This should be called 12 things every man needs to do

Written by a black woman in the 1900's
12 Things The Negro Must Do For Himself by Nannie Helen Burroughs

1. The Negro Must Learn To Put First Things First. The First ThingsAre: Education; Development of Character Traits; A Trade and HomeOwnership.The Negro puts too much of his earning in clothes, in food,in show and in having what he calls 'a good time.' The Dr. KellyMiller said, 'The Negro buys what he WANTS and begs for what heneeds.'

2. The Negro Must Stop Expecting God and White Folk To Do For HimWhat He Can Do For Himself.It is the 'Divine Plan' that the strong shall help the weak,but even God does not do for man what man can do for himself. TheNegro will have to do exactly what Jesus told the man (in John 5:8) todo--Carry his own load--'Take up your bed and walk.

'3. The Negro Must Keep Himself, His Children And His Home Clean AndMake The Surroundings In Which He Lives Comfortable and Attractive.He must learn to 'run his community up'--not down. We cansegregate by law, we integrate only by living. Civilization is not amatter of race, it is a matter of standards. Believe it or not--someday, some race is going to outdo the Anglo-Saxon, completely. It canbe the Negro race, if the Negro gets sense enough. Civilization goesup and down that way.

4. The Negro Must Learn To Dress More Appropriately For Work And For Leisure.Knowing what to wear--how to wear it--when to wear it andwhere to wear it, are earmarks of common sense, culture and also anindex to character.

5. The Negro Must Make His Religion An Everyday Practice And Not JustA Sunday-Go-To Meeting Emotional Affair.

6. The Negro Must Highly Resolve To Wipe Out Mass Ignorance.The leaders of the race must teach and inspire the masses tobecome eager and determined to improve mentally, morally andspiritually, and to meet the basic requirements of good citizenship.We should initiate an intensive literacy campaign in America , as wellas in Africa . Ignorance--is a millstone about the neck of the race.It is democracy's greatest burden. Social integration is arelationship attained as a result of the cultivation of kindred socialideals, interests and standards. It is a blending process thatrequires time, understanding and kindred purposes to achieve.. Likesalone and not laws can do it.

7. The Negro Must Stop Charging His Failures Up To His 'Color' AndTo White People's Attitude.The truth of the matter is that good service and conduct will makesenseless race prejudice fade like mist before the rising sun. Godnever intended that a man's color shall be anything other than a badgeof distinction. It is high time that all races were earning that fact.The Negro must first QUALIFY for whatever position he wants. Purpose,initiative, ingenuity and industry are the keys tha t all men use toget what they want. The Negro will have to do the same. He must makehimself a workman who is too skilled not to be wanted, and tooDEPENDABLE not to be on the job, according to promise or plan. He willnever become a vital factor in industry until he learns to put intohis work the vitalizing force of initiative, skill and dependability.He has gone 'RIGHTS' mad and 'DUTY' dumb.

8. The Negro Must Overcome His Bad Job Habits.He must make a brand new reputation for himself in the worldof labor. His bad job habits are absenteeism, funerals to attend, or alittle business to look after. The Negro runs an off and on business.He also has a bad reputation for co nduct on the job--such as pettyquarreling with other help, incessant loud talking about nothing;loafing, carelessness, due to lack of job pride; insolence, gumchewing and--too often--liquor drinking. Just plain bad job habits!

9. He Must Improve His Conduct In Public Places.Taken as a whole, he is entirely too loud and too ill-mannered. Thereis much talk about wiping out racial segregation and also much talkabout achieving integration. Segregation is a physical arrangement bywhich people are separated in various services. It is definitely up tothe Negro to wipe out the apparent justification or excuse forsegregation. The only effective way to do it is to clean up and keepclean. By practice, cleanliness will become a habit and habit becomescharacter.

10. The Negro Must Learn How To Operate Business For People--Not ForNegro People, Only.To do business, he will have to remove all typical'earmarks,' business principles; measure up to accepted standards andmeet stimulating competition, graciously--in fact, he must learn towelcome competition.

11. The Average So-Called Educated Negro Will Have To Come Down OutOf The Air. He Is Too inflated Over Nothing. He Needs An Experience Similar To The One That Ezekiel Had--(Ezekiel 3:14-19). And He MustDo What Ezekiel DidOtherwise, through indifference, as to the plight of the masses, theNegro, who thinks that he has escaped, will lose his own soul. It willdo all leaders good to read Hebrews 13:3, and the first Thirty-sevenChapters of Ezekiel. A race transformation itself through its ownleaders and its sensible 'common people.' A race rises on its ownwings, or is held down by its own weight. True leaders are never'things apart from the people.' They are the masses. They simply gotto the front ahead of them. Their only business at the front is toinspire to masses by hard work and noble example and challenge them to'Come on!' Dante stated a fact when he said, 'Show the people thelight and they will find the way!' There must arise within the Negrorace a leadership that is not out hunting bargains for itself. A nobleexample is found in the men and women of the Negro race, who, in th eearly days, laid down their lives fo r the people. Their invaluablecontributions have not been appraised by the 'latter-day leaders.' Inmany cases, their names would never be recorded, among the unsungheroes of the world, but for the fact that white friends have writtenthem there.'Lord, God of Hosts, Be with us yet.'The Negro of today does not realize that, but, for theseexhibits A's, that certainly show the innate possibilities of membersof their own race, white people would not have been moved to make suchprincely investments in lives and money, as they have made, for theestablishment of schools and for the on-going of the race.

12. The Negro Must Stop Forgetting His Friends. 'Remember.'Read Deuteronomy 24:18. Deuteronomy rings the big bell ofgratitude. Why? Because an ingrate is an abomination in the sight ofGod. God is constantly telling us that 'I the Lord thy God deliveredyou'--through human instrumentalities. The American Negro has had andstill has friends--in the North and in the South. These friends notonly pray, speak, write, influence others, but make unbelievable,unpublished sacrifices and contributions for the advancement of therace--for their brothers in bonds. The noblest thing that the Negrocan do is to so live and labor that these benefactors will not havegiven in vain. The Negro must make his heart warm with gratitude, hislips sweet with thanks and his heart and mind resolute with purpose tojustify the sacrifices and stand on his feet and go forward--'God isno respector of persons. In every nation, he that feareth him andworketh righteousness is' sure t o w in out.
Get to work! That's thean swer to everything that hurts us. We talk too much about nothing instead of redeeming the time by working.

R-E-M-E-M-B-E-RIn spite of race prejudice, America is brim full of opportunities. Goafter them!And, this was written in the early 1900's! The more things change themore they stay the same.