16. William W. Patton, The Gilgal of the Colored race. A Baccalaureate Discourse, by President Wm. W. Patton, D, D., Delivered in the Chapel of Howard University, Washington, D. C. May 30, 1880 (Washington, DC: National Republican Printing House, 1880). (16 p.)


Sermon emphasizing the “faults and weaknesses” of African Americans as much as it flatters them for “their character and abilities” preached at the University’s commencement exercises in 1880. The text for the sermon comes from Joshua 5:9. “And the Lord said unto Joshua, This day have I rolled away the reproach of Egypt from off you. Wherefore the name of the place is called Gilgal [A Rolling Away] unto this day.”