SPEECHES & WRITINGS FILE Third Address to the National Association of Colored Women, July 1901 Third Address to the National Association of Colored Women Delivered in Buffalo, N.Y. 1901 - Five years ago the N.A.C.W. was an experiment. Tonight it is a magnificent success. In July 1896 this organization was considered a possibility perhaps and a probability at best. Tonight it is a living, breathing, beautiful reality. Five years ago our most sanguine friends had a sigh in the heart, a tear in the voice and an awesome solemnity about them when they ventured to express the hope that the baby which had been christened in Washington as the National Association of Colored Women might live and thrive. Tonight the trained and physicians who make specialty and are authorities of children's disease and growth [development] declare that this baby has passed the danger period in an infant's life and has developed into a vigorous, active, healthy child- took that there where prophets of evil who in July 1896 who predicted horoscope of [that] the National Association and [who] solemnly assured us that it would shortly [soon] die a [natural] speedy death. Thus after intently studying the soothsayers reported [saw the stars] that it would not even have the pleasure of wasting away gradually by a lingering disease but the signs indicated that it would 6- After all what you women propose to do is often asked us- The question is sometimes addressed in a tone which clearly implies that the inquirer expects the woman catechised to be covered with confusion and put to naught_ From the first the N. A. has striven to awaken in our women a stronger desire than they had previous to the organization to help themselves and it has tried to show in how many ways its is possible to help those those whom it was their duty to uplift. If we [settle? we believe?]. The conviction had been growing for many ? the eyes of the women of a race are once opened to the dangers which lurk in certain practices & habits particular to people whose conditions are similar to our own that the battle against such vices or faults would be already half won. But how can the women be reached most quickly and most directly was the question- It was perfectly clear from the first that all classes and kinds women be reached most quickly and influenced most directly [through an organization like the Association than in any other way- The great majority of the colored women of this country the power lying in organization] has until the National Association was established a sealed book. Here and there few with clearer vision than their less illumined sisters saw the advantage which a consolidation of forces could insure and they endeavored to effect a union. Their efforts were not without effect and the association was indebted to them for blazing the path But as earnest and as unremitting as were their efforts it was not until the N.A. was 2 be carried off suddenly by some some ailment which would do its deadly work of destruction in a time. But the[se] people who expected to see the National Association of Colored Women whisked off this mundane sphere by galloping consumption ir its twin sister must acknowledge the story played a trick on them tonight that their power of damnation failed them for once, since the child whose early demise (had been) was foretold is the liveliest corpse they saw. For the growth and development of the N.A. all who were interested in the welfare of the race must be devoutly thankful. (The interested in all good work) As we consider the Negros present status and scan his future there is no sign of and the cheerful [ ] hopeful as their zeal for all good work developed by our women with which they busy themselves to accomplish it, (are the most hopeful signs of the Negro's present status) The more civilization advances, the more clearly is it demonstrated that women by their influence and example make or mar the home, which is simply another way of saying that the moral status of a people depends to a large extent upon its women since the polity and principles of a Nation are but reflections to a greater or less degree of the practices and the precepts of its homes. The responsibility resting upon all women therefore is serious and great. But upon none does duty call more loudly for An account of the work that they did some years back the N. A. has been able to show our women how organized that colored women all over the country to make a practical application of a theory which we had [realized what a power for good] they could be known for a long time namely that an individual is [theoretically they had known for years that] What was a sealed book to colored women a few years [individuals are weak and that combinations of individuals] of such ago is now as plain as the alphabet. [is strong but they had not applied it directly to themselves. [a great ex.] The N. A. has [taught] succeeding in teaching the lesson that upon union of strength and oneness of purpose hangs for us as women all the law and the prophets. Isolated from each other in sympathy, divided in thought and separated in purpose we shall be as sounding brass and a inkling cymbal, but [in] with community of interest and solidarity of plan all things are possible to us. We have learned a lesson from that grand organization of women to whose unremitting zeal, continual agitation against unjust restrictions purposed upon the weaker sex and heroic self sacrifice every woman in this land as well as in those beyond the sea is indebted for the [*various opportunities offered her*] privileges she enjoyed. While as colored women we are heirs to some of the rich legacy which their powers in the cause of women bequeathed us we are still cheated out of so much of our inheritance by injustice & [pra?] that it so just necessary for us to contend against injustice and battle with wrong as it for our sisters of the dominant race then sixty years ago. 3 active service and cheerful sacrifice than upon the colored women upon this country from the very nature of the case. The greater the ignorance, the greater the degradation of the masses, the harder should the more favored portions strive to illumine the minds and improve the morals of those who it is in their power to aid. It is therefore occasion for congratulation and reason [*a ground*] for hope that the women of the most ill conditioned race in this country are keenly alive to the duties which rest upon them and are eager to discharge their obligations well. As an exponent of the earnestness and effectiveness of colored women the Na. Assoc. is not only a refutation of the charge that as a race colored people do little or nothing to help themselves, but it is also a solid foundation upon which to build bright hopes for more brilliant achievements in the future. [*When we*] Considering the obstacles which the N.A. has had to overcome in order to establish itself from [both within because of lack of experience and want of means, and without because of lack of hearty support.] [ly?] and render the service which it has actually done there is every reason why we should defy failure and banish fear. Having aimed at the stars five years ago, the height to which we have already ascended