zation to his universally mourned death; the State
University; the Chief Negro Baptist School located at Louisville,
Kentucky, or the scores of other schools of high grade, it is a fact
beyond dispute that the Negro pulpit began the initiative and has
exerted the most helpful and controlling influence since they were
founded.

A majority of the college, seminary and high school presidents and
principals, as well as some of the strongest members of the several
faculties, are men from the pulpit or men who do double duty by
serving as best they can the pulpit and schoolroom.

In politics as well as in other spheres some of the most effective
work which has been done for the uplifting of the race has been done
by the Negro pulpit.

To the writer's personal knowledge some of the ablest, most faithful
and useful men found in the constitutional conventions, legislatures
and county offices during the reconstruction period were men from the
Negro pulpit.

The Rev. James Walker Hood (A. M. E. Zion), now Bishop J. W. Hood,
D. D., LL. D., in the Constitutional Convention of North Carolina, in the
Legislature, and as Assistant Superintendent of Education for the
State, did a work which contributed not only to the uplift of the race
but to the best interest of all the people of the State.

Rev. Henry McNeal Turner, D. D., LL. D. (A. M. E. Church), as
legislator in Georgia, exerted an influence which is still felt in
that State.

Bishop B. W. Arnett, D. D. (A. M. E.), whose efforts in the Ohio
Legislature secured the repeal of the "Black Laws"; Rev. D. I. Walker
(A. M. E. Zion), as school commissioner and State Senator from Chester
County, South Carolina; Rev. J. E. Wilson (M. E.), as school
commissioner and postmaster at Florence, South Carolina; Rev. Wm.
Thomas (A. M. E.), and R. H. Cain (A. M. E.), Legislator, Congressman
and later Bishop; Rev. H. R. Revels (M. E.), United States Senator,
whose deportment in the United States Senate and in other walks of
life called forth the highest encomiums from the Southern press; Rev.
Henry Highland Garnett (Presbyterian), and Rev. M. G. Hopkins
(Presbyterian), and Owen L. W. Smith (A. M. E. Zion), United States
Minister to the Republic of Liberia, each and all have contributed
much to the uplifting of the race in the political sphere. But the
Negro pulpit has not confined its efforts along the line of race
organization to the religious sphere. Knowing, as every thoughtful
leader and