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®l|p Negro UnmattB iFiftu 
 ^ lears nf Wrnbam 
 
 —BY— 
 
 C F. GRAVES 
 
 PRESIDENT 
 
 ROANOKE COLLEGIATE INSTITUTE 
 Elizabeth City, N. C. 
 
 Price 10c. 
 
mmi -9 1918 
 
 ~ 
 
.'G 
 
 ■Q 
 
COPYRIGHT APPLIED FOR 
 
 1918. 
 
 OCT -9 1918 
 
 ©CI.A5()53-J4 
 
THE NEGRO WOMAN'S FIFTY YEARS 
 
 OF FREEDOM. 
 
 The declaration of the Emancipation 
 Proclamation in America forms one of the 
 most decisive political events in American 
 Annals, and in the far reaching extent and 
 magnitude of the results it has afforded, per- 
 haps there is no event in all the world that 
 equals it. And why? Because of the great 
 meaning it has had upon all the civilization 
 of the world from that day to this and for 
 what it seems destined to do toward engag- 
 ing the most mature minds and hearts of the 
 ages since that memorable document was 
 given to men Progress has been the watch- 
 word of this Emancipated race. Their pent 
 up energies apparently only awaited the di- 
 vine magic of some human touch before it 
 should spring up into the most redolent and 
 resplendent fruitage. The records will show 
 that there has been no similar evolution of 
 progress along all lines of any people the 
 v/orld over as has been of the Emancipated 
 Negro people of America. Even the Negro's 
 
bitterest enemy naively admits that he has 
 furnished in his years of jubilee the most 
 appalling data of things accomplished to his 
 credit. This achievement, too, it will be well 
 to note has been made in the face of odds. 
 It has been made with fightings without and 
 fears, within. And it argues strongly in his 
 favor as a human being made in the image 
 of his Maker and endowed with certain in- 
 alienable rights and privilege ^j, instead of 
 being a brute or an inferior animal. 
 
 But what may be said of the American 
 Negro woman in the midst of all this prestige 
 and progress? Now while our earthly lord 
 and master man has taken the lion's share 
 in this glory; it might be interesting to note 
 the Negro woman's activity during this time. 
 It will never be possible to tell everything 
 satisfactory of her tender and devoted achiev- 
 ments with her brother by his side during 
 this season of freedom anymore than it will 
 not be able to tell of her greatness during the 
 days of slavery. So acceptable were her 
 deeds of true womanliness during the slavery 
 days that her master refers to her in the 
 tenderest terms of devotion and calls her 
 "black mammy". Let us in this day of free- 
 dom call her not only mother, but the queen 
 of the most dearly cherished habitation on 
 
earth the home. In the days of slavery her 
 masters called her "auntie" because of her 
 endearing qualities of heart and soul, now 
 may we not only woo her with terms of 
 simple friendship, but may we sing her 
 praises in the most exalted strains of loveli- 
 ness and nobility. 
 
 Let us see first in her years of freedom 
 what she has really done that merits the ad- 
 miration of her brothers who are stronger 
 and the world at large? Her first work since 
 freedom was to show her great spirit of self 
 sacrifice. This gi^eat principle in itself is 
 sufficient to commend her to the thoughtful 
 and favorable consideration of all who give 
 the matter any attention. Fifty years ago 
 she was let loose from her master's planta- 
 tion and the "great house" with the men, 
 with nothing save the discipline she had re- 
 ceived in that house. She had no house of 
 her own and a very scanty budget of cloth- 
 ing, her meat was the proverbial "locust and 
 wild honey"; like her raiment of the figur- 
 ative camel's hair. However, she set about 
 immediately to prepare his food, to nurture 
 his children, at her breast, in carrying them 
 about, by her side, working along with him 
 in the sand bottoms, on the hillsides and 
 amid the blackened stumps still s|andin,i 
 
