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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d7b82bc --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,4 @@ +*.txt text eol=lf +*.htm text eol=lf +*.html text eol=lf +*.md text eol=lf diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..48b8a4c --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #69712 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/69712) diff --git a/old/69712-0.txt b/old/69712-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 3d55c88..0000000 --- a/old/69712-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,4860 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg eBook of When Africa awakes, by Hubert H. -Harrison - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and -most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms -of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you -will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before -using this eBook. - -Title: When Africa awakes - The "inside story" of the stirrings and strivings of the new - Negro in the Western world - -Author: Hubert H. Harrison - -Release Date: January 5, 2023 [eBook #69712] - -Language: English - -Produced by: Neal Caren. This file was derived from images generously - made available by Columbia University, the University of - Chicago, and the University of Iowa through the HathiTrust. - -*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WHEN AFRICA AWAKES *** - - - - - - WHEN AFRICA AWAKES - THE “INSIDE STORY” OF THE STIRRINGS AND STRIVINGS - - - By HUBERT H. HARRISON, D.S.C. - - Author of “The Negro and the Nation,” “Lincoln - and Liberty,” and Associate Editor of the Negro World - - COPYRIGHTED - By HUBERT H. HARRISON, 1920. - - PUBLISHED BY - THE PORRO PRESS - 513 Lenox Avenue - 1920 - - - - - - THIS LITTLE RECORD - IS AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED - TO THOSE WHO - STOOD BY MY SIDE - IN - LOVE, LABOR AND SACRIFICE - WHEN - THE FOUNDATIONS - WERE LAID - - - - -[Illustration: Hubert H. Harrison] - - - - - TABLE OF CONTENTS - -CHAPTERS PAGE - - INTRODUCTION 5 - -1. THE BEGINNINGS 9 - Launching the Liberty League. — Resolutions Passed at - Liberty League Meeting. — Petition to Congress. - -2. DEMOCRACY AND RACE FRICTION. 14 - The East St. Louis Horror. — “Arms and the Man.” — - The Negro and the Labor Unions. — Lynching: Its Cause - and Cure. - -3. THE NEGRO AND THE WAR. 25 - Is Democracy Unpatriotic? — Why Is the Red Cross? — - A Hint of “Our Reward.” — The Negro at the Peace - Congress. — Africa and the Peace. — “They Shall Not - Pass.” — A Cure for the Ku-Klux - -4. THE NEW POLITICS. 39 - The New Politics for the New Negro. — The Drift in - Politics. — A Negro for President. — When the Tail Wags - the Dog. — The Grand Old Party. - -5. THE PROBLEMS OF LEADERSHIP. 54 - Our Professional “Friends.” — Shillady Resigns. — Our - White Friends. — A Tender Point. — The Descent of Du - Bois. — When the Blind Lead. — Just Crabs. - -6. THE NEW RACE-CONSCIOUSNESS. 76 - The Negro’s Own Radicalism. — Race First versus Class - First. — An Open Letter to the Socialist. Party. — - “Patronize Your Own.” — The Women of Our Race. — To - The Young Men of My Race. - -7. OUR INTERNATIONAL CONSCIOUSNESS. 96 - The White War and the Colored World — U-need-a - Biscuit. — Our Larger Duty. — Help Wanted for Hayti. — - The Cracker in the Caribbean. — When Might Makes - Right. — Bolshevism in Barbados. — A New International. - The Rising Tide of Color. — The White War and the - Colored Races. - -8. EDUCATION AND THE RACE. 123 - Reading for Knowledge. — Education and the Race. — - The Racial Roots of Culture. — The New Knowledge for - the New Negro. - -9. A FEW BOOKS. 135 - The Negro in History and Civilization. — Darkwater. — - The Rising Tide of Color Against White World-Supremacy. - - EPILOGUE: THE BLACK MAN’S BURDEN; A Reply 145 - to Rudyard Kipling - - - - - INTRODUCTORY - -The Great War of 1914–1918 has served to liberate many new ideas -undreamt of by those who rushed humanity into that bath of blood. During -that war the idea of democracy was widely advertised, especially in the -English-speaking world; mainly as a convenient camouflage behind which -competing imperialists masked their sordid aims. Even the dullest can -now see that those who so loudly proclaimed and formulated the new -democratic demands never had the slightest intention of extending either -the limits or the applications of “democracy.” Ireland and India, Egypt -and Russia are still the Ithuriel’s spear of the great democratic -pretence. The flamboyant advertising of “democracy” has returned to -plague the inventors; for the subject populations who contributed their -millions in men and billions in treasure for the realization of the -ideal which was flaunted before their eyes are now clamoring for their -share of it. They are demanding that those who advertised democracy -shall now make good. This is the main root of that great unrest which is -now troubling the decrepit statesmanship of Europe and America. But the -rigid lines of the old regime will not permit the granting of these new -demands. Hence the new war against democracy which expresses itself in -the clever but futile attempt to outlaw the demands for fuller freedom -as “sedition” and “Bolshevism.” - -The most serious aspect of this new situation is the racial one. The -white world has been playing with the catch-words of democracy while -ruthlessly ruling an overwhelming majority of black, brown and yellow -peoples to whom these catchwords were never intended to apply. But these -many-colored millions have taken part in the war “to make the world safe -for democracy,” and they are now insisting that democracy shall be made -safe for them. This, in plain English, their white overlords do not -intend to concede. “The undictated development of all peoples” was, at -best, intended “for white people only.” Thus, white civilization is -brought face to face with a crisis out of which may easily grow military -conflicts of tremendous scope and, more remotely, the passing of -international control out of the hands of a few white nations. - -The tenseness of this new situation has been reflected here in the -United States in the mental attitude of the Negro people. They have -developed new ideas of their own place in the category of races and have -evolved new conceptions of their powers and destiny. These ideas have -quickened their race-consciousness and they are making new demands on -themselves, on their leaders and on the white people in whose midst they -live. These new demands apply to politics, domestic and international, -to education and culture, to commerce and industry. It seems proper that -the white people of America should know what these demands are and -should understand the spirit in which they are being urged. Obviously, -it is not well that they should be misrepresented and lied about. Futile -fulminations about the spread of “Bolshevism” among Negroes by -“agitators” will not help toward an understanding of this new -phenomenon. They can but befog the issues and defer the dawning of a -better day. On the other hand, the Negro people will profit by a -clarified presentation of their own side of the case. It is to meet this -dual need that this little book is launched. It is a compilation of some -of the author’s contributions to Negro journalism between 1917 and the -present year and consists of selected editorials, special articles and -reviews written for The Voice, The New Negro, and The Negro World. I -have selected for reproduction those only which could fairly be -considered as expositions of the new point of view evolved during the -Great War and coming into prominence since the peace was signed. So far, -this point of view has not been fully presented-by the Negro. White men, -like Messrs. Sandburg and Seligman, have essayed to interpret it to the -white world. This little volume presents directly that which they would -interpret. - -It may seem unusual to put into permanent form the deliverances of this -species of literature. But I venture to think that, as literature, they -will stand the test; and I am willing to assume the risks. Besides, I -feel that I owe it to my people to preserve this cross-section of their -new-found soul. It was my privilege to assist in shaping some of the -forms of the new consciousness; and to preserve for posterity a portion -of its record has seemed a duty which should not be shirked. - -It was in 1916 that I first began to hammer out some of the ideas which -will be found in these pages. It was in that year that I gave up my work -as a lecturer and teacher among white people to give myself exclusively -to work among my own people. In the summer of 1917, with the financial -aid of many poor but willing hearts I brought out _The Voice_, the first -Negro journal of the new dispensation, and, for some time, the only one. -The Voice failed in March, 1919; but in the meanwhile it had managed to -make an indelible impression. Many of the writings reproduced here are -taken from its files. The others are from _The Negro World_, of which I -assumed the joint editorship in January of this year. A few appeared in -_The New Negro_, a monthly magazine which I edited for a short time. - -The account of the launching of the Liberty League is given here in the -first chapter because that meeting at historic Bethel on June 12, 1917, -and the labors of tongue and pen out of which that meeting emerged were -the foundation for the mighty structures of racial propaganda which have -been raised since then. This is a fact not generally known because I -have not hankered after newspaper publicity. - -It is hardly necessary to point out that the AFRICA of the title is to -be taken in its racial rather than in its geographical sense. - -HUBERT H. HARRISON. -New York, August 15, 1920. - - - - - CHAPTER I. THE BEGINNINGS - - _Launching the Liberty League_ - (From _The Voice_ of July 4, 1917.) - -The Liberty League of Negro-Americans, which was recently organized by -the Negroes of New York, presents the most startling program of any -organization of Negroes in the country today. This is nothing less than -the demand that the Negroes of the United States be given a chance to -enthuse over democracy for themselves in America before they are -expected to enthuse over democracy in Europe. The League is composed of -“Negro-Americans, loyal to their country in every respect, and obedient -to her laws.” - -The League has an interesting history. It grew out of the labors of -Mr. Hubert H. Harrison, who has been on the lecture platform for years -and is well and favorably known to thousands of white New Yorkers from -Wall Street to Washington Heights. - -Two years ago Mr. Harrison withdrew from an international political -organization, and, a little more than a year ago, gave up lecturing to -white people, to devote himself to lecturing exclusively among his own -people. He acquired so much influence among them that when he issued the -first call for a mass-meeting “to protest against lynching in the land -of liberty and disfranchisement in the home of democracy,” although the -call was not advertised in any newspaper, the church in which the -meeting was held was packed from top to bottom. At this mass-meeting, -which was held at Bethel Church on June 12, the organization was -effected and funds were raised to sustain it and to extend its work all -over the country. - -Harrison was subsequently elected its president, with Edgar Grey and -James Harris as secretary and treasurer, respectively. At the close of -this mass-meeting he hurriedly took the midnight train for Boston, where -a call for a similar meeting had been issued by W. Monroe Trotter, -editor of _The Boston Guardian_. While there he delivered an address in -Fanueil Hall, the cradle of American liberty, and told the Negroes of -Boston what their brothers in New York had done and were doing. The -result was the linking up of the New York and the Boston organizations, -and Harrison was elected chairman of a national committee of -arrangements to issue a call to every Negro organization in the country -to send delegates to a great race-congress which is to meet in -Washington in September or October and put their grievances before the -country and Congress. - -At the New York mass-meeting money was subscribed for the establishment -of a newspaper to be known as The Voice and to serve as the medium of -expression for the new demands and aspirations of the new Negro. It was -made clear that this “New Negro Movement” represented a breaking away of -the Negro masses from the grip of the old-time leaders—none of whom was -represented at the meeting. The audience rose to their feet with cheers -when Harrison was introduced by the chairman. The most striking passages -of his speech were those in which he demanded that Congress make -lynching a Federal crime and take the Negro’s life under national -protection, and declared that since lynching was murder and a violation -of Federal and State laws, it was incumbent upon the Negroes themselves -to maintain the majesty of the law and put down the law-breakers by -organizing all over the South to defend their own lives whenever their -right to live was invaded by mobs which the local authorities were too -weak or unwilling to suppress. - -The meeting was also addressed by Mr. J. C. Thomas, Jr., a young Negro -lawyer, who pointed out the weakness and subserviency of the old-time -political leaders and insisted that Negroes stop begging for charity in -the matter of their legal rights and demand justice instead. - -Mr. Marcus Garvey, president of the Jamaica Improvement Association, was -next introduced by Mr. Harrison. He spoke in enthusiastic approval of -the new movement and pledged it his hearty support. - -After the Rev. Dr. Cooper, the pastor of Bethel, had addressed the -meeting, the following resolutions were adopted and a petition to -Congress was prepared and circulated. In addition the meeting sent a -telegram to the Jews of Russia, congratulating them upon the acquisition -of full political and civil rights and expressing the hope that the -United States might soon follow the democratic example of Russia. - - - _Resolutions Passed at the Liberty League Meeting_ - -Two thousand Negro-Americans assembled in mass-meeting at Bethel A.M.E. -Church to protest against lynching in the land of liberty, and -disfranchisement in the home of democracy have, after due deliberation, -adopted the following resolutions and make them known to the world at -large in the earnest hope that whenever the world shall be made safe for -democracy our corner of that world will not be forgotten. - -_We believe that this world war will and must result in a larger measure -of democracy for the peoples engaged therein—whatever may be the secret -ambitions of their several rulers._ - -_We therefore ask, first, that when the war shall be ended and the -council of peace shall meet to secure to every people the right to rule -their own ancestral lands free from the domination of tyrants, domestic -and foreign, the similar rights of the 250,000,000 Negroes of Africa be -conceded. Not to concede them this is to lay the foundation for more -wars in the future and to saddle the new democracies with the burden of -a militarism greater than that under which the world now groans._ - -Secondly, we, as Negro-Americans who have poured out our blood freely in -every war of the Republic, and upheld her flag with undivided loyalty, -demand that since we have shared to the full measure of manhood in -bearing the burdens of democracy we should also share in the rights and -privileges of that democracy. - -And we believe that the present time, when the hearts of ninety millions -of our white fellow-citizens are aflame with the passionate ardor of -democracy which has carried them into the greatest war of the age with -the sole purpose of suppressing autocracy in Europe, is the best time to -appeal to them to give to twelve millions of us the elementary rights of -democracy at home. - -For democracy, like charity, begins at home, and we find it hard to -endure without murmur and with the acquiescence of our government the -awful evils of lynching, which is a denial of the right to life; of -segregation, Jim Crowism and peonage, which are a denial of the right to -liberty; and disfranchisement, which is a denial of justice and -democracy. - -And since Imperial Russia, formerly the most tyrannous government in -Europe, has been transformed into Republican Russia, whereby millions of -political serfs have been lifted to the level of citizenship rights; -since England is offering the meed of political manhood to the hitherto -oppressed Irish and the down-trodden Hindu; and since these things have -helped to make good the democratic assertions of these countries of the -old world now engaged in war; - -Therefore, be it resolved: - -That we, the Negro people of the first republic of the New World, ask -all true friends of democracy in this country to help us to win these -same precious rights for ourselves and our children. - -That we invite the government’s attention to the great danger which -threatens democracy through the continued violation of the 13th, 14th -and 15th amendments, which is a denial of justice and the existence of -mob-law for Negroes from Florida to New York; - -That we intend to protest and to agitate by every legal means until we -win these rights from the hands of our government and induce it to -protect democracy from these dangers, and square the deeds of our nation -with its declarations; - -That we create adequate instruments for securing these ends and make our -voice heard and heeded in the councils of our country, and - -That copies of these resolutions be forwarded to the Congress of the -United States and to such other public bodies as shall seem proper to -us. - - - _The Liberty League’s Petition to the House of Representatives - of the United States, July 4, 1917_ - -We, the Negro people of the United States, loyal to our country in every -respect, and obedient to her laws, respectfully petition your honorable -body for a redress of the specific grievances and flagrant violations of -your own laws as set forth in this statement. We beg to call your -attention to the discrepancy which exists between the public profession -of the government that we are lavishing our resources of men and money -in this war in order to make the world safe for democracy, and the just -as public performances of lynching-bees, Jim-crowism and -disfranchisement in which our common country abounds. - -We should like to believe in our government’s professions of democracy, -but find it hard to do so in the presence of the facts; and we judge -that millions of other people outside of the country will find it just -as hard. - -Desirous, therefore, of squaring our country’s profession with her -performance, that she may not appear morally contemptible in the eyes of -friends and foes alike, we, the Negro people of the United States, who -have never been guilty of any disloyalty or treason to our government, -demand that the nation shall justify to the world her assertions of -democracy by setting free the millions of Negroes in the South from -political and civil slavery through the enactment of laws which will -either take the Negroes under the direct protection of the U. S. -Congress by making lynching a Federal crime, or (by legislative mandate) -compelling the several States which now deprive the Negroes of their -right to self-government, to give them the suffrage as Russia has done -for her Jews. W ask his in the name of the American declaration that the -world shall be made safe for democracy and fervently pray that your -honorable body will not go back upon democracy. - - - - - CHAPTER II. - DEMOCRACY AND RACE FRICTION - - - _The East St. Louis Horror_ - -This nation is now at war to make the world “safe for democracy,” but -the Negro’s contention in the court of public opinion is that until this -nation itself is made safe for twelve million of its subjects the Negro, -at least, will refuse to believe in the democratic assertions of the -country. The East St. Louis pogrom gives point to this contention. Here, -on the eve of the celebration of the Nation’s birthday of freedom and -equality, the white people, who are denouncing the Germans as Huns and -barbarians, break loose in an orgy of unprovoked and villainous -barbarism which neither Germans nor any other civilized people have ever -equalled. - -How can America hold up its hands in hypocritical horror at foreign -barbarism while the red blood of the Negro is clinging to those hands? -so long as the President and Congress of the United States remain dumb -in the presence of barbarities in their own land which would tip their -tongues with righteous indignation if they had been done in Belgium, -Ireland or Galicia? - -And what are the Negroes to do? Are they expected to re-echo with -enthusiasm the patriotic protestations of the boot-licking leaders whose -pockets and positions testify to the power of the white man’s gold? Let -there be no mistake. Whatever the Negroes may be compelled by law to do -and say, the resentment in their hearts will not down. Unbeknown to the -white people of this land a temper is being developed among Negroes with -which the American people will have to reckon. - -At the present moment it takes this form: If white men are to kill -unoffending Negroes, Negroes must kill white men in defense of their -lives and property. This is the lesson of the East St. Louis massacre. - -The press reports declare that, “the troops who were on duty during the -most serious disturbances were ordered not to shoot.” The civil and -military authorities are evidently winking at the work of the -mobs—horrible as that was—and the Negroes of the city need not look to -them for protection. They must protect themselves. And even the United -States Supreme Court concedes them this right. - -There is, in addition, a method of retaliation which we urge upon them. - -It is one which will hit those white men who have the power to prevent -lawlessness just where they will feel it most, in the place where they -keep their consciences—the pocket-book. Let every Negro in East -St. Louis and the other cities where race rioting occurs draw his money -from the savings-bank and either bank it in the other cities or in the -postal savings bank. The only part of the news reports with which we are -well pleased is that which states that the property loss is already -estimated at a million and a half of dollars. - -Another reassuring feature is the one suppressed in most of the news -dispatches. We refer to the evidences that the East St. Louis Negroes -organized themselves during the riots and fought back under some kind of -leadership. We Negroes will never know, perhaps, how many whites were -killed by our enraged brothers in East St. Louis. It isn’t the -news-policy of the white newspapers (whether friendly or unfriendly) to -spread such news broadcast. It might teach Negroes too much. But we will -hope for the best. - -The occurrence should serve to enlarge rapidly the membership of The -Liberty League of Negro-Americans which was organized to take practical -steps to help our people all over the land in the protection of their -lives and liberties. —July 4th, 1917. - - - _“Arms and the Man”_ - -In its editorial on “The East St. Louis Horror” _The Voice_ said: - - How can America hold up its hands in hypocritical horror at foreign - barbarism while the red blood of the Negro is clinging to those hands? - So long as the President and Congress of the United States remain dumb - in the presence of barbarities in their own land which would tip their - tongues with righteous indignation if they had been done in Belgium, - Ireland or Galicia? - - And what are the Negroes to do? Are they expected to re-echo with - enthusiasm the patriotic protestations of the boot-licking leaders - whose pockets and positions testify to the power of the white man’s - gold? Let there be no mistake. Whatever the Negroes may be compelled - by law to do and say, the resentment in their hearts will not down. - _Unbeknown to the white people of this land a temper is being - developed among Negroes with which the American people will have to - reckon._ - - _At the present moment it takes this form: If white men are to kill - unoffending Negroes, Negroes must kill white men in defence of their - lives and property. This is the lesson of the East St. Louis - massacre._ - -To this, the New York _Age_ makes reply in two ways. Its editor, in an -interview given to the _Tribune_, declares that: - - The representative Negro does not approve of radical socialistic - outbursts, such as calling upon the Negroes to defend themselves - against the whites. - -And in its editorial of last week it insists that: - - No man, or woman either, for that matter, is a friend to the race, who - publicly advises a resort to violence to redress the wrongs and - injustices to which members of the race are subjected in various - sections of the country at the present time. - - The Negro race is afflicted with many individuals whose wagging - tongues are apt to lead them into indiscreet utterances that reflect - upon the whole race. … The unruly tongues should not be allowed to - alienate public sympathy from the cause of the oppressed. - -Now, although _The Voice_ seeks no quarrel with _The Age_, we are forced -to dissent from this cringing, obsequious view which it champions. And -we do this on the ground that cringing has gone out of date, that _The -Age’s_ view does not now represent any influential or important section -of Negro opinion. The group which once held that view went to pieces -when Dr. Washington died. The white papers in their news items of last -week gave instance after instance showing that Negroes not only -counselled self-defense, but actually practiced it. (And _The Age_, by -the way, was the only _Negro_ paper in New York City which excluded -these items from its news columns.) If the press reports are correct, -then _The Voice_ told the simple truth when it spoke of the new temper -which was being developed “unbeknown to the white people of this land.” -And an outsider might conclude that _The Voice_ was a better friend to -the white people by letting them know this, than The Age was by trying -to lie about it. - -But the controversy goes much deeper than the question of candor and -truthfulness. _The Age_ and _The Voice_ join issue on this double -question: Have Negroes a right to defend themselves against whites? -Should they defend themselves? (And this, of course, means violence.) -_The Voice_ answers, “Yes!” _The Age_ answers “No!” Who is to decide? -Let us appeal to the courts. Every law-book and statute-book, every -court in the civilized world and in the United States agree that every -_human_ being has the legal as well as moral right to kill those who -attack and try to kill him. Then the question for _The Age_ to decide, -is whether Negroes are human beings. To call our view “socialistic” is -to call the courts “socialistic,” and displays an amazing ignorance both -of Socialism and of human nature. - -Before we leave this question, it is proper to consider the near and -remote consequences of the radical view. _The Age_ says that unruly -tongues will alienate public sympathy from the oppressed. Good God! -Isn’t it high time to ask of what value is that kind of sympathy which -is ready to be alienated as soon as Negroes cease to be “niggers” and -insist on being men? Is that the sort of sympathy on which _The Age_ has -thrived? Then we will have none of it. - -And, as to the remoter consequences: neither we nor _The Age_ has a -lease on the future. We can but prophesy. But intelligent people reach -the unknown via the known, and prophesy the future from the known past -and present. And we do know that no race or group of people past or -present ever won to the status of manhood among men by yielding up that -right which even a singed cat will not yield up—the right to defend -their lives. If _The Age_ knows of any instance to the contrary in the -history of the past seven thousand years, let it mention that instance. -But _The Age_ may ask: - -“What will self defense accomplish?” Let us see first what the absence -of self-defense accomplishes. In its news account of the St. Louis -massacre, the _Amsterdam News_ shows that whenever the white mobs found -a group of Negroes organized and armed, _they turned back_; while _The -Age_ itself had this significant and pathetic sentence: - - Since the massacre, which will go down in history alongside the - atrocities committed in Brussels and Rheims, a delegation of Negroes - has held a conference with Governor Lowden at Springfield, _but the - outcome of this meeting will not bring back the lives of those who, - for no valid reason, were struck down and murdered in cold blood._ - -Taking the two things together the answer seems clear enough. When -murder is cheap murder is indulged in recklessly; when it is likely to -be costly it is not so readily indulged in. Will _The Age_ venture to -deny this? No? Then we say, let Negroes help to make murder costly, for -by so doing they will aid the officers of the city, state and nation in -instilling respect for law and order into the minds of the worst and -lowest elements of our American cities. And we go further: We say that -it is not alone the brutality of the whites—it is also the cowardice of -Negroes and the lickspittle leadership of the last two decades which, -like _The Age_, told us to “take it all lying down”—it is this which has -been the main reason for our “bein’ so aisily lynched,” as Mr. Dooley -puts it. - -Whatever _The Age_ may say, Negroes will fight back as they are already -fighting back. And they will be more highly regarded—as are the -Irish—because of fighting back. - -We are aiming at the white man’s respect—not at his sympathy. We cannot -win that respect by any conspicuous and contemptible cowardice; the only -kind of sympathy which we may win by that is the kind of sympathy which -men feel for a well-kicked dog which cringes while they kick it. - -“Rights are to be won by those who are ready and willing to fight, if -necessary, to have those rights respected.” - -Who says this? Theodore Roosevelt. So does President Wilson. So does the -U. S. Government. That is why we went to war with Germany. Our country -always acts upon the best and highest principle and we Negroes have just -begun to see that our country is quite right. Therefore, we are willing -to follow its glorious example. That is all. - - - _The Negro and the Labor Unions_ - -There are two kinds of labor unionism; the A.F. of L. kind and the other -kind. So far, the Negro has been taught to think that all unionism was -like the unionism of the American Federation of Labor, and because of -this ignorance, his attitude toward organized labor has been that of the -scab. For this no member of the A.F. of L. can blame the Negro. The -policy of that organization toward the Negro has been damnable. It has -kept him out of work and out of the unions as long as it could; and when -it could no longer do this it has taken him in, tricked him, and -discriminated against him. - -On the other hand, the big capitalists who pay low wages (from the son -of Abraham Lincoln in the Pullman Co. to Julius Rosenwald of the Sears -Roebuck Co.) have been rather friendly to the Negro. They have given -their money to help him build Y.M.C.A.’s and schools of a certain type. -They have given him community help in Northern cities and have expended -charity on him— and on the newspapers and parsons who taught him. Small -wonder, then, that the Negro people are anti-union. - -Labor unions were created by white working men that they might bring the -pressure of many to bear upon the greedy employer and make him give -higher wages and better living conditions to the laborer. When they, in -turn, become so greedy that they keep out the majority of working -people, by high dues and initiation fees, they no longer represent the -interests of the laboring class. They stand in the way of this class’s -advancement—_and they must go_. They must leave the way clear for the -20th century type of unionism which says: “To leave a single worker out -is to leave something for the boss to use against us. Therefore we must -organize in One Big Union of all the working-class.” This is the type of -unionism which organized, in 1911, 18,000 white and 14,000 black timber -workers in Louisiana. This is the I.W.W. type of unionism, and the -employers use their newspapers to make the public believe that it stands -for anarchy, violence, law-breaking and atheism, because they know that -if it succeeds it will break them. - -This type of unionism wants Negroes—not because its promoters love -Negroes—but because they realize that they cannot win if any of the -working class is left out; and after winning they cannot go back on them -because they could be used as scabs to break the unions. - -The A.F. of L., which claims a part of the responsibility for the East -St. Louis outrage, is playing with fire. The American Negro may join -hands with the American capitalist and scab them out of existence. And -the editor of _The Voice_ calls upon Negroes to do this. We have stood -the American Federation of Labor just about long enough. Join hands with -the capitalists and scab them out of existence—not in the name of -scabbery, but in the name of a real organization of labor. Form your own -unions (the A.C.E. is already in the field) and make a truce with your -capitalist enemy until you get rid of this traitor to the cause of -labor. Offer your labor to capitalism if it will agree to protect you in -your right to labor—and see that it does. Then get rid of the A.F. of L. - -The writer has been a member of a party which stood for the rights of -labor and the principle of Industrial Unionism (the 20th century kind). -He understands the labor conditions of the country and desires to see -the working man win out. But his first duty, here as everywhere, is to -the Negro race. And he refuses to put ahead of his race’s rights a -collection of diddering jackasses which can publicly palliate such -atrocities as that of East St. Louis and publicly assume, as Gompers -did, responsibility for it. Therefore, he issues the advice to the -workers of his race to “can the A.F. of L.” Since the A.F. of L. chooses -to put Race before Class, let us return the compliment. - - - _Lynching: Its Cause and Cure_ - -Last week we had occasion to comment on the resignation of Mr. John R. -Shillady from the secretaryship of the N.A.A.C.P. Mr. Shillady’s -statement accompanying his resignation contains these significant -words:— - -“I am less confident than heretofore of the speedy success of the -association’s full program and of the probability of overcoming within a -reasonable period the forces opposed to Negro equality by the means and -methods which are within the association’s power to employ.” - -That the N.A.A.C.P. is not likely to affect the lynchings in this land -can be seen with half an eye by any one who will note that Governor J. -A. Burnquist of Minnesota “is also president of the St. Paul branch of -the association and one of the staunch supporters of its work”; that the -Minnesota lynching of last week was one of the most cynically brutal -that has occurred North or South in the last ten years, and that the -association has offered and is offering to give the Governor all the -assistance possible. - -In most of the other cases of lynchings it is assumed that all the -officials were in collusion with the forces of violence, or were at any -rate in acquiescence. In the present case, however, the Governor of the -State is himself a high officer of the association. Yet we venture to -prophesy that no more will be done in the case of the Minnesota -lynchings than in the case of lynchings further south. - -This leads us to a front face consideration of the problem of lynching. -Why do white men lynch black men in America? We are not dealing here -with the original historical cause; nor even with its present social -application. We are considering merely the efficient cause. White men -lynch black men or any other men because those men’s lives are -unprotected either by the authorities of the commonwealth or by the -victims themselves. White men lynch Negroes in America because Negroes’ -lives are cheap. So long as they so remain, so long will lynching remain -an evil to be talked about, written about, petitioned against and -slobbered over. But not all the slobber, the talk or the petitions are -worth the time it takes to indulge in them, so far as the saving of a -single Negro life is concerned. - -What, then, is the cure? The cure follows from the nature of the cause. -Let Negroes determine that their lives shall no longer be cheap; but -that they will exact for them as high a price as any other element in -the community under similar circumstances would exact. Let them see to -it that their lives are protected and defended, if not by the State, -then certainly by themselves. Then we will see the cracker stopping to -take counsel with himself and to think twice before he joins a mob in -whose gruesome holiday sport he himself is likely to furnish one of the -casualties. - -“Let Negroes help to make murder costly, for by so doing they will aid -the officers of the city, State and nation in instilling respect for law -and order into the minds of the worst and lowest elements of our -American cities.” The law of every State says explicitly that killing in -defense of one’s own life is strictly proper, legal and justifiable. -Therefore, if Negroes determine to defend themselves from the horrible -outrage of lynching they should have the support of every official and -every citizen who really believes in law and order and is determined to -make the law of the land stand as a living reality among the people that -made it. —July, 1920. - - - - - CHAPTER III. - THE NEGRO AND THE WAR - -[While the war lasted those of us who saw unpalatable truths were -compelled to do one of two things: either tell the truth as we saw it -and go to jail, or camouflage the truth that we had to tell. The present -writer told the truth for the most part, in so far as it related to our -race relations; but, in a few cases camouflage was safer and more -effective. That camouflage, however, was never of that truckling quality -which was accepted by the average American editor to such a nauseating -degree. I was well aware that Woodrow Wilson’s protestations of -democracy were lying protestations, consciously and deliberately -designed to deceive. What, then, was my duty in the face of that fact? I -chose to pretend that Woodrow Wilson meant what he said, because by so -doing I could safely hold up to contempt and ridicule the undemocratic -practices of his administration and the actions of his white countrymen -in regard to the Negro. How this was done is shown in the first two -editorials of the following chapter.] - - - _Is Democracy Unpatriotic?_ - -The present administration is all right. But it has its obstacles to -success. As usual some of the worst of these are its injudicious -“friends.” For instance, there are the people who are trying their best -to “queer” us in the eyes of civilized Europe. These silly souls, when -Negroes ask that the principle of “Justice in War Time”: be applied to -Negroes as well as whites, reply, in effect that this should not be; -that Negroes should not want Justice—in war time—and that any such -demand on their part is “disloyalty.” On the contrary, it is the fullest -loyalty to the letter and spirit of the President’s war-aims. To say -that it isn’t is to presume to accuse the President of having war-aims -other than those which he has set forth in the face of Europe. - -Besides, no one can deny that freedom from lynching and disfranchisement -and the ending of discrimination—by the Red Cross for instance—will -strengthen the hand of the administration right now by strengthening its -hold on the hearts of the Negro masses and will make all -Negroes—soldiers as well as civilians—more competent to give effective -aid in winning the war. - -Let us assume that we consent to being lynched—“during the war”—and -submit tamely and with commendable weakness to being Jim-crowed and -disfranchised. Very well. Will not that be the proof of our spirit and -of its quality? Of course. And what you _call_ that spirit won’t alter -its quality, will it? Now, ask all the peoples of all the world what -they call a people who smilingly consent to their own degradation and -destruction. They call such a people cowards—because they _are_ cowards. -In America we call such people “niggers.” - -Is anyone unpatriotic enough to pretend that “cowards” can lick “Huns”? -No, this great world-task can be accomplished only by men—English men, -French men, Italian men, American men. Our country needs men now more -than it ever did before. And those who multiply its reserve of men are -adding to its strength. That is why the true patriots who really love -America and want it to win the war are asking America to change its -Negroes from “niggers” into men. Surely this is a patriotic request; and -any one who says that it isn’t must be prepared to maintain that -lynching, Jim-crow and disfranchisement are consistent with patriotism -and ought to be preserved. Reading the President’s proclamations in -reverent spirit, we deny both of these monstrous conclusions; and we -believe that we have on our side the President of America, the world’s -foremost champion of democracy who defined it as “the right of all those -who submit to authority to have a VOICE in their own government”—whether -it be in Germany or in Georgia. And we believe that the splendid spirit -of our common country, which has buckled on its sword in support of -“democracy” will support us in this reasonable contention. —July, 1918. - - - _Why Is the Red Cross?_ - -The Red Cross, or Geneva Association, was the product of a Swiss -infidel. He saw how cruel to man were those who loved God most—the -Christians—and, out of his large humanity and loving kindness, he -evolved an organization which should bring the charity of service to -lessen the lurid horrors of Christian battlefields. - -A love that rose above the love of country—the love of human kind: this -was the proud principle of the Red Cross. Its nurses and its surgeons, -stretcher-bearers and assistants were supposed to bring relief to those -who were in pain, regardless of whether they were “friends” or -“enemies.” Discrimination was a word which did not exist for them: and -it is not supposed to exist now even as against the wounded German -aviator who has bombed a Red Cross hospital. - -But, alack and alas! The splendid spirit of the Swiss infidel is -seemingly too high for Christian race-prejudice to reach. Where he would -not discriminate even against enemies, the American branch of his -international society is discriminating against most loyal friends and -willing helpers—when they are Negroes. Up to date the American Red Cross -Society, which receives government aid and co-operation to help win the -war, cannot cite the name of a single Negro woman as a nurse. True, it -says that it has “enrolled” some. This we refuse to believe. But even if -that were true, a nurse “enrolled” cannot save the life of any of our -soldiers in France. - -The Red Cross says that it wants to win the war. What war? A white -people’s war, or America’s and the world’s? It this were a white -people’s war, as some seem to think, colored troops from Senegal, India, -Egypt, America and the West Indies would have been kept out of it. But -they were not, and we are driven to conclude that this is a world war. -Then why doesn’t the American Red Cross meet it in the spirit of the -President—of world democracy? The cry goes up for nurses to save the -lives of soldiers; yet here are thousands of Negro nurses whom the Red -Cross won’t accept. They must want to give Europe a “rotten” opinion of -American democracy. For we may be sure that these things are known in -Europe—even as our lynchings are. And anyone who would give Europe a -“rotten” opinion of America at this time is no friend of America. - -The American Red Cross must be compelled to do America’s work in the -spirit in which America has entered the war. There need be no biting of -tongues: it must be compelled to forego Race Prejudice. If the -N.A.A.C.P. were truly what it pretends instead of a National Association -for the Advancement of Certain People, it would put its high-class -lawyers on the job and bring the case into the United States courts. It -would charge the American Red Cross with disloyalty to the war-aims of -America. And if it does not (in spite of the money which it got from the -“silent” protest parade and other moneys and legal talent at its -disposal) then it will merit the name which one of its own members gave -it—the National Association for the Acceptance of Color Proscription. -Get busy, “friends of the colored people”! For we are not disposed to -regard the camouflage of those who want nurses but do not want Negro -nurses in any other light than that of Bret Harte’s Truthful James:— - - Which I wish to remark— - And my language is plain— - That for ways that are dark - And for tricks that are vain - The Heathen Chinee is peculiar: - Which the same I am free to maintain. - - - _A Hint of Our Reward_ - -The wisdom of our contemporary ancestors, having decided that “We -Negroes must make every sacrifice to help win the war and lay aside our -just demands for the present that we may win a shining place on the -pages of history,” it must be cold comfort to learn that the first -after-the-war schoolbook of American history is out, that it is written -by Reuben Gold Thwaites and Calvin Noyes Kendall, that it devotes -thirty-one pages to the war and America’s part in the war, and that _not -one word is said of the Negro’s part therein._ - -Of course, sensible men should feel no surprise at this, for they will -realize how little the part played by the Negro in the Civil War is -known by the millions of white school children who read the school -histories. Yet, if there is a spark of manhood left in the bosoms of our -“white men’s niggers” who sold us out during the war they must feel -pained and humiliated when the flood of after-the-war school histories, -of which this is the first, quietly sink the Negro’s contributions (as -chronicled by Mr. Emmett Scott and others) into the back waters of -forgetfulness. - -The times change, but we don’t change with them. - - - _The Negro at the Peace Congress_ - -Now that they have helped to win the war against Germany, the Negro -people in these United States feel the absurdity of the situation in -which they find themselves. They have given lavishly of their blood and -treasure. They have sent their young men overseas as soldiers, and were -willing to send their young women overseas as nurses; but the innate -race-prejudice of the American Red Cross prevented them. They have -contributed millions of dollars to the funds of this same Red Cross and -scores of millions to the four Liberty Loans; and they have done all -this to help make the world “safe for democracy” even while in sixteen -States of the south in which nine-tenths of them reside, they have no -voice in their own government. Naturally they expect that something will -have to be done to remove their civil and other disabilities. This -expectation of theirs is a just and reasonable one. But— — - -Now that the world is getting ready for the Peace Congress which is -expected to settle _the questions about which the war was fought_ our -Negroes want to know if the Peace Congress will settle such questions as -those of lynching, disfranchisement and segregation. IT WILL NOT! And -why? Simply because the war was not fought over these questions. Even a -fool can see that. Lynching, disfranchisement and Jim-crowing in America -are questions of American domestic policy and can be regulated only by -American law-making and administrative bodies. Even a fool should be -able to see this. And, since it was only by the military aid of the -United States that the Allies were able to win the war, why should our -people be stupid enough to think that the allied nations will aim a slap -at the face of the United States (even if such things were customary) by -attempting to interfere in her domestic arrangements and institutions? - -We learn that various bodies of Negroes, who do not seem to understand -the modern system of political government under which they live, are -seeking to get money from the unsuspecting masses of our people “for the -purpose of sending delegates to the Peace Congress.” The project is -sublimely silly. In the first place, the Peace Congress is not open to -anybody who chooses to be sent. A peep into any handbook of modern -history would show that Peace Congresses are made up only of delegates -chosen by the heads of the governments of the countries which have been -at war, and never by civic, propaganda, or other bodies within those -nations. Only the President of the United States has power to designate -the American delegates to the Peace Congress. - -Of course, if any body of people wish to send a visitor to Versailles or -Paris _at their expense_, the government of the United States has -nothing to do with that and would not prevent it. But such visitor, -lacking credentials from the President, could not get within a block of -the Peace Congress. They can (if they read French) get from the papers -published in the city where the Congress meets so much of the -proceedings as the Congress may choose to give to the press. But that is -all; and for that it is not necessary to go to France. Just send to -France for copies of _Le Temps_ or _Le Matin_ and prevent a useless -waste of the money of poor people who can ill afford it in any case. - -“But,” we are told, “such person or persons can make propaganda (in -France) which will force the Peace Congress to consider American -lynching, disfranchisement and segregation,” Passing over the argument -that such person or persons would have to be able to write French -fluently, we wish to point out that the public sentiment of even one -French city takes more than a month to work up; that the sentiment of -one French city can have but slight weight with the Congress, and that, -if it could rise to the height of embarrassing them, the French -authorities would sternly put it down and banish the troublesome -persons. Karl Marx, Prince Kropotkin, Malatesta and Lenine are cases in -point as showing what France has done under less provoking -circumstances. - -Let us not try to play the part of silly fools. Lynching, -disfranchisement and segregation are evils HERE; and the place in which -we must fight them is HERE. If foolish would-be leaders have no plan to -lay before our people for the fighting HERE, in God’s name, let them say -so, and stand out of the way! Let us gird up our loins for the stern -tasks which lie before us HERE and address ourselves to them with -courage and intelligence. - - - _Africa and the Peace_ - -“This war, disguise it how we may, is really being fought over African -questions.” So said Sir Harry Johnston, one of the foremost authorities -on Africa, in the London Sphere in June, 1917. We wonder if the Negroes -of the Western world quite realize what this means. Wars are not fought -for ideals but for lands whose populations can be put to work, for -resources that can be minted into millions, for trade that can be made -to enrich the privileged few. When King Leopold of Belgium and Thomas -Fortune Ryan of New York joined hands to exploit the wealth of the Congo -they did it with oiled phrases on their lips. They called that land of -horrors and of shame “The Congo FREE State!” - -And, so, when Nations go to war, they never openly declare what they -WANT. They must camouflage their sordid greed behind some sounding -phrase like “freedom of the seas,” “self-determination,” “liberty” or -“democracy.” But only the ignorant millions ever think that those are -the real objects of their bloody rivalries. When the war is over, the -mask is dropped, and then they seek “how best to scramble at the -shearers’ feast.” It is then that they disclose their real war aims. - -One of the most striking cases in point is the present peace congress. -Already President Wilson has had to go to look after democracy himself. -Already responsible heads of the Allied governments are making it known -that “freedom of the seas” means a benevolent naval despotism maintained -by them, and that “democracy” means simply the transfer of Germany’s -African lands to England and the others. Africa at the peace table -constitutes the real stakes which the winners will rake in. We may read -in headlines the startling item “Negroes Ask For German Colonies,” but -Negroes of sense should not be deluded. They will not get them because -they have no battleships, no guns, no force, military or financial. They -are not a Power. - -Despite the pious piffle of nice old gentlemen like Professor Kelly -Miller, the King-word of modern nations is POWER. It is only Sunday -school “kids” and people of child-races who take seriously such fables -as that in the “Band of Hope Review” when we were children that “the -secret of England’s greatness is the Bible.” The secret of England’s -greatness (as well as of any other great nation’s) is not bibles but -bayonets—bayonets, business and brains. As long as the white nations -have a preponderance of these, so long will they rule. Ask Japan: she -knows. And as long as the lands of Africa can yield billions of -business, so long will white brains use bayonets to keep them—as the -British government did last year in Nigeria. - -_Africa is turning over in her sleep, and this agitation now going on -among American Negroes for the liberation of Africa is a healthy sign of -her restlessness. But it is no more than that._ Africa’s hands are tied, -and, so tied, she will be thrown upon the peace table. Let us study how -to unloose her bonds later. Instead of futile expectations from the -doubtful generosity of white land-grabbers, let us American Negroes go -to Africa, live among the natives and LEARN WHAT THEY HAVE TO TEACH US -(for they have much to teach us). Let us go there—not in the -coastlands,—but in the interior, in Nigeria and Nyassaland; let us study -engineering and physics, chemistry and commerce, agriculture and -industry; let us learn more of nitrates, of copper, rubber and -electricity; so will we know why Belgium, France, England and Germany -want to be in Africa. Let us begin by studying the scientific works of -the African explorers and stop reading and believing the silly slush -which ignorant missionaries put into our heads about the alleged -degradation of our people in Africa. Let us learn to know Africa and -Africans so well that every educated Negro will be able at a glance to -put his hand on the map of Africa and tell where to find the Jolofs, -Ekois, Mandingoes, Yorubas, Bechuanas or Basutos and can tell something -of their marriage customs, their property laws, their agriculture and -systems of worship. For, not until we can do this will it be seemly for -us to pretend to be anxious about their political welfare. - -Indeed, it would be well now for us to establish friendly relations and -correspondence with our brothers at home. For we don’t know enough about -them to be able to do them any good at THIS peace congress (even if we -were graciously granted seats there); but fifty years from now—WHO -KNOWS? - - - _“They Shall Not Pass!”_ - -When heroic France was holding the Kaiser’s legions at bay her -inflexible resolution found expression in the phrase, “Ils ne passeront -pas!”—they shall not pass! The white statesmen who run our government in -Washington seem to have adopted the poilu’s watchword in a less worthy -cause. The seventy-odd Negro “delegates” to the Peace Congress who have -got themselves “elected” at mass-meetings and concerts for the purpose -of going to France are not going—unless they can walk, swim, or fly. For -the government will not issue passports for them. - -Of course, the government is not telling them so in plain English. That -wouldn’t be like our government. It merely makes them wait while their -money melts away. Day after day and week after week, they wearily wend -their way to the official Circumlocution Office where they receive a -reply considered sufficient for their child-minds: “Not yet.” - -It is many weeks since Madam Walker, Mr. Trotter, Judge Harrison and -other lesser lights were elected, but “They shall not pass!” says the -government with the backing of Emmett Scott. THE VOICE holds no brief -for these people: in fact it has taken the trouble to tell them more -than once how silly their project was. But it is not out of order to -inquire why the government will not let them go, and to find an answer -to that question. - -The government will not let them go to France, because the government’s -conscience is not clear. And the government ordered that ludicrous -lackey, Mr. R. R. Moton, to go—for the same reason. In fact, the -creation of sinecures for Mr. Scott and the other barnacles is due -largely to an uneasy conscience. How would it look to have Negroes -telling all Europe that the land which is to make the world “safe for -democracy” is rotten with race-prejudice; Jim-crows Negro officers on -ships coming over from France and on trains run under government -control; condones lynching by silent acquiescence and refuses to let its -Negro heroes vote as citizens in that part of the country in which -nine-tenths of them live. This wouldn’t do at all. - -Therefore: They shall not pass! And if, finally, the government, nettled -by such criticisms, should lift the ban when the Peace Congress is -practically over, the Negroes of America may be sure that those -permitted to go will be carefully hand-picked. - -But what is the matter with America as a land for pioneer work in -planting democracy? Are these Negro _emigrés_ afraid to face the white -men here in the Republican Party or any other and raise Hades until the -Constitution is enforced? Is cowardice the real reason for their running -to France to uncork their mouths? It looks very much like it. Ladies and -gentlemen: don’t run. The fight is here, and here you will be compelled -to face it, or report to us the reason why. - - - _A Cure for the Ku-Klux_ - -It was in the city of Pulaski in Giles County, Tennessee, that the -original Ku-Klux Klan was organized in the latter part of 1865. The war -had hardly been declared officially at an end when the cowardly -“crackers” who couldn’t lick the Yankees began organizing to take it out -of the Negroes. They passed laws declaring that any black man who -couldn’t show three hundred dollars should be declared a vagrant; that -every vagrant should be put to work in the chain-gang on the public -works of their cities; that three Negroes should not gather together -unless a white man was with them, and other such methods were used as -were found necessary to maintain “white supremacy.” When the national -Congress met in December, 1865, it looked upon these light diversions -with an unfriendly eye and, noting that nothing short of the -re-enslavement of the Negroes would satisfy the “crackers,” it kept them -out of Congress until they would agree to do better. Finding that they -were stiff-necked, Congress passed the 14th and 15th amendments and put -the “cracker” states under military rule until they accepted the -amendments. The result was that the Negro got the ballot as a protection -from “the people who know him best.” - -In the meanwhile, the Ku-Klux after rampaging around under the -leadership of that traitor, General Nathaniel B. Forrest, was put -down-for good, as it was thought. Today, after the Negro has been -stripped of the ballot’s protection by the connivance of white -Republicans in Washington and white Democrats at the South, the Ku-Klux -dares to raise its ugly head in its ancestral state of Tennessee. This -time they want to increase that fine brand of democracy which every -coward editor knows that Negroes were getting when they were bidding -them to be patriotic. The Ku-Klux means to shoot them into submission -and torture them into terror before they get to showing their wounds and -asking for the ballot as a recompense. - -In this crisis what have the Negro “leaders” got to say on their -people’s behalf? Where is Emmett Scott? Where are Mr. Moton and Dr. Du -Bois? What will the N.A.A.C.P. do besides writing frantic letters? We -fear that they can never rise above the level of appeals. But suppose -the common Negro in Tennessee decides to take a hand in the game? -Suppose he lets it be known that for the life of every Negro soldier or -civilian, two “crackers” will die? Suppose he lets them know that it -will be as costly to kill Negroes as it would be to kill real people? -Then indeed the Ku-Klux would be met upon its own ground. And why not? - -All our laws, even in Tennessee, declare that lynching and white-capping -are crimes against the person. All our laws declare that people singly -or in groups have the right to kill in defense of their lives. And if -the Ku-Klux prevents the officers of the law from enforcing that law, -then it is up to Negroes to help the officers by enforcing the law on -their own account. Why shouldn’t they do it? Lead and steel, fire and -poison are just as potent against “crackers” as they were against -Germans, and democracy is as well worth fighting for in Tennessee as -ever it was on the plains of France. Not until the Negroes of the south -recognize this truth will anybody else recognize it for them. - - “Hereditary bondmen, know ye not - Who would be free themselves must strike the blow?” - - - - - CHAPTER IV. - THE NEW POLITICS. - - - _The New Politics for the New Negro_ - -The world of the future will look upon the world of today as an -essentially new turning point in the path of human progress. All over -the world the spirit of democratic striving is making itself felt. The -new issues have brought forth new ideas of freedom, politics, industry -and society at large. The new Negro living in this new world is just as -responsive to these new impulses as other people are. - -In the “good old days” it was quite easy to tell the Negro to follow in -the footsteps of those who had gone before. The mere mention of the name -Lincoln or the Republican party was sufficient to secure his allegiance -to that party which had seen him stripped of all political power and of -civil rights without protest—effective or otherwise. - -Things are different now. The new Negro is demanding elective -representation in Baltimore, Chicago and other places. He is demanding -it in New York. The pith of the present occasion is, that he is no -longer begging or asking. He is demanding as a right that which he is in -position to enforce. - -In the presence of this new demand the old political leaders are -bewildered, and afraid; for the old idea of Negro leadership by virtue -of the white man’s selection has collapsed. The new Negro leader must be -chosen by his fellows—by those whose strivings he is supposed to -represent. - -Any man today who aspires to lead the Negro race must set squarely -before his face the idea of “Race First” Just as the white men of these -and other lands are white men before they are Christians, Anglo-Saxons -or Republicans; so the Negroes of this and other lands are intent upon -being Negroes before they are Christians, Englishmen, or Republicans. - -Sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander. Charity begins at home, and -our first duty is to ourselves. It is not what we wish but what we must, -that we are concerned with. The world, as it ought to be, is still for -us, as for others, the world that does not exist. The world as it is, is -the real world, and it is to that real world that we address ourselves. -Striving to be men, and finding no effective aid in government or in -politics, the Negro of the Western world must follow the path of the -Swadesha movement of India and the Sinn Fein movement of Ireland. The -meaning of both these terms is “ourselves first.” This is the mental -background of the new politics of the New Negro, and we commend it to -the consideration of all the political parties. For it is upon this -background that we will predicate such policies as shall seem to us -necessary and desirable. - -In the British Parliament the Irish Home Rule party clubbed its full -strength and devoted itself so exclusively to the cause of Free Ireland -that it virtually dictated for a time the policies of Liberals and -Conservatives alike. The new Negro race in America will not achieve -political self-respect until it is in a position to organize itself as -politically independent party and follow the example of the Irish Home -Rulers. This is what will happen in American politics. —September, 1917. - - - _The Drift in Politics_ - -The Negroes of America—those of them who think—are suspicious of -everything that comes from the white people of America. They have seen -that every movement for the extension of democracy here has broken down -as soon as it reached the color line. Political democracy declared that -“all men are created equal,” meant only all white men; the Christian -church found that the brotherhood