WHY THE NEGRO RACE SURVIVES.

BY PROF. T. DE S. TUCKER.

THOMAS de S. TUCKER.

Thomas de S. Tucker first saw the light of day at Victoria, in Sherbro, Sierra Leone, West Coast of Africa, on the 21st day of July, 1844. His mother was the youngest daughter of James Tucker, hereditary chief of Sherbro. The founder of the family, about two hundred years previous, was an Englishman, from whom the surname is derived.

On the paternal side, Tucker comes of an ancient noble family in the east of France, the de Salieres, of Marseilles. His father, Joseph, although descended from this noble lineage, was an ardent admirer of Napoleon Bonaparte, whose checkered fortunes he followed to the disastrous field of Waterloo.

In accordance with the custom of the country, the wife being deemed of higher social standing than the husband, the son took the maternal surname. Tucker was sent, at a tender age, to a school located in the family territory. Such was his rapid progress that in a few years he had acquired English sufficiently enough to read and write it about as well as the average child of his age in this country.

In the summer of 1856 he came to the United States to complete his education. Having just completed the English course in the public schools of Oberlin, Ohio, he entered college and completed the course in 1865. He then crossed over into Kentucky and opened day and night schools for the education of the newly freed race.

From Kentucky he removed to Louisiana, where the climate was more congenial to his tropical constitution. During his residence of many years in that State he was employed most of the time in the customs service with chances of preferment to higher and more lucrative posts, which he never sought nor cared for. His tastes have always inclined him to the more quiet and private walks of life, where he can promote the welfare of his fellow men, without show and the applause of the giddy crowd.

President Grant once advised him that he intended to offer him the Liberian Mission, but Tucker was so indifferent in the honor that he made no effort to be commissioned.

Anxious to pass away from official duties, he studied law and entered on practice in New Orleans. This profession was so fully in keeping with his tastes he hoped to pursue it the rest of his days. Finding that his legal training practically restricted him only to Louisiana, he removed to Florida and located at Pensacola. He was admitted to practice, and with it he rose rapidly both in knowledge of the common law and in securing a paying clientage. He stood high with the bar, from judge and attorneys to officials. He saw every prospect of realizing the fond dream of his ambition when once again a call of duty to serve God's humble children came in stentorious tones. The State in 1887 had founded a Normal and Industrial School for the training of Colored teachers. A telegram unexpectedly announced that Tucker had been elected by the State Board of Education to take the management of it. He demurred, he objected; but leading Colored men and the Chief Executive importuned and requested his acceptance of the place. By patient perseverance and tact he succeeded in enlisting the hearty good will of all classes to the maintenance of the institution. The history of his work is a part of the educational records. Many men and women of worth and saving influence in their respective communities in Florida owe their training to the devoted consecration to duty of this native of the "Dark Continent." The school itself will ever remain a lasting monument to his tireless, efficient devotion to the welfare of his race.

He retired from the field of his labors at the close of the fourteenth year, carrying with him universal regret for his departure, and the esteem and respect of the whole State and the acclamations of good will, especially of the people of the capital in which the Normal School is located.

It requires no stretch of thought to understand our constant and earnest interest in everything which concerns our environments. Every question and issue of national significance have for us a vital consideration for weal or woe. We scan with greedy eagerness the expressed policy of the statesman, we hang with bated breath on the eloquence of the sentiment moulder, we probe with tremulous care the feelings of the community to find out if we have been pushed to the rear or given a fair chance in the race to a higher life—our final place in American life.

While we are not, and should never be, unmindful of all interests which appertain to others in this vast country of which we form such a necessary part, it is natural and right that our first thought should be of our own welfare.

The position we are to definitely assume and maintain in the distinctive American civilization now in process of formation, is yet concealed in the womb of futurity; we can neither anticipate nor force it against the period of its advent. While we are passing through this slow process of development, it is well at times to take a reckoning of our race powers by way of encouragement to such as may become faint and weary in the combat. All are not strong, all are not determined, all are not forceful. The fiercest courage will now and then lose its force when battling against steady odds. Moreover, our shortcomings, like the shirt of Nessus, are not only with us ever, but they are on constant exhibition to shame, mortify and humiliate us. While it is not sensible to shut our eyes to these painful reminders of the obstacles to our progress, while it is even best to invite a searching scrutiny of them to the end that they may be torn off by heroic methods, if need be, after all an occasional study of our strong parts is a help in the struggle.

DISCARD SELF GRATULATION.

In the attempt to reflect on the staying powers of the race, I have not the remotest idea of pandering to conceit or vanity, to the contrary, I decry any disposition to extol and magnify whatever we are subjectively, and whatever we have achieved. The fierce conflicts we have undergone and the terrible crucible through which the cruel hand of fate promises to pass us, dispel the idea of self gratulation. Life for us in the conflict ahead is all stern and serious. Wounds and scars will for generations yet to come be the decorations for our leaders in thought and action; there is no niche in the edifice consecrated to our present and coming heroes for fulsome, windy flatteries airing their importance to the galleries. Hearts true and stout charged with big emotions to raise and elevate their suffering kind to a higher plane, should be the only thinkers to claim our considerate attention and command our homage.

