recognized the wisdom of his homely insistence on thrift
and hard work; but gradually they came to see more and more clearly that,
stripped of political power and emasculated by caste, they could never
gain sufficient economic strength to take their place as modern men. They
also realized that any lull in their protests would be taken advantage of
by Negro haters to push their caste program. They began, therefore, with
renewed persistence to fight for their fundamental rights as American
citizens. The struggle tended at first to bitter personal dissension
within the group. But wiser counsels and the advice of white friends
eventually prevailed and raised it to the broad level of a fight for the
fundamental principles of democracy. The launching of the "Niagara
Movement" by twenty-nine daring colored men in 1905, followed by the
formation of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored
People in 1910, marked an epoch in the advance of the Negro. This latter
organization, with its monthly organ, _The Crisis_, is now waging a
nation-wide fight for justice to Negroes. Other organizations, and a
number of strong Negro weekly papers are aiding in this fight. What has
been the net result of this struggle of half a century?

In 1863 there were about five million persons of Negro descent in the
United States. Of these, four million and more were just being released
from slavery. These slaves could be bought and sold, could move from place
to place only with permission, were forbidden to learn to read or write,
and legally could never hold property or marry. Ninety per cent were
totally illiterate, and only one adult in six was a nominal Christian.

Fifty years later, in 1913, there were in the United States ten and a
quarter million persons of Negro descent, an increase of one hundred and
five per cent. Legal slavery has been abolished leaving, however, vestiges
in debt slavery, peonage, and the convict lease system. The mass of the
freedmen and their sons have

1. Earned a living as free and partially free laborers.

2. Shared the responsibilities of government.

3. Developed the internal organization of their race.

4. Aspired to spiritual self-expression.

The Negro was freed as a penniless, landless, naked, ignorant laborer.
There were a few free Negroes who owned property in the South, and a
larger number who owned property in the North; but ninety-nine per cent of
the race in the South were penniless field