may seem insignificant & slight. Some may be discouraged tonight because [we found ourselves to night only] comparatively speaking we are only on the brow of a low lying hill. 8 On general principles what has been said concerning union is good, you say, but what tangible thing have you to show as a result of your organization, this union among col women? Come with me to various cities and towns throughout the North, South, East & West and you may see for yourself what has been done. Let me conduct you for the [Mothers] Meetings held by our women who are lending all their energy to improve the mental and moral condition of the home. Some of them are mothers whose hearts are heavy with burdens rolled their by an unrelenting injustice which makes it difficult for their children and provide for their future as they should. How shall we train them in order to make them self respecting, honorable men and women they ask with so much to discourage & degrade them How shall we counteract the effect of the Trades Unions? In spite of the cruel mandates [of the trades unions] which in driving our boys from so many gainful occupations doom them either to poverty or crime, how shall we prepare them to earn an honest living and thus save them from lives of shame? How shall we protect our girls? How shall we best inculcate lessons of virtue and habits of thrift? These and other questions are being asked in meetings held largely through the instrumentality of the N.A. by our women with [such] an earnestness & intensity of soul [as though] that would lead one to exultude the happiness [of their] [?] staked upon the reply. 4. But before the judgment is passed upon the progress made, the efforts required to reach the position occupied must be balanced and weighed. Greater exertion and more redoubtable courage are necessary to clamber only half way up the steep and rugged side of some mountains than to scale the summits of others. It would be impossible to even approximate just how much more might have been accomplished by Association than can be placed to our account, but there is no doubt that the efforts to extend its sphere of usefulness which have been put forth by some of our active workers would have been crowned with richer success, if conditions peculiar to our race had not deprived them of so much power and force. We have been handicapped from within because of lack of experience & lack of means and from without because [our ability] grave doubts of lack of hearty support existed as to our ability. We have had to overcome the inertia of some of our brainiest and most reliable women it could be made a success [who though] they saw how much could be done by a national organization. [yet doubted] They did not believe that we had yet reached that stage of development where they doubt so seriously we cd yet such union and cooperation could be effected among, that it has been difficult to persuade them to join us, and some even now can scarcely believe the evidence of their own eyes. Though the N.A. has not escaped the criticism of which all good things and worthy people are sometimes the victims, its progress 9 [They are asked in] Mothers Meetings [have] established through the instrumentality of the ass. [and to teach] will be the [will be] means of salvation to many a child. [who call with the benefits of the broadened] If you go with me to New Orleans, I shall show you a monument to the industry, the charity and the self sacrifice of a handful of colored women. It is a sanitarium with a training school for nurses which was founded & secure for colored patients such attention and such apartments in their illness as could not be obtained in any public hospital of the city. In Memphis Tenn you will see a large plot of ground which has been purchased by the colored women of that city who intend to erect upon it an Old Folks Home. In [Colored women] St Louis Mo, you might behold colored women industriously working to raise money enough to found a Children's Home. In Chicago you would find Colored Women engaged in various works of reform, some of them among their unfortunate sisters whom a vicious environment has dragged into the mire of vice; others among the needy whom their charity and generosity relieve, some among the parents of the pupils of the public schools who are urged to circulate in the home the lessons that are taught in 5 has not been greatly impeded thereby. The world is growing wiser as it grows older. [We are beginning] We not longer had weighed ourselves about those unfortunately constructed mortals in the balance and found those wanting whose eyes are bolden so they can only see the bad though it is no bigger than a mustard seed are always peeled for the bad and whose tongues wag ever in blame but never in praise. They were weighed long ago in the balance and found both wanting and worthless. While the sharp tongued critics have done us but little harm, we have suffered considerably from the doubts and fears of the timid who [might have added] have been dismayed by the syllogisms of some of our profound philosophers. With an air of superior wisdom these learned men have looked at us over their glasses and declared in sepulchral tones that such and effects are always produced by such and such a cause. Everybody who has made a study of women knows that nothing can so easily rout a whole army of them and put them to flight as sound reason & stern logic uttered by wiseacres of the male persuasion who have the alpha and omega of all knowledge. While the Association as a whole has not attempted to reply to these points [?] or attempts, it has gone ahead on its infallible intuition. But many of their women who could not answer these arguments in kind have simply gone ahead on their intuition and to night [they can prove conclusively] it is able to that one ounce of an earnest, hinest efforts to do good with the small means at hand is worth more a pound counts for more [than logic] of logic or the abstract. 10 the schools. In these and various other activities and charities our women are actively engaging, because they are feeling more and more a sense of responsibility for the ill favored and the unfortunate of their race - and what has so aroused their interest and stirred their hearts. Those who have seen the glowing eye and the eager enthusiasm of the women who have attended our meetings in the past ;as the needs of the race were discussed and the means of meeting them suggest & hold some idea of the source from which this ever increasing zeal springs. We must cherish the N.A. therefore as the apple our eye - From the attacks of its enemies we must valiantly defend it. Between in the Scylla of public criticism and the Charybdis of internal strife [ridicule] we must steer it straigter & the haven of progress toward which we have already sailed so far - It will be unavoidable perhaps that differences of opinion may arise among us, but so long as we are intent upon the good for which we are bonded together [and keep the object view] and are chained like one to the other there need be no fear of dissolution that we shall be torn asunder by [*disunion & strife*]. The society whose members are wise and honest enough to bow to the will of the majority may