Progress and Achievements of the Colored People / Containing the Story of the Wonderful Advancement of the Colored Americans—the Most Marvelous in the History of Nations—Their Past Accomplishments, Together With Their Present-day Opportunities and a Glimpse Into the Future for Further Developments—the Dawn of a Triumphant Era. A Handbook for Self-improvement Which Leads to Greater Success

by Kelly Miller; Joseph R. Gay

GREAT ANCESTRY OF COLORED RACE

Let the Colored American live up to the records of the past history of his race and prove himself worthy of his great ancestry.

It was said in another place in this article that there appear to have been two great civilizations at a very early period of time. One flourished in the Nile country, maintained by black men, and the other in Crete.

It is an astonishing fact, for it is fast developing into a historical fact, that a common race of men arose, and that in the course of centuries, they developed differing physical characteristics, due to climatic necessities, either black, brown or swarthy, and that they peopled Europe and Africa, the first civilizations arising in Crete and the Soudan, which is the very heart of the continent of Africa, extending from the Equator to 25 degrees north latitude, and from 20 degrees west longitude to 50 degrees east longitude. A territory comprising 1,650 by 4,650 miles extent, and including the “Phut” territory, it is nearly as large again.

All this vast territory constituted the Empire of Ethiopia. An empire that was able more than 600 years before the Christian era to send a million of fully equipped soldiers against a Jewish king.

A very slight circumstance has been the beginning of explorations that will undoubtedly alter all of our text-books upon the subject of the origin of the human race.

A German explorer recently unearthed, in a remote region in the Soudan, a bronze head of fine and exquisite workmanship. This has been taken as another evidence of an ancient African civilization—indeed, a black men’s civilization, and has operated as an incentive for other explorations.

THE BIBLE AS A PROOF

We read in the Bible (I Kings 10), a whole chapter concerning the visit of the Queen of Sheba, who visited Solomon, coming to Jerusalem with a very great train, with camels that bore spices, and very much gold and precious stones. And that when she departed she presented Solomon with a hundred and twenty talents of gold, and of spices very great store, and precious stones. “There came no more such abundance.”

The same account of this great queen is given in 2nd Chronicles, and in Matthew 12:42 she is styled “The Queen of the South.”