From the Introduction: In publishing this volume setting forth The Possibilities of the American Negro, it is not without a profound knowledge of my inability to treat so important a subject with the thoroughness that the present condition of :he Negro race demand. In the light of modern achievements of colored men and women in the sciences, arts and industrial accomplishments a volume of more than one thousand pages could be written without exhausting the thoughts of an ordinary student. In this work it is only intended to call attention to a few of the most potent forces that must enter into the lives of the Afro-Americans if they would, in the near future, become a permanent and resourceful factor in the economical life of the American people.

From the Foreword: This book is published with the hope that it may conserve the praiseowrthy deeds of Baptists for the past fifty years and with the hope that it may be useful for our children fifty years hence, when they shall celebrate the Centennial of Baptists in Kentucky.

From the Foreward: From close contact with children we are conscious of the fact that they are facing many problems, and not least among them are those problems which have to do with relationships and adjustments between social and racial groups. One among the many of these situations is the relationship which exists between the Negro and the white.

From the Introduction: The purpose of this book is twofold, viz., to encourage the colored people generally to adopt a higher plane of living and thinking by setting before them for imitation the lives and heroic accomplishments of a number of eminently successful members of their race and, at the same time, to let people of other nationalities behold for themselves the truth that all Negroes are not illiterate and depraved, as some may think, but that on the contrary, there are many saints and otherwise distinguished persons among them.