E 185 .S5817 ..!i i h a .'m ^ %t II ROV ''"HOMaS Class Boot .TO COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. COPYRIGHT. 1918. By ROY THOMAS SMITH 1202 North Third Street KANSAS CITY. KANSAS SACRED BLACK THE AND DUTY CITIZENS ETHIOPIAN RACE BY ROY THOMAS SMITH Price 50 Cents FEB 14 1918 ©CI.A481709 CONTENTS. Chapter I. Being Black Page 13 Chapter II. Being an American Citizen ** 24 Chapter III. Patience ** 30 Chapter IV. What It Means to Be a ^^Nigger'' " 35 Chapter V. Why We Should Accept Christianity '' 39 TO THE READER. This book is published with the hope of arousing our race to the sa- cred duty we owe our country and race. American Black men are called to a new existence. We are advancing under a new alliance and union. We are establishing our race under a new faith, and that faith is Chris- tianity. "^ The old-time humorous personali- ty of slavery times is slowly but sure- ly giving place to the tendency of the higher and grander aspirations of our race. The great spirit of the Christian world calls us to a new existence. Through the help of God, may this book strengthen our aims. OF BLACK AMERICAN CITIZENS. I. BEING BLACK. Self-preservation is the first law of Nature and all mankind. It is a known fact, from ages past, that preservation of the human body is the first step of evolution known to mankind. The human mind is so very sensitive that the moral cor- ruption of an individual's mind may be very detrimental to his common welfare and uplift. It is therefore a fact that if we desire to develop the mind of our race, we should give attention to the preservation of the bodies of Black men. We should en- courage right living in every respect. Our race of people are the heritage of the native African. We belong to the Ethiopian race by a grand inher- itance. It should be a great encour- 13 SACRED HONOR AND DUTY agement to know that we belong to one of the largest root races on earth and the first of our people to es- tablish Christian civilization in our midst. The ways and actions of Christian civilization are new to us. The part that Black men are to do must be plainly understood by every one of us. We are to plainly understand that our advancement depends on our foresight in looking into the future of our race. Our development is hindered by looking backward with discouragement at the predica- ment into which our people have strayed through misunderstanding the ways of Christian civilization. We must remember that we belong to a great race. The honor in kee'p- ing the name of Black men in high esteem is a duty. It is to your wel- fare to recognize the benefit of unity. 14 OF BLACK AMERICAN CITIZENS. The union of nine million Black Americans will give Black men from all parts of the earth a new life and spirit of existence. It will awaken the entire race to the possibilities of Christian civilization. It will give us the right to take an active part in the Christian world. The welfare of American people depends on our endurance and good understanding in keeping the name of Black men in good faith. Our strength as Americans depends on our good understanding in being real meii. Our women are to know that their part is to preserve our rights as free Black Americans. Young Black men and women must realize the fact that our race belongs to a great natural orjgianization, which must be preserved in a true American - like spirit, if we intend to take ah active pairt in the affairs of our country. 15 SACRED HONOR AND DUTY The days of slavery and oppression must be given their time to die. Those days of darkness must be trod- den down by the fact that they are a hindrance to our future welfare. Those days are very good for slaves to grieve and ponder over, but for free Black men who serve only one God it is more of a hindrance to our future welfare. A boy in his days of childhood hates to be scolded or whipped. The lad when he grows into young manhood realizes that the boyish joys and pleasures are past — the duty of acting in the spirit of his future welfare confronts him. The joys and lashes of our childhood days are relics that every man holds dear. The joys of the past are transformed into the duty of being a man. The growth of a boy into manhood is the point of evolution that our race has reached to-day. The days of slav- 16. OF BLACK AMERICAN CITIZENS. ery are past. Our future is in the making. The men or a race of people who ponder over their past grievances do not get very far and their good works never get anywhere. It is my be- lief that God judges men by their good works and not by their griev- ances and by-words. The future generations of American Black men are asking you one question: Are you doing your part as a Black man? If not, why not take up the burden? Your reason is our strength, your foresight is our inheritance. Being a man is our strength. It is not a part to be played, it is a service and duty. The time to look at our situation as square-shouldered Black men and true Americans is facing you directly as a man. America is our land ; our organization as a race is our strength in the country of our adoption. 