RESUME

INTRODUCTION

The following writers scarcely need an introduction. They have all made their mark in the upbuilding of their race, some of them attaining international reputation. We have spared neither time nor expense in selecting them for this book, as to differences in age, the amount of Negro blood, and other striking physical and mental contrasts.

The student of human nature will find in them a variety in thought and mental make-up, both pleasing and profitable to pursue. They touch upon nearly every subject we discuss in this work:

Beginning with the ripe, scholarly minister, Rev. John H. White, D. D., whose essay corresponds with our first chapter. Next comes Dr. James Shepard on "Prejudice," followed by an "Optimistic View," by a not less cultured gentleman, Prof. Davis, very different in physical and mental characteristics. Then comes an interesting paper, giving a general survey, by Prof. William Pickens, the rising young linguist, unlike either of the preceding writers. Without either writer knowing what the next one will say, or who the next one will be, James E. Mc

Girt, the magazine editor and writer on economy, picks up a thread where Prof. Pickens drops it, and says just what the reader would expect him to say to complete an argument.

No one will fail to note the next writer, who says just what he wants to say without "beating about the bush"-Bishop Alexander Walters, the fearless soldier of truth and justice, the recognized leader of the Afro-American people. The little leaven he puts into his paper is so powerful, it leavens a whole lump of readers. And right at his heels comes a little brown woman, in the person of Anna D. Borden, a fearless and outspoken woman of the Negro race. Though small and delicate physically, she is a veritable bundle of energy, surpassing nearly every other woman who has ever stood for the uplift and liberty of womanhood. Following this lady comes Sophia Cox Johnson, giving a graphic description of how the Negro woman is advancing right in the heart of the Black Belt.

Next we meet with a pleasant surprise in the department of logical reasoning, flowing from the magnetic pen of that able, fascinating, forceful writer of the A. M. E. Zion Church, Bishop J. W. Smith. No man or woman, with any mental capacity whatever, can escape this writer, without being seriously impressed with the truth of his arguments.

Following Bishop Smith we meet with another writer of natural ability, Rev. J. W. Wood, whose wonderful oratory-is heard in one of the largest and most cultured churches on the Gulf coast, which he is pastoring at the present time. His view of the race question is in harmony with our idea of human evolution. He has had broad experience both North and South, and he testifies to the fact, we so often reiterate in this book, that the cultured and educated of both races, and not the lower element, will eventually bring about social equality between the races.

J. J. H.

THE FOOTPRINTS OF THE HAMITIC OR NEGRO RACE IN HISTORY

BY JOHN H. WHITE, D. D.

(Contributed for this book.)

A certain writer said "That the best evidence of a race's being on earth is the mark left behind in the wake of its tread." Historians differ as to the origin of the Negro or Black Race, that is, the modern historians of the American and English, and, to some extent, the German schools; but we leave them with profound pity to their