THEME UNDER CONSIDERATION.

In the theme I have chosen for this paper, I shall endeavor to show that the latent and active attributes of the negro eminently adapt him to be classed among the survivals of the fittest in the family of races. Before proceeding, however, to a formal discussion of the subject, it might not be amiss for a minute or two, to take a running retrospect of the race since its advent into its present civil life.

The three decades which mark the close of our Civil War have perhaps not only written history more broadly in the behalf of humanity in general as interpreted by Christian civilization, than any other similar period, but they have been the most momentous in shaping the national life by moulding and settling policies of a lasting nature. The admission of millions, of what is termed an alien race into the solution of an untried problem of government by the people, rendered that problem still more difficult, hence, wild and extravagant speculations bearing on the future of the Negro and the questionable influence of his changed relations on American life, became the current literature of the country for two decades. Friends spoke in fulsome praise or doubtful measure, according to conviction, while enemies protested in exultant tone that a generation or two hence would suffice to write the Negro's epitaph. But even in that early period of his infancy, had the nation been disposed to study him with other than preconceived, erroneous views, it might have perceived traits which justified the wisdom implied in his changed condition. Thus far, if he has not risen to the dizzy heights to which the hopes of ardent enthusiasts invited him, he has at least, not only belied the gloomy fate of inglorious extinction, but he is going forward with steady strides to realize an honorable destiny in common with the many other people of the Republic.

ORIGIN OF A STRONG RACE.

A strong race, like marked personality, is the product of varied and opposing agencies. As in nature when conflicting elements struggle for the mastery and bear the impress of the strongest, so in the evolution of a forceful people, its character takes on the form of the means that has been most efficacious in moulding it. There is no instance in the authentic annals of the human family where a masterly people has emerged into greatness from the tame school of gentle methods. Trials keen and severe, have first slashed, cut and tortured the entire being in mind and soul to fit it for the new life it is to enjoy in accordance with its destined end. What has ever been thus will always be so.

QUALITIES INDICATING THE NEGRO'S SURVIVAL.

In this law of nature, in the formation of dominant powers, the Negro has no favor to expect. He must pass through the fiery furnace and be shorn of dross to leave the solid matter which is to constitute the framework of his strength. First among the many qualities of survival which distinguish him as an enduring race, is patient endurance and fortitude under affliction. The elastic temperament of the race in the ability to adapt itself to varying conditions, in swaying with the force of the tempest until the fury of it is spent, in seizing with instinct on circumstances that tend to save, is something not only amazing, but marvelous. No oppression however heavy, no ebullition of wrath however fiery, can swerve him from the road he has chosen to attain his purpose as a part of the pulsating life of this nation. From a dogged determination to butt aside forces which contained the elements of his salvation, the Indian has passed into a retreat closed to contact with the active life of the dominant power of the land. On the other hand, the future of the parent race of the American Negro in the dark continent is bright with hope from its ready assimilation of the civilizing agencies of European civilization. In obedience to this self-evident law of survival, Japan has entered on a new existence, while its neighbor, China, the home of a kindred race, bids fair to become the easy prey of Western greed.

STRENGTH, NOT WEAKNESS.

Now this easy swaying to conditions, when his welfare is in hazard, and for which the superficial thinker twits the negro with lack of manliness, is one of the strongest elements of his being. Were he less malleable than he is, less ready to concede where contention can only work him woe, were he wont to resent in wild and reckless fury, real or fancied wrongs, were he too obtuse to perceive and profit by the passing advantage, were he to remove his cause from the bar of reason, and the verdict of a calm judgment he would neither be imbibing the civilization of his native land, nor would he have achieved a tithe of the wonderful progress which is to-day the vindication of his freedom, and at the same time the shame and confusion of those who foretold his ignominious passing away. Patience pure and simple, coupled with, and gracing a quiet heroism, has enabled him to bridge over the earlier days of his trials, and confirm his status in the body politic to the general acceptance of the American people.

THE NEGRO'S WARFARE, MORAL AND MENTAL.

The honor which waits on material contest counts for little to the Negro's advantage. Indeed, if the strife with which he is confronted were to be waged on such an issue, the result could be foretold in advance. His warfare is moral and mental, and by the arts of peace he is to be left a cipher or rise in triumph to honorable destiny. Physical courage which the negro shows largely in common with other races has its trophies blazoned in marble and brass only to crumble beneath the corroding tooth of time. The warfare of mind and heart which ever calls in evidence only the highest courage of man's nature leaves its achievement to immortal fame to grow with the ages till time surrenders it to Eternity.

