Sparkling Gems of Race Knowledge Worth Reading Part 2

13. Relics.

14. The loan of medals awarded by Congress to Negroes for heroism, also votes of thanks.

15. Histories of slave insurrections.

16. The number of acres of land owned by Negroes, and whether inc.u.mbered or uninc.u.mbered.

17. Catalogues of schools owned and officered by Negroes, or schools where Negroes are being instructed.

DEPARTMENT OF ARTS.

The managers have designated for this department a s.p.a.ce sufficient to show hundreds of pictures and pieces of sculpture. The Art Committee is now receiving paintings, sculpture, and other works of the highest quality from owners and artists of the colored race. The high-cla.s.s works of art in this department will mark the progress of our education.

MINES AND MINERALS.

We propose to display on a magnificent scale the best specimens of our workmans.h.i.+p. It is the intention of this department to obtain an exhibit from the mine or ore bed in which our people are at work, whether it be coal, slate, marble, fine sand and gravel, ore of iron, copper, tin, zinc, silver or gold, or any peculiar geological deposit.

[Ill.u.s.tration: EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE--1. Rev. T. E. Crawley; 2. Dr. F.

A. Stewart; 3. Rev. Preston Taylor; 4. S. A. Walker; 5. W. T.

Hightower; 6. Rev. R. B. Vandervill; 7. Thomas Tyree.]

DEPARTMENT OF DENTISTRY.

The Afro-American will also make an exhibit of dentistry. In this department will be seen gold plates, porcelain plates, rubber and bra.s.s plates, gold and bra.s.s crowns, gold and amalgam filled teeth, and bridges of various kinds. We expect that this department will help us to show to the civilized world that the Negro is not a failure, nor is he lagging in any of the skillful and most highly honored professions.

THE WOMAN'S BOARD.

Those of our race who have given their time and energy toward brightening the prospects and bettering the conditions of the Negro have all along advocated equal opportunities and advantages for male and female.

No other course would be consistent. No other line would be logical.

If the Negro advocates the idea of equal opportunities and advantages for white and black, he must, to be consistent, urge equal opportunities for male and female. He says by this that every human being should be allowed the same privileges and prerogatives, which carries with it the same possibilities and promise in life for every human, all things else being equal.

Those planning the Negro Department acted wisely in establis.h.i.+ng a Woman's Department.

[Ill.u.s.tration: CHAIRMEN OF COMMITTEES.--1. J. B. Battle, Agriculture; 2. Dr. E. B. Jefferson, Dentistry; 3. Prof. D. W. Byrd, Educational; 4. Dr. William Sevier, Medicine; 5. Robert A. Walker, Poultry.]

Besides the departments already mentioned, there will be a number of others equally interesting, such as Department of Clubs, Department of Agriculture, Department of Live Stock, Department of Marble and Stone, etc.

The members of the Negro Department of the Tennessee Centennial earnestly request the encouragement, co-operation, and a.s.sistance of the Negroes of the United States and of America. It is very essential that we show to the world what we can do. We have always been willing and ready to help to push the lever of progress, but every one does not see it in that light. This is a way by which we can make the world see, understand, and realize our importance. In the Negro Department we have the privilege of showing our work to such an advantage that it cannot fail to represent us. Therefore we appeal to every Negro man and woman, who has any real pride, to do all in his or her power to make this department a success. Before another centennial celebration others will have our place in the arena of life, and they will love and honor us for this and other examples of patriotism that we may leave on record for their inspiration.

Though the examples we leave them may have been given under adverse circ.u.mstances, they will understand it. They will know as well as we that there is no reward without labor, no prize without a struggle, no victory without a battle.

[Ill.u.s.tration: CHAIRMEN OF COMMITTEES.--1. W. L. Causler, Horticulture; 2. H. G. Scales, Marble and Building Stone; 3. J. Ira Watson, Minerals and Mines; 4. Dr. R. S. White, Art; 5. T. L. Jones, Floriculture; 6. H. C. Ganaway, Clubs and Publicity.]

We as a race cannot afford to let this great undertaking fail. We will not let it fail. Do not hesitate to send your exhibits because you feel that they are not perfect. Do the best you can in getting them up, send them, and leave the result of their defects to the Great Judge, who knows the depths from which we have come, the heights to which we are aspiring, and the condition of our environment. We have the ability, the means, and the opportunity is at hand to erect a monument to the race. During the century we are about to celebrate, we acted as heroes for others. Why not play the man for ourselves now?

Why not as citizens of Tennessee join in the celebration of the birth of our State? She was born into the Union June 1, 1796. She has been in one hundred years (minus the year of secession), and we, as a race, have been right along with her. Not only have we been connected with Tennessee, but we have been identified with the whole country since 1620, and have a.s.sisted in producing peace, prosperity. We have helped to clear the forests, till the soil, level the mountains, fill the valleys, bridge rivers, build railroads, factories, schoolhouses, churches, towns, and cities. We have labored a.s.siduously to make this country bloom as a rose. This fact is admitted by multiplied thousands of the best white people in the whole South. We are not ashamed of our record in the history of our State, neither do we wish it to be ashamed of us.

