Sparkling Gems of Race Knowledge Worth Reading | Page 2

176
The Negro as a Slave--The Negro as a Common Laborer--The Negro as
a Soldier--The Negro as a Citizen--The Negro as a Southerner--The
Negro in Politics.
FACTS FOR COLORED PEOPLE 185
DR. WILLIAM KEY 195
JIM KEY 196
A SOUL AT AUCTION 199

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
HUT OF A SLAVE 2
HOME OF A FREEMAN 6
DR. ALEX CRUMMELL, WASHINGTON, D. C. 10
PROF. W. H. COUNCIL, NORMAL, ALA. 24
NEGRO BUILDING, TENNESSEE CENTENNIAL 28
RICHARD HILL, CHIEF, NASHVILLE, TENN. 32
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE 36
CHAIRMEN OF COMMITTEES 38
CHAIRMEN OF COMMITTEES 40
OFFICERS OF THE WOMAN'S BOARD 42

CHAIRMEN OF COMMITTEES, WOMAN'S BOARD 44
NEGRO BUILDING, ATLANTA, GA. 46
A. MEANS, MEMPHIS, TENN. 48
E. W. JACKSON, ORLANDO, FLA. 52
EMMA O. KENNEDY, MEMPHIS, TENN. 56
IDA B. WELLS BARNETT 60
L. J. BROWN, WASHINGTON, D. C. 68
DR. GEORGIA E. L. PATTON, MEMPHIS, TENN. 71
MRS. GEORGIA GORDON TAYLOR 75
FREDERICK DOUGLASS 77
REV. C. A. A. TAYLOR, OCALA, FLA. 80
MADAM SISSIRETTA JONES 88
HALLIE Q. BROWN 92
HENRIETTA VINTON DAVIS 96
MRS. V. W. BROUGHTON, MEMPHIS, TENN. 99
CANE FIELD IN LOUISIANA 102
REV. M. VANN, D.D., CHATTANOOGA, TENN. 106
F. A. STEWART, M.D., NASHVILLE, TENN. 112
CHARLIE JOHNSON, LOUISIANA 120
REV. J. M. CONNER, LITTLE ROCK, ARK. 125

J. P. NEWTON, MEMPHIS, TENN. 129
PROF. B. T. WASHINGTON, TUSKEGEE, ALA. 132
PROF. DENNIS S. THOMPSON, KANSAS CITY, MO. 140
GEN. ANTONIO MACEO 148
MRS. M. A. MCCURDY, ROME, GA. 162
EDWARD SEABROOK, SAVANNAH, GA. 166
JOHN Q. ADAMS, CHICAGO, ILL. 189
JOHN G. JONES, CHICAGO, ILL. 191
REV. R. H. BOYD, D.D., SAN ANTONIO, TEX. 193
DR. WILLIAM KEY, SHELBYVILLE, TENN. 195
JIM KEY, SHELBYVILLE, TENN. 197
REV. JOHN HENRY DICKERSON, OCALA, FLA. 200
[Illustration: DR. ALEX CRUMMELL, WASHINGTON, D. C.]

SPARKLING GEMS.

THE NEED OF NEW IDEAS AND NEW AIMS FOR A NEW ERA.
BY ALEX CRUMMELL, WASHINGTON, D. C.
This subject divides itself into two heads: (1) The "Need" suggested;
and (2) The "Aims for a New Era," which shall meet the need.
It seems to me that there is an irresistible tendency in the Negro mind

in this land to dwell morbidly and absorbingly upon the servile past.
The urgent needs of the present, the fast-crowding and momentous
interests of the future appear to be forgotten. Duty for to-day, hope for
to-morrow, are ideas which seem oblivious to even leading minds
among us. Enter our schools, and the theme which too generally
occupies the youthful mind is some painful memory of servitude.
Listen to the voices of the pulpit, and how large a portion of its
utterances are pitched in the same doleful strain! Send a Negro to
Congress, and observe how seldom possible it is for him to speak upon
any other topic than slavery. We are fashioning our life too much after
the conduct of the children of Israel. Long after the exodus from
bondage, long after the destruction of Pharaoh and his host, they kept
turning back, in memory and longings, after Egypt, when they should
have kept both eye and aspiration bent toward the land of promise and
of freedom.
Now I know, my brethren, that all this is natural to man. God gave us
judgment, fancy, and memory, and we cannot free ourselves from the
inheritance of these or of any other faculty of our being; but we were
made to live in the future as well as in the past.
Nothing can be more hurtful for any people than to dwell upon
repulsive things. To hang upon that which is dark, direful, and
saddening tends to degeneracy. There are few things which tend so
much to dwarf a people as the constant dwelling upon personal sorrows
and interests, whether they be real or imaginary.
The Southern people of this nation have given as evident signs of
genius and talent as the people of the North; but for nigh three
generations they gave themselves up to morbid and fanatical anxieties
upon the subject of slavery. To that one single subject they gave the
whole bent and sharpness of their intellect, and history records the
result.
For more than two hundred years the misfortune of the black race was
the confinement of its mind in the pent-up prison of human bondage.
The morbid, absorbing, and abiding recollection of that condition is but
the continuance of that same condition in memory and dark

imagination. But some intelligent reader of our race will ask, Would
you have us as a people forget that we have been an oppressed race?
No. God gave us memory, and it is impossible to forget the slavery of
our race. The memory of this fact may ofttimes serve as a stimulant to
high endeavor. What I would have you guard against is not the memory
of slavery,