Charles Octavius Boothe

“ It is said that necessity is the mother of invention. In all ages of the world, and with all peoples, want—a sense of need—has gone before human creations. The black man of the South was like, in this, the balance of human kind. When set at liberty, he was for some time lost in looking upon the wonderful changes that had passed over him. But when he came to himself he began slowly to realize his needs. He began, for example, to feel the need of church and of school, and out of this feeling of want on these lines there arose thought, discussion, plan, action. ”

“ I take courage, and there arises in my mind glorious prospects coming down the future, as I see the faith and push of our Sunday school and our women’s conventions. If our present Sunday school leaders should succeed in wrapping their mantles about men who will be as faithful under the midday light as they have been in the dawning, the future must find an ever broadening compass of Bible influence, and an ever-increasing beauty in our words and lives. ”

“ If he might have burdened his mind with thoughts of his sore destitution of heart, of intellect, of purse; if he might have thought of his poverty as to skill in the arts, sciences and professions of life, as to social status, as to domestic relations, as to opportunities to succeed in a wrestle for life by the side of the victorious white man—if he might have seen that to make himself a strong manhood was his first and his most important duty—if his mind might have been full of these thoughts, it had been a thousand fold better for him. ”

“ Each man seems to feel that the pastor is talking to him and that the heart that speaks has a care and tenderness for all.
Then he is sociable, approachable to all, from the lowest to the highest, old folks and children, rich and poor, great and small, wise and otherwise—all seem to find in him a ready echo. In view of his power and of his youth, prayer spontaneously rises to God that he may be kept in watching, in humility, in faith and in faithful service. ”

“ The writer lays down his pen at the end of a pleasant but arduous task, fully believing that what we have done is but the bud and prophecy of what we can and will do in the years to come. This book can only tell of our infancy and youth while the historian who shall come upon the stage after twenty or thirty years beyond this date, will bring forth a book wherein shall appear a portraiture of our ripened manhood, out of which shall have grown great enterprises, manned by unity, wisdom, wealth and righteousness. ”

“ Thirty years we have been beneath the opportunities and duties of free manhood, which is to say that for thirty years we have been associated with the family institution as husband, as wife, as parent, as sister, as brother, as son, and as daughter. ”

“ They are elevated and they have borne their elevation to their neighbors. From their teachers and from the refining atmosphere of the school, they have drunken purer thoughts, loftier aims and a stronger manhood. This they have carried to others less favored than themselves, and now it works as the leaven in the dough. Again, the school has strengthened us by its weight upon our hearts and hands. Labor, well directed, develops strength in the laborer. We are greater because we have been compelled to care for that institution, and it has caused us to have faith in ourselves. ”

“ It is a strange providence which, in our public school system, now returns upon the black man something of the interest due him in consideration of unrewarded labors. These schools have given us some choice men and women, who are strong in the work of the church. However, it is in place to say that we have not derived from our public school system all the good which it is capable of bestowing, first, because poor teachers have far too often been put upon the people. ”

“ The Missionary Societies of the Baptist women of Chicago and Boston have done a great work among us. Their good missionaries, such as Misses Moore, Knapp, Voss and others whose names will ever be precious to our people, have given themselves to work among our women and girls. They have breathed into our home life their beautiful piety, and they have acquainted our mission bands and church workers with the latest and best methods of labor. ”

“ Educated Men and Women.—Over one hundred young people have received diplomas from Selma University. Graduates have come to Alabama from other States. Baptists have graduated from other schools in this State—schools like Talladega and Tuskegee, the school at Huntsville, and the school at Montgomery. This statement of facts is calculated to turn our minds toward a possibility and prophecy of the near approach—even on the part of the masses—of that state of mind which lives and moves in the higher pleasures and to the more sacred ends of life. ”