of man did not include God’s bastard -children; the public school system proclaimed that the school house was -the backbone of democracy—“for white people only,” and the civil service -says that Negroes must keep their place—at the bottom. So that they can -hardly be blamed for looking askance at any new gospel of freedom. -Freedom to them has been like one of - - “those juggling fiends - That palter with us in a double sense; - That keep the word of promise to our ear, - And break it to our hope.” - -In this connection, some explanation of the former political solidarity -of those Negroes who were voters may be of service. Up to six years ago -the one great obstacle to the political progress of the colored people -was their sheep-like allegiance to the Republican party. They were -taught to believe that God had raised up a peculiar race of men called -Republicans who had loved the slaves so tenderly that they had taken -guns in their hands and rushed on the ranks of the southern slaveholders -to free the slaves; that this race of men was still in existence, -marching under the banner of the Republican party and showing their -great love for Negroes by appointing from six to sixteen near-Negroes to -soft political snaps. Today that great political superstition is falling -to pieces before the advance of intelligence among Negroes. They begin -to realize that they were sold out by the Republican party in 1876; that -in the last twenty-five years lynchings have increased, disfranchisement -has spread all over the South and “Jim-crow” cars run even into the -national capitol—with the continuing consent of a Republican Congress, a -Republican Supreme Court and Republican President. - -Ever since the Brownsville affair, but more clearly since Taft declared -and put in force the policy of pushing out the few near-Negro -officeholders, the rank and file have come to see that the Republican -party is a great big sham. Many went over to the Democratic party -because, as the _Amsterdam News_ puts it, “They had nowhere else to go.” -Twenty years ago the colored men who joined that party were ostracized -as scalawags and crooks. But today, the defection to the Democrats of -such men as Bishop Walters, Wood, Morton, Carr and Langston—whose uncle -was a colored Republican Congressman from Virginia—has made the colored -democracy respectable and given quite a tone to political heterdoxy. - -All this loosens the bonds of their allegiance and breaks the bigotry of -the last forty years. But of this change in their political view-point -the white world knows nothing. The two leading Negro newspapers are -subsidized by the same political pirates who own the title-deeds to the -handful of hirelings holding office in the name of the Negro race. One -of these papers is an organ of Mr. Washington, the other pretends to be -independent—that is, it must be bought on the installment plan, and both -of them are in New York. Despite this “conspiracy of silence” the -Negroes are waking up, are beginning to think for themselves, to look -with more favor on “new doctrines.” ¹ - -Today the politician who wants the support of the Negro voter will have -to give something more than piecrust promises. The old professional -“friend to the colored people” must have something more solid than the -name of Lincoln and party appointments. - -We demand what the Irish and the Jewish voter get: nominations on the -party’s ticket in our own districts. And if we don’t get this we will -smash the party that refuses to give it. - -For we are not Republicans, Democrats or Socialists any longer. We are -Negroes first. And we are no longer begging for sops. We demand, not -“recognition,” but representation, and we are out to throw our votes to -any party which gives us this, and withhold them from any party which -refuses to give it. No longer will we follow any leader whose job the -party controls. For we know that no leader so controlled can oppose such -party in our interests beyond a given point. - -That is why so much interest attaches to the mass-meeting to be held at -Palace Casino on the 29th where the Citizens’ Committee will make its -report to the Negro voters of Harlem and tell them how it was “turned -down” by the local representatives of the Republican party when it -begged the boon of elective representation. All such rebuffs will make -for manhood-if we are men and will drive us to play in American politics -the same role which the Irish party played in British politics. That is -the new trend in Negro politics, and we must not let any party forget -it. —1917. - - - _A Negro for President_ - -For many years the Negro has been the football of American politics. -Kicked from pillar to post, he goes begging, hat in hand, from a -Republican convention to a Democratic one. Always is he asking some one -else to do something for him. Always is he begging, pleading, demanding -or threatening. In all these cases his dependence is on the good will, -sense of justice or gratitude of the other fellow. And in none of these -cases is the political reaction of the other fellow within the control -of the Negro. - -But a change for the better is approaching. Four years ago, the present -writer was propounding in lectures, indoors and outdoors, the thesis -that the Negro people of America would never amount to anything much -politically until they should see fit to imitate the Irish of Britain -and to organize themselves into a political party of their own whose -leaders, on the basis of this large collective vote, could “hold up” -Republicans, Democrats, Socialists or any other political group of -American whites. As in many other cases, we have lived to see time ripen -the fruits of our own thought for some one else to pluck. Here is the -editor of the _Challenge_ making a campaign along these very lines. His -version of the idea takes the form of advocating the nomination of a -Negro for the Presidency of the United States. In this form we haven’t -the slightest doubt that this idea will meet with a great deal of -ridicule and contempt. Nevertheless, we venture to prophesy that, -whether in the hands of Mr. Bridges or another, it will come to be -ultimately accepted as one of the finest contributions to Negro -statesmanship. - -No one pretends, of course, that the votes of Negroes can elect a Negro -to the high office of President of the United States. Nor would any one -expect that the votes of white people will be forthcoming to assist them -in such a project. The only way in which a Negro could be elected -President of the United States would be by virtue of the voters not -knowing that the particular candidate was of Negro ancestry. This, we -believe, has already happened within the memory of living men. But, the -essential intent of this new plan is to furnish a focussing-point around -which the ballots of the Negro voters may be concentrated for the -realization of racial demands for justice and equality of opportunity -and treatment. It would be carrying “Race First” with a vengeance into -the arena of domestic politics. It would take the Negro voter out of the -ranks of the Republican, Democratic and Socialist parties and would -enable their leaders to trade the votes of their followers, openly and -above-board, for those things for which masses of men largely exchange -their votes. - -Mr. Bridges will find that the idea of a Negro candidate for President -presupposes the creation of a purely Negro party and upon that -prerequisite he will find himself compelled to concentrate. Doubtless, -most of the political wise-acres of the Negro race will argue that the -idea is impossible because it antagonizes the white politicians of the -various parties. They will close their eyes to the fact that politics -implies antagonism and a conflict of interest. They will fail to see -that the only things which count with politicians are votes, and that, -just as one white man will cheerfully cut another white man’s throat to -get the dollars which a black man has, so will one white politician or -party cut another one’s throat politically to get the votes which black -men may cast at the polls. But these considerations will finally carry -the day. Let there be no mistake. The Negro will never be accepted by -the white American democracy except in so far as he can by the use of -force, financial, political or other, win, seize or maintain in the -teeth of opposition that position which he finds necessary to his own -security and salvation. And we Negroes may as well make up our minds now -that we can’t depend upon the good-will of white men in anything or at -any point where our interests and theirs conflict. Disguise it as we -may, in business, politics, education or other departments of life, we -as Negroes are compelled to fight for what we want to win from the white -world. - -It is easy enough for those colored men whose psychology is shaped by -their white inheritance to argue the ethics of compromise and -inter-racial co-operation. But we whose brains are still unbastardized -must face the frank realities of this situation of racial conflict and -competition. Wherefore, it is well that we marshal our forces to -withstand and make head against the constant racial pressure. Action and -reaction are equal and opposite. Where there is but slight pressure a -slight resistance will suffice. But where, as in our case, that pressure -is grinding and pitiless, the resistance that would re-establish equal -conditions of freedom must of necessity be intense and radical. And it -is this philosophy which must furnish the motive for such a new and -radical departure as is implied in the joint idea of a Negro party in -American politics and a Negro candidate for the Presidency of these -United States. —June, 1920. - - - _When the Tail Wags the Dog_ - -Politically, these United States may be roughly divided into two -sections, so far as the Negroes are concerned. In the North the Negro -population has the vote. In the South it hasn’t. This was not always so. - -There was a time when the Negro voters of the South sent in to Congress -a thin but steady stream of black men who represented their political -interests directly. Due to the misadventures of the reconstruction -period, this stream was shut off until at the beginning of this century -George White, of North Carolina, was the sole and last representative of -the black man with a ballot in the South. - -This result was due largely to the characteristic stupidity of the Negro -voter. He was a Republican, he was. He would do anything with his ballot -for Abraham Lincoln—who was dead—but not a thing for himself and his -family, who were all alive and kicking. For this the Republican party -loved him so much that it permitted the Democrats to disfranchise him -while it controlled Congress and the courts, the army and navy, and all -the machinery of law-enforcement in the United States. With its -continuing consent, Jim-crowism, disfranchisement, segregation and -lynching spread abroad over the land. The end of it all was the -reduction of the Negro in the South to the position of a political serf, -an industrial peon and a social outcast. - -Recently there has been developed in the souls of black folk a new -manhood dedicated to the proposition that, if all Americans are equal in -the matter of baring their breasts to foreign bayonets, then all -Americans must, by their own efforts, be made equal in balloting for -Presidents and other officers of the government. This principle is -compelling the Republican party in certain localities to consider the -necessity of nominating Negroes on its local electoral tickets. Yet the -old attitude of that party on the political rights of Negroes remains -substantially the same. - -Here, for instance, is the Chicago convention, at which the Negro -delegates were lined up to do their duty by the party. Of course, these -delegates had to deal collectively with the white leaders. This was to -their mutual advantage. But the odd feature of the entire affair was -this, that, _Whereas the Negro people in the South are not free to cast -their votes, it was precisely from these voteless areas that the -national Republican leaders selected the political spokesmen for the -voting Negroes of the North._ Men who will not vote at the coming -election and men who, like Roscoe Simmons, never cast a vote in their -lives were the accredited representatives in whose hands lay the destiny -of a million Negro voters. - -But there need be no fear that this insult will annoy the black brother -in the Republican ranks. A Negro Republican generally runs the -rhinoceros and the elephant a close third. In plain English, the average -Negro Republican is too stupid to see and too meek to mind. Then, too, -here is Fate’s retribution for the black man in the North who has never -cared enough to fight (the Republican party) for the political freedom -of his brother in the South, but left him to rot under poll-tax laws and -grandfather clauses. The Northern white Democrats, for letting their -Southern brethren run riot through the Constitution, must pay the -penalty of being led into the ditch by the most ignorant, stupid and -vicious portion of their party. Even so, the Northern Negro Republican, -for letting his Southern brother remain a political ragamuffin, must now -stomach the insult of this same ragamuffin dictating the destiny of the -freer Negroes of the North. In both cases the tail doth wag the dog -because of “the solid South.” Surely, “the judgments of the Lord are -true and righteous altogether!” —July, 1920. - - - _The Grand Old Party_ - -In the early days of 1861, when the Southern Senators and -Representatives were relinquishing their seats in the United States -Congress and hurling cartels of defiant explanation broadcast, the -Republican party in Congress, under the leadership of Charles Francis -Adams of Massachusetts, organized a joint committee made up of thirteen -members of the Senate and thirty-three members of the House to make -overtures to the seceding Southerners. The result of this friendly -gesture was a proposed thirteenth amendment, which, if the Southerners -had not been so obstinate, would have bridged the chasm. For this -amendment proposed to make the slavery of the black man in America -eternal and inescapable. It provided that no amendment to the -Constitution, or any other proposition affecting slavery in any way, -could ever be legally presented upon the floor of Congress unless its -mover had secured the previous consent of _every Senator and -Representative from the slave-holding States_. It put teeth into the -Fugitive Slave Law and absolutely gave the Negro over into the keeping -of his oppressors. - -Most Negro Americans (and white ones, too) think it fashionable to -maintain the most fervid faith and deepest ignorance about points in -their national history of which they should be informed. We therefore -submit that these facts are open and notorious to those who know -American history. The record will be found slimly and shame-facedly -given in McPherson’s “History of the Rebellion”; at indignant length in -Blaine’s “Twenty Years of Congress” and Horace Greeley’s “The Great -American Conflict.” The document can be examined in Professor -Macdonald’s “Select Documents of United States History.” These works are -to be found in every public library, and we refer to them here because -there are “intellectual” Negroes today who are striving secretly, when -they dare not do so openly, to perpetuate the bonds of serfdom which -bind the Negro Americans to the Republican party. This bond of serfdom, -this debt of gratitude, is supposed to hinge on the love which Abraham -Lincoln and his party are supposed to have borne towards the Negro; and -the object of this appeal to the historical record is to show that that -record demonstrates that if the Negro owes any debt to the Republican -party it is a debt of execration and of punishment rather than one of -gratitude. - -It is an astounding fact that in his First Inaugural Address Abraham -Lincoln gave his explicit approval to the substance of the Crittenden -resolutions which the joint committee referred to above had collectively -taken over. This demonstrates that the Republican party at the very -beginning of its contact with the Negro was willing to sell the Negro, -bound hand and foot, for the substance of its own political control. -This Thirteenth Amendment was adopted by six or eight Northern States, -including Pennsylvania and Illinois; and if Fort Sumter had not been -fired upon it would have become by State action the law of the land. - -The Republican party did not fight for the freedom of the Negro, but for -the maintenance of its own grip on the government which the election of -Abraham Lincoln had secured. If any one wants to know for what the -Republican party fought he will find it in such facts as this: That -thousands of square miles of the people’s property were given away to -Wall Street magnates who had corrupted the Legislature in their effort -to build railroads on the government’s money. The sordid story is given -in “Forty Years in Wall Street,” by the banker, Henry Clews, and others -who took part in this raid upon the resources of a great but stupid -people. - -But the Civil War phase of the Republican party’s treason to the Negro -is not the only outstanding one, as was shown by the late General -Tremaine in his “Sectionalism Unmasked.” Not only was General Grant -elected in 1868 by the newly created Negro vote, as the official records -prove, but his re-election in 1872 was effected by the same means. So -was the election of Rutherford B. Hayes in 1876. Yet when the election -of Hayes had been taken before the overwhelmingly Republican Congress -this shameless party made a deal whereby, in order to pacify the white -“crackers” of the South, the Negro was given over into the hands of the -triumphant Ku-Klux; the soldiers who protected their access to the -ballot box in the worst southern states were withdrawn, while the -“crackers” agreed as the price of this favor to withdraw their -opposition to the election of Hayes. For this there exists ample proof -which will be presented upon the challenge of any politician or editor. -As a Republican Senator from New England shamelessly said, it was a -matter of “Root, hog, or die” for the helpless Negro whose ballots had -buttressed the Republican party’s temple of graft and corruption. So was -reconstruction settled against the Negro by the aid and abetting of the -Republican party. - -And since that time lynching, disfranchisement and segregation have -grown with the Republican party in continuous control of the government -from 1861 to 1920—with the exception of eight years of Woodrow Wilson -and eight years of Grover Cleveland. With their continuing consent the -South has been made solid, so that at every Republican convention -delegates who do not represent a voting constituency but a grafting -collection of white postmasters and their Negro lackeys can turn the -scales of nomination in favor of any person whom the central clique of -the party, controlled as it has always been by Wall Street financiers, -may foist upon a disgusted people, as they have done in the case of -Harding. So long as the South remains solid, so long will the Republican -delegates from the South consist of only this handful of hirelings; so -long will they be amenable to the “discipline” which means the pressure -of the jobs by which they get their bread. Therefore the Republican -leaders will know that the solidarity of the South is their most -valuable asset; and they are least likely to do anything that will break -that solidarity. The Republican party’s only interest in the Negro is to -get his vote for nothing; and so long as Negro Republican leaders remain -the contemptible grafters and political procurers that they are at -present, so long will it get Negro votes for nothing. - -Through it all the Republican party remains the most corrupt influence -among Negro Americans. It buys up by jobs, appointments and gifts those -Negroes who in politics should be the free and independent spokesmen of -Negro Americans. But worse than this is its private work in which it -secretly subsidizes men who pose before the public as independent -radicals. These intellectual pimps draw private supplementary incomes -from the Republican party to sell out the influence of any movement, -church or newspaper with which they are connected. Of the enormity of -this mode of procedure and the extent to which it saps the very springs -of Negro integrity the average Negro knows nothing. Its blighting, -baleful influence is known only to those who have trained ears to hear -and trained eyes to see. - -And now in this election the standards will advance and the cohorts go -forward under the simple impulse of the same corrupting influence. But -whether the new movement for a Negro party comes to a head or not, the -new Negro in America will never amount to anything politically until he -enfranchises himself from the Grand Old Party which has made a political -joke of him. —July, 1920. - - -1. The first part of this editorial is reprinted from an article - written in 1912. - - - - - CHAPTER V. - THE PROBLEMS OF LEADERSHIP. - -[In all the tangles of our awakening race consciousness there are -perhaps none more knotty than the tangles relating to leadership. -Leadership among Negro Americans, as among other people, means the -direction of a group’s activities, whether by precept, example or -compulsion. But, in our case, there is involved a strikingly new -element. Should the leading of our group in any sense be the product of -our group’s consciousness or of a consciousness originating from outside -that group? What the new Negro thinks on the problem of “outside -interference” in the leadership of his group is expressed in the first -and sixth editorials of this chapter, one of which appeared in _The -Voice_ and the other in _The Negro World_. - -“A Tender Point” formulates one part of the problem of leadership which -is seldom touched upon by Negro Americans who characteristically avoid -any public presentation of a thing about which they will talk -interminably in private; namely, the claim advanced, explicitly and -implicitly, by Negroids of mixed blood to be considered the natural -leaders of Negro activities on the ground of some alleged “superiority” -inherent in their white blood. - -“The Descent of Du Bois” was written at the request of Major Loving of -the Intelligence Department of the Army at the time when Dr. Du Bois, -the editor of _The Crisis_, was being preened for a desk captaincy at -Washington. Major Loving solicited a summary of the situation from me as -one of those “radicals” qualified to furnish such a summary. This he -incorporated in his report to his superiors in Washington, and this I -published a week later in _The Voice_ of July 25, 1918, as an editorial -without changing a single word. I was informed by Major Loving that this -editorial was one of the main causes of the government’s change of -intention as regards the Du Bois captaincy. Since that time Dr. Du -Bois’s white friends have been fervidly ignoring the occurrence and the -consequent collapse of his leadership. “When the Blind Lead” was written -as a reminder to the souls of black folks that “while it is as easy as -eggs for a leader to fall off the fence, it is devilishly difficult to -boost him up again.” “Just Crabs” was a delightful inspiration in the -course of defending, not Mr. Garvey personally, but the principles of -the New Negro Manhood Movement, a portion of which had been incorporated -by him and his followers of the U.N.I.A. and A.C. L. It was the opening -gun of the defense, of which some other salvos were given in the serial -satire of The Crab Barrel—which I have been kind enough to omit from -this record. This controversy also gave rise to the three first -editorials of chapter 6.] - - - _Our Professional “Friends”_ - -This country of ours has produced many curious lines of endeavor, not -the least curious of which is the business known as “being the Negro’s -friend.” It was first invented by politicians, but was taken up later by -“good” men, six-per-cent philanthropists, millionaire believers in -“industrial education,” benevolent newspapers like the _Evening Post_, -and a host of smaller fry of the “superior race.” Just at this time the -business is being worked to death, and we wish to contribute our mite -toward the killing-by showing what it means. - -The first great “friend” of the Negro was the Southern politician, Henry -Clay, who, in the first half of the nineteenth century organized the -American Colonization Society. This society befriended the “free men of -color” by raising funds to ship them away to Liberia, which was accepted -by many free Negroes as a high proof of the white man’s “friendship.” -But Frederick Douglass, William Still, James McCune Smith, Martin R. -Delaney, and other wide-awake Negroes were able to show (by transcripts -of its proceedings) that its real purpose was to get rid of the free -Negroes because, so long as they continued to live here, their freedom -was an inducement to the slaves to run away from slavery, and their -accomplishments demonstrated to all white people that the Negro -(contrary to the claims of the slave-holders) was capable of a higher -human destiny than that of being chattels—and this was helping to make -American slavery odious in the eyes of the civilized world. - -Since that time the dismal farce of “friendship” has been played many -times, by politicians, millionaires and their editorial adherents, who -have been profuse in giving good advice to the Negro people. They have -advised them to “go slow,” that “Rome was not built in a day,” and that -“half a loaf is better than no bread,” that “respect could not be -demanded,” and, in a thousand different ways have advised them that if -they would only follow the counsels of “the good white people” who -really had their interests at heart, instead of following their own -counsels (as the Irish and the Jews do), all would yet be well. Many -Negroes who have a wish-bone where their back-bone ought to be have been -doing this. It was as a representative of this class that Mitchell’s -man, Mr. Fred R. Moore, the editor of _The Age_, spoke, when in July he -gave utterance to the owlish reflection that, - - The Negro race is afflicted with many individuals whose wagging - tongues are apt to lead them into indiscreet utterances that reflect - upon the whole race. … The unruly tongues should not be allowed to - alienate public sympathy from the cause of the oppressed. - -It was as a fairly good representative of the class of “good white -friends of the colored people” that Miss Mary White Ovington, the -chairman of the New York Branch of the National Association for the -Advancement of Colored People, sent to _The Voice_ the following bossy -and dictatorial note: - - My dear Mr. Harrison, - - I don’t see any reason for another organization, or another - paper. If you printed straight socialism it might be different. - - Yours truly, - MARY W. OVINGTON. - -These “good white people” must really forgive us for insisting that we -are not children, and that, while we want all the friends we can get, we -need no benevolent dictators. It is we, and not they, who must shape -Negro policies. If they want to help in carrying them out we will -appreciate their help. - -Just now the white people even in the South—have felt the pressure of -the new Negro’s manhood demands, in spite of the fact that -backward-looking Negroes like _The Age_’s editor condemn the inflexible -spirit of these demands. All over the South, the white papers, scared by -the exodus of Negro laborers who are tired of begging for justice -overdue, are saying that we are right, and friendlier legislation has -begun to appear on Southern statute books. Mr. Mencken and other -Southern writers are saying that the Negro is demanding, and that the -South had better accede to his just demands, as it is only a matter of -time when he will be in position to enforce them. One should think, -then, that those who have been parading as our professional friends -would be in the van of this manhood movement. But the movement seems to -have left them in the rear. Now, that we are demanding the whole loaf, -they are begging for half, and are angry at us for going further than -they think “nice.” - -It was the N.A.A.C.P. which was urging us to compromise our manhood by -begging eagerly for “Jim Crow” training camps. And the same group is -asking, in the November _Crisis_, that we put a collective -power-of-attorney into their hand and leave it to them to shape our -national destiny. The N.A.A.C.P. has done much good work for -Negroes—splendid work—in fighting lynching and segregation. For that we -owe it more gratitude and good will than we owe to the entire Republican -party for the last sixty years of its existence. But we cannot, even in -this case, abdicate our right to shape more radical policies for -ourselves. It was the realization of the need for a more radical policy -than that of the N.A.A.C.P. that called into being the Liberty League of -Negro Americans. And the N.A.A.C.P., as mother, must forgive its -offspring for forging farther ahead. - -Then, there is the case of the New York _Evening Post_, of which -Mr. Villard is owner. This paper was known far and wide as “a friend to -Negroes.” But its friendship has given way to indifference and worse. In -the good old days every lynching received editorial condemnation. But -the three great lynchings this year which preceded East St. Louis found -no editorial of condemnation in the _Post_. It was more than luke-warm -then. But, alack and alas! As soon as the Negro soldiers in Houston, -goaded to retaliation by gross indignities, did some shooting on their -own account, the _Evening Post_, which had no condemnation of the -conduct of the lynchers, joined the chorus of those who were screaming -for “punishment” and death. Here is its brief editorial on August 25th: - - As no provocation could justify the crimes committed by mutinous Negro - soldiers at Houston, Texas, so no condemnation of their conduct can be - too severe. It may be that the local authorities were not wholly - blameless, and that the commanding officers were at fault in not - foreseeing the trouble and taking steps to guard against it. But - nothing can really palliate the offence of the soldiers. They were - false to their uniform; they were false to their race. In one sense, - this is the most deplorable aspect of the whole riotous outbreak. It - will play straight into the hands of men like Senator Vardaman who - have been saying that it was dangerous to draft colored men into the - army. And the feeling against having colored troops encamped in the - South will be intensified. The grievous harm which they might do to - their own people should have been all along in the minds of the - colored soldiers, and made them doubly circumspect. They were under - special obligation, in addition to their military oath, to conduct - themselves so as not to bring reproach upon the Negroes as a whole, of - whom they were in a sort representative. Their criminal outrage will - tend to make people forget the good work done by other Negro soldiers. - After the rigid investigation which the War Department has ordered, - the men found guilty should receive the severest punishment. As for - the general army policy affecting colored troops, we are glad to see - that Secretary Baker appears to intend no change in his recent orders. - -We ourselves cannot forget that while the question of whether the -_Post’s_ editor would get a diplomatic appointment (like some other -editors) was under consideration during the first year of Woodrow -Wilson’s first administration, the _Post_ pretended to believe that the -President didn’t know of the segregation practiced in the government -departments. The N.A.A.C.P., whose letter sent out at the time is now -before us, pretended to the same effect. - -After viewing these expressions of frightful friendliness in our own -times, we have reached the conclusion that the time has come when we -should insist on being our own best friends. We may make mistakes, of -course, but we ought to be allowed to make our own mistakes—as other -people are allowed to do. If friendship is to mean compulsory compromise -foisted on us by kindly white people, or by cultured Negroes whose ideal -is the imitation of the urbane acquiescence of these white friends, then -we had better learn to look a gift horse in the mouth whenever we get -the chance. —November, 1917. - - - _Shillady Resigns_ - -Mr. John R. Shillady, ex-secretary of the N.A.A.C.P., states in his -letter of resignation that “I am less confident than heretofore of the -speedy success of the association’s full program and of the probability -of overcoming within a reasonable period the forces opposed to Negro -equality by the means and methods which are within the association’s -power to employ.” In this one sentence Mr. Shillady, the worker on the -inside, puts in suave and serenely diplomatic phrase the truth which -people on the outside have long ago perceived, namely, that the -N.A.A.C.P. makes a joke of itself when it affects to think that lynching -and the other evils which beset the Negro in the South can be abolished -by simple publicity. The great weakness of the National Association for -the Advancement of Colored People has been and is that, whereas it aims -to secure certain results by affecting the minds of white people and -making them friendly to it, it has no control over these minds and has -absolutely no answer to the question, “What steps do you propose to take -if these minds at which you are aiming remain unaffected? What do you -propose to do to secure life and liberty for the Negro if the white -Southerner persists, as he has persisted for sixty years, in refusing to -grant guarantees of life and liberty?” The N.A.A.C.P. has done some good -and worth-while work as an organization of protest. But the times call -for something more effective than protests addressed to the other -fellow’s consciousness. What is needed at present is more of the -mobilizing of the Negro’s political power, pocketbook power and -intellectual power (which are absolutely within the Negro’s own control) -to do for the Negro the things which the Negro needs to have done -without depending upon or waiting for the co-operative action of white -people. This co-operative action, whenever it does come, is a boon that -no Negro, intelligent or unintelligent, affects to despise. But no Negro -of clear vision, whether he be a leader or not, can afford to predicate -the progress of the Negro upon such co-operative action, because it may -not come. - -Mr. Shillady may have seen these things. It is high time that all -Negroes see these things whether their white professional friends see -them or not. —July, 1920. - - - _Our White Friends_ - -In the good old days when the black man’s highest value in the white -man’s eye was that of an object of benevolence especially provided by -the Divine mind for calling out those tender out-pourings of charity -which were so dear to the self-satisfied Caucasian—in those days the -white men who fraternized with black people could do so as their guides, -philosophers and friends without incurring any hostility on the part of -black folk. Today, however, the white man who mixes with the black -brother is having a hard time of it. Somehow Ham’s offspring no longer -feels proud of being “taken up” by the progeny of Japhet. And when the -white man insists on mixing in with him the colored brother will persist -in attributing ulterior motives. - -What is the cause of this difference? The answer will be found only by -one who refuses to wear the parochial blinkers of Anglo-Saxon -civilization and sees that the relations of the white and black race -have changed and are changing all over the world. Such an observer would -note that the most significant fact of the growing race consciousness is -to be found in the inevitable second half of the word. It isn’t because -these darker people are motivated by race that their present state of -mind constitutes a danger to Caucasian overlordship. It is because they -have developed consciousness, intelligence, understanding. They have -learned that the white brother is perfectly willing to love them—“in -their place.” They have learned that that place is one in which they are -not to develop brains and initiative, but must furnish the brawn and -muscle whereby the white man’s brain and initiative can take eternally -the products of their brawn and muscle. There are today many white men -who will befriend the Negro, who will give their dollars to his comfort -and welfare, so long as the idea of what constitutes that comfort and -welfare comes entirely from the white man’s mind. Examples like those of -Dr. Spingarn and Mr. E. D. Morel are numerous. - -And not for nothing does the black man balk at the white man’s “mixing -in.” For there are spies everywhere and the _agent provocateur_ is -abroad in the land. From Chicago comes the news by way of the Associated -Press (white) that Dr. Jonas, who has always insisted in sticking his -nose into the Negro peoples’ affairs as their guide, philosopher and -friend, has been forced to confess that he is a government agent, -presumably paid for things which the government would later suppress. -Dr. Jonas is reported to have said that he is connected with the British -secret service; but since the second year of the European war it has -been rather difficult for us poor devils to tell where the American -government ended and the British government began, especially in these -matters. In any case, we have Dr. Jonas’ confession, and all the silly -Negroes who listened approvingly to the senseless allegations made by -Messrs. Jonas, Gabriel and others of a standing army of 4,000,000 in -Abyssinia and of Japanese-Abyssinian diplomatic relations and -intentions, must feel now very foolish about the final result. - -How natural it was that Jonas, the white leader, should have gone scot -free, while Redding and his other Negro dupes are held! How natural that -Jonas should be the one to positively identify Redding as the slayer of -the Negro policeman! And so, once again, that section of the Negro race -that will not follow except where a white man leads will have to pay -that stern penalty whereby Dame Experience teaches her dunces. Under the -present circumstances we, the Negroes of the Western world, do pledge -our allegiance to leaders of our own race, selected by our own group and -supported financially and otherwise exclusively by us. Their leadership -may be wise or otherwise; they may make mistakes here and there; -nevertheless, such sins as they may commit will be our sins, and all the -glory that they may achieve will be our glory. We prefer it so. It may -be worth the while of the white men who desire to be “Our Professional -Friends” to take note of this preference. - - - _A Tender Point_ - -When the convention of turtles assembled on the Grand Banks of -Newfoundland it was found absolutely impossible to get a tortoise -elected as leader. All turtles, conservative and radical, agreed that a -land and water creature, who was half one thing and half another, was -not an ideal choice for leader of a group which lived exclusively in the -water. Whenever a leader of the Irish has to be selected by the Irish it -is an Irishman who is selected. No Irishman would be inclined to dispute -the fact that other men, even Englishmen like John Stuart Mill and the -late Keir Hardie, could feel the woes of Ireland as profoundly as any -Irishman. But they prefer to live up to the principle of “Safety First.” - -These two illustrations are to be taken as a prelude to an important -point which is not often discussed in the Negro press because all of -us—black, brown and parti-colored—fear to offend each other. That point -concerns the biological breed of persons who should be selected by -Negroes as leaders of their race. We risk the offense this time because -efficiency in matters of racial leadership, as in other matters, should -not be too tender to these points of prejudice when they stand in the -way of desirable results. For two centuries in America we, the -descendants of the black Negroes of Africa, have been told by white men -that we cannot and will not amount to anything except in so far as we -first accept the bar sinister of their mixing with us. Always when white -people had to select a leader for Negroes they would select some one who -had in his veins the blood of the selectors. In the good old days when -slavery was in flower, it was those whom Denmark Vesey of Charleston -described as “house niggers” who got the master’s cast-off clothes, the -better scraps of food and culture which fell from the white man’s table, -who were looked upon as the Talented Tenth of the Negro race. The -opportunities of self-improvement, in so far as they lay within the hand -of the white race, were accorded exclusively to this class of people who -were the left-handed progeny of the white masters. - -Out of this grew a certain attitude on their part towards the rest of -the Negro people which, unfortunately, has not yet been outgrown. In -Washington, Boston, Charleston, New York and Chicago these proponents of -the lily-white idea are prone to erect around their sacred personalities -a high wall of caste, based on the ground of color. And the black -Negroes have heretofore worshipped at the altars erected on these walls. -One sees this in the Baptist, Methodist and Episcopal churches, at the -various conventions and in fraternal organizations. Black people -themselves seem to hold the degrading view that a man who is but half a -Negro is twice as worthy of their respect and support as one who is -entirely black. We have seen in the social life of some of the places -mentioned how women, undeniably black and undeniably beautiful, have -been shunned and ostracised at public functions by men who should be -presumed to know better. We have read the fervid jeremiads of “colored” -men who, when addressing the whites on behalf of some privilege which -they wished to share with them, would be, in words, as black as the ace -of spades, but, when it came to mixing with “their kind,” they were -professional lily-whites, and we have often had to point out to them -that there is no color prejudice in America—except among “colored” -people. Those who may be inclined to be angry at the broaching of this -subject are respectfully requested to ponder that pungent fact. - -In this matter white people, even in America, are inclined to be more -liberal than colored people. If a white man has no race prejudice, it -will be found that he doesn’t care how black is the Negro friend that he -takes to his home and his bosom. Even these white people who pick -leaders for Negroes have begun in these latter years to give formal and -official expression to this principle. Thus it was that when the -trustees of Tuskegee had to elect a head of Tuskegee and a putative -leader of the Negroes of America to succeed the late Dr. Washington, -they argued that it was now necessary to select as leader for the Negro -people a man who could not be mistaken by any one for anything other -than a Negro. Therefore, Mr. Emmett Scott was passed over and Dr. Robert -R. Morton was selected. We are not approving here the results of that -selection, but merely holding up to Negroes the principle by which it -was governed. - -So long as we ourselves acquiesce in the selection of leaders on the -ground of their unlikeness to our racial type, just so long will we be -met by the invincible argument that white blood is necessary to make a -Negro worth while. Every Negro who has respect for himself and for his -race will feel, when contemplating such examples as Toussaint -Louverture, Phyllis Wheatley, Paul Laurence Dunbar and Samuel Ringgold -Ward, the thrill of pride that differs in quality and intensity from the -feeling which he experiences when contemplating other examples of great -Negroes who are not entirely black. For it is impossible in such cases -for the white men to argue that they owed their greatness of their -prominence to the blood of the white race which was mingled in their -veins. It is a legitimate thrill of pride, for it gives us a hope nobler -than the hope of amalgamation whereby, in order to become men, we must -lose our racial identity. It is a subject for sober and serious -reflection, and it is hoped that sober and serious reflection will be -given to it. - - - _The Descent of Du Bois_ - -In a recent bulletin of the War Department it was declared that -“justifiable grievances” were producing and had produced “not -disloyalty, but an amount of unrest and bitterness which even the best -efforts of their leaders may not be able always to guide.” This is the -simple truth. The essence of the present situation lies in the fact that -the people whom our white masters have “recognized” as our leaders -(without taking the trouble to consult us) and those who, by our own -selection, had actually attained to leadership among us are being -revaluated and, in most cases, rejected. - -The most striking instance from the latter class is Dr. W. E. Du Bois, -the editor of the _Crisis_. Du Bois’s case is the more significant -because his former services to his race have been undoubtedly of a high -and courageous sort. Moreover, the act by which he has brought upon -himself the stormy outburst of disapproval from his race is one which of -itself, would seem to merit no such stern condemnation. To properly -gauge the value and merit of this disapproval one must view it in the -light of its attendant circumstances and of the situation in which it -arose. - -Dr. Du Bois first palpably sinned in his editorial “Close Ranks” in the -July number of the _Crisis_. But this offense (apart from the trend and -general tenor of the brief editorial) lies in a single sentence: “Let -us, while this war lasts, _forget our special grievances_ and close our -ranks, shoulder to shoulder with our white fellow-citizens and the -allied nations that are fighting for democracy.” From the latter part of -the sentence there is no dissent, so far as we know. The offense lies in -that part of the sentence which ends with the italicized words. It is -felt by all his critics, that Du Bois, of all Negroes, knows best that -our “special grievances” which the War Department Bulletin describes as -“justifiable” consist of lynching, segregation and disfranchisement, and -that the Negroes of America can not preserve either their lives, their -manhood or their vote (which is their political life and liberties) with -these things in existence. The doctor’s critics feel that America can -not use the Negro people to any good effect unless they have life, -liberty and manhood assured and guaranteed to them. Therefore, instead -of the war for democracy making these things less necessary, it makes -them more so. - -“But,” it may be asked, “why should not these few words be taken merely -as a slip of the pen or a venial error in logic? Why all this hubbub?” -It is because the so-called leaders of the first-mentioned class have -already established an unsavory reputation by advocating this same -surrender of life, liberty and manhood, masking their cowardice behind -the pillars of war-time sacrifice? Du Bois’s statement, then, is -believed to mark his entrance into that class, and is accepted as a -“surrender” of the principles which brought him into prominence—and -which alone kept him there. - -Later, when it was learned that Du Bois was being preened for a berth in -the War Department as a captain-assistant (adjutant) to Major Spingarn, -the words used by him in the editorial acquired a darker and more -sinister significance. The two things fitted too well together as motive -and self-interest. - -For these reasons Du Bois is regarded much in the same way as a knight -in the middle ages who had had his armor stripped from him, his arms -reversed and his spurs hacked off. This ruins him as an influential -person among Negroes at this time, alike whether he becomes a captain or -remains an editor. - -But the case has its roots much farther back than the editorial in -July’s _Crisis_. Some time ago when it was learned that the _Crisis_ was -being investigated by the government for an alleged seditious utterance -a great clamor went up, although the expression of it was not open. -Negroes who dared to express their thoughts seemed to think the action -tantamount to a declaration that protests against lynching, segregation -and disfranchisement were outlawed by the government. But nothing was -clearly understood until the conference of editors was called under the -assumed auspices of Emmet Scott and Major Spingarn. Then it began to -appear that these editors had not been called without a purpose. The -desperate ambiguity of the language which they used in their report (in -the War Department Bulletin), coupled with the fact that not one of -them, upon his return would tell the people anything of the proceedings -of the conference—all this made the Negroes feel less and less -confidence in them and their leadership; made them (as leaders) less -effective instruments for the influential control of the race’s state of -mind. - -Now Du Bois was one of the most prominent of those editors “who were -called.” The responsibility, therefore, for a course of counsel which -stresses the servile virtues of acquiescence and subservience falls -squarely on his shoulders. The offer of a captaincy and Du Bois’s -flirtation with that offer following on the heels of these things -seemed, even in the eyes of his associate members of the N.A.A.C.P. -to afford clear proof of that which was only a suspicion before, viz: -that the racial resolution of the leaders had been tampered with, and -that Du Bois had been privy to something of the sort. The connection -between the successive acts of the drama (May, June, July) was too -clear to admit of any interpretation other than that of deliberate, -cold blooded, purposive planning. And the connection with Spingarn -seemed to suggest that personal friendships and public faith were not -good working team-mates. - -For the sake of the larger usefulness of Dr. Du Bois we hope he will be -able to show that he can remain as editor of the _Crisis_; but we fear -that it will require a good deal of explaining. For, our leaders, like -Caesar’s wife, must be above suspicion. —July, 1918. - - - _When the Blind Lead_ - -In the February issue of the _Crisis_ its editor begins a brief -editorial on “Leadership,” with the touching reminder that “Many a good -cause has been killed by suspected leadership.” How strikingly do these -words bring back to us Negroes those dark days of 1918! At that time the -editor of the _Crisis_ was offering certain unique formulas of -leadership that somehow didn’t “take.” His “Close Ranks” editorial and -the subsequent slump in the stock of his leadership have again -illustrated the truth long since expressed in Latin: “Descensus Averni -facilis; sed revocare gradus,—hoc opus est,” which, being translated, -might mean that, while it’s as easy as eggs for a leader to fall off the -fence, it is devilishly difficult to boost him up again. In September, -1918, one could boldly say, “The _Crisis_ says, first your Country, then -your Rights!” Today, when the Negro people everywhere are responding to -Mr. Michael Coulsen’s sentiment that “it’s Race, not Country, first,” we -find the “leader” of 1918 in the position described by Lowell in these -words: “A moultin’ fallen cherubim, ef he should see ye’d snicker, -Thinkin’ he warn’t a suckemstance.” - -How fast time flies! - -But the gist of Dr. Du Bois’s editorial is the moral downfall of another -great leader. “Woodrow Wilson, in following a great ideal of world -unity, forgot all his pledges to the German people, forgot all his large -words to Russia, did not hesitate to betray Gompers and his unions, _and -never at any single moment meant to include in his democracy twelve -million of his fellow Americans, whom he categorically promised `more -than mere grudging justice,’ and then allowed 350 of them to be lynched -during his Presidency._ Under such leadership what cause could succeed?” -He notes that out of the World War, with the Allies triumphant, have -come Britain’s brutal domination of the seas, her conquest of Persia, -Arabia and Egypt, and her tremendous tyranny imposed on two-thirds of -Africa. - -But we saw these things, as early as 1917, to be the necessary -consequences of the Allies’ success, when the editor of the _Crisis_ was -telling his race: “You are not fighting simply for Europe; you are -fighting for the world.” Was Dr. Du Bois so blind then that he couldn’t -see them? And if he was, is he any less blind today? In 1918 the -lynchings were still going on while Dr. Du Bois was solemnly advising us -to “forget our grievances.” Any one who insisted then on putting such -grievances as lynchings, disfranchisement and segregation in the -fore-ground was described by the _Crisis_’ editor as seeking “to turn -his country’s tragic predicament to his own personal gain.” At that time -he either believed or pretended to believe every one of the empty words -that flowed from Woodrow Wilson’s lips, and on the basis of this belief -he was willing to act as a brilliant bellwether to the rest of the -flock. Unfortunately, the flock refused to follow the lost leader. - -“If the blind lead the blind they will both fall into the ditch.” But in -this case those being led were not quite so blind as those who wanted to -lead them by way of captaincies in the army. Which was why some -captaincies were not forthcoming. The test of vision in a leader is the -ability to foresee the immediate future, the necessary consequences of a -course of conduct and the dependable sentiments of those whom he assumes -to lead. In all these things Dr. Du Bois has failed; and neither his -ungrateful attack on Emmett Scott nor his belated discovery of Wilsonian -hypocrisy will, we fear, enable him to climb back into the saddle of -race leadership. This is a pity, because he has rendered good service in -his day. But that day is past. The magazine which he edits still remains -as a splendid example of Negro journalism. But the personal primacy of -its editor has departed, never to return. Other times, other men; other -men, other manners. - -Even the Negro people are now insisting that their leaders shall in -thought and moral stamina keep ahead of, and not behind, them, - - “It takes a mind like Willum’s [fact!] ez big as all outdoors - To find out thet it looks like rain arter it fairly pours.” - -The people’s spiritual appetite has changed and they are no longer -enamoured of “brilliant” leaders, whose chorus is: - - “A marciful Providence fashioned us holler - O’purpose that we might our principles swaller; - It can hold any quantity on ’em—the belly can— - An’ bring ’em up ready fer use like the pelican.” - -And this is a change which we commend to the kindly consideration of all -those good white friends who are out selecting Negro “leaders.” It is a -fact which, when carefully considered, will save them thousands of -dollars in “overhead expense.” The Negro leaders of the future will be -expected not only to begin straight, take a moral vacation, and then go -straight again. They will be expected to go straight all the time; to -stand by us in war as well as in peace; not to blow hot and cold with -the same mouth, but “to stand four-square to all the winds that blow.” -—1920. - - - _Just Crabs_ - -Once upon a time a Greedy Person went rummaging along the lagoon with a -basket and a stick in quest of Crabs, which he needed for the Home -Market. (Now, this was in the Beginning of Things, Best Beloved.) These -were Land Crabs—which, you know, are more luscious than Sea Crabs, being -more Primitive and more full of meat. He dug into their holes with his -stick, routed them out, packed them on their backs in his basket and -took them home. Several trips he made with his basket and his stick, and -all the Crabs which he caught were dumped into a huge barrel. (But this -time he didn’t pack them on their backs.) And all the creatures stood -around and watched. For this Greedy Person had put no cover on the -barrel. (But this was in the Beginning of Things.) - -He knew Crab Nature, and was not at all worried about his Crabs. For as -soon as any one Crab began to climb up on the side of the barrel to work -his way toward the top the other Crabs would reach up, grab him by the -legs, and down he would come, kerplunk! “If we can’t get up,” they would -say—“if we can’t get up, you shan’t get up, either. We’ll pull you down. -Besides, you should wait until the barrel bursts. There are Kind Friends -on the Outside who will burst, the barrel if we only wait, and then, -when the Great Day dawns, we will all be Emancipated and there’ll be no -need for Climbing. Come down, you fool!” (Because this was in the -Beginning of Things, Best Beloved.) So the Greedy Person could always -get as many Crabs as he needed for the Home Market, because they all -depended on him for their food. - -And all the creatures stood around and laughed. For this was very funny -in the Beginning of Things. And all the creatures said that the Reason -for this kink in Crab Nature was that when the Creator was giving out -heads he didn’t have enough to go around, so the poor Crabs didn’t get -any. - -And the Greedy Person thanked his lucky stars that Crabs had been made -in that Peculiar way, since it made it unnecessary to put a cover on his -barrel or to waste his precious time a-watching of them. (Now, all this -happened long ago, Best Beloved, in the very Beginning of Things.) - - --- - -The above is the first of our Just-So Stories—with no apologies to -Rudyard Kipling or any one else. We print it here because, just at this -time the Crabs are at work in Harlem, and there is a tremendous clashing -of claws as the Pull ’Em Down program goes forward. It’s a great game, -to be sure, but it doesn’t seem to get them or us anywhere. The new day -that has dawned for the Negroes of Harlem is a day of business -accomplishment. People are going into business, saving their money and -collectively putting it into enterprises which will mean roofs over -their heads and an economic future for themselves and their little ones. - -But the Subsidized Sixth are sure that this is all wrong and that we -have no right to move an inch until the Socialist millennium dawns, when -we will all get “out of the barrel” together. It does not seem to have -occurred to them that making an imperfect heaven now does not unfit any -one for enjoying the perfect paradise which they promise us—if it ever -comes. Truly it is said of them that “the power over a man’s subsistence -is the power over his will”—and over his “scientific radicalism,” too. -But we remember having translated this long ago into the less showy -English of “Show me whose bread you eat, and I’ll tell you whose songs -you’ll sing.” Surely this applies to radicals overnight as well as to -ordinary folk. And if not, why not? - -But when the reek of the poison gas propaganda has cleared away and the -smoke of the barrage has lifted it will be found that “White Men’s -Niggers” is a phrase that need not be restricted to old-line politicians -and editors. Criticism pungent and insistent is due to every man in -public life and to every movement which bids for public support. But the -cowardly insinuator who from the safe shelter of nameless charges -launches his poisoned arrows at other people’s reputation is a -contemptible character to have on any side of any movement. He is -generally a liar who fears that he will be called to account for his -lies if he should venture to name his foe. No man with the truth to tell -indulges in this pastime of the skulker and the skunk. Let us, by all -means, have clear, hard-hitting criticism, but none of this foul filth -which lowers the thing that throws it. In the name of common sense and -common decency, quit being Just Crabs. - - - CHAPTER VI. - THE NEW RACE CONSCIOUSNESS. - - - _The Negro’s Own Radicalism_ - -Twenty years ago all Negroes known to the white publicists of America -could be classed as conservatives on all the great questions on which -thinkers differ. In matters of industry, commerce, politics, religion, -they could be trusted to take the backward view. Only on the question of -the Negro’s “rights” could a small handful be found bold enough to be -tagged as “radicals”—and they were howled down by both the white and -colored adherents of the conservative point of view. Today Negroes -differ on all those great questions on which white thinkers differ, and -there are Negro radicals of every imaginary stripe—agnostics, atheists, -I.W.W.’s Socialists, Single Taxers, and even Bolshevists. - -In the good old days white people derived their knowledge of what -Negroes were doing from those Negroes who were nearest to them, -generally their own selected exponents of Negro activity or of their -white point of view. A classic illustration of this kind of knowledge -was afforded by the Republican Party; but the Episcopal Church, the -Urban League, or the U. S. Government would serve as well. Today the -white world is vaguely, but disquietingly, aware that Negroes are awake, -different and perplexingly uncertain. Yet the white world by which they -are surrounded retains its traditional method of interpreting the mass -by the Negro nearest to themselves in affiliation or contact. The -Socialist party thinks that the “unrest” now apparent in the Negro -masses is due to the propaganda which its adherents support, and -believes that it will function largely along the lines of socialist -political thought. The great dailies, concerned mainly with their chosen -task of being the mental bellwethers of the mob, scream “Bolshevist -propaganda” and flatter themselves that they have found the true cause; -while the government’s unreliable agents envisage it as “disloyalty.” -The truth, as usual, is to be found in the depths; but there they are -all prevented from going by mental laziness and that traditional -off-handed, easy contempt with which white men in America, from scholars -like Lester Ward to scavengers like Stevenson, deign to consider the -colored population of twelve millions. - -In the first place, the cause of “radicalism” among American Negroes is -international. But it is necessary to draw clear distinctions at the -outset. The function of the Christian church is international. So is -art, war, the family, rum and the exploitation of labor. But none of -these is entitled to extend the mantle of its own peculiar -“internationalism” to cover the present case of the Negro -discontent—although this has been attempted. The international Fact to -which Negroes in America are now reacting is not the exploitation of -laborers by capitalists; but the social, political and economic -subjection of colored peoples by white. It is not the Class Line, but -the Color Line, which is the incorrect but accepted expression for the -Dead Line of racial inferiority. This fact is a fact of Negro -consciousness as well as a fact of externals. The international Color -Line is the practice and theory of that doctrine which holds that the -best stocks of Africa, China, Egypt and the West Indies are inferior to -the worst stocks of Belgium, England and Italy, and must hold their -lives, lands and liberties upon such terms and conditions as the white -races may choose to grant them. - -On the part of the whites, the motive was originally economic; but it is -no longer purely so. All the available facts go to prove that, whether -in the United States or in Africa or China, the economic subjection is -without exception keener and more brutal when the exploited are black, -brown and yellow, than when they are white. And the fact that black, -brown and yellow also exploit each other brutally whenever Capitalism -has created the economic classes of plutocrat and proletarian should -suffice to put purely economic subjection out of court as the prime -cause of racial unrest. For the similarity of suffering has produced in -all lands where whites rule colored races a certain similarity of -sentiment, viz.: a racial revulsion of racial feeling. The peoples of -those lands begin to feel and realize that they are so subjected because -they are members of races condemned as “inferior” by their Caucasian -overlords. The fact presented to their minds is one of race, and in -terms of race do they react to it. Put the case to any Negro by way of -test and the answer will make this clear. - -The great World War, by virtue of its great advertising campaign for -democracy and the promises which were held out to all subject peoples, -fertilized the Race Consciousness of the Negro people into the stage of -conflict with the dominant white idea of the Color Line. They took -democracy at its face value—which is—equality. So did the Hindus, -Egyptians and West Indians. This is what the hypocritical advertisers of -democracy had not bargained for. The American Negroes, like the other -darker peoples, are presenting their checques and trying to “cash in,” -and delays in that process, however unavoidable to the paying tellers, -are bound to beget a plentiful lack of belief in either their intention -or their ability to pay. Hence the run