[Ill.u.s.tration: OFFICERS OF THE WOMAN'S BOARD.--1. Mrs J. C. Thompson, President; 2. Mrs. J. S. Lovell, Fifth Vice President; 3. Mrs. W. H.

Key, Treasurer; 4. Mrs. Lizzie E. Robinson, Seventh Vice President; 5. Miss Nannie E. Perkins, Recording Secretary; 6. Mrs J. Ira Watson, Sixth Vice President; 7. Mrs. J. C. Tate, First Vice President; 8.

Miss Laura B. Hobson, Corresponding Secretary.]

We have done well, but we can do better. A thousand years shall not erase from the pages of history the part that we have played upon the American stage of action. Do not falter now, my brethren, but rush to the help of the Negro Department with your banners floating in the breeze. We are p.r.o.nounced an unsolved problem. We are quoted as a vexatious question, and the eyes of the world are upon us. We can solve this problem, we can answer this question, and we can charm the gaze of the world. When? May 1, 1897. Where? In the Negro Building.

How? By filling it with suitable exhibits.

We are making history. The historian may neglect us, but there is a hand that is writing upon the wall--not our destruction, neither does it require a Daniel to read it. With the golden pen of time it dips into the crystal fluid of sympathy, and writes us as a nation, making rapid strides

Out of darkness into light, Out of weakness into might.

It writes us as a nation upon the ocean of time, landing without anchor, oar, or sail. Thirty-three years ago, when we started out from the bonds of slavery with a legacy of poverty and ignorance, the canopy of heaven for our shelter, we were in a miserable, helpless condition. To-day we are a great nation, nearly 10,000,000 strong, with nearly $1,000,000,000 wealth. When the products of our hands are seen in the Tennessee Centennial, our government may be constrained to pay not only the debt of grat.i.tude, but the debt of money that she owes us for the two hundred and forty-four years that we served her.

Peradventure, she may be persuaded to protect us better as American citizens, and love us more as her hard-working, earnest, loyal sons and daughters, not of Africa, but of beautiful America, the queen of the world.

[Ill.u.s.tration: CHAIRMEN OF COMMITTEES.--Mrs. Carter, Music; Mrs.

Mills, Domestic Science; Mrs. Davis, a.s.signment; Mrs. Evans, Horticulture; Mrs. Henderson, Ways and Means; Mrs. Adams, Patents and Inventions.]

COTTON STATES INDUSTRIAL EXPOSITION.

Atlanta, Ga., September 19 to December 31, 1895.

This was the first opportunity that the colored people ever had to show the world what they have learned and accomplished since their emanc.i.p.ation, and they made the most of it. Their exhibition attracted as much attention as any other feature of the great exposition. This building was erected by Negro hands, supervised by Negro skill and brain, filled with products, evincing beyond a shadow of doubt the Negro's advancement, and all a decided proof that he is a factor in the American nation--a part of it, and an indispensable part. This building covered a floor s.p.a.ce of more than 25,000 square feet, and was erected at a cost of $9,923. There was no charge made for entrance or rent fees. In every State in the South the Negroes were thoroughly organized for the collection of their exhibit, which consisted of all farm products, needlework of all kinds, paintings, inventions, carpentering, blacksmithing, silversmithing, dentistry, surgical skill, pictures of colored men's places of business and residences, industrial products from their schools, and hundreds of other things that show the genius and thrift of the race. Registered stock, such as horses, cows, sheep, and hogs, were on exhibition. All told, there were 110 commissioners appointed, representing the various States.

Prof. I. Garland Penn, of Lynchburg, Va., was chief of the department.

[Ill.u.s.tration: NEGRO BUILDING.]

Every colored lady and gentleman who visited the exposition received an inspiration which has made them enterprising and progressive.

THE NEED OF THE HOUR

It is high time that the colored people were looking more seriously to their material interest. We have need to build more wisely in the future in this regard than we have in the past, if we would receive the attention and recognition of the dominant race, which our relation to the body politic deserves. We dress well, we look well, and talk well; but in far too many cases that is all of it--there is nothing behind it. The Negro must learn the importance of doing business for himself, acc.u.mulating property, supporting race enterprises, of providing employment for our sons and daughters after they shall come forth from the schools. We all cannot be school-teachers, lawyers, and doctors. We need good stores and business houses of every description; we must get money. It carries with it that power and influence which we, as a race, so much need. The demands for positions among our young girls and boys are becoming so great that the parents will soon be taught the necessity of preparing a place before they complete their schooling. It is to be regretted that we do not think of this until our sons and daughters have completed their education. Places owned and run by Negroes are the need of the hour. (Christian Banner, Philadelphia, Pa.)

[Ill.u.s.tration: A. MEANS, MEMPHIS, TENN.

The only Afro-American Hatter known in the South.]

UNITY.