stand as firm and grow as old as the rock 11 ribbed and ancient hills. But woe betide that organization which numbers in its fold even a few of those high handed individuals who know no law but their own will. Verily it has a mill stone tied to its neck which when the views of discussion and difference roll [the least bit] high will prevent it from reaching a shore of safety but will drag it to the bottom of the sea. The Father Omnicient has made his wisdom & experience teach that this dissimilarity extends to the brain creatures so to differ one from the other physically that no two are alike. It is folly [to suppose] therefore to expect perfect unanimity of opinion even among a few individuals that to suppose that [mentally] they should all agree- who are equally intelligent and good. It would be a great pity if we all thought alike for we should soon find ourselves in the monotonous calm of stagnation instead of being borne rapidly on by the stiff breeze of progress. Difference of opinion in an organization [*is*] should be only a sign of healthful development and growth when its members are amenable to law and are generous enough to credit those who can not subscribe to their views with the same honesty of purpose to which they themselves profess. In the past the N.A. has been greatly blessed in that the members as a rule have exhibited this spirit of tolerance 12 with those who differed with them. As long as this is true we need never fear that our beloved Association will be destroyed. But its death knell is sounded the day when the minority attempts to coerce the majority into adopting their plans. If ever the reproach is hurled at the Association that there is bickering and dissatisfaction in its ranks because in using their god given powers of reason some of the members fail to reach the conclusion arrived at by others, or disagree as to the wisdom of certain plans proposed, let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid. In laying down the presidency of the N.A. [at night] this convention I can congratulate it heartily upon the harmony which has existed in its ranks. If there has been a ripple or so upon the [otherwise] surface of the otherwise placid stream of our existence the little eddies spent their force long before they were able to harm. The Assn have been active and effective in the past, but it must redouble its energy in order to do that which it is possible for it to accomplish in the future. The world has a right to expect far greater things of us in the five years to come than we have achieved in the past. There are many things to which we must attend. 13 Our Constitution [should be carefully amended studied so] deserves a more careful & prayerful [make or] consideration than it has yet been received. If it contains there [dangers] are provisions dangerous [*inimical*] to the highest interests of the Association they must be eliminated, and we must also add [if by adding to the] to those already made, if the usefulness and efficiency of the Association will be increased thereby. Would that all the work which lies before us were so easily accomplished as that pertaining to the constitution. How large and varied a field usefulness lies before us only those know who are conversant with our needs and who see how few there are to minister to them. As long as there is a system in this country, which for a trivial offence, drags men and women of our race into cells, [the cubic contents of] whose air space at night is less than the cubic contents of a good sized grave, there is something for thoughtful, charitable colored women to do. As long as hundreds of colored children are born in the Convict Camps of the South, and breathe the polluted atmosphere of crime and disease from the time they utter their first cry in the world till they are released from its horrors by death, [it is wicked forces to be] idleness on our part is crime How can we be happy in our own homes, when we know that for petty larceny, colored men 14 and women [receive] are sentenced in some of these southern states for lives for they sent to these camps for 10 yrs and it is a matter of record that convicts can not live in some of these camps longer than ten years - Shall we remain silent in the face of such inhumanity - and injustice - Can we not as colored women arouse the conscience of the country against this great wrong? The joy and pride we experience in the moral rectitude of our own daughters must be allayed with a certain sorrow and shame, if we do nothing for the girls of other women who are ruined because of lax laws, which we should expose to the world, and the loose sentiments in some sections no penalty is attached to the destruction of a colored girls. It is our duty to denounce [Shall we not] expose the laxity with which the laws enacted [executed, against] to protect womankind are executed in some sections, when the victim is a colored girl - Silence is sometimes golden, but the silence which seals the lips of colored women so that they fail to expose [in which as colored women we cultivate] the snares set & the temptations laid for the destruction of our girls is nothing less than sin - While as long as the daughters of our less fortunate sisters are being sacrificed to the lack of funds libertines in human form who know what they can sin with impunity, we should try to educate [reform] the public opinion [sentiment] of those sections - which in winking at these crimes against nature of colored girls is to a large extent responsible for them. You can make no impression, upon the 13 judge and the jury who execute the laws, says some one, I am also reminded that moulding public opinion is rather a herculean task for colored women to undertake, since public sentiment is made by the stronger not the weaker element in a community and colored women belong to the weaker. It is hard to raise the moral standard of a people who during 250 years of slavery were schooled to look complacently upon the wholesale prostitution of the women on the enslaved race - We can agitate and plead and argue our case even though we are a helpless, weak minority [majority] - No great revolution in public sent was ever wrought which [except] was not started by this same helpless weak minority - By dispassionate appeals to the reason and the charity of those whose eyes they tried to open, whose hearts they essayed to touch, this weak minority has become a triumphant majority [in time]. We are here to night no longer bowed but free, because ]what was once] only a handful of earnest men and women once concluded against the slavery of human beings with such unremitting zeal and [a] noble heroism that [until] thousands were who were either taken [?] or [?] added to their ranks converted to the cause of freedom['s] triumphed. [cause and the] Let us exert ourselves to mould public sentiment, and not plead weakness or inability - It is better 16 to try and fail than not to try at all. Last winter a colored woman was expected of knowing something about a pocket book containing a sum of money which had been found by her brother. The brother could not be [found] apprehended so the mob seized the woman, riddled her with shot and threw her body into the river. [Shall] It is a