 ry 
 
 ?3 
 
from the sad havoc of the war's devastation 
 and the soldier's bitterness. The Negro 
 woman set to work to rescue for her hus- 
 band the coveted ''forty acres and a mule". 
 This test was, of course, the first great and 
 most trying test that she was called upon to 
 make since freedom and right well did she 
 perform that first work and in the present 
 generation of mothers there pre some who 
 learned from their mothers all of the old and 
 tried common sense of thosa early years. 
 The test of self sacrifice is a noble test and 
 it requires great moral courage to carry it 
 forth. And the Negro woman of America is 
 to be congratulated most highly upon the ex- 
 hibition of this trial at a time when it was 
 most needed and when it counted for most. 
 For we have been properly informed that 
 prophecies and predictions, not only con- 
 cerning the future of Negro men, but that 
 predictions concerning Negro women and 
 their downward career were as truly rife and 
 mischievous. But let the historian and the 
 searcher of events find any superior in all 
 the world of the self sacrific and devotion of 
 the Negro woman during the period im- 
 mediately following the slave period in this 
 country. Notwithstanding her self sacri- 
 ficial position at that time a few Negi'o wom- 
 
en found time to make an opening in the 
 field of literature, art and music. And as a 
 result a few women in the North, such as 
 Frances Ellen Harper Watkins, and Ida Wells 
 Barnett, and Mary Church Terrell, gained 
 some notice as literary women. This was 
 natural because the North was not then 
 bound as the South had been. Sisseretta 
 Jones, commonly known as "Black Patti" 
 gained distinction in music and some others 
 in other pursuits, several of whom have held 
 up well to this day; therefore in that period 
 following the slave traffic the Negro woman's 
 nobleness of heart and virtue shone forth in 
 her fine principle of self sacrifice. 
 
 Another good principle, besides the spirit 
 of self sacrifice is that the Negro woman has 
 shown since freedom is her material ac- 
 complishments or her executiveness. I be- 
 lieve the Negro v/oman learned the art of 
 economy from her service with her husband 
 while undogoing all the vicissitudes of I'le 
 after freedom. And while he was laboring 
 away at some graver problem and also be- 
 ing burdened with the larger responsibility 
 of caring for a large family of children the 
 wife and mother had time to reflect and ob- 
 serve her husbands Vv^asts and she has put 
 this knowledge to good use in a way that 
 
has materially counted for her v/isdoni and 
 sagacity in this particular. Necessity also 
 possibly drove her to material ends. Food 
 and raiment for the family to meet the ever 
 increasing requirements as their eyes became 
 opened to the things cf tlielr masters and 
 mistress' use. Therefore enterprise of var- 
 ious kinds such as groceries, miliinery shoi^s, 
 and dress goods establishments, beauty parl- 
 ors, and eating houses, and hotels have 
 grov^^n up in large numbers all over the land. 
 And of late years the Negro woman has de- 
 veloped a considerable industry in liair and 
 scalp treatment business. You will, also faid 
 that many Negro women are acti'/ely en- 
 gaged in supplying the local markets with 
 choice vegetables and milk, eggs and poultry. 
 All of which shows to what extent the Negro 
 woman has learned to plan and execute since 
 the days of slavery, a^d since her day of 
 freedom. I would have our reader believe 
 that there are more industries yet to be con- 
 summated bj^ Negro women. Then there are 
 larger results that we may point you to along 
 the line of planning and execution that col- 
 ored w^omen have brought to pass. Consider 
 the St. Luke organization piloted principally 
 by a Negro woman, Mrs. Maggie L. Walker, 
 there is also the Tent Sisters which is an en- 
 
tirely officered organization that is given over 
 to our women and these organizations of a 
 secret nature are making good as well as the 
 Samarttans, Eastern Star, Household of 
 Ruth, The Courts o fCalanthe, Lady Knights 
 Maccabees and any number of organizations 
 of that character that are expressive of the 
 executiveness of the Negro woman. Still an- 
 other field of executiveness in which is show- 
 ing her great worth is in the building up and 
 managing of schools of learning and in this 
 particular Miss Nannie H. Burroughs, and 
 Mary Bethune, and Madam Hawkins stand 
 in the front rank and almost a pioneer. All 
 of these clubs and organizations of that 
 character speak a strong testimony for the 
 material worth and the splendid execution 
 of our Negro women. 
 
