gong, the signal for dispersion. But
not a student moved. The president was amazed. He could not believe
his own eyes. He rang the gong a second time and yet no one moved. He
then in nervous tones repeated his former assertions and then pulled
the gong nervously many times in succession. All remained still. At
a signal from Belton, all the students lifted their right hands,
each bearing a small white board on which was printed in clear type:
"Equality or Death."

The president fell back, aghast, and the white teachers were all
struck dumb with fear. They had not dreamed that a combination of
their pupils was possible, and they knew not what it foreboded. A
number grasped the paper that was giving so much trouble and read it.
They all then held a hurried consultation and assured the students
that the matter should receive due attention.

The president then rang the gong again but the students yet remained.
Belton then arose and stated that it was the determination of the
students to not move an inch unless the matter was adjusted then and
there. And that faculty of white teachers beat a hasty retreat and
held up the white flag! They agreed that the colored teacher should
eat with them.

The students broke forth into cheering, and flaunted a black flag on
which was painted in white letters; "Victory." They rose and marched
out of doors two by two, singing "John Brown's Body lies mouldering in
the grave, and we go marching on."

The confused and bewildered teachers remained behind, busy with their
thoughts. They felt like hens who had lost their broods. The
cringing, fawning, sniffling, cowardly Negro which slavery left,
had disappeared, and a new Negro, self-respecting, fearless, and
determined in the assertion of his rights was at hand.

Ye who chronicle history and mark epochs in the career of races and
nations must put here a towering, gigantic, century stone, as marking
the passing of one and the ushering in of another great era in the
history of the colored people of the United States. Rebellions, for
one cause or another, broke out in almost every one of these schools
presided over by white faculties, and as a rule, the Negro students
triumphed.

These men who engineered and participated in these rebellions were the
future leaders of their race. In these rebellions, they learned the
power of combinations, and that white men could be made to capitulate
to colored men under certain circumstances. In these sch