the Negro
in the years now past with faith in him and the interest and belief in
him of his numerous friends at the present time, he is still an object
of hatred to a considerable number of his fellow citizens.

Ages of deception, vice, cruelty and crime, as practiced by the
Caucasian upon the African in this land, would in itself produce fruit
in kind. We would submit a suggestion to those who are disposed to
criticise very closely and to condemn in strong terms the
delinquencies of the Negro. Allow the Negro two hundred and fifty
years of _unselfish_ contact to offset the two hundred and fifty years
of Caucasian selfishness, and be as assiduous in his regeneration as
you were in his degradation--then judge him.

The twentieth century in its infancy is striving to grasp what it
pleases to call the Negro problem, when it is in reality only a
question as to whether justice and right shall rule over injustice and
wrong to any and every man regardless of race in this boasted land of
freedom. The Negro is made the test in everything pertaining to
American civilization. Its high principles of religion, politics and
morals all receive a shock when a Negro's head appears, upsetting all
theories and in a conspicuous manner proving that the structure of
American civilization is built higher than the average white man can
climb. At this stage of Afro-American existence the question is asked,
"What role is the educated Negro woman to play in the uplifting of her
race?"

As this is unquestionably the woman's era, the question is timely and
proper. Every race and nation that is at all progressive has its quota
of earnest women engaged in creating for themselves a higher sphere of
usefulness to the world--insisting upon the necessity of a higher
plane of integrity and worth--and thus the women of the Negro race
should be no exception in this land of our birth. Feeling thus, this
particular woman, previous to the question above presented, has
already in considerable numbers formed various associations tending to
the amelioration of existing conditions surrounding her race. The most
notable of them is "The National Association of Colored Women," for
several years presided over by Mrs. Mary Church Terrell of Washington,
D. C., but now under the guidance of Mrs. J. Salome Yates, a woman of
refinement, culture and education and an earnest worker in the cause
of the advancement of the race. It is with pride I point to this body
of wom