The future of the Afro-American in this country will depend infinitely more upon his own exertions than upon any other agency now at work in his behalf. The real and substantial work, therefore, must be done among the race, and by members of it, and the true Afro-American journalist will play no unimportant part in that work. The deeper and more intensely that impresses itself upon his mind, the better will he be prepared for the work and the more marked and certain will be the results in the near future.
The first issue of The New South appeared on the 23d of May, and it has been issued regularly each week since, gradually improving alike in mechanical extension and editorial management, and with a constantly increasing subscription list.
The appearance of The New South created no little amount of comment. Its salutatory was telegraphed to The New York Herald, and published by that great paper under the caption—"The Negro must Help Himself." In that article the following sensible words appeared. After citing the fact of Afro-American advancement, it says: "These are familiar truths; and yet it is a fact too well known to him, that he is denied the actual enjoyment of many rights under the Constitution and laws that are accorded to others. Indeed, under the laws of certain sections of the country, he is almost anything but a free man,—a pariah in his own country. Whatever else may have conspired to produce such a condition of things, every intelligent, self-respecting negro knows, and freely admits, that the main cause is as an unfortunate moral, material, and intellectual condition,—a legacy of more than two hundred and fifty years of slavery. Until that condition is materially changed, no proper recognition of the race can reasonably be expected, etc."
This but serves to show the spirit of the editor in his editorial advice to his race constituents. The South believes