WHAT HAS BEEN ACCOMPLISHED.

By the exercise of this gentle but potent virtue of learning to labor and to wait, we have mined our way into the heart of educational authorities to grant such of our sons and daughters as are competent the privilege of becoming preceptors to the youth of the race. By the nurture of the same virtue, our slender means have tickled the greed of capital to call us away from obscure streets and narrow lanes that we may enjoy a wider range of selection of homes befitting higher tastes and growing ambition. Go, if you will, into the Southern section of our country where the bulk of our race resides, and there you will find by this same sturdy persistence to wait on time for a reward that schools, colleges, churches and business enterprises are being built and maintained. Prejudices which retard our progress are crumbling to pieces.

THE OPTIMISTIC TEMPERAMENT.

The cheerful sunny temperament of the Negro is another of the many sturdy qualities which declare his fitness to withstand the blows of adverse fortune. His long training in the school of mental and moral darkness wherein he had need to cultivate a sanguine temperament to buoy him up, stands proof against dark forebodings and pessimism. The grotesque and the ludicrous find in him a joyous patron. Where others count and bewail their woes, he sees only sunshine. Gloom and sorrow melt away at his approach, while his features are ever radiant with mirth and joy. His head is up and erect with every sense attuned to the bright, and dead to the doleful. He thanks God that the lot apportioned him is fashioned by infallible wisdom, while he munches with contentment the humble crust that honest toil has brought him. Malevolence towards his fellow men is at the most a passing emotion. Wealth and the happiness attendant on it, he neither envies nor mars. He asks a chance to live, no matter how sumptuously others may fare beyond his condition. Such a being is forever beyond the pale of anarchy, and other tendencies which work to the detriment of society. In this portraiture I have drawn no ideal, but the average Negro as he is known of all men.

In peace and in war such a being is an invaluable factor in a nation's well being. As he does not envy the class which fortune has blest with good things of this world, he therefore breeds no feeling of ill will by which he might seek to level conditions, while he is equally ready to assume his share of the dangers consequent on the maintenance of the existing order of affairs.

PATRIOTISM OF THE RACE.

Another marked characteristic of race strength is love of country. The only race in this country which has more than a shadow of excuse to be indifferent to the nation's welfare is the Negro. Not unlike the dog in the fable whose devotion to his master's interest was recognized only after the sacrifice of life in that master's service, the Negro's love for his country in the civil service, on the tented field, and wherever sincere devotion should command the highest commendation, is commonly rewarded with cold indifference, or at least with damnable praise, and yet when driven, as it were, with brutal kicks and cuffs from the service and defense of his country's honor, he hangs on to the outer folds of its flag with a grim determination to maintain its glory as though that duty had been specially entrusted him by heaven. And herein again he shows the instinct of self-preservation, as people who would seek to become an appreciable power in the public affairs of their country, must be alive to every vital interest pertaining to it. To become rooted it must maintain an unyielding grasp. That the Negro is to-day only a passive member in the affairs of government, does not argue that his unflagging patriotism will not finally gain its reward. That he is quietly working now at long range to prepare himself for citizenship, means that he will in due time enter into that rich inheritance. The foaming stream is not the water carrying most matter into the ocean; the deep current which gives no evidence on its surface is the hydraulic force which forms the Delta. And so it is with the latent influence of Negro patriotism. In every essential matter pertaining to national welfare, however keen his grievance, fancied or real, his regard for the honor of the government and the maintenance of its power, induces him to throw his head-gear in air, out-yell the lustiest lung in the crowd and attest his enthusiasm by demoniac courage on the field of battle.

The chief magistrate of the nation is stricken down in the vigor of manhood and in the fullness of power. In the exercise of his great office morally and otherwise, without going out of his way, he might have benefited the race. But although he had no special claim to the Negro's regard, yet his untimely taking off has been lamented by none more sincerely than by our race. In country, in town, in state, in every section, the Negro is broadly American. Nothing that concerns this country is foreign to him, but with all there is to discourage him, what is the outcome of such steady, magnificent devotion to duty? Geologists affirm that the wondrous chasm of Niagara is the creation of trickling drops of water during myriads of ages. In like manner, the fervent, unflagging patriotism of the Negro is slowly but surely crumbling away the granite of American prejudice to give him a permanent place in the national life of this country. A nation, the bulb of which comes of a race whose love of fair play is proverbial and goes with them into every land and clime, will be constrained in the end to recognize and confirm the merit the race is developing as a strong pillar in the edifice of state.

