Iola Leroy - Frances Ellen Watkins Harper (suggested reading txt) 📗

time will bring us changes for the better; that, as we get farther away from the war, we will outgrow the animosities and prejudices engendered by slavery. The shortsightedness of our fathers linked the negro’s destiny to ours. We are feeling the friction of the ligatures which bind us together, but I hope that the time will speedily come when the best members of both races will unite for the maintenance of law and order and the progress and prosperity of the country, and that the intelligence and virtue of the South will be strong to grapple effectually with its ignorance and vice.”

“I hope that time will speedily come,” said Marie. “My son is in the South, and I am always anxious for his safety. He is not only a teacher, but a leading young man in the community where he lives.”

“Yes,” said Robert, “and when I see the splendid work he is doing in the South, I am glad that, instead of trying to pass for a white man, he has cast his lot with us.”

“But,” answered Dr. Gresham, “he would possess advantages as a white man which he could not if he were known to be colored.”

“Doctor,” said Iola, decidedly, “he has greater advantages as a colored man.”

“I do not understand you,” said Dr. Gresham, looking somewhat puzzled.

“Doctor,” continued Iola, “I do not think life’s highest advantages are those that we can see with our eyes or grasp with our hands. To whom today is the world most indebted⁠—to its millionaires or to its martyrs?”

“Taking it from the ideal standpoint,” replied the doctor, “I should say its martyrs.”

“To be,” continued Iola, “the leader of a race to higher planes of thought and action, to teach men clearer views of life and duty, and to inspire their souls with loftier aims, is a far greater privilege than it is to open the gates of material prosperity and fill every home with sensuous enjoyment.”

“And I,” said Mrs. Leroy, her face aglow with fervid feeling, “would rather⁠—ten thousand times rather⁠—see Harry the friend and helper of the poor and ignorant than the companion of men who, under the cover of night, mask their faces and ride the country on lawless raids.”

“Dr. Gresham,” said Robert, “we ought to be the leading nation of the earth, whose influence and example should give light to the world.”

“Not simply,” said Iola, “a nation building up a great material prosperity, founding magnificent cities, grasping the commerce of the world, or excelling in literature, art, and science, but a nation wearing sobriety as a crown and righteousness as the girdle of her loins.”

Dr. Gresham gazed admiringly upon Iola. A glow of enthusiasm overspread her beautiful, expressive face. There was a rapt and far-off look in her eye, as if she were looking beyond the present pain to a brighter future for the race with which she was identified, and felt the grandeur of a divine commission to labor for its uplifting.

As Dr. Gresham was parting with Robert, he said: “This meeting has been a very unexpected pleasure. I have spent a delightful evening. I only regret that I had not others to share it with me. A doctor from the South, a regular Bourbon, is stopping at the hotel. I wish he could have been here tonight. Come down to the Concordia, Mr. Johnson, tomorrow night. If you know any colored man who is a strong champion of equal rights, bring him along. Good night. I shall look for you,” said the doctor, as he left the door.

When Robert returned to the parlor he said to Iola: “Dr. Gresham has invited me to come to his hotel tomorrow night, and to bring some wide-awake colored man with me. There is a Southerner whom he wishes me to meet. I suppose he wants to discuss the negro problem, as they call it. He wants someone who can do justice to the subject. I wonder whom I can take with me?”

“I will tell you who, I think, will be a capital one to take with you, and I believe he would go,” said Iola.

“Who?” asked Robert.

“Rev. Carmicle, your pastor.”

“He is just the one,” said Robert, “courteous in his manner and very scholarly in his attainments. He is a man whom if everybody hated him no one could despise him.”

XXVI Open Questions

In the evening Robert and Rev. Carmicle called on Dr. Gresham, and found Dr. Latrobe, the Southerner, and a young doctor by the name of Latimer, already there. Dr. Gresham introduced Dr. Latrobe, but it was a new experience to receive colored men socially. His wits, however, did not forsake him, and he received the introduction and survived it.

“Permit me, now,” said Dr. Gresham, “to introduce you to my friend, Dr. Latimer, who is attending our convention. He expects to go South and labor among the colored people. Don’t you think that there is a large field of usefulness before him?”

“Yes,” replied Dr. Latrobe, “if he will let politics alone.”

“And why let politics alone?” asked Dr. Gresham.

“Because,” replied Dr. Latrobe, “we Southerners will never submit to negro supremacy. We will never abandon our Caucasian civilization to an inferior race.”

“Have you any reason,” inquired Rev. Carmicle, “to dread that a race which has behind it the heathenism of Africa and the slavery of America, with its inheritance of ignorance and poverty, will be able, in less than one generation, to domineer over a race which has behind it ages of dominion, freedom, education, and Christianity?”

A slight shade of vexation and astonishment passed over the face of Dr. Latrobe. He hesitated a moment, then replied:⁠—

“I am not afraid of the negro as he stands alone, but what I dread is that in some closely-contested election ambitious men will use him to hold the balance of power and make him an element of danger. He is ignorant, poor, and clannish, and they may impact him as their policy would direct.”

“Any more,” asked Robert, “than the leaders of the Rebellion did the ignorant, poor whites during our late conflict?”

“Ignorance, poverty, and clannishness,” said Dr. Gresham, “are