Page:The Afro-American Press.djvu/310

302 He was a lover of books, and an earnest student. He has preached several annual sermons before school associations, state conventions, and various societies. He is a natural orator, and never fails to capture his audience. He is witty and humorous, almost to a fault. It is his aim in speaking to tell the truth, and thereby touch the hearts of his hearers.

Although a busy journalist, he is now pastor of the Dexter Avenue Baptist church, whose members are among the most refined people of the state, his congregation being largely composed of the business men of the city, as well as of lawyers, doctors, school teachers, and merchants. The church edifice, one of the finest in the South, was four years in building, and cost over $50,000.

Mr. McEwen is a member of the board of trustees of Selma University, and chairman of the state mission board. In politics, he is a Republican, and is a member of the state executive board of the Republican party.

As a journalist, he stands well with both the white and the colored people. In 1886, he began editing The Montgomery Herald, after the Duke trouble, and restored peace between the whites and the blacks. At the request of his friends, he resigned the editorial control of The Herald, and in the latter part of 1887 took charge of The Baptist Leader, in the interest of 150,000 Baptists of the state. This paper has a wide circulation, and ranks among the best journals of the day.

Editor McEwen is distinguished as a peace-making journalist, and did excellent service when the whites were so excited over articles regarded as incendiary, published by Mr. Duke, then editor of The Montgomery Herald. There is nothing of a fiery nature about his writings. He is always cool and deliberate, and a firm defender of race rights and race principles. The Baptist Leader, of which he is now editor, in make-up and appearance shows progress upon the