erests or all factions, but in that it seeks to comprise something of
the _best_ thought, the most unselfish striving and the highest ideals.
There are scattered in forgotten nooks and corners throughout the land,
Negroes of some considerable training, of high minds, and high motives,
who are unknown to their fellows, who exert far too little influence.
These the Negro Academy should strive to bring into touch with each
other and to give them a common mouthpiece.

The Academy should be impartial in conduct; while it aims to exalt the
people it should aim to do so by truth--not by lies, by honesty--not by
flattery. It should continually impress the fact upon the Negro people
that they must not expect to have things done for them--they MUST DO FOR
THEMSELVES; that they have on their hands a vast work of self-reformation
to do, and that a little less complaint and whining, and a little more
dogged work and manly striving would do us more credit and benefit than a
thousand Force or Civil Rights bills.

Finally, the American Negro Academy must point out a practical path of
advance to the Negro people; there lie before every Negro today hundreds
of questions of policy and right which must be settled and which each
one settles now, not in accordance with any rule, but by impulse or
individual preference; for instance: What should be the attitude of
Negroes toward the educational qualification for voters? What should be
our attitude toward separate schools? How should we meet discriminations
on railways and in hotels? Such questions need not so much specific
answers for each part as a general expression of policy, and nobody
should be better fitted to announce such a policy than a representative
honest Negro Academy.

All this, however, must come in time after careful organization and long
conference. The immediate work before us should be practical and have
direct bearing upon the situation of the Negro. The historical work of
collecting the laws of the United States and of the various States of
the Union with regard to the Negro is a work of such magnitude and
importance that no body but one like this could think of undertaking it.
If we could accomplish that one task we would justify our existence.

In the field of Sociology an appalling work lies before us. First, we
must unflinchingly and bravely face the truth, not with apologies, but
with solemn earnestness. The Negro Academy ought to sound a note of
warning that woul