid the superficial, courage to
ing that Abraham Lincoln might succeed and that one day she persistently seek the substance instead of the shadow, — it
and her boy might be free. You give me the opportunity here points the road for my people to travel.
to celebrate with you and the nation, the answer to that prayer. Like Lincoln, the Negro race should seek to be simple, without
To have been the instrument used by Providence through bigotry and without ostentation. There is great power insimpli-
which four millions of slaves, now grown into ten millions of city. We as a race should, like Lincoln, have moral courage to be
free citizens, were made free would bring eternal fame within what we are, and not pretend to be what we are not. We should
itself, but this is not the only claim that Lincoln has upon our keep in mind that no one can degrade us except ourselves; that if
sense of gratitude and appreciation. we are worthy, no influence can defeat us. Like other races, the
Lincoln lives in the 32,000 young men and women of the Negro will often meet obstacles, often be sorely tried and tempted ;
Negro race learning trades and useful occupations; in the but we must keep in mind that freedom, in the broadest and
200,000 farms acquired by those he freed; in the more than highest sense, has never been a bequest; it has been a conquest.
400,000 homes built; in the 46 banks established and 10,000 In the final test, the success of our race will be in proportion
stores owned; in the $550,000,000 worth of taxable property in to the service that it renders to the world. In the long run, the
band; in the 28,000 public schools existing, with 30,000 teachers; badge of service is the badge of sovereignty,
in the 170 industrial schools and colleges; in the 23,000 minis- Lincoln lives to-day because he had the courage to refuse
ters and 26,000 churches. But, above all this, he lives in the to hate the man at the South or the man at the North when they
steady and unalterable determination of 10,000,000 of black did not agree with him. He had the courage as well as the
citizens to continue to climb, year by year, the ladder of the patience and foresight to suffer in silence, to be misunderstood,
highest usefulness and to perfect themselves in strong, robust to be abused. For he knew that, if he was right, the ridicule
character. For making all this possible, Lincoln lives. of to-day would be the applause of to-morrow.
By the same token that Lincoln freed my race, he said to the May I not ask that you, the worthy representatives of seventy
whole world that man, everywhere, must be free. millions of white Americans, join heart and hand with the ten
One man cannot hold another down in the ditch without millions of black Americans — these ten millions who speak your
remaining down in the ditch with him. One who goes through tongue, profess your religion — who have never lifted their voices
life with his eyes closed against all that is good in another race or hands except in defense of their country’s honor and their
is weakened and circumscribed, as one who fights in a battle country’s flag, and swear eternal fealty to the memory and the
with one hand tied behind him. traditions of the sainted Lincoln ? I repeat, may we not join with
In Lincoln’s rise from the most abject poverty and ignorance your race, and let all of us here highly resolve that justice, good-
to a position of high usefulness and power he taught the world will, and peace shall be the motto of our lives ? If this be true, in
one of the greatest of all lessons. In fighting his own battle the highest sense, Lincoln shall not have lived and died in vain.
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