Since Negroes’
Emancipation
By G.E. Nelson
The first day of the new year 1920 was known in the heart of
the Negro race throughout America as Emancipation Day. It is only a remembrance
of that great day brought to bear by Abraham Lincoln more than a half-century
ago, when more than 4 millions of Negro men, women, and children were released
from the bonds of slavery. The significance of this day should be taught every
American colored child, in order that he may know that it has not been a
thousand years since he has had the chance to help shape the life of the
faithful members of his race after the pattern of a high and commanding idea.
Since the year that the negro has been proclaimed a free
American citizen, he has stretched out into every phase of human activity and
work. The colored man constitutes more than three-fifths of the working class
of people in America, and it is said that “Since the majority of negroes are in
the working class, their permanent interests are as workers.” Very often you
can see in the daily papers where the working class of men cause the attention
of the world to turn toward them, as the medium through which they live and
enjoy the pleasures of life. If this be so, that the negroes can in less than a
century constitute more than three-fifths of the great body which turns the
wheel that shapes the life and pleasures of the people of this country, it
should destroy fear, cast down mistrust, and reveal to him the glorious
relationship between him and the highest, and show him that he must be a friend
of God’s, it points to a grander destiny for him.
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