on Democracy’s bank—“the Negro -unrest” of the newspaper paragraphers. - -Undoubtedly some of these newly-awakened Negroes will take to Socialism -and Bolshevism. But here again the reason is racial. Since they suffer -racially from the world as at present organized by the white race, some -of their ablest hold that it is “good play” to encourage and give aid to -every subversive movement within that white world which makes for its -destruction “as it is.” For by its subversion they have much to gain and -nothing to lose. Yet they build on their own foundations. Parallel with -the dogma of Class-Consciousness they run the dogma of -Race-Consciousness. And they dig deeper. For the roots of -Class-Consciousness inhere in a temporary economic order; whereas the -roots of Race-Consciousness must of necessity survive any and all -changes in the economic order. Accepting biology, as a fact, their view -is the more fundamental. At any rate, it is that view with which the -white world will have to deal. —The _New Negro_, October, 1919. - - - _Race First Versus Class First_ - -“In the old days white people derived their knowledge of what Negroes -were doing from those Negroes who were nearest to them, largely their -own selected exponents of Negro activity or of their white point of -view. * * * Today the white world is vaguely, but disquietingly, aware -that Negroes are awake; different, but perplexingly uncertain. Yet the -white world by which they are surrounded retains its traditional method -of interpreting the mass by the Negro nearest to themselves in -affiliation or contact. The Socialist party still persists in thinking -that the unrest now apparent in the Negro masses is due to the -propaganda which its paid adherents support, and believes that the -unrest will function largely along the lines of Socialist political -thought.” It is necessary to insist on this point today when the -Socialist party of America has secretly subsidized both a magazine and a -newspaper to attempt to cut into the splendid solidarity which Negroes -are achieving in response to the call of racial necessity. It is -necessary to point out that “radical” young Negroes may betray the -interests of the race into alien hands just as surely as “the old -crowd.” For, after all, the essence of both betrayals consists in making -the racial requirements play second fiddle to the requirements dictated -as best for it by other groups with other interests to serve. The fact -that one group of alien interests is described as “radical” and the -other as “reactionary” is of very slight value to us. - -In the days when the Socialist Party of America was respectable, -although it never drew lines of racial separation in the North, it -permitted those lines to be drawn in the South. It had no word of -official condemnation for the Socialists of Tennessee who prevented -Theresa Malkiel in 1912 from lecturing to Negroes on Socialism either in -the same hall with them or in meetings of their own. It was the national -office of the party which in that same presidential year refused to -route Eugene V. Debs in the South because that Grand Old Man let it be -known that he would not remain silent on the race question while in the -South. They wanted the votes of the white South then, and were willing -to betray by silence the principles of inter-racial solidarity which -they espoused on paper. - -Now, when their party has shrunk considerably in popular support and -sentiment, they are willing to take up our cause. Well, we thank honest -white people everywhere who take up our cause, but we wish them to know -that we have already taken it up ourselves. While they were refusing to -diagnose our case we diagnosed it ourselves, and, now that we have -prescribed the remedy—Race Solidarity—they come to us with their -prescription—Class Solidarity. It is too late, gentlemen! This racial -alignment is all our own product, and we have no desire to turn it over -to you at this late day, when we are beginning to reap its benefits. And -if you are simple enough to believe that those among us who serve your -interests ahead of ours have any monopoly of intellect or information -along the lines of modern learning, then you are the greater gulls -indeed. - -We can respect the Socialists of Scandinavia, France, Germany or England -on their record. But your record so far does not entitle you to the -respect of those of us who can see all around a subject. We say Race -First, because you have all along insisted on Race First and class after -when you didn’t need our help. We reproduce below a brief portion of -your record in those piping times of peace, and ask you to explain it. -If you are unable to do so, set your lackeys to work; they may be able -to do it in terms of their own “radical scientific” surface slush. The -following is taken from the majority report of one of your national -committees during one of your recent national conventions. It was signed -by Ernest Untermann and J. Stitt Wilson, representing the West, and -Joshua Wanhope, editor of the _Call_, and Robert Hunter, representing -the East, and it was adopted as a portion of the party program. We learn -from it that— - - “Race feeling is not so much a result of social as of biological - evolution. It does not change essentially with changes of economic - systems. It is deeper than any class feeling and will outlast the - capitalist system. It persists even after race prejudice has been - outgrown. It exists not because the capitalists nurse it for economic - reasons, but the capitalists rather have an opportunity to nurse it - for economic reasons because it exists as a product of biology. It is - bound to play a role in the economics of the future society. If it - should not assert itself in open warfare under a Socialist form of - society, it will nevertheless lead to a rivalry of races for expansion - over the globe as a result of the play of natural and sexual - selection. We may temper this race feeling by education, but we can - never hope to extinguish it altogether. Class-consciousness must be - learned, but race consciousness is inborn and cannot be wholly - unlearned. A few individuals may indulge in the luxury of ignoring - race and posing as utterly raceless humanitarians, but whole races - never. Where races struggle for the means of life, racial animosities - cannot be avoided. Where working people struggle for jobs, - self-preservation enforces its decrees. Economic and political - considerations lead to racial fights and to legislation restricting - the invasion of the white man’s domain by other races.” - -It is well that the New Negro should know this, since it justifies him -in giving you a taste of your own medicine. The writer of these lines is -also a Socialist; but he refuses in this crisis of the world’s history -to put either Socialism or your party above the call of his race. And he -does this on the very grounds which you yourselves have given in the -document quoted above. Also because he is not a fool. —March 27th, 1920. - - - _An Open Letter to the Socialist Party of New York City_ - -Gentlemen: During 1917 the white leaders of the Republican party were -warned that the Negroes of this city were in a mood unfavorable to the -success of their party at the polls and that this mood was likely to -last until they changed their party’s attitude toward the Negro masses. -They scouted this warning because the Negroes whom they had selected to -interpret Negro sentiment for them still confidently assured them that -there had been no change of sentiment on the part of the Negro people, -and white politicians did not think it necessary to come and find out -for themselves. Consequently they were lied to by those whose bread and -butter depended on such lying. Then came the mayoralty campaign, and, -when it was too late they discovered their mistake. At a memorable -meeting at Palace Casino John Purroy Mitchell, the candidate of the -Republican party, and Theodore Roosevelt, its idol, were almost hissed -off the stage, while the Mitchell outdoor speakers found it impossible -to speak on the street corners of Harlem. The party went down to defeat -and Judge Hylan was elected. - -All this is recent history, and it is called to your attention at this -time only because you are in danger of making a similar costly mistake. -You, too, have selected Negro spokesmen on whose word you choose to rely -for information as to the tone and temper of Negro political sentiment. -You have chosen to adopt the same faulty method of the white Republican -politicians, and you do not care to go behind the word of your selected -exponents of Negro thought and feeling. Yet the pitiful vote which you -polled in the last election might have warned you that something had -gone wrong in your arrangements. What that something is we shall now -proceed to show you—if you are still able to see. - -During the recent world war the Negro in America was taught that while -white people spoke of patriotism, religion, democracy and other sounding -themes, they remained loyal to one concept above all others, and that -was the concept of race. Even in the throes of war, and on -the battlefields of France it was “race first” with them. Out of this -realization was born the new Negro ideal of “race first” for us. And -today, whether Negroes be Catholics or Protestants, capitalists or wage -workers, Republicans or Democrats, native or foreign-born, they begin -life anew on this basis. Alike in their business alignments, their -demands on the government and political parties, and in their courageous -response to race rioters, they are responding to this sentiment which -has been bred by the attitude of white men here and everywhere else -where white rules black. To be sure, neither Burleson nor Palmer have -told you or the rest of the white world this. The Angle-Saxon white man -is a notorious hypocrite; and they have preferred to prate of -Bolshevism—your “radicalism”—rather than tell the truth of racialism, -our “radicalism,” because this was an easier explanation, more in -keeping with official stupidity. But we had supposed that you were -intelligent enough to find this out. Evidently, you were not. - -Your official Negro exponents, on behalf of their bread and butter, have -seized on this widely-published official explanation to make you believe -that the changed attitude of the Negro masses was due to the propaganda -which you were paying them (at their published request) to preach. But -this is a lie. Don’t take our word for it. Do some reading on your own -account. Get a hundred different Negro newspapers and magazines, outside -of those which you have subsidized, and study their editorial and other -pronouncements, and you will see that this is so. - -But let us come nearer home. The propaganda of Socialism has been -preached in times past in Harlem by different people without awakening -hostility of any sort. Today it elicits a hostility which is outspoken. -Send up and see; then ask yourselves the reason. You will find a Negro -Harlem reborn, with business enterprises and cultural arrangements. And -these things have been established without any help from you or those -who eat your bread. Even the work of Socialist propaganda was neglected -by you between 1912 and 1917. Consult your own memories and the columns -of the Call. - -All these things are the recent products of the principle of “race -first.” And among them the biggest is the Universal Negro Improvement -Association, with its associate bodies, the Black Star Line and the -Negro Factories Corporation. No movement among American Negroes since -slavery was abolished has ever attained the gigantic proportions of -this. The love and loyalty of millions go out to it as well as the cold -cash of tens of thousands. Yet your Negro hirelings have seen fit to use -the organs which you have given them to spread Socialist propaganda for -the purpose of attacking all these things, and the Black Star Line in -particular. Do you wonder now that they meet with such outspoken -opposition that they have been driven to seek an underhanded alliance -with the police (as your Negro Socialist organ avows in its latest -issue)? Isn’t that a glorious alliance for purposes of Negro propaganda? -When such things can happen you may depend upon it that someone has been -fooling you. - -And, just as the white Republicans did, you have assumed that those whom -chance or change brought your way have, somehow, achieved a monopoly of -the intellect and virtue of the Negro race. Do you think that this is -sound sense on your part? Of course, it was natural that they should -tell you so. But was it natural for you to be so simple as to believe -it? On March 27 this newspaper in an editorial quoted a passage from one -of your official documents showing that the white men of your party -officially put “race first” rather than “class first,” which latter -phrase is your henchmen’s sole contribution to “sociology”—for us. The -quoted passage cuts the very heart out of their case. And yet, those -whom you have selected to represent you are so green and sappy in their -Socialism that, although six weeks have elapsed since this was hurled at -their thick heads, not one of them has yet been able to trace to its -source, this quotation from one of your own official documents. Think of -it! And in the meantime you yourselves are such “easy marks” that you -believe them, on their own assertion, to be the ablest among the Negroes -of America. It is not easy to decide which of the two groups is the -bigger joke—you or they. - -You have constantly insisted that “there is no race problem, only an -economic problem,” but you will soon be in a fair way to find out -otherwise. Some day you will, perhaps, have learned enough to cease -being “suckers” for perpetual candidates who dickered with the Democrats -up to within a month of “flopping” to your party only because they -“couldn’t make it” elsewhere; some day, perhaps, you will know enough to -put Socialism’s cause in the hands of those who will refrain from using -your party’s organ for purposes of personal pique, spite and venom. When -that day dawns Socialism will have a chance to be heard by Negroes on -its merits. And even now, if you should send anyone up here (black or -white) to put the cause of Karl Marx, freed from admixture of rancor and -hatred of the Negro’s own defensive racial propaganda, you may find that -it will have as good a chance of gaining adherents as any other -political creed. But until you change your tactics or make your -exponents change theirs your case among us will be hopeless indeed. -—May, 1920. - - - _“Patronize Your Own.”_ - -The doctrine of “Race First,” although utilized largely by the Negro -business men of Harlem, has never received any large general support -from them. If we remember rightly, it was the direct product of the -out-door and indoor lecturers who flourished in Harlem between 1914 and -1916. Not all who were radical shared this sentiment. For instance, we -remember the debate between Mr. Hubert Harrison, then president of the -Liberty League, and Mr. Chandler Owen, at Palace Casino in December, -1918, in which the “radical” Owen fiercely maintained “that the doctrine -of race first was an indefensible doctrine”; Mr. Harrison maintaining -that it was the source of salvation for the race. Both these gentlemen -have run true to form ever since. - -But to return to our thesis. The secondary principle of “patronize your -own,” flowing as it does from the main doctrine of “race first,” is -subject to the risk of being exploited dishonestly—particularly by -business men. And business men in Harlem have shown themselves capable -of doing this all the time. They seem to forget that “do unto others as -you would have them do unto you” is a part of the honest application of -this doctrine. Many of these men seem to want other black people to pay -them for being black. They seem to think that a dirty place and -imperfect service and 3 cents more a pound should be rewarded with -racial patronage regardless of these demerits. - -On the other hand, there have grown up in Harlem Negro businesses, -groceries, ice cream parlors, etc., in which the application of prices, -courtesy and selling efficiency are maintained. This is the New Negro -business man, and we say “more power to him.” If this method of applying -the principle should continue to increase in popularity we are sure to -have in Harlem and elsewhere a full and flowing tide of Negro business -enterprises gladly and loyally supported by the mass of Negro purchasers -to their mutual benefit. - -The Negro business man who is unintelligently selfish, makes a hash of -racial welfare in the attempt to achieve individual success. A case in -point is that of the brown-skinned dolls. Twenty years ago the Negro -child’s only choice was between a white Caucasian doll and the “nigger -doll.” On the lower levels the one was as cheap as the other. Then, a -step at a time came the picturesque poupee, variously described as the -“Negro doll,” the “colored doll” and the “brown-skinned doll.” This was -sold by white stores at an almost prohibitive price. It was made three -times as easy for the Negro child to idolize a white doll as to idolize -one with the features of its own race. When the principle of “Race -First” began to be proclaimed from scores of platforms and pulpits, -certain Negro business men saw a chance to benefit the race and, -incidently to reap a wonderful harvest of profits, by appealing to a -principle for whose support and maintenance, here and elsewhere, they -had never paid a cent. “Factories” for the production of brown-skinned -dolls began to spring up—most of the factoring consisting of receiving -these dolls from white factories and either stuffing them with saw dust, -excelsior or other filling, or merely changing them from one wrapper to -another. Bear in mind that the proclaimed object was to make it easier -for the Negro mother to teach race patriotism to her Negro child. Yet it -was soon notorious that these leeches were charging $3, $4 and $5 for -Negro dolls which could sell at prices ranging from 75 cents to $1.25, -and yet leave a handsome margin of profit. - -The result is that today even in Negro Harlem nine out of ten Negro -children are forced to play with white dolls, because rapacious -scoundrels have been capitalizing the principle of “patronize your own” -in a one-sided way. By lowering their prices to a reasonable level, they -could extend their business tremendously. Failing to do this, they are -playing into the hands of the vendors of white dolls and making it much -easier for the Negro mother to select a white doll for her child; -limiting at once their own market and restricting the development of a -larger racial ideal. - - - _The Women of Our Race_ - -America owes much to the foreigner and the Negro in America owes even -more. For it was the white foreigner who first proclaimed that the only -music which America had produced that was worthy of the name was Negro -music. It naturally took some time for this truth to sink in, and, in -the meantime, the younger element of Negroes, in their weird worship of -everything that was white, neglected and despised their own race-music. -More than one college class had walked out, highly insulted, when their -white teachers had asked them to sing “Swing Low Sweet Chariot” and “My -Lord, What a Morning.” - -It is to be hoped that they now know better. But the real subject of -this editorial is not Negro music, but Negro women. If any foreigner -should come here from Europe, Asia or Africa and be privileged to pass -in review the various kinds of women who live in our America he would -pick out as the superior of them all—the Negro woman. It seems a great -pity that it should be left to the foreigner to “discover” the -Negro-American woman. For her own mankind have been seeing her for -centuries. And yet, outside of the vague rhetoric of the brethren in -church and lodge when they want her to turn their functions into -financial successes, and outside of Paul Dunbar and perhaps two other -poets, no proper amount of esthetic appreciation of her has been -forthcoming from their side. - -Consider the facts of the case. The white women of America are charming -to look at-in the upper social classes. But even the Negro laundress, -cook or elevator-girl far surpasses her mistress in the matter of -feminine charms. No white woman has a color as beautiful as the dark -browns, light-browns, peach-browns, or gold and bronze of the Negro -girl. These are some of the things which make a walk through any Negro -section of New York or Washington such a feast of delight. - -Then, there is the matter of form. The bodies and limbs of our Negro -women are, on the whole, better built and better shaped than those of -any other women on earth—except perhaps, the Egyptian women’s. And their -gait and movement would require an artist to properly describe. The -grace of their carriage is inimitable. - -But their most striking characteristic is a feature which even the crude -mind of mere man can appreciate. It is, to quote “Gunga Din,” “the way -in which they carry their clothes.” They dress well—not merely in the -sense that their clothing is costly and good to look at; but in that -higher sense in which the Parisian woman is the best-dressed woman in -Europe. From shoes and stockings to shirtwaists and hats, they choose -their clothes with fine taste and show them off to the best advantage -when they put them on. That is why a man may walk down the avenue with a -Negro cook or factory girl without anyone’s being able to guess that she -has to work for a living. And, finally, in the matter of that -indefinable something which, for want of a better word, we call simply -“charm”—the Negro women are far ahead of all others in America. They -have more native grace, more winsomeness, greater beauty and more fire -and passion. These facts have already begun to attract attention, here -and elsewhere, and, eventually, the Negro woman will come into her own. - -What say you, brothers! Shall we not love her while she is among us? -Shall we not bend the knee in worship and thank high heaven for the -great good fortune which has given us such sisters and sweethearts, -mothers and wives? - - - _To the Young Men of My Race_ - -The Negro is already at work on the problems of reconstruction. He finds -himself in the midst of a world which is changing to its very -foundations. Yet millions of Negroes haven’t now—and have never had—the -slightest knowledge or idea of what those foundations are. How can they -render effective aid to the world without understanding something of how -the world, or society, is arranged, how it runs, and how it is run? - -No one, friendly or unfriendly, can deny that the Negroes of America do -wish to help in constructing this world of men and things which will -emerge from the Great War. They want to help, because they realize that -their standing and welfare and happiness in that world will very largely -depend upon what kind of world it is. They have not been happy, so far, -in America—nor, so far as the white man’s rule is concerned,—anywhere -else under it. And they want to be happy, if that be possible. For which -reason they want to help in the re-shaping of the world-to-be. - -They feel the burdens put on them by the White Lords of subjection and -repression, of 39 cents worth of education a year in Alabama, of the -deep race hatred of the Christian Church, the Y.M.C.A. and the -Associated Press; of lynching in the land of “liberty,” disfranchisement -in “democratic” America and segregation on the Federal trains and in the -Federal departments. They feel that the world should be set free from -this machinery of mischief-for their sakes as well as that of the world. - -Such is the state of mind of the Negro masses here. And now what does -this attitude of the Negro masses require? GUIDANCE! Guidance, shaping -and direction. Here is strength, here is power, here is a task to call -forth the sublimest heroism on the part of those who should lead them. -And what do we find? No guidance, no shaping of the course for these -millions. The blind may not safely lead the blind in these critical -times—and blind men are practically all that we have as leaders. - -The old men whose minds are always retrospecting and reminiscing to the -past, who were “trained” to read a few dry and dead books which they -still fondly believe are hard to get—these do not know anything of the -modern world, its power of change and travel, and the mighty range of -its ideas. Its labor problems and their relation to wars and alliances -and diplomacy are not even suspected by these quaint fossils. They think -that they are “leading” Negro thought, but they could serve us better if -they were cradelled in cotton-wool, wrapped in faded roses, and laid -aside in lavender as mementoes of a dead past. - -The young men must gird up their loins for the task of leadership and -leadership has its stern and necessary duties. The first of these is -TRAINING. Not in a night did the call come to Christ, not in a day was -He made fit to make the great sacrifice. It took thirty years of -preparation to fit him for the work of three. Even so, on you, young men -of Negro America, descends the duty of the great preparation. Get -education. Get it not only in school and in college, but in books and -newspapers, in market-places, institutions, and movements. Prepare by -knowing; and never think you know until you have listened to ten others -who know differently—and have survived the shock. - -The young man’s second duty is IRREVERENCE. Reverence is in one sense, -respect for what is antiquated because it is antiquated. This race has -lived in a rut too long to reverence the rut. Oldsters love ruts because -they help them to “rub along,” they are easy to understand; they require -the minimum of exertion and brains, and they give the maximum of ease. -Young man! If you wish to be spiritually alert and alive; to get the -very best out of yourself—shun a rut as you would shun the plague! Never -bow the knee to Baal because Baal is in power; never respect wrong and -injustice because they are enshrined in “the sacred institutions of our -glorious land”; never have patience with either Cowardice or Stupidity -because they happen to wear venerable whiskers. Read, reason, and think -on all sides of all subjects. Don’t compare yourself with the runner -behind you on the road; always compare yourself with the one ahead; so -only will you go faster and farther. And set it before you, as a sacred -duty always to surpass the teachers that taught you—and this is the -essence of irreverence. - -The last great duty is COURAGE. Dear man of my people, if all else -should fail you, never let _that_ fail. Much as you need preparation and -prevision you are more in need of Courage. This has been, and is yet, A -DOWNTRODDEN RACE. Do you know what a down-trodden race needs most? If -you are not sure, take down your Bible and read the whole story of -Gideon and his band. You will then understand that, as Dunbar, says: - - “Minorities since time began - Have shown the better side of man; - And often, in the lists of time, - One Man has made a cause sublime.” - -You will learn the full force of what another American meant when he -told the young men of his age: - - “They are slaves who dare not choose - Hatred, scoffing and abuse, - Rather than in silence shrink - From the truth they needs must think, - They are slaves who dare not be - In the right with two or three.” - -A people under the heels of oppression has more need of heroic souls -than one for whom the world is bright. It was in Egypt and in the -wilderness that Israel had need of Moses, Aaron and Joshua. No race -situated like ours, has any place of leadership for those who lack -courage, fortitude, heroism. You may have to turn your eyes away from -the fleshpots of Egypt; you may be called on to fight with wild beasts -at Ephesus; you may have to face starvation in the wilderness or -crucifixion on Calvary. Have the courage to do that which the occasion -demands when it comes. And I make you no promise that “in the end you -will win a glorious crown.” You may fail, fall and be forgotten. What of -it? When you think of our heroic dead on Messines Ridge, along the Aisne -and at Chateau Thierry—how does your heart act? It thrills! It thrills -because - - “Manhood hath a larger span - And wider privilege of life than Man.” - -and you, young Negro Men of America, you are striving to give the gift -of manhood to this race of ours. - -The future belongs to the young men. -—January, 1919. - - - - - CHAPTER VII. - OUR INTERNATIONAL CONSCIOUSNESS. - -[The ideas expressed in the title of this chapter were formulated as -early as 1915 when I was in the unique position of being the black -leader and lecturer of a white lecture forum, organized by white -liberals, radicals and others at the old Lenox Casino, at 116th St. & -Lenox Ave., New York City. What white people in general thought of the -value of my services at this forum can be read in a letter written by a -white southerner and appearing in the New York Globe of December 15, -1920. After the closing of this lecture forum the same explanation of -the racial significance of the whole process of the war was expressed in -other lectures given to white people at a lecture forum which I -maintained in the Brownsville section of Brooklyn. I make these -explanations here because I value somewhat the point of priority in the -face of Mr. Lothrop Stoddard’s remarkable book, “The Rising Tide of -Color Against White World-Supremacy” and the sweeping tide of racial -consciousness which found expression subsequently in those Negro -newspapers and magazines which have been called radical.] - - _The White War and the Colored World_ - -The newspapers which we read every day inform us that the world is at -war. Searching the pages of the statisticians, we find that the world is -made up of 17 hundred million people of which 12 hundred million are -colored—black and brown and yellow. This vast majority is at peace and -remains at peace until the white minority determines otherwise. The war -in Europe is a war of the white race wherein the stakes of conflict are -the titles to possession of the lands and destinies of this colored -majority in Asia, Africa and the islands of the sea. - -There can be no doubt that the white race as it exists today, is the -superior race of the world. And it is superior, not because it has -better manners more religion or a higher culture; these things are -metaphysical and subject to dispute. The white race rests its claim to -superiority on the frankly materialistic ground that it has the guns, -soldiers, the money and resources to keep it in the position of the -top-dog and to make its will go. This is what white men mean by -civilization, disguise it how they may. This struggle is a conflict of -wills and interests among the various nations which make up the white -race, to determine whose will shall be accepted as the collective will -of the white race; to decide, at least for this century, who shall be -the inheritors of the lands of Africa and Asia and dictators of the -lives and destinies of their colored inhabitants. - -The peculiar feature of the conflict is that the white race in its -fratricidal strife is burning up, eating up, consuming and destroying -these very resources of ships, guns, men and money upon which its -superiority is built. They are bent upon this form of self-destruction -and nothing that we can say will stop them. - -As representatives of one of the races constituting the colored majority -of the world, we deplore the agony and blood-shed; but we find -consolation in the hope that when this white world shall have been -washed clean by its baptism of blood, the white race will be less able -to thrust the strong hand of its sovereign will down the throats of the -other races. We look for a free India and an independent Egypt; _for -nationalities in Africa flying their own flags and dictating their own -internal and foreign policies._ This is what we understand by “making -the world safe for democracy.” Anything less than this will fail to -establish “peace on earth and good will toward men.” For the majority -races cannot be eternally coerced into accepting the sovereignty of the -white race. They are willing to live in a world which is the equal -possession of all peoples—white, black, brown and yellow. If the white -race is willing, they will live at peace with it. But if it insists that -freedom, democracy and equality are to exist only for white men, then, -there will be such bloodshed later as this world has never seen. And -there is no certainty that in such a conflict the white race will come -out on top. Not the destinies of the world, but the destinies of the -white race are in the hands of the white race. —1917. - - - _U-Need-a Biscuit_ - -There is one advertisement which appears in the magazines, on the -streets and bill boards which has always seemed to us a masterly -illustration of the principle of repetition. When going to work in the -morning we look up from our daily newspaper and see the flaring sign -which states that U-need-a Biscuit, we may ignore its appeal the first -time, but as the days go by the constant insistence reaches our inner -consciousness and we decide that perhaps after all we do need a biscuit. -At any rate, whenever we have biscuits to buy it is natural that the -biscuit which has been most persistently advertised should recur at once -to our minds and that we should buy that particular biscuit. - -We beg to call the above apologue to the attention of the white people -of this country who guide the ship of state either in the halls of -Congress or through the columns of the white newspapers. They are -seemingly at a loss to account for the new spirit which has come over -the Negro people in the Western world. Some pretend to believe that it -is Bolshevism—whatever that may be. Others tell us that it is the -product of alien agitators, and yet others are coming to the front with -the novel explanation that it springs from a desire to mingle our blood -with that of the white people. - -Perhaps we are wasting our time in offering an explanation to the white -men of this country. It has been proven again and again that the -Anglo-Saxon is such a professional liar that with the plain truth before -his eyes he will still profess to be seeing something else. Nevertheless -we make the attempt because we believe that a double benefit may accrue -to us thereby. Does any reader who lived through the years from 1914 to -1919 and is still living remember what “Democracy” was? It was the -U-need-a Biscuit advertised by Messrs. Woodrow Wilson, Lloyd George, -Georges Clemenceau and thousands of perspiring publicists, preachers and -thinkers, who were on one side of a conflict then raging in Europe. - -Now, you cannot get men to go out and get killed by telling them plainly -that you who are sending them want to get the other fellow’s land, trade -and wealth, and you are too cowardly or too intelligent to go yourself -and risk getting shot over the acquisition. That would never do. So you -whoop it up with any catchword which will serve as sufficient bait for -the silly fools whom you keep silly in order that you may always use -them in this way. “Democracy” was such a catch-word, and the honorable -gentlemen to whom we referred above advertised it for all it was -worth—to them. But, just as we prophesied in 1915, there was an -unavoidable flare-back. When you advertise U-need-a Biscuit incessantly -people will want it; and when you advertise democracy incessantly the -people to whom you trumpet forth its deliciousness are likely to believe -you, take you at your word, and, later on, demand that you make good and -furnish them with the article for which you yourself have created the -appetite. - -Now, we Negroes, Egyptians and Hindus, under the pressure of democracy’s -commercial drummers, have developed a democratic complex which in its -turbulent insistence is apt to trouble the firms for whom these drummers -drummed. Because they haven’t any of the goods which they advertised in -the first place, and, in the second place, they haven’t the slightest -intention of passing any of it on—even if they had. - -So, gentlemen, when you read of the Mullah, of Said Zagloul Pasha and -Marcus Garvey or Casely Hayford; when you hear of Egyptian and Indian -nationalist uprisings, of Black Star Lines and West Indian -“seditions”—kindly remember (because we know) that these fruits spring -from the seeds of your own sowing. You have said to us “U need a -biscuit,” and, after long listening to you, we have replied, “We do!” -Perhaps next time—if there is a next time—you will think twice before -you furnish to “inferior” peoples such a stick as “democracy” has proved -for the bludgeoning of your heads. In any case your work has been too -well done for even you to obliterate it. The Negro of the Western world -can truthfully say to the white man and the Anglo-Saxon in particular, -“You made me what I am today, I hope you’re satisfied.” And if the white -man isn’t satisfied—well, we should worry. That’s all. —July, 1920. - - - _Our Larger Duty_ - -The problem of the twentieth century is the problem of the Color Line. -But what is the Color Line? It is the practice of the theory that the -colored and “weaker” races of the earth shall not be free to follow -“their own way of life and of allegiance,” but shall live, work and be -governed after such fashion as the dominant white race may decide. -Consider for a moment the full meaning of this fact. Of the seventeen -hundred million people that dwell on our earth today more than twelve -hundred million are colored—black and brown and yellow. The so-called -white race is, of course, the superior race. That is to say, it is on -top by virtue of its control of the physical force of the worldships, -guns, soldiers, money and other resources. By virtue of this control -England rules and robs India, Egypt, Africa and the West Indies; by -virtue of this control we of the United States can tell Haytians, -Hawaiians and Filipinos how much they shall get for their labor and what -shall be done in their lands; by virtue of this control Belgium can -still say to the Congolese whether they shall have their hands hacked -off or their eyes gouged out—and all without any reference to what -Africans, Asiatics or other inferior members of the world’s majority may -want. - -It is thus clear that, as long as the Color Line exists, all the -perfumed protestations of Democracy on the part of the white race must -be simply downright lying. The cant of “Democracy” is intended as dust -in the eyes of white voters, incense on the altar of their own -self-love. It furnishes bait for the clever statesmen who hold the -destinies of their people in their hands when they go fishing for -suckers in the waters of public discussion. But it becomes more and more -apparent that Hindus, Egyptians, Africans, Chinese and Haytians have -taken the measure of this cant and hypocrisy. And, whatever the white -world may think, it will have these peoples to deal with during this -twentieth century. - -In dealing with them in the past it has been considered sufficient that -the white man should listen to his own voice alone in determining what -colored peoples should have; and he has, therefore, been trying -perpetually to “solve” the problems arising from his own assumption of -the role of God. The first and still the simplest method was to kill -them off, either by slaughter pure and simple, as in the case of the -American Indians and the Congo natives, or by forcibly changing their -mode of life, as was done by those pious prudes who killed off the -Tasmanians; or by importing among them rum, gin, whiskey and -consumption, as has been attempted in the case of the Negroes of Africa -and North America. But, unlike the red Indians and Tasmanians, most of -these subject peoples have refused to be killed off. Their vitality is -too strong. - -The second method divides itself into internal and external treatment. -The internal treatment consists in making them work, to develop the -resources of their ancestral lands, not for themselves, but for their -white overlords, so that the national and imperial coffers may be filled -to overflowing, while the Hindu ryot, on six cents a day, lives down to -the level of the imperialist formula: - - “The poor benighted Hindoo, - He does the best he kin do; - He never aches - For chops and steaks - And for clothes he makes his skin do.” - -The external treatment consists of girdling them with forts and -battleships and holding armies in readiness to fly at their throats upon -the least sign of “uppishness” or “impudence.” - -Now, this similarity of suffering on the part of colored folk has given, -and is giving, rise to a certain similarity of sentiment. Egypt has -produced the Young Egypt movement; India, the Swadesha, the All-India -Congress, and the present revolutionary movement which has lit the fuse -of the powder-keg on which Britain sits in India today; Africa has her -Ethiopian Movement which ranges from the Zulus and Hottentots of the -Cape to the Ekoi of Nigeria; in short, the darker races, chafing under -the domination of the alien whites, are everywhere showing a disposition -to take Democracy at its word and to win some measure of it for -themselves. - -What part in this great drama of the future are the Negroes of the -Western world to play? The answer is on the knees of the gods, who often -make hash of the predictions of men. But it is safe to say that, before -the Negroes of the Western world can play any effective part they must -first acquaint themselves with what is taking place in that larger world -whose millions are in motion. They must keep well informed of the trend -of that motion and of its range and possibilities. If our problem here -is really a part of a great world-wide problem, we must make our -attempts to solve our part link up with the attempts being made -elsewhere to solve the other parts. So will we profit by a wider -experience and perhaps be able to lend some assistance to that ancient -Mother Land of ours to whom we may fittingly apply the words of Milton: - -“Methinks I see in my mind a mighty and puissant nation, rousing herself -like a strong man after sleep and shaking her invincible locks; methinks -I see her like an eagle mewing her mighty youth and kindling her -undazzled eyes at the full noon-day beam; methinks I see her scaling and -improving her sight at the fountain itself of heavenly radiance, while -the whole noise of timorous and flocking birds—with them also that love -the twilight—hover around, amazed at what she means, and in their -useless gabble would prognosticate a year of sects and schisms.” —The -New Negro, August, 1919. - - - _Help Wanted for Hayti_ - -While we were at war our President declared, over and over again, that -we were calling upon the flower of our manhood to go to France and make -itself into manure in order that the world might be made safe for -democracy. Today the deluded people of the earth realize that the accent -is on the “moc(k).” Ireland, India and Egypt are living proofs that the -world has been lied to. We need not bite our tongues about it. Those who -told us that the world would be made safe for democracy have lied to us. -All over the world men and women are finding out that when an American -President, a British Premier or a French “tiger” speaks of “the world,” -he does not include the black and brow: and yellow millions, who make up -the vast majority of the earth’s population. And now the sheeted ghost -of a black republic rises above the tomb where its bones lie buried and -points its silent but accusing finger at American democracy. What can we -answer in the case of Hayti? British India and Ireland, Turkish Armenia -or Russian Poland have never presented such ruthless savagery as has -been let loose in Hayti in a private war for which President Wilson has -never had the consent of Congress. The white daily papers speak -complacently of the repulse of “bandits.” What is this but a developing -disease of the American conscience, to put the blinkers of a catchword -over the eyes of the spirit? - -The people of Hayti are being shot, sabred and bombed, while resisting -an illegal invasion of their homes, and, if public decency is not dead -in America white and black men and women will insist that Congress -investigate this American Ireland. - -When Ireland feels the pressure of the English heel, the Irish in -America make their voices heard and help to line up American public -opinion on their side. When Paderewski’s government massacres Jews in -Poland, the Jews of America raise money, organize committees, put the U. -S. Government on the job—and get results. But when Negroes are -massacred—not in Africa, but in Hayti, under American control—what do we -American Negroes do? So far, nothing. But that inaction will not last. -Negroes must write their Congressmen and Senators concerning the -atrocity perpetrated at Port au Prince last week. They should organize -committees to go before Congress and put the pitiful facts, demanding -investigation, redress and punishment. - -For as long as such things can be done without effective protest or -redress, black people every where will refuse to believe that the -democracy advertised by lying white politicians can be anything but a -ghastly joke. - - - _The Cracker in the Caribbean_ - - “Meanwhile the feet of civilized slayers have woven across the fair - face of the earth a crimson mesh of murder and rapine. The smoke of - blazing villages ascends in lurid holocaust to the bloody god of - battles from the altar of human hate in the obscene temple of race - prejudice.” - -These words, which we wrote in 1912, come back to our mind eight years -later with no abatement of the awful horror which they express. And what -gives a special point to them at this moment is the bloody rape of the -republics of Hayti and Santo Domingo which is being perpetrated by the -bayonets of American sailors and marines, with the silent and shameful -acquiescence of 12,000,000 American Negroes too cowardly to lift a voice -in effective protest or too ignorant of political affairs to know what -is taking place. What boots it that we strike heroic attitudes and talk -grandiloquently of Ethiopia stretching forth her hands when we Africans -of the dispersion can let the land of L’Ouverture lie like a fallen -flower beneath the feet of swine? - -The facts of the present situation in that hapless land are given in the -current issue of _The Nation_ (a white American weekly). Taken together -with the accounts which we have printed from time to time, it tells a -tale of shuddering horror in comparison with which the Putumayo pales -into insignificance and the Congo atrocities of Belgium are tame. The -two West Indian republics have been murderously assaulted; their -citizens have been shot down by armed ruffians, bombed by aeroplanes, -hunted into concentration camps and there starved to death. In their own -land their civil liberties have been taken away, their governments have -been blackjacked and their property stolen. And all this by the -“cracker” statesmanship of “the South,” without one word of protest from -that defunct department, the Congress of the United States! - -The Constitution of the United States says that the power to declare war -shall belong exclusively to the Congress of the United States. But the -Congress of the United States has been shamelessly ignored. In -furtherance of the God-given “cracker” mandate to “keep the nigger in -his place,” a mere Secretary of the Navy has assumed over the head of -Congress the right to conquer and annex two nations and to establish on -their shores the “cracker-democracy” of his native Carolina slave-runs. - -It is high time that the Negro people of the United States call the hand -of Josephus Daniels by appealing to the Legislature of the United States -to resume its political functions, investigate this high-handed outrage -and impeach the Secretary of the Navy of high crimes and misdemeanors -against the peace and good name of the United States. The ordinary -excuse of cowards will not obtain in this case. We would not be -violating any law—wartime or other—but, on the contrary, we should be -striving to put an end to a flagrant violation of the Constitution -itself on the part of a high officer, who took an oath to maintain, -support and defend it. This is our right and our duty. Irishmen, on -behalf of Ireland, sell the bonds of an Irish loan to free Ireland from -the tyranny of Britain—with whom we are on friendly terms—on the very -steps of New York’s City Hall, while we black people are not manly -enough to get up even a petition on behalf of our brothers in Hayti. - -Out upon such crawling cowardice! Rouse, ye slaves, and show that the -spirit of liberty is not quite dead among you! You who elected -“delegates” to go to a Peace Conference to which you had neither -passport nor invitation, on behalf of bleeding Africa, get together and -present a monster petition to the American Congress, over which you have -some control. Remember that George the Third engaged in a contest with -these colonies because he had trouble at home. He could not defeat the -Pitts, Burkes and Foxes at home, and wanted to win prestige from the -colonials. Had he succeeded in setting his foot on their necks he would -have returned home with increased prestige and power to bend the free -spirits of - -England to his will. Pitt knew this, and so did Fox and Burke. That is -why they took the side of their distant cousins against the British -king. And the British liberals of today thank their memories for it. If -the “crackers” of the South can fasten their yoke on the necks of our -brothers overseas, then God help us Negroes in America in the years to -come! - -If we were now appealing directly to the white men of America we might -dwell upon the moral aspects of the question. But we must leave that to -others. Yet we cannot do so without recalling the words of a great poet: - - “But man, proud man, - Drest in a little brief authority, - Most ignorant of what he’s most assured— - His glassy essence—like an angry ape, - Plays such fantastic tricks before high heaven - As make the angels weep.” - -And we draw some slight consolation from the fact that, even if he -should escape impeachment, Josephus Daniels must surrender up his “brief -authority” in another twelvemonth. - -But we who are still free in a measure must not wait twelve months to -act. We could not do that and preserve our racial self-respect. For— - - “Whether conscious or unconscious, yet Humanity’s vast frame - Through its ocean-sundered fibres feels the gush of joy or shame; - In the gain or loss of one race all the rest have equal claim.” - - - _When Might Makes Right_ - -A correspondent whose letter appears elsewhere raises the question of -the relation between mental competence and property rights. “Does -inability to govern destroy title to ownership?” he asks. The white race -assumes an affirmative answer in every case in which the national -property of darker and weaker races are concerned and deny it in cases -in which their own national property interests are involved. It seems -strange that whereas the disturbances occurring in our own southern -states are never considered sufficient to justify the destruction of -their sovereignty, on the other hand, such disturbances occurring in -Hayti or Mexico are considered a sufficient reason for invasion and -conquest by white Americans. The same is true of England, France and -Italy. A disturbance in Alexandria, Delhi, Ashanti or the Cameroons -suffices to fix upon those territories and cities the badge of -inferiority and incompetence to rule themselves. The conclusion is -always drawn in such cases that the white race has been called by this -fortunate combination of circumstances to do the ruling for them. But -similar disturbances occurring in Wales, Essen or Marseilles would never -be considered as sufficient to justify the dictatorship of foreign -powers in the interest of “law and order.” - -The truth is that “might makes right” in all these cases. White -statesmen, however, often deny this at the very moment when they are -using “force without stint, force to the utmost” to establish “rights” -which they claim over territories, peoples, commerce and the high seas. -Their characteristic hypocrisy keeps them from telling the truth as -plainly as Von Bernhardi did in his now famous book, “Germany and the -Next War.” The “sociological” reason for this hypocrisy is the fact that -they need to preach “goodness,” “right” and “justice” to those over whom -they rule in order that their ruling may be made easy by the consequent -good behavior of the ruled. But they themselves, however good, must -practice ruthlessness, injustice and the rule of the strong hand to make -their governance go. It is this fact which causes intelligent Negroes, -Filipinos, Chinese and Egyptians to spurn with contempt the claims which -Caucasian diplomats, statesmen, writers and missionaries make on behalf -of their moral superiority. They lie; they know that they lie, and now -they’re beginning to know that we know it also. This knowledge on our -part is a loss of prestige for them, and our actions in the future, -based upon this knowledge, must needs mean a loss of power for them. -Which is, after all, the essential fact. - - - _Bolshevism in Barbados_ - -Among the newspapers in Barbados there is a charming old lady by the -name of the _Barbados Standard_. From time to time this faded creature -gets worried about the signs of awakening observable in those Negroes -who happen to be living in the twentieth century. Then she shakes and -shivers, throws a few fits, froths at the mouth, and, spasmodically -flapping her arms, yells to all and sundry that there is “Bolshevism -among Negroes.” - -Recently this stupid old thing and its congeners have discovered -evidences of a Bolshevist R–r–r–revolution in Trinidad, and, -presumptively, all over the British West Indies. Now the specter which -these fools fear is nothing but the shadow cast by the dark body of -their own system of stiff-necked pride, stark stupidity and stubborn -injustice whenever the sun of civic righteousness rises above the -horizon of sloth and ignorance. But, like fools afraid of their own -shadows, they point at the thing for which they alone are responsible -and shriek for salvation. - -We shouldn’t care to suggest to them that to lie down and die would be -one good way to avoid these fearful shadows, because we see the -possibility of another way. Let them resolve that they will cease making -a lie of every promise of liberty, democracy and self-determination that -they frantically made from 1914 to 1919. Let the white Englishman learn -that justice exists not only for white Englishmen, but for all men. Let -him get off the black man’s back, stand out of the black man’s light, -play the game as it should be played, and he will find very little need -for wasting tons of print paper and thousands of pounds in a crusade -against the specter of Bolshevism. - - - _A New International_ - -In the eyes of our overlords internationalism is a thing of varying -value. When Mr. Morgan wants to float a French or British loan in the -United States; when Messrs. Wilson, Clemenceau, Lloyd George and Orlando -want to stabilize their joint credit and commerce; when areas like the -Belgian Congo are to be handed over to certain rulers without the -consent of their inhabitants—then the pæans of praise go up to the god -of “internationalism” in the temple of “civilization.” But when any -portion of the world’s disinherited (whether white or black) seeks to -join hands with other groups in the same condition, then the lords of -misrule denounce the idea of internationalism as anarchy, sedition, -Bolshevism and disruptive propaganda. - -Why the difference? It is because the international linking up of -peoples is a source of strength to those who are linked up. Naturally, -the overlords want to strengthen themselves. And, quite as naturally, -they wish to keep their subject masses from strengthening themselves in -the same way. Today the great world-majority, made up of black, brown -and yellow peoples, are stretching out their hands to each other and -developing a “consciousness of kind”—as Professor Giddings would call -it. They are seeking to establish their own centers of diffusion for -their own internationalism, and this fact is giving nightmares to -Downing street, the Quai d’Orsay and other centers of white capitalist -internationalism. - -The object of the capitalist international is to unify and standardize -the exploitation of black, brown and yellow peoples in such a way that -the danger to the exploiting groups of cutting each other’s throats over -the spoils may be reduced to a minimum. Hence the various agreements, -mandates and spheres of influence. Hence the League of Nations, which is -notoriously not a league of the white masses, but of their gold-braided -governors. Faced by such a tendency on the part of those who bear the -white man’s burden for what they can get out of it, the darker peoples -of the world have begun to realize that their first duty is to -themselves. A similarity of suffering is producing in them a similarity -of sentiment, and the temper of that sentiment is not to be mistaken. - -To the white statesmen “civilization” is identical with their own -overlordship, with their right and power to dictate to the darker -millions what their way of life and of allegiance shall be. To this the -aroused sentiment of the world’s darker majority demurs. They want to be -as free as England, America or France. They do not wish to be “wards of -the nations” of Europe any longer. And the problem for the white -statesmen of the future will be to square democracy with the subjection -of this dark majority. Can they achieve either horn of this dilemma? Can -they effect a junction of the two? - -Frankly, we doubt it. Continued suppression may be fraught with -consequences disastrous to white overlordship. In any case the tendency -toward an international of the darker races cannot be set back. -Increasing enlightenment, the spread of technical science, and the -recently acquired knowledge of the weak points of white “civilization” -gained by the darker peoples during the recent World War, are enough to -negative such a supposition. The darker peoples will strive increasingly -for their share of sunlight, and if this is what white “civilization” -opposes, then white “civilization” is likely to have a hard time of it. - - - _The Rising Tide of Color_ - -Mr. William Randolph Hearst, the ablest white publicist in America, has -broken loose, and, in a recent editorial in the New York _American_, has -absolutely endorsed every word of the warning recently issued by Lothrop -Stoddard in his book, “The Rising Tide of Color.” In justice to -Mr. Hearst, it must be pointed out (as we ourselves did in 1916) that he -saw this handwriting on the wall long ago. Mr. Hearst is not -particularly famous as a friend of the darker races; but one must give -him credit for having seen what was involved in the war between the -white nations of Europe and America. As far back as 1915, the present -writer was engaged in pointing out to white people that the racial -aspect of the war in Europe was easily the most important, despite the -fact that no American paper, not even Mr. Hearst’s, would present that -side of the matter for the consideration of its readers. Now, however, -they are beginning to wake up—as people generally do when disaster is -upon them—frantically with much screaming and flapping of arms. But, in -such cases, the doom approaching is but the ripened result of deeds that -have been done, and is, therefore, absolutely inescapable. - -The white race has lied and strutted its way to greatness and prominence -over the corpses of other peoples. It has capitalized, christianized, -and made respectable, “scientific,” and “natural,” the fact of its -dominion. It has read back into history the race relations of today, -striving to make the point that previous to its advent on the stage of -human history, there was no civilization or culture worthy of the name. -And with minatory finger it admonishes us that if it were to pass off -the stage as the controlling factor in the World’s destiny, there would -be no civilization or culture remaining. Naturally, we take exception to -both these views, because, for the past, we know better and, for the -future, we think better of the many peoples who make up the cycle of -civilization. - -But these conditions are not the gravest at present. The fact of most -tremendous import is that the white race in trying to settle its own -quarrels has called in black, brown and yellow to do its fighting for -it, with the result that black, brown and yellow will learn thereby how -to fight for themselves, even against those whom they were called in to -assist. The white race cannot escape from its dilemma, however. If it -were to decree hereafter that wars between whites should be restricted -to whites alone, then we should be given the poignant spectacle of the -white race continuing to cut its own throat while the increasing masses -of black, brown and yellow remained unaffected by that process, “It is -to laugh,” as the cynical gods would say. Or, to use a trite -Americanism, it is, “heads I win, tails you lose.” It is thumbs down for -the white race in the world’s arena, and they are to be the dealers of -their own death blow. Such are the consequences of conquest! - -The analogies between the present situation of the white race and the -situation of the Roman Empire in the fourth century of the Christian era -are too many and striking to be easily ignored. Now, as then, we have -“barbarians” and “super-men.” Now, as then, the super-men are such in -their own estimation. Now, as then, they have, as they fondly think, a -monopoly of the money power, brain power and political power of the -world. Now, as then, the necessities of their own selfishness and greed, -constrain and compel them to share their education and their culture -with the races whom they exploit. Now, as then, in the crisis of their -fortunes, they must utilize the knowledge and abilities of these -barbarian folk, and now, as then, this exercising of abilities on behalf -of the overlord develops abilities and ambition at an equal rate; and, -having given the barbarian tiger its first taste of blood, the unleashed -results can not now be restrained. - -In the Roman days, as in the days of Charlemagne’s successors, those who -hold the balances generally also wield the sword; and if _their_ blood -and sand determine which among the rulers shall get the prizes of -victory, then these same qualities must needs urge them to take from -such victors-by-proxy so much of the fruits of victory as their own -needs may suggest or their own power maintain. Truly “they that take the -sword shall perish by the sword.” - - - _The White War and the Colored Races_ - -[The following article was written in 1918 when the Great War still -raged. It was written for a certain well known radical magazine; but was -found to be “too radical” for publication at that time. It is given now -to the Negro public partly because the underlying explanation which it -offers of the root-cause of the war has not yet received treatment (even -among socialistic radicals) and partly because recent events in China, -India, Africa and the United States have proved the accuracy of its -forecasts.] - -The Nineteenth Christian Century saw the international expansion of -capitalism—the economic system of the white peoples of Western Europe -and America-and its establishment by force and fraud over the lands of -the colored races, black and brown and yellow. The opening years of the -Twentieth Century present us with the sorry spectacle of these same -white nations cutting each other’s throats to determine which of them -shall enjoy the property which has been acquired. For this is the real -sum and substance of the original “war aims” of the belligerents; -although in conformity with Christian cunning, this is one which is -never frankly avowed. Instead, we are fed with the information that they -are fighting for “Kultur” and “on behalf of small nationalities.” Let us -look carefully at this camouflage. - -_The Sham of “Democracy”_ - -In the first place, we in America need not leave our own land to seek -reasons for suspecting the sincerity of democratic professions. While we -are waging war to establish democracy three thousand miles away, -millions of Negroes are disfranchised in our own land by the “cracker” -democracies of the Southern States which are more intent upon making -slaves of their black fellow-citizens than upon rescuing the French and -Belgians from the similar brutalities of the German Junkers. The -horrible holocaust of East St. Louis was possible only in three modern -States—Russia of the Romanoffs, Turkey and the United States—and it ill -becomes any one of them to point a critical finger at the others. - -But East St. Louis was simply the climax of a long series of butcheries -perpetrated on defenseless Negroes which has made the murder rate of -Christian America higher than that of heathen Africa and of every