which would frustrate these great ideals. The Negro race must
live and move and have its being amidst the difficulties and
vicissitudes of the tangled issues of race adjustment. Ambitious
and high-minded Negro youth must preserve the spirit of
optimism and hope. Pessimism enfeebles the faculties, paralyzes the energies and sours the soul. The race must be redeemed from the fatuity of supine self-surrender and the impotency of despair. The national Negro University should
supply this defensive philosophy. Every minor and suppressed
group in the world looks to its central seat of learning for the
emission of that kindly light by which they are to be led to
the goal after which they strive. Howard University must
keep the race spirit courageous and firm, and direct it in harmony with ideals of God, country and truth.
Howard University, located at the seat of government by which it is fostered and encouraged, deriving its student body from thirty-six states and eleven foreign countries, justifying its claim for patriotic and philanthropic support, appealing to all right-minded Americans for sympathy and co-operation in carrying out its great mission, is destined to become in truth and deed the National Negro University. From this unique center of advantage and opportunity its lines reach to the remotest ramification of our national domain. From this wide area it draws the picked youth of an awakening race and sends them forth to recruit the high places of racial service and leadership.
Such is the function and mission of Howard University. To this end it appeals to the interest, encouragement and support of all who believe that in the scheme of human development, the mind must quicken, stimulate, uplift and sustain the masses.