“ M. A. Ehlers, a missionary under the Women’s Baptist Home Mission Society, who was at that time in Birmingham, and who she says will never know the help she has been to her in her Christian life, until the lights of Eternity dawn upon her. She began by doing the little things that came to her hands to do—faithfully attending the services of her church, bringing children to the Sunday school, and seeking in her home to honor her Savior. As grand a motive may be had in doing those things which in the eyes of the world seem small as in doing that which the world calls great and admires ”

“ James H., of Moulton, Lawrence county, is one among the very worthy young men of our State. He has had comparatively no advantages for learning, and yet his sober and comprehensive views of life have spurred him onward in search of information, till now we have but few young men in Alabama who use better language, have clearer ideas of the Christian life, and make a more orderly speech than Mr. Freeman. Better still, his neighbors speak of him as a good man—a man whose conduct is a living epistle of the faith which he professes. ”

“ C. J. Hardy, Pastor First Baptist Church, Selma, Ala.
Toward this end we, too, are coming. The time has been when the best man among us would air his big words, hang out his learning (?) , strut because of a fine suit, boast of his school advantages, laud his superior graces, gloat in his empty titles. Not so now. To be meek and lowly in heart, to be full of prayer and watchfulness, to be charitable and self-abasing, to be pure and pious—these things are before us now. ”

“ Not long since a white merchant of this state remarked to me: “No people have ever improved so much in so short a time as your people have.” I replied: “I think no people ever had a more faithful, self-sacrificing leadership.” ”

“ No other man among us has a library so select, so varied and so valuable as he has, nor has any man in Alabama a clearer evidence of literary talent and literary relish. He is a many-sided man, and the beauty of his solid personal qualities is greatly enhanced by his indigenous vivacity, unstinted hospitality, and perennial benevolence. In the hovels of the poor and in the times of the sources of disease, no man among us is more welcome than he, neither is there one of his brethren whose duty renders more heedless of danger or blind to personal privations and material losses. ”

“ To this society the university owes above half the money which has given it support all these years. They have given us missionary aid which has served to produce higher life and better order in our churches and associations. And from their schools beyond our state we have received many of our most capable persons, among whom we may mention Drs. Dinkins, Purce, Stokes, Owens, our eloquent Fisher, and Jones, our scholarly Peterson, the urbane Jackson of Eufaula, the industrious Bradford, and others whose names I cannot at this moment recall. ”

“ Those who were of like faith and gospel practice began to meet for prayer and for conference, and at last to unite in church covenant, forming churches. Then churches, under the leadership of progressive men, were joined in associational compacts. They met first only to sing and pray, and listen to talks from white brethren. Want increased; burdens increased; the horizon of duty and possibility widened. Under a sense of duty and repeated exercise, mind and heart developed into greater strength and into greater capacity for thought, plan, speech, and execution. ”

“ No other colored man ever presided over the Senate of Alabama. He was connected with the legislature of the State for eight years, and not only enjoyed the respect of his fellow legislators of all parties but closed his service in this connection with growing confidence in his integrity. He was baptized in 1851. In 1850 his marriage occurred. His wife was a suitable helper for him and is still alive enjoying the honors and success which justly crown their offspring. The Curtis brothers and sisters are a praise to their parents. The senator was a strong man in society, in church, in State. ”

“ Brother Hampton is one of the leading men of the Muscle Shoals Association, and justly so, for added to his natural talent are many graces of character which come only of labor, aspiration, study, faith, and exalted purpose.
Without the aid of schools, he has attained to a creditable knowledge of letters. He is a builder, an organizer, a pastor and business man. With him and his family, the tired missionary may find a place for rest and refreshment. He lives upon his own fruitful farm near Leighton, in Lawrence county, and is a light which shines upon all the Christian enterprises around him. ”

“ With homeless mothers and fathers, with homeless wives and children, and with oppression on every side—with all these burdens and much more which cannot be told, upon us—we bravely undertook the work of building the walls of Zion. ”

