Fisk University News

FISK UNIVERSITY
NEWS

THE JUBILEE SINGERS

VOL. II NASHVILLE, TENN., OCTOBER, 1911 No. 5

Published bi-monthly by Fisk University. Entered as second-
class matter, July 26, 1910, at the post office at Nashville,
Tenn., under the act of July 16, 1894.

FOREWORD
THE following pages set forth not only a sketch of romantic history
near the beginnings of a great school, but also indicate what is a per-
manent feature of Fisk life. In the seven years work of the Fisk

PRESIDENT GEORGE A. GATES

Jubilee Singers, several of them gave up their own college education
for the sake of those who should follow them. Many will be interested
to learn through Mrs. Moores (Ella Sheppard) paper that they did

Oy FISK UNIVERSITY NEWS

not start out to sing Jubilee music, whose very name did not then
exist, but ordinary music. In one of the early programs, out of nine-
teen numbers, only two were these native hymns. The unique value
of the Jubilee music was a discovery, almost accidental, to themselves.

The chapel service at Fisk is exceptionally reverent. If any part
of the service has pre-eminence in this respect, it is the singing of the
Jubilee hymn. There are hurdreds of these, from which we have
daily choice; and they add an impressiveness which is all their own.
However quaint the language, they are always sung reverently. It is
very interesting to watch the faces of visitors who come to our chapel
exercises for the first time. They hear the reading of Scripture, the
ordinary hymn and the prayer, with which one has always been famil-
iar. Then some member of the Faculty, or maybe a student, steps
forward and lifts up his voice, unaccompanied by any instrument, in
words of song. Before one has recovered from that astonishment, the
whole room, Faculty and students, most prominently students, bursts
forth in the response, taking up the words of the leader and re-echoing
them in full, rich and varied harmony. So the song goes on, the leader
singing alone some religious sentiment in verse and rhyme, the whole
chapel in chorus responding with heartiness and spontaneity and al-
ways reverence, all of which seems to constitute an exhibition prob-
ably entirely unique in ones experience of a worshiping congregation.

The very uniqueness of this feature of our daily worship and its
exceptional impressiveness, coupled with the fact that during all these
years companies of singers have been well known at Northern meet-
ings, is sometimes misleading, as if this music were our main work.
The college training Fisk gives to successive generations of choice
Negro youth is our altogether chief concern.

Several of our schools for Negroes had romantic beginnings. Hamp-
ton had its heroic early days, gathering round the personality of Gen-

eral Samuel Chapman Armstrong. Tuskegees romance rests largely

on the ever inspiring story of the rise from a little slave boy into the
strong American citizen of world honor, Dr. Booker T. Washington.
The romance of Fisks early beginning will always be associated in the
popular mind with the Jubilee Singers and Jubilee songs.

A CHARACTER SKETCH OF GEORGE L. WHITE
Mary E. SPENCE, FISK UNIVERSITY

TO WRITE adequately of the life of such a man as Prof. George L.
White is impossible. As some prophet of old came forth from retire-
ment, with the Spirit of God upon him, in somewhat the same manner
it may be said that Mr. White appeared unannounced, to make with
his remarkable natural ability and fervent spirit a powerful impres-
sion, not only upon those who came into personal contact with him,
but, by his ideal of the Jubilee songs as wrought out through his singers,
upon the religious and musical world.

THE JUBILEE SINGERS 3

Mr. White was born at Cadiz, New York, in 1838. A village black-
smiths boy, his school privileges were limited to what he learned in
the public school before the age of fourteen. He had inherited from
his father a special love for music, but never had any musical instruc-
tion. He became a school teacher, then a soldier in the Civil War,
when he fought for the Union in the bloody battles of Gettysburg and

GEORGE L. WHITE.

Chancellorsville, and at the close of the war he was found in the employ
of the Freedmens Bureau at Nashville. When Fisk School was opened
he was asked by Professor Ogden, its principal, to give instruction in
vocal music to the pupils.

He began then the work which later brought his singers and their
Songs before the world.
4 FISK UNIVERSITY NEWS

The majority of the Negro folk songs are deeply spiritual. Mr.
Whites soul understood and responded to them. He took up the
thought of the songs and brought it out with tremendous effect. He
believed not only that the Jubilee Songs expressed the highest pos-
sible spiritual fervor, but that they were capable of receiving the high-
est possible culture. He was a true artist. His musical ideal was
exceptionally beautiful, and in the actual rendering of it he had the
ability to perfect it in its smallest detail.

The basis of his tone coloring was one note, the very first of every
concert, the opening whisper of Steal away to Jesus. Exquisite in
quality, full of the deepest feeling, so exceedingly soft that it could
hardly be heard, yet because of its absolute purity carrying to the
farthest part of any large hall, it commanded the attention of every
audience. As the tone floated out a little louder, clearer, rose to the
tremendous crescendo of My Lord Calls Me, and diminished again
into exquisite pianissimo sweetness, the most critical enemy was con-
quered.

This wonderful singing was not only the result of Mr. Whites deep
feeling and his power to inspire his singers with the same, but months
and years of labor were in even that tone described above. The whole
nature of the singers was in control, the most difficult control of all.
Mr. White drilled incessantly. The minutest thing was of importance
to him; nothing escaped his attention. {He"used to tell the singers to
put into the tone the intensity that they would give to the most forcible
one that they could sing, and yet to make it as soft as they possibly
could. If a tiger should step behind you, you would not hear the fall
of his foot, yet all the'strength of the tiger would be in that tread
was one of his illustrations of this idea. In rehearsals his indom-
itable will never rested until the effect he wished was produced. Some-
times he tried plan after plan, covering days, perhaps weeks, before
the results satisfied him. Professor Spence used to tell how, on one
occasion when Mr. White was drilling his singers, they were singing
along without seeming to think much about what they were saying,
when, from the distant point where he was accustomed to stand, he
thundered forth in tones which almost frightened them, Do you be-
lieve that?

His ear was exquisite. In passages of almost incredible power he
could not tolerate anything in the voice which was not pure tone. The
blending of the voices of the company was perfect. Not one voice was
evento be heard as distinct from the others. in the ensemble singing,
but each one was to hear every one else when he was singing. He was
original in ideas, methods and ways of expressing himself. He in-
sisted on perfect enunciation of words, so that every syllable could be
heard with ease in the most disadvantageous part of a house. He
would have the singers use in singing the same naturalness of expression
they would use if they were speaking to the audience.

THE JUBILEE SINGERS 5

Although the tone effects produced by Mr. Whites method were so
beautiful, they and all other effects were only instruments by which
the thought and feeling of the songs could be expressed. The music
was a spiritual force. Conversions were frequent under its influence.

Mr. White was a man who spent hours in prayer. He depended
wholly on God and trusted him literally. He-used to say that if the
Lord told him to jump through a wall, it was his part to jump and the
Lords to put him through. He held family worship with the singers
every day when it was possible. Professor Chase, who was present at
devotions in Mr. Whites family in his later years, said that when he
prayed he seemed to be right in the presence of God, almost talking
face to face with him.

Mr. White was very generous. If there was any self-denial to be
made, he made it. He looked upon his singers as his children. He
loved us very, very near, said one of them. He never thought of
them as of one race and himself as of another. They were simply his
children.

Mr. White was very modest and retiring before the public. He
gave his instructions for a concert beforehand and stayed behind the
scenes, leaving the management entirely to Ella Sheppard, now Mrs.
George W. Moore, who became his able assistant. Into her hands
eventually was given the entire drilling of the individual voices and a
large part of that of the company. To her I am greatly indebted for
information bearing on this sketch.

He was a man of great courage. When he proposed going out with
his nine young students, no one approved, many vigorously opposed
but he set forth alone, with faith in God who evidently led him. Mr.
White brought the music before the world and by his interpretation
of it gave it the place of respect which it has held ever since.

The Jubilee Singers won from the world respect for the Negro race.
Since they were largely influenced by Mr. White in character and in
those things which won them so high regard, to him, also, is that debt
partly due. Without him Fisk University could not have been what
it is today. When he and his young people started forth the financial
situation of the institution was desperate. After he left there were
just ten dollars in the treasury; city merchants had begun to decline
to give credit and the school would have gone down if help had not
come. This help did come in money sent back to the school, in friends
in our beautiful Jubilee Hall, called by Secretary Strieby Miron
music, and the place given to Fisk in public interest.

Fisk University will ever love and revere his memory. The new
building which is so pressingly needed by the music department at
the present moment will keep his name before us in the George L. White
Conservatory of Music.
6 FISK UNIVERSITY NEWS

A y
A RESUME
Mrs. M. L. CrosTHWAITE, REGISTRAR OF FISK UNIVERSITY.

WHEN we hear the words
Jubilee Singers we are re-
minded first of the great work
they have accomplished by
song; secondly, of those by
means of whose training and
assistance this work was made
possible.

In the year 1871, October
6th, under the direction of
George L. White, Treasurer of
the University, the original
troupe of singers left the insti-
tution and began their tour of
the Northern States. Miss M.
F. Wells accompanied the
troupe as far as New York as
preceptress of the young wom-
en. She was accompanied by
George Wells, a young Negro
whom she had adopted. He
assisted in the concerts by
giving readings. The company
was composed of the following
nine persons: Messrs. Thomas Rutling, Benjamin M. Holmes, I. P.
Dickerson and Green Evans; and the Misses Ella Sheppard, Jennie
Jackson, Maggie Porter, Minnie Tate, Eliza Walker and Phoebe Ander-
son. The last named remained only a few days with the company.

During the first year, despite hardships and opposition, the singers
raised the sum of $20,000, to be used in erecting a building which should
be called Jubilee Hall. As the work grew it became necessary for Mr.
White to have assistance. Rev. G. D. Pike, District Secretary of the
American Missionary Association, was chosen as the business man-
ager, while Miss Susan Gilbert, who succeeded Miss M. F. Wells as
preceptress, was placed in charge of the young women.

Mr. Edmund Watkins and Misses Mabel Lewis, Julia Jackson and
Georgia Gordon were added to the troupe after the first year. Suc-
cessful concerts in this country led to a tour of Great Britain, and the
combined tours of the two countries netted the sum of $90,000 for the
University within three years. The singers were also given books for
the Library, specimens for the Museum, and apparatus for the Science
Department. Many things were also given for the furnishing of the
new building. With some of the proceeds of their first concerts they
paid a debt of $1,500 for the University, returned money borrowed of

MRS. M. L. CROSTHWAITE

THE JUBILEE SINGERS 7

the school, furnished money for its needs, and assisted in numerous
ways.

From the first proceeds twenty-five acres of land were purchased.
The purchase included the former site of Fort Gillem, one of the three
forts in the immediate vicinity of Nashville during the Civil War.
Jubliee Hall stands on the site of this old fort. January 1, 1873, the
ground was broken, and October 1, 1873, the corner-stone of Jubilee
Hall was laid. The building was in process of erection three years,
and was dedicated January 1, 1876.

Through the agency of Mr.[isaac Ps Dickerson, the Sabbath schools
of Great Britain contribute irteen hundred dollars toward the es-
tablishment of a library fund. The sum of three hundred dollars was
expended for books and one thousand invested as a fund to be known
as the Dickerson Library Fund.

During the first campaign in Great Britain Mr. Whites health
failed, and Prof. Theodore F. Seward, of Orange, N. J., was called to
be Assistant Director of Music. From time to time new voices were
added, as the original members rested or left the company. Mr.
Hinton D. Alexander, Mr. F. J. Loudin, Mr. B. W. Thomas and
Misses America W. Robinson, Patti Malone, Maggie Carnes and Lu-
cinda Vance were members of the troupe when the second tour of Great
Britain, Holland and Germany was made. The Jubilee Singers dis-
banded after their second tour of the Old World.

Miss Josephine Moore and Mr. Henry Morgan were also with the
troupe for three months. They sang at the great Peace Jubilee across
the water. After this Messrs. Evans and Morgan and Miss Moore
retired from the company. Mr. Dickerson, after the second tour,
entered the missionary field and was actively engaged in the pursuits
thereof while he lived.

Of the original number of the singers, four are known to be living:
Mr. Rutling, Mrs. Ella Sheppard Moore, Mrs. Maggie Porter Cole and
Mrs. Eliza Walker Crump. In addition to these, from the ranks of
the later singers, the following are survivors: Mrs. Georgia Gordon
Taylor, Mrs. Mabel Lewis Imes, Mrs. America Robinson Lucas, Mrs.
Phoebe Anderson Jones and Mr. Hinton D. Alexander. Mrs. Moore
and Mrs. Taylor are both residents of Nashville and have been since
they severed their connection with the troupe. Mrs. Moore has reared
a family of two sons and a daughter, and has been actively engaged in
State Missionary work, having been President of the Womans Mis-
sionary Society for eighteen years. In the year 1893 Dr. and Mrs.
Moore lost their oldest daughter, Sadie.

Mrs. Taylor has taken deep interest in her husbands business and
has been his most valued assistant in all his undertakings. As occa-
sion demanded, she has always delighted the Nashville public with
her singing. Whenever a worthy cause has needed her assistance, it

has been freely given. She and her husband lost their only child in
infancy.
8 FISK UNIVERSITY NEWS

Mrs. Maggie Porter Cole has several times toured the United
States and Canada, and has traveled extensively abroad with troupes
under her own management. She lives at present in Detroit, Michi-
gan. Mrs. Cole is the proud mother of three sons.

Mrs. Eliza Walker Crump has also engaged in concert work, together
with her husband. Their present home is in Chicago, Illinois.

Mr. Thomas Rutling has spent all of his life since leaving the com-
pany on the continent. He has been actively engaged in singing and
teaching music. At present his home is in London, England.

Mrs. America Robinson Lucas has spent her time since the dis-
banding of the singers in teaching in the State of Mississippi.

Mrs. Mabel Lewis Imes has made her home in Cleveland, Ohio.

Miss Lucinda Vance of Washington, D. C., returned to her home
in Washington, D. C., where she remained until her death. :

Miss Patti Malone returned to her home in Athens, Alabama,
where she purchased The Oaks. There she lived happily with her
mother until death claimed her. She traveled for many years as a
member of Mr. Loudins company.

Mr. F. J. Loudin toured the country and traveled abroad with
troupes of singers for a number of years, finally returning to his home
at Ravenna, Ohio, where he remained until his death. He bequeathed
most of his library to Fisk University.

Mr. Hinton D. Alexander,
upon the disbanding of the
troupe, settled in Chattanooga,
Tenn. He united with the
Congregational Church at that
place, became its chorister, and
has succeeded in giving to the
congregation a class of music
that has made the Church one
of the most desirable places in
the city. Under his direction
The Band of Hope, con-
nected with the church, has
become a great financial as well
as a great spiritual power
among the members. In ad-
dition to these things, Mr.
Alexander is an employ of the
United States Government.
He has been in the mail service
ever since he made Chatta-
nooga his home.

Miss Tate married a Mr.
Hall, and one son survives the
JENNIE JACKSON DEHART union.

THE JUBILEE SINGERS 9

GENERAL CLINTON B. FISK

General Clinton B. Fisk was born at Clapps Corner, New York, December 8, 1828
When two years old his father removed the family to Michigan and iad one dollar anil
half as a working capital, and Indians as neighbors. When four years old the father died
and Clinton knew the hardships of extreme poverty and the humiliation of a limited edu-
cation, as a consequence of his poverty and temporary trouble with his eyes. In earl
manhood he was in busines in St. Louis, into which busines he carried a sida ak
christian character. Entering the army in 1861 as a private he rose to be General, and at
the close of the war was, with General Howard, in charge of the Freedmens Sian Hi
interested himself actively in starting Fisk School, January 9, 1866. After th ; i
became a very successful business man. : : haha

Until the time of his death, July 9, 1889, he actively promoted Fisk University b
the use of his name, his sympathy, his credit, his timely gifts, and at his death, a tesa,

Miss Jackson married Mr. A. J. DeHart who, for many years, was
principal of the Colored High School in Cincinnati, Ohio. Not use
paralysis laid hold of her did she cease to delight the public with her
wonderful gift of song. Mrs. DeHart passed away at her beautiful
home on Walnut Hills, Cincinnati, May 4, 1910.
10 FISK UNIVERSITY NEWS

Mrs. Phoebe Anderson Jones has resided in Knoxville, Tenn., since
she left the singers. She now has a daughter, who is a graduate of the
High School of that city.

During the campaign of the singers the following people were asso-
ciated in the management of the troupe: Misses M. F. Wells and Susan
Gilbert as preceptresses; Mr. George L. White was the General Di-
rector and remained with the company until it disbanded in 1878.
Mr. Theodore F. Seward was for a number of years Assistant Director
of Music. Rev. G. D. Pike was the first business manager, and asso-
ciated with him was Rev. James Powell, the English Secretary of the
American Missionary Association. Dr. E. M. Cravath was also one
of the business managers for several years. Associated as agents and
managers were also the following names: Messrs. George Shelton,
Charles J. Ryder, J. B. T. Marsh, C. G. Fairchild, John Talley of En-
gland, Herr Kustermaker of Germany, and H. C. Cushing. These
devoted people spared nothing to further the work of the singers. Of
this loyal band of helpers only two are living: Dr. Charles J. Ryder,
who is still associated with the American Missionary Association, and
Mr. C. G. Fairchild, who is living in Brooklyn, N. Y. He is a cousin
of Mr. J. T. Fairchild, the present Treasurer of Fisk University.

Though scattered far and wide, and though new faces have replaced
the old ones at Fisk University, that noble company of men and women,
known as the Jubilee Singers, have never forgotten the school for
which they worked and suffered; and among the most pleasant recol-
lections cherished by Fisk University are those connected with the
visits or communications which from time to time come from the
members of the troupe who are still living.

te
wk
Rh
ir

eee | ,
THE JUBILEE SINGERS Tr

FORTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF JUBILEE DAY
OCTOBER 6, 1911.

PROGRAM OF EXERCISES.
Livingstone Hall Chapel, President Gates Presiding.

JUBILEE SONG__Rise, Shine, for the Light is a-coming
Verses sung by MRS. GEORGIA GORDON TAYLOR

Prayeri.2 REv. G. W. Moore, D.D., Field Superintendent of
the American Missionary Association

JUBILEE SONG__In Bright Mansions Above

o

TELEGRAM______ From Hinton D. Alexander, Chattanooga, Tenn.

Mrs. TAYLOR leading

CHATTANOOGA, TENN., October 6, 1911

Congratulations on our fortieth anniversary of the -

Jubilee Singers. Long live Fisk.
~ (Signed) HIntTon D. ALEXANDER.

LETPER From Prof. Helen C. Morgan, who, for thirty-eight
years, labored in Fisk University-as Professor of
Latin. Fisk University Before-the Jubilee Sing-
ers Went Forth 3. ... Read by Pror. LEE

LRTTERE oon From Mable Lewis Imes, Some Hotel Experiences
; Miss TOMPKINS

JUBILEE SONG__Keep Inching Along
PROF. WORK leading

LETTER?) From Maggie Porter Cole, The Jubilee Singers on the
Ocean and in Europe Miss ROBINSON

LEPrnR 2s From Professor J. H. Burrus, A Letter of Apprecia-
tion Miss HART

LPTWR. os From Thomas Rutling, My Life Since Leaving the
Jubilee Singers Mrs. LEE

LETTER 2c From Georgia Gordon Taylor, Reminiscences of the
Jubilee Singers Miss MARVIN

JUBILEE SONG__Steal Away to Jesus PROF. WoRK leading

REMARKS.._____- By Ella Sheppard Moore, Historical Sketch of the
Jubilee Singers

JUBILEE SONG__Swing Low, Sweet Chariot? Led by Mrs. Moore
12 FISK UNIVERSITY NEWS

REV. E. M. CRAVATH, FIRST PRESIDENT OF FISK UNIVERSITY

THE OPENING OF FISK UNIVERSITY,
JANUARY 9Q, 1866

Rut J. CRAvatTH (Mrs. E. M. CRAVATH),
159 NortH H1GH ST., WESTCHESTER, PA.

ON this beautiful winter day a large company convened in our
improvised chapel, which was gracefully decorated by the National
Flags. The company naturally bore a military appearance, as we were
under military rule. General Fisk was at the head of the Freedmens
Bureau. Governor Brownlow was*present and gave an encouraging
speech. Rev. E. M. Cravath represented the American Missionary
association, that was to father the new enterprise.

THE JUBILEE SINGERS 13

General Fisk had given permission that the school should bear his
name. Secretary Cravath said it should have the name of Fisk Uni-
versity. This high-sounding name was received by some in ridicule;
by others in disgust. To most it seemed presumptuous to begin an
educational project for a company of people who had just found free-
dom with so ambitious a promise. Secretary Cravath said he wanted
to inspire this company of young people to whom they were giving this
opportunity to secure an education with the highest ideals. Not a
few who may read these words to-day have reached out after these
ideals of Secretary Cravath and fulfilled them. The name seems ap-
propriate to-day.

The fine hospital buildings prepared for the officers of the war,
when peace seemed far distant, found little use for their original pur-
pose. Through the influence of Generals Fisk and Howard the Gov-
ernment turned over these buildings to the missionary societies for
educational purposes. They were put in proper order for the teachers
that were waiting to take up a work that looked so promising. Pro-
fessor John Ogden, an educator of large and valuable experience, took
charge of the work, leaving useful work in the North, with a company
of ten teachers from the North, fully inspired by missionary zeal,
to take up duties that were so attractive to them.

On January 9, 1866, the Fisk School was opened by the presence
of one thousand pupils. It was a free school. What a happy throng
it was! Some students present then will recall to-day with me the
pleasurable emotions of that event.

1

LETTER OF APPRECIATION.

NASHVILLE, TENN., September 15, 1911.
DEAR SIRS:

Though I was in Mr. G. L. Whites singing class for a little while, I
would hardly claim any connection with the Jubilee Singers ? enter-
prise except as a friend. I consider myself a warm personal friend of
Professor White and of each of the Jubilee Singers who went from Fisk,
and am ever ready to give them all full credit for the saving work
they did for Fisk University in 1871. It is highly fitting that Prof.
G. L. White and his Jubilee Singers should be remembered by Fisk
and all of her friends.

Respectfully,
. (Signed) J. H. BURRUS.
14 FISK UNIVERSITY NEWS

FISK UNIVERSITY BEFORE THE JUBILEE SINGERS
WENT FORTH

HELEN C. MORGAN.
(Professor of Latin, Emeritus, Fisk.)

166 ELM STREET, OBERLIN, OHIO, September 19, 1911.

AT the Oberlin commence-
ment of 1869 I had an interview
with Reverend E. M. Cravath,
Field Secretary of the Ameri-
can Missionary Association.
He explained to me his plan of
developing college work in

American missionary schools,
beginning with Fisk and At-
lanta.

The result of the interview

. was that in September, 1869, I
went to Fisk, at that time a
normal school under the prin-
cipalship of Mr. John Ogden,
to start college preparatory
classes.

The school was housed in
barracks constructed during
the war for hospital purposes.
The barracks occupied a block
fronting on Knowles Street.

HELEN C. MORGAN On the southwest corner stood

Howard Chapel, the only build-

ing erected for the use of the school; and on the northwest corner a two-

story frame building which was converted into a girls dormitory. The

other buildings were low, one-story frame structures, totally unfit for
the permanent housing of the school.

In these were the rooms occupied by the teachers and boys of the
boarding department, an assembly room and recitation room for the
students of the upper grades, also an assembly-room for the boarding
students, a dining-room, kitchen, store-room and laundry-room.

The furnishings and equipment were Spartan-like in their plain-
ness. There were stoves in the school room, family sitting-room and
teachers rooms, but the rooms occupied by students were unheated.

Evening and morning study hours were observed in the school
rooms. At other times the girls found warmth in their dormitory
sitting-room, and the boys in one of the recitation rooms.