 But possibly by far the greatest contribu- 
 tion that has been made by Negro women to 
 the race vrithin her fifty years of freedom is 
 the contribution to the church life. Since the 
 greatest amossing of welth by Negro men 
 has been made in their church work it is but 
 natural t oexpect the same of women. It is 
 a reasonable estimation to make, that in the 
 erection of church buildings by our men that 
 women have given possibly three fifths of the 
 money by their energies. It is a still safer 
 
estimate that they contribute nine tenths of 
 the spiritual life to the church. And while 
 this apparent spiritual surplus is not directly 
 a material acquisition we venture the as- 
 sertion that those who build fine churches 
 would feel lonely without the over enthus- 
 iasm_ of the women to give them zost and 
 heart. Now when all of this is taken into 
 account it forms a very large bill of credit 
 for our women since the days of slavery. At 
 present the Negro women are interesting 
 themselves in certain forms of civic right- 
 eousness in an immensely needy way in many 
 cf the communities both large and small. 
 Fifty years ago they themselves were en- 
 slaved by physical restraint by their mast- 
 ers; todr.y they seek to free their less fortu- 
 nate sisters from the boast of heraidry and 
 the proud man's contumely, hatred and scorn 
 They are seeking to wrench young women 
 from the jaws of death and the mouth of 
 beastly passion. Such Negro vv^omen as S. 
 Willie Lay en and Mrs. C. L. Black well of 
 Philadelphia are representatives of a class 
 of women who are proving to be as great 
 emancipators in one sense as Abraham Lin- 
 coln himself. Perhaps many a young Negro 
 girl v/lio has been soft and unrestrained owes 
 her moral rectitude to these good wcinien in 
 
 pD 1.0.4, 
 
those cities. And like examples in other 
 cities. These houses of correction managed 
 by these women for the purpose of rescu- 
 ing these unfortunate girls from both the 
 white and black slave traffic form a most 
 valuable contribution that the Negro women 
 are making to her race and to humanity in 
 this country today. This rescue work is a 
 means of preventing young women from be- 
 coming the prey of passion and the lust of 
 appetite from the baser men. Then, too, the 
 interest Negro women are taking in Y. M. 
 and Y. W. C. A. and the general rescue work 
 of men is simply gratifying to all who read 
 the signs of the times from whatever way it 
 is viewed. The line of usefulness "has gone 
 out into all the earth and their glory unto 
 ends of it." The civic work of our v/omen 
 in these different ways, both in small and in 
 large communities, is an enduring monument 
 to their gentleness and goodness and were it 
 not for these splendid qualities in them our 
 dial of progress would be set many merid- 
 ians backward and our glory would be shorn 
 of its fine lustre and its brilliant light. 
 
 But this list of good works might be great- 
 ly increased on their part but let us close by 
 noting again their self sacrifice as shown in 
 the sweet and womanly w^ay that they labor- 
 
ed v/ith the men to keep the "wheel movmg" 
 when there was ''no eye to pity ncr hand to 
 save" except their own. Their consummate 
 skill in beginning and managing their own 
 business enterprises as shown in their num- 
 erous organizations and clubs and their great 
 power in church and civic life and affairs. 
 This Negro woman has built her a home and 
 patterned it after the most costly fashion. 
 She has reared her children and stimulated 
 them to the highest pride, surrounded her- 
 self with the most excellent ideals that can 
 not be gainsaid, and Paul Lawrence Dunba.r, 
 cur poet laureate, says in his "The Party", 
 "If you see them with their mistress you 
 couldn't sv/are which was which." All of this 
 has been accomplished since their day of 
 freedom set in, and now since they have 
 achieved so much within their day of free- 
 dom under really adverse and trying circum- 
 stances, what might be expected of her to 
 accomplish within the next fifty years of 
 freedom? 
 
 - '.j^L^l 
 
'»^^^-»^?^'^?p£S^?^%3S^'v"^-'fe^ ■^-'^"-- -•'-' "~ -■- ' ■ 
 
 
J 
 
 Printed In The 
 LINOTYPE PRINTERY 
 By Jack We XI s 
 507 E. Fearing Street 
 Elizabeth City, N. C. 
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