Francis J. Grimké

“ It is always more glorious to perish in a righteous cause than to survive with dishonor. And I believe as long as there is a spark of manhood left in the race the struggle for our rights, as American citizens, will go on. I do not believe that the time will ever come, when the Negro will be quiescent on his rights until those rights are fully accorded to him.
The call that I am making to this race to-day is for the self-respecting men and women of it, in every community, to band themselves together for the building up of character ”

“ Are we binding ourselves together in Gideon Bands in every community, to help uplift the race; to help battle against the evils which tend to drag us down, to undermine our health, our character, our good name? Are we coming to realize, more and more, the importance of cooperation, of working together for the general good? ”

“ There are some members of our race, unfortunately, who, for one reason or another, have attempted to minify the importance of civil and political rights, or who, at least, pretend that they see no great evil in the deprivation of these rights. I say pretend, for, at heart, I do not believe they think anything of the kind. They cannot believe as they say they do, if they have any self respect, or any appreciation of what citizenship means. ”

“ Think of what the dance hall and the spirit of frivolity which it encourages, are doing to demoralize our young people. These and many other forces are at work among us, and are steadily, persistently, day and night, operating to destroy us, soul and body. The evil tendencies within us, and the evil influences without us are conspiring to destroy us—to destroy us physically, morally, economically. It is well for us as a race to know what these evil influences are and how we are being affected by them. ”

“ Such people are of no value to us in the fight which we are making for our rights under the Constitution: they are rather a hindrance to us, because they are used by the enemy in justification of the course which they are pursuing. The fact that there are colored people, and some so-called leaders, who don’t attach much importance to these rights, makes the white assailant feel that, after all, no great injury is done to the Negro. The colored people themselves, they say, in effect, don’t regard it as such, and why should we, why should we attach any more importance to the matter than they do. ”

“ We have, I know, a great many professors of religion among us; but as to whether there is a great deal real true religion, which consists in loving God and in keeping his commandments, among us, may be a question. One thing I know, however, in the days of slavery, when the iron heel of physical oppression was upon our necks, there were many, many of the fathers and mothers of the race who believed in God and in the power of prayer, and who by day and by night, in the cotton fields and in the rice swamps, sent up their petitions to heaven. ”

“ In every community therefore, as a foil to this pernicious doctrine, there must be men and women to whom these rights mean something; there must be men and women who hold them in high estimation, who have a deep and abiding sense of their value, of their importance. Everywhere, throughout the race, very little patience ought to be shown, or respect either, to Negroes, whether big or little, who undervalue, and who are seeking to instill into the race a spirit of indifference to civil and political rights. ”

“ Are we keeping alive within our own breasts, as individuals, and within the consciousness of the race the value of citizenship and of citizenship rights? It is our duty to cherish these rights ourselves, and to instill into our children a like appreciation of them. ”

“ It is important that we realize this, and that every latent energy within us, as a race, be aroused and enlisted in the great work of sowing such seeds as will insure a glorious harvest. If we sow frivolity, idleness, improvidence, intemperance; if we are lax in morals, if we put material things above spiritual things, if we are indifferent to our rights, as citizens, if we are content to be like dumb driven cattle, we will reap accordingly. ”

“ We seem to be hopelessly in their power, as hopelessly as the Jews seemed to be in the power of Haman. But Haman did not succeed in carrying out his diabolical purpose; and the power that checked him, and that overthrew him, was the power of prayer. We, as a race, must use this power more than we have been in the habit of doing. Those among us, in every community, who believe in God, and who are trying earnestly to serve him in sincerity, for unless we are our prayers will avail nothing, should make it a business to take our race troubles to him as well as our individual and family troubles. ”

“ These are the enemies that are clamoring for Jim-Crow cars, for segregation in our cities, for laws against the inter-marriage of the races; and who are endeavoring in every possible way to humiliate us and to make life just as hard as possible for us. The marvel is, as a race, that we are doing as well as we are, in view of the many and deadly forces that are arrayed against us. The verdict seemingly is, If we are allowed to live at all we must be content to be menials, to occupy only the lowest places ”

“ These men and women ought to be brought together in some form of organization. The three hundred men who formed Gideon’s Band were welded together. They understood each other; they saw alike; they felt alike—all had the same object in view; all worked according to the same plan; all were under the direction of one leader. An individual working alone may accomplish something; but the most effective way of working, especially where there is much to be done, is in combination, is by uniting our forces under intelligent leadership. ”

“ We cannot, as a race, present in any considerable numbers, men and women conspicuous for moral and spiritual worth without producing a favorable impression for the race. Gideon Bands everywhere are needed, for work within the race, and for work without the race, upon those who need to be mollified, changed, converted. Such bands should not only be organized, but we should see to it, that we are members of them. ”

“ Three hundred men working together can always do more than one man working by himself, however effectively he may work. The good people in every community, the people who feel the need of doing something, must come together and pull together—must join hands in waging war against the forces of evil, by directly opposing them, and by setting up counter influences. ”

“ Every thing depends upon the sowing, and therefore let every member of this race, in the consciousness of his or her responsibility, say, as one of old, “God do so to me and more also,” if, in my personal character and life, in what I may do or say, I sow anything that will jeopardize the moral, economic, or political future of this race. ”