I well remember my first room; it was in the row of barracks be-
tween Howard Chapel and the girls dormitory. On the floor was a

some of the more advanced

THE JUBILEE SINGERS 15

soldiers blanket. The furnishings were a hospital cot, a small ward-
robe, a washstand, a table, and a very small, very unmanageable stove.

Notwithstanding these primitive conditions, visitors and friends
were attracted by the appearance of the school. The buildings and
grounds were scrupulously neat, for with Professor Ogden cleanliness
and order were cardinal virtues.

JOHN OGDEN, FIRST PRINCIPAL OF FISK UNIVERSITY

In the school year 1869-1870 there were about forty students in the
boarding department, and several hundred from the city. The most
advanced students were not beyond the first year of the ordinary high
school,

The young people in the three or four upper grades, most of whom
were fitting themselves for teachers, studied in an assembly room in the
central row of barracks; while Howard Chapel was utilized as a school
16 FISK UNIVERSITY NEWS

room for the others. Professor Ogden, whose chief joy was the prep-
aration of teachers, in addition to the general care of the school, gave
instruction in normal methods.

Professor Bennett was pastor of Union Church, which was estab-
lished in 1868. He was greatly interested in the preparation of min-
isters, and taught daily a large training class, some of the members
being from the school, while others were pastors of city churches, or
men, young and old, who desired to fit themselves for religious work.

Professor Bennett was also prominent in general educational work.
With the help of other workers from Fisk and from the Methodist and
Baptist schools of the city, he held teachers institutes in many parts
of the State, thus paving the way for a system of public schools.

George L. White was our treasurer, a greatly burdened man, un-
weariedly engaged in trying to solve the old problem of making bricks
without straw. He was a dreamer of dreams who, from the first,
kept before his eyes the vision of a company of singers selected from
his choir as picked voices, in due time to go forth to raise up friends
for the school.

These pioneers in the work at Fisk were ably assisted by a company
of noble women, who cheerfully and courageously gave their lives to
the great mission to which they were called. Their names are writ
in heaven.

In the fall of 1870 Professor Spence left his work in Michigan Uni-
versity to take the principalship of the school. Under his guidance
plans for the development of a college were energetically pushed. Four
young people, who, during the previous year, had been selected to
form the first college class, began the study of Greek. Through a
process of sifting, applied to the whole school, two lower college pre-
paratory classes were formed. Then three preparatory classes I in-
structed in Latin and Algebra, having in addition classes in Arithmetic,
Reading and Spelling.

The coming of Professor Chase, in 1871, to build up a Department
of Science marked an important era in the history of the school. Be-
ginning his work without library or apparatus, and giving to it the
remaining thirty years of his life, he laid deep and strong the founda-
tion of the present Department of Science.

The teachers and students of those early days were happy and en-
thusiastic in their work. Great emphasis was laid upon character and
upon the personal religious life of the students.

Our limitations were many because of lack of equipment and lack
of previous preparation on the part of the students, but we tried to
do thorough work and to keep before our eyes a higher, if unattainable,
ideal of scholarship. We never faltered in our plans of building up
a college, though we realized that our efforts would be in vain without
greatly increased resources.

On October 6, 1871, George L. White, accompanied by the hopes,
prayers, doubts and fears of those of us who remained behind, went

THE JUBILEE SINGERS aprd

forth with his band of singers to transmute the beautiful plantation
melodies into the new site and new buildings which should make pos-
sible the continuance of the school.

Thus closed the first chapter in the history of Fisk University.

CHARACTER SKETCH OF PROFESSOR ADAM
KNIGHT SPENCE

Miss S. M. WELLS.

FORTY years ago a small,
but important, company of
singers went out from Fisk
University to raise money with
which a comfortable building
might be erected, and thus
make it possible for the school
to continue. There were those
left behind who were doubtful
as to the expediency of the
movement. They were the ones
left to watch_and pray, and
work as best they could, hoping
for good results.

None of that number, per-
haps, was more earnest than
Prof. A. K. Spence, Principal of
the school at that time, who
offered the prayer, O, Lord, if
this thought comes from Thee,
prosper the going out of these
young people. Care for and
protect them, and bring them
back to us bearing their sheaves

with them, and we shall give Thee the glory.

Although Professor Spence had lived in America the most of his
life, he was a Scotchman by birth. He came to Fisk in 1870. For
twelve years he had been instructor in Greek and Professor of
French in Michigan University, Ann Arbor, Mich. He had been chosen
for Fisk University that he might bring the college idea into Fisk,
make it a leader among colored schools, and, at the same time, save
the religious life it already had, intensifying it if possible, in a healthy
way. He was of a deeply spiritual nature, being conscientious in the
extreme. He was anxious to deal with the people in such a way as
to make them see the reality of religion, influencing those with whom
he came in contact to have nobler and larger views. He was contin-

2

SARAH M. WELLS

18 FISK UNIVERSITY NEWS

ually lifting up, up, up, that they might get a glimpse of love and
purity, and real Christian life. To that end he worked.

His whole being was full of music. But when the question arose
about sending the company of singers out, he did not know whether
the enterprise would succeed. This music stirred his own soul to its
very depths, but would those in the North care for it or appreciate

|
|
|

A. K. SPENCE, SECOND PRINCIPAL OF FISK UNIVERSITY

it? If he knew it was the Lords doing, it would be all right. But
George L. White, who was at the head of the movement and had the
company in charge, said: Of course it was of the Lord; it was as plain
as day to him and go he must. And go he did. Professor Spence,
who loved the music and the young people, tried to think it was all
right, that Mr. White would succeed, and in some way or other the
Lord would guide that company.

THE JUBILEE SINGERS 19

So bidding them good-bye he turned to the school with renewed
energy to make the most and the best of it.

His Scotch blood told. We all knew he was in Fisk University for
a high purpose. He could not see why anyone in the institution should
not have the same high motives. He taught the Greek and the French.
For eleven years he was leader of the Mozart Society. Indeed, it was
by him that that society was organized. He understood and appre-
ciated classical music. To music of the highest kind his soul responded.
While the singers were holding large audiences with Steal Away,
Swing Low, and their other beautiful songs, he was drilling those
at home to sing, from their very souls, Rock of Ages Cleft for Me,
Awake My Soul, Prayer is the Souls Sincere Desire, and many
others. Very often he would have the Jubilee songs sung.

He was a cultured gentleman, most affable in all his ways, and had
that influence over people which led them to be like him. So it was
that he interested his family, as he called the boarding department,
in what he was interested in. How well will those who were there
remember that sometimes while they were finishing their breakfasts
he would read clippings from papers about the singers, saying that if
they could eat and listen at the same time, he would read some inter-
esting items he had received.

A special service was held at the Wednesday morning chapel exer-
cises of each week in behalf of the success of the Jubilee Singers; pray-
ers were offered for them and extracts of letters from the singers were
read. He believed that the success of the Jubilee campaign depended
more upon the divine guidance and blessing than any other influence.

He was in charge of the University in its hours of peril, and with
the help of God he kept it from sinking down. He taught the stu-
dents to trust in Gods promises, goodness and mercy. Many of his
days were full of clouds, but the brightness came afterward. Many
students, who were helped by him, saw him ripen into a good old age
and pass away while still working for them. His death occurred in
1900 after thirty years of service in the University. We know full well
that he was received into glory.
20 FISK UNIVERSITY NEWS

LETTER FROM AN ADVANCE AGENT

NEw YorK, Oct. 13, 1911.
Pror. H. H. WRIGHT,
Fisk University,
Nashville, Tenn.
DEAR FRIEND:

In response to your
favor of the ninth, I may
say: Yes, I did have
to do with the pioneer
movement of the original
Jubilee Singers for more
than two years abroad.
I blazed the trail in Hol-
land, which was the first
experiment of singing in
a non-English -speaking
country. It was a most
interesting movement in
its pioneer work.

I went over and
blazed the trail and the
singers threw up the
highway. Professor Van
Oosterzees son was my
interpreter, guide and

CHARLES J. RYDER, D. D.

SECRETARY AMERICAN MISSIONARY ASSOCIATION companion. I went way

up to the north of Hol-

land in Zwoll. They

had never seen a colored person there before. The old cathedrals of

Holland were opened for these services of song and had never been

opened before for anything but distinctively religious church service.

This campaign in Holland was really the most picturesque and

interesting of any of the fields that were penetrated by the singers in

their journey. While there I had the Jubilee Song Book translated

into Dutch, for which Mr. Van Oosterzee was largely responsible. The

Queen entertained the singers at the Castle in the Wood and the

King entertained them at the Hague. It was a remarkable experience

and most unique.

Dr. Pike blazed the trail in England. President Cravath was with

me during the latter part of my management and was most co-oper-
ative and cordial, as you know.

Yours cordially,
(Signed) C.J. RYDER,
287 Fourth Avenue, New York.

before.

THE JUBILEE SINGERS P1

THE JUBILEE SONGS TODAY; THEIR COLLECTION
AND RENDITION

PROFESSOR J. W. WORK,
1607 HARDING STREET, NASHVILLE, TENN.

NOTWITHSTANDING forty
years have elapsed since the
Negro Folk Music was first
given to the world by the orig-
inal Fisk Jubilee Singers, and
notwithstanding the first burs:
of consuming enthusiasm with
which it was received hes
about all passed away, still
there is today a more serious
interest taken in it than ever

In the early days it was
looked upon as a curiosity in
the world of songbeautiful,
entertaining but transient, for
the world never considered it
more than a commodity,
through which one or two
Negro schools maintained
themselves; it was fully ex-
pected that when these schools
drew in their companies of sing- JOHN WESLEY WORK
ers, this music would die. It
is probable that it owes its life and much of its currency to Hampton
Institute, which has been very consistent in collecting and singing it.

Now, at Fisk, Hampton, Tuskegee and Calhoun earnest and serious
efforts are being put forth in collecting, singing, studying and devel-
oping it. This work on the part of the centers of learning insures a
permanency which this music most certainly deserves.

As a result of the efforts of these institutions there are now known
to be something over 500 of these songs, the most beautiful of which
are known to the most of us, while others are current only in certain
localities.

Doubtless the same methods are used in all the schools engaged in
collecting this music. At certain seasons a teacher or student will
make excursions into the districts where big meetings, camp meet-
ings or revivals are being held, prepared to hear and reduce to writing
the songs he is almost sure to hear. ' At these special occasions there
is a perfect carnival of Folk Music, for people come from far dis-
tant and separated places, bringing different songs, new songs and
varied interpretations of the same songs. Ofttimes there is a real

29 FISK UNIVERSITY NEWS

musical contest, which is certain to bring forth a large number of songs.
These songs, however, lose much of their character when taken out of
their settings. Certain intonations and a certain inexplicable some-
thing imparted by those in whose hearts they were born can never be
reproduced otherwise or represented by musical notation. Another
method employed is to find out some expert in the knowledge and art.
of this music, and tactfully request him to sing the songs to be copied.
There is in every locality of this kind one person, or perhaps two, from
whom many of these melodies may be obtained. Success in this method
is a variable quantity, for sometimes just as soon as it is learned that
some teacher or student is present for the purpose of learning these
songs, the memory of the singer goes wrong or leaves him, his voice is

THE JUBILEE SINGERS 23
were oven of no organization whatever, but had good
; e song they liked and were singi Col i
ging was Golden Sl ae
and they were great in making i see
g snakes, their word for cl
which were so successfull bah a
y accomplished and which
and acceptable, that the idea was ce Sa geal
and i ; adopted at once by the i
izations at Fisk and has now b a ae
EER aie ecome a fixed part of the rendition of
Li are to this, there has been a studied endeavor at develop-
ci = = as RS some new harmonies and arrangements much
e old ones. In truth, the general ada ili
: 2, ptability of thi
ng es a high degree of development is its hope of waciny ue
gnition. Such men as Dvorak, Krehbiel and Coleridge-Taylor

all out of fix, or his lungs or other departments of the interior are out
of gear, his jaws refuse to work and his tongue cleaves to the roof of
his mouth. Yes, this, or even worse than this, is often the case. Under
these circumstances it takes all the tact available to get one single
note, and most often there is absolute failure here. Sometimes, after
the first shock has subsided and there has faded the first blush brought
on by the request for a song, the singer will make copious excuses,
close his eyes and begin, and very likely the visitor will get a sufficiency
far in advance of the singer. Sometimes the eyes are not closed, but
are viewing the visitor askance, in an effort to detect any indication
of insincerity. Another person when asked to sing will sail right in
and give you what you want.

These trips on the hunt for songs are always extremely interesting,
and often open up a new world to us. Such rare truths are learned;
such uplifting knowledge gained. Such beautiful voices, such touch-
ing sympathies, such noble hearts, such simple and childlike faith,
such expressive and attractive features are met with, that the visitor
is convinced that the Creator has made a fair and just distribution
of his blessings.

Another method is to canvass among the students. As a rule there
is always a considerable number of students who come from the
localities where this music is current, and who are almost always glad
to make any possible contribution in this matter.

The formation of clubs for the study of this music is a most
effective method for collecting and preserving it. It both interests
and instructs, and is the one place where reproduction is truest to
Nature; for with such singers as are naturally selected for these clubs,
it is possible to make them see and understand the minutest point
which makes for perfection in rendition.

Forty years have naturally made some changes in the renditions
of certain songs, not so marked, however, as is sometimes supposed.
These changes have come about in different ways. The idea, which is
now quite regnant in singing these songs, that of using close chords,
was first brought forward by some boys in Livingstone Hall, who were
whiling away the time between supper and study hour one spring even-

MRS. JOHN W. WORK

h ; ;

aoe a idea in regard to the Negro Folk Song. It can and

mirably to mine into a finished form, and, in fact, it lends itself ad-

reduced to eritin purpose, and those who would keep it as it was first

ats inc g, in their mistaken zeal would doom it to stagna-

eae sea of highly musical people.
eds The bh ao there is no harmony, nothing but melody
ee fhe is a ae Serine ee. ee
a :

tained a a. ee oe Its in singing, in point of nuance, are ob-

Mab id oa but for striking down deep into the
to action, the sin ld oats lofty emotion, for arousing mens hearts

describable ging of these songs by a large congregation is as in-

as melodious thunder or as the rushings of many waters.

a
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9A FISK UNIVERSITY NEWS

JUBILEE SONGS AT CHAPEL EXERCISES
H. H. WrRiGHT, FISK UNIVERSITY

TWENTY-NINE years ago I first attended Chapel at Fisk University.
There were on the platform President Cravath, Professor Spence, Dean
of the Faculty, Professor Bennett, College Pastor, Professor Morgan,
Miss Matson and about eight others.

The four college classes numbered by the catalog thirty-three, of
whom not a member of the Sophomore class was present.

Professor Spence led the singing of the hymn. President Cravath
led the responsive Bible reading, and offered a prayer full of large
thoughts of the goodness and greatness of God.

Professor Spence led the school in a Jubilee song.

The service, though simple, was full of devotion and gave us all a
solemn pause at the beginning of the day. This service with very little
variation as to program has continued to the present. In the main the
service is like that of hundreds of other schools over the land, but
for some reason it is different. This is the universal testimony of the
thousands of visitors who at various times have been present. The
difference consists in the addition to the usual hymn, Scripture read-
ing and prayer, of the Jubilee song.

To Professor Spence is due the credit of introducing the Jubilee
song into our chapel service. It may be news to the younger genera-
tion to know that Professor Spence had difficulties in carrying through
to success his suggestion that the school should sing Jubilee songs as a
part of the daily chapel worship. I refer to the fact that in those days
there was a strong sentiment among the colored people to get as far
away as possible from all those customs which reminded them of sla-
very. There was a belief on the part of many that there could not
possibly be anything good connected with or brought over from the
former condition of servitude. It was their desire to stop singing their
religious songs, So many of which reminded them forcibly of their physi-
cal distresses and expressed their helplessness except as the Lord him-
self might reach down and bring to them freedom from bondage.
They would sing only white songs.

They could not well know that for ages sin itself was a figure of
bondage and that their mournful cries for future freedom or joyful
songs for freedom obtained were expressions which sinners the world
over without regard to race could adopt as their own in their seeking
for spiritual relief from their bondage to Satan. These longings to
have nothing whatever to do with customs or songs which reminded
them of their bondage were very naturally brought into the school by
the young people, and Professor Spence and others, who felt and saw
the value of these unique and quaint songs, were often obliged to argue
with and sometimes scold and drive, or perhaps plead with the young
people before the singing would be such as he thought it ought to be.

Years of persistent education of this sort with an ever-changing
body of students resulted finally in such a change of sentiment regard-

h

THE JUBILEE SINGERS 25
ing the Jubilee songs, that of |
, ate there is ev :
stud ery reason t
ents and the colored people generally take a ep Dehieve the
in them. good degree of pride
But i a :
been an pe pei saat = the singing of Jubilee songs. We have
oie ee seer again by people who judge impartially that
ow ie Se such exquisite rendering of these songs
: : religious emotions are greatly sti
delicacy and perfect finish of the rendition. The serie rs fe
igher

DEAN H. H. WRIGHT

life resulti
ulting from the words and music and method of rendering is s
Oo

One elem i
ent of this refined rendering consists in our having among

the students f
sons: or many years those who have taken voice culture les-

whose i ition i
public rendition in good style and with trained voices of

the great st
Ge | eines from the oratorios and other masterpieces h
Possessor of the 4 ne nee students unconsciously follow The
oud strident voice, the raw material as it we
re,

u
96 FISK UNIVERSITY NEWS

ence, and not wishing to be overly conspicuous begins to imitate the
rendering of those who have been individually trained. In the course
of a few weeks each Fall term there results a blending of our three hun-
dred and fifty voices into a harmonious chorus scarcely to be found
elsewhere. ;

We have found leaders at chapel of Jubilee songs rather rare. Pro-
fessor Spence is the only white man who, in my judgment, ever made a
suecess of it. He was a Scotchman, and it is said there is a close kin-
ship between the native Scotch airs and the Jubilee songs.

Professor Work, as a student, a member of a traveling company and
as a teacher among us, has grown into a conspicuously successful leader
of our chapel Jubilee songs. Professor Talley has followed essentially
the same lines of training and has alternated with Professor Work.

There have been student leaders who have temporarily assumed
leadership at chapel. Frederick J. Work while a student led this part
of our morning worship for over two years. His aptness in oceasion-
ally introducing a new song led to his employment by the University

during two summer vacations to go to camp meetings and other relig-
1 notation the

ious gatherings for the purpose of setting out in musica
new or unfamiliar spirituelles as sung by the common people and so
secure them for publication and permanency.

In a similar manner for the past two years James Clarence Olden,
as a student, has led the Jubilee song at chapel when Professor Work
or Professor Talley was not available.

There have always been students among us who, sitting in their
usual seats among the students under the direction of the leader, or
as an occasional leader themselves, have taken the leading or solo part.
Visitors always express especial interest in such students, for they (the
visitors) gather the impression, which is more or less true, that there
is an abundance of musical ability and even leadership among US.
Calling from memory 4 few of these student leaders (there are many
others) I mention the names of John W. Holloway, Charles Snyder,
John Marquess, David Barnett, Alonzo Thayer, Leon P. O Hara, Max
Martin, Benjamin F. Cox, Lula Williams, and by way of special men-
tion James A. Myers, N. W. Ryder, and Alfred G. King, who with Pro-

fessor Work, have been for years a quartet of such fine quality as to
gain the highest praise from the most exacting music critics of the

country.*

Pe ad asta Sn real

*Renditions by this quartet of several Jubilee songs have been taken for Victor Talk-

ing Machine Records.

THE JUBILEE SINGERS

21

JAMES ANDREW MYERS

ALFRED GARFIELD KING

JUBILEE QUARTETTE, 1900-1910

NOAH WALKER RYDER

JOHN WESLEY WORK
28 FISK UNIVERSITY NEWS

REMINISCENCES OF JUBILEE SINGERS
GEORGIA GORDON TAYLOR,
NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE, October 5, 1911.

I ENTERED Fisk School in
1868. My first recollection of
Fisk begins at this time. I
was in the Literary Depart-
ment when Mr. George L.
White, then an official in the
Freedmens Bureau, com-
menced to give one-half hour
a day to the teaching of vocal
music. The first singing class
was organized in this way.
He used his lunch hour, with-
out compensation, and also
taught penmanship.

In 1870 Prof. John Ogden
gave up his position at the
head of the school. Prof. A.
K. Spence took charge of the
institution, and under his su-
pervision it became a Univer-
sity, with Mr. George L.
White as Treasurer and Busi-

MRS. GEORGIA GORDON TAYLOR ness Manager.

In this responsible position Mr. White found out the pressing needs
of the school. The best voices of the music classes were selected, and
a band of singers organized to study the slave songs which were heard,
at that time, in all of the religious meetings of Negroes. He had no
intention at first of using these songs in public. On public occasions
we used only the songs which are usually sung in schools and churches.
Much progress was made by this music class, who gladly gave up their
recreation times to study music, and ere long they were able to render
a drama arranged by Mr. White called Nicodemus the Slave, and
in 1870 or 1871 the cantata Queen Esther. The wonderful success
of these productions opened Mr. Whites eyes to the larger possibili-
ties and led to his insisting upon our practicing the slave songs, and
later led to his conception of organizing a company to travel for the
benefit of the school.

I was one of the original singers, but through a misunderstanding
I did not travel with the company the first nine months. At the urgent
request of Rev. G. D. Pike and Mr. George L. White, I went with the
singers on their second tour. We went through the great Northwest,
were in.Chicago soon after the great fire, and visited most of the im-

THE JUBILEE SINGERS 29

portant cities in that regi .
gion. Then we went to Bos
: ton, t
Ren Mo orca Acton, Massachusetts, and got ourselves oe
ing at the great Peace Jubilee. At thi :
of twenty thousand voices s . cred ei
( ang. Two young colored gi
bers of our compan i : ies
y were considered a greater d i
The ee rawing card than we.
g the first two verses of The B
ba attle Hymn
Ree S we to render the last verse, which begins ee oa ci
ee tee ae eran The auditorium was large and the girls
; but when our turn came, with voi
clear, reaching the utmost ee
5 part of the vast building, we took
: the aud-
ee Pe German composer of waltz music He
rew up hi i
ee p his hat during the burst of applause which fol-
I : :
Ba: ae : a eT of bob White to say that during these months
, , he on all occasions was the true and tried fri
ieee staunch friend of the Negrorace. His care a.
s fatherly. There was never a time ; 1
when he failed to try t
impress upon us the importance of bei isti on
ap eing Christian m d
Such training he conside indi tony ie
red indispensable. Wh i
celebration is planned ini ile ee
pertaining to Jubilee Sin i i
gers, Jubil
ek University, George L. White should stand first. oo
He ng ae = 1873 we went to England. Through the powerful
e American Missionary Associati i
public men, the singers were i chai ee
nen, e introduced to Lord Shaftsb
ceived his patronage. The Ma i PRUE DDS
5 y meetings were in sessi
: ion, and, through
ear a se She Se the singers were introduced to ne
: ese May meetings were held b ini
y ministers repre-
Wie ee: town and hamlet of the United Kingdom of Great Bee
rie - this medium we expected to be introduced and adver- _
eS = : = of Shaftsbury presided. We captured the hearts of
ate e nee we cane ourselves into their very souls. We could
he di. Hear! Hear! their way of expressing approval.
ange morning the papers were full of praise of these dusky
pee slave parentage from America. A description of us was
te : Fe? Mabel Lewis and Georgia Gordon could pass as fair
nae mone : ag any drawing room, and Minnie Tate as coming from
of France. Jennie Jackson was a iosi
ee n curiosity. They never
ek seis and she was looked upon as something extraordi-
a eee he fees they had never heard anything like the plain-
ae grotesque words, such as: Didnt My Lo i
een The Gospel Train, Im a rolling. oe
Se ey here (casting no reflection upon any of the troupes that
ee bee that probably no band of singers ever captivated
ems . t e people as did this little band of ex-slaves, just emerged
eee ands of their bondsmen. Every night some of them would
ae ae of heving mother sold away and then sing, No More
ock for Me. Nobody knows the Trouble I See, Steal

30. FISK UNIVERSITY NEWS

Away to Jesus. Does one wonder that the tears rolled down the
cheeks of those who listened? What comes from the heart reaches the
heart. :

Surely we did sing, and we were in earnest. Thanks be.to the mem-
ory of George L. White. He was wonderful in the interpretation of
those old Negro melodies. He would keep us singing them all day until
he was satisfied that we had every soft or loud passage to suit his fas-
tidious taste. We sometimes thought him too exacting, but we who
are left know too well that our success was through the rigid training
received at his hand.

