His is the history of a people marching from nowhere
to somewhere, but with no well-defined Canaan before them and no Moses
to lead. It is indeed, on their part, a walk by faith, for as yet the
wisest among the race cannot tell even the direction of the journey.
Before us lie surely three possible destinies, if not four; yet it is
not clear toward which one of these we are marching. Are we destined
to see the African element of America's population blend with the
Euro-American element and be lost in a common people? Will the colored
American leave this home in which as a race he has been born and
reared to manhood, and find his stage of action somewhere else on
God's earth? Will he remain here as a separate and subordinate people
perpetuating the conditions of to-day only that they may become more
humiliating and exasperating? Or is there to arise a war of races in
which the blacks are to be exterminated? Who knows? Fortunately the
historian is not called upon to perform the duties of prophet. His
work is to tell what has been; and if others, building upon his
presentation of facts can deduce what is to be, it is no small tribute
to the correctness of his interpretations; for all events are parts of
one vast system ever moving toward some great end. One remark only
need be made.
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