, and my prayer is that God may help me to make my plea
effective. For the people for whom I plead are bone of my bone and flesh
of my flesh. I plead for help for my own bright-eyed boy and girl, and
for all the little black boys and girls in my far-off Southern home.

If the great race problem is to be settled (and it is a problem,
notwithstanding all that has been said to the contrary), it is to be
settled, not in blood and carnage, not by material wealth and
accumulation of lands and houses, not in literary culture nor on the
college campus, not in industrial education, or in the marts of trade,
but by the religion of Him who said, "And I, if I be lifted up, will
draw all men unto Me." These things are resultant factors in the
problem, but the problem itself lies far deeper than these.

Calhoun is reported to have said, "If I could find a Negro who could
master the Greek syntax, I would believe in his possibilities of
development." A comparatively few years have passed away, and a Negro
not only masters the Greek syntax, but writes a Greek grammar accepted
as authority by some of the ablest scholars of the States. But Abbe
Gregori of France published, in the fifteenth century, "Literature of
the Negro," telling of the achievements of Negro writers, scholars,
priests, philosophers, painters, and Roman prelates in Spain, Portugal,
France, Italy, Holland, and Turkey, which prompted Blumenbach to
declare it would be difficult to meet with such in the French Academy;
and yet, literature and learning have not settled the problem. No, the
religion of Jesus Christ is the touchstone to settle all the problems of
human life. More than nineteen hundred years ago, Christ gave solution
when he said, "Ye are brethern," "Love is the fulfilling of the law,"
and "Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to
them."

Is the Negro in any measure deserving of the help for which I plead? The
universal brotherhood, and common instincts of humanity should be
enough. I bring more. Othello, in speaking of Desdemona, says, "She
loved me for the dangers I had passed, I loved her that she did pity
me." If pity and suffering can awaken sympathy, then we boldly claim our
right to the fullest measure of consideration. Two hundred and fifty
years of slavery, with all its attendant evils, is one of our most
potent weapons to enlist sympathy and aid.

I come with no bitterness to North or South. For slavery I acknowledge
all the