We stayed in Europe one year on our first visit. We were com-
manded to sing before Queen Victoria at the Duke of Argyles Lodge.
We sang at the home of Honorable William E. Gladstone, Prime Min-
ister of England, where we met the Prince and Princess of Wales, who
later became King Edward VII and Queen Alexandria of England.
and the great Swedish singer Jenny Lind, at that time Madam Gold-
smith. Of course they were quite different from the Queen. They
chatted pleasantly with us, while Queen Victoria could be spoken to
only through a royal person.

At one of our concerts an artist by the name of George Haverhill
became so interested in us that he offered his services, free of charge,
to paint our portraits. This oil painting now hangs in the Carnegie
Library at Fisk University. I was the first singer to go to London,
with Miss Susan Gilbert, our preceptress, to sit for my portrait. The
first evening we were there Mr. Haverhill, with Miss White and a rich

Jew named Bensusan, took us for a drive through Hyde Park and
Rotten Row.

That day we visited the Albert Memorial (a monument to the Prince
Consort of Queen Victoria). This was the most beautiful and exquisite
piece of statuary I had ever seen; life size figures in pure marble;
every nationality of the world was represented on the four corners.
Mr. Bensusan told us that he had posed as a representative of his people.

As my mind goes back, it seems but yesterday when we were intro-
duced to the wonderful sights of the Old World. I could go on writing
of the beautiful things we saw, of the gracious and kindly words spoken
to us, of the welcoming into the homes of the best people of England.

I wish to leave with those who read this that the Christian training
which we received from Prof. John Ogden, George Lj. White, Ac K.
Spence, E. M. Cravath, and others has been uppermost in our hearts.
We have never grown haughty. We are still the simple, unassuming
children grown to matured women. We still cling to our childhood
faith, trusting God, standing up for all that is good and pure, and
maintaining the Christian spirit which from the beginning has per-
vaded Fisk University.

THE JUBILEE SINGERS 31

SOME HOTEL EXPERIENCES

Mrs. MABEL LEwis ImEs,
2355 E. 31St STREET., CLEVELAND, OHIO.

I became a singer in the (eee)

fall of 1872. I first met the
singers at Acton, Mass., a few
miles from my home, Wor-
cester, Mass. It seemed to me
strange to be with my people.
All my early life I had lived
among white people and was
punished if I were seen talking
with colored people. I learned
in later years the reason why I
was kept away. A French fam-
ily who had always taken a
deep interest in me and pro-
vided for all my wants was
afraid that I might meet with
some colored person who would
inform me that I was related
to such persons family.

Shall I tell you about the
different times when we were
turned out of hotels because
God took more pains with the
making of our people than of

> :
ie ne aoa He stopped to paint us and curl our hair that
MS uffer for these extra attentions that have been bestowed
How many times we were refused accommodations in hotels, I
ie remember. Once, in Washington, D. C., we had gotten oie:
a ee ee e supposed, settled in the hotel and had gone to our rooms
oe prepare ourselves for our evenings work, when lo and be-
fe) ' Mr. White was told that they could not accommodate us under
ae circumstances, otherwise they would lose their boarders. So Mr.
er went to each of the singers rooms, saying, Children, get up
an Bis out of here. We packed our belongings and out we went.
ae t he late in the afternoon. We went straight to the railway sta-
n and remained there while Mr. White and the young men of the
ae went look for a boarding place for us poor sinners. All
e hotels were full.. We remained in the station until twelve oclock
ie night. When the town clock struck twelve it was the custom for
e station to be closed, so we remained in the street until Mr. White
came. He had found us quarters in a colored boarding ee The
next morning we had our breakfast at a restaurant.

MRS. MABEL LEWIS IMES

39 FISK UNIVERSITY NEWS

President Arthur, hearing how we had been treated, sent for us.
The news of it spread through the city, after which all the hotels
opened their doors to us and that night what a reception we had!

Then there is another incident I remember, and that was in Eliza-
beth, N. J. This took place in a private boarding house. When the
help learned of our coming they left, so there was only the proprietor,
his wife and sister to do the work. Mr. Proprietor told us the circum-
stances and said to us that if we would take care of our rooms he would
do the waiting and serving at meals, his sister would do the cooking
and his wife would do nothing. She did not want us there.

We arrived there Saturday morning and were to give a concert
Monday night. When we had nothing to do Sunday evenings we
usually felt lonely or homesick, so we asked the privilege of going into
the parlor and using the piano and singing. The proprietor was per-
fectly willing. While we were singing we heard a great scuffling over
our heads. I was frightened and looked out, and there at the head
of the stairs was Mr. Proprietor tying Mrs. Proprietor with a clothes
line to keep her upstairs, because she said, Im going to turn those
niggers out of my house. Im not going to have them pawing on my
piano. The next morning he seemed to feel ashamed about what
had happened the night before and tried to fix it up in some way. As
we were about to leave he made the expression that he was very sorry
for what had happened during our stay there, and whenever we came
that way again we were welcome to stop at his house.

Sometimes we were up and sometimes down, and sometimes flat
upon the ground. But with faith and prayer the work was made a
success.

Mr. White has gone home to his rest and it may be he has started
another Jubilee Company in the better world with those who have
gone before. Perhaps he is waiting for us few who are left to complete

the company. |

floating house, our home for

THE JUBILEE SINGERS . 33

THE JUBILEE SINGERS ON THE OCEAN AND IN
EUROPE

MAGGIE PORTER COLE.
72 MELBOURNE AVENUE, DETROIT, MICHIGAN.

September 20, 1911.

At first thought, it does not
seem half so long ago as forty
years. I live daily in the
sweet memories of those days.
I often feel my heart quicken
when I recall myself for the
first time standing before the
vast audience in Rev. Henry
Ward Beechers church, and
again hear my voice tremble
as I attempted to lead Steal
Away to Jesus.

Nor can I forget my first
ocean voyage. That great

eleven long days, stands out
alone in my first impressions
of Ocean Steamer and OCEAN.
We had been read to and in-
structed regarding shipboard
life; how to dress, and how not
to over-eat.

I can see the young girls of
the company now as they must
have looked to our fellow-
passengers, each one wearing a calico wrapper with head bound up in
long woolen scarfs, creeping cautiously to her deck chair, prepared to
be sick. Of course we were sick! I confess right here, too, that I
have never seen another such picture, not even in the steerage. :

Five long days I was ill. O, so ill! But at last I got my sea legs,
and with it a sea appetite, to which I did justice five times a day.
When I look back and recall how soundly I slept after eating a welsh
rarebit, a little cold chicken and a bit of cold ham, topped off with
a hot lemonade (this was my regular bill of fare, taken in bed, when
I had only to close my eyes and go to sleep; I did not dream of sea
dragons either), I wonder that I am alive to write these lines.

Neither the vastness nor the grandeur of the great Atlantic, I am
sure, was fully appreciated during the first voyage; yet I recall that
again and again I would ask myself if it could be true that I was really
away out in that world of water, away from home and mother, bound
for England, and with the hope of seeing Queen Victoria.

3

MAGGIE PORTER COLE
34 FISK UNIVERSITY NEWS

I have never forgotten our first train ride in the funny little com-
partment cars from Liverpool up to London. It seemed that we
were riding through one vast park the entire way, the grass of which
had been brushed and varnished, it was so green and bright.

We saw the wonderful Crystal Palace. Located in a house all our
own at Upper Norwood, we were hard at work smoothing over the rough
places in our program (for Mr. White believed if the machinery of
throat and voice was to run well it must be daily overhauled and oiled.)

Friends had told us children of many things we should see: great
palaces, cathedrals, the House of Parliament, Westminster, and
wonderful collections of paintings and statuary. We were told that
from the streets of London one often caught the sound of the words,
O, Judy, Judy, dont strike the baby! One morning we were in
the midst of our work when we heard the magic words. Like a flash
every one of us was in the window and soon screaming with laughter-
It was our first view of Punch and Judy, a street show, which till
this day is popular with the children of England.

I recall our first visit to the Tabernacle to hear that wonderful
speaker, though as simple as a child in his language, Charles H. Spur-
geon. I recall how popular the Jubilee Singers were with all Amer-

icans, and how the singers when they got into restricted places did

not hesitate to say, We are with the Jubilees. For many doors
that money could not open were thrown open to us by reason of our
singing.

Yes, and I think now I recall the day of all days, the day we appeared
before Queen Victoria, at Argyle Lodge, when we first saw the grand-
est and noblest queen of them all, under whose flag we knew thousands
of our race had sought and found liberty in the dark days of bondage.
And we felt, too, that we were having our first taste of real freedom,
where a man was a man for a that and a that.

Poor, ignorant me! I received the greatest disappointment of my
life. The Queen wore no crown, no robes of state. She was like many
English ladies I had seen in her widows cap and weeds. But it was
the Queen in flesh and blood. I saw her; I heard her deep, low voice
saying, Tell them we are delighted with their songs, and that we wish
them to sing John Brown. I wondered why the Queen did not
speak these words to us. We were within hearing and heard her
words of commendation and her command. But what could I
know of English Court etiquette?

The next time I appeared before royalty with the singers it was in
the beautiful Potsdam Palace, when we were before Emperor William,
Prince Frederick (later Emperor of Germany), the Iron Chancellor,
Bismark, General Von Moltke, and others. This wasagreat day. It
was something of the splendor I was hungry for, yet we were cordially
treated, spoken to, and lunched when we had sung. We were returned
to the railway station in the same carriages from the Royal Stables
that had been sent to fetch us to the Palace upon our arrival from Berlin.

THE JUBILEE SINGERS 35

Later, I am sure Mrs. Ella Sheppard Moore will recall my repeated
efforts to get beyond the opening strains of The Last Rose of Sum-
mer at a concert in the Royal Dome in Berlin which the Empress
of Germany was attending. -

Not all of my remembrances are of when I captured thousands with
the successful singing of The Last Rose of Summer, Mulders Stac-

cato Polka, We Part Not Yet, nor Handels He Shall Feed His
Flock. For there were two or three times when my memory played
me false and I stood before audiences dumbwith stage fright, I sup-
pose; anyway Thomas Rutling had to take hold of me and restrain

JAMES GRISWOLD MERRILL, D.D., SECOND PRESIDENT OF
FISK UNIVERSITY

me to keep me from retreating before an audience that packed Tre-
mont Temple to the doors. The number was a trio to be sung by
Mr. F. J. Loudon, Thomas Rutling and myself. We sang it; because
Rutling made me stand until I could recall my lines. ;

I could write, it seems to me, forever on the past as I lived with
the Jubilee Singers. You would have to go with me to Switzerland
Sweden and Denmark; to Finland, Russia, and to Lapland, at the ae
ter place to stand with me and see the midnight sun creeping up in
all his glory. You would have to go with me io the hospitals, to the
bedside of the bed-ridden and the dying. Upon this journey, a filled
with wonder and interest, we must desist from starting.

God bless Fisk, through which I have had so many wonderful ex-
periences.
36 FISK UNIVERSITY NEWS

MY LIFE SINCE LEAVING THE JUBILEE SINGERS
THOMAS RUTLING,
HARROGATE, (YORKS) ENGLAND, SEPTEMBER 22, 1911.

WHEN President Cravath
disbanded the Jubilee Singers
Choir at Hamburg, June, 1878,
I was in poor health and went
to Switzerland. On arriving
at Geneva I put myself under
the care of an English doctor,
who, after attending me for a
few weeks, ordered me to spend
twelve (not consecutive) hours
in bed and twelve hours out-
doors. This order caused me
to go on a walking tour in the
Jura Mountains. My knowl-
edge of French being very lim-
ited, I took with me a French
grammar and dictionary.

When I had been in the
mountains about three weeks,
a minister in a village in the
Canton de Vaux asked me to
give a song and story recital in
his church. The songs were all
Negro melodies, and the talk was about the Jubilee Singers, Fisk Uni-
versity, and the ex-slave in the United States of America. (All my
public engagements have been characterized by these). No one was
more surprised than myself to see that the people understood my bad
French. After spending six weeks amongst some of the best Christain
people (Les Vaudois et les Neuchatellois) I ever met, I returned to
Geneva so much improved in health that my doctor scarcely knew me.

Before joining the Jubilee Singers in 1871, I had had only three (not
consecutive) years schooling; so, believing myself in 1878 to be too
old to do the hard study necessary to get a B. A. at Fisk University,
I decided to learn as many of the European languages as possible and
remain in Europe. My sojourn in Switzerland, where I learned French,
was the happiest of my life; Germany was polite, and Italy was charm-
ing.

But none of these countries seemed to be the right place for me to
dwell in, so I decided to go to England. Mistake? Having studied
singing under the best masters in all the countries where I had lived
on the Continent, I came to England as a qualified tenor vocalist.
The late Sir Augustus Manns gave me, at the Crystal Palace, my first

THOMAS RUTLING

THH JUBILEE SINGERS 37

public engagement, and a splendid testimonial. Herr Manns, being
a well known musical director, I imagined myself singing at Grand
concerts, getting grand pay, and sending donations to Fisk University.

The winter of 1890-91 having passed without bringing any pecuniary
benefits, I decided to become a teacher of singing, and, having shaken
the influenza off my chest, I began that art at Harrogate (Yorks), in
November, 1891. Here headmasters of Boys Schools learned that I
had a knowledge of some European languages, and positions were
offered me as visiting master. But the Britons have not been used to

A COMPANY OF SINGERS (1898)
AND GEORGE W. MOORE, D.D., 81, TRUSTEE

being taught by black men, and after working during fifteen years

with the determination of a man trying to make the dominant race
truly believe that God is the Father ofall races of men, in 1907 I took
to the boards again.

My engagements have been solely with Nonconformist churches,
which are usually poor. I have sung and spoken in a good number of
these, and have often been rejoiced to find that some of the older mem-
bers are still very much interested in Fisk University.

Great Britain has changed in many ways since 1873.

38 FISK UNIVERSITY NEWS

REMINISCENCES OF JUBILEE SINGERS
HINTON D. ALEXANDER, CHATTANOOGA, TENN.

It is said by one writer that
the story of the Jubilee Singers
seems almost as little like a
chapter from real life as the
legend of the daring Argonauts
who sailed with Jason on that
famous voyage after the Gold-
en Fleece. It is the story of a
little band of emancipated
slaves who set out to secure
$20,000 for the impoverished
and almost unknown school in
which they were students.
Twenty-four persons belonged
to the company at different
times in its career. Of these,
twenty had been slaves and
: three of the other four were of
slave parentage. :

It is needless for me to at-
tempt to describe the hatred
| and prejudice which confronted
us. It was something terrible.

H. D. ALEXANDER These experiences certainly

. tested our faith and courage.
Many times we did not have money to buy needed clothing, yet in
little more than five years we returned, bringing with us $150,000, and
each singer had a good bank account.

We were turned away from hotels, and waiting rooms at the railway
stations were denied us; yet we were received with honor by the Presi-
dent of the United States, and sang our slave songs before the Queen
of England and the royal family at the home of the Duke and Duchess
of Argyle, and gathered as invited guests about the breakfast table of
Hon. W. E. Gladstone. But with all the unpleasant experiences con-
nected with our tours through the States, there were many things
which made the tours pleasant to remember. We were received and
entertained by families of the highest social position.

As I have said, we sang before her Majesty, Victoria, Queen of
England, at the home of the Duke of Argyle. Some of the royal family
were present at many of our later concerts. Probably no private party
of Americans was ever before treated with such distinguished attention
as was this company of Jubilee Singers. While we were at Argyle
Lodge, Dean Stanley invited the singers to visit the Deanery at West-
minster Abbey. A few days later they were invited to Carlton House

THE JUBILEE SINGERS 39

Terrace, the home of Mr. and Mrs. Gladstone, who were giving a lunch-
eon in honor of the Prince and Princess of Wales and other members of
the royal family. We were to chant the Lords prayer as grace before
lunch. We sang not only the Lords prayer, but many other selections.
The Prince of Wales looked at our song book and asked us to sing No
More Auction Block for Me. We sang John Brown, which Mrs,
Gladstone asked us to repeat, as a special favor to the Grand Duchess
Czarina, whose imperial father-in-law had emancipated the serfs in
Russia. Among those present beside the royal family were the Duke
of Sutherland, the Duke and Duchess of Argyle, Carl Granville and
other members of the nobility, Count Munster, Mr. Motley, the Hon.
John Bright, the Bishop of Winchester, Mrs. Jenny Lind Goldschmidt,
and others.

A few days later a note was received in which Mr. Gladstone said:
T beg you to accept the assurance of the great pleasure which the
Jubilee Singers gave on Monday to our illustrious guests and to all
who heard them. I wish to offer a little present in books in acknowl-
edgement of their kindness. It has occurred to me that perhaps they
might like to breakfast with us, my family and a very few friends, but
I would not ask this unless it is thoroughly agreeable to them. In
closing the note suggested a day on which he would be pleased to en-
tertain the party. The invitation was, of course, accepted.

Writing an account of the occasion for the New York Independent,
the Rev. Mr. Newman Hall, alluding to the color prejudices of so many
Americans, said:.I wish they had been present yesterday to see Mrs.
Gladstone and her daughter and the noble Lords and ladies present
taking their Negro friends by the hand, placing their chairs, sitting at
their sides pouring tea, and conversing with them in a manner utterly
free from any approach either to pride or condescension, but exactly
as if they had been white people in their own rank in life. A few
years later we were again entertained by Mr. and Mrs. Glad-
stone at their country home, many friends of note being present. Mr.
Gladstones carriage met us at the station.

This recognition and the assistance of many friends, such as Lord
Shaftsbury, Mr. Spurgeon, Mr. Motley, Dean Stanley, Mr. Thomas
Nelson and others, went far toward making the tour of the Singers in
Great Britain a great success. We sang in all the large cities of En-
gland, Scotland, Ireland and Wales. We spent some time singing in -
the Moody and Sankey meetingsin London. At the close of these meet-
ings Mr. Moody presented each singer with a beautiful Bible, in memory
of the meetings, and the committee in charge of the meetings presented
Fisk University with something over five hundred pounds.

Jubilee Hall had been occupied but a short time when the need of
another building at Fisk University became apparent. The ordinary
earnings of the singers were all needed in meeting the other pressing
needs of the school. Finally it was decided to try to raise ten thousand
pounds by subscription, the money to be used in building Livingstone
AO FISK UNIVERSITY NEWS

Missionary Hall. Fifteen thousand dollars of this amount was raised
the first year, Baroness Burdett-Coutts giving the first two hundred
pounds.

Will concerts on the Continent pay? Will the slave songs hold their
power? This was the question that confronted us.

One summer we went to Geneva, Switzerland, to spend our two
months vacation. Before leaving there we gave an experimental
concert, which was a grand success in every way, being presided over
by Pere Hyacinthe.

We were invited to Holland, and accepted the invitation with the
same fear which we felt when going to Switzerland. In Holland we
received the most distinguished attention. At the Hague and in the
palatial mansion of the Baron and Baroness Van Wassenaer de Catwick
we met the Queen of the Netherlands and other members of the royal
family, and a hundred or more of the nobility of the Dutch Capital.
The Queen gave us pleasant individual greetings, asking each of us a
separate question and telling us how much she enjoyed our singing.
Later she attended our concerts. The King also received us at his
royal palace, the Loo, and added a subscription to the fund of Living-
stone Hall. After two months spent with our Dutch friends we re-
turned to our work in England, having enriched our treasury by ten
thousand dollars.

Crowned heads could not have been treated with more distinction
than was shown us in Germany, at the hotels or wherever we went as
guests. The most memorable occasion in Berlin was the reception
given us by the Crown Prince Frederick and Crown Princess at their
palace in Potsdam. We were invited there at four oclock one Sunday
afternoon. When we arrived at Potsdam the imperial carriages, under
charge of an officer of the household, met us at the station. When we
arrived at the palace we saw no one except the troopers who stood on
guard at the doors and corridors. After our wraps had been laid aside
we were ushered into an elegant salon selected for this occasion. The
_Crown Prince and Crown Princess were the first to come in and greet
us, and were followed by their children and other members of the royal
family. We were very much surprised and gratified to find that Em-
peror William himself, who had come out from Berlin to dine at the
new palace, would be present. As the erect old soldier entered the
door he bowed pleasantly to us and, taking his place near President
E. M. Cravath, asked many questions about the freed people and their
mission. The royal family chatted socially with us. The Crown
Princess told us that she had for a long time been anxious to hear us
sing, as her mother, Queen Victoria, had excited her interest in us by
a long letter giving an account of our singing at the home of the Duke
of Argyle. At this time we sang before three generations, the Em-
peror, the Crown Prince, and his son, the present Emperor William
III, of Germany. They all expressed delight with the singing and
asked many questions about our mission. We had lunch in the royal
dining-room before returning to Berlin.

THE JUBILEE SINGERS Al

At Dresden the King and Queen of Saxony attended our concert.
At Darmstadt in the Court Theater the Grand Duke and Princess Alice
and their children were in the royal box, also the Prince of Wales and
the Duke of Connaught, who had stopped at Darmstadt for a visit
with their sister. After the concert we were summoned to the royal
box and Princess Alice received each with a pleasant greeting. The
Prince of Wales told us how much he had enjoyed our singing. They
all talked very freely with us and wished us much success. We visited
all the large cities of Germany, also some of the cities of Austria and
France, including Paris and Prague.

- Our concert tour in Switzerland was also a success. We visited all
the larger cities and were received with a spirit and good will similar
to that shown us in other countries.

HISTORICAL SKETCH OF THE JUBILEE SINGERS

ELLA SHEPPARD MOORE,
926 17tH AVENUE NORTH, NASHVILLE, TENN.

PART I.

PERSONAL.
FORTY-FIVE years ago the
sudden death of my father in
Cincinnati, Ohio, brought me to
extreme poverty, without pro-
tection and with no chance to
finish my education or to pre-
pare myself for lifes duties
and responsibilities. Besides,
I had been an invalid for nearly
two years. Although frail, I
tried every honorable oppor-
tunity to make a living. I
took in washing and ironing,
worked in a family, and had a
few music pupils who paid me
poorly. Finally I left Cincin-
nati and taught school in Gal-
latin, Tennessee. In five
months I realized my deficien-
cies ana came to Fisk. School
in September, 1868, with all
my possessions in a trunk
(which was not full) so small ELLA SHEPPARD MOORE
that the boys immediately
called it Pie Box. I had six dollars, and when Mr. White, the
Treasurer, said that this amount would keep me a little over three

42 FISK UNIVERSITY NEWS

weeks, I asked for work. He said there were already many others wait-
ing for a chance to work. I decided to stay until my money ran out.

