MARY WHITE OVINGTON
CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD OF THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION
FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF COLORED PEOPLE
NEW YORK
HARCOURT, BRACE AND HOWE
COPYRIGHT, 1920, BY
HARCOURT, BRACE AND HOWE, INC.
FOREWORD
To the present time, there has been no collection of stories and poems by Negro writers, which colored children could read with interest and pleasure and in which they could find a mirror of the traditions and aspirations of their race. Realizing this lack, Myron T. Pritchard, Principal of the Everett School, Boston, and Mary White Ovington, Chairman of the Board of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, have brought together poems, stories, sketches and addresses which bear eloquent testimony to the richness of the literary product of our Negro writers. It is the hope that this little book will find a large welcome in all sections of the country and will bring good cheer and encouragement to the young readers who have so largely the fortunes of their race in their own hands.
The editors desire to express thanks to the authors who have generously granted the use of their work. Especial acknowledgement is due to Mrs. Booker T. Washington for the selection from Up from Slavery; to The Crisis for "The Rondeau," by Jessie Fauset, "The Brave Son," by Alston W. Burleigh, "The Black Fairy," by Fenton Johnson, "The Children at Easter," by C. Emily Frazier, "His Motto," by Lottie B. Dixon, "Negro Soldiers," by Roscoe C. Jamison, "A Legend of the Blue Jay," by Ruth Anna Fisher; to the American Book Company for "The Dog and the Clever Rabbit," from Animal Tales, by A. O. Stafford; to Frederick A. Stokes and Company for "A Negro Explorer at the North Pole," by Matthew A. Henson; to A. C. McClurg and Company for the selection from Souls of Black Folk, by W. E. B. DuBois; to Henry Holt and Company for the selection from The Negro, by W. E. B. DuBois; to the Cornhill Company for the selections from The Band of Gideon, by Joseph F. Cotter, Jr., and The Menace of the South, by William J. Edwards; to Dodd, Mead and Company for "Ere Sleep Comes Down" and the "Boy and the Bayonet" (copyright 1907), by Paul Laurence Dunbar.
CONTENTS
| page | ||
| The Boy and the Bayonet | Paul Laurence Dunbar | [1] |
| Beginnings of a Mississippi School | William H. Holtzclaw | [13] |
| Up from Slavery | Booker T. Washington | [15] |
| Booker T. Washington | William H. Holtzclaw | [20] |
| Anna-Margaret | Augusta Bird | [22] |
| Charity | H. Cordelia Ray | [28] |
| My First School | W. E. B. DuBois | [29] |
| Ere Sleep Comes Down | Paul Laurence Dunbar | [38] |
| The Land of Laughter | Angelina W. Grimke | [40] |
| The Web of Circumstance | Charles W. Chesnutt | [47] |
| Is the Game Worth the Candle? | James E. Shepard | [48] |
| O Black and Unknown Bards | James Weldon Johnson | [54] |
| The Greatest Menace of the South | William J. Edwards | [56] |
| The Enchanted Shell | H. Cordelia Ray | [63] |
| Behind a Georgia Mule | James Weldon Johnson | [66] |
| Hayti and Toussaint L'ouverture | W. E. B. DuBois | [72] |
| His Motto | Lottie Burrell Dixon | [77] |
| The Months | H. Cordelia Ray | [86] |
| The Colored Cadet at West Point | Lieut. Henry Ossian Flipper, U.S.A. | [90] |
| An Hymn to the Evening | Phyllis Wheatley | [95] |
| Going to School Under Difficulties | William H. Holtzclaw | [96] |
| The Brave Son | Alston W. Burleigh | [101] |
| Victory | Walter F. White | [102] |
| The Dog and the Clever Rabbit | A. O. Stafford | [109] |
| The Boy and the Ideal | Joseph S. Cotter | [112] |
| Children at Easter | C. Emily Frazier | [114] |
| Abraham Lincoln | William Pickens | [117] |
| Rondeau | Jessie Fauset | [120] |
| How I Escaped | Frederick Douglass | [121] |
| Frederick Douglass | W. H. Crogman | [128] |
| Incident in the Life of Frederick Douglass | [134] | |
| Animal Life in the Congo | William Henry Sheppard | [135] |
| Coöperation and the Latin Class | Lillian B. Witten | [143] |
| The Band of Gideon | Joseph F. Cotter, Jr. | [148] |
| The Home of the Colored Girl Beautiful | Azalia Hackley | [150] |
| The Knighting of Donald | Lillian B. Witten | [153] |
| A Negro Explorer at the North Pole | Matthew A. Henson | [159] |
| Benjamin Banneker | William Wells Brown | [166] |
| The Negro Race | Charles W. Anderson | [168] |
| Paul Cuffe | John W. Cromwell | [169] |
| The Black Fairy | Fenton Johnson | [175] |
| It's a Long Way | William Stanley Braithwaite | [181] |
| Negro Music that Stirred France | Emmett J. Scott | [182] |
| November 11, 1918 | [187] | |
| Sea Lyric | William Stanley Braithwaite | [189] |
| A Negro Woman's Hospitality | Leila A. Pendleton | [190] |
| Record of "The Old Fifteenth" in France | Emmett J. Scott | [192] |
| Negro Soldiers | Roscoe C. Jamison | [194] |
