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THE MAROON TIGER
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| SPECIAL ARTICLES ]
LINCOLN AND DOUGLASS
Out of the turmoil of America’s paradoxical nineteenth
century life arose two men, one black, the other white,
who transformed our state of chaotic uncertainty into
the realm of peace and order, changed our disintegrat
ing union into an integrated whole, and established for
the first time in reality that liberty of conscience and
action guaranteed to all men by the constitution. They
were Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln.
Frederick Douglass was born a slave in 1817 and
was reared for ten years upon a Maryland plantation.
At the end of this time we find him revolting against
the treatment administered to him as a slave. It was
then that Douglass ceased to be a slave and became a
personality. Imbued with the desire for liberty he es
caped to Massachussetts where he received a small amount
of formal education.
In 1841, Douglass became a lecturer of the Massa
chusetts Anti-Slavery Society and toured the United
States and England creating sentiment against the evils
of human bondage.
James Gregory, one of his biographers has said,
“Douglass was not merely a Negro asking for the rights
of freedmen, but the developed, emancipated slave go
ing through the country as the embodiment of what the
slave was and what he might become. He was not only
the thing discussed by the Abolitionists, but the union
of the lecturer and his subject.”
When we consider that he became the editor and
publisher of an Abolitionist paper The North Star, that
be was Recorder of Deeds in the District of Columbia
and later Minister to Haiti, we must be struck with the
fact that his whole life was the history of an ever active,
free soul attempting to realize itself in a changing en
vironment.
His most effective weapon was that or oratory. Fired
by a passionate desire for liberty and justice and moved
by a love for his people, Douglass established by his
addresses the first signs of living dynamic personality
and individualism among Negro slaves.
On the other hand, we have Lincoln rising from pov
erty and obscurity to a position of lasting memory in
the minds of his posterity. The story of his life reads
like a romance as it develops from the simple life of
a Kentucky backwoodsman to the complicated and ex
tended life of a leader in a crisis. With little formal
education, but with the scholar’s desire for knowledge
and with an ardent desire for justice and freedom in
human relationships, Lincoln succeeded in freeing not
only the hands of Negroes from their slave masters, but,
more than that, he made the first step toward freeing
the minds of his own people from tbose far stronger
and more vicious slave masters, ignorance and prejudice.
When we consider Lincoln’s contribution to Ameri
can progress, we always think of the Emancipation Proc
lamation and of the crisis which provoked it. In that
Proclamation, the Constitution of the United States be
gan to have significance, not only to the American Ne
gro and white man, but to the world.
It was that perfect combination of puritan idealism
and stern realism in Lincoln which enabled him to
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TRADITION ON THE SPOT
It is not the purpose of this article to criticise in
any way, but merely to question certain facts that have
stood, due to Tradition. The good around the college
is easily seen, but when we swell our chests and say we
are doing wonders, we merely set up a big ideal, mak
ing ourselves idealistic rather than practical.
Morehouse College says, “Why worry over the num
ber of students that we have when we have the best”
or remember the words, “The Selected Few,” ask your
self the question: “Do we have the select?” I see the
few, but where are the select?
How do you think 55 students seated in a scattered
formation over 350 seat look to a speaker on Sunday
morning? Such a horrible sight is due to our method
of Compulsory Chapel. Seniors, and Dean’s List Men,
do not have to attend. Why not compel all or exempt
all?
Our teachers seem to be afraid that they will their
their jobs—Afraid they might have to face this hard and
cruel world during such a crisis. So they use every
precaution possible in trying to hold their positions,
namely: via their marking systems. Think of it! Over
half of the Freshman Class failed in one of two sub
jects. Is this fault in the students or teachers? Re
member we have the “selected few.” Some professors
think that if there are three A’s there must be three F’s;
some mark according to classification; some give no
A’s and no F’s. Think of these systems: Are they fair?
Student body—we are too conservative, too idealistic.
(Like this ideal democracy, a democracy not practical
in its application. So is that ideal indefinable spirit
of ours.)
We are afraid of tradition: Many a nation was built
by breaking tradition. Cities, states, and nations are
breaking certain traditions in order that they might sur
vive during this depression. So, why can’t this little in
stitution follow this road to success: via breaking tra
dition.
Let us ask for more privileges. Why not have dancing
in our gymnasium in order that we might get money for
the endowment fund, and thus survive. Let us get more
for or honorable athletes. Let s play better schools, get
more games away from home, better equipment, give
not only a certificate for a letter, but live letters and to
those who merit such, sweaters. Last, but not least,
let’s get better food for them.
Let us put out a weekly publication, and thus give
our readers fresh news, make it more of a student paper
rather than a staff publication.
Let us clamor for more than just a symphony or
chestra, but a band to play when our boys are losing.
A jazz orchestra could make money for us, could en
tertain us better, because jazz is inherent in us.
Let us have a modern Y. M. C. A. or none at all on
our campus. Can’t it do more than call cabinet meet
ings and send delegates off? Can’t it be composed of
men whose outlook on life is more than a religious one?
Let us have more and better student meetings.
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