other -civilized land. And, although our government can order the execution of -thirteen Negro soldiers for resenting the wholesale insults to the -uniform of the United States and defending their lives from civilian -aggressors, not one of the murderers of black men, women and children -has been executed or even ferreted out. Nor has our war Congress seen -fit as yet to make lynching a Federal crime. What wonder that the Negro -masses are insisting that before they can be expected to enthuse over -the vague formula of making the world “safe for democracy” they must -receive some assurance that their corner of the world—the South—shall -first be made “safe for democracy!” Who knows but that perhaps the -situation and treatment of the American Negro by our own government and -people may have kept the Central Powers from believing that we meant to -fight for democracy in Europe, and caused them to persist in a course -which has driven us into this war in which we must spend billions of -treasure and rivers of blood. - -It should seem, then, that “democracy,” like “Kultur,” is more valuable -as a battle-cry than as a real belief to be practised by those who -profess it. And the plea of “small nationalities” is estopped by three -facts: Ireland, Greece and Egypt, whose Khedive, Abbas Hilmi, was -tumbled off his throne for failing to enthuse over the claims of -“civilization” as expounded by Lord Grey. - -_Sir Harry Johnston Speaks_ - -But this is merely disproof. The average American citizen needs some -positive proof of the assertion that this war is being waged to -determine who shall dictate the destinies of the darker peoples and -enjoy the usufruct of their labor and their lands. For the average -American citizen is blandly ignorant of the major facts of history and -has to be told. For his benefit I present the following statement from -Sir Harry Johnston, in “The Sphere” of London. Sir Harry Johnston is the -foremost English authority on Africa and is in a position to know -something of imperial aims. - - “Rightly governed, I venture to predict that Africa will, if we are - victorious, repay us and all our allies the cost of our struggle with - Germany and Austria. The war, deny it who may, was really fought over - African questions. The Germans wished, as the chief gain of victory, - to wrest rich Morocco from French control, to take the French Congo - from France, and the Portuguese Congo from Portugal, to secure from - Belgium the richest and most extensive tract of alluvial goldfield as - yet discovered. This is an auriferous region which, properly - developed, will, when war is over, repay the hardest hit of our allies - (France) all that she has lost from the German devastation of her home - lands. The mineral wealth of trans-Zambezian Africa—freed forever, we - will hope, from the German menacemis gigantic; only slightly exploited - so far. Wealth is hidden amid the seemingly unprofitable deserts of - the Sahara, Nubia, Somaliland and Namaqua. Africa, I predict, will - eventually show itself to be the most richly endowed of all the - continents in valuable vegetable and mineral substances.” - -There is the sum and substance of what Schopenhauer would have called -“the sufficient reason” for this war. No word of “democracy” there, but -instead the easy assumption that, as a matter of course, the lands of -black Africa belong to white Europe and must be apportioned on the good -old principle:— - - “… the simple plan, - That he shall take who has the power, - And he must keep who can.” - -_The Economics of War_ - -It is the same economic motive that has been back of every modern war -since the merchant and trading classes secured control of the powers of -the modern state from the battle of Plassy to the present world war. -This is the natural and inevitable effect of the capitalist system, of -what (for want of a worse name) we call “Christendom.” For that system -is based upon the wage relationship between those who own and those who -operate the gigantic forces of land and machinery. Under this system no -capitalist employs a worker for two dollars a day unless that worker -creates more than two dollars’ worth of wealth for him. Only out of this -surplus can profits come. If ten million workers should thus create one -hundred million dollars’ worth of wealth each day and get twenty or -fifty millions in wages, it is obvious that they can expend only what -they have received, and that, therefore, every nation whose industrial -system is organized on a capitalist basis must produce a mass of surplus -products over and above, not the need, but the purchasing power of the -nation’s producers. Before these products can return to their owners as -profits they must be sold somewhere. Hence the need for foreign markets, -for fields of exploitation and “spheres of influence” in “undeveloped” -countries whose virgin resources are exploited in their turn after the -capitalist fashion. But, since every industrial nation is seeking the -same outlet for its products, clashes are inevitable and in these -clashes beaks and claws—armies and navies—must come into play. Hence -beaks and claws must be provided beforehand against the day of conflict, -and hence the exploitation of white men in Europe and America becomes -the reason for the exploitation of black and brown and yellow men in -Africa and Asia. And, therefore, it is hypocritical and absurd to -pretend that the capitalist nations can ever intend to abolish wars. -For, as long as black men are exploited by white men in Africa, so long -must white men cut each other’s throats over that exploitation. And -thus, the selfish and ignorant white worker’s destiny is determined by -the hundreds of millions of those whom he calls “niggers.” “The strong -too often think that they have a mortgage upon the weak; but in the -domain of morals it is the other way.” - -_The Color Line_ - -But economic motives have always their social side; and this -exploitation of the lands and labor of colored folk expresses itself in -the social theory of white domination; the theory that the worst human -stocks of Montmartre, Seven Dials and the Bowery are superior to the -best human stocks of Rajputana or Khartoum. And when these colored folk -who make up the overwhelming majority of this world demand decent -treatment for themselves, the proponents of this theory accuse them of -seeking social equality. For white folk to insist upon the right to -manage their own ancestral lands, free from the domination of tyrants, -domestic and foreign, is variously described as “democracy” and -“self-determination.” For Negroes, Egyptians and Hindus to seek the same -thing is impudence. What wonder, then, that the white man’s rule is felt -by them to rest upon a seething volcano whose slumbering fires are made -up of the hundreds of millions of Chinese, Japanese, Hindus and -Africans! Truly has it been said that “the problem of the 20th Century -is the problem of the Color Line.” And wars are not likely to end; in -fact, they are likely to be wider and more terrible—so long as this -theory of white domination seeks to hold down the majority of the -world’s people under the iron heel of racial repression. - -Of course, no sane person will deny that the white race is, at present, -the superior race of the world. I use the word “superior” in no cloudy, -metaphysical sense, but simply to mean that they are on top and their -will goes—at present. Consider this fact as the pivotal fact of the war. -Then, in the light of it, consider what is happening in Europe today. -The white race is superior—its will goes—because it has invented and -amassed greater means for the subjugation of nature and of man than any -other race. It is the top dog by virtue of its soldiers, guns, ships, -money, resources and brains. Yet there in Europe it is deliberately -burning up, consuming and destroying these very soldiers, guns, ships, -money, resources and brains, the very things upon which its supremacy -rests. When this war is over, it will be less able to enforce its -sovereign will upon the darker races of the world. Does any one believe -that it will be as easy to hold down Egypt and India and Persia after -the war as it was before? Hardly. - -_The Racial Results of the War_ - -Not only will the white race be depleted in numbers, but its quality, -physical and mental, will be considerably lowered for a time. War -destroys first the strongest and bravest, the best stocks, the young men -who were to father the next generation, The next generation must, -consequently, be fathered by the weaker stocks of the race. And thus, in -physical stamina and in brain-power, they will be less equal to the task -of holding down the darker millions of the world than their fathers -were. This was the thought back of Mr. Hearst’s objection to our -entering the war. - -He wanted the United States to stand as the white race’s reserve of -man-power when Europe had been bled white. But what will be the effect -of all this upon that colored majority whose preponderant existence our -newspapers ignore? In the first place, it will feel the lifting of the -pressure as the iron hand of “discipline” is relaxed. And it will -expand, when that pressure is removed, to the point where it will first -ask, then demand, and finally secure, the right of self-determination. -It will insist that, not only the white world, but the whole world, be -made “safe for democracy.” This will mean a self-governing Egypt, a -self-governing India, and independent African states as large as Germany -and France—and larger. And, as a result, there will come a shifting of -the basis of international politics and business and of international -control. This is the living thought that comes to me from the newspapers -and books that have been written and published by colored men in Africa -and Asia during the past three years. It is what I have heard from their -own lips as I have talked with them. And, yet, of this thought which is -inflaming the international underworld, not a word appears in the -parochial press of America, which seems to think that if it can keep its -own Negroes down to servile lip-service, it need not face the world-wide -problem of the “Conflict of Color,” as Mr. Putnam-Weale calls it. - -But that the more intelligent portions of the white world are becoming -distressingly conscious of it, is evident from the first great manifesto -of the Russian Bolsheviki last year when they asked about Britain’s -subject peoples. - -And the British workingmen have evidently done some thinking in their -turn. In their latest declarations they seem to see the ultimate -necessity of compelling their own aristocrats to forego such imperial -aspirations as that of Sir Harry Johnston, and of extending the -principle of self-determination even to the black people of Africa. But -eyes which have for centuries been behind the blinkers of race prejudice -cannot but blink and water when compelled to face the full sunlight. And -Britain’s workers insist that “No one will maintain that the Africans -are fit for self-government.” And on the same principle (of excluding -the opinion of those who are most vitally concerned) Britain’s ruling -class may tell them that “No one maintains that the laboring classes of -Britain are fit for self-government.” But their half-hearted demand that -an international committee shall take over the British, German, French -and Portuguese possessions in Africa and manage them as independent -nationalities(?) until they can “go it alone,” would suggest that their -eyesight is improving. - -To sum it all up, the war in Europe is the result of the desire of the -white governments of Europe to exploit for their own benefit the lands -and labor of the darker races, and, as the war continues, it must -decrease the white man’s stock of ability to do this successfully -against the wishes of the inhabitants of those lands. This will result -in their freedom from thralldom and the extension of political, social, -and industrial democracy to the twelve hundred million black and brown -and yellow peoples of the world. This, I take it, is what President -Wilson had in mind when he wished to make the world “safe for -democracy.” But, whether I am mistaken or not, it is the idea which -dominates today the thought of those darker millions. - - - - - CHAPTER VIII. - EDUCATION AND THE RACE. - - -[With most of the present sources of power controlled by the white race -it behooves my race as well as the other subject races to learn the -wisdom of the weak and to develop to the fullest that organ whereby -weakness has been able to overcome strength; namely, the intellect. It -is not with our teeth that we will tear the white man out of our -ancestral land. It isn’t with our jaws that we can ring from his hard -hands consideration and respect. It must be done by the upper and not by -the lower parts of our heads. Therefore, I have insisted ever since my -entry into the arena of racial discussion that we Negroes must take to -reading, study and the development of intelligence as we have never done -before. In this respect we must pattern ourselves after the Japanese who -have gone to school to Europe but have never used Europe’s education to -make them the apes of Europe’s culture. They have absorbed, adopted, -transformed and utilized, and we Negroes must do the same. The three -editorials in this chapter and the article which follows them were -written to indicate from time to time the duty of the transplanted -African in this respect.] - - - _Reading for Knowledge_ - -Some time ago we wrote an editorial entitled “Read, Read, Read!” We -touch upon the same subject again, because in our recent trip to -Washington we found thousands of people who are eager to get in touch -with the stored-up knowledge which the books contain, but do not know -just where to turn for it. In New York the same situation obtains, and -no help is afforded by the papers of our race. - -The reason is that some of our newspaper editors don’t read and don’t -know beans themselves. James W. Johnson is one of the notable -exceptions. We were cheered up a good deal by noting his recent -editorial advice to our “leaders” to read Arthur Henderson’s “The Aims -of Labor.” But that was six months after the editor of _The Voice_ had -been telling thousands of the “led” all about it and about the British -Labor Party and the Russian Bolsheviki in his outdoor talks in Harlem. - -But there is no doubt that the New Negro is producing a New Leadership -and that this new leadership will be based not upon the ignorance of the -masses, but upon their intelligence. The old leadership was possible -partly because the masses were ignorant. Today the masses include -educated laymen who have studied science, theology, history and -economics, not, perhaps in college but, nevertheless, deeply and down to -date. These young men and women are not going to follow fools and, -indeed, are not going to follow any one, blindly. They want a reason for -the things that they are asked to do and to respect. The others, the -so-called Common People, are beginning to read and understand. As we sat -in the great John Wesley A.M.E. Zion Church in Washington one Sunday -night, and heard the cultured black minister speak to his people on -literature, science, history and sociology, and yet so simply that even -the dullest could catch the meat and inspiration of his great ideas, we -could not help saying as we went out of the church: “Depend upon it, -these people will demand as much from their next minister.” In fact our -race will demand as much from all its leaders. And they will demand no -less for themselves. - -So, with a glad heart, we reprint the following paragraphs from our -earlier editorial trusting that our readers everywhere may find them -helpful: - -As a people our bent for books is not encouraging. We mostly read trash. -And this is true not only of our rank and file but even of our leaders. -When we heard Kelly Miller address the Sunrise Club of New York at a -Broadway hotel two or three years ago, we were shocked at the ignorance -of modern science and modern thought which his remarks displayed. His -biology was of the brand of Pliny who lived about eighteen hundred years -ago. For him Darwin and Spencer and Jacques Loeb had never existed nor -written. His ignorance of the A.B.C.’s of astronomy and geology was -pitiful. If this is true of the leaders to whom our reading masses look, -what can we expect from those reading masses? The masses must be taught -to love good books. But to love them they must first know them. The -handicaps placed on us in America are too great to allow us to ignore -the help which we can get from that education which we get out of school -for ourselves—the only one that is really worth while. - -Without the New Knowledge the New Negro is no better than the old. And -this new knowledge will be found in the books. Therefore, it would be -well if every Negro of the new model were to make up his (or her) mind -to get the essentials of modern science and modern thought as they are -set down in the books which may be easily had. Don’t talk about Darwin -and Spencer: read them! - -To help the good work along we append the following list of books that -are essential. When you _master_ these you will have a better -“education” than is found in nine-tenths of the graduates of the average -American college. - -“Modern Science and Modern Thought,” by Samuel Laing; “The Origin of -Species” and “The Descent of Man,” by Charles Darwin; “The Principles of -Sociology” and “First Principles,” by Herbert Spencer; “The Childhood of -the World” and “The Childhood of Religion,” by Edward Clodd; -“Anthropology,” by E. B. Tylor (very easy to read and a work of standard -information on Races, Culture and the origins of Religion, Art and -Science); Buckle’s “History of Civilization”; Gibbon’s “Decline and Fall -of the Roman Empire”; “The Martyrdom of Man,” by Winwood Reade; the -books on Africa by Livingstone and Mungo Park, and “The Mind of -Primitive Man,” by Franz Boas. —Sept., 1918. - - - _Education and the Race_ - -In the dark days of Russia, when the iron heel of Czarist despotism was -heaviest on the necks of the people, those who wished to rule decreed -that the people should remain ignorant. Loyalty to interests that were -opposed to theirs was the prevailing public sentiment of the masses. In -vain did the pioneers of freedom for the masses perish under the knout -and the rigors of Siberia. They sacrificed to move the masses, but the -masses, strong in their love of liberty, lacked the head to guide the -moving feet to any successful issue. It was then that Leo Tolstoi and -the other intelligentsia began to carry knowledge to the masses. Not -only in the province of Tula, but in every large city, young men of -university experience would assemble in secret classes of instruction, -teaching them to read, to write, to know, to think and to love -knowledge. Most of this work was underground at first. But it took. -Thousands of educated persons gave themselves to this work-without pay: -their only hope of reward lay in the future effectiveness of an -instructed mass movement. - -What were the results? As knowledge spread, enthusiasm was backed by -brains. The Russian revolution began to be sure of itself. The -workingmen of the cities studied the thing that they were “up against,” -gauged their own weakness and strength as well as their opponents’. The -despotism of the Czar could not provoke them to a mass movement before -they were ready and had the means; and when at last they moved, they -swept not only the Czar’s regime but the whole exploiting system upon -which it stood into utter oblivion. - -What does this mean to the Negro of the Western world? It may mean much, -or little: that depends on him. If other men’s experiences have value -for the New Negro Manhood Movement it will seek now to profit by them -and to bottom the new fervor of faith in itself with the solid support -of knowledge. The chains snap from the limbs of the young giant as he -rises, stretches himself, and sits up to take notice. But let him, for -his future’s sake, insist on taking notice. To drop the figure of -speech, we Negroes who have shown our _manhood_ must back it by our -_mind_. This world, at present, is a white man’s world—even in Africa. -We, being what we are, want to shake loose the chains of his control -from our corner of it. We must either accept his domination and our -inferiority, or we must contend against it. But we go up to win; and -whether we carry on that contest with ballots, bullets or business, we -can not win from the white man unless we know at least as much as the -white man knows. For, after all, knowledge _is_ power. - -But that isn’t all. What kind of knowledge is it that enables white men -to rule black men’s lands? Is it the knowledge of Hebrew and Greek, -philosophy or literature? It isn’t. It is the knowledge of explosives -and deadly compounds: that is chemistry. It is the knowledge which can -build ships, bridges, railroads and factories: that is engineering. It -is the knowledge which harnesses the visible and invisible forces of the -earth and air and water: that is science, modern science. And that is -what the New Negro must enlist upon his side. Let us, like the Japanese, -become a race of knowledge-getters, preserving our racial soul, but -digesting into it all that we can glean or grasp, so that when Israel -goes up out of bondage he will be “skilled in all the learning of the -Egyptians” and competent to control his destiny. - -Those who have knowledge must come down from their Sinais and give it to -the common people. Theirs is the great duty to simplify and make clear, -to light the lamps of knowledge that the eyes of their race may see; -that the feet of their people may not stumble. This is the task of the -Talented Tenth. - -To the masses of our people we say: Read! Get the reading habit; spend -your spare time not so much in training the feet to dance, as in -training the head to think. And, at the very outset, draw the line -between books of opinion and books of information. Saturate your minds -with the latter and you will be forming your own opinions, which will be -worth ten times more to you than the opinions of the greatest minds on -earth. Go to school whenever you can. If you can’t go in the day, go at -night. But remember always that the best college is that on your -bookshelf: the best education is that on the inside of your own head. -For in this work-a-day world people ask first, not “Where were you -educated?” but “What do you know?” and next, “What can you do with it?” -And if we of the Negro race can master modern knowledge—the kind that -counts—we will be able to win for ourselves the priceless gifts of -freedom and power, and we will be able to hold them against the world. - - - _The Racial Roots of Culture_ - -Education is the name which we give to that process by which the ripened -generation brings to bear upon the rising generation the stored-up -knowledge and experience of the past and present generations to fit it -for the business of life. If we are not to waste money and energy, our -educational systems should shape our youth for what we intend them to -become. - -We Negroes, in a world in which we are the under dog, must shape our -youth for living in such a world. Shall we shape them mentally to accept -the status of under-dog as their predestined lot? Or shall we shape them -into men and women fit for a free world? To do the former needs nothing -more than continuing as we are. To do the latter is to shape their souls -for continued conflict with a theory and practice in which most of the -white world that surrounds them are at one. - -The educational system in the United States and the West Indies was -shaped by white people for white youth, and from their point of view, it -fits their purpose well. Into this system came the children of Negro -parents when chattel slavery was ended—and their relation to the -problems of life was obviously different. The white boy and girl draw -exclusively from the stored-up knowledge and experience of the past and -present generations of white people to fit them for the business of -being dominant whites in a world full of colored folk. The examples of -valor and virtue on which their minds are fed are exclusively white -examples. What wonder, then, that each generation comes to maturity with -the idea imbedded in its mind that only white men are valorous and fit -to rule and only white women are virtuous and entitled to chivalry, -respect and protection? What wonder that they think, almost -instinctively, that the Negro’s proper place, nationally and -internationally, is that of an inferior? It is only what we should -naturally expect. - -But what seems to escape attention is the fact that the Negro boy and -girl, getting the same (though worse) instruction, also get from it the -same notion of the Negro’s place and part in life which the white -children get. Is it any wonder, then, that they so readily accept the -status of inferiors; that they tend to disparage themselves, and think -themselves worth while only to the extent to which they look and act and -think like the whites? They know nothing of the stored-up knowledge and -experience of the past and present generations of Negroes in their -ancestral lands, and conclude there is no such store of knowledge and -experience. They readily accept the assumption that Negroes have never -been anything but slaves and that they never had a glorious past as -other fallen peoples like the Greeks and Persians have. And this despite -the mass of collected testimony in the works of Barth, Schweinfurth, -Mary Kingsley, Lady Lugard, Morel, Ludolphus, Blyden, Ellis, Ratzel, -Kidd, Es-Saadi, Casely Hayford and a host of others, Negro and white. - -A large part of the blame for this deplorable condition must be put upon -the Negro colleges like Howard, Fisk, Livingstone and Lincoln in the -United States, and Codrington, Harrison and the Mico in the West Indies. -These are the institutions in which our cultural ideals and educational -systems are fashioned for the shaping of the minds of the future -generations of Negroes. It cannot be expected that it shall begin with -the common schools; for, in spite of logic, educational ideas and ideals -spread from above downwards. If we are ever to enter into the -confraternity of colored peoples it should seem the duty of our Negro -colleges to drop their silly smatterings of “little Latin and less -Greek” and establish modern courses in Hausa and Arabic, for these are -the living languages of millions of our brethern in modern Africa. -Courses in Negro history and the culture of West African peoples, at -least, should be given in every college that claims to be an institution -of learning for Negroes. Surely an institution of learning for Negroes -should not fail to be also an institution of Negro learning. —The New -Negro, Sept. 1919. - - - _The New Knowledge for the New Negro_ - -Quite a good deal of unnecessary dispute has been going on these days -among the guardians of the inner temple as to just which form of worship -is necessary at the shrine of the Goddess Knowledge. In plain English, -the pundits seem to be at odds in regard to the kind of education which -the Negro should have. Of course, it has long been known that the -educational experts of white America were at odds with ours on the same -subject; now, however, ours seem to be at odds among themselves. - -The essence of the present conflict is not the easy distinction between -“lower” and “higher” education, which really has no meaning in terms of -educational principles, but it is rather “the knowledge of things” -versus “the knowledge of words.” The same conflict has been waged in -England from the days of Huxley’s youth to the later nineties when the -London Board Schools were recognized and set the present standard of -efficiency for the rest of England. The present form of the question is, -“Shall education consist of Latin and Greek, literature and metaphysics, -r of modern science, modern languages and modern thought?” The real -essence of the question is whether we shall train our children to -grapple effectively with the problem of life that lies before them, or -to look longingly back upon the past standards of life and thought and -consider themselves a special class because of this. - -If education be, as we assert, a training for life, it must of course -have its roots in the past. But so has the art of the blacksmith, the -tailor, the carpenter, the bookbinder or the priest. What the -classicists really seek is the domination of the form, method and aim of -that training by the form, methods and aims of an earlier age. - -_Classics, Clerics and Class Culture_ - -Perhaps an explanation of that earlier training may serve to give the -real innerness of the classicists’ position so that ordinary people may -understand it better than the classicists themselves seem to do. In the -Middle Ages, the schools of Western Europe and the subject matter of the -education given in them were based upon the Latin “disciplines.” Western -Europe had no literature, no learning, no science of its own. It was the -church—particularly the monasteries—to which men had to go to get such -training as was obtainable in a barbarous age. This training was, of -course, given in the tongue of the church which was Latin, the clerical -language. The contact of medieval Europeans with the dark-skinned Arabs -added Greek and the knowledge of Greek literature and philosophy to the -earlier medieval discipline. Imbedded in this was the substance of -science nurtured by the Arabs and added to by them. - -The ruling classes kept their children within the treadmill of these two -literatures and languages and it came to be thought that this was the -indispensable training for a gentleman. But:— - - _“Tempora mutantur, nos et mutamur in illis.”_ - -We are in a different age, an age in which the nation, not the church, -gives training to all children, and not merely to the children of -aristocrats who will grow up to do nothing. The children of the people -must become the doers of all that is done in the world of tomorrow, and -they must be trained for this doing. Today in England, not Oxford, the -home of lost ideals, but such institutions as the University of London, -are the sources of that training which gives England its physicians, -surgeons, inventors, business men and artists. - -_Classicists Ignorant of Latin and Greek_ - -But the noise of the classicists may be rudely stopped by merely -pointing out the hollowness of their watch words. These persons would -have us believe that Latin and Greek are, in their eyes, the backbone of -any education that is worth while. Very well then, let us take them at -their word. I make the broad assertion that not one in one thousand of -them can read a page of Greek or Latin that may be set before them. I -offer to put under their noses a page of Athenaeus or Horace (to say -nothing of more important classical authors) and if they should be able -to read and translate it at sight I shall be genuinely surprised. Let -the common reader who is a man of today make the test with this little -bit of Latin verse: - - _“Exegi momentum acre perennius_ - _Regalique situ pyramidum altius.”