judge from what these last fifty years have revealed of capacity and aspiration on its part. The outlook, in some respects, may be dark, but it is not because of any lack of interest in matters material and educational, or because of any evidence of decay, of the growth of demoralizing tendencies in the race as a whole. There is, of course, in all races an idle, vicious, lawless, dare-devil, reprobate element. And such an element we find among us, especially in the urban population; but the existence of such an element in the Negro race is no more evidence of a retrograde tendency on the part of the race as a whole, than the presence of such an element among the whites is an evidence of a retrograde movement on the part of the white race as a whole. The Negro race makes no claim to superiority over other races. It is simply human like other races. The same 5evidences of depravity exhibited by other races it also exhibits, neither more nor less. As bad as is a certain element among us, it is no worse than the same element in other races. The trend of the race is not downward, but upward; is not backward, but forward. Moral progress, of course, is always slower than any other kind of progress. It is very much easier to train the head than to train the heart; it is very much easier to develop brain power than moral power. The most difficult thing in the world is to keep men straight morally, is to build up, to develop a strong, upright, virtuous character in men of all races. And this must be borne in mind in estimating the moral progress of the race as compared with its intellectual and material advancement. If progress here has been slower, it is simply because that kind of progress is slower among all races. That the race is responding, in a measure, to the many agencies that are at work for its moral and spiritual uplift can hardly be doubted; nor can there be any doubt that there is an element, and a steadily increasing element among us, that is laying more and more emphasis upon character, upon upright living.

5

III. At the end of these fifty years, we find, and very naturally, as the result of the progress that has been made in knowledge, in material resources, in social advancement—a growing self-respect on the part of the race, which makes it very much more sensitive as to the deprivation of its rights, very much more restive under injustice, oppression, and all invidious distinctions. It would be strange if it were not so. You cannot surround a man with conditions which tend to develop his manhood, his self-respect, and expect him to quietly acquiesce in any line of conduct which aims to humiliate him, to force him down beneath the level of what 

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