17 SACRED HONOR AND DUTY We men have a mission in Ameri- ca. Our part in this great Republic is to be of good courage and firm faith towards ourselves and country- men. The time for us to stand cour- ageously in our Christian faith is facing us directly as men. We are growing on America's soil, I might say as a great field of wheat. We are producing young Black men with fine intellect. Our boys are growing as the wheat that sprouts from America's highly cultivated fields. The farmer harvests his wheat and he reaps the results. I wish to impress you to reap the re- sults of our youth's might by consid- ering your ways. I have written these few pages, and you might still ask, what is our part? Our part is, first, to drop all superstitious ideas and to be of good courage. We are not to live 18 OF BLACK AMERICAN CITIZENS. only for ourselves, but we should live for the uplift of our race and Nation. Why should I say to be of good courage? Our assistance to the betterment of your life depends on your good faith and strength in being a Black man. The welfare of millions of our grand women — God has made none any grander^ — de- pends on our united spirit and cour- age as men. Our women are not to be sported, but we are to encourage them to blossom, even as wild roses, into full womanhood. The best way to encourage our women is by being an upright, typical Black man; the best way to make them realize that we are their sole dependence is by claiming our rights as Black Ameri- cans. Their destiny depends upon your courage and strength. It is our part to protect them as the bee does the honey in the hive. They 19 SACRED HONOR AND DUTY are ours because of our strength; they are yours because it is your part to claim them. They are to in- crease because you through reason have made the way. The right of our women to blossom into true wo- manhood is to be claimed by your courageous faith as Black men. Our women have undergone an enormous ordeal in the past. It is up to you to give them their right to show their womanhood. It is shown through the last cen- sus that there are nine million or more Black men in America. The encouragement due our men is to be established by keeping the name of our race in good faith. Discourage- ment thrives by looking down and back at bygone days. The future of our race is not to be hindered by a few tender-hearted men that ponder over the struggles of bygone years. 20 OF BLACK AMERICAN CITIZENS. The civilization that we now live has reached the summit of modern times. We are living under the bes • organized unit of livelihood that ex- ists any place on earth. The ma- terial resources of our country are so well developed that we share the products with the entire world. It is for us to grasp the advantages. Black Americans, it is your part to establish yourselves in Christian civilization. The future of your race is to be determined by your courage in keeping the name of the Ethiopian race undaunted'. I am not striving to impress you with any new idea. I am seeking to let you know that our common wel- fare is your intelligent reason in con- sidering our people as a part of a natural organized race. I am as- piring to let you know that the life and welfare of your race is to be 21 SACRED HONOR AND DUTY Strengthened by your manhood. The name of Black men must be held aloft as the stars in the skies. OLD BLACK JOE. "Gone are the days when my heart was young and gay ; Gone are my friends from the cotton- fields away; Gone from the earth to a better land I know — I hear their gentle voices calling, *01d Black Joe.' **Why do I weep when my heart should feel no pain? Why do I sigh that my friends come not again? Grieving for forms now departed long ago — I hear their gentle voices calling, *01d Black Joe.' 22 OF BLACK AMERICAN CITIZENS. **Where are the hearts once so happy and so free? The children so dear that I held upon my knee? Gone to the shore where my soul has longed to go — I hear their gentle voices calling, ^Old Black Joe.' **I 'm coming, I 'm coming, for my head is bending low ; I hear those gentle voices calling, *01d Black Joe.' " 23 SACRED HONOR AND DUTY II. BEING AN AMERICAN CITIZEN. It is a great example of courage that we have shown as American cit- izens. We have proven that we are in America to stay. We are citizens because we have claimed our rights as part of the American people. We realize that the vast resources of the American people afford us many ad- vantages. We share the common welfare of the organized, skillful American mind. The cities that our country stretch- es forth to us are the best that mod- ern civilization can produce. Our stuctural buildings are the specimens of a modern Rome. Our sky-scrap- ing buildings are huge statues