A
black man was tortured and put to death on August of 1911 in Coatesville,
Pennsylvania. Dozens of American citizens committed the heinous act, hundreds
of American citizens stood idly witnessing the event happen, and one man, after
reading the tragedy through news, was enraged and depressed. The man is called
John Jay Chapman, and he was a then a mildly known lecturer and literature
critic. The speech he delivered in Coatesville the following year, however,
went beyond the boundaries of either academic discussion or literature analysis.
Chapman articulately condemned humanity’s tendency of inaction and questioned humanity’s
belief in educational progress At first, only two people attended to his
commemoration of the black man and heard his speech, but many more gradually
became aware of his address, even to the extent that the speech was recognized
in “Memories and Milestones”.
Chapman’s speech did not become great
because it compelled listeners to reflect upon their unconcern The speech
became great because of itself, because of how Chapman crated it. Chapman deliberately
opened his speech with heart-touching imageries to emphasize on his views of
humanity’s natural sinfulness. He described how “a few desperate, fiend-minded
man had been permitted to torture and burn a Black man(Oates 71), he emphasized
on how “hundreds of well-dressed American citizens, idly watching, made no
attempt to stay the wickedness”(Oates 71), and he then remarked “I seemed to be
looking at the heart of a criminal” (Oates 72). The American people, the
educated and well-dressed people, were permitting evil to happen. Chapman saw
the education but not the heart.
Chapman, after overwhelming his listeners
with disturbing imageries, then brilliantly connected the imageries to his
listeners and even the American public through the emphasize on “we”. He
anticipated a possible rejection to his argument, saying “some may argue we
cannot act” and gave a forceful answer “we can, we are involved, and we are
still looking on” (Oates 73). “we” to Chapman represents the nation, it
represents humanity, and Chapman’s speech, as himself stated, represents the “truth
that touches all age and affects all souls in the world”(Oates 74).
The truth, as Chapman asserted, is still
with us today.
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