reproach to us, we her sisters, sit in calm serenity at our own firesides without trying to secure for those less fortunate than ourselves that same protection of the law which we ourselves enjoy? How can we hope to stamp out lynching, you say It is rooted and grounded in the my fibre of the country and is spreading rapidly any every day. But the magnitude of a wrong does not excuse those who are it's victims from pulling forth strenuous efforts to crush it. Who should inveigh against the injustice perpetrated upon our race, if not, its intelligent women? Hundreds of colored children all over the country are being reared in hot beds of vice and sin, whose ideas are the amoral degenerates and criminals with whom they come in daily contact. How can we clasp to our bosom our own darlings, with unhappiness unmixed with pain if we do nothing to rescue those [whom] unfortunate little mites whom it is our duty to 17 save? How easy it is for the women of every organization in the association to become ministering angels to children who are helpless, or lamps to the feet of those whose little lives are shrouded in the darkness of ignorance and sin. It is easy enough to suggest these Utopian schemes you say. But how can Kindergartens and Day Nurseries be established without money. As colored women are comparitively poor. Dollars and cents also are essential to the successful prosecution of any work of reform and where are they coming from? In working for children it is amazing how much can be done without a large outlay of money. Have you ever observed with what comparitive ease money is raised for any object in which we are interested heart and soul.[When the heart has been] So long as lack of employment forces colored youth to loaf or commit crime, shall not the wives, mothers, daughters and sisters shout plead for justice and knock at the gates of labor until those who have closed them shall open them unto us. We must not try to escape the [responsibility ourselves] [?] which we should strive in this matter. For there is no doubt [that much of the opposition with which we meet in the world of labor is due to] the careless shiftless methods of poorly equipped workmen [who] have brought the 18 whole race with disrepute. Let us sound the note of warning and raise the ideals of our wage earners. [We ourselves be void of offense} Evils in the home must be corrected. Many [of the] families [who] are huddled together in a single apartment, men, women and children without regard to age or sex. Some would make an effort to improve their manner of living if they could be brought home to a [practical] realizing some of their degradation instructed how to [remedy] decrease the most of objectionable features with the small means at their command. Round about Tuskegee this is being done. The women are taught how to partition their own room huts by means of sheets or quilts and how to construct [bath [?] out of the] wash stands out of boxes and how convert wash tubs into bath tubs According to statistics compiled by men who would not be inclined to make a mistake in the favor of colored women, immorality among us is not so great as among women similarly situated in several foreign lands. This is highly encouraging and speaks volumes for the [innate] virtues of colored women [when the [?]] from personal observation and comparisons I believe that there are as few scandals in the families of colored people who have had the advantage of education and training as there are among other races of the same degree of intelligence & culture. 19 There is still much left for us to do in purifying the social atmosphere. The condemnation of Men who transgress the moral law must be insisted [*punished severely*]upon [as vigorously and] ostracized socially as inevitably as the [disgrace of] the women whom they destroy, if we would be true to ourselves & protect our girls. All this and much more than this must be done, if as a race we would shake off the faults & sins which handicap us and set our faces toward the ideals which it should be our aim to reach. Who can better raise the standards of right thinking and correct living better than the women of the race? In the home, in the church, in the school, in social functions, we wield an influence which can be made either a lever to uplift or a stumbling block to hinder. [the whole race] Members of the Association, you see your duty, and I believe you will do it. Talk not of failure. With hands clasped and hearts united we can not fail, though the all the task of Satan were arrayed against us. Right will prevail, though wrong may conquer for a time. Take courage. Let neither height depth nor any other creature turn us aside from their goal. Looking through smoked glasses at the world in general and that which concerns the race in particular is a contagious disease 20 which kills. It destroys hope and by hope we are saved says St. Paul. As far as possible look upon the bright side of our status rather than upon the dark. Consider our [past] the achievements in all departments of art, literature, the success in [the] finance, the progress along all lives under such discouraging circumstances which the negro has made in 30 yrs instead of doubting his ability to stem the tide which has set against him. Can you tell me any great thing which was ever accomplished by a morbid misanthrope or a chronic pessimist? We can better uplift the fallen if we are buoyed up by hope of their regeneration than if we are weighed down with despair of their everlasting condemnation. If we are grateful for opportunities offered and the advantages already gained, we shall have all the more right to look the world square in the face and ask for more than it has bestowed. Let hope be our watchword, constant improvement our aim, and [toil] work, honest unremitting [skillful] labor the corner stone of our creed. Without hope we can accomplish nothing. Dante's idea of hell as a place from which hope is excluded. Learn all hope ye who enter here, was written over the portrals of the region into which 21. the wicked were sent because of their sins. By refusing to entertain hope, let us not make of this fair earth a hell. Let us be enthusiastic in our work. A halfhearted lackadaisical Nothing can destroy an organization so quickly as [deprive it of pow] the halfhearted support of it's members. In a great man has recently declared that One who ever plan is good far better is the man who can stimulate. History affords at every turn some impregnable fortress that was a despair of the wise & prudent, but was carried by some enthusiast with a rush. What we need therefore is a goodly number of women who are not only earnest & hopeful but who are full of enthusiasm for the work which the N A of col women is longing to do and who can inspire others in the sections [?] with their whole heart & soul. So long as the Negros record from 1865 till the present day is acknowledged to be a fact we can not say the day of miracles is past [can not]. It will not make us happier and enable us to do more and better work if we are buoyed up by hope but it is a spare ingratitude for a race which has come through such as trials & tribulations as those shown we have [has] been returned when we