of a Nation whose spirit desires to live in a high place on God's earth. The industrial factories of our Nation are 24 OF BLACK AMERICAN CITIZENS to be compared with those of any highly civilized nation. Their out- put helps to supply the world. The highways are the products of skillful minds. They are ours because we have accepted and claimed their ownership. Our railroads are as well constructed as you might find anywhere on earth. They are ours because the American mind pro- duces them. The temperature of our country is equalized into seasons that we can find no better any place on earth. We have great natural parks. We also have summer and winter re- sorts with a long stretch of seacoast. Our country covers such a vast territory that enormous sections are yet to be cultivated. I might speak of Alaska and the island possessions of our country. They are to be cul- tivated under the grip of our civili- 25 SACRED HONOR AND DUTY zation. We are to strengthen the grand American union by our phys- ical and mental strength as Black Americans. America stretches forth her hands for us to cast our strength with hers. America has purchased her freedom through the rights of blood and strife. It is our duty to protect those sacred rights by estab- lishing ourselves with a stronger faith for the universal uplift and pro- tection of our country. The freedom that America offers Black Americans is the right to be strong and cour- ageous in serving our race and coun- try. The right to serve in an up- right way is the liberty that America gives our race. American Black men have gone to war when America has made war. We have proven that our blood is al- lied to the country of our freedom. Our minds may be carried back to 26 OF BLACK AMERICAN CITIZENS. the Revolutionary War. Black men showed their courage in those days of strife. They fought for the rights that America might declare its own future destiny. Those men, dear friend, served America by their strength and blood. They fought for the future welfare of their race and Nation. They shedded their blood, and those Americans found it a glori- ous duty. The Civil War with its strife found Black Americans doing their part. We honor the names of those brave Black men who fell in the hope that the union of our coun- try should not perish. Those men sacrificed their lives for our right to form our future in the affairs of our country. Are the sacrifices of those men to be forgotten? God grant the day will never come that we will for- get the sacrifice of those heroes. Black Americans, it is your duty to 27 SACRED HONOR AND DUTY preserve those sacred rights of citi- zenship. It is your duty to so serve your race and country that America will not be ashamed of our co-opera- tion. The respect that the Ameri- can people owe our race is to be gained by the courageous faith that we have in honoring the Union. The life of our Nation depends on our faith ahd courage in co-operat- ing with the American people. We must remember that we are not or- ganizing a nation, but we are forming a part of a great union of the greatest Republic in the world. Black Amer- ican citizens, it is your duty to trust in God and to take your part in this Christian civilization. It is our duty to make America a great covenant, where the Ethiopian race greets the Caucasian race. God could make a spectacle no grander — under one flag|and^one faith. 28 OF BLACK AMERICAN CITIZENS. "Lead, kindly Light, amid the en- circling gloom, lead thou me on; The ni^ht is dark', and I am far from home; lead thou me on; Keep thou my feet; I do not ask to see The distant scene; one step enough for me. "I was not ever thus, nor prayed that thou shouldst lead me on ; I loved to choose and see my path; but now lead thou me on ! I loved the garish day, and, spite of fears. Pride ruled my will. Remember not past years ! "So long thy power has blessed me, sure it still will lead me on O'er moor and fen, o'er crag and tor- rent, till the night is gone. And with the morn those angel faces smile Which I have loved long since, and lost awhile!" 29 SACRED HONOR AND DUTY III. PATIENCE. Our patience to endure and over- come the struggles of our every-day life is our national strength. Black Americans who display their courage in civil life by their patience, are es- tablishing the foundation for the fu- ture generations of our race. The struggles of our daily lives must be fought in a gentle, courageous man- ner. We must remember that we are expected to encourage the na- tional spirit of America by our cour- ageous faith and actions. Black Americans, it is your duty to remem- ber that each one of us are humble leaders of a great race in a great civ- ilization. Patience in our every- day life is the part that each of us should strive to develop. Consist- ent toiling with untiring patience will prove to be a strong factor in 30 OF BLACK AMERICAN CITIZENS. uniting our race. We must remem- ber