Exceptional musical advantages then very rare for colored girls in
the South secured me three pupils, who paid me four dollars each per
month. Wednesdays and Saturdays I went to the city and taught
each pupil one hour, which made it impossible for me, running all the
way, over the rough, rocky hills and roads, to get back in time for the
last tap of the bell for supper; so I went without supper those days and
waited on the table one day and washed dishes the other day. The
school was very poor and food was scarce, yet it filled one. The beef
was so tough the boys called it Old Ben, and declared that every time
they met a cow they felt like apologizing. Faithful, loving teachers,
truly workers together with God, shared our privations, and loving

us very much furnished to most of us intelligent mothering and Chris- .

tian home training such as had been difficult, if not impossible, but
for the fact that they being despised were shut in to us and shut out
from all intercourse among the whites. In the kitchen was another
sweet spirit, Mrs. Burrus (Brown), who recently entered into rest.
She became a cook in order that her three sons might be educated at
Fisk. This brave mother-heart was large enough to take all the other
pupils into her sympathies, and she, too, did what she could to mother us.

There were no helpful mission barrels in those days; so many of
us shivered through that first winter with not an inch of flannel upon
our bodies. In spite of our poverty and hardships we were a jolly set
of natural girlish girls, and when we had a chance romped and played
with all the abandon of children. Once a month we were allowed to
go to the city to church and once a month to an entertainment, usually
at Baptist. College (afterward Roger Williams University), occupying
the oldest part of what is now Knowles Public School Building. Our
girls and boys labored as strenuously then for the favorite ones to
accompany them over the rough, muddy roads and hills, as now to
entertainments.

ORGANIZING THE COMPANY.

We were especially fond of music and gladly gave half of our noon
hour and all spare time to study under Mr. George L. White. We
made rapid progress, and soon began to help our school by sometimes
going Fridays and Saturdays to neighboring towns and cities to give
concerts. We always succeeded financially and left behind a thirst
for education. Those were the days of the Ku Klux Klan and the
Civil Rights Bill. The latter bill prevented our being put out of a
ladies coach if we once got in. Our trips often led into many hard-
ships and real dangers. Sometimes after a concert we received private
notice of such a nature that we wisely took the first train away.

A SAMPLE TRIP.

Once we were enroute to a large city to give the Cantata of Queen
Esther, which we had already given most successfully in our own

THE JUBILEE SINGERS 43

city. An accident ahead of us compelled us to stop all day at a station
in the woods to await the night train. The only visible house was the
hotel. It was election time. All day men gathered from far and near
drinking at the hotel bar. Our presence attracted their attention,
and seeing Mr. White among us and discovering our mission, word
soon traveled that he was a Yankee nigger school teacher.

Threatenings began nearevening. Mr. White, anxious and fearful for
us, had us stroll to the railway platform, and sitting on a pile of shingles
we prayed through song for deliverance and protection. Mr. White stood
between us and the men directing our singing. One by one the riotous
crowd left off their jeering and swearing and slunk back, until only the
leader stood near Mr. White, and he finally took off his hat. Our hearts
were fearful and tender and darkness was falling. We were softly
finishing the last verse of Beyond the smiling and the weeping I shall
be soon, when we saw the bulls eye of the coming engine and knew
that we were saved. The leader begged us with tears falling to sing
the hymn again, which we did. As the train passed slowly by I heard
him repeating, Love, rest and home, sweet, sweet home.

SLAVE SONGS NOT IN REPERTOIRE.

The slave songs were never used by us then in public. They were
associated with slavery and the dark past, and represented the things
to be forgotten. Then, too, they were sacred to our parents, who used
them in their religious worship and shouted over them. We finally
grew willing to sing them privately, usually in Professor Spences sit-
ting-room, and sitting upon the floor (there were but few chairs) we
practiced softly, learning from each other the songs of our fathers.
We did not dream of ever using them in public. Had Mr. White or
Professor Spence suggested such a thing, we certainly had rebelled.
It was only after many months that gradually our hearts were opened
to the influence of these friends and we began to appreciate the won-
derful beauty and power of our songs; but we continued to sing in
public the usual choruses, duets, solos, etc., learned at school.

FAILING BUILDINGS AND RESOURCES.

The time came when the old hospital buildings must either be
greatly repaired or torn down. Many a night in 68 and 69, while
some of the girls occupied rooms in the back row of buildings, the wind
whistled around and groaned so fearfully that we trembled in horror in
our beds, thinking the sounds were the cries of losts spirits of the sol-
diers who had died in them. We dared not sleep for fear a ghost would
grab us, and one night we were sure that a ghost cried out, O Lordy,
O Lordy. Our screams aroused the neighborhood as we fled in terror.

Our privations and limited food began to tell on the vitality of the
students and some of our best pupils were sacrificed. There was no
money even for food, much less for repairs. Many a time special
prayer was offered for the next meal. The American Missionary Asso-
ciation decided that the school must be given up. Teachers, pupils

44

FISK UNIVERSITY NEWS

Sketched by Hardy L. Keith, 01

FISK SCHOOLWEST VIEW

From a photograph taken in the spring of 1866

THE JUBILEE SINGERS A5

and citizens felt that this would be an irreparable mistake and calam-
ity, but no one could see how nor where to get the money even for our
necessities, and our needs were growing.

When Mr. White proposed to take a company of students to the
North to sing for the money, there was consternation at Fisk, and the
city people began to object. Everywhere such a plan was looked upon
as a wild goose chase. Opposition developed and grew into vicious
criticisms. Prayers for light, guidance and patience went up daily.
His peace fell upon us, and while we waited for guidance Mr. White
called for volunteers from his singing class and choir. More than
enough volunteered and he selected eleven voices. He rehearsed us
daily.

The American Missionary Association officers, having heard of Mr.
Whites plans and of the criticisms, and feeling no doubt the responsi-

JUBILEE SINGERS, 1871

bility was too great to assume such a quixotic agency for raising funds,
said we must not go. Mr. White wrote to a leading member of the Board
and requested a loan to defray our expenses. He not only refused, but
protested. Mr. White telegraphed him, Tis root, hog, or die; Im
depending on God, not you. Our teachers caught the vision and en-
thusiasm of Mr. White, and, although fearful of failure, set to and
helped to get us ready, dividing their clothing with us. Our companys
clothing represented Josephs coat of many colors and styles. Not
one of us had an overcoat or wrap. Mr. White had an old gray shawl.

46 FISK UNIVERSITY NEWS

THE SINGERS GO FORTH.

Taking every cent he had, all the school treasury could spare, and
all he could borrow, and leaving his invalid wife and two small chil-
dren in the care of a faithful colored nurse, Mr. White started, in Gods
strength, October 6, 1871, with his little band of singers to sing the
money out of the hearts and pockets of the people.

On our reaching Cincinnati, two Congregational ministers, the Rev-
erend Messrs. Moore and Halley, opened their churches for us for
praise meetings. On Sunday these meetings were crowded. On Mon-
day we sang at Chillicothe, Ohio, realizing nearly $50.00. It was the
Sunday and Monday of Chicagos awful fire. We gladly donated our
first proceeds to the Chicago Relief Fund and left our needs and debts
in Gods hands. The mayor and citizens of Chillicothe took notice
of our gift and in a public card cordially commended our cause. The
two concerts which followed were well attended. In this city began
the operation of caste prejudice which was to follow us, and which it
was to be a part of our mission if not to remove at least to ameliorate.

There was no room for us at two leading hotels. A humane land-
lord of a third hotel took us in, serving our meals before the usual
hour. Dense audiences met in Cincinnati on Sunday at Reverend
Mr. Moores church, but a slim audience greeted our paid concert in
Mozart Hall. Evidently the concert was enjoyed and the morning
papers said the sweetness of the voices, the accuracy of the execu-
tion and the precision of the time carried the mind back to the early
concerts of the Hutchinsons, the Gibsons and other famous families,
who years ago delighted audiences and taught them with sentiment
while they pleased them with melody.

Our appearance before the. National Council of Congregational
Churches at Oberlin, Ohio, brought our cause before the ministers
and laymen, representatives of a large part of the constituency of the
American Missionary Association. They were deeply impressed with
our singing; they endorsed our cause and helped us by a good collec-
tion. Two officers of the American Missionary Association who were
present realized that Mr. White was greatly overtaxed and arranged
for an assistant as advance agent. A hearing before the Presbyterian
Synod at Springfield, Ohio, brought our cause prominently before the
Presbyterians. At first we were welcomed in the Sunday schools and
churches. The collections were small and the concerts poorly atten-
ded.

ON THE ROAD.

Burdens grew and our strength was failing under the ill treatment at
hotels, on railroads, poorly attended concerts, and ridicule; besides
we were too thinly clad for the increasing cold of a northern climate.

Moreover, our teachers at school constantly wrote of their limitations, ~

and appealed to us to send them money. A less trusting, less brave
heart than Mr. Whites had broken; yet he pushed on, doing the ad-
vance work, which later it required five men to do. Often he left us

\

THE JUBILEE SINGERS AT

at railway stations while he and some other man of the troupe waded
through sleet or snow or rain from hotel to hotel seeking shelter for
us. Many a time our audiences in large halls were discouragingly
slim, except for the bootblacks and their kith, who crowded in and
often joined in the chorus of John Brown with voices, feet and boot-
jacks. On such occasions Mr. White, after thanking those present
for coming, explained our mission and appealed for help, saying, If
there are any of the Lords people present with any of His treasure,
will you not help us pay our honest debts and railroad fare to our next
appointment? Always enough money came to do just that and no
more, and we went day by day on prayer and faith.

THE NAME JUBILEE SINGERS.

Realizing that we must have a name, we held a prayer meeting
at Columbus, Ohio. Our Fisk pastor, Reverend H. S. Bennett, was
present. Next morning Mr. White met us with a glowing face. He
had remained in prayer all night alone with God. Children, he
said, it shall be Jubilee Singers in memory of the Jewish year of
Jubilee. The dignity of the name appealed to us. At our usual
family worship that morning there was great rejoicing.

PROGRAMS.

At first our programs had been made up wholly of what we called

the white mans music. Occasionally two or three slave songs were
sung at the close of the concert.

The following is a sample program sung at Mansfield, Ohio, No-
vember 29, 1871:

Holy Lord God of Sabaoth.

Friends, We Come with Hearts of Gladness.
Theres Moonlight on the Lake.

Irish Ballad. Patrick McCuishla.
Recitation. Sheridans Ride.

Gipsey Chorus.

Solo. The Loving Heart that Won Me.
Songs of Summer.

Temperance Medley.

Wine is a Mocker.

or ee eee ee

jon,

Hail, America.

Merrily oer the Calm Blue Sea.
Old Folks at Home.

Away to the Meadows.

Comin Through the Rye.

Roll, Jording, Roll.

Turn Back Pharaohs Army.
Vocal Medley.

Home, Sweet Home.

SPS Saat a Oe Nees

A8 FISK UNIVERSITY NEWS

But very soon our sufferings and the demand of the public changed
this order. A program of nineteen numbers, only two or three of
which were slave songs, was inverted. To recall and to learn of each
other the slave songs demanded much mental labor, and to prepare
them for public singing required much rehearsing.

At Zanesville we were put in a condemned room over a porch so
rickety we had to lean to the wall to keep from falling. When we
girls reached our room we found the room so well occupied that a part
of us only could sleep while the others slew the occupants. .

Our experiences repeated themselves from place to place on our
journey toward New York. As the slave song says, We were some-
times up and sometimes down, but still our souls kept heavenly bound.
Arriving in New York we found no room in the inn and three of our
American Missionary Association secretaries, the Reverends Cravath,
Smith, and Pike, took us to their homes in Brooklyn, where we re-
mained for six weeks.

Through the interest and co-operation of the leading ministers of
New York, led by that noble man, Henry Ward Beecher, our cause
was soon before the public and we were received with the wildest en-
thusiasm. Our concerts were crowded. In each city where we appeared,
a perfect furore of excitement prevailed. Varied and favorable
critisiems filled the dailies of our ability as musicians, of the wonder-

ful spiritual effect of the slave songs, now called Jubilee songs. We.

visited many of the principal cities and towns of New York, Pennsyl-
vania and New Jersey. We went into New England, and everywhere
the experience was the same. Hotels refused us, and families of highest
social prestige received us into their homes. We sang in halls where
Negroes had never been allowed upon the platform.

At New Haven, Connecticut, Reverend H. W. Beecher was to lect-
ure the same night of our concert. There was so little demand for
tickets to his lecture that it was called off and he attended our concert
and addressed our audience on our behalf. New life had come into
our bodies. We sang asifinspired. Gifts of all kinds poured in daily
for use at Fiskbooks, furnishings of many kinds, silverware for our
boarding hall, clocks, apparatus and money to furnish recitation rooms,
bed rooms, ete. The great bell with the names of the singers cast upon
it, which has rung out time for recitations and duties these forty years,
came from Connecticut. At Newark, New Jersey, we were driven
from our rooms at a hotel because the proprietor found we were not

eork? minstrels. Public indignation at this act ran so high, it was.

said, that the city council took advantage of the occasion to pass an
ordinance opening the city public schools to colored children.

Success followed us to Washington, D. C. The President turned
aside from pressing duties to receive us at the White House. Parson
Brownlow, Tennessees Senator, too ill to attend our concert, sent for
us to visit him. He cried like a child as we sang our humble Southern
slave melodies. Returning to New England we received a perfect

THE JUBILEE SINGERS 49

ovation. Extra excursions were often run to our concerts. Our songs,
which had been taken down by Professor Theodore F. Seward and pub-
lished, were sold at our concerts during the intermission. Soon the
land rang with our slave songs, sung in the homes of the people.

Our first campaign closed at Poughkeepsie, New York. We not
only had paid the debts at home of nearly $1,500 and furnished other
money for support of Fisk; but we carried home $20,000, with which was
purchased the present site of twenty-five acres for our new school.
At Louisville we were roughly turned out of the sitting-room at the
railway station amid the jeers of about two thousand roughs, but the
railroad superintendent put us in a first-class coach, in which we re-
turned to Fisk amid great rejoicing.

PART II.

AT THE WORLDS PEACE JUBILEE.

Remaining at home only one week we again took the road. That
we might meet the greater demands for concerts, and also visit smaller
places where it would be too expensive to go with a full company, our
number had been increased. We had been invited to sing at the second
Worlds Peace Jubilee in June. After a few concerts enroute, we
stopped at Boston to rehearse and rest.

Mr. White had unusual taste and gifts. For weeks he trained our
voices to sing the Battle Hymn of the Republic. He reasoned that
the thousands of instruments to be used in that great building would
very likely play it in E flat, the one key in which the various instru-
ments could harmonize. Hence, in order to be heard satisfactorily by
the vast audience, we must be able to enunciate with perfect accuracy
of pitch and purity of tone every word and every part of a word in a
key three half steps higher than usual. So, little by little, each day or
two going a bit higher, using his violin, he trained us on those words
from C to E flat until he was satisfied.

The day came when the Battle Hymn was to be sung. Two colored
girls, sisters and beautiful singers, too, were to sing the first two verses,
and we the last, He hath sounded forth the trumpet. Evidently the
sisters had not anticipated the change of key, and to their chagrin they
found themselves obliged greatly to strain their voices and unable to
sing their parts satisfactorily. The conductor told us to sing on the
choruses, but we preferred to hold all our force in reserve until the
time came for us to sing, though trembling like spirited race horses in
our excitement to begin. Then with apparently one voice, pure, clear
and distinct, we sang out,

He hath sounded forth the trumpet,
Which shall never call retreat.

The audience of forty thousand people was electrified. Men and women
arose in their wild cheering, waving and throwing up handkerchiefs
=

50 FISK UNIVERSITY NEWS

and hats. The twenty thousand musicians and singers behind us did
likewise. One German raised his violincello and thwacked its back
with the bow, crying, Bravo, bravo! and Strauss, the great composer,
waved his violin excitedly. It was a triumph not to be forgotten.
For days we sang; the people seemed never to tire of listening.

ANOTHER CAMPAIGN.

The summer was spent in rest and rehearsals at Acton, Mass. A
very busy and successful campaign followed during the next three
months. Our double (or two) companies were reorganized into one
company of eleven singers. Again we battled with prejudice in the City
of Brotherly Love. Only one hotel, The Continental, would receive
us. At Princeton, New Jeresy, the color line was drawn for the first
and only time in our concerts, in that the colored people of the audience
were obliged to sit by themselves. The singers would have refused to
sing had it not been that so many of their friends had come a long dis-
tance to hear them.

Since a visit to England was planned for the early spring, the closing
- weeks were used in giving farewell concerts. Most cordial and com-
plimentary letters of introduction were given us by leading ministers
and people of highest rank and attainment in the United States to a
similar class of citizens abroad, which happily brought us at once before
the choicest spirits among the religious, philanthropic and social classes.
An evidence of civic and social prejudice was shown through the refusal
of one after another of the ocean steamship lines to take us as cabin
passengers. Finally the Cunard Line received us on the good ship
Batavia. The kindness of the captain and crew we shall never forget.

THE SINGERS IN ENGLAND.

We had our first hearing in Great Britain May 6, 1873, in Willis
Rooms. Cards of invitation issued in the name of his Lordship, the
Earl of Shaftsbury, and the committee of the Freedmans Mission Aid
Society were sent to the nobility, members of Parliament, leading
clergymen of different denominations, editors and others of influence.
The house was packed. We carried everything before us. Congratu-
lations and invitations were abundant. One of those which we accepted
was from the Duke and Duchess of Argyle to Argyle Lodge, their city
home. The next day all the leading dailies had favorable criticisms.
This introduction to the British public paved the way to countless
invitations for concerts and social functions among Great Britains
distinguished people. At Argyle Lodge we met many of the lite of
society, with whom we conversed freely and pleasantly, often amus-
ingly. Our many shades of brown and black got us mixed up at times
and, too, their English accent was so different from ours that at first
we could not easily understand each other.

To our great surprise and delight Her Majesty, Queen Victoria,
drove over to meet us and we sang for her. She expressed pleasure and

THE JUBILEE SINGERS Bl

said we comforted her. TheDuchess of Argyle presented each of us
with a gift. Another social invitation which we accepted was to the
Deanery at Westminster Abbey, from Dean and Lady Stanley. For
three months we were kept busy filling engagements. At Mr. Samuel
Gurneys we were introduced to the great Quaker circle, who are known
the world over for their friendship for the oppressed. George Mc-
Donald, the author, a relative of our Professor Spence, invited us to
his annual garden party for Londons poor, held at his beautiful home
on the Thames.

The most distinguished attentions we received were from Englands
premier, Mr. Gladstone. Three times this great man invited us to his
home, first to Carlton Terrace, his London home, to sing at a luncheon
given to the Prince and Princess of Wales and her sister, the Czarina
of Russia, members of the Diplomatic Corps, John Bright, the Bishop
of Manchester (son of the great Wilberforce), Jenny Lind, and others.
The second time, soon after the first, we went as their guests and were
seated at table among other guests as distinguished as those on the
previous occasion, and were royally entertained as guests. The third
time we were invited to Mr. Gladstones home in North Wales. We
spent the day in their lovely home, mingling freely with the family,
enjoying and examining not only art treasures in the drawing-rooms,
but especially his table of axes collected from all over the world, in his
study. He showed us his favorite ax. It is said that Mr. Gladstone
felled a tree every morning before breakfast. At dinner the servants
were dismissed and Mr. Gladstone explained to us that he and Mrs.
Gladstone wanted the honor of serving us to show us how greatly we
and our mission were esteemed. Later he sent a valuable collection
of books to the library of Fisk University.

Around of visits to the many national societies, religious and secular,
brought us actively before all the people. We met many dignitaries,
among them the venerable Dr. Robert Moffatt, fifty years a missionary
to Africa, father-in-law of David Livingstone; also the daughter of
Livingstone, the sweet Nannie, of whom he wrote so tenderly. Tem-
perance societies adopted us throughout the kingdom because we did
not use strong drink. We had it understood at social events that our
glasses must be turned down. Churches which had never opened their
doors for paid entertainments opened to us. Rev. Charles Spurgeons
Tabernacle was one of many to welcome us.

Our whole journey to and through Scotland, Ireland and Wales was
like that experienced in England. In Scotland our concerts in large
cities very frequently were presided over by the Lord Provost. In-
deed, Lord Shaftsburys letters preceded us everywhere and led even
Edinburgh, Glasgow and other cities officially to invite us to visit
them. Social invitations greeted us everywhere and abundant oppor-
tunities were given us to assist in the Christian efforts of uplifting the
needy. Our concerts were successful, sometimes more than crowded.
Some Sabbaths we sang at six services, In Edinburgh and Glasgow we

52 FISK UNIVERSITY NEWS

sang at the 6 A. M. breakfasts to thousands of the poor; at nine in the
Sunday schools; in the afternoon to working people; later to the out-
casts, often in Guild Halls, where people stood shoulder to shoulder to
hear Gods word; the women came at one hour and the men at another.
We sang in the open air to thousands, in hospitals, prisons, beside sick
beds, everywhere. One invalid of forty years at Dundee, Scotland,
had prayed for a year that the Lord would send us to sing just one song
to him.

Gifts for our school continued to come and sometimes we received
personal gifts. At Paisley, Scotland, Sir Peter Coats (the thread man-
ufacturer) presided at our concert, entertained us in his home, and
invited us to his factory, where he gave each of us a shawl, a real *Pais-
ley.

Often we came across Messrs. Moody and Sankey and had the privi-
lege of assisting them. Once we surprised them. We arrived late and
had to go into the small fifth gallery. During a pause following an
earnest appeal to sinners we softly sang,

There are Angels hovering round
To carry the tidings home.

The effect was wonderful and most impressive. Some people said they
really thought for a moment that the music came from an angelic band.
Mr. Moody looked as though he would not have been more surprised
had his Lord appeared. He afterwards spoke of it.

Our concerts often brought as much as $1,000 a night, and we were
kept in a whirl of work and excitement. We daily had to turn away
from worthy causes which appealed to us. The correspondence alone
was very taxing upon our management, who were already failing in
strength while attempting to keep up the routine of duties incident to

the business side of the work. Miss Gilbert, our chaperon who moth-

ered us for ten years, became very ill and had to rest. Mr. Pike, our
business manager, broke down and others had to be leid off. Poor Mr.
White, while on the verge of prostration, was suddenly called to Glas-
gow, where his family lived, to see his loved wife die of typhoid fever,
leaving three little children in the care of her friend and companion,
Dr. Addie Williams, who had gone with them from America. With so
many of the management ill and absent, the singers, with volunteer
help, carried on the work to the close of the season, ending our first
campaign in Great Britain at Exeter Hall, London, Lord Shaftsbury
presiding. The doxology was sung by the entire audience and we bade
farewell to our friends and soon sailed for America. The proceeds of
that last concert were the largest received in Great Britain. The total
receipts of this campaign were nearly $50,000.

SECOND CAMPAIGN ABROAD.

The year 1875 was noted for important events; Fisk received its
first President, Rev. E. M. Cravath; completed its first decade; grad-
uated its first college class, and entered Jubilee Hall, the historic build-

THE JUBILEE SINGERS 53

ing which will ever stand as a memorial, not only to the labors of George
L. White and his Jubilee Singers, but also to those who remained at
home and kept up the work for Christs neglected, needy race of chil-
dren.

Larger and growing needs as the work developed required greater
funds to insure permanency, so after the singers had rested a while,
another campaign abroad was planned for them. A few concerts in
the North brought to our notice the fact that many other companies
had entered the field, each claiming to be the original company from

JUBILEE HALL

Fisk University. Some of them appropriated our testimonials and
impersonated our singers, reaping unharvested fields, much to our loss.
Much of their work was a discredit and disgrace to the good work which
we had done only a few months before.

On May 15th our reorganized company of eleven members, with
Mr. White and Miss Gilbert, our loved chaperon, again sailed for
England. It was gratifying to find that more than one steamship line
which had before refused us cabin passage, now offered it to us at re-
duced Py aaa but we turned to the Cunard steamship Algeria. We

5A FISK UNIVERSITY NEWS

were accompanied by Prof. Theodore F. Seward, our new director of
music, and his family. President Cravath came later as business man-
ager. May 31st found us at the annual meeting of the Freedmens Mis-
sion Aid Society held in City Temple, London. Our friends had heard
that we would be there and packed both upper and lower halls, the cor-
ridors and streets so solidly that Lord Shaftsbury had difficulty in
reaching the rostrum. His Lordship welcomed our return in behalf
of thousands and tens of thousands of British citizens, with joy. Dr.
Joseph Parker reiterated the same in an address which followed, and
we received a most cordial ovation.

