James Morris Webb

“ Science has searched out the deep things of nature, surprised the secrets of the most distant stars, disentombed the memorials of everlasting hills, taught the lightning to speak, the vapors to toil and the winds to worship—spanned the sweeping rivers, tunneled the longest mountain range—made the world a vast whispering gallery, and has brought foreign nations into one civilized family. This all-powerful contact says even to the most backward race, you cannot remain where you are, you cannot fall back you must advance! A great century has come upon us. ”

“ Man, the crowning achievement of nature, defies analysis. He is a mystery through all ages and for all time. The races of mankind are composed of free and unique individuals. An attempt to compare them on the basis of equality can never be finally satisfactory. Each is self. My thesis stands on this truth; time has proved it. In all races, genius is like a spark, which, concealed in the bosom of a [Pg 42] flint, bursts forth at the summoning stroke. It may arise anywhere and in any race.
I would ask you not to compare Africa to Europe or to any other continent. ”

“ The doing of the world’s work is a great duty and a great privilege. It is a thing not to be aimed at but to be aimed beyond. Just so soon as a nation or a country can put its foot upon this satisfaction of the lower wants and step upward to the greater aspirations of human brotherhood and the broader ideals of civilization, just so soon the real building of civilization begins. It seems to me, therefore, that the students of Chicago University and they that teach them, ought especially, on every occasion to impress this broader aspect of the race problem. ”

“ The fact remains, however, that regardless of what has been said and done against the Negro and of whatever might be said or done against him in future, he is the ONLY man who can trace himself back through the ages to his origin, and find monumental evidence of his unequaled greatness, his prowess, the laurels and great honors he won, the things he created and perfected which have a direct influence on our civilization of today. ”

“ And yet with all the egotism, some knowledge of the true origin of mankind exists, and it is this knowledge that causes the fasifying and hiding as much as possible the true historical records, especially of the black man. It cannot be said that the learned historical writers, the great Divines, Theological students and lecturers of today are ignorant of the history of Ham, the son of Noah, and his descendants, such as Nimrod, the founder of the great ancient city of Babylon, and also Menes the first King of Egypt and the founder of the great ancient city of Memphis. ”

“ The African already recognizes his anomalous position and desires a change. The brighter day is rising upon Africa. Already I seem to see her chains dissolved, her desert plains red with harvest, her Ayssinia and her Zululand the seats of science and religion, reflecting the glory of the rising sun from the spires of their churches and universities. ”

“ So, since it is true that the black man is the father of civilization, it is just as true that the white man is now at the helm, and the big “I AM” of the civilized world. But the fact remains that he took his civilization and his position after the black man had created it, and passed from the stage of action, just as the white man must do at God’s own appointed time, to make room for some other race, probably the yellow race, Chinese or Japanese. ”

“ When God in His infinite wisdom, His great love, justice and mercy, and at His [Pg 36] own appointed time, summons mankind to take his rightful place in the wavering human line to be rewarded for that smallest of virtues, in proportion as he for the greatest of virtues, will say to the black man, who will be found heading the line, “Well done, thou good and faithful black servant, thou, My instrument, the Father of Civilization.” ”

“ The Bible gives the first and only true account of the origin of mankind. It is the only book containing an accurate record of the progress of man toward civilization, and it is the indispensable reference of all searchers after the real facts of the birth of humanity and its progress toward the civilization of today; beginning with his creation, it is the only authentic record of man ”

“ There are many [Pg 45] other Africans who have shown marks of genius and high character sufficient to redeem their race from the charges which I am now considering.
Ladies and gentlemen, the day of great exploring expeditions in Africa is over! Man knows his home now in a sense never known before. Many great and holy men have evinced a passion for the day you are now witnessing—their prophetic vision shot through many unborn centuries to this very hour. “Men shall run to and fro,” said Daniel, “and knowledge shall increase upon the earth.” Oh, how true! See the triumph of human genius today! ”

“ This grand old book the Bible, does not show that God ever turned a man black to disgrace him for his sins, or anything else, but this same Bible does show that God’s power did turn a man white to disgrace him because of his sins, and said that his seed would be likewise forever. Facts are stubborn things and often very disagreeable, sometimes even sickening, and by reading carefully the 5th Chapter of the 2nd Kings, 25th, 26th and 27th verses, many of our highly civilized brethren “whose ancient ancestors disgraced them” will suffer an alarming fit of nausea. ”

“ The ancestral greatness, the unimpaired genius, and the recuperative power of the race, its irrepressibility, which assures its permanence, constitute the African’s greatest source of inspiration. He has refused to camp forever on the borders of the industrial world; having learned that knowledge is power, he is educating his children. ”

“ When we hear or read the sayings of some of our “misnamed” great men, but in reality disgustingly conspicuous public figures, we are fully justified in making the charge of falsifying and concealing such facts as they are not really ignorant of. One of these conspicuous public characters delights in making the assertion that the Hamite Ethiopian or Negro never amounted to anything, or possessed anything, never occupied an eminence, save to which the Semitic or white man had dragged or driven him up to. ”

“ Perhaps a better way to locate Ham, Shem and Japheth and their first offspring is first to read the 10th and 11th Chapters of Genesis, then locate their names on the map, and it will be seen that not a Shemite, or white man, originally located in Africa. All of the white men located in Asia, and according to the Bible white men never began to travel in Africa until Abraham’s time, B. C. 1921. The Egyptians lived in a high state of civilization near 2,000 years before Abraham’s first visit to Egypt, and the appearance of white people was a circus and a curiosity to the black people. ”