that we are the foundation of our race in America and Christian civili- zation. The strength of our people is to be established by your patience in doing your part in their uplift. It is true that each one of us do not possess the wealth of educational training, but we can do our part by being of good courage. The great mass of American Black men are to be strengthened by your patience and good faith. It is your duty to set an example that will live in their midst. The hardest battles are not always fought on the battle-field; they are sometimes fought in humble homes, around peaceful firesides, by citizens who labor and contest for the rights of civilization. These heroes are the pioneers of all great people. The humble citizen who labors for his 31 SACRED HONOR AND DUTY daily bread is the physical strength of our national organization. The man who conies from his daily work to a humble, peaceful home is enjoying the greatest wealth that civiHzed minds can afford. The preservation of our home life is the preservation of our nation and race. Our sons and daughters may possess the great wealth of educa- tional training, but if they do not realize the importance of home life, their mental strength and training will not do much in strengthening our national organization. The patience to labor and to wait is a strong factor in the development of ail progressive races of people. The enduring stamina of laboring and waiting is the superiority that the civiUzed man has over the un- civiHzed being. The civilized man works for the future welfare of his 32 OF BLACK AMERICAN CITIZENS. family, race, and country. The hope of the uncivilized man is to reap the present results of his labor. Civil- ized people are kept in union by those men who trust in God in exe- cuting their strength. Those pion- eers are the foundation of all civil- ized nations and races. Black American, it is your duty to be upright in faith and courage. The existence and welfare of your race must be safely guarded by your courageous will in a true Christian, American-like spirit. The freedom of America lies in your effort to take your humble place in the national union. The liberty to cast our strength in a true Ameri- can spirit with the American Com- mic/hwealth is to be gained by our good faith and patience in dealing with our race and country. Some men content themselves 33 SACRED HONOR AND DUTY with their own livelihood, but God grant me the strength to contest for my race and country. The sacred alliance that a man owes his race and country is one that every man should bow to and contest for its perfection. These few lines by Edward Ever- ett Hale should be remembered in our every-day life : "To look up, and not down; To look forward, and not back; To look out, and not in; and To lend a hand." 34 OF BLACK AMERICAN CITIZENS. IV. WHAT IT MEANS TO BE A *^NIGGER.'' I shall first apologize to you, dear reader, for bringing such classifica- tion into a book that touches our na- tional life so dearly. It is a debt that I owe your good intention and sacred thoughts of your family that I write of such outrageous, unbefitting classification of a name, the truth of which disgraces our good intentions as Americans. The word "nigger" means a per- son of bad character; a man that possesses the lowest of human char- acter is to be classified as a "nigger" ; a man that possesses the least of moral courage is called a "nigger." I have a great respect for the be- liefs of individuals, but I cannot tol- erate the superstitious idea of any man acting a "nigger." 35 SACRED HONOR AND DUTY Black Americans, it is apparent that a few of the superstitious minds of our race beUeve that the Ethi- opian race is the doomed and ac- cursed race of the earth. Words cannot express my depressed at- titude since we have accepted such a religious faith as Christianity. It is revolting against our high ideals to classify ourselves only in the name of Black Americans. The great and Godly morale of Christianity, which all Black America'hs owe the Ethi- opian race, is crushed and demor- alized when we classify ourselves as anything else excepting Black Americans. Black Americans, it is an outrage against our race to classify each other with such a vulgar term. The half foreign and part American-like spirit that Negroism has developed must be destroyed. We are Americans 36 OF BLACK AMERICAN CITIZENS. and we must stand in the sacred courage of our convictions and faith. We have accepted the enlightened life and character that God has so graciously given. Black Americans, I believe in no nobler duty than trusting our Maker. These few words from our great Emancipator and President should be remembered : "Even though much provoked, let us do nothing tlhrough passion and ill temper." 37 SACRED HONOR AND DUTY THE REASON WHY WE vSHOULD ACCEPT CHRISTIANITY AND TAKE OUR PLACE IN AMERI- CA'S GRAND CIVILIZATION. 