Mart Taylor Blauvelt

“ That is the most hopeful feature of the negro problem. They have leaders, and they are willing to lead.
The subject of race-hatred was taken up in the convention. I think as much temperance, judgment, and moderation were shown as would have been shown by any body of women so large under similar circumstances. It is all very easy when one has nothing at stake to stand off and say: "There is much to be said on both sides." It is more difficult to be broad-minded and fair when one happens to be identified with one of the parties, and that the one that is being worsted. ”

“ Colored women have had another reason, peculiar to themselves, for forming clubs. They realize that at this stage in their progress there is nothing that they need more than a proper race-pride—a becoming independence and self-respect. No race can expect to be respected which does not respect itself—which is constantly adopting an apologetic attitude. The negro, it was said, must "learn to acquire a habit of persistent self-respect, and dignified self-confidence. He must continue to respect himself, even when those around him do not respect him. ”

“ But colored women have also had special reasons of their own for feeling that association is desirable. We were told that the immediate occasion for the formation of the National Association of Colored Women's Clubs was a letter written to an English woman, impugning the morality of the negro race, and especially of the negro women. This letter came into the hands of a noble-minded negro woman in Boston. Because this good woman felt that the burden was too heavy for her to bear alone, she called some of her friends—some of the foremost women of her own race—to her assistance. ”

“ We must raise ourselves, if we are to rise. Our white sisters wish to help us, and do help us, but we ourselves must do a great share of the work, and we must do it among ourselves, and by ourselves."
In connection with the desirability of fostering race-pride, one lady, who had herself been educated in a school for white girls, and might have passed for a white woman, said that she had come to the conclusion that it was better for colored children to attend colored schools, even where they were allowed to attend white schools. ”

“ Consecrated men are needed, who understand the wants and the failings of their people, and who can hold before them high ethical ideals. There are such men among the negroes, but more are needed. One woman, herself the wife of a prominent negro divine, said: "The pulpit must at least keep pace with the pew. Intelligence can never be led by ignorance."
In their efforts to elevate their people these cultured women do not stop with talk. They are actually doing a great deal, especially in the way of creating a pure and pleasant home life. Their mothers' clubs are powerful influences for good. ”

“ But the negro, because of his lack of education, has too often failed to take advantage of his opportunities, and so they have been taken away from him. Men must be trained to fill the places that are still open to them. Further, where white men refuse to work with colored men, a sufficient number of skilled colored men must be found to carry on a business by themselves. For this, not only ability to do one's own work, but ability to superintend the work of others, is necessary. ”

“ In thinking of the work that is before them, many of these women "rejoice as a strong man to run a race." They are glad that they "belong to a people that have so much to do for themselves." And they realize that a grave responsibility rests upon them as pioneers in a great movement. They obtain admittance to the society of white people all the more because they are working with and for their own race. ”

“ It is true that she is a leader in her race. Exceptional abilities and opportunities enable her to do more than most of her sisters. But mothers' clubs, on a greater or less scale, are being started here and there all through the South. I know of one very able northern negro woman who devotes six months of the year to traveling through the black belt addressing the people, especially in their mothers' meetings. She perhaps stays in a place a week—speaks every day, and three or four times on Sunday. She never fails of an audience, and much good seed is sown. ”

“ It is because of this necessity for fostering race-pride that many of the abler colored women, who are or might be honored members of white women's clubs, believe in clubs exclusively for colored women. For it is necessary to the development of self-respect that colored women should prove to themselves and to the world that they can do things without the help of white women—that they are capable of organized effort. ”

“ There are cultured young negro women who go and live on the plantations in one-room cabins, teach the children, and by their example show the parents how decently it is possible to live on no more means than their own. ”

“ Colored women have formed clubs similar to white women's clubs, because, having the same human nature as white women, they have felt the same needs, and they have accepted the partial remedy for these needs which white women have pointed out as good, in so far as it goes. ”

“ Now that some attention is paid to what we die of, it has been discovered that some of us do die of consumption. So it is with the matter of race-hatred. More attention has been paid to it of late years, and so it sometimes seems to be on the increase. And we ourselves are becoming a more serious-minded race are losing our light-heartedness to a very considerable extent, and so we feel these things more than we used to. ”

“ I was told of one young woman, a college graduate, who is living in this way, and who, during the two years that she has been working among her people, has not received more than twelve dollars in money. But these negroes are taught that they must never expect to get something for nothing. ”

“ The mothers in this club are being taught that it is desirable to set apart a small portion of the land which their husbands are cultivating as a home garden where they can raise vegetables for family use. Where it is allowed, the suggestion is made that they also keep pigs. This, alas! is not always allowed. The planters sometimes wish to force the negro tenants to buy their pork at the plantation stores. ”

“ Or, rather, it is the first impulse of almost any person whose mental horizon has not been almost miraculously broadened, either by circumstances or by native excellence, to try to right a great wrong by committing a still greater one. ”

“ Methods of securing a higher moral tone for the race received a great deal of attention in the Detroit convention. It was pointed out that the moral status of the race must be raised as the moral status of any race must be raised—through the home, the church, the school, and good literature. The tenement-house evil in the city and the one-room cabin evil in the country were denounced as fruitful causes of immorality. ”

“ In the homes of some of them children are being brought up as children are being brought up in only the very best white homes in the land. Among those present was a dear, cultured old lady, the mother of seven children, all of whom do her credit and some of whom have acquired an almost national reputation. ”

“ Further, she was absolutely certain that that school would be rebuilt, and be rebuilt largely through the contributions of the white people of the South. She told us how many of the best southern white people were interested in the colored people, and in some instances even were willing to cultivate social relations with them. ”

“ It was urged that negroes should patronize their own industries, when such industries were worthy of patronage. For instance, it was pointed out that in almost any northern city a young colored woman will be taken as an apprentice while she is learning the milliner's trade. ”

“ She said that riots were everywhere becoming more frequent, and it was but natural that race-hatred should sometimes be made the pretext for these. One woman who believed that the prejudice was growing greater reminded her hearers that the best way to remedy the evil was to make every effort to raise the standard of the race, so that there could be no possible excuse for it. The young poet of the occasion voiced the same sentiment in the lines:
For our problem is hard ”