“ We need also God-fearing men and women—men and women of faith—men and women who build on God, who stand on the promises of God. One thing we may be assured of—nothing can be effectively done for the moral uplift of the race, for the overthrow of the forces of evil that are at work in our midst, unless we have in every community men and women such as I have been describing, through whom to operate as the first great requisite. ”

“ Once in four years, in connection with a Presidential Inauguration, is a good time to look each other in the face; to reaffirm our principles; and to pledge ourselves anew to go fearlessly forward in the good work which we have begun. ”

“ We need, as a race, every one of us, to understand and to lay to heart, and to get our children to understand and lay to heart, that in the environment in which we find ourselves, we can do very much through our personal conduct, through the manner in which we bear ourselves, the manner in which we acquit ourselves, through what we make of ourselves and of our children, to intensify or to diminish this opposition to us. ”

“ They were men of conviction—they felt, and felt keenly the evils from which they were suffering, and their minds were fully made up to endure them no longer, if by any effort of theirs they could escape them. They were men of genuine courage—they were not afraid to meet the enemy. ”

“ They were tired of the oppression of the Midianites. They realized that they were being oppressed, and that it was not good for them to continue in the condition in which they were. And it is only where such a mental attitude exists that there can be any successful warfare against oppressive conditions. Unless the evil to be remedied is felt, and keenly felt, it is not likely that there will be any effort put forth to remedy it, or any prospect of securing the cooperation of those who are suffering in an effort to do so. ”

“ In the treatment that is accorded to him every principle of Christianity is ignored. There is not the slightest disposition to recognize him as a brother, to treat him as a man. The atmosphere in which he lives is a hostile atmosphere. The emigrant from Europe, with all his ignorance and degradation is welcomed with outstretched hands; but no such spirit greets the Negro. ”

“ The more widely we can get this magazine distributed among the whites, the more hopeful will be the outlook for us.
(d) . In every community also, through our churches, through our schools—Sunday and day schools, and through every other agency by which they may be reached, we should endeavor to impress upon our people the importance of being respectable, of behaving themselves, especially in their public deportment, when they are before the eyes of those who are prejudiced against them, and who will be sure to view them with a much more critical eye than they would their own race. ”

“ We need also men and women of courage—men and women who are not afraid to attack the evil, to speak out in condemnation of the things about them that are demoralizing in their tendency. Another reason why it is so difficult to make any headway in moral reforms is because there are so many cowards in society, so many who are timid, who are afraid to speak out, to lift up their voices for fear of hurting themselves or of offending somebody. ”

“ To this end let every one of us here this morning pledge ourselves, and go forth with the solemn purpose and determination to inoculate every man, woman, and child of the race, with the same spirit, with the same purpose, with the same determination. ”

“ We should come together for the purpose of resisting, in every lawful way, all attempts to abridge our rights, to curtail our privileges as citizens. Whatever other citizens enjoy we have a right to enjoy; and we ought not to submit quietly to discriminations which violate this principle. If we can’t do anything else, at least, protest ”

“ It was at this juncture that earnest, incessant prayer was made to Jehovah, and the result was the man that sought their ruin was hurled from power, and hurled into eternity to answer at a higher than earthly tribunal for his infamous conduct. We, as a people, would do well to ponder carefully the words of Esther to Mordicai in our struggle against the enemies in this country that are bent on our destruction just as truly as Haman was bent on the destruction of the Jews, and for the same reason, because we are not disposed to bow and cringe and debase ourselves before them. ”

“ The position in which our enemies are seeking to place us is a humiliating one, and I pity the race or individual who doesn’t see it, and who doesn’t feel the humiliation of being compelled to submit to laws without having a voice in the making of them, while others are accorded that right, and for no reason except the color of their skin. ”

“ The thought of the Negro as a slave has so taken possession of them as to entirely obliterate from their minds the thought of him as a man and citizen. And these are the people who are in the seat of power ”

“ Under this head are to be classed the evil tendencies within our own hearts, and, which are not different from the evil tendencies in other races; for, after all, human nature is everywhere the same. The same radical tendencies are discoverable in all men. Human nature is not different in the black man from what we find it in the white man, or in the men of any other race. ”

“ Gideon Bands we need everywhere—men and women of the highest character, whose clean pure lives will be not only an incentive to the race to live nobly, but also an unanswerable argument against the traducers of the race. ”

“ The Negro cannot permanently be denied equality of rights and opportunities and Christianity and true democracy be maintained. One or the other will be sure to succumb. Christianity and true democracy cannot exist anywhere and inequality of rights and opportunities continue to exist. ”

“ What inroads the saloon is making among us. How we are being ruined by it morally! How our physical strength is being depleted by it! How we are being impoverished by it! Think of what impurity is doing! ”

“ To do so is to encourage the race to commit political suicide; and the race that is willing to commit political suicide is the race that will be driven to the wall, that will be the football of every other race within the Republic. ”

“ Personally I have absolutely no patience with the Negro, big or little, who is content to live in a country, under laws which are made for his government without his consent and about which he, not only has nothing to say, but is purposely excluded from participation in the functions of government. The American colonies resisted the imposition of a tax by the British Parliament, because they were taxed without representation ”

“ Whether it was intended by the artist, who was colored, to represent the condition of the race in this country or not, I do not know; but, in a sense, and to a measure, it certainly does represent our condition among this white population in the midst of which we are living. This is not true, of course, of all of the white people. There are some who are, in a sense, friendly to us, and who, up to a certain point, are willing to stand by us ”