I
further contended that, in relation to his vote, the Negro should
more and more consider the interests of the community in which he
lived, rather than seek alone to please some one who lived a
thousand miles away from him and from his interests.
In this address I said that the whole future of the Negro rested
largely upon the question as to whether or not he should make
himself, through his skill, intelligence, and character, of such
undeniable value to the community in which he lived that the
community could not dispense with his presence. I said that any
individual who learned to do something better than anybody
else--learned to do a common thing in an uncommon manner--had
solved his problem, regardless of the colour of his skin, and
that in proportion as the Negro learned to produce what other
people wanted and must have, in the same proportion would he be
respected.
I spoke of an instance where one of our graduates had produced
two hundred and sixty-six bushels of sweet potatoes from an acre
of ground, in a community where the average production had been
only forty-nine bushels to the acre. He had been able to do this
by reason of his knowledge of the chemistry of the soil and by
his knowledge of improved methods of agriculture. The white
farmers in the neighbourhood respected him, and came to him for
ideas regarding the raising of sweet potatoes.
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