“ We have seen the tree—dwarfed and yellow-leafed—in the sterile rock-bound soil of the mountain peak, and we have felt that its life was a mere existence, a mere hair’s-breadth remove from death. The fearful regime of slavery had reduced the mental life of the Negro to the point where its activity was a simple, natural struggle for existence. ”

“ The writer first met the subject of this sketch in Montgomery county in the year 1879, when, though he was not a Christian, he was acting as Sunday School superintendent. He says that on this occasion the question, “How can you lead others in the road to heaven when you, yourself, are not walking therein?” destroyed all his carnal security and false ease, and was the beginning of a change in his life.
I doubt if any man among us has had more power over the masses than he. While he was building the Sixth Avenue Church there was a constant demand for more room for his audiences. ”

“ The missionary secretary sent to this home for money. In order that a donation might be sent in, the family agreed to leave the sugar off the table for a certain length of time. Thus a small amount was saved for the cause of Christ. Thank God, that truth on all lines is finding an echo in our souls! We are not only learning the value of money and enterprise, but we are also learning that “a man’s life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesses.” ”

“ More and more the people are growing into a responsiveness to the sacredness of the marriage relation. The husband has increased in knowledge regarding his duty to his wife; the wife sees better her relation to her husband; the parents more clearly perceive what is possible and proper with reference to their children; and, therefore, we can claim thousands of homes which are sources of refinement, of love, and of purest pleasure. ”

“ God’s word never returns unto Him void, and when it is carried into the homes and its truths taught and heart to heart talks given only eternity will reveal its results in leading lost souls to look to a loving Savior, and arousing indifferent Christians to the fact that God has chosen them and ordained them that they should go and bring forth fruit. Again, the teaching of the children is a work never to be overlooked, for the future of any race or nation depends upon the moral and religious instruction given to the young. ”

“ With credit to himself and with profit to the denomination, he has, as teacher, as moderator, as recording clerk of the State Convention, and as district Sunday School missionary, served the Baptists of Alabama. At this time he is the successful pastor of the Dexter Avenue Church, Montgomery. Thus this quiet, hard working young man has risen up till there are but few that go before him. Mr. Pollard is a philosopher, clothed with the spirit of a child. In him a full heart balances a well stored head. ”

“ Individual human essence leavened with the Divine essence, is the goal in the eye of the representative leader of our people. Largely we have attained to the confidence of our white brethren. In the union conference of the white and the colored ministers of Birmingham, recently held, I plainly saw that the white Baptist ministers were more at ease with the colored brethren than the white ministers of other denominations, except perhaps, the Presbyterian brethren. ”

“ The obligation to bring him to a knowledge of the truth as it is in Christ, is practically recognized by many Christian ministers as well as by many pious masters and mistresses. At family devotions in many Christian households the domestics are called in to hear the Scriptures read and bow reverently as prayer is offered to God. On Sunday in the same meeting house master and slave listen to the same sermon. Those who give evidence of conversion are received into the church on relation of their experience after baptism, and sit with their masters at the Lord’s table. ”

“ Each church may be reached and affected through its association, with regard to any line of work. We have created a strong sentiment in favor of education and a strong sentiment against intemperance, so that the masses of the people may be easily led in right directions. The day of pioneering lies behind us, and most of the pioneers are gone to their long home. ”

“ He has held official positions in connection with our State Convention and University, and is now chairman of the Board of Visitors of the Colored Deaf and Dumb Asylum of Alabama. He is easy in society and pleasing in address. He carries the youth and the masses, and so uses everything at his command as to impress one that he is an excellent general as well as a successful pastor. He is full of movement and plan, and is quick of discernment and clear in expression. ”

“ He is dearly beloved no less for his stainless character than for his refinement and wisdom. After serving various other important pastorates, he was called to the pulpit of the Salem Church at Greensboro, where he now serves with success, greatly increasing the membership and purchasing a neat parsonage. For the past seven or eight years he has been the moderator of the Uniontown Association—the largest Association in the State. Should he continue as he has begun, coming years must increase his power with God and man. ”