The Upward Path: A Reader For Colored Children - Unknown

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.

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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.

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION