03 - Women of Achievement by Benjamin Griffith Brawley

This remarkable volume, published in 1919 by the American Womens Baptist Home Mission Society, highlights the vital contributions of African American women. It eloquently addresses the often-overlooked invisible work performed by these women as mothers and wives, while also showcasing their significant roles in various industries, including medicine, education, and the arts. Additionally, this collection features inspiring short biographies of five courageous women who have made a lasting impact. - Summary by kathrinee

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Section two of Women of Achievement. This is a LibriVox recording.
All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more
information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. Recording
by Betty b. Women of Achievement by Benjamin Griffith Brawley,
Chapter three, Nora Gordon. This is the story of a

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young woman who had not more than ordinary advantages, but who,
in our own day, by her love for Christ and
her zeal in his service, was swept from her heroic
labor in to martyrdom. When Nora Gordon went from Spelman's
seminary as a missionary to the Congo, she had the
hope that in some little way she might be used

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for the furtherance of the Master's kingdom. She could hardly
have foreseen that she would start in her beloved school
a glorious tradition, and still less could she have seen
the marvelous changes taking place in the Africa of the present.
She had boundless faith, however, faith in God and in
the ultimate destiny of her people. In that faith she lived,

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and for that faith she died. Nora Antonia Gordon was
born in Columbus, Georgia, August twenty fifth, eighteen sixty six.
After receiving her early education in the public schools of Lagrange,
in the fall of eighteen eighty two she came to
Spelman Seminary. It was not long before her life became

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representative of the transforming power of Christianity. Being asked do
you love Christ, she answered yes, But when there came
the question, are you a Christian, she replied no. It
was not long, however, before she gained firmer faith, and
two months after her entrance at Spelman she was definitely converted.

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Now followed seven years of intense activity and growth of study,
of summer teaching, of talks before temperance, societies, of service
of any possible sort for the master. She brought to christ.
Every girl who was placed to room with her, a
classmate afterwards testified of her that the girls always regarded

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Nora somewhat differently from the others. She was the counselor
of her friends, ever ready with sweet words of comfort,
and yet ever a cheerful companion. In one home in
which she lived for a while, she asked the privilege
of having prayer. The man of the house at first
refused to kneel and the woman seemed not interested. In

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course of time, however, the wife was one, and then
the man also knelt. At another time she wrote, twenty
six of my scholars were baptized to day, and a
little later she added ten more have been added. In
eighteen eighty five, Nora Gordon completed her course in the
Industrial Department, in eighteen eighty six the Elementary Normal, and

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in eighteen eighty eight the Higher Normal course. Her graduation
essay was the rather old and sophomoric subject the Influence
of Woman on National Character. But in the intensity of
her convictions and her words, there was nothing ordinary. She said,
in part, let no woman feel that life to her

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means simply living, But let her rather feel that she
has a special mission assigned her, which none other of
God's creatures can perform. It may be that she is
placed in some rude little hut as mother and wife.
If so, she can dignify her position by turning every
hut into a palace, and bringing not only her own household,

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but the whole community into the sunlight of God's love.
Such women are often unnoticed by the world in general,
and do not receive the appreciation due them. Yet we
believe such may be called God's chosen agents. Finally, we
feel that woman is under a twofold obligation to consecrate

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her whole being to Christ. Our people are to be
educated and Christianized, and the heathen brought home to God.
Woman must take the lead in this great work. After
a graduation in eighteen eighty eight, Nora Gordon was appointed
to teach in the public schools of Atlanta. She soon
resigned this work. However, in the contemplation of the great

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mission of her life. The Secretary of the Society of
the West wrote to Spelman to inquire if there was
any one who could go to assist Miss Fleming, a
missionary at work in Palla Balla in the Congo. Four
names were sent, and the choice of the board was
Nora A. Gordon. The definite appointment came in January eighteen

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eighty nine. On Sunday evening February seventeenth, an impressive missionary
service was held in the chapel at Spelman. Interesting items
were given by this students with reference to the slave
trade in East Africa and the efforts being made for
its suppression. Also with reference to Mohammedanism, the spiritual awakening

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among the Zulus and the mission stations established, especially those
on the Congo. Several letters were read, one from Missus
Fleming exciting the most intense interest, and throughout the meeting
was the thought that Nora Gordon was also soon to
go to Africa. On March sixth a farewell service was

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held and attended by a great crowd of people, among
them the whole family of the consecrated young woman, and
she sailed March sixteenth, eighteen eighty nine. First of all,
she went to London, tearing at the Missionary Training Institute
conducted by Reverend and Missus H. Grattan Guinness. Under date

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April eleventh, she wrote, it has been so trying to
remain here, so long waiting. I feel that this is
the Dear Lord's first lefe and to me in patience,
I am thankful to say that I feel profited by
my stay. Yesterday, coming from the city, we saw a
number of flags hanging across the street, and among them

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was the United States flag. Never before did the stars
and stripes seem so beautiful. I am glad Miss Grover
put one in my box. I do praise God for
every step I get nearer to my future home. We
expect to sail next Wednesday, April seventeenth, from Rotterdam on
the Steamer African Dutch Line. We hope to get to

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the Congo in three weeks. For two years she labored
at Paulla Balla, frequently writing letters home and occasionally sending
back to her beloved spellman a box of curios, said
she of those among whom she worked. When the people
are first gathered into a chapel for school or religious services,

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it is sad and amusing to see how hard they
try to know just what to do, sitting with their
backs to the preacher or teacher. When the teacher reproves
a child, every man, woman and child feels it's his
or her duty to yell out too at the offender
and tell him to obey the teacher. Often, in the

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midst of a sermon, a man in the congregation will
call out to the preacher, take away your lies, or
we do not believe you, or how can this or
that be. One of the first workers, after speaking to
a crowd of heathen, ask them all to close their
eyes and bow their heads while he would pray to God.

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When the missionary had finished his prayer and opened his eyes.
Every person had stealthily left the place. Then followed a
detail of the atrocities in the Congo, and of the
encounters between the natives and the Belgian officers. And last
of all came the pertinent comment the Congo missionary's work

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is twofold. He must civilize as well as christianize the people.
Early in eighteen ninety one, Nora Gordon, sadly, in need
of rest and refreshment, went from Pallabaala for a little
stay at Lukungu. Hither had come Clara A. Howard Spelman's
second representative under appointment of the Woman's Foreign Missionary Society

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of the East. Lucungu as a station two hundred and
twenty miles from the mouth of the Congo, in a
populous district, and was the center from which numerous other
schools and churches sprang. The work was in charge of
mister Hosta, an Englishman, who, when Miss Gordon wrote of
him in eighteen ninety four, had spent ten years on

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the Congo without going home. Other men were associated with him,
while the elementary schools, the care of the boys and girls,
and work among the women naturally fell to the women missionaries.
A little later, in eighteen ninety one, Nora Gordon left
Pallabala permanently to gauge in the work at Lukungu. Under

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day September twenty fifth, she wrote to her friends back home,
doubtless Clara has told you of my change to this place.
You cannot imagine how glad we are to be together here.
I have charge of the printing office and help in
the afternoon school. I am well happy in enjoying my
work in the office. I have few conveniences, and really

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not the things we need. Mister Hosta has written the
first arithmetic in this language, and I am now putting
it up. I was obliged to stop work on it
to day because my figures in type gave out. And
you know we have no shops in this land. My
boys in the office are doing nicely. Thus she worked

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on for two years more, hoping, praying, trusting. By eighteen
ninety three, her health was in such condition that it
was deemed wise for her to return to America. So
she did, and she brought back two native girls with her.
All the while, however, her chief thought was upon the
work to which she had given herself, and she constantly

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looked forward to the time when she might be able
to go back to Africa. In eighteen ninety five she
became the wife of Reverend S. C. Gordon, who was
connected with the English Baptist mission at Stanley Pool. She
sailed with her husband from Boston in July and reached
the Congo again in August. The station was unique. It

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was an old and well established mission, the center of
several others in the surrounding country. It had excellent brick houses,
broad avenues, and good fruit trees, and the students were
above the average and intelligence. But soon the shadow fell
nor Gordon herself saw much of the well known Belgian
atrocities in the Congo. She saw houses burned and the

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natives themselves driven out by the state officials. They crossed
over into the French Congo, but hither Protestants were not
allowed to come to preach to them. In spite of
the great heartache, however, and declining health, the heroic woman
worked on giving to those for whom she labored her
tenderest love. Seven months after the death of her second child,

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a change was again deemed necessary, and she once more
turned her face homeward. After two months in Belgium and England,
she came again to America and to Spelman, but her
strength was now all spent. She died at Spelman January
twenty sixth, nineteen hundred one. She was only thirty four.

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But who can measure in years the love and faith,
the hope and sorrow of such a life. Norah Gordon
started a tradition Spelman's richest heritage. Three other graduates followed her.
Clara Howard was in course of time forced by the
severe fevers to give up her work, and she now
labors at home in the service of her alma mater.

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Aida Jackson became the second wife of Reverend S. C. Gordon,
and also in service. Ma B. Delaney was commissioned in
nineteen hundred and still labors in recent years, with larger
and larger success in Liberia. Within two or three years
of Nora Gordon's return in eighteen ninety three, moreover, not

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less than five Native African girls had come to Spelman.
The spirit still abides, and if the way were just
a little clearer, doubtless many other graduates would go. Even
as it is, However, the blessing to the school has
been illimitable. Such have been the workers, such the pioneers.