38 OF BLACK AMERICAN CITIZENS. V. WHY WE SHOULD ACCEPT CHRISTIANITY. Why should I encourage you, my dear friend, to accept Christianity? Why should I deliberately ask you to accept a religion that our race has apparently accepted? Religion is a great factor in the progress of all nations and races. The strength of a people is not de- temined altogether by their phys- ical abilities as individuals; but the strength of a race is determined by the faith or religion they worship under. The Indian race might have been the ruling race of our country to-day if the native Indian race could have accepted one religion and one union. 39 SACRED HONOR AND DUTY The different tribes of American In- dians were separated in customs and habits. Their chief occupation con- sisted in warring against each other. The adjacent tribe usually was the closest enemy. The union of one faith and religion was never realized in the days of the North American Indian. These primitive Americans put their trust solely in the strength and bravery of the fighting young buck. The marvelous power of the union of faith of both body and mind was never realized. There was no one consolidated faith amongst them. These facts I wish to bring to your mind so that you may realize that the North American Indian is rapidly going out of existence by in- termarriage with other and stronger races. Christianity has never im- pressed seriously with good under- standing the power it has to save 40 OF BLACK AMERICAN CITIZENS. them as a race in America. The faith that the Indian has failed to ac- cept must not be our stumbling-block in establishing our race in America. The fast-vanishing race should be an example of a people who have lived surrounded by a great faith, but which they have never accepted seriously as the salvation of their race. Their race has suffered, and we, my dear friend, should gain by our foresight in dealing with the fu- ture of our race. A house of worship must be es- tablished where Black men come and Black men worship. The super- stitious customs and ways of our now-existing Church must be blotted out for the clean, moral principles of a true Christian Church. It might be asked what are the superstitious customs that I have reference to? It has been an early belief of our 41 SACRED HONOR AND DUTY race that our people are the true de- scendants of the BibHcal character Ham. The curses that the simple, easy-going mind of the Black man of the past found in the Old Testament of degradation and damnation, he spared no pains in superstitiously confessing when he laid the foun- dation of the now-existing Christian Church in our race. Is the Godly life, character, and grand salvation of our race to be sacrificed on the altar to the simple, superstitious mind of the Black man of old? He thought his color and racial characteristics were a damna- tion to him. It would have been a great knowledge to him to know that when he brought those superstitious ideas in the doors of a Christian Church he destroyed the great mor- al and religious principle through which the salvation of his race is 42 OF BLACK AMERICAN CITIZENS. planned. It might have assisted him to know that the Christian world looked upon him as having a super- stitious faith. Christian Black men, it is your duty to accept a clean faith, and not the superstitious beliefs and customs of the Black man of old. I believe it is a sacred duty to cast out those su- perstitious versions. These ideas are conflicting to the hopes and faith of all true believers in Christianity. Christian Black men, it is your duty to break those superstitious ties that the Black man of old has ignorantly united together in the midst of our Church. Christian Black men, stand up in faith and save your race. Black Americans, it is your duty to save the honor of your race in Amer- ica by accepting Christianity, in re- volting against the superstitious cus- toms of our race, and in rallying to 43 SACRED HONOR AND DUTY the high principles of Christianity. Black Americans, it is your duty to accept Christianity as the true faith. I believe Christianity is pure and broad enough for our race to worship under in whatsoever land they may be. It is our duty to accept Chris- tianity not as a White man's faith, but the perfect union God gave all men. The faith in the hope of redemp- tion through our Lord will unite the strength of body and mind of our race. Christianity will give every Black man a new hope and a bright spirit in dealing with himself, the race, and humanity. The great hope that God has so graciously given us will stand every Black man strong in his own strength of mind and body. The great alliance that every Black American owes his fellow-man will be locked with a key that no one but 44 OF BLACK AMERICAN CITIZENS. God will hold the secret. The grand union that all of us owe to our families, our race, and country will be conceived by our determina- tion and by our faith. We, as Americans, should