think of the slavery from which we were triumphant and tramped under toward the condition [in we have been from a state whose horrors no tongue here can describe & whose degradation can tongue can tell and which has since made such rapid strides] toward the highest & best things in life & be better to some, and highest & best things in life which we have wherein the short space of 40 yrs nothing less than bask in gratitude for us to refuse & growl. Third Address to the National Association of Colored Women. Delivered in Buffalo, New York, 1901. July 8th to 14th Five years ago the National Association of Colored Women was an experiment. To night it is a magnificent success. In July 1896 this organization was considered a possibility, perhaps and a probability at best. Tonight it is a living, breathing, beautiful reality. Five years ago our most sanguine friends had a sigh in the heart, a tear in the voice and an awesome solemnity about them when they ventured to express the hope that the baby which had been christened in Washington as the National Association of Colored Women might live and thrive. Tonight the trained nurses and physicians who make a spcialty of children's diseases and growth declare that this baby has passed the dangerous period in an infant's life and has developed into a vigorous, active child. There were prophets of evil who in July, 1896 [predicted that] horoscoped the National Association and solemnly assured us that it would soon die a speedy death. After intently studying the stars these soothsayers reported that it would not even have the pleasure of wasting away gradually by a lingering disease, but the signs indicated that it would be carried off suddenly by some ailment which would do its deadly work of destruction in a trice. But the prophets who expected to see the National Association whisked 2 prophets of evil who expected to see the National Association of Colored Women whisked off this mundane sphere by galloping consumption or its twin sister must admit not that the stars played a trick upon them and for once their power of divination failed, for this child whose speedy demise was foretold is the liveliest corpse they ever saw. For growth and development of the National Association of Colored Women all who are interested in the welfare of the race must be devoutly thankful. The more civilization advances, the more clearly is it demonstrated that women by their influence make or mar the home. This is simply another way of saying that the moral status of a people depends to a large extent upon the women. For the policy and the principles of a nation are but reflections of the practices and the precepts of its home. The responsibility resting upon all women therefore, is serious and great. But upon none does duty call more loudly for active service and cheerful sacrifice than upon the colored women of this country from the very nature of the case. The denser the ignorance, and the greater the degradation of the masses of a people, the harder should the more favored portions strive to illumine the minds and improve the morals of those whom it is in their power to uplift. It is occasion for congratulation and ground for hope that the women of the poorest, the most illiterate and the most oppressed race in this country are keenly alive to the duties which rest upon them and are eager to discharge their obligations well. As an exponent of the earnestness and effectiveness of colored women the National Association is not only a refutation of the charge that as a race we do little or nothing to help ourselves, but it is a solid foundation upon which to build bright hopes for more brilliant achievements in the future. When we think of the [*[High School- 9th, 1oth, 11th, Divisions. Promoted From 2nd to 3rd Year-]*] 3 obstacles which the National Association has had to overcome and then consider the service which it has actually rendered, there is every reason why we should defy failure and banish fear. Having aimed at the stars five years ago, the height to which we have ascended may seem insignificant and small. But before judgment is passed upon the progress made, the effort required to reach the position occupied must be balanced and weighed. Greater exertion and more redoubtable courage are necessary to clamber only half way up the steep and rugged side of some mountains than to scale the summits of others. It would be impossible to approximate how much more might have been accomplished by the Association than can be placed to its account to night, if conditions peculiar to the race had not existed. There is no doubt that the well directed efforts to increase its sphere of usefulness which have been put forth by some of our most active workers, instead of being deprived of much of their power and force, would, under other circumstances, have been crowned with far richer success. We have been handicapped from within on account of lack of experience and lack of means. It has also been necessary to overcome the inertia of some of our brainiest and most reliable women. They saw clearly how much good might be accomplished by a national organization of colored women, but they did not believe that we had yet reached that stage in our development where such a thing was possible. So seriously did they doubt that union and cooperation among us could be effected that it has been difficult to persuade them to join us and tonight they can scarcely believe the evidence of their own eyes. Though the National Association has not entirely escaped the criticism, of which all good things and worthy people are sometimes the victims, its progress has not been greatly impeded thereby. The world no longer frets itself about those unfortunately constructed mortals, whose eyes are holden, so that the good which is done, they cannot see, even when it rises like a mountain 4 before them, but whose optics would put to blush the powerful magnifying glass in a first rate microscope, when it comes to detecting the bad, even though it is no larger than a mustard seed. The world has also weighed in the balance and found wanting the chronic faultfinders, whose tongues wag ever in blame, but never in praise. Though the Association has not suffered to any great extent from criticism, it has been seriously affected by the doubts and fears of the timid. Not only have the astrologers and the prophets of evil paid their respects to us, but the Association has been the victim of philosophers as well, and their syllogisms have almost scared some of our women to death. With an air of superior wisdom they have looked over their glasses at us and declared with great profundity that such and such effects always follow such and such a cause. Ergo this and therefore the other, the conclusion of the whole matter being that since the National Association was not pursuing the course which they had advised, it would speedily come to naught. Everybody who has made a special study of womankind knows that there are only two things in the world which will rout a whole army of them and put them to flight in a trice. One of them is a poor little mouse and the other is the cold reason and stern logic of logicians and philosophers of either the male or the female persuasion, who are considered the alpha and omega of all wisdom. The National Association has not wasted much time in trying to answer, either seriatim or otherwise, the points raised against it by the philosophers and logicians, but it has gone right on, relying upon woman's infallible intuition which teaches her to find a way or to make it. The success of this organization is another proof of the fact that an ounce of honest, earnest effort to do good with the small means at hand is worth more than a pound of logic and a ton of philosophy in the abstract. After all what do you women propose to do? is a question which is frequently asked. 