In less than an hour after our arrival a request came from D. L.
Moody for us to help him in his service that afternoon at the Hay-
market Opera House. The next day also we sat beside him and sang
Steal Away after a touching sermon to an audience representing the
wealth and rank of London Some one said, The effect could not have
been happier had the song been written for the sermon or the sermon
for the song. It seemed our duty to turn aside from concerts to help
win souls. We took summer quarters for the purpose of rest in East
London, near Bow Road Hall, where Messrs. Moody and Sankey were
laboring. We gave a month singing at the services daily to an audience
of ten or twelve thousand souls. At the close of the meetings we received
the grateful thanks of our friends and Mr. Moody gave each of us a
Baxter Bible containing his autograph. Thousands were converted

during the meetings. One man who died soon after said that he went

to hear the preaching, but the singing had saved his soul.

After a few successful concerts in Wales and England we again en-
tered Scotland. Applications for concerts poured in from all parts of
the kingdom and full houses greeted us. One concert in Glasgow
netted $1,700. A similar work to that of the first campaign was carried
on in concerts, extra Christian efforts and social functions. It was
impossible to respond to all the invitations that came to us.

We went to Ireland and our work there was a repetition of that in
other countries, only our Irish friends, in their enthusiasm, seemed
even more demonstrative than other peoples in expressing their appre-
ciation. Before meeting Hon. Horatius Gates Jones in Philadelphia,
an Irish friend, and these friends in Dublin, we had always supposed
that the Irish were our natural enemies, because of experiences in both
the North and South. We rejoiced at the discovery of our mistake.
At our first concert fifteen hundred applicants for tickets were turned
away. Opportunities for Sabbath services and social functions were
more than we could fill. We found that Ireland, too, had received let-
ters from our good friend, Lord Shaftsbury.

After a flying trip to several cities in Northern and Southern Ire-
land we turned to Geneva, Switzerland, to rest for the summer. Dur-
ing the summer we gave a concert in Geneva, at which Pere Hyacinthe
presided. Although he and the audience could not understand En-
glish they applauded, wept or smiled at the same places as an English

THE JUBILEE SINGERS 55

audience. They said, We feel it, and were very cordial in their looks
and handshakes. :

IN HOLLAND.

We went to Holland by invitation of a Dutch friend of Rotterdam,
G. P. Ittman, Esg., who had heard us in London. Our Story With
Songs was translated into Dutch, the programs containing both En-
glish and Dutch side by side. Local committees of leading citizens
were formed in almost every place we visited. These committees met
us at stations and escorted us to our hotels and assumed all the respon-
sibilities of the campaign. Where suitable halls could not be found,
their churches or Doms were opened to us. Great as had been the at-
tentions shown us, none had equaled the dazzling splendor of the recep-
tion given us at the palatial home of Baron Von Wassenaer de Catwick
at the Hague. The Queen of the Netherlands, wearing a diamond
coronet, and other members of the royal family, were present in court
dress, and a hundred or more of the nobility and diplomatic corps were
present in all their splendor. Our hotel was just across the street, but
court etiquette required that we drive across to their door. We wore
our usual simple dresses, but our reception was most cordial and en-
thusiastic. The scene was beyond description in brilliancy and mag-
nificence. Even the liveried servants who ushered guests to cloak
rooms or salon and the files of soldiers that lined the path to the door,
reminded us that we were in the midst of royalty. Even the Queen
conversed freely directly with us. Later we met the King at his palace,
the Loo, where we met other distinguished guests. He gave us a large
contribution. We were grateful for the $10,000 which our two months
work in Holland had netted us, but even more grateful for the hospi-
tality which we had enjoyed.

Among the special friends whom we learned to love was the Van
Hermstra family. Baroness Cornelia Van Hermstra became my per-
sonal friend and later, when I became ill in Germany, she sent for me
to come to the Hague, and sent me, as her friend, to a hospital reserved
for the nobility, where I remained for six weeks. I was treated like a
sister beloved. Amusing incidents occurred in the smaller towns and
cities of Holland, where no colored person had ever been before. Our
arrival created a greater sensation than a circus in the United States.
We could not go walking or shopping on foot because crowds of chil-
dren in wooden shoes surrounded us so closely that we could not get on.
In hotels and at every social event we were treated royally.

IN GERMANY.

In October, 1877, we entered Germany. Again we found that Lord
Shaftsburys generous letters had acquianted the philanthropic, re-
ligious and musical circles with our coming and mission. At once we
received invitations to dinners, receptions, etc., where we met many
of the lite of Germany. Rare and special favors in beautiful homes

56 FISK UNIVERSITY NEWS

greeted us, the most significant being an invitation from the Crown
Prince to New Palace, Potsdam, to meet the royal family. The im-
perial carriages met us. Arriving at the palace we were soon ushered
into the presence of the royal family, the Crown Prince Frederick and
Crown Princess, daughter of Queen. Victoria, and their children; also
the aged Emperor or Kaiser. A delightful time was spent in familiar
and cordial conversation and we sang a number of our sweetest slave
songs, to the delight of all. Queen Victoria had written her daughter
three years before of her enjoyment of our songs and how they com-
forted her, which had made the Crown Princess anxious to meet us.
Lunch was served us in the palace, after which the good-byes were said
and we entered the carriages and returned to Berlin. The Crown
Prince begged a copy of our songs, that he might sing them with his
family. As Mr. Marsh has well said, It was a delightful glimpse of
the home life of today in the palace of Frederick the Great.

At one of the grand receptions I felt so keenly that a certain Count-
ess eyes were constantly fixed upon me that I could not help asking
her in broken German, What is the matter? She, in equally broken
English, replied: Oh, I so astonished, you speak Englishbeautifully,
and oh, you dress, like we. I replied, Why, what did you expect
me to have on? She replied, Oh, Africani, Africani. I suppose
she expected us to have on only five yards of calico wrapped about us,
al Africaine.

We felt that our first concert, which was to be given in the aristo-
cratic Sing-Akademie, would be a test of our strength. Our interpreter,
Mr. Kuistermaker, had said that a number of the greatest musical
critics in the country, before whom all the great singers appeared, were
to be present, and if we failed we would better pack our trunks and
leave. So when we stood before these gentlemen (critics) all of them
on the front seat, (the worst place from which to judge us) we trembled.
One of our basses was absent, which left only one bass to balance nine
voices. We labored hard to even up voices. We grouped as usual,
leaned heads toward each other, and paused for a oneness of effort.
Then everything else forgotten, in a musical whisper, Steal Away

floated out so perfectly that one could not tell when it began. The
astonishment upon the fixed, upturned faces of our critics told us that
we had won; we were again at ease and did our best to maintain the
good impression. Our concert was received with great enthusiasm.
The audience, representing the greatest and best of the city, was in
evening dress. We had never seen such an array of sparkling jewels
as were worn that night. It was beautiful. After the concert many
came up and congratulated us. The dailies gave us some of the finest
criticisms we had received. Each piece was analyzed. One article
was filled with such expressions as these: What wealth of shading!
What accuracy of declamation! Such a pianissimo, such a crescendo
and a decrescendo as those at the close of Steal Away might raise envy
in the soul of any choir master. And further on: Something may be

ij
{
|
1

THE JUBILEB SINGERS 57
: same
learned from these Negro singers. All the papers gave the

favorable verdict. vee See
Our work and mission were the same in Germany as 1n 0

: ee wa,
tries, with the same satisfying results. All - retest aso ot
many were visited. At Wittenberg we sang sae a
all Blessings Flow in Martin Luther s room in the mee eal
heard the wonderful chimes at sunrise. At Brunsw as
Apt, the author and musician, and received a se srpetine hese
Basen. we sang before one of the largest Sunday sc a Gah
and they sang for us, the name of Jesus being the eu eae
in the songs. At Darmstadt the court theatre was plac te aue
ne L We had the pleasure of meeting Princess Alice, Gran ae
a ade daughter of Queen Victoria, also her oe oe wh ot
concert both the Duke and Duchess were gee Z a pee a
Wales and his brother, the Duke of Connaught. s oe Gees
were summoned to the royal box and warmly ae ae ee eae
our successful concert was attended by the King a as
At Leipzig our reception was delightful. The a peer ne
tocratic hall where only the best class of concerts yee see ae
placed at our disposal. The custom of cheaper _ ye ase a
hard times made our tour financially less wane ae es
a few other prominent cities and sights we ai ; as
left the Continent, arriving home at Fisk in July, . So 2 ate
An article from one of the Jubilee Singers wow Fe one napaed
without a tribute to the memory of Miss Susan Gilbert,

Mr. George L. White in Eng-
land, during our last campaign.
She was our mother during all
the seven years through which
we labored for Fisk University
and the four years through
which we labored principally
for ourselves. Mrs. Susan oe
White kept the home idea
among us and was the embodi-
ment of Christian culture ana
refinement, an ever-present re-
minder of and inspiration to
high and noble attainments, so
necessary to protect and hold us
while in public life as we, inex-
perienced and unprepared, were
whirled through such (exe
ceptional social recognition.
Our Father only knows how
much we owe to our daily as-
sociation with such a quiet, lov-
ing spirit, who looked upon her

SUSAN GILBERT WHITE

58 FISK UNIVERSITY NEWS

sufferings and humiliations as a part of her sacrificial service unto the
Lord. The family idea was never dropped, even if sometimes condi-
tions prevented the customary kneeling. Often our petitions in public
went up through song or in the blessing at table. Somewhere during
the day we recognized together the source of all our strength and pro-
tection. During all those eleven years on the road, not once did we
have an accident while traveling, though calamities, ahead of us and
behind us, occurred.

ae

PRESENT VIEW FROM JUBILEE HALL

THE JUBILEE SINGERS 59

A FINAL WORD
By PRESIDENT GATES

The account of the striking success in raising money by the original
Jubilee Singers, which money was used in the purchase of a good part
of the campus on which the University now stands and for the erection
of Jubilee Hall, may suggest the impression that at this time, 1911,
the University still has adequate financial support. Such an impres-
sion would be as unfortunate as it would be untrue.

The University has come now upon a second crisis. Its expenses
have been running ahead of its income for some years. The demands
for enlargement have been so imperative as to be nothing less than a
command to take some steps in the line of progress. .

But the time has come now for a change in this respect. The Trus-
tees have determined to raise at least $300,000, which they hope to
make $500,000, in the immediate future, for endowment. A member
of the Board of Trustees, Mr. H. L. Simmons, is devoting his whole
time and strength to the work of raising this fund which we must have.

Meantime there are heavy annual expenses which must be provided
for outside the few sources of modest revenue that can be depended
upon. These sources are: Fees from the students, an annual grant
from the Slater Board, and an annual appropriation from the American
Missionary Association. It is a time when Fisk University needs the
stalwart help of all its old friends and a large number of new ones.
In this great work of putting the institution anew on its feet we must
succeed.

Changes of name or address, and dates of deaths of Alumni, should be promptly
reported in writing to the Deans office.

The Fisk University News is published primarily in the interest of the Alumni of
the University. Any who do not receive the numbers regularly will confer a favor by
sending their names to the Deans office. It will also be sent on request to any non-
graduate students who are still interested in the University, Address all communications
to Editor, Fisk University News.
MARCH, 1919 Nasevik ie

PRESERVE THIS COPY OF THE NEWS

The Proposed
Constitution of the

League of Nations
Is Published Herein

To understand 'the objections being pressed
so sharply against the proposed Constitution
of the League it is necessary to have that
document available for study and reference.

It is the duty of every citizen to make

serious efforts to understand all

of the issues involved

F isk Recelves $100, 000

e | THE GENERAL EDUCATION BOARD
ig and THE CARNEGIE CORPORATION

Have each offered Fisk University $50,000, a total .
of $100,000, payable in four annual installments of
pee, 300, to meet the current expenses of the Univer-
sity, on condition that the University raise in cash
and pledges a third $50,000, or $12,500 per year.

The University has been given $10,000 by one
Southern friend, Mr. Thos. P. Norris, of Guthrie, Ky.,
and is offered $22, 000 by two friends i in the North
$12;000 by Mr. Paul D. Cravath, of New York,
and $10,000 by Mr. Julius Rosenwald of Chicago.
The remaining $18,000, or $4,500 per year mec
come from other sources before the school year
closes. .

Our friends will enable us to secure the total
amount of $150,000, so essential to the continu-
ance of our work, by sending us at once their gifts,
in large or small amounts, or by filling in the pledge
below and sending it at once to the President of
the University.

Tur Carnecie Corporation AND THE GENERAL Epucation Boarp
having each agreed to donate $12,500 a year for four years to
Fisk Untversiry, NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE, On condition that the Uni-
versity procure, from other sources, donations and pledges aver-
aging another $12,500 for each year, or a total of $50,000 in cash
and pledges, I will pay to Fisk University Cif this condition shall
be met in full) the sum of

DOLLARS

Fisk University News

Vol. IX. NASHVILLE, TENN., MARCH, 1919. No.7.

Published monthly by Fisk University. Entered as second-class matter July 26, 1910, at.
the postoffice at Nashville, Tenn., under the act of July 16, 1894. Acceptance of mailing at
special rate of postage provided for in Section 1103, Act of October 3, 1917, and authorized

on August 20, 1918. Subscription, Fifty Cents the Year.
EDITORIAL STAFF:
ISAAC FISHER, FAYETTE AVERY McKENZIE,
University Editor. President of the University.

Changes of name or address, and dates of deaths of Alumni and. other friends, should be
promptly reported in writing to the office of the News.

Fisk University News is published in the interest of Fisk University. Address all com-
munications to Editor Fisk University News.

EDITORIAL.

CLOSE THE BOOK! PROVOST MARSHAL-GENERAL
CROWDER, SPEAKING FOR UNITED STATES,
OFFICIALLY RECORDS THE NEGROS
PART IN WORLD-WAR.

During the great war which has but recently closed the Fisk NEws
studiously refrained from recording any of the many individual
estimates of the Negro soldier in the army; but not because THE NEWS.

- and Fisk University were not interested in the subject. This journal

was waiting for-the official testimony of someone who had the Tight to

speak for the Government of the United Statestestimony to whith in |

future years the student of history may be pointed with no fear. that
the evidence so adduced can be possibly impeached because the officer
so giving it had not the right to speak. THE NEWS wanted not a
record of a particular company or division of Negro troops ina particu-
lar engagement of the war, although the historian must note each one
of these; but. it wanted for Negroes all over the United States, for
Negro men and women, for Negro boys and girls of the land, one com-
prehensive survey of their race as a whole in its attitude toward this

countrys war to help liberate the world.

More than this, Taz News wanted such official testimony as to the
Negros part in the war as would justify the Government in doing
what would be a very little act of appreciation on its part, but what
would mean a great, great deal to millions of colored people who love

Gree

2 | Fisk UNIvVerRsItry Nrws

this nation and pray daily for its peace. A little explanation is in
order here: The Government publishes a series of catalogues of
pamphlets and documents which it offers for sale to the public. The
price lists cover a wide range of topics, such as Foreign Relations,
American History and Biography, Insects, Finance, Education, Political
Science, and a long list of other subjects. The editor of THe NEws
has been, through a long period of years, a reader of these document
price lists; and ever since the bitter day when the Brownsville Affair
caused a number of colored soldiers to be discharged dishonorably from
the army of the United States, he has grieved because (1) Negro sol-
diers had violated laws; and (2) the Government of the United States
in spite of the Negros otherwise splendid military record, ee ianed
the policy of omitting from the record every meritorious act of the
Negro soldier and recording the Brownsville black mark against his
race in uniform. If one will turn to Price List 19, on the ARMY AND
Miitta, the catalogue which deals with the military forces of our Gov-
ernment, he will discover that when he looks for the record of the col-
ored soldiers he will find under the title Colored Troops the cross
reference: See Brownsville Affray; and when he turns to that sub-
ject, he will find the documents which contain the record of the whole
Brownsville affair; but nowhere in the catalogue is there a word to

indicate that the colored soldier has ever done anything of which his
country is proud.

pris may seem a little matter, but it is not so. The investigator
who is not familiar with all of the publications of the Government will
turn naturally to this official catalogue, issued by the Government
when he seeks information about the colored man as a soldier: aa
when he notes the fact that white soldiers are not listed Dat Anda
that colored soldiers are recorded, he is likely to conclude that these
latter have been either unusually fine or unusually ignoble. But if he
examines the sordid record of Brownsvillesordid for white people
and sordid for black peoplehe is likely to conclude that the Negro
soldier is not a valuable asset to the Republic. The net result of the
singling out of the Negro soldier as one to be judged universally and
forever by one act which damaged his record is to place the Govern-
ment of the United States in the position of seeking consciously to
peepress the Negros more glorious record in battle and in the uniform
of his country; and to prejudice public sentiment and history against
him by indicating that the only thing worthy of note in the history of
the black soldier in the United States is the account of the violation
of law by certain colored soldiers in one of the states.

I do not believe that my Government wishes to take such an attitude
before the world.

The matter is vital to the student of history in Harvard University
in Massachusetts, and in Vanderbilt University in Tennessee: to the

Fisk University NEws i

seeker after truth in Oxford in England, and in the University of
Berlin; in Cornell University in New York, and in Fisk University at
this place. There are white students of history in the University of
Virginia who want the truth about the Negro soldier, for some of them
will write history. There are white students of history in Yale who
want to know the truth about the Negro as a soldier, for some of them
will write history. There are Negro students who want to know the
truth about the Negro soldier, for they want to help point their race
to highest patriotism. Across the seas men want to know what our
Government thinks of its colored fighters. When all of these turn ito
the records of our Government they will expectthey, for posteritys.
sake, will have the right to expectthe truth, the whole truth, and
nothing but the truth; and if our Government print any guides on
the subject, they should point impartially to that whole truth.

The man who devised the scheme under which the man-power of
the American nation was drafted for war-service and who mobilized
our army, Provost Marshal-General Enoch H. Crowder, has placed into
the military records of the United States that comprehensive survey of
the Negros attitude toward the late war for which THe NEws has been
waiting. (Second report of the Provost Marshal-General, 1919.) It
makes a man proud of his Government. If we can keep these findings
from being buried in that report, future historians will be aided, a
whole race group encouraged, and the Government itself honored.

I am willing to let the dead past bury its dead. I am not inclined
to raise the inquiry, Why was Brownsville? There is no need to
inquire whether intemperate action of white people and black people
were responsible for the outbreak of Negro troops at Brownsville and
at Houstonwhether race friction rather than innate lawlessness
caused the blot upon the Negros record and the good name of the two
cities. It will serve no good purpose to inquire why the worlds atten-
tion is called specifically, in a Government catalogue, to a regrettable
violation of law by certain colored soldiers and the same course not
followed in the case of other soldiers. The Negro cannot plead effec-
tively for consideration and strictest fair play if he violates law; and
he must learn this bitter lesson, bitter though it is. I am not asking
that white soldiers who engage in riot be written down to infamy in
the Governments catalogue, by having their evil deeds catalogued con-

spicuously and their virtues hidden under a bushelI desire evil for

no man nor group of men. I am willing, if that be the American prac-
tice and its conception of equity, that whenever a Negro does wrong
that it shall be placed against his record to the end of time, and sent
to the four corners of the earth, and that such a course shall not be
followed in the case of any other race; for if such pressure be applied
to the Negro fo about 200 years, he will become the most law-abiding,
the most circumspect, the most highly civilized man on the globe.
4 Fisk UNIversity News

a. as the practice is, I am not afraid of its ultimate results
. NCETAL I do not want to change history. I am perfectly willing
oo seo and everything else not to the Negros credit be

ten into the Governments record of h i iti
a her Negro soldiers and citi-
: That the report of Provost Marshal-General Crowder be written
2 same erase; and (2) that anything else that is to the credit
Sh c Negro soldier, or that may occur to his credit hereafterany
other testimony or evidence given by Government officers be written

under the phrase, Colored Troops
psbe also wri i
ments catalogue. ritten in the Govern-

Re ak I believe that Bore person in authority who wants that
ry. shall be accurately written and who is jealous for the honor of
our Government will want that the virtues of the colored soldier about
whom the Provost Marshal-General writes so generously shall be
recorded in the Governments catalogue alongside of the Pieces, the

black marks, against him, to i
eee , to which the catalogue so generously calls

; Let us hear, now, the report of the man who engineered the draft
soldiers of the United States in the European Warthe Provost
arshal-General, Enoch H. Crowderas he pays tribute to

THE NEGRO IN RELATION TO THE DRAFT.

That officer has written as follows:

The part that has been played by the Negro in the great world
drama upon which the curtain is now about to fall is but another
proof of the complete unity of the various elements that go to make up
this great nation. Passing through the sad and rigorous experience of
slavery; ushered into a sphere of civil and political activity where he
bi to match his endeavors with those of his former masters still em
bittered by defeat; gradually working his way toward the ds ca aient
of success that would enable both him and the world to justify his
TOW. life of freedom; surrounded for over half a century of me te
life by the specter of that slavedom through which he had for obits
ant laboriously toiled; met continuously by the prejudices born na
pe te: still the slave, to a large extent, of superstition fed by igno-
rancein the light of this history, some doubt was felt and ous
by the best friends of the Negro, when the call came for a draft ea
the mari-power of the nation, whether he would possess sufficient
stamina to measure up to the full duty of citizenship, and would give
to the Stars and Stripes, that had guaranteed for him the same libert
now sought for all nations and all races, the response that was its ie
And, on the part of many of the leaders of the Negro race, there iis
apprehension that the sense of fair play and fair dealing, whist is so

Fisk UNIverRSITY NEWS 5

essentially an American characteristic, would not, nay could not, in a
country of such diversified views, with sectional feeling still slumber-
ing but not dead, be meted out to the members of the colored race.

How groundless such fears, how ill considered such doubts, may be
-seen from the statistical record of the draft with relation to the Negro.
His race furnished its quota, and uncomplainingly, yes, cheerfully.
History, indeed, will be unable to record the fullness of his spirit in
the war, for the reason that opportunities for enlistment were not
-opened to him to the same extent as to the whites. But enough can
be gathered from the records to show that he was filled with the same
feeling of patriotism, the same martial spirit, that fired his white fellow
citizen in the cause for world freedom.

As a general rule, he was fair in his dealings with draft officials;
cand in the majority of cases, having the assistance of his white em-
ployers, he was able to present fairly such claims for deferment.or dis-
charge as he may have had, for the consideration of the various draft
boards. In consequence, there appears to have been no racial dis-
erimination made in the determination of his claims. Indeed, the pro-
portion of claims granted to claims filed by members of the Negro race
compare favorably with the proportion of claims granted to members
of the white race.

That the men of the colored race were as ready to serve as their
white neighbors is amply proved by the reports from the local boards.
A Pennsylvania board, remarking upon the eagerness of its colored
registrants to be inducted, illustrated this by the action of one regis-
trant, who, upon learning that his employer had had him placed upon
the Emergency Fleet list, quit his job. Amother registrant, who was
believed by the board to be above draft age, insisted that he was not,
and, in stating that he was not married, explained that he wanted
only one war at a time.

The following descriptions from Oklahoma and Arkansas boards
are typical, the first serving to perpetuate one of the best epigrams of
the war:

We tried to treat the Negroes with exactly the same consideration
as was shown the whites. We had the same speakers to address them.
The Rotary Club presented them with small silk flags, as they did the
whites. The band turned out to escort them to the train. And the
Negroes went to camp with as cheerful a spirit as did the white men.
One of them when asked if he were going to France, said, No, sir, Ise
not gwine to France. Ise gwine through France.

