level the mountains, fill the valleys, bridge rivers, build railroads, factories, schoolhouses, churches, towns, and cities. We have labored assiduously to make this country bloom as a rose. This fact is admitted by multiplied thousands of the best white people in the whole South. We are not ashamed of our record in the history of our State, neither do we wish it to be ashamed of us. [Pg 42] [Pg 42] Officers of the Woman's Board.—1. Mrs J. C. Thompson, President; 2. Mrs. J. S. Lovell, Fifth Vice President; 3. Mrs. W. H. Key, Treasurer; 4. Mrs. Lizzie E. Robinson, Servant's Vice President; 5. Miss Nannie E. Perkins, Recording Secretary; 6. Mrs J. Ira Watson, Sixth Vice President; 7. Mrs. J. C. Tate, First Vice President; 8. Miss Laura B. Hobson, Corresponding Secretary. Officers of the Woman's Board.—1. Mrs J. C. Thompson, President; 2. Mrs. J. S. Lovell, Fifth Vice President; 3. Mrs. W. H. Key, Treasurer; 4. Mrs. Lizzie E. Robinson, Servant's Vice President; 5. Miss Nannie E. Perkins, Recording Secretary; 6. Mrs J. Ira Watson, Sixth Vice President; 7. Mrs. J. C. Tate, First Vice President; 8. Miss Laura B. Hobson, Corresponding Secretary. [Pg 43] [Pg 43] We have done well, but we can do better. A thousand years shall not erase from the pages of history the part that we have played upon the American stage of action. Do not falter now, my brethren, but rush to the help of the Negro Department with your banners floating in the breeze. We are pronounced an unsolved problem. We are quoted as a vexatious question, and the eyes of the world are upon us. We can solve this problem, we can answer this question, and we can charm the gaze of the world. When? May 1, 1897. Where? In the Negro Building. How? By filling it with suitable exhibits. We are making history. The historian may neglect us, but there is a hand that is writing upon the wall—not our destruction, neither does it require a Daniel to read it. With the golden pen of time it dips into the crystal fluid of sympathy, and writes us as a nation, making rapid strides Out of darkness into light, Out of weakness into might. It writes us as a nation upon the ocean of time, landing without anchor, oar, or sail. Thirty-three years ago, when we started out from the bonds of slavery with a legacy of poverty and ignorance, the canopy of
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