In the heat of that terrific contest at Waterloo where charge after charge of the imperial guard seemed likely to consign the fate of Europe to the absolute sway of the little Corsican, Wellington exclaimed, to such of his staff as still remained around him, "Hot pounding this, gentlemen." But the day was at last won, and the endangered constitutional liberty of Europe leaped forth from the sea of blood, to inspire man with new hope and aspiration. As a race, we are struggling for life. Our hopes and fears are trembling in the balance against might, power, and moss-covered prejudices. A continuous pounding, directed by the impulse of a will to do, dare and succeed, will bring us victory.

But, says the carping critic, if the Negro were less patient, forbearing and more combative, if he risked less for country, and gloried more in deeds of heroism for his personal defense, he would lie truer to his self-preservation. Other races placed in condition quite similar to the Negroes have tried the experiment, and failed. They opposed simple brute force to intelligence, and they went down in the contest either to extinction or to servitude. The Britons gave way to Saxon numbers and tougher sinews, the latter bent the neck to Norman intelligence, bided their time and brought the victor down to an equality of rights and privileges. If the Negro should attempt another way, he would soon be undone.

ADAPTABILITY TO ENVIRONMENTS.

Again the adaptability of the race to environments constitutes one of the means of his endurance. In servitude as in freedom, no conditions have yet been so vigorous that the negro has not been able to adjust himself with ease. Indeed, it is not a figure of speech to assert that wherever he has suffered the most, there he has given the best proof of his vitality. His acquisition of wealth, his possession of material means in general, has been most rapid in parts where he has most obstacles to confront and encounter. He not only laughs at his misfortunes, but turns them to account. When he is ground down beyond the point of greatest resistance, he leaves for new and untried regions, with a radiant hope for a better fate. He goes to the semi-arctic lands of the West, readily becomes domesticated, and so insinuates himself into the hard, prosaic customs of the country that he at once becomes, in so far as he is not debarred from the rules of labor organizations, a sharp competitor with the wage-earner in the strife for bread. His blood has no lazy microbes to dam the current of its movement. Assure him of reasonable compensation, and his brawny arm is bared to the pick and the mattox. His ax and hoe and plow drag out wealth from mine and soil.

ACTIVE EVERYWHERE.

Wherever his lot is cast, there he enters with zest into the live sentiment of the community. No thought born of enterprise within the scope of his comprehension, no undertaking to enhance the common wealth fail to enlist his good will. He will at least talk for it and praise it, even if he has not a cent to invest. However limited by industrial conditions to few and humble ways of acquiring a livelihood, his scanty earnings are on the market to give healthy circulation to the arteries of trade. Merchants welcome him to open doors, and small dealers meet him with graceful smiles knowing he has come to apply the move-on ordinance to the jingling coin in his pocket. In church and school, in the pulpit and on the rostrum, his desire to fall in with the prevailing spirit to promote the betterment of the community, is equally pronounced.

Take as a sample the spirit of the race to absorb elevating influence from the dominant class. The African Methodist Episcopal Church is a race organization which justly challenges the admiration of every one of us no matter of what creed or sect. A race which in about one generation from a condition of base servitude can be so lively to a sense of its spiritual wants and the public weal as to advance enough to create such an organization is no mean factor in any age or country. In the show of this receptive capacity, it declares its eternal fitness to live and thrive under the blaze of the most searching civilization in the history of the world.

Take moreover, the many worthy bodies founded in the last quarter of a century for moral, mental and social elevation. All these have been inspired by the thought that if the race would hold its own, it must emulate the spirit of the country and age in which it lives.

Truly, if our coming to this land was involuntary, the genius of our being has built a home which can only be abandoned at our own will.

THE END.

I am admonished that this paper must come to a close. I am compelled to omit even by mere mention many of the exemplary virtues of the race. I have, however, touched on just enough to furnish the enquiring mind with deductions. Even the pessimist is constrained to admit that, under the circumstances, as a whole, the race has made a remarkable record, and that chiefly, because of the qualities with which he is endowed. Many historic races who have dominated mankind, made less rapid progress than we, at the point we have reached. This remarkable advancement may be ascribed in the main to the superior attributes which give us a flexible and well balanced temperament.

The hardships the race undergoes in this period of development constitute the necessary training school and the virtues which spring thence are intended as much for the betterment of the other race as for our own. We are to soften their stern qualities, while our life is to take on some of the iron of their soul.

That our nature will be largely modified by the necessities of our growth must be an accepted fact, but our merit, worth and fitness in American life will substantially be the product of our qualities as they are to-day. The past gives us assurance of glorious possibilities to come. Just how far and to what extent we are to realize the fruition of our cherished dreams of rising to the full height of honorable manhood vests chiefly with us. God has endowed us with the capacity to suffer and undergo the trials incident to race development. If we can recognize the need for this training, severe though it be, if we do not chafe and fume and fret and get angry because our deliverance has not come, we may well be comforted in the meanwhile that any device of man to deny us a share in the government of a common heritage in this land consecrated by heaven to suffering humanity, will prove a complete failure.