In dealing with the Negroes, the Southern boards gained a richness
of experience that is without parallel. No other class of citizens was
more loyal to the Government, or more ready to answer the countrys
call. The only blot upon their military record was the great number
of delinquents among the more ignorant; but in the majority of cases
this was traced to an ignorance of the regulations, or to the with-
holding of mail by the landlord (often himself an aristocratic slacker)
in order to retain the mans labor.
Oh i = ins order that there might be no question of the
oo ad rights of the Negroes, and that thorough examina-
"eile : e into ye matters affecting their relation to the war
ssh indies eencioe, mere was announced the appointment of
sit eh at, a. werent to the Secretary of War. Having
! y es onfidential secretary to the late B
pte fe : ate Booker T.
bh BE gg es ion nih appointment secretary of the
ps ria nstitute for Negroes, he was peculiar
~~ Boa inagseg advice to the War Department with a :
tne ous e various states, to look after all matters affecting
the a senhiaetAiveraleon 9 and enlisted men, and to inquire into
war, - a em by the various officials connected with the
ant ase n the position occupied by him, the special assist-
poi. ee es War was thus enabled to obtain a proper per-
aah gs ipa e ? titude of selective service officials to the Negro,
esc i . b war, and: especially to the draft. As the repre-
: a ce, his expressions, therefore, have great weight. In
andum addressed to this office, on the subject of the relation

a

The attitude of the Negro to the
was one of complet Di a a
baat th Paint: acceptance to the d
that he was not permi
were permitted
other branches
One of the bri

oF to the draft,
raft; in fact, of an eagerne

ae was a deep resentment in many Patter
a na mi ie. aig ae men, by the thousands
. ction with National Guard uni 1
of military service which a ee gala

v were closed to color

elie coker poueeh chapters in the whole history of the ik aie
rR kal Sa ceptance of the draft and his splendid willingness to
=a ra ns resentment was due to the limited extent to which he
guar ie and participate in combatant or fighting unit

i ain tye teint: eggs a tinei phi for military duty, and the

} { them claiming exempti
with the total number of white and colored men called: oy ape og

presents an interesting st :
beoud: g study and reflects much credit upon this racial

cia sang aese were brought to bear upon the Negro to evade his
et any oe Some effort in certain sections of the country
! uce them not to register. That the
: attempt to spreai
ie ae a miserable failure may be seen ees oe
ia ge of the Chief of the Bureau of Investigation of the Depart-
of Justice to the United States Senate committee: 3

The Negroes didnt take to these stories

loyal. Money spent in the South for heen oat yom

anda was thrown away.

aia too, ae evil influences were more than offset by the various
odes Lana promc}ion of morale measures carried on through the
e special assistant to the Secretary of War and his assist

Fisk University News

a

-1

Fisk UNIVERSITY NEWS

ants. Correspondence was kept up with influential Negroes all over
the country. Letters, circulars, and news items for the purpose of
effecting and encouraging the continued loyalty of the Negro citizens
were regularly issued to the various papers comprising both the white
and Negro press. A special committee of 100 colored speakers was
appointed to deliver public patriotic addresses all over the country,

under the auspices of the Committee on Public Information, stating

the war aims of the Government and seeking to keep unbroken the spirit
of loyalty of colored American citizens. A special conference of Negro
editors was called to meet in Washington in June, 1918, under the aus-
pices of the Committee on Public Information, in order to gather and
disseminate the thought and public opinion of the various leaders of
the Negro race. Such has been only a part of the work of the depart-
ment of the special assistant to the Secretary of War in the record of
the marshaling of the man power of the American nation.

The appreciation of this representative of the colored race for the
cobperation shown by the Selective Service administration, especially
as it affected members of the colored race, in reference to occasional
complaints received, will appear from the following extract from a
memorandum written to this office on September 12 by the special
assistant to the Secretary of War:

Throughout my tenure here I have keenly appreciated the prompt
and cordial codperation of the Provost Marshal-Generals office with
that particular section of the office of the Secretary of War especially
referred to herein. The Provost Marshal-Generals office has carefully
investigated and has furnished full and complete reports in each and
every complaint or case referred to it for attention, involving discrim-
ination, race prejudice, erroneous classification of draftees, etc., and
has rectified these complaints whenever it was found, upon investiga-
tion, that there was just ground for the same. Especially in the matter
of applying and carrying out the selective service regulations, the
Provost Marshal-Generals office has kept a watchful eye upon certain
jocal exemption boards which seemed disinclined to treat Negro
draftees on the same basis as other Americans subject to the draft law.
It is an actual fact that in a number of instances, where flagrant viola-
tions have occurred in the application of the draft law to Negro men
in certain sections of the country, local exemption boards have been
removed bodily and new boards have been appointed to supplant them.
In several instances these new boards so appointed have been ordered
by the Provost Marshal-General to reclassify colored men who had been
unlawfully conscripted into the army or who had been wrongfully
classified; as a result of this action hundreds of colored men have had
their complaints remedied and have been properly reclassified.

It is also valuable to note the opinion of this representative of the
colored race as to the results of the Negroes participation in the war:

In a word, I believe that the Negros participation in the war, his
eagerness to serve, and his great courage and demonstrated valor
across the seas, have given him a new idea of Americanism and like-
8 Fisk UNIversity News

Ga ape 7 people of our country a new idea of his

L D, al character and capabilities, and his 1 ;

Americanism. Incidentall : Sn mae ce
ner y the Negro has been helped i

physically and mentally, and has been i EGbed inols sate

Re cua Ge , made into an even more satis--

Concluding this summary, the Provost Marshal-General discussed
In another place in his report, the subject :

REPORTED DESERTIONS, BY COLOR, COMPARED.

: Of the 474,861 reported deserters, 369,030 are white registrants, and
105,831 are colored registrants; the ratio of white reported heaters to:
white registrants being 3.86, and the ratio of colored reported deserters
sa colored registrants being 9.81. Table 76 shows the figures in detail: :
in Appendix Table 76-A, the variances in the several states are Bei

TABLE 76.Reported desertions, by color, compared.

- Ge
| ea | oe,.
Reported desertions, by color, compared. Number. gs S33
Bee ae?
Ass lhoe
1|Total colored and white registrant
1917, to Sept. 11, 1918... " Cees ty a eat - 10,640,846|100.00
2)Total reported desertions .............. eee. "474.861 4.4 ee.
3/Total colored registrants ................... 1 078,331 Eales
4 Reported desertions: ...5.; 72.5300... 04 105.831 be. (99 Prue
5|Total white registrants .......... eee 9 562,515 alee
6| Reported desertions .....................| 69,0301 3.47 aed

These figures of reported desertions, however, lose their sienificance
when the facts behind them are studied. There is in the files of this.
office a series of letters from governors and draft executives of South-
ern States, called forth by inquiry for an explanation of the large per-
gentage of Negroes among the reported deserters and delinquents
With striking unanimity the draft authorities replied that this was aos
to two causes; first, ignorance and illiteracy, especially in the rural
regions, to which may be added a certain shiftlessness in ignoring
civic obligations; and secondly, the tendency of the Negroes to ged
from place to place. The natural inclination to roam from one employ-
went to another has been accentuated by unusual demands for flee
incident to the war, resulting in a considerable flow of colored men
to He North and to various munition centers. This shifting reached
its height in the summer of 1917, shortly after the first registration,

Fisk University NEws Hy)

and resulted in the failure of many men to keep in touch with their
Jocal boards, so that questionnaires and notices to report did not reach
them.

With equal unanimity the draft executives report that the amount
of willful delinquency or desertion has been almost nil. Several de-
scribe the strenuous efforts of Negroes to comply with the regulations,
when the requirements were explained to them, many registrants trav-
eling long distances to report in person to the adjutant-general of the
state. The conviction resulting from these reports is that the colored
men as a whole responded readily and gladly to their military obliga-
tions once their duties were understood.

I am proud that this officer had the courage to write this into his

_ report if the praise was merited. It strengthens me in two ways: When

I preach to my people patriotism and loyalty to this Governmentas
so often I try to doI want to be able to say to my group: See what
a fine attitude your country takes toward you; and my group, I have
found, are increasingly willing to listen to exhortations about the col-
ored mans duty when I do not have to make so many apologies for
my Government and fellow-countrymen.

In the next place, I can say again and again to my soldiers: The
Government has given you a high endorsement. See to it that you
keep that record clean.

We shall find that we can follow a worse policy than to stand up
occasionally in the meeting and tell even the colored people that we
are no more afraid to tell the truth about their merits than we are to
sound the trumpet when they do wrong.

ISAAC FISHER.

ie)
10 Fisk UNIverRsIty NrEws

THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS.

The sharp discussion which the publication of the proposed consti-
tution for a League of Nations has provoked in the United States.
presses that subject to the fore, and makes it easily the most important
subject for study and discussion before the American people.

Whatever course is followed, the formation of a League of Nations,
including the United States; the formation of such a society of nations
excluding this country; or the total defeat of the whole movement, will
profoundly affect the history of all nationsof all mankindhereafter.
As President McKenzie remarked in th first lecture on the subject.
he gave to the students of Fisk University: The last five years, and
particularly the fifth, in which we are now living, bid fair to be recog-
nized by all future ages as the great turning point in history. The
fate of all succeeding time lies bound up with the fate of the proposed
League of Nations. It is a wonderful privilege to live and to share in
the thinking of so tremendous a time.

With these premises before us, it is easy to understand why each
American citizen should and ought to make himself intelligent on the
general subject. The proposed covenant was published sometime ago;
but it is not likely that our readers expected such sharp assaults to be
made against certain sections of that document, and preserved their
copies.

Under a sense of public duty, therefore, THE News is publishing the
proposed constitution so that its provisions may be easily consulted
during the fierce clashes of opinion on the subject, which have already
forced themselves on the attention of the country.

TEXT OF WORLD-LEAGUE COVENANT.

Paris, France, February 14.The executive council of the proposed
League of Nations, as outlined in the covenant read by President
Wilson today, will consist of representatives of the United States, Great.
Britain, France, Italy, and Japan, with representatives of four other
states. The covenant reads as follows:

COVENANT.

Preamble.In order to promote international codperation and to.
secure international peace and security by the acceptance of obligations
not to resort to war, by the prescription of open, just and honorable
relations between nations, by the firm establishment of the under-
standings of international law, as the actual rule of conduct among
governments, and by the maintenance of justice and a scrupulous.

Fisk UNIVERSITY NEWS Me

respect for all treaty obligations in the dealings of organized people

with one another, the powers signatory to this covenant adopt this

Constitution of the League of Nations:

ARTICLE I.

The action of the high contracting parties under the terms of this
covenant shall be effected through the instrumentality of a meeting of
a body of delegates representing the high contracting parties, of meet-
ings at more frequent intervals of an executive council, and of a per-
manent international secretariat to be established at the seat of the
league.

ARTICLE II,
_ Meetings of the body of delegates shall be held at stated intervals
and from time to time as occasion may require for the purpose of
dealing with matters within the sphere of action of the league. Meet-
ings of the body of delegates shall be held at the seat of the league or
at such other places as may be found convenient, and shall consist of
representatives of the high contracting parties. Each of the high con-
tracting parties shall have one vote, but may have not more than three
representatives.

ARTICLE III.

The executive council shall consist of representatives of the United
States of America, the British Empire, France, Italy, and Japan, to-
gether with representatives of four other states, members of the league.
The selection of these four states shall be made by the body of dele-
gates on such principles and in such manner as they think fit. Pending
the appointment of these representatives of the other states, repre-
sentatives of (blank left for names) shall be members of the executive
council.

ARTIOLE LY.

All matters of procedure at meetings of the body of delegates or the
executive council, including the appointment of committees to investi-
gate particular matters, shall be regulated by the body of delegates or
the executive council and may be decided by a majority of the states
represented at the meeting.

The first meeting of the body of delegates and the executive council
shall be summoned by the President of the United States of America.

ARTICLE V.

The permanent secretariat of the league shall be established at
(blank), which shall constitute the seat of the league. The secretariat
shall comprise such secretaries and staff as may berequired, under
the general direction and control of a secretary-general of the league,
who shall be chosen by the executive council; the secretariat shall be
appointed by the secretary-general subject to confirmation by the ex-
ecutive council.

The expenses of the secretariat shall be borne by the states members
of the league in accordance with the apportionment of the expenses of
the International Bureau of the Universal Postal Union.

ARTICLE VI.
Representatives of the high contracting parties and officials of the

league when engaged in the business of the league shall enjoy diplo-
matic privileges and immunities and the buildings occupied by the
12 Fisk UNIvrrsity NEws

league or its officials or by representatives attending its meetings shall.

enjoy the benefits of extra territoriality.

ARTICLE VII.

Admission to the league of states not signatories to the covenant.
and not named in the protocol as states to be invited to adhere to the-

covenant, requires the assent of not less than two-thirds of the states

represented in the body of delegates, and shall be limited to fully self--

governing countries, including dominions and colonies.

No state shall be admitted to the league unless it is able to give
effective guarantees of its sincere intention to observe its international
obligations, and unless it shall conform to such principles as may be:

prescribed by the military forces and armaments.

ARTICLE VIII.

The high contracting parties recognize the principle that the main-
tenance of peace will require the reduction of national armament to the:
lowest point consistent with national safety and the enforcement by
common consent of international obligations, having special regard to:
the geographical situation and circumstances of each state; and the
executive council shall formulate plans for effecting such reduction.

The executive council shall also determine for the consideration
and action of the severdl governments what military equipment and
armament is fair and reasonable in proportion to the scale of forces.
laid down in the program of disarmament; and these limits, when
adopted, shall not be exceeded without the permission of the executive:
council.

The high contracting parties agree that the manufacture by private:
enterprise of munitions and implements of war lends itself to grave
objections, and direct the executive council to advise how the eyil
effects attendant upon such manufacture can be prevented, due regard
being had to the necessities of these countries which are not able to
manufacture for themselves the munitions and implements of war:
necessary for their safety.

ARTICLE IX.

A permanent commission shall be constituted to advise the league:
on the execution of the provisions of Article Hight and on military
and naval questions generally.

ARTICLE X.

The high contracting parties shall undertake to respect and pre-
serve, as against external aggression, the territorial integrity and exist-
ing political independence of all states, members of the league. In case-
of any such aggression, or in case of any threat or danger of such
aggression, the executive council shall advise upon the means by which
the obligation shall be fulfilled.

ARTICLE XI.

Any war or threat of war, whether immediately affecting any of
the high contracting parties or not, is hereby declared a matter of
concern to the league, and the high contracting parties reserve the:
right to take any action that may be deemed wise and effectual to-
safeguard the peace of nations.

Fisk UNIvgersity NEWS 13

ARTICLE XII.

The high contracting parties agree that should disputes arise be-
tween them which cannot be adjusted by the ordinary processes of
diplomacy, they will in no case resort to war without previously sub-
mitting the questions and matters involved either to arbitration or to

inquiry by the executive council, and until three months after the

award by the arbitrators or a recommendation by the executive coun-
cil; and that they will not even then resort to war as against a member

of the league which complies with the award of arbitration or the

)

recommendation of the executive council.

ARTICLE XIII.

The high contracting parties, whenever any dispute or difficulty
shall arise between them which they recognize to be suitable to arbitra-
tion, and which cannot be satisfactorily settled by diplomacy, will sub-
mit the whole matter to arbitration. For this purpose the court of
arbitration to which the case is referred shall be the court agreed on
by the parties or stipulated in any convention existing between them.
The high contracting parties agree that they will carry out in full good
faith any award that may be rendered. In the event of any failure to
carry out the award, the executive council shall propose what steps
can best be taken to give effect thereto.

ARTICLE XIV.

The executive council shall formulate plans for the establishment
of a permanent court of international justice and this court shall, when
established, be competent to hear and determine any matter which the
parties recognize as suitable for the submission to it for arbitration
under the foregoing article.

ARTICLE XV.

Tf there should arise between states members of the league any
dispute likely to lead to rupture, which is not submitted to arbitra-
tion as above, the high contracting parties agree that they will refer
the matter to the executive council; either party to the dispute may
give notice of the existence of the dispute to the secretary-general,
who will make all necessary arrangements for a full investigation and
consideration thereof. For this purpose the parties agree to communi-
cate to the secretary-general, as promptly as possible, statements of
their case with all the relevant facts and papers, and the executive
council may forthwith direct the publication thereof.

Where the efforts of the council lead to the settlement of the dis-
pute, a statement shall be published indicating the nature of the dis-
pute and the terms of settlement, together with such explanations as
may be appropriate. If the dispute has not been settled, a report by
the council shall be published, setting forth with all necessary facts
and explanations the recommendations which the council thinks just
and proper for the settlement of the dispute. If the report is unani-
mously agreed to by the members of the council other than the parties
to the dispute, the high contracting parties agree that they will not go
to war with any party which complies with the recommendations, and
that, if any party shall refuse so to comply, the council shall propose
measures necessary to give effect to the reason. If no such unanimous
report can be made, it shall be the duty of the majority and the priv-
14 Fisk UNIvrrRSITy Nrws

ilege of the minority to issue statements indicating what they believe
to be the facts and containing the reasons which they consider to be
just and proper.

The executive council may in any case under this article refer the

dispute to the body of delegates. The dispute shall be referred at the
request of either party to the dispute, provided that such request must
be made within fourteen days after the submission of the dispute. In
any case referred to the body of delegates all the provisions of this
article and of Article Twelve relating to the action and powers of the
executive council shall apply to the action and powers of the body of
delegates.

ARTICLE XVI.

Should any of the high contracting parties break or disregard its
covenants under Article XII it shall thereby ipso facto be deemed to
have committed an act of war against all the other members of the
league, which hereby undertakes immediately to subject it to the sev-
erance of all trade or financial relations, the prohibition of all inter-
course between their nationals and the nationals of the covenant-
breaking state, and the prevention of all financial, commercial or per-
sonal intercourse between the nationals of the covenant-breaking state
and nationals of any other state, whether a member of the league
or not.

It shall be the duty of the executive council in such case to recom-
mend what effective military or naval force the members of the league
shall severally contribute to the armed forces to be used to protect the
covenants of the league.

ARTICLE XVII.

In the event of disputes between one state member of the league
and another state which is not a member of the league the high con-
tracting parties agree that the state or states not members of the
league shall be invited to accept the obligations of membership in the
league for the purposes of such dispute, upon such conditions as the
executive council may deem just, and upon acceptance of any such
invitation the above provisions shall be applied with such modifications
as may be deemed necessary by the league.

In the event of a power so invited refusing to accept the obligations
of membership in the league for the purposes of the league which in
the case of a state member of the league would constitute a breach of
Article XII, the provisions of Article XVI shall be applicable as against
the state taking such action.

If both parties to the dispute when so invited refuse to accept the
obligations of membership in the league for the purpose of such dis-
pute, the executive council may take such action and make such recom-
mendations as will prevent hostilities and will result in the settlement
of the dispute.

ARTICLE XVIII.

The high contracting parties agree that the league shall be en-
trusted with general supervision of the trade in arms and ammunition
with the countries in which the control of this traffic is necessary in
the common interest.

ARTICLE XIX,

To those colonies and territories which as a consequence of the late
war have ceased to be under the sovereignty of the states which for-

s

Fisk University NEws 15

merly governed them and which are inhabited by peoples not yet able
to stand by themselves under the strenuous conditions of the modern
world, there should be applied the principle that the wellbeing and
development of such peoples form a sacred trust of civilization and
that securities for the performance of this trust should be embodied in
the constitution of the league. :

The best method of giving practical effect to this principle is that
the tutelage of such peoples should be entrusted to advanced nations.
who by reason of their resources, their experience or their geographical
position, can best undertake this responsibility, and that this tutelage
should be exercised by them as mandatory on behalf of the league.

Certain communities formerly belonging to the Turkish Empire
have reached a stage of development which their existence as independ-
ent nations can be provisionally recognized subject to the rendering
of administrative advice and assistance by mandatory power until such
time as they are able to stand alone. The wishes of these communities
must be a principal consideration in the selection of the mandatory
power. :

There are territories, such as Southwest Africa and certain of the
South Racific Isles, which, owing to the sparseness of their population,
or their small size, or their remoteness from the centers of civilization,
or their geographical continuity to the mandatory state, and other cir-
cumstances, can be best administered under the laws of the mandatory
state as integral portions thereof, subject to the safeguards above men-
tioned, in the interests of the indigenous population.

ARTICLE XX.

The high contracting parties will endeavor to secure and maintain
fair and humane conditions of labor for men, women and children,
both in their own countries and in all countries to which their com-
mercial and industrial relations extend, and to that end agree to estab-
lish as part of the organization of the league a permanent bureau of
labor.

ARTICLE XXI.

The high contracting parties agree that provision shall be made
through the instrumentality of the league to secure and maintain free-
dom of transit and equitable treatment for the commerce of all states
members of the league, having in mind, among other things, special
arrangements with regard to the necessities of the regions devastated
during the war of 1914-1918.

ARTICLE XXII.

The high contracting parties agree to place under the control of the
league of international bureaus general treaties if the parties to such
treaties consent. Furthermore, they agree that all such international
bureaus to be constituted in future shall be placed under control of
the league.

ARTICLE XXIII.

The high contracting parties agree that every treaty or interna-
tional engagement entered into hereafter by any state member of the
league shall be forthwith registered with the secretary-general, and as
soon as possible published by him, and that no such treaty or interna-
tional engagement shall be binding until so registered.
16 Fisk UNIversiry NEws

ARTICLE XXIV.

It shall be the right of the body of delegates from time to time to
advise the reconsideration by states members of the league of treaties
which have become inapplicable, and of international conditions of
which the continuance may endanger the peace of the world.

ARTICLE XXV.

The high contracting parties severally agree that the present cove-
nant is accepted as abrogating all obligations inter se which are incon-
sistent with the terms thereof, and solemnly engage that they will not
hereafter enter into any engagements inconsistent with the terms
thereof. In case any of the powers signatory hereto or subsequently
admitted to the league shall, before coming a party to this covenant,
have undertaken any obligations which are inconsistent with the terms
of this covenant, it shall be the duty of such power to take immediate
steps to procure its release from such obligations.

ARTICLE XXVI.

_ Amendments to this covenant will take effect when ratified by the
states whose representatives compose the executive council and by
three-fourths of the states whose representatives compose the body of
delegates.

IG

Fisk UNIversiry News 17

PRINCETON TO MAKE ENTRANCE SIMPLER.

LIBERALIZATION OF REQUIREMENTS IS ANNOUNCED AT ALUMNI DAY CERE-
MONIES.Dr. HIBBEN DECORATED.CROSS OF LEGION OF HONOR
PRESENTED TO PRESIDENT FOR WORK IN THE WAR.

A radical modification of the curriculum such as would make the
entrance requirements to Princeton more liberal, and the establishment
throughout the West and South of regional scholarships which would
give the university a more national representation, were the outstand-
ing features of the address of President John Grier Hibben at the
Princeton annual Alumni Day luncheon. In the morning President
Hibben was decorated by the French Government with the Cross of
the Legion of Honor. The decoration was presented in the name of
France by Captain Paul de Fourmestraux, an instructor at the univer-
sity during the period of military training. The ceremony took place
in the faculty room of Old North at Princeton, and Dr. Hibben in a
short address thanked Captain Fourmestraux for the honor.

After warning the alumni against the danger of losing themselves in
contemplation either of the heritage which has been our birthright or
the glory which has come to Princeton through the courage and devo-
tion of her sons in the great World War, the president urged that the
university assume the same role in the coming days of peace as in the
days of war, and he pointed out the necessity of an insight which
would penetrate the surface of things and reveal the obligation of every
young American to understand the problems which bear directly upon
his countrys welfare.

NEED TO SEE IN FUTURE.