“ Moses did not appear in Egypt by any human authority, or power, but by the authority and the power of God, for it would have been useless for not only Moses, but for any nation or number of nations to approach Egypt with hostile intentions, without God, because Egypt with her wisdom and power had the world at her mercy. ”

“ And if we ask what is ‘white’ we can only say, ‘that it is a term used to designate the absence of color’—that is all, and no sign whatever of ‘race integrity.’ We have already indicated that science and investigation point to the fact that primitive man was not white. ”

“ The black people when they regained possession of their Kingdom and again began to rule, made slaves of the Jews and compelled them to do all the heavy, dirty, unskilled labor, such as carrying bricks and mortar and working in the field (Exodus 1st Chapter, 13th and 14th verses) . While the Egyptians turned their attention to science and art and reorganizing and drilling their army, so as to be able to protect their country against all nations. As Dr. Schmitz [Pg 31] says, the Eastern boundaries of Egypt were well protected by strong fortresses. ”

“ The scientists tell us there are no two cells, no two atoms, identical. Nature has bestowed upon each a peculiar individuality, an exclusive patent—from the great giants of the forest to the tenderest blade. ”

“ Yes, the regeneration of Africa belongs to this new and powerful period! By this term regeneration I wish to be understood to mean the entrance into a new life, embracing the diverse phases of a higher, complex existence. The basic factor which assures their regeneration resides in the awakened race-consciousness. ”

“ Negroes inherit the sweetest, most musical voices, and if you have not heard a Negro quartette or chorus after they have arranged the harmony of a piece they are to sing, you have not heard what is best and sweetest in vocal music. ”

“ The all important question now arises, “Were the Egyptians descendants of black men, or were they descendants of white men? Were they descendants of Ham or Shem?” It is well known that students claim to be divided in their opinion as to the original stock from which the ancient Egyptians came. Ridpath, among others, says they were neither Semitic nor Negro, but concludes his remarks on the origin of the Egyptians by saying that the ancient Egyptians were considered a branch of that part of the Cushite family, which settled in Asia. ”

“ The black man’s power, as the first power among the nations had now begun to decay, and as the black race began to die, as a power among nations, the white race began to rise to where it had never been before, but this was 2,500 years after the black man had worked out all the problems of civilization. ”

“ As harsh as it may seem sympathy would be wasted for a great deal of the self asserted enlightenment of today is but egotism. Much of the so-called wisdom is self praise for successfully concealing, or at least surrounding historical facts with such mystery as to place the descendants of Shem upon an eminence which is not justly his and makes him in his own [Pg 17] opinion appear much larger than what he really is. ”

“ The African people, although not a strictly homogeneous race, possess a common fundamental sentiment which is everywhere manifest, crystalizing itself into one common controlling idea. Conflicts and strife are rapidly disappearing before the fusing force of this enlightened perception of the true intertribal relation, which relation should subsist among a people with a common destiny. ”

“ The reason is—that the historians, with a very few exceptions, write from a prejudiced standpoint, together with the fact that they do not give credit to the Old Testament, if indeed, they study it at all, especially that part of it which is the most ancient, and beyond all shadow of a doubt the first and only TRUE account of the origin of mankind it is easy to understand. ”

“ They only displayed that talent handed down to them through centuries by their black ancestors. As for the Negro being original, why the Negro has given great America the only claim she ever did or ever will have to a National music.
God honored the black man by allowing some of his Ethiopian blood to flow in the veins of His only Son Jesus Christ, and I unhesitatingly assert that Jesus would in [Pg 11] America be classed a NEGRO. I make this assertion only on the authority of the Bible, according to which Jesus was born out of the tribe of Judah. ”

“ The Sidonians sprang from Sidon, who was the first son of Canaan, according to Genesis 10th Chapter 15th verse. These same Sidonians are the men “descended from black men” whom Solomon ordered Hiram of Tyre to engage to do the skilled hewing and designing of the timber work on Solomon’s temple—Solomon declaring that these Sidonians, “black men” were the only men possessed with anywhere near sufficient skill to take charge of and successfully complete the artistic timber work on “His” Solomon’s temple. ”

“ David, the Psalmist, said: “Egypt was the land of the black man—Ham not Shem, the white man,” and he further said that the Tabernacles which were the houses and dwellings from the lowest to the King’s palaces were Ham’s, and not Shem’s, the white man— (Psalms, 106th Chapter, 22nd verse; 105th Chapter, 23rd to 27th verse; 78th Chapter, 51st verse) .
It is easy to understand why the Negro or black man is not identified with his Egyptian brother; that reason is seldom [Pg 35] honestly and earnestly sought for. ”

“ If ignorance alone was responsible for this glaring falsehood, a great deal of sympathy would go out to those who make the statement as well as those who believe it to be true because of their ignorance. ”

“ No race possessing the inherent capacity to survive can resist and [Pg 46] remain unaffected by this influence of contact and intercourse, the backward with the advanced. This influence constitutes the very essence of efficient progress and of civilization. ”

“ Of course the disgust, if any, is felt for those responsible for placing the poor devil in such a position, and the real and well placed sympathy is for the student, who must suffer because of this fellow. ”