5 Should I attempt to answer this in detail, I should take more of your time than it is right for me to consume. The national Association has striven from the very first to implant in our women a stronger desire to help themselves than they had previous to its organization. For many years the conviction had been growing upon our more thoughtful women that if the eyes of the women of the race were opened to the dangers lurking in certain practices and habits, peculiar to all peoples, whos condition in life is similar to our own that the battle against them would be already half won. But how shall the women be most quickly reached and most directly influenced was the question. Some of our women whose vision was clearer than that of their less illuminated sisters declared that there was only one way to answer this question and that was by organizing them all over the country. Though they themselves were unable to carry this suggestion into execution, their efforts in this direction were not without avail. The idea of consolidation of forces started to take root. After a short while our women began to make practical application of knowledge which they had possessed theoretically for a long time - namely that a single individual is weak but a combination of individuals is strong. The National Association has not only succeeded in implanting in our women a stronger desire to help themselves, but it has demonstrated to them that upon union of forces and oneness of purpose hangs for us as colored women all the law and the prophets. Isolated from each others sympathy, separated in thought and divided in purpose, we shall be as sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal, but with community of interests and solidarity of plan all things are possible to us. We have learned a valuable lesson from that great organization of women, to whose unremitting zeal, constant agitation against unjust restrictions imposed upon the weaker sex, and to whose heroic self sacrifice every woman in this country and many beyond the seas are indebted for opportunities offered and priviliges enjoyed. While we too have fallen heirs to some 6 of the rich legacy bequeathed us by the pioneers in women's cause, we are cheated out of so much of our inheritance on account of the prejudice, that it is just as necessary for us to contend against injustice and battle with wrong as it was for our more favored sisters sixty years ago. On general principles what is stated about union is true, you say, but have you anything tangible to show us as the result of this union among colored women? Come with me to many cities and towns throughout the North, East, South and West, and you may see for yourself what has been accomplished. Let me conduct you to meetings held by our women, who are bending all their energy to improve the mental and moral tone of the home. Some of them are mothers, whose hearts are heavy with burdens rolled there by an unrelenting prejudice which makes it difficult for them to rear their children and provide for their future as they should. With so much to degrade and discourage our boys and girls, how we shall train them to become self respecting men and women? In spite of the cruel mandate of the Trades Unions, which is driving our boys from so many of the gainful occupations, how shall we prepare to make an honest living and thus save them from lives of shame? How shall we protect our girls? How shall we best inculcate lessons of virtue and instill habits of thrift? These and other questions are being asked by our women with an intensity and earnestness which seem to indicate that the very happiness of their lives depends upon a satisfactory reply. These mothers meetings which have been established largely through the instrumentality of the National Association have already done a vast amount of good, but will yet be the means of salvation to many a child. If you will go with me to New Orleans, La. I shall show you a monument to the industry, the self sacrifice. and the courage of a handful of colored women. It is a sanitarium with a training school for nurses. It was established, so that our young women might learn the profession of nursing the sick, and that 7 colored patients who are able to pay might secure suitable, private apartments during their illness, a thing which could be obtained by them in no hospital in the city. In Memphis Tenn. you may stand upon a plot of ground, which has been purchased and every cent of it paid for by the colored women of that city, who intend to erect upon it soon an Old Folks Home. In St. Louis Mo. you may behold colored women industriously striving to found a Childrens Home. In Chicago you will see our women engaged in various works of reform. Some of them among their unfortunate sisters whom a vicious environment has dragged into the mire of vice; some among the poor and needy, whom their charity relieves; some among careless and unworthy parents of the children of the public schools who are being urged to inculcate in the home the lessons which are taught in the school. In these and various other activities and charities our women are earnestly engaging, because they are feeling more and more a deep responsibility for the unfortunate and the illfavored of the race. What has so aroused their interest and stirred their hearts Those who have seen the glowing eye and the eager enthusiasm of the women, who have attended our meetings in the past have some idea of the source from which all this zeal springs. We must cherish the National Association of Colored Women as the apple of our eye. Between the Scylla of unjust criticism and the Charybdis of internal strife, we must steer it straight the haven of progress toward which we have already sailed so far. It will be unavoidable perhaps, that difference of opinion may arise among us from time to time, but so long as we are intent upon the good for which we are banded together, and are charitable one to the other, there need be no fear that our beloved organization will ever be torn asunder by dissension and strife. The society, whose members are wise and honest enough to bow to the will of the majority may live as long and grow as old as the rock-ribbed and ancient hills. But the organization which numbers in its folds even a few of those high-handed individuals who know no law but their own wills. 