It is necessary for us to be keenly alive to the possibilities at this
time of the natural growth and expansion of the university, he said.
T do not mean merely growth in numbers, but growth in power and
influence. Before the war we had plans for a campaign to secure in-
creased endowment of the resources of the university. The interruption
of the war made it necessary for us to set aside those plans. We
expect, however, to undertake their realization at once. In our desire
for both the extensive and intensive growth of the university we feel
the necessity of appealing for assistance, not merely to the alumni of
Princeton, but to the many friends of Princeton who have had an inter-
est in our history, both of earlier times and of latter days, and who
have faith in the ideals for which we stand.

In the program of our development we have noted particularly the
necessity for increased endowment for professorships and increase of
professional salaries; the enlargement of our preceptorial method of
18 Fisk UNiversiry NEws

teaching (which is Princetons most distinctive and valuable peda-
gogical feature); a fund which will supply remission of tuition to all
students who cannot afford to pay our tuition charges; the establish-

ment throughout the West and the South of regional scholarships

which will give us an even more national representation; the increase
of our library equipment; provision for a new laboratory and adequate
equipment training in chemistry and its various branches, technical
and industrial, as stimulated by the advance of chemistry due to the
war; the development of our engineering school; the development of
the new school of architecture; development of astronomical research;
the extension of McCosh Hall to give more room for recitation and
lecture work; and the erection of a new dormitory which will enable
us to carry out our fundamental policy of housing all undergraduates
on the campus, a vital necessity to preserve the chief characteristics
of our Princeton life. With this external development we are planning
a very radical modification of our present curriculum of such a nature
that our present freshman and sophomore studies may be more flexible
and our entrance requirements more liberal.

To OpEN Doors TO ALL.

We wish if possible to open the doors of Princeton to all types of
men whose preparation is of such a nature as to make them worthy of
the privileges of a university education. We wish the studies of the
freshman and sophomore years to be of such a nature as to create in
the minds of our entering students at once the impression that they
are entering into a new intellectual atmosphere which shall stimulate
a spirit of inquiry and of daily devotion to their tasks. I am particu-
larly anxious that the minds of our young men at the very beginning
of their freshman year should be awakened so that they may immedi-
ately experience the glow of creative energy as they go about the mas-
tering of their tasks.

My ambition for Princeton is that we may be able to hold our
young men to the standard of work which they not only gladly but
efficiently performed in the months while they were preparing for war
service upon our campus. We must make every effort to conserve this
spirit of intensive concentrated application to the immediate work of
each day; the spirit of eagerness to know and to be properly equipped
for the task ahead; the spirit of patriotic devotion through which men
are stimulated by the idea that their country needed them in the hours
of preparation; the spirit of readiness to sacrifice pleasure and ease
and the joy of living to the serious task which is ones immediate
duty.

Dr. Hibben closed with a tribute to the 125 Princeton men who had
died in service, lauding them as men who had fought for liberty which
frees one from all that is evil and base and ignoble, and enables one
usefully to serve his day and generation.New York Times.

Fisk University News. 19

It is interesting to note the similarity to Fisk University ideals, set
up by Dr. Hibbeni. e., supervised study; constant, intensive and con-
centrated study; and the sacrifice of pleasure to that end.

DEPARTMENT OF LABOR HOLDS IMPORTANT
INFORMAL CONFERENCE.

WELFARE AND PHILANTHROPIC ORGANIZATIONS SEEKING TO ADVANCE NEGRO
WELFARE RESPOND TO CALL ISSUED By DIRECTOR OF NEGRO ECONOMICS.
SECRETARY OF LABOR AND OTHER OFFICIALS SPEAK.

February 17 and 18 were red-letter days for the interest of Negro
wage-earners when an informal conference of about forty-five welfare
boards, agencies and organizations dealing with Negro life met in
Washington upon the invitation of the Secretary of Labor, issued
through the Director of Negro Economics, Dr. George E. Haynes. The
director, presided at the sessions.

The keynote of the conference was sounded by the secretary, the
Hon. W. B. Wilson, in welcoming the representatives. He said in part:
The Department of Labor is the newest of the ten executive depart-
ments of the Government. Its duty is to promote the welfare of wage-
earners and advance their opportunities for profitable employment.
Congress, in defining the duties of the Department of Labor, made no
distinction either as to sex or race, and I may add, as to previous con-
dition of servitude. We were authorized to promote the welfare of
wage-earners, whether men or women or children, whether they were
white or colored, whether they were native born or alien residents; and
in undertaking to promote the welfare of wage-workers we have not
assumed that it was our duty to promote the welfare of the wage-
worker at the expense of the plans of the community, but to promote

_the welfare of the wage-worker, having due respect to the rights of all

the other portions of our population. This sentiment was also voiced
by the assistant secretary, Hon. Louis F. Post, in opening the confer-
ence, when he said: It is the function of the Department of Labor
to look after the interests of all wage-earners of any race, any age or
either sex. In opening the discussion, the Director of Negro Eco-
nomics said: We have invited men and women from the North and
South, both Negroes and whites, in order that we may hear from both
sections and both races.

(Epirors Note: President McKenzie was one of the speakers at
the conference of welfare workers, referred to above; and his address
appears on the next page.)
20 Fisk University News

SURVEY OF CONDITIONS AS A BASIS FOR CONSTRUC-
TIVE PLANS OF WORK.

By PRESIDENT F,. A. MCKENZIE.

As a subtopic of the more general topic of Lines of work which

should be undertaken for improving race relations and conditions of
Negro workers, this subject carries certain implications which are so
self-evident that they scarcely need mention or enumeration.

In the first place, it is a truism and yet not really a commonplace
that we must know the elements of any social problem before we can
hope to solve it. During the war even more than before the war, there
has been a tendency to act upon the text of the commercial traveler
who, when asked why he gave one day a week to social work, justified
himself by quoting that verse of the Book of Isaiah which follows the
last verse of its concluding chapter, where it says, For Gods sake, do
something! Splendid as is the spirit which lies back of such a pro-
gram, it is not the spirit of the social worker, the social statesman.
Unguided devotion and enthusiasm are not sufficient to solve social
problems. They require the utmost intelligence and the most complete
information which hard thinking and hard work can bring us. And
race relations involve problems of the utmost delicacy and difficulty,
requiring the very best which the social worker can supply.

2. Understanding the survey to represent a method of securing
the information upon which an intelligent policy may be based, it is
also evident that that survey must be adequate, that is thorough, com-
prehensive, and complete. Too many of the numerous social surveys
of the last decade have either led nowhere or they have led in the
wrong direction.

3. To be adequate, the survey must be guided by a worker or work-
ers trained and capable and interpreted by the same type of worker.

ote Se ee

Coming closer to our special problem, we have to inquire wherein
conditions, environmental conditions affect race relations. In the first

place, just a casual consideration will bring to mind the fact that in
so far as environing conditions are such as to reduce the health and
vitality of either or both groups, the probabilities of satisfactory rela-
tionships are correspondingly reduced. Bad living conditions are

reflected in bad and biased thinking. Groups living under different:

conditions judge each other without due allowance for the influence of
those conditions, and consequently misjudge each other.

In the second place, because to a large extent living conditions are
socially determined, bad conditions engender ill-will, and their removal
tends to the development of good will.

>- hae

Fisk University Npws 21

To be still more concrete: The living conditions of the American
Negro are frequently, if not always, such as to lessen his vitality,
shorten his life, and embitter him in his feelings toward the social
group that tolerates the conditions. Of course, we do not in this sum-
marization overlook the fact that the Negroes have a considerable share
of responsibility for some of the evils which they individually and
collectively suffer. Neither time nor need requires us at this time to
apportion the degrees of responsibility. All that is necessary is that
we recognize the existence of an evil, and place the responsibility upon
all those in both races who know and have any power to eliminate or
even to reduce that evil.

In passing, it may not be unwise to point out that the evil we are
directly combatting is an evil affecting both races, although reacting
so adversely upon the relationships of the two as to become in this
latter aspect an apparently almost independent problem. This is tanta-
mount to saying that immediate racial problems are ultimately just

common human problems. When community conditions are what they

ought to be for all citizenswhen wrong conditions per se are no
longer tolerated in any citythe problem before us this morning will
have ceased to exist. So long as we sit upon the fence between the
two races and look in only one direction and content ourselves with
surveying with our eyes and talking with our tongues, we shall get
nowhere.. A social problem cannot be solved by a man who thinks in
terms of race. A social solution is reached only by action, common
action against a common evil. :

By this time you will begin to wonder when Iam going to touch my
real subject. And yet I must crave your indulgence while I suggest
two additional elements desirable in an ideal attack, through a survey,
upon a social problem.

~ First. The survey must be continuous and progressive, just as the
solution must be gradual, continuous, and progressive. What can be
learned and digested in three months or a year only lays the founda-
tions for learning and digesting far more in a following period of
months or years.

Second. The survey should be carried on with the help of those who

can help in interpreting its reason and meaning to those who must

work out the solution of the problem involved.
oh ee

Let us now summarize the argument and then make concrete appli-

cation. To solve a social problem we must first survey it. The survey .

must be directed by experts and socially interpreted by and to those
who are directly concerned. It must be adequate rather than super-
ficial, it must be extended rather than brief, it must be. progressive
rather than momentary and final. It must be social rather than racial.
Its solution must be through common action rather than through words
and talk. ,
22, _ Fisk University News

I have gone through these theoretic considerations in order to
present a very concrete plan for a survey in Nashville designed to meet
the purposes implicit in your discussion this morning. The object is
good racial relationships through a wise social policy based on an ade-
quate and progressive survey of the living conditions of a definite
community.

The plan is merely a plan. It offers great possibilities for good, not
merely nor chiefly for Nashville, but for the whole country. Its success
may depend upon the support, moral and financial, which comesor
does not comefrom those who see the possibilities and could come
to our aid.

Of of of

Briefly, the situation is this: The Y.M.C.A. is undertaking in
Nashville to work out a more definite interracial understanding. We
have a Y.M.C.A. secretary as guide and counsellor for four college
Y. M. GC. A.s, representing two white institutions, Vanderbilt and Pea-
body; and two colored institutions, Fisk and Meharry. We have at
Vanderbilt monthly meetings of those interested, both white men and
colored men. The chairman of our organization is Chancellor Kirkland,
of Vanderbilt, ene of the wise and sane men of the South and the
nation. I am authorized by him to make the statement I am about to
make. The plan was not made to fit this particular talk-fest, but this
particular talk-fest fits the plan.

We propose to make valuable our intercollegiate interracial codpera- ;

tion by turning our resources of intelligence and good will, both faculty
and student, into purposeful activity.. The Chancellor long since discov-
ered the truth that common thinking follows rather than precedes com-
mon action. Our program will utilize all the energy we have the grit
and grace to put into it. It involves practically no elements of friction.
It works to the end of the common good of colored and white. It works
through the joint and common activity of colored and white.

We purpose to undertake a social survey of some one unit in Nash-
ville, starting with a survey of housing conditions. We shall probably
choose the Third Ward for our unit. It includes both colored and white
populations, and at the same time it contains some of the very worst
housing conditions in Nashville. The Third Ward surrounds Fisk
University, and is within a half hours walk from Vanderbilt.

Our plans will be worked out under the very best advice from our
several faculties and will utilize the enthusiastic energies of the social-
- ized Christian youth of the four schools. The reports we shall make
will contribute to the effectiveness of all the efforts in Nashville, Ten-
nessee, and the South, for better housing conditions and better race
relations.

But we do not propose to stop with a single year of effort, or a
single type of survey. Institutions are as perennial as problems are

Fisk University NEws 23

eternal. We shall find our problems expanding and our usefulness
increasing as we stimulate one improvement after another. Studies of
city blocks as in New York do not prove to be simple and easy. At-

tempts at the organization of a socialized community unit as in Cin-

cinnati open up unlimited vistas of endeavor and hopefulness for many
years ahead. The Framingham experiment in the elimination of
tuberculosis illustrates in a marvelous way how much time is required
for the survey and solution of a single problem in disease control, how
complex a single problem is, and how broad, continuous, and progres-
sive the problem of solution becomes.

We aim at an adequate and consistent survey of conditions, hoping
for an effective and progressive improvement of them, this through the
joint efforts of teachers and students, of colored and white, reacting to
better relationships because of better conditions and because of the
mutual appreciation which comes in a common activity looking to a
common goal.

I trust that this dream may not only come true in Nashville, but
may serve as an encouragement and suggestion helpful to many other
communities. I bring it as the message of two races of a Southern
city. May we not have your cooperation?

FREEDOMNot only freedom from outside fetters of outgrown forms
and external creeds, but freedom from ones own prejudices, timidities
and conventionalities.

FELLOWSHIPNot only fellowship with those we like but with those
from whom we differ. Not the fellowship of our own household inter-
preted by denominational, national or racial lines, but the fellowship
of the spirit, the fellowship that tries to make real the brotherhood of
man and all which that should imply.

AND CHARACTERThe test and measure of the preceding quests.
That is not freedom that does not make for goodness and that is not .
fellowship that does not ripen into love. Character is the stone that
cuts all other stones. ei

IN RELIGIONAII three of these graces come into their full con-
sciousness and highest potency at the altar of religion. Reverence,
adoration, humility, service, all meet in the devout life.

Jenkin Lloyd Jones, in Unity, March 1, 1917.
24 Fisk UNIversiry News

The President of the University, Dr. McKenzie, and the editorial
staff of THe News heartily approve the resolutions following, which
were unanimously adopted by the National Collegiate Athletic Associa-
tion at its last meeting; and they are published herewith as a measure
of that approval, in part, at least:

UNIVERSAL PHYSICAL EDUCATION AND THE
NATIONAL COLLEGIATE ATHLETIC
ASSOCIATION.

Dr. THoMAS A. STOREY, NEw YorK STATE INSPECTOR
OF PHYSICAL TRAINING.

The disorganization of collegiate and intercollegiate athletics during
the last eighteen months or more here in America has brought to this
association an opportunity, an obligation, and a responsibility.

We of the National Collegiate Athletic Association have been con-
cerned for these many years with an improvement of college athletics.
We have found fault very profoundly with a large number of conditions
that have grown up and dominated intercollegiate sport throughout
this country. Strong men from college faculties North, South, East
and West, have pointed out the need for change, and have made im-
pressive recommendations which would lead to better, finer, cleaner
athletic relations inside and outside of our American institutions.

There never has been a time in the history of this organization
when change could be more easily accomplished than now. There has
never been an opportunity for reorganization and reconstruction such
as now presents itself in the many colleges represented in this organ-
ization. It seems to me that we face an obligation and a responsibility
when we survey this situation as individual colleges, and as a society
made up of representatives from the whole group. If we resume he
processes that we have condemned in the past, we of this association,
and the colleges which we represent, will have to acknowledge the
blame. :

This is the strongest force and the most powerful body related to
athletics in America. There is every reason to suppose that a united,
vigorous, and determined policy on the part of this body will build up,
on the wreck of conditions that have been, a future collegiate organ-
ization that will approach far more nearly the high ideals that have
dominated the proceedings of the National Collegiate Athletic Asso-
ciation. :

The athletic and recreational history of this great war should be a
compelling argument supporting us in a determination to make college
athletics in the future operate for the mass of students and not for

Fisk UNiversiry Nrws 25

the team, operate more largely for sport and less completely for vic-
tory, and operate very much more largely for a democracy of activity
than so definitely for the benefit of a few. :
There are now many forces in the field with which this association
could and should codperate, not only for the benefit of the special
interest that brings us together here as an organization, but also for
the other intimately related activities of physical education. In my
judgment, our policy at this time should lead us to take a national part
for the establishment of better athletic procedures, and also for the
establishment of a greater, larger, and more far-reaching program of
physical education to affect our boys and girls in their scholastic
years, as well as our students in their university and collegiate experi-
ences. As an athletic association we cannot avoid our responsibility
for the health values of athletics as a division of physical education,
nor can we escape a responsibility for the quality of physical education
in all of its divisions in the years that precede college life. The organ-
izations, societies, associations, and the public-spirited individuals who
have been concerned during the depressing years of this great war
with the disturbing evidences on every hand of our neglect of physical
education in the periods of childhood, youth, and young maturity, are
forces with which the National Collegiate Athletic Association should
join for the purpose of achieving a great and common objective. This
obligation belongs to us not only as members of the National Collegiate
Athletic Association, but also as patriotic American citizens concerned
with the better training and the more effective conditioning of our

- youth for the exigencies and demands of maturity. We know that the

right sort of athletic experience goes a long way toward building a
rugged and enduring citizenship; and we know, too, that there are |
other elements in this training which belong to other phases of phys-
ical education which must not be neglected if we are to produce men
and women which this country needs for peace problems as well as for
its war problems.

Within the last year the United States Commissioner of Education
has stimulated the organization of a National Committee on Physical
Education. This committee is now made up of representatives from
more than fifty national organizations concerned with the conservation
of child life, and with the consequent production of a vigorous and
enduring citizenship. We are, and must be, a part of that committee.

The Playground and Recreation Association of America has estab-
lished a division of physical education for the purpose of codperating
with this national committee in the prosecution of a state and national
campaign for the purpose of securing congressional and state legisla-
tion in the interest of universal physical education. The success of
this campaign depends upon a mighty piece of teamwork involving
team play on the part of each and every organization and agency in
26 Fisk UNiversity NrEws

this country that is concerned with these objectives. In my judgment,
this organization of representatives from college faculties must and
will participate effectively and vigorously in this big movement.

Taking these various dramatic facts into consideration, I earnestly
propose that it be therefore resolved by the National Collegiate Athletic
Association: :

First: That a forceful letter, and such subsequent letters as may
be necessary, be sent to the president of every college and university,
and to the secretary of the board of trustees of every college and uni-
versity in this country, calling their official, responsible attention to
the practical ideals of this National Collegiate Athletic Association,
emphasizing the relation of .those ideals to effective citizenship, and
urging upon those collegiate and university officials the importance of
rebuilding their collegiate and intercollegiate athletics in conformity
with those ideals.

Second: That this association shall make every reasonable effort
to influence the Congress of the United States and the legislatures of
our various states to enact laws providing for the effective physical
education of all children of all ages in our elementary and secondary
schools, public, institutional and private, a physical education that will
bring these children instruction in hygiene, regular periodic health
examinations, and a training in the practice of health habits, with a
full educational emphasis upon play, games, recreation, athletics, and
physical exercise, and shall further make every possible reasonable
effort to influence communities and municipalities to enact laws and
pass ordinances providing for community and industrial physical train-
ing and recreative activities for all classes and ages of society.

Third: That this association shall make persistent effort to influ-
ence state boards of education, or their equivalent bodies in all the
states of the United States, to make it their effective rule that on or
after June, 1922, or some other reasonable date, no applicant may re-
ceive a license to teach any subject in any school who does not first
present convincing evidence of having covered in creditable manner a
satisfactory course in physical education in a reputable training school
for teachers.

Fourth: That this association hereby directs and authorizes its
president to appoint a committee of three to take such steps as may
be necessary to put the above resolutions into active and effective
operation, and to codperate in every practical and substantial way with
the National Committee on Physical Education, the division of physical
education of the Playground and Recreation Association of America,
and any other useful agency that may be in the field for the purpose
of securing the proper and sufficient physical education of the boys
and girls of today, so that they may tomorrow constitute a nation of

men and women of normal physical growth, normal physical develop-

Fisk UNIvrersity News 27

ment, and normal functional resource, practicing wise habits of health

- conservation, and possessed of greater consequent vitality, larger en-
durance, longer lives, and more complete happinessthe most precious
assets of a nation.

HOW EDUCATION PAYS.

RECONSTRUCTION PROBLEMS EMPHASIZE INVESTMENT VALUE OF EDUCATION.
MANY SOLDIERS WILL CONTINUE THEIR EDUCATION.MONEY
VALUE OF GOING TO SCHOOL.

With forty-three legislatures meeting this year to consider programs
of reconstruction, and with several million young men returning from
army service to renter civilian life, the investment value of education
alike for the individual and for the nation, is receiving unusual atten-
tion. The Bureau of Education receives constant inquiries as to the
money value of education, whether to the individual or to the com-
munity. Bulletin 1917, No. 22, which was prepared some time ago to
answer such inquiries, is no longer available for free distribution, but
may be secured from the Superintendent of Documents, Government
Printing Office, for 15 cents. Selected statements from this bulletin
are given below.

NATIONAL WEALTH AND POWER DETERMINED BY EDUCATION.

In Denmark, in Scotland, in Switzerland, in Massachusetts, where-
ever there is adequate provision for education, there follow great indus-
trial efficiency and national wealth. ;

On the other hand, in Spain, in Russia, in Turkey, in Mexico, where-
ever there'is a lack of the necessary school system, there is the same
story of poverty, revolution, and misery, regardless of race, climate,
or abundance of natural resources. Even in the United States it has
been shown that the earning capacities of the citizens of several states
are in direct proportion to the efficiency of their school systems. Dr.
Charles W. Dabney, who investigated this matter, found, for example,
that the average schooling given in 1898-99 to the citizens of Massa-
chusetts was 7 years; to those of the United States as a whole, 4.4
years, while that of Tennessee was only 3 years. Corresponding to
these figures, he found that the average daily production of the citizen
of Massachusetts was 85 cents; that of the United States as a whole
was 55 cents; while that of Tennessee was only 38 cents.

Massachusetts spent in 1898-99 on her schools $12,261,525 more than
Tennessee, which spent only $1,628,313, or $4.62 per pupil, against
28 Fisk UNIvEerRsIty NEWS

$38.55 per pupil spent in Massachusetts. But Massachusetts showed a
productive capacity of $144 more per year per inhabitant than did
Tennessee, and $90 a year more than the average for the United States.
In total, Massachusetts put about $13,000,000 per year more than Ten-
nessee into her schools and received nearly $400,000,000 annually in
increased earning capacity, in large measure produced by the education
of its citizens. :

PRE-WAR FIGURES FOR NATIONAL WEALTH COMPARED.

Mulhall gives the annual earning capacity of the inhabitants of
several European countries, as follows:

Nations with efficient educational systems.England, 36; France,
31; Germany, 25.

Nations with inadequate educational systems.Spain, 16; Greece,
13; Russia, 10.

The effect of education upon the accumulation of wealth is equally
notable. The figures given by Mulhall for the total wealth per inhabit-
ant of these several European nations are: :

Nations with efficient educational systems.England, 302; France,
252; Germany, 156.

Nations with inadequate educational systems.Spain, 135; Greece,
101; Russia, 61.

Similarly, in America, Massachusetts, with slightly smaller popula-
tion than Texas, has $4,956,000,000 of accumulated wealth to $2,836,-
000,000 possessed by Texas. That this is not altogether due to the fact
that Massachusetts is a much older state than Texas is shown by the
fact that Wisconsin, a comparatively new state, with only about two-
thirds the population of Texas, has an equal amount of wealth; and
California, a newer state, with only two-thirds the population, has
$4,115,000,000 of wealth. All three of these. richer states for years spent
two or three times as much per child on education as Texas spent.

The relation of productive power to education is shown by the
enormously increased rate of production that has come about every-
where since education became more generally diffused. The total
wealth accumulated in America from 1492 to 1860, a period of 368
years, was $514 per capita. From then till 1904, a period of only 44
years, this increased to $1,318 per capita, or an addition in 44 years
of $802 per capita. Since that time the inerease has been even more
striking. This increase is partly due to increased valuations or the
smaller purchasing power of the dollar; to the use of accumulated
capital, and to many other things; but after due allowance is made
for all these the conclusion is inevitable that the education of the
nation is largely responsible for vastly increasing the productive power
of its citizens. The productive power of illiterate countries is not in-
creasing at such rates.

