Sparkling Gems of Race Knowledge Worth Reading | Page 6

stimulate, and uplift, because it is a work of intelligence; it is a work
which demands historic facts and their application to new
circumstances.
But these reformers must not be mere scholars. The intellect is to be
used, but mainly as the vehicle of mind and spiritual aims, and hence
these men must needs be both scholars and philanthropists.
Allow me, in the conclusion of this article, to express the hope that He
who holds the hearts of all men will give you the spirit to forget
yourselves, and live for the good of man and the glory of God. Such a
field and opportunity are graciously opened to you in the conditions
and needs of our race in this country. May you and I be equal to them!

LAYING THE CORNER STONE.[A]
(FROM THE DAILY AMERICAN.)
Prof. W. H. Council, Principal of the Normal Industrial School, was the
principal speaker of the day. Perhaps few men possess such power over
an audience. The manuscript part of his address is herewith given. But
the most enthusiastic parts of his speech and the most effective with the
audience were his extemporaneous effusions that accompanied the
delivery.
[Footnote A: Extract from the speech of W. H. Council delivered at the
laying of the corner stone of the Negro Building of the Tennessee
Centennial, Nashville, Tenn., March 13, 1897.]
[Illustration: PROF. W. H. COUNCIL, NORMAL, ALA.]
ADDRESS.

These occasions mark the evolution of Southern thought and industry,
and the result of the self-directed energy of the negro. Here on this spot
the world may see the other side of Negro life than "Sam Johnson, the
chicken thief." Here it may see the healthful buds of Negro handicraft,
Negro art, science, literature, invention. Here the world may see the
hitherto giant energies of a mighty people waking into conscious
activity. Here on this spot the nations may place their ears to the ground
and hear the industrious tread of millions of black feet--hear the beats
of millions of noble hearts beneath black skins and catch the thrill of
these on coming millions to be felt in the industrial and literary world.
Here on this spot the old master who followed Lee's tattered banners
over the snow-covered hills of Virginia down to Appomattox sacrifices
his pro-slavery ideas, and builds a monument to Negro fidelity and
industry; and here the Negro brings the product of his brain and hand in
grateful testimony to the friendly feelings between us. I challenge the
annals of man to present so beautiful a spectacle!
This opportunity given to us to display what we have accomplished in
our three hundred years' struggle from barbarism to industrious
Christian liberty, right here in the Egypt of our bondage, is one of the
bravest acts of the brave and chivalrous people. And I am not slow to
recognize the fact that we received much more from slavery than did
the slaveholder. Only as we recede from Appomattox, and only as the
echoes of Fort Sumter's bloody guns die away in gentle murmurs of the
music of love around the altars of faith and hope, only as memories of
former hates shall have been drowned in the Red Sea of brotherly love,
and the good things which we have done for each other come like
angels into conscious view, will the old master and the old slave know
what helps they have been to each other. We must love. We cannot
afford to hate.
Negro history has solved the Negro problem from the Negro side.
There still remains the Caucasian problem. In view of what the Negro
has done for this country, in view of what the white man has done for
the Negro, will the white man continue and enlarge the work of
encouragement to this struggling race? Or will he use the shotgun

instead of the Holy Bible; the bloody knife instead of the spelling book?
These are problems for Caucasian brains.
I know of no element in noble human character which is not found in
the Negro race. Indeed, he has been placed under greater strains of
conscience and taxed more severely in honor and integrity than any
other race known to history. Did it ever occur to you that the South is
even wild in its praises of negro fidelity in the days when it was
prostrate in civil strife and its defenseless women and children
committed to the care of the black men of the South? Is there a single
case of treachery or infidelity recorded against us? Did it ever occur to
you that the Northern soldier could always trust his life in the hands of
a black man, wherever found? Is there a single case of treachery or
infidelity recorded against us by the North? He would defend and