plenty and agriculture is the chief occupation, the Negro will always
have a practical monopoly, and his opportunities in all the trades in
the North, as well as in the South, will increase in proportion as he
becomes an educated, thrifty, law-abiding land-owner. The time has
come when the Negro can no longer afford to play upon the sympathies
of his friends, but as a man among men he must be pre-eminently fitted
for his place; fitted in intellect, in the knowledge of his craft and
in sobriety.

As a common laborer the Negro in his ignorance has had to battle
against great odds. Too often his employer, who built the courts, run
them and owns them, but who made the Negro shoulder the expense,
feeling that he has the right of way and in his eagerness to get
something for nothing, has forced the Negro through necessity to do
the very thing for which he condemns him. Despite these great odds,
industry and uprightness in any man, be he white or black, makes him a
valuable member of any community.

THIRD PAPER.

THE NEGRO AS A LABORER.

BY MISS LENA T. JACKSON.

[Illustration: Lena T. Jackson]

LENA TERRELL JACKSON, M. A.

Lena Terrell Jackson was born December 25, 1865, in
Gallatin, Sumner County, Tenn. Her father died in her early
childhood; hence the responsibility of her support and
education fell upon her mother.

This mother determined to give her daughter the advantage of
a good education. Accordingly at the age of seven years the
daughter was placed in a private school and remained there
until the autumn of 1876, when, having finished the course
of study in the private school, she was entered as a pupil
in the Belle View City School and remained there three
consecutive years.

She completed the course of study in the Nashville City
Schools in June, 1879. In September, 1879, she entered the
Middle Preparatory Class of Fisk University and remained at
Fisk six years, graduating from the Collegiate Department in
1885.

During the six years spent at Fisk she taught school during
the summer months in the rural districts and with the money
thus earned helped to support her mother and maintain
herself in school. She also assisted her mother in her
family work after school hours.

After graduation, in 1885, she was elected as a teacher in
the Nashville Public Schools, having