accept Christianity because it will in a moral way unite the Ethiopian and Cau- casian races under one faith and one hope. The Ethiopian race needs the moral assistance of the united mind and good faith of each and every Caucasian on earth. It is of no doubt that the Caucasian race needs the moral strength of body and mind of every Black man on earth. Amer- ican Black men, it is for us to bring this great union to a reality. Europe and our own America offer to us an open door. African Black men need a hope and a new faith. The primitive mind of the native African must be brought to a world enlight- 45 SACRED HONOR AND DUTY enment. Christianity gives every Black man a bright light on the fu- ture ; it is for us to grasp the oppor- tunity. I — because I am a Chris- tian — believe we should take our place in the Christian world to help to do our part in the Godly uniting of the world under one faith. Christian Black men, you are to bear the cross for the salvation of your race in America. The welfare of nine million Americans rests sole- ly in the grace of God and your faith- fulness as true Christian worship- ers to preserve the race in the one true and Godly union. The sixty years of our freedom in America have been threescore years of hard times. We have progressed grandly as individuals, but we have not awakened to the fact that our progress is weakened by the prac- tice of Negroism. We have not 46 OF BLACK AMERICAN CITIZENS. awakened to the fact that God has given to Black men a mission in America. Americaiis, it is our duty, in due honor of the Ethiopian race, to take our place in the national history of America under one faith, one disci- pline, and one union. The alliance that we owe God and Christian civ- ilization through the one and indis- putable faith, must be respected and honored by our determined faith. The best way to gain respect in our Republic is by respecting the faith of our Nation and by standing firm in the faith of our acceptance. Christianity, in the voice of the ma- jority, has been accepted; and it is our duty to bear the Cross in the light of humble, peaceful. Christian Americans, with due honor to the race of our inheritance. The alliance that we through faith 47 SACRED HONOR AND DUTY have accepted with the Christian world must not be looked upon as a huge white elephant. Black men, it is for us to establish ourselves in America with a stronger faith and with more courage to our own liveli- hood. Negroism must be abolished. The intolerance of the system of in- termarriage and the Church or no other body contesting for the welfare of the race and principles of Chris- tianity must be stopped. Negroism must go. Black Americans, it is your duty to realize the heathenism in the practice of Negroism in your race. Black Americans, it is your duty to set a fire that will destroy the practice of Negroism from coast to coast. The practice of Negroism means suicide to our race in Ameri- ca. The estabhshing of Christianity means a new life and hope to our coming generations. Black Ameri- 48 OF BLACK AMERICAN CITIZENS. cans, it is to your welfare to grasp the situation and to do your part. It might be asked, what is Negro- ism? Negroism is the misunderstood, false, and superstitious hope that the simple, superstitious minds of some of our people have developed. The hope that God would come to our race through the practice of Ne- groism must be stopped. The false, superstitious hope of Negroism must be abolished for the great hope of Christianity^the Godly union of the world. An African chieftain once said that you may crush the spirit of Black men, but it will soon come to the top again. It is for us to prove our old- time ability of zeal and determina- tion of which the African chiehain so grandly spoke. The grand courage of determin- ing stamina to sacrifice for the wel- 49 SACRED HONOR AND DUTY fare of your race and humanity is the grandest example of real man- hood that God has instilled into the heart of any man. I have read of priceless paintings of art, statues of immortal beings, and temples of astonishing beauty of design, but the sacrifice that any man takes to heart, however small, is in itself a magnificent principle — grander than all the arts which gen- erations have produced. We may produce poets, sculptors, and artistic painters, but the greatest artist is the one who has learned to sacri- fice for the welfare of his race and humanity. The great designers of art have astonished our minds with the different designs of art, but the heroic example of sacrifice is the Godliest principle of the whole hu- man race when men sacrifice for its uplift and welfare. We in our daily 50 OF BLACK AMERICAN CITIZENS. lives can make some sacrifice for the welfare of our race and country. The smallest sacrifice sometimes bears the greatest example of cour- age and fortitude. The principle multiplies itself a thousandfold. The doctrine of