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NEGRO SOLDIER MOSTHEROIC FIGUREFlorence Lewis Bentley, in a letter to Her Adopted Soldier Boy, printed in the December Crisis. say* in part:I am very sorry that you had not left the country before you hail heard of that terrible lynching and of that humiliating order to the soldiers, in a Western camp, to submit tamely to personal insult, from which the uniform of their country was powerless to protect them. You would be half a man if you did not feel the infamy of it all—if you did not feel the need to renew your grip upon your loyalty bo sharply assailed by such dire hup-penings. . . .After much thought, I have come to the conclusion that the Negro soldier of America is the moat heroic figure in this whole war. He must be superman. for the endurance of mere man has a human liipit. There are Negroes from other parts of the world doing tremendous things in Europe, and they with their white comrades are spurred on and strengthened by the admiration and loyal affection of their respective countrymen. It seems that the American Negro soldier alone must do without this warm stimulus of a country’s undivided love. He must cut hia way through to attainment, leaning on nothing but a sense of duty, the passionate loyalty of his own little race group, and a reliance on God. He gives magnificently and receives what seems a reluctant dole. Well, dear son, let us face that stem fact, for we know that out of such stuff God makes his Great Ones, and we also know that in the inevitable summing up of things that same impartial God bestows rewards—and also punishment.
Newspaper Details
The Dayton Forum
Dayton, Ohio, US
Fri, Dec 27, 1918
Page 1
Full Page
Clipped by
Gina S.
USA 17 Jan 2025
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