resigned two similar
positions, the one at Birmingham, Ala., and the other at
Chattanooga, Tenn., to accept the Nashville appointment.

In 1894 she was assigned to the Junior Grade in the colored
High School and two years later to the Chair of Latin in the
High School, which position she is still filling.

Following out the principles of economy that are so
thoroughly inculcated in the minds of Fisk students, her
first thought after completing her course of study was
turned towards the acquisition of real estate and the
purchase of a home for her mother, who through so many
struggles and sacrifices had made it possible for her to
obtain a college education.

Her hopes in this direction have been realized to some
extent; and she has secured not only a home, but
considerable other real estate.

The wide scope of this subject, and the limited time given for
research, together with the absence of statistics, make it impossible
at this time to present more than a brief sketch. I propose to
continue my research and investigation and at some later date to
present the subject in a very much enlarged form, giving the condition
of the Negro as a laborer in all the leading cities of the United
States. In the present sketch mention will be made of only a few
cities.

The Southern cities, with their stately residences and business houses
that were constructed in ante-bellum days, bear emphatic testimony to
the skill of the Negro in the mechanic arts. All of the labor of the
South at that time was done almost exclusively by the Negro.
Plantation owners trained their own blacksmiths, wheelwrights,
painters and carpenters. The Negro was seen as a foreman on many
Southern plantations during ante-bellum days. Education has greatly
improved his ability to labor, and to-day in every vocation he is
found as a laborer, competing successfully with other laborers.
Notwithstanding the fact that prejudice and labor organizations are
arrayed against him, the character of his work is such, and his
disposition as a laborer such, that his services will always be in
great demand.

Negro laborers are given employment on large buildings alongside of
white laborers, and generally give entire satisfaction. In the city of
Nashville, Tenn., during the present year, in the construction of the
Polk Flats, two Negro laborers were employed with a number of white
laborers; a st