Sacrificing our own selfish ideas for the perpetual life of our race and Nation is a prin- ciple that no Black man should feign to accept. The environment pro- duced in our every-day speech, lives again in the hearts and souls of those with whom we converse. The self-sacrificing of things we might have spoken or done is the producing of a greater will-power for ourselves. The spirit of possessing a clean, straightforward faith in our daily action is the might that any man should be proud to possess. Every man is proud of skillful deeds of manly strength, but the man who is 51 SACRED HONOR AND DUTY the possessor of a clean, enduring, self-sacrificing faith possesses the mightiest strength of all. The world smiles a thousand times to a man who is capable of showing a clean faith in enduring and succeed- ing. The whole world becomes a dismal area of dreadful striving be- ings to the man who fails to reflect his being on God's earth with a clean, upright faith. Christianity, through the Grace of our Lord, gives you and your race the greatest principle and mori^le of racial integrity and self-esteem that no Black man who claims a part of the Ethiopian race should feign from accepting. The Ethiopian race in America is either a dead race de- bauched of all courage or a grand race united in the Christian world, with a new life and spirit. Ameri- cans, it is for you to trust in your 52 OF BLACK AMERICAN CITIZENS might in the courageous, spirit of true Christian people, and to prove to the entire Ethiopian race that Christianity is a good faith and hope for the entire world by establishing your courageous faith in America. Our manhood and womanhood de- mand that you claim the life of the huge white elephant that supersti- tion and Negroism have planted be- tween your race and Christianity. Can we afford to continue the prac- tice of Negroism in our churches and amongst our people? Can we be cowards in talking our place in the Christian world? Can we afford to completely melt our race through the practice of Negroism with the different races in America? Black nien are instilled with a higher and greater spirit. The minds of nine million or more Black men answer with one harmonious reflection, and 53 SACRED HONOR AND DUTY that answer is, "No!" The entire Ethiopian race insists on your trust- ing in God and taking your part in the Christian world. Your race is strong enough to enhven the world with a new spirit. Are you cour- ageous enough to deal a death blow to Negroism? I will answer. Rally to your race! Rally to your coun- try! Make the death-cry of Negro- ism ring from every house-top, and establish Christianity as the true hope in our race ! Black Americans, it is your part to rally the spirit of your race with a new impulse. The heroic John Brown of the days of slavery did not fear to take your part. The big heart of this grand hero did not fear the task of striving for your freedom. Our great Emancipator, Abraham Lincoln, never shirked his duty 54 OF BLACK AMERICAN CITIZENS. when he declared your freedom to the world. Down with Negroism for the sake of our race and God! Up with the true light of Christianity ! May God bless our efforts that we make those words of the American Yankee in the days of slavery and oppression a reality : 55 SACRED HONOR AND DUTY JOHN BROWN'S BODY. "John Brown's body lies a-moulder- ing in the grave, John Brown's body lies a-moulder- ing in the grave, John Brown's body lies a-moulder- ing in the grave. His soul goes marching on ! **The stars of heaven are looking kindly down. The stars of heaven are looking kindly down. The stars of heaven are looking kindly down On the grave of old John Brown. 56 OF BLACK AMERICAN CITIZENS. "John Brown's knkpsabk is strapped upon his back, John Brown's knapsack is strapped upon his back, John Brown's knapsack is strapped upon his back. His soul is marching on ! CHORUS. "Glory, glory, hallelujah! Glory, glory, hallelujah! Glory, glory, hallelujah! His soul is marching on!" 57 SACRED HONOR AND DUTY BLACK AMERICAN CITIZENS, the Ethiopian Race under the Stars and Stripes calls you to surrender the bold and superstitious character to the submissive Grace and Sanc- tified Blood of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, as humble, peaceful. Godfearing men. We submit to the high aims and strength of the Gentile spirit of the Caucasian race in the Spirit of God; to the grand welfare of the Ameri- can and Ethiopian races. God grant us the Grace to bow and worship to the Father of all Mankind, the Savior of all Creation. May the perfect Union that God has planned be sounded from land to land, from shore to shore. God 58 OF BLACK AMERICAN CITIZENS. bless our courage and determination. We trust in God, in the Grace of our Lord, for the welfare and free- dom of the world; to the Godly Union of all humanity; in the Godly salvation of our souls born in the faith of our Lord, the Anointed One. THE END. 59