“Will D. Upshaw, of Mercer University, who spent Sunday and part of yesterday in Augusta, left for Macon at 4 o’clock yesterday afternoon. He is returning from a stay of several months in New York, where he has been in the interest of a loan fund at Mercer, and where, as press reports and his subscription list indicate, he did some excellent and successful work for the great Georgia College.
“Speaking of preachers in New York, Mr. Upshaw said, ‘Many people in Augusta will be gratified to learn that your city recently sent to the metropolis a man who is preaching to the largest crowds of any man in New York, either white or colored. I refer to none other than Charles T. Walker, ‘The Black Spurgeon,’ so long and favorably known in Augusta. I confess that as a Georgian, I felt a great deal of pride and congratulation for my own State, to see with my own eyes the remarkable work he is doing and hear on all sides many expressions of commendation concerning him. I had the pleasure of speaking in his church several times. On the Sunday night on which I spoke, 1,500 people packed the house, and on another occasion, in company with Dr. Frank Rogers Morse, the accomplished associate pastor of Calvary Church, I attended the services and heard the pastor preach to an overflowing audience that crowded floor and galleries, and it is no disparagement to the white brethren to say that his sermon was one of the most forceful I heard in the metropolis. Dr. Walker’s congregations are growing until he has to hold overflow meetings in the lecture room. You will find many Negroes of fine education and genuine culture while there is a refreshing sprinkling—I use the word ‘refreshing’ advisedly—of the old-fashioned ‘Georgia darkey,’ whom Alex Bealer describes so strikingly, who keeps the speaker in good spirits by the occasional lusty ‘Amen.’
“When Dr. Walker took hold of the church, it had been somewhat divided by the political sermons of his predecessor; but the present pastor has had the good sense to steer clear of such breakers. Now the large church is united and harmonious, and much genuine good is being done. Dr. Morse, who often acts as an advisory friend of the colored church, in speaking to me of the new pastor, said, ‘Mr. Walker is a true man, really a remarkable man, and the work he is doing is marvelous.’
“In speaking of the contribution which Rev. Charles T. Walker is making to the solution of the race problem by his presence and work in the North, Mr. Upshaw said:
“‘I have heard Rev. Walker deliver an address by special request of the New York Baptist ministers’ conference, which, while true to his race, as all honest men wanted him to be, was so fair and sensible that he deserves the commendation of all white men, and especially all Southern men. In that Northern atmosphere, where many of his hearers not only expected but possibly wished this distinguished Southern Negro to flay his former neighbors, Charlie Walker had the common sense not to make one single sectional allusion. He never used the words “North” or “South,” throughout his entire address. He discussed the sad fact of undue race prejudice, not from a sectional but a racial standpoint, and plead with an eloquence that was as touching as it was thrilling, that his race be admitted to progress everywhere on the credentials of worth and justice.
“‘Dr. C. O. Pope, so well known in Augusta, and now President of Simmons’ College, in Texas, was in the audience, and when Dr. Walker sat down amid many cheers, and maybe, some tears, Dr. Pope arose and told the people that he was raised in the community with Charles Walker’s father, and having known from boyhood the man who had addressed them, he wished to bear testimony to the worth of the man, and the truth and fairness of what he had said.
“‘It was my own pleasure to supplement Dr. Pope’s words along the same line and by an emphasis of what I had told the ministers’ conference in a speech before Dr. Walker’s coming—that if there were more Charles T. Walkers and Booker T. Washingtons, there would be less race problems in the South.’
“When the Chronicle reporter smiled and suggested that he was giving the former Augusta pastor very high praise, Mr. Upshaw smiled pleasantly in turn and said:
“‘Yes, I know I am, but I am doing it deliberately and unreservedly.’
“‘I believe that when a worthy Negro like Charles T. Walker, with faith in God and love for man, a humanity that cannot be spoiled by praise, breaks through conditions and tendencies that keep so many of his race below honor and progress, it is only just and right that his more fortunate white neighbor should give him the credit due, take him by the hand and say: “God bless you. If you are honestly trying to lift up yourself and your people, I will honestly help you to be true to yourself, to your people and to God.”