Fisk UNIversiIty News 29

The efficiency of an illiterate people in competition with an educated
nation is as the crooked stick against the sulky plow; the sickle against
the reaper; the bullock cart against the express train, the ocean grey-
hound, and the aeroplane; the pony messenger against the telegraph,
telephone, and wireless; the individual harangue against the printing
press, the newspaper, the library; the spinning wheel against the fac-
tory; the pine fagot against the electric light; the peddling of skins
and herbs from the oxcart against the bank, the check book, the rail-
road, the department store; the log hut against the steel skyscraper;
the unaided eye against the microscope and telescope; incantations and
magic against the chemist, the hospital, the modern physician and
surgeon. Take away from one entire generation all education, and
society must revert to the stick plow, the oxcart, and such primitive
means because steel implements, locomotives, steamships, electricity,
telephones, telegraph, waterworks, steel buildings, mining and chemical
industries, factories, modern sanitation, hygiene and medicine, books,
newspapers, courts of justice, and laws that protect property and
defend the rights of the weak are all impossible without education
and are efficient only in proportion as educated intelligence is applied
to them.

NECESSITY FOR EDUCATION RAPIDLY INCREASING.

The necessity for education has increased and will continue to in-
crease with the advance in the complexity of the processes of civiliza-
tion. Because of the unparalleled progress in the arts and sciences
during the past fifty years the need for education has in a generation
multiplied manyfold. For example, a century ago a transportation
system was little more than a wagon and a driver who knew the road.
Now, in handling a problem of transportation, experts in traffic must
first determine whether a road in that place will be worth while, and
what kind of road will be most economical and efficient; experts in
finance must provide the tremendous sums needed to build the road;
civil engineers must lay it out; bridge engineers plan the bridges;
chemical engineers test the materials; mills and factories with scores
of chemical and physical experts make the rails, build the locomotives

. and steel cars; and a host of traffic experts, auditors, accountants, and

specially trained managers and clerks, telegraphers, engineers, con-
ductors, and others keep the trains moving with safety and with profit.
In like manner the farmer can no longer merely exhaust one fertile
piece of fresh soil after another by crude methods of agriculture. Intel-
ligent rotation must be planned, soil must be conserved and built up,
improved stock and seed must be bred; methods of cultivation that
stimulate growth and conserve moisture and fertility must be prac-
ticed; markets must be studied and considered in planting; new
methods of marketing must be used; accounts must be kept; and homes
30 Fisk UNIversity NEws

must be made healthful. If this is not done the landowner will soon
lose his land and become a tenant and the tenant become a day laborer.
In law, in medicine, in teaching, in manufacturing, in trade and indus-
try of all kinds, this same increased demand for education is found.

A BANKERS OPINION.

Speaking, in 1905, at Girard College, Mr. Vanderlip said: Erne
mental equipment of a business man needs to be greater today than
was ever before necessary. Just as the sphere of the business mans
actions has broadened with the advent of rapid transportation, tele-
graphs, cables, and telephones, so have the needs of broad understand-
ing of sound principles increased. It was steam processes of transpor-
tation and production that really made technical education necessary.
The electric dynamo created the demand for educated electrical engi-
neers. So the railroad, the fast steamship, the electric current in the
telephone and cable, and the great economic fact of gigantic and far-
reaching business combinations are making the science of business a
different thing from any conception of commerce which could have
been had when Girard was the most successful of business men. The
enlarged scope of business is demanding better trained men who under-
stand principles. New forces have made large scale production, and
we need men who can comprehend the relation of that production in
the world of markets. There has been introduced such complexity into
modern business and such a high degree of specialization that the
young man who begins without the foundation of an exceptional train-
ing is in danger of remaining a mere clerk or bookkeeper. Commercial
and industrial affairs are conducted on so large a scale that the
neophyte has little chance to learn broadly, either by observation or
experience. He is put at a single task; the more expert he becomes at
it the more likely it is that he will be kept at it unless he has had a
training in his youth which has fitted him to comprehend in some
measure the relation of his task to those which others are doing.

EDUCATION AND WHOS WHO.

An investigation of the educational advantages enjoyed by the 8,000
persons mentioned in Whos Who in America, for the years 1899-
1900, brought out the following facts: Out of the nearly 5,000,000
uneducated men and women in America, only thirty-one have been
sufficiently successful in any kind of work to obtain a place among the
8,000 leaders catalogued in this book. Out of 33,000,000 people with as
much as a common-school education, 808 were able to win a place in
the list, while out of only 2,000,000 with high-school training, 1,245

have manifested this marked efficiency, and out of 1,000,000 with col-

lege or university training, 5,768 have merited this distinction. That
is to say, only one child in 150,000 has been able in America, without

Fisk UNIversity NEws a1

_ education, to become a notable factor in the progress of his state, while

the children with common-school education have, in proportion to num-
bers, accomplished this four times as often, those with high-school
eighty-seven times as often, and those with college training 800 times
as often. If this list had been selected by the universities or school
teachers, or if literary leaders only were chosen, it might easily be
claimed that the apparently greater success of the educated was due
to the line of work from which the leaders were selected. But the
selection of the men and women in this book was not in the hands of

professors, but in the hands of a firm of business men. They selected

leaders in all lines of industry, commerce, agriculture, and other fields
of practical endeavor besides the professions, and still this enormously
increased efficiency and productivity of those with education was found.

THE EDUCATION OF THE MEN WHO FRAMED THE CONSTITUTION.

As no other one political event has had more to do with national
peace and stability, and hence with industrial possibilities, than the
framing and adoption of the Constitution, especial significance is at-
tached to the results of Professor Jones study of the part which the
one per cent of college graduates in the country played in this impor-
tant matter. He found that the author of the Constitution, Thomas
Jefferson, was a college graduate; its ablest defender, John Adams,
was a college graduate; twenty-three of the fifty-four who composed
the convention were college graduates, and twenty-seven were college-
bred men; two of the three who brought about the conventionMadison
and Hamiltonwere college graduates, while the thirdMonroewas
a college man; the authors of three of the four plans presented
Madison, Hamilton, and Pattersonwere college graduates; the plan
finally adopted was that of a college graduate; and after its final adop-
tion the three men who led in explaining it, defending it, and securing
its adoption by the states were all college graduatesMadison, Jay,
and Hamilton. In fact, the one per cent of college graduates in Amer-
ica can almost be said to have called the convention, written the Con-
stitution, and secured its adoption and ratification.

EDUCATION AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF A WESTERN STATE,

Following quite a different method, Mr. H. E. Kratz made an in-
vestigation of the part being played by college-bred men in the recent
development of one of the Western states. Mr. Kratz asked men in
fifteen leading South Dakota cities to name the five leading men in
their cities in seven different lines, viz: law, medicine, teaching, the

-ministry, banking, journalism, merchandising, and manufacturing. Of

the 533 men whose names were sent in as leaders in these cities in the
several lines 293, or fifty per cent, proved to have had as much as two
years of college training.School Life.
32 Fisk University NEWS

EDUCATION A NATIONAL CONCERN, SAYS SEC. LANE.

Epucation Not MERELY A STATE MATTER.FEDERAL AID A NECESSITY.
: LESSONS LEARNED FROM THE WAR.

Tf once we realize that education is not solely a state matter, but
a national concern, the way is open, says Secretary Lane, discussing
in his annual report the educational lessons learned from the yee -

Tf men cannot be converted readily. into soldiers but must be he

in camp while they receive a primary education, surely no one Ca

hold that this is a matter deserving of merely state a. nan
nations life may not have been imperiled by the presence in ve jo
of a considerable percentage of men who could not be shag oi
service promptly, but this is the minor part ne the Jagan ine
humiliating condition should not obtain in this coma - The g ed
reason is that we cannot govern ourselves sehite ignorance. oe
cannot have a small portion of our population unable to a
movement of our times save through the gossip of the corner ans a
gether unable to check the idle rumor and the slogans of uel rate.
without putting at hazard the success of ee system of gover 4 7a
And if we lag others will lead. The American must be the exemp
mocracy.
: Me are re Me boys and men to be farmers out of Federal Nate
preparing to advance vocational education on a large scale, a .
the construction of solid highways within the states as part - nee iy
state system, subjecting the packer, the caamner, and the ae ee
Federal supervision; surely without violation of our funiames a :
we can find a way by which the nation can know that all of pice
are able to talk and read our own language. ? do not eo nee
control, but I would strongly urge Federal codperation with the s at
oward definite ends.
Fg little money, the codperation of the states, and of the .
of the countryand both can be hada little money, perhaps Bane
in a year as we have gloriously spent in five hours. 48 .
work could be done. It could be done udeabehs coercion, withou vegan
ing on the prerogatives of the state in the slightest. If ee 20 we
help to those willing to accept it, the end would be spice: - e -
the same kind of an offer to the states for ~ ee oe
illiterates that we make to them for the construction of roads, a

five years there would be few, if any, who could not read and write in |

this country.

Fisk UNIversiry News 33

NATIVE-BORN WHITES.

Adult illiteracy in the less-developed sections of our country is not
a proud matter of which to talk, but it is present. Men who speak in
the language of Shakespeareand this is literally true, for their an-
cestors came here in his time bringing the language of Shakespeare
and the King James version of the Bible on their tonguestens of
thousands of these men and women are today, after three centuries in
this country, unable to read one line of Shakespeare or to sign their
names. And yet they have fought for this country through every war
and have died as heroes for a land that did not concern itself enough
about them to see that they were educated. Those people have not had
their chance. Their condition is a reproach to a republic. And it is
not that they are unwilling to take instruction, or that they feel su-
perior to it. For the experiment has been made; and, day after day,
old, gray-bearded men and eager-eyed women went to the mountain
schools when given the opportunity, and their letters tell of the delight
that is theirs because the world has been opened to them.

THE NEGRO.

Then, we must consider the Negro. For him and his condition we
are responsible as for no one else. He came here without exercising
his own will. He was made a citizen without discrimination and ina
large out-of-hand way. The Indian we feel we are responsible for as a
nation, and we give him an educationa most practical one. But the
Negro, who is a charge upon the American conscience and whose edu-
cation, I believe, should long ago, in some part at least, have been a
charge upon the American pocket, (*) is slowly, very slowly, coming
into that knowledge which is his one chance of developing into a grow-
ing national assetthe knowledge of the way of making a living.
When one looks into the effort that is being made to give the Negro
the right sort of an education, he finds a much more cheerful picture
than he had thought. The Southern states, for instance, are meeting

' with no little eagerness the offers that come to them to give some

direction to the education of the Negro. The problem is basically one
of money. The way has been found to give our colored citizen an
education that will strengthen his fiber, widen his vision, and at the
same time make him happy in achieving a useful place in society.
There are no more inspiring and promising reports written in this
country than those of the various foundations which are promoting
the right method of educating the Negro. Not only is: the response
from the states encouraging, but experience has gone far enough for-

* The March (1918) number of THe Fisk News contained a brief
submitted by its editor to the National Education Association on the
constitutional power of the Government to give aid to Negro education.
The association adopted the principle advocated by a unanimous vote.
o4 Fisk UNIVERSITY NEws
EN Sy aige a 1

i ete ene

Boh neiee 6 359

Pe ee ene

ward by this time to demonstrate that with guidance, oversight, and
the bearing of only a part of the financial burden, this whole problem
of lifting 4 backward people onto a level more compatible with our
hopes for them and with their status as eitizens can be realized.

Tu FOREIGN BORN.

~The next grand division of those who need education, inspiration,
and outlook, and for whom we are responsible, is the foreign porn.

Th the Government will shape the policy and undertake to make the
propaganda for the definite end of giving a first insight into American
words, newspapers, politics, life, that which has been regarded as the
work of generations can be started in a very short time and men put
on their way toward real citizenship.

T am not urging the absurdity that men can be transformed into -
Americans by a course in school. This is but a beginning. Knowledge
of our language is but a tool. America is the expression of a spirit, an
attitude toward men and material things, an outlook, and a faith. Our
strange and successful experiment in the art of making a new people
is the result of contact, not of caste, of living together, working to-
gether for a living, each one interpreting for himself and for his neigh-

bors his conception of what kind of social being man should be, what.

his sympathies, standards, and ambitions should be.

THE COMMUNITY CENTER.

Now this cannot be taught out of a book. It is a matter of touch,
of feeling, like the growth of friendship. Each man is approachable
in a different way, appealed to by very contradictory things. One man
reaches America through a baseball game, another through @ ehurch, a
saloon, a political meeting, a woman, a labor union, a picture gallery,
or something new to eat. The difficulty is in finding the meeting place
where there is no fear, no favor, no ulterior motives, and, above all, no
soul-insulting patronage of poor by rich, of black by white, of younger
by elder, of foreign born by native porn, of the unco bad by the unco
good. To meet this need the schoolhouse has been turned into a com-
munity center. It is a common property, or should be. All feel en-
titled to its use. When we were younger this kind of machinery was
not necessary, for we were fewer in number, lived in smaller communi-

e each one a

ties, and felt a common interdependence which mad
trumpet-blowing herald of democracy. Today, however, there must be
some thought given and some money expended in even having an oppor-

tunity to touch the hand of a fellow man.

THe SCHOOL AND A Berrer AMERICA.

T pelieve that more and more thought will be given to our school

system as the most serviceable instrumentality we pos

sess for the de-

%

Fisk UNIvpersity NEws 35

velopment of a better America. It h
eas. ER EA TOR. as been, we must
uae og Lt Se ee 7 ik we is probably of pie abt
enecaeas ; roud, and like other of i i
i hay ee es greatness of its possibilities. Le
figure must be taken ah ee as hae it
er te limitations. It ist nit
eg ath ce a me girls, but to the man and the ae
a kas ar se : life. ; This should not be so, for it may be Pe
ate we. ial, the intellectual, and in smaller places of o
To the necessity for more th
ant cya orough education of th
age We Bree) Keuty alive. One large part of ike oe
ERIS gts 1s the founding and conducting of a oe t
acicba Got ae a out of which will-come more men and wae me
As we move yay ange
and further from th j i
much that we do not now see. B i She ae ee
a i ut this one thing s
nil . Seedy. . that this world is to ee: a marred
ee pre direct the doing. Not merely to those ae
Rae e brick, a also to those who have come to :
aa = eee education and larger experience, the men 7
Dee ithe one aki} in the arts, of large organizing capacit
Pun hy. a angen come only to those who themselves hat
vate ee Pa io tendency of democracy.
eee Malet e an peace as it was in the time of war. Are you
es fae man who knew how knowledge could be con-
te ea m m man for whom there was unlimited call
PMR Ha ale te) be. To be useful is to be the test that iat
ee cea ee s Tights are to be measured not by what he h :
Lace Ce with what he has. The honorsthe croix de wits
Bre yponess a hee sie go to the capables, those who are not stand-
oe Sa haat those who dare to venture and learn to
oe : , and this duty to work and respect for work
pee uae st esson learned. And it should be taught i a
; as a homily, but in a living way, by tying ey sity i.
in-

struction, makin i
= the thin
School Life. g learned to apply to something done.

36 Fisk UNiversity NEws

INTRODUCTORY STATEMENT AT RACE RELATIONS
SECTION, SOUTHERN SOCIOLOGICAL CONGRESS.

JAMeEs Harpy Ditxarp, LL.D., Chairman.

FoRMER MEETINGS.

I congratulate ourselves on meeting again in this Race Relations
Section of the Southern Sociological Congress. The meetings which we
have held in past years have been helpful and useful, and have been
generally recognized as among the best held under Ute auspices of the
Congress. Those of us who are especially interested in this subject of
the relations of the races in our Southern States are grateful to the
managers of the Congress for providing this opportunity for frank dis-
cussion. At each meeting members of both races have met together
and spoken out in good will their thoughts bearing on matters of
mutual concern.

THE HUMAN WAY.

The meeting in Atlanta, five years ago, was the first important meet-
ing of such character ever held, and the addresses even on that occa
sion were highly valuable. Of equal value were the candid discussions
following the formal addresses. So valuable were these Atlanta ad-
dresses considered to be that by unanimous resolution it was voted
that they be published in a separate volume. This was done, under the
title of The Human Way. The book has been pronounced by many
to contain, on the whole, the best presentation of the most important
phases of the subject that has been published. A new edition, with
some changes and additions, has recently been issued. All who have
attended these meetings appreciate their importance, and all who may
read this book will have a like appreciation.

Wuy WE Are Here. |

It is good sometimes to stop and think of the object of meetings
like these, and indeed of all our work and efforts and strivings. Is it
not simply to try to improve ourselves and our relations to each, er
and to try to make this world a better place for all of us to live in?
We want a wider spread of knowledge that we may all know how to
deal better with the things of nature and to produce more abundantly
the good things which all need and which all should be able 40 ical
We want these good things to be produced for the use and enjoymen
of all the children of men who are born into this common world of
ours. And more than the increase and spread of any material goods,
we want the feeling of good relations with our fellowmen, the feeling

Fisk UNiversitry News 37

of codperation, of peace, of good will, of the spirit of give and take.
We want the realization that the well-being and advancement of one
individual, of one race, or of one nation does not mean the ill-being
and debasement of the other man, or the other race, or the other nation.

THE GREAT Fact,

Was there ever a time in which the need of this realization could
be more keenly felt than in these awful days when the spirit of domi-
nation has drawn the whole world, the innocent with the guilty, into -
a whirlwind of destruction? What is the remedy? Palliatives there
may be, governmental arrangements, legal forms; but at bottom we
know that sane and sensible and just relations between individuals or
Taces or nations can be established only by the spread of the spirit of
good will, along with the realization of a great fact. I mean the real-
ization of the human fact, the democratic fact, the Christian fact, that
one mans degradation must mean ultimately not the other mans
exaltation, but also his own degradation; that one races degradation
must mean ultimately not the other races exaltation, but also its own
degradation; that one nations degradation must mean ultimately not
the other nations exaltation, but also its own degradation.

Our SPECIAL TASK.

Is not this the lesson which we have all got to learn? We here
today, in this brief meeting, are engaged on this lesson. We are think-
ing especially of that part of the lesson which Providence has empha-
sized in our corner of the worldnamely, that neither of the races can
be injured without the others injury, that the real advance of either
must redound to the real advance of the other. We are two races set
side by side, with the problem before us of living side by side in co-
operation and fair dealing in spite of all differences. There have been _
statesmen, philosophers, and scientists who maintained that this is
impossible as a permanent relation between races so situated and so
different. There are many today who still hold this opinion. But
who can tell the future? One thing we know now, especially now in
this present time of stress, that codperation and fair dealing are shown
to be the better way. We know that so long as we are actually here
side by side the sensible way, the human way, the just way, the re-
ligious way, is to live not in ill will, but in good will; not in strife,
but in codperation; not in ignorance and disregard, but in understand-
ing and sympathy. If we follow the right way as we see it now, we
may leave the results and the future to God.

_ Let us hope that this meeting, like the preceding meetings, may

have a healthy influence in strengthening the public sentiment in favor
of good feeling and right dealing.
38 Fisk UNIversIty NEws

CONTRIBUTION FROM MRS. DARDEN.

It is a pleasure to record the receipt of $5 from Mrs. Lillian Allen
Darden, M., 07, of Petersburg, Va. The letter following, sent by Presi-
dent McKenzie, explains why acknowledgment was not made sooner:

Dear Mrs. Darden:

T am in receipt of a note from President Gandy telling me that he,
by inadvertence, overlooked your name when making his report con-
cerning the contributions to Fisk University. He is sending me the
check which you gave him, and I want to make this belated acknowl-
edgment and express our appreciation of your generosity. We shall
endeavor to make correction for our incomplete statement in the next
Fisk News. Again thanking you, I am,

Very sincerely yours,
FR, A. McKENZIE.

CHAPEL HOURS.

Carter Wesley, 717Fisk knows him better by this name than by
his new title of Lieutenantcame back to his Alma Mater and spoke
to the school on April 1. The school received him with round after
round of applause, as he came into the chapel and when Dr. McKenzie
presented him to the school.

It was a very thoughtful Wesley who refused to talk of his experi-
ences over there, and insisted that he wanted to warn his hearers to
keep their heads on their shoulders while they reflect and tend to grow
bitter over the race discriminations which had been practiced against
the Negro soldiers. He agreed that there had been much to embitter
the race, but felt that the embittered man could not render the highest
services in helping cure the conditions which have so thoroughly dis-
turbed the colored people.

After the Lieutenant, came President McKenzie with a report of the
financial condition of Fisk University. After reviewing the improve-
ments which had been made through donations made largely by the
General Education Board and the Carnegie Corporation, he reviewed
by means of a chart the constant increase in the annual expenses of
the Universitycaused by rising costs and expenditures made to add

Fisk University News 3Y

to the comfort of the students and teachers and the efficiency of the
Universityand the sources of income, laying special stress upon the
fact that this income has to be laboriously raised from year to year
from philanthropic persons.

SOUTHERN WHITE MAN GIvEs $10,000.

He told of a very recent incident in which a man walked into his
office and told him that he was a Southern man and was interested in
Fisk University. After a little while, the gentleman took out of his
pocket an envelope, and, passing it to Dr. McKenzie, remarked that
the latter might be interested in its contents. When the envelope was
opened, five Liberty Bonds, each of the denomination of $1,000, were
revealed. After enjoying the Presidents amazement for a while, the
gentleman said: Well, perhaps you might be interested in this en-
velope. When the latter was opened, there was a bond of $5,000a
total of $10,000 which this Southern friend gave to the University be-
cause he was interested in its work. The friend was Mr. Thomas P.
Norris, of Guthrie, Ky. :

After recounting this experience, Dr. McKenzie announced the latest
gifts of $50,000, each, by the General Education Board and the Carnegie
Corporation. The school went wild with enthusiasm and the students
gave nine cheers for President McKenzie. Dean Morrow, for the
faculty; Jasper Atkins, for the students, and Rev. T. M. Brumfield, for
the Alumni, expressed their indorsement of Dr. McKenzies work.

More Fisk Boys VISIT THE UNIVERSITY.

The next day, the school had the pleasure of seeing and hearing
First-Class Sergeants Lewis Curren, Maurice Winston, and James Ford;
and Master Signal Officer Donald Fauntleroy. Each one of these was
received with loud applause and cheers; and the brief speeches which
they made were well received. Fisk was glad to see them here again
and showed it.

On the fourth of April our soldier, Valdo Kelley, alumnus and quiet
man, spoke to the students in a very calm and earnest manner of the
problems just ahead. He was given a distinct ovation.

gts)

40 Fisk University NEws

In sending out matter to Southern newspapers, Mrs. John D. Ham-
mond, Secretary Southern Publicity Committee, encloses the following:

The Southern Publicity Committee believes that a wider knowledge
of the attitude of the leading men and women of the South in regard
to racial matters will be of benefit to both races.

The enclosed article is one of a series which the Committee sends
out regularly to Southern daily and weekly papers, telling of things
being done by Southern people, individually, in groups, and through
county and state officials, to help the Negroes to better, more efficient
_and more prosperous living.

We believe that the moral and material prosperity of the South
depends upon the moral and economic development of its entire popu-
lation; and we ask the codperation of Southern. editors in aiding this
development by giving publicity to this constructive work.

The Committees work is done in no spirit of boastfulness or of self-
satisfaction. They are aware of the shadows, the sinister influences in
the lives of both races. But they believe the good outweighs the evil,
and deserves aS wide a hearing; and that to give publicity to these
efforts to build up a better understanding between the races, and to
codbperate with the better class of Negroes in improving conditions
among their people will encourage others of our own people to similar
efforts, and will further the interest of both races.

we ask your help in getting before the Southern public these
aspects of Southern life.

The

Race Relation Lectures
Delivered at Fisk University

Have Been Received from
the Press

These lectures are frank and open
discussions of the problems which
sever the races in the United States,
but they treat of constructive remedies
for the evils discussed. Delivered by a
group of well-trained students of social
problems, the views presented cannot
fail to be of value to other students of
the problems discussed.

The price of One Copy is Twenty-Five
Gents. Six Copies may be purchased
- for One Dollar.

MAKE REMITTANCE TO

ISAAC FISHER, University Editor
Fisk University - - Nashville, Tenn.