8 Verily it has a mill stone tied about its neck, which when the waves of discussion and difference run high will prevent it from reaching a shore of safety and may drag it to the bottom of the sea. The Father Omniscient has made his creatures so to differ from the other physically that no two are alike we are told. It is certain that the difference in the mental composition of the men is radical and pronounced. It is folly therefore to expect perfect unanimity of opinion among even a few individuals who are equally intelligent and equally good. It is impossible to secure such unanimity among many individuals who differ so widely one from the other in intellectual capacity, in environment and in the interest which they bear an organization to which they belong. It would be a pity, if we all thought alike, for we should soon find ourselves in the monotonous calm of stagnation instead of being borne rapidly along by the stiff breeze of progress. Difference of opinion in any organization is only a sign of healthful progress and growth, when the members abide by the law, and are generous enough to credit those who cannot subscribe to their views with the same honesty of purpose which they themselves profess. In using their God given powers of reason it is to be expected that some of the members of this Association will not reach conclusions arrived at by others, and some will not see the wisdom of plans to which others are willing to pin their faith., and they will be frank enough to say so. On this account critics who set up a standard of unanimity which no organization has ever reached may declare that there is so much dissatisfaction and bickering in our ranks that the Association does not deserve the support of good people. But let not your hearts be troubled, so long as the spirit of tolerance is exhibited by the members of the Association one toward another, when we cannot all think alike. In laying down the presidency of the Association which I have held for five years, I wish to congratulate you heartily upon the harmony which has thus far existed in your ranks., and I hope that peace may 9 over abide with us. [*Stop*] If a little ripple has appeared upon the placid steam of our existence, the little eddies have spent their force long before they were able to do any harm. The Association has been both earnest and effective in the past, but its members mist redouble their energy, in order to enable it to do all that it is possible for it to accomplish. in the future. The world has a right to expect far greater things of us in the five years to come than we have been able to achieve in the five years that are past, now that we are firmly established and are so much richer in experience. There are many thing to which we must attwnd. Our constitution deserves a more careful and a more prayerful consideration that it has yet received. If there are provisions in it, which are inimical to the highest interests of the Associate they must be eliminated. We must add to those already made, if after discussion of the matter we decide that its efficiency will be increased thereby. Would that all the work which lies before us were as easy of accomplishment as that pertaining to the consts tution. What a large and varied field of usefulness lies before us only those know who are conversant with our needs and see how few there are to minster them. As long as there is a system in the countr which for a trivial offence drags men and women of our race into cells, whose air space is less than the cubic contents of a good sized grave, there is something for thoughtful Charitable colored women to do. As long as hundred of colored children are born in the Convict Camps of the South, breathe the polluted atmosphere of disease and crime from the time they utter their first cry into the world, until they are released from its horrors by death, idleness on our part is sin. It is an established fact that colored people in some parts of the South are sentenced to penententiary for life for light transgressions of the law. That is they are sent to the Convict camp for ten years and more, and it is a matter of record that it is impossible for any human creature to live in some of these 10 camps longer than ten years, and only a few are able to endure their horrors so long. In the face of such injustice and inhumanity shall we remain silent? Shall we not try to arouse the conscience of the country against this great wrong? The joy and pride we experience in the moral rectitude of our own daughters must be alloyed with a certain sorrow and shame, if we do nothing to save the girls of other women, who are ruined, both because the temptations to which they are subjected are particularly great and because the men who wrong them know that they can escape punishment with ease. It is our duty to expose the laxity with which laws enacted to protect all womankind are executed, when the victim is a colored girl. Silence is sometimes golden, but the silence which seals the lips of colored women, so that they fail to expose the snares set and the temptation laid for their own girls is the baseset kind of dross. When we know that colored girls are sacrified to the lust of libertines who can sing against them with impunity, our duty is two fold. We should present the ugky facts to the public and we should do all in our power to change the public sentiment of those sections, which because it winks at the destruction of colored girls, is to a large extent responsible for it. Public sentiment is moulded by the stronger and not by the weaker element in society, you may say, and colored women certainly belong to the weaker. In this particular case, it will be difficult for the weaker element to raise the moral standard of that stronger which during two hubdred and fifty years of slavery was schooled to look complacently upon the wholesale prostitution of the women of the enslaved race. We can agitate, and plead our cause, however, even though we are a helpless, weak minority. No great revolution was ever wrought in the world, which was not started by this helpless, weak minority. By dispassionare appeals to the intelligence and the charity of those, whose eyes they tried to open, and whose hearts they strove to touch, this helpless, weak minority swelled into a triumphant majority at last. 11 We are here to night, no longer bond, but free, because only a handful of men and women contended against slavery with such zeal and desperate earnestness that the thousands who were hostile or lukewarm at first were converted to the cause of right, so that freedom finally triumphed in the land. Let us exert ourselves strenuously to mould public opinion in our favor, and let us plead neither inability not weakness as an excuse for our idlenexs. It is better to try and fail than not to try at all. Last winte a colored woman was suspected of knowing something about a pocket book containing a sum of money which her brother had found. The brother could not be apprehended, so the mob seized the woman, riddled her with bulletsand threw her body into the river. It is a reproach to us, her sisters if we sit incalm serenity at our own firesides without making an effort to secure for those less fortunate than ourselves the same protection of the law which we ourselves enjoy, No matter how earnest and courafgeous colred women are, they cannot hope to suppress lynching, you say. Lynching is spreading rapidly , and is taking a firmer hold upon t the people every day. But