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To what end is the love, the labor, the loneliness,
the yearning. It is now nearly five hundred years since
the Prince of Portugal began the slave trade on the
west coast of Africa. Within two hundred years, all of
the leading countries of Western Europe had joined in the
iniquitous traffic. And when England in seventeen thirteen drew up

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with France the Peace of Utrecht, she deemed the slave
trade of such importance that she insisted upon an article
that gave her a practical monopoly of it. Before the
end of the eighteenth century, however, the voice of conscience
began to be heard in England, and science also began
to be interested in the great undeveloped continent lying to

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the south. It remained for the work of David Livingstone, however,
in the middle of the nineteenth century, really to reveal
Africa to the rest of the world. This intrepid explorer
and missionary, in a remarkable series of journeys, not only
traversed the continent from the extreme south to Lwanda on

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the west coast. In Quilamaine on the east coast. He
not only made known the great lake system of Central Africa,
but he left behind him a memory that has blessed
everyone who has followed in his steps. Largely as a
result of his work and that of his successor, Stanley,
a great was met in Berlin in eighteen eighty four

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for the partition of Africa among the great nations of Europe. Unfortunately,
the diplomats at this meeting were not actuated by the
noble impulses that had moved Livingstone, so that more and
more there was evident a mad scramble for territory. France
had already gained a firm foothold in the northwest, and
England was not only firmly entrenched in the south, but

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had also established a rather undefined protectorate over Egypt. Germany,
now in eighteen eighty four, entered the field, and in
German East Africa, German Southwest Africa, Cameroon, and the smaller
territory of Togoland in the west, ultimately acquired a total
of nearly a million square miles, or one eleventh of

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the continent. All of this she lost in the course
of the recent Great War naturally, she has desired to
regain this land, but at the time of writing November
nineteen eighteen, there is no likelihood of her doing so.
A distinguished Englishman, mister Balfour, the Foreign Secretary, having declared
that under no circumstances can Germany's African colonies be returned

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to her, as such return would endanger the security of
the British Empire, and that is to say, the security
of the world. This problem is but typical of the
larger political questions that press for settlement in the New Africa.
Whatever the solution may be, one or two facts stand
out clearly. One is that Africa can no longer rest

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in undisturbed slumber. A terrible war, the most ruinous in
the history of humanity, has strained to the utmost the
resources of all the great powers of the world. Where
so much has been spent, it is not to be
supposed that the richest, the most fertile land in the
world will indefinitely be allowed to remain undeveloped. Along with

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material development, Musco also the education and the spiritual culture
of the natives on a scale undreamed of before. In
this training, such an enlightened country as England will naturally
play a leading role, and America too will doubtless be
called on to help in more ways than one. It
must not be supposed, however, that the task is not

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one of enormous difficulties. As far as we have advanced
in our missionary activities in America, we have hardly made
a beginning in the great task of the proper development
of Africa. Here are approximately one hundred seventy five million
natives to be trained and christianized. Let us not make
the common mistake of supposing that they are all ignorant

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and degraded savages. Nothing could be farther from the truth.
Many individuals have had the benefit of travel and study
in Europe, and more and more are themselves appreciating the
great problems before their country. It is true, however, that
the great mass of the population is yet to be reached.
In the general development, delicate questions of racial contact are

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to be answered, Unfortunately, in the attitude of the European
colonists toward the native South. Africa has a race problem
even more stern than that of our own southern states.
As for religion, we not only find paganism and Mohammedanism,
but we also see Catholicism arrayed against Protestantism, and perhaps

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most interesting of all, a definite movement toward the enhancement
of a native Ethiopian Church, with the motto Africa for
the Africans. Let us add to all this numerous social
problems such as polygamy, the widespread sale of Rome, and
all the train of African superstition, and we shall see

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that anyone who works in Africa in the New day
must not only be a person of keen intelligence and
Christian character, but also one with some genuine vis and statesmanship.
Workers of this quality, if they can be found, will
be needed not by the scores or hundreds, but by
the thousands and tens of thousands. No larger mission could

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come to a young Negro in America trained in Christian
study than to make his or her life a part
of the redemption of the Great Fatherland. The salvation of
Africa is at once the most pressing problem before either
the Negro race or the Kingdom of Christ. Such a worker,
as we have tried to portray, was Nora Gordon. It

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is to be hoped that not one, but thousands like
her will arise. Even now we can see the beginning
of the fulfillment of the prophecy. Princes shall come out
of Egypt. Ethiopia shall soon stretch out her hands unto God.
End of Section two