| The "Devil Bush" and the "Greegree Bush" | George W. Ellis | [195] |
| Evening Prayer | H. Cordelia Ray | [199] |
| The Strenuous Life | Silas X. Floyd | [200] |
| O Little David, Play on Your Harp | Joseph F. Cotter, Jr. | [202] |
| A Day at Kalk Bay, South Africa | L. J. Coppin | [203] |
| Bishop Atticus G. Haygood | W. H. Crogman | [205] |
| How Two Colored Captains Fell | Ralph W. Tyler | [207] |
| The Young Warrior | James Weldon Johnson | [208] |
| Whole Regiments Decorated | Emmett J. Scott | [209] |
| On Planting Artichokes | Daniel A. Rudd and Theodore Bond | [210] |
| A Song of Thanks | Edward Smyth Jones | [214] |
| Our Dumb Animals | Silas X. Floyd | [216] |
| A Legend of the Blue Jay | Ruth Anna Fisher | [218] |
| David Livingstone | Benjamin Brawley | [220] |
| Ira Aldridge | William J. Simmons | [224] |
| Fifty Years | James Weldon Johnson | [228] |
| A Great Kingdom in the Congo | William Henry Sheppard | [233] |
| Pillars of the State | William C. Jason | [249] |
| Oath of Afro-American Youth | Kelly Miller | [250] |
| Notes | [251] |
INTRODUCTION
The Negro has been in America just about three hundred years and in that time he has become intertwined in all the history of the nation. He has fought in her wars; he has endured hardships with her pioneers; he has toiled in her fields and factories; and the record of some of the nation's greatest heroes is in large part the story of their service and sacrifice for this people.
The Negro arrived in America as a slave in 1619, just one year before the Pilgrims arrived at Plymouth in search of freedom. Since then their lot has not always been a happy one, but nevertheless, in spite of difficulties and hardships, the race has learned many valuable lessons in its conflict with the American civilization. As a slave the lessons of labor, of constructive endeavor, of home-life and religion were learned, even if the opportunity was not always present to use these lessons to good advantage.
After slavery other lessons were learned in their order. Devoted self-sacrificing souls—soldiers of human brotherhood—took up the task in the schoolroom which their brothers began on the battlefield. Here it was that the Negro learned the history of America, of the deeds of her great men, the stirring events which marked her development, the ideals that made America great. And so well have they been learned, that to-day there are no more loyal Americans than the twelve million Negroes that make up so large a part of the nation.
But the race has other things yet to learn: The education of any race is incomplete unless the members of that race know the history and character of its own people as well as those of other peoples. The Negro has yet to learn of the part which his own race has played in making America great; has yet to learn of the noble and heroic souls among his own people, whose achievements are praiseworthy among any people. A number of books—poetry, history and fiction—have been written by Negro authors in which the life of their own people has been faithfully and attractively set forth; but until recently no effort has been made on a large scale to see that Negro boys and girls became acquainted with these books and the facts they contained concerning their people.
In this volume the publishers have brought together a number of selections from the best literary works of Negro authors, through which these young people may learn more of the character and accomplishments of the worthy members of their race. Such matter is both informing and inspiring, and no Negro boy or girl can read it without feeling a deeper pride in his own race. The selections are each calculated to teach a valuable lesson, and all make a direct appeal to the best impulses of the human heart.
For a number of years several educational institutions for Negro youths have conducted classes in Negro history with a similar object in view. The results of these classes have been most gratifying and the present volume is a commendable contribution to the literature of such a course.
Robert R. Moton
Tuskegee Institute, Ala.,
June 30, 1920
To the man in the tower the world below him is likely to look very small. Men look like ants and all the bustle and stir of their hurrying lives seems pitifully confused and aimless. But the man in the street who is looking and striving upward is in a different situation. However poor his present plight, the thing he aims at and is striving toward stands out clear and distinct above him, inspiring him with hope and ambition in his struggle upward. For the man who is down there is always something to hope for, always something to be gained. The man who is down, looking up, may catch a glimpse now and then of heaven, but the man who is so situated that he can only look down is pretty likely to see another and quite different place.
Booker T. Washington