the magnitude of a wrong does not excuse those who see how heinous it is from trying to crush it, no matter how firm a hold upon the people it may have. It is too much to expect, of course, that colored women will be able to suppress l lynching soloely through the efforst which they themselves put forth. I believe a vast amount of good would be done, however, if colored woen petioned regularly the legislatures of those states in which lynchings occur most frequently. and should appeal to those in authority to throw around the colored criminal the same protection of the law which the white criminal enjoys. There is a crying need of kindergartens. Hundreds of colored children are reared in the hot beds of vice and sin, whose highest ideals are the criminals and the moral degenerates with whom they come in daily contact. When we clasp to our bosom our own little darlings can we do so with a happiness unmixed with pain, if we put 12 no effort to rescue these unfortunate little mites, some of whom it is in our power to save? How easy it would be for the women of every organization in the Association to become ministering angels unto the feet of children who ae helpless or lamps unto the feetof those whose little lives are shrouded in the darkness of ignorance and sin. It is easy enough for you to suggest these utopian schemes, some may say, but kindergartens cannot be establied without money and colored women are poor. Dollars and cents are necessary for the prosecution of any work of reform. It is amazing how much can be accomplished for the moral uplift of children with out the outlay of a large dum of money. Have you bot observed how easy it is to raise funds for any object in which you are interested heart and soul? As long as lack of employment forces our youth to idleness or crime, it is the duty of the wives, mothers, daughters, and sisters to plead for justice and knock at the gates of labor, until those who have closed them shall open them unto us. In discussing the labor question, let us look at the facts exaxtly as they are. Lrt us not try to shirk the responsibility which we ourselves should share, nor try to escape the blame which we ourselves should [share] fear. While it is true that it is difficult for us to secure employment in the majority of cases, because of the prejudice which rages so violently against us, rather than because of lack of skill on our part, there is no doubt that the careless shiftless methods of poorly equipped workmen have brought the whole race into disrepute. Let us sound the note of warning to our wage earners. Let us show them what a great injustice they do themxelves and what an irreparable injury they inflict upon the whole race, when they do not make themselves proficient in what ever trade or occupation in which they engage. Evils in the home must be corrected. In many instances whole families are huddled together ina single apartment without regard to age or sex. Some of these people would undoubtedly make an effort 13 to improve their manner of living, if they could be brought to a realizing sense of their own degradation and could be shown at the same time how to remove the most objectionable features with the small means at hand. This is being done to some extent round about Tuskegee, I have learned. The women are being taught how to partition off their one room huts with sheets and quilts, when nothing better can be procured, how to construct washstands out of dry goods boxes, and how to make wash tubs answer every purpose of the bath. According to statistics complied by men who would not be inclined to make a mistake in our favor, immorality among the masses of colored women is not so great as among women similarly situated in several foreign lands. Considering our past condition and the circumstances of the present in certain sections, this is highly encouraging. From personal observations and comparison I am persuaded that there are as few scandals in families of colored people who have had the advantages of an education and training as in families of other races of the same intelligence and culture. There is still much left for us to do however, if we would improve the social atmosphere. We must insist upon it that the men who transgress the moral law shall be punished as severely and banished from decent society as inevitably as are the women whom they destroy. if we would protect our girls and be true to ourselves. All of this and much more than this must be done, if as a race we wo would leave behind us the faults and shake off the sins which so seriously handicap us. Who can raise the standards of right living and correct thinking better than the women of the race? In the church, in the home, in the school, in society we wield an influence which can be made either a stumbling block to hinder or a lever to uplift. Let us be enthusiastic in our work. Nothing can destroy an organization so quickly and completely as the half hearted, lackadaisical support of its members. A great man declared recently that One who can plan is good, far better is the man who can stimulate. 14 History affords at every turn some impregnable fortress t that was a despair of the wise and prudent but was carried by some enthusiast by a rush. What the National Association needs most just at present is a goodly number of women who are not only earnest, but full of enthusiasm for the work which [which] the organization is trying to do, and who can inspire others with their zeal. Members of the National Association of Colored Women, you see your duty and I believe you will do it. Talk not of failure. With hands clasped and hearts united, we cannot fail, though the hosts of satan were in battle array against us. Right will prevail in the end, though wrong may conquer for a time Depend on it, this is as true as it is trite. Take courage therefore. Let neither height nor depth nor any other creature turn you aside from your goal. Looking through smoked glasses at the world in general and at everything which pertains to the race in particular is a contagious disease which kills, for it destroys hope, and by hope says St. Paul we are healed Without hope we can do nothing. Dante's idea of a hell is a place from which hope is excluded. All hope abandoned, ye who enter here was written over the portal of that region to which the wicked were sent to expiate their sins. By refusing to entertain hope, let us not make of this fair earth a hell. As far as possible let us look upon the bright side of the Negro's present status and not cultivate the habit of looking upon the dark. Let us consider the achievements in all departments of art and literature, the success in finance the progress along all lines which the Negro has made under such discouraging circumstances during the past forty years instead of expatiating constantly upon his short coming and harping always on his woes. No great thing was ever accomplished for the amelioration of mankind by a chronic pessimist or a morbid misanthrope. Let hope be our watchword, therefore, progress our aim and work, incessant, earnest toil for these whom we can help the corner stone of our creed. Transcribed and reviewed by contributors participating in the By The People project at crowd.loc.gov.