_ - -Let him ask some classicist to translate off-hand this common school -boy’s tag from a most popular author and note whether they can place the -author or translate the lines. Here is another: - - _Per varios casus, per tot discrimina rerum,_ - _Tendimus in Latium._ - -To speak in plain United States, when it comes to the showdown it will -be found that those of us who argue in favor of the modern discipline -(in so far as we have any knowledge of classical literature) know more -about them than those whose sole defence they are. - -It is said by the classicists that a knowledge of Latin and Greek is -necessary to an adequate comprehension of the English language. But so -is the knowledge of Sanscrit, Arabic, French and Italian. And when it -comes to facility and clearness of expression, it will be found that -Huxley’s prose is superior to that of Matthew Arnold, and Brisbane’s -superior to that of any professor of the Latin language in Harvard or -Yale. So much for the ghost fighters. Requiescant in pace! - -_The Knowledge We Need_ - -Now, what is the knowledge which the New Negro needs most? He needs -above all else a knowledge of the wider world and of the long past. But -that is history, modern and ancient: History as written by Herodotus and -John Bach McMaster; sociology not as conceived by Giddings, but as -presented by Spencer and Ward, and anthropology as worked out by Boas -and Thomas. The Negro needs also the knowledge of the best thought; but -that is literature as conceived, not as a collection of flowers from the -tree of life, but as its garnered fruit. And, finally, the Negro needs a -knowledge of his own kind, concerning which we shall have something to -say later, And the purposes of this knowledge? They are, to know our -place in the human processus, to strengthen our minds by contact with -the best and most useful thought-products evolved during the long rise -of man from anthropoid to scientist; to inspire our souls and to lift -our race industrially, commercially, intellectually to the level of the -best that there is in the world about us. For _never until the Negro’s -knowledge of nitrates and engineering, of chemistry and agriculture, of -history, science and business is on a level, at least, with that of the -whites, will the Negro be able to measure arms successfully with them._ - - - - - CHAPTER IX. - A FEW BOOKS. - - _The Negro in History and Civilization_ - (From Superman to Man, by J. A. Rogers.) - -This volume by Mr. Rogers is the greatest little book on the Negro that -we remember to have read. It makes no great parade of being -“scientific,” as so many of our young writers do who seem to think that -science consists solely in logical analysis. If science consists -fundamentally of facts, of information and of principles derived from -those facts, then the volume before us is one of the most scientific -that has been produced by a Negro writer. It sweeps the circle of all -the social sciences. History, sociology, anthropology, psychology, -economics and politics—even theology—are laid under contribution and -yield a store of information which is worked up into a presentation so -plain and clear that the simplest can read and understand it, and yet so -fortified by proofs from the greatest standard authorities of the past -and present that there is no joint in its armor in which the keenest -spear of a white scientist may enter. - -Unlike an older type of scholar (now almost extinct) the author does not -go to vapid verbal philosophers or devotional dreamers for the facts of -history and ethnology. He goes to historians and ethnologists for them -and to anthropologists for his anthropology. The result is information -which stands the searching tests of any inquirer who chooses to doubt -and investigate before accepting what is set before him. - -From this book the unlearned reader of the African race can gather proof -that his race has not always been a subject or inferior race. He has the -authority of Professor Reisner, of Harvard; of Felix Dubois, Volney, -Herodotus, Finot, Sergi, the modern Egyptologists and the scholars of -the white world who assembled at the Universal Races Congress in London -in 1911, for the belief that his race has founded great civilizations, -has ruled over areas as large as all Europe, and was prolific in -statesmen, scientists, poets, conquerors, religious and political -leaders, arts and crafts, industry and commerce when the white race was -wallowing in barbarism or sunk in savagery. Here he can learn on good -authority, from St. Jerome and Cicero, Herodotus and Homer down to the -modern students of race history, that cannibalism has been a practise -among white populations like the Scythians, Scots and Britons; that the -white races have been slaves; that here in America the slavery of white -men was a fact as late as the 19th century, and “according to Professor -Cigrand, Grover Cleveland’s grandfather, Richard Falley, was an Irish -slave in Connecticut.” In short, he will learn here, not that newspaper -science which keeps even “educated” Americans so complacently ignorant, -but the science of the scientists themselves. He will learn all that -this kind of science has to tell of the relative capacity and standing -of the black and white races—and much of it will surprise him. But all -of it will please and instruct. - -The book also deals with the facts of the present position of the Negro -in America and the West Indies; with questions of religion, education, -politics and political parties, war work, lynching, miscegenation on -both sides, the beauty of Negro women and race prejudice. And on -everyone of these topics it gives a minimum of opinion and a maximum of -information. This information flows forth during the course of a series -of discussions between an educated Negro Pullman porter and a Southern -white statesman on a train running between Chicago and San Francisco. -The superior urbanity of the Negro, coupled with his wider information -and higher intelligence, eventually wins over the Caucasian to admit -that the whole mental attitude of himself and his race in regard to the -Negro was wrong and based on nothing better than prejudice. - -This conversational device gives the author an opportunity to present -all the conflicting views on both sides of the Color Line, and the -result is a wealth of information which makes this book a necessity on -the bookshelf of everyone, Negro or Caucasian, who has some use for -knowledge on the subject of the Negro. The book is published by the -author at 4700 State Street, Chicago. - - - _“Darkwater”_ - By W. E. B. Du Bois. - -An unwritten law has existed for a long time to the effect that the -critical estimates which fix the status of a book by a Negro author -shall be written by white men. Praise or blame—. the elementary -criticism which expresses only the reviewer’s feelings in reference to -the book—has generally been the sole function of the Negro critic. And -the results have not been good. For, in the first place, white critics -(except in music) have been too prone to judge the product of a Negro -author as Dr. Johnson judged the dancing dog: “It isn’t at all like -dancing; but then, one shouldn’t expect more from a dog.” That is why -many Negro poets of fifth grade merit are able to marshal ecomiums by -the bushel from friendly white critics who ought to know better. On the -other hand, there is the danger of disparagement arising solely from -racial prejudice and the Caucasian refusal to take Negro literary -products seriously. - -In either case the work fails to secure consideration solely on its -merits. Wherefore, it is high time that competent appraisal of Negro -books should come from “our side of the street.” But, then, the Negro -reading public should be taught what to expect, viz., that criticism is -neither “knocking” nor “boosting”; but an attempt, in the first place, -to furnish a correct and adequate idea of the scope and literary method -of the book under review, of the author’s success in realizing his -objects, and of the spirit in which he does his work. In the second -place, the critic should be expected to bring his own understanding of -the subject matter of the book to bear upon the problem of enlightening -the readers’ understanding, that at the end the reader may decide -whether the work is worth his particular while. - -This book of Dr. Du Bois’ is one which challenges the swing of seasoned -judgment and appraisal. It challenges also free thinking and plain -speaking. For, at the very outset, find ourselves forced to demur to the -publishers’ assumptions as to its author’s status. “Even more than the -late Booker Washington, Mr. Du Bois is now chief spokesman of the two -hundred million men and women of African blood.” So say the -publishers—or the author. But this is outrageously untrue. Once upon a -time Dr. Du Bois held a sort of spiritual primacy among The Talented -Tenth, not at all comparable to that of Booker Washington in scope, but -vital and compelling for all that. The power of that leadership, -however, instead of increasing since Mr. Washington’s death, has -decreased, and is now openly flouted by the most active and outspoken -members of The Talented Tenth in Negro America. And, outside of the -twelve or fifteen millions “of African blood” in the United States, the -mass of that race in South and West Africa, Egypt and the Philippines -know, unfortunately, very little of Dr. Du Bois. It may be, however, -that this is merely a publishers’ rhodomontade. - -And it is the publishers themselves who challenge for this volume a -comparison with “The Souls of Black Folk,” which was published by -McClurg in 1903. It is regrettable that they should force the issue, for -“The Souls of Black Folk” is a greater book than “Darkwater” in many -ways. In the first place, its high standard of craftsmanship is -maintained through every chapter and page. There are no fag-ends, as in -the chapter “Of Beauty and Death” in the present volume, where the -rhetoric bogs down, the author loses the thread of his purpose and goes -spieling off into space, spinning a series of incongruous purple patches -whose tawdry glitter shows the same reversion to crude barbarism in -taste which leads a Florida fieldhand to don opal-colored trousers, a -pink tie, pari-colored shirt and yellow shoes. Artistically, that -chapter is an awful thing, and I trust that the author is artist enough -to be ashamed of it. - -And, though it may savor of anti-climax, “The Souls of Black Folk” was -more artistically “gotten” up—to use the grammar of its author. -“Darkwater” is cheaply bound and cheaply printed on paper which is -almost down to the level of the Seaside Library. Neither in mechanical -nor mental quality does the book of 1920 come up to the level of that of -1903. - -Yet, in spite of some defects, “Darkwater” (with the exception of -chapters six, seven, eight and nine) is a book well worth reading. It is -a collection of papers written at different times, between 1908 and -1920, and strung loosely on the string of race. One wishes that the -author could have included his earlier essay on The Talented Tenth and -his address on the aims and ideals of modern education, delivered some -twelve years ago to the colored school children of Washington, D. C. - -Each paper makes a separate chapter, and each chapter is followed by a -rhetorical sprig of symbolism in prose or verse in which the tone-color -of the preceding piece is made manifest to the reader. Of these -tone-poems in prose and verse, the best are the Credo; A Litany at -Atlanta; The Riddle of the Sphinx, and Jesus Christ in Texas. In these -the lyrical quality of the author’s prose is lifted to high levels. In -these elegance does not slop over into turgid declamation and rhetorical -claptrap—which has become a common fault of the author’s recent prose as -shown in The Crisis. In this, the first part of the book, the work is -genuine and its rhetoric rings true. Nevertheless, the sustained -artistic swing of “The Souls of Black Folk,” which placed that work (as -a matter of form and style) on the level of Edgar Saltus’ _Imperial -Purple_—this is not attained in “Darkwater.” - -The book may be said to deal largely with the broad international -aspects of the problem of the color line and its reactions on -statecraft, welt-politik, international peace and international trade, -industry, education and the brotherhood of man. Each chapter, or paper, -is devoted to one of these reactions. Then there is a charming -autobiographical paper, “The Shadow of Years,” which first appeared in -The Crisis about three years ago, in which we have the study of a soul -by itself. The growth of the author’s mind under the bewildering shadow -cast by the color line is tragically set forth. I say tragically with -deliberation; for what we see here, despite its fine disguise, is the -smoldering resentment of a mulatto who finds the beckoning white doors -of the world barred on his approach. One senses the thought that, if -they had remained open, the gifted spirit would have entered and made -his home within them. _Mais, chacun a son gout_, and no one has the -right to quarrel with the author on that doubtful score. - -In the chapter on “The Souls of White Folk” we have a fine piece, not so -much of analysis, as of exposition. The author puts his best into it. -And yet that best seems to have failed to bite with acid brutality into -the essential iron of the white man’s soul. For the basic elements of -that soul are Hypocrisy, Greed and Cruelty. True, the author brings this -out; but he doesn’t burn it in. The indictment is presented in terms of -an appeal to shocked sensibilities and a moral sense which exists, for -the white man, only in print; whereas it might have been made in other -terms which come nearer to his self-love. Nevertheless it is -unanswerable in its logic. - -In “The Hands of Ethiopia,” as in “The Souls of White Folk,” we catch -the stern note of that threat which (disguise it as our journals will), -the colored races are making, of an ultimate appeal in terms of color -and race to the white man’s only God—the God of Armed Force. But the -author never reaches the height of that newer thought—an international -alliance of Black, Brown and Yellow against the arrogance of White. - -In “Work and Wealth” and “The Servant in the House” the problems of work -and its reward, and the tragedy of that reward, are grippingly set forth -in relation to the Negro in America and in the civilized world. “The -Ruling of Men” is followed by three papers of very inferior merit and -the book ends with a fantastic short story, “The Comet” which, like “The -Coming of John” in “The Souls of Black Folk,” suggests that Dr. Du Bois -could be a compelling writer of this shorter form of fiction. The touch -in this story of incident is light, but arresting. - -Dr. Du Bois, in the looseness of phrase current in our time in America, -is called a scholar—on what grounds we are not informed. But Dr. Du Bois -is not a scholar; his claim to consideration rests upon a different -basis, but one no less high. And when the Negro culture of the next -century shall assay the products of our own it will seem remarkable that -this supreme wizard of words, this splendid literary artist, should have -left his own demesne to claim the crown of scholarship. Surely, there is -honest credit enough in being what he is, our foremost man of culture. -And this “Darkwater,” despite its lapses from artistic grace, helps to -rivet his claim to that consideration. It is a book which will well -repay reading. - - - _The Rising Tide of Color Against White World Supremacy_ - By Lothrop Stoddard - -About ten years ago Mr. B. L. Putnam Weale in “The Conflict of Color” -tried to open the eyes of the white men of the world to the fact that -they were acting as their own grave diggers. About the same time -Mr. Melville E. Stone, president of the Associated Press, in an address -before the Quill Club on “Race Prejudice in the Far East” reinforced the -same grisly truth. Five years later “T. Shirby Hodge” wrote “The White -Man’s Burden: A Satirical Forecast,” and ended it with these pregnant -words: “The white man’s burden is—himself.” His publishers practically -suppressed his book, which, by the way, should have been in the library -of every intelligent Negro. The white world was indisposed then to -listen to its voices of warning. But today the physical, economic and -racial ravages of the World War have so changed the white world’s mind -that within four weeks of its appearance “The Rising Tide of Color -Against White World Supremacy,” by Lothrop Stoddard, has struck the -bull’s-eye of attention and has already become the most widely talked-of -book of the year. White men of power are discussing its facts and its -conclusions with bated breath and considerable disquietude. - -Here is a book written by a white man which causes white men to shiver. -For it calls their attention to the writing on the wall. It proves that -the white race in its mad struggle for dominion over others has been -exhausting its vital resources and is exhausting them further. It proves -to the hilt the thesis advanced in 1917 in my brief essay on “The White -War and the Colored Races” that, whereas the white race was on top by -virtue of its guns, ships, money, intellect and massed man-power, in the -World War it was busy burning up, depleting and destroying these very -resources on which its primacy depended. But even though the white -capitalists knew all this their mad greed was still their master. This -great race is still so low spiritually that it sells even its racial -integrity for dollars and cents. Mr. Stoddard’s book may disturb its -sense of security for a brief space, but it cannot keep white -“civilization” from its mad dance of death. “What shall it profit a man -if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul?” And the white race -will finally find that this is even more true racially than -individually. - -We have noticed for many years that whereas domestic journalism was -merely journalism—the passing register of parochial sensations—the -journalism of the international publicists like Lord Bryce, Meredith -Townsend, Archibald Colquhoon, Putnam Weale and Hyndman was something -more solid than journalism. In the writings of these men hard fact and -stark reality are wedded to wide reading and deep thinking. They are the -real social scientists rather than the stay-at-home, cloistered -sociologists who, presuming to know everything, have seen nothing. The -present volume is one of the best of the former and is full of the -qualities of its class. But at the very outset it suffers from the -unwelcome assistance of Dr. Madison Grant, “chairman of the New York -Zoological Society and trustee of the American Museum of Natural -History.” Dr. Grant has accumulated a large stock of musty ethnological -ideas of which he unburdens himself in what he evidently intends as a -“learned” introduction, without which freightage the book would be much -better. The difference in value and accuracy between Mr. Stoddard’s text -and the pseudo-scientific introduction of Dr. Grant would furnish fair -material for philosophic satire. Unfortunately we cannot indulge the -inclination in the columns of a weekly newspaper. - -Dr. Grant, in owlish innocence, splutters out the usual futile folly -which (in other domains) has brought the white race to the frontiers of -the present crisis. He reads back into history the racial values of -today and trails the Anglo-Saxon’s crass conceit and arrogance across -the pages of its record, finding “contrast of mental and spiritual -endowments … elusive of definition,” and other racial clap-trap whose -falsity has been demonstrated again and again by warm-hearted -enthusiasts like Jean Finot and coldly critical and scientific scholars -like Dr. Taylor (“Origin of the Aryans”), Sergi (“The Mediterranean -Race”) and J. M. Robertson (“The Evolution of States”). But one can -forgive Dr. Grant; he is a good American, and good Americans (especially -“scientists” on race) are usually fifty years behind the English, who, -in turn, are usually twenty years behind the Germans. Dr. Grant’s -annexation of the past history of human culture to the swollen record of -the whites sounds good—even if it smells bad. And he is in good -Anglo-Saxon company. Sir Harry Johnston does the same thing and gets -titles (scientific and other) by so doing. The Englishman takes the very -Egyptians, Hindus and tribal Liberians, whom he would call “niggers” in -New York and London, and as soon as he finds that they have done -anything worth while he tags them with a “white” tag. Thus, to the -professional “scientist” like Dr. Grant, living in the parochial -atmosphere of the United States, science is something arcane, recondite -and off the earth; while to the American like Mr. Stoddard, who has been -broadened by travel and contact with the wider world, science, is, as it -should be, organized daily knowledge and common sense. Thus journalists, -good and bad, are the ones who form opinion in America, because -“scientists” are so distressingly stupid. - -Mr. Stoddard’s thesis starts from the proposition that of the seventeen -hundred million people on our earth today the great majority is made up -of black, brown, red and yellow people. The white race, being in the -minority, still dominates over the lands of black, brown, red and (in -the case of China) has assumed a right of dictatorship and disposal even -in the yellow man’s lands. In the course of this dictatorship and -domination the white race has erected the barrier of the color line to -keep the other races in their place. But this barrier is cracking and -giving way at many points and the flood of racial self-assertion, -hitherto dammed up, threatens to overflow the outer and inner dikes and -sweep away the domination of the whites. - -The author approaches his theme with a curiously graduated respect for -other races. This respect, while it is a novelty in the attitude of the -blond overlords, is always in direct proportion to the present power and -discernible potentialities of the races discussed. For the yellow man of -Japan and China he shows the greatest deference. The browns (of India, -Persia, Afghanistan, Egypt and the Mohammedan world in general) are, of -course, inferior, but must be respected for their militancy. The reds -(the original American stock which is the backbone of the population of -Mexico, Central and South America) are a source of contamination for -white blood and an infernal nuisance, capable of uniting with Japan and -China in an onslaught on the land areas reserved for white exploitation -in the western world; while the blacks, at the foot of the ladder, have -never amounted to anything, don’t amount to anything now, and can never -seriously menace the superiority of the whites. - -The gradation is full of meaning, especially to those fervid theorists -who affect to believe that religion, morality, loyalty and good -citizenship constitute a good claim to the white man’s respect. For it -is Japan’s actual military might and China’s impending military might -which have put them in Grade A, while the brown man’s show of resistance -in Egypt, India and elsewhere under Islam, and his general physical -unrest and active discontent have secured for him a classification in -Grade B. The American in Mexico and South America keeps his window open -toward the east; but the black man still seems, in our author’s eyes, to -be the same loyal, gentle, stupid beast of burden that the white man’s -history has known—except in those parts of Africa in which he has -accepted the Mohammedan religion and thus become a part of the potential -terror of the Moslem world. In this we think our author mistaken; but, -after all, it is neither arguments nor logic that will determine these -matters, but deeds and accomplishments. - -But, however his racial respect may be apportioned, Mr. Stoddard holds -that his race is doomed. “If the present drift be not changed we whites -are all ultimately doomed. Unless we set our house in order the doom -will sooner or later overtake us all.” The present reviewer stakes his -money on “the doom,” for the white race’s disease is an ingrowing one -whose development inheres in their very nature. They are so singularly -constituted that they would rather tear themselves to pieces parading as -the lords of creation than see any other people achieve an equal favor -of fortune. - -In the pages of this book the author presents many chastening truths and -wide vistas of international politics which are enlightening when -carefully studied. But it is not our intent to cover the entire field of -his work, and we think that we have said enough to indicate the high -value and suggestiveness of the work. But we may be allowed to point out -that all the way through the author, though clear and enlightened, -remains an unreconstructed Anglo-Saxon, desirous of opening the eyes of -his race to the dangers which beset them through their racial injustice -and arrogance; but sternly, resolutely, intent that they shall not share -their overlordship with any other of the sons of earth. His book is -written in a clear and commendable style; he shows but few defects of -temper and a shrewd mastery of his materials. The book should be widely -read by intelligent men of color from Tokio to Tallahassee. It is -published by Charles Scribner’s Sons at $3, and is well worth the price. - - - - - THE BLACK MAN’S BURDEN - (A Reply to Rudyard Kipling.) - - By HUBERT H. HARRISON - -Take up the Black Man’s burden— - Send forth the worst ye breed, -And bind our sons in shackles - To serve your selfish greed; -To wait in heavy harness - Be-devilled and beguiled -Until the Fates remove you - From a world you have defiled. - -Take up the Black Man’s burden— - Your lies may still abide -To veil the threat of terror - And check our racial pride; -Your cannon, church and courthouse - May still our sons constrain -To seek the white man’s profit - And work the white man’s gain. - -Take up the Black Man’s burden— - Reach out and hog the earth, -And leave your workers hungry - In the country of their birth; -Then, when your goal is nearest, - The end for which you fought, -Watch other’s trained efficiency - Bring all your hope to naught. - -Take up the Black Man’s burden - Reduce their chiefs and kings -To toil of serf and sweeper - The lot of common things: -Sodden their soil with slaughter, - Ravish their lands with lead; -Go, sign them with your living - And seal them with your dead. - -Take up the Black Man’s burden— - And reap your old reward: -The curse of those ye cozen, - The hate of those ye barred -From your Canadian cities - And your Australian ports; -And when they ask for meat and drink - Go, girdle them with forts. - -Take up the Black Man’s burden— - Ye cannot stoop to less. -Will not your fraud of “freedom” - Still cloak your greediness? -But, by the gods ye worship, - And by the deeds ye do, -These silent, sullen peoples - Shall weigh your gods and you. - -Take up the Black Man’s burden— - Until the tale is told, -Until the balances of hate - Bear down the beam of gold. -And while ye wait remember - That justice, though delayed, -Will hold you as her debtor - Till the Black Man’s debt is paid. - - - - -TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE - -Obvious typographical errors and punctuation errors have been corrected -after careful comparison with other occurrences within the text and -consultation of external sources. - -Except for the changes noted below, misspelling in the text, and -inconsistent or archaic usage, have been retained. - -In Chapter 3, “Emmet” has been replaced with “Emmett”. -“posiiton” has been replaced with “positon”. -In Chapter 5, “conquences” has been replaced with “consequences”; “lke” -has been replaced with “like”; “whch” has been replaced with “which”. -In Chapter 6, “Chanler” has been replaced with “Chandler”. -In Chapter 7, “behaf” has been replaced with “behalf”; “perpertrated” -has been replaced with “perpetrated”; “delibertaely” has been replaced -with “deliberately”; “whtie” has been replaced with “white”; -“sovereignity” has been replaced with “sovereignty”. -In Chapter 8, “anthroplology” has been replaced with “anthropology”. -“preceeding” has been replaced with “preceding”; In Chapter 9, -“resoures” has been replaced with “resources”. 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Harrison</title> - <link rel="icon" href="images/cover.jpg" type="image/x-cover"> - - <style> - body { - margin-left: 20%; - margin-right: 20%; - text-align: justify; -} - .chapter { - page-break-before: always; - page-break-inside: avoid; - margin-top: 2em; -} - p { - margin-bottom: 0.49em; - margin-top: 0.51em; - text-indent: 1em; -} - .footnote-back .footnote-ref .footnotes .footnotes-end-of-document { - font-size: small; -} - .noindent { - text-indent: 0em; -} - x-ebookmaker hr.chap { - width: 0%; - display: none -} - .x-ebookmaker .poetry { - display: block -} - hr { - width: 33%; - margin-top: 2em; - margin-bottom: 2em; - margin-left: 33.5%; - margin-right: 33.5%; - clear: both -} - hr.tb { - width: 30%; - margin-left: 35%; - margin-right: 35% -} - hr.chap { - width: 65%; - margin-left: 17.5%; - margin-right: 17.5% -} - .x-ebookmaker hr.chap { - display: none; - visibility: hidden; -} - h1 { - text-align: center; - margin: 3em 0; -} -.poemauthor { - text-align: center; - font-variant: small-caps; -} -.reviewedauthor { - text-align: center; - font-style: italic; -} - h2 { - font-variant: small-caps; - text-align: center; - margin: 2em 0; -} - h3 { - text-align: center; - margin-top: 1em; -} - h2+p, p:first-child { - text-indent: 0; -} - cite { - display: block; - font-style: normal; - font-variant: small-caps; - margin-top: 1em; - text-align: right; -} - b { - font-variant: small-caps; - font-weight: normal; -} - h1 .subtitle { - font-size: x-large; - ; - font-style: italic; - font-weight: normal; -} - .author { - font-size: x-large; - ; - font-weight: normal; -} - .italics { - font-style: italic; -} - .space-above { - margin-top: 3em; -} - #toc { - margin: auto; -} - #toc th { - text-align: left; - font-weight: normal; -} - #toc td { - padding-top: 0.75em; - vertical-align: top; -} - #toc td.chapnum { - text-align: right; - vertical-align:top; -} - #toc th.chapnum { - text-align: left; - vertical-align:top; - padding-left: 3em; - vertical-align: bottom; -} - #toc td.right { - text-align: right; - vertical-align:top; - padding-left: 3em; -} -#toc th.right { - text-align: right; -} - - ul { - list-style: none; - padding: 0; -} - table { - margin: 1em 2em; -} - td { - padding: 0 .5em; - vertical-align: bottom; -} - td.right { - text-align: center; -} - .dedication { - text-transform: capitalize; - text-align: center; - margin: 3em auto; -} - .titlepage { - text-align: center; -} - -.letter { - margin-left: 2em; - text-align: left; - display: inline-block; - } -.letter .signature { - margin-left: 3em; -} - .poetry { - margin-left: 2em; - text-align: left; - display: inline-block; -} - .poetry-container { - text-align: center; -} - .x-ebookmaker .poetry { - display: block; - margin-left: 1.5em; -} - .poetry .stanza { - margin: 1em auto; -} - .poetry .verse { - text-indent: -3em; - padding-left: 3em; -} - .poetry .indent2 { - padding-left: 5em; -} -.poetry .indent4 { - text-indent: 7em; -} - .image-center { - text-align: center; - margin: 1em auto; -} -.poetry .leadingquote { - padding-left: 2.5em; -} - .transnote { - background-color: #E6E6FA; - color: black; - font-size: smaller; - padding: 0.5em; - margin-top: 5em; - margin-bottom: 5em; - font-family: sans-serif, serif; -} - .transnote p { - text-indent: 0em; -} - - - </style> -</head> - -<body> -<p style='text-align:center; font-size:1.2em; font-weight:bold'>The Project Gutenberg eBook of When Africa awakes, by Hubert H. Harrison</p> -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and -most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms -of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online -at <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a>. If you -are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the -country where you are located before using this eBook. -</div> - -<p style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:0; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Title: When Africa awakes</p> -<p style='display:block; margin-left:2em; text-indent:0; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:1em;'>The "inside story" of the stirrings and strivings of the new Negro in the Western world</p> -<p style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:0; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Author: Hubert H. Harrison</p> -<p style='display:block; text-indent:0; margin:1em 0'>Release Date: January 5, 2023 [eBook #69712]</p> -<p style='display:block; text-indent:0; margin:1em 0'>Language: English</p> - <p style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:0; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em; text-align:left'>Produced by: Neal Caren. This file was derived from images generously made available by Columbia University, the University of Chicago, and the University of Iowa through the HathiTrust.</p> -<div style='margin-top:2em; margin-bottom:4em'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WHEN AFRICA AWAKES ***</div> - - <div class="titlepage chapter"> - <h1>WHEN AFRICA AWAKES<br> - <span class="subtitle">The “inside Story” of the Stirrings - and Strivings of the New - Negro in the Western World</span></h1> - - <p class="noindent author">By HUBERT H. HARRISON, D.S.C.</p> - <p class="noindent author italics">Author of “The Negro and the Nation,” “Lincoln and Liberty,” and Associate Editor of the - Negro World</p> - - <p class="noindent space-above">COPYRIGHTED</p> - <p class="noindent">By HUBERT H. HARRISON, 1920.</p> - - <p class="noindent space-above">PUBLISHED BY</p> - <p class="noindent">THE PORRO PRESS</p> -<p class="noindent">513 Lenox Avenue</p> -<p class="noindent">NEW YORK CITY</p> -<p class="noindent">1920</p> - - - - </div> - - <hr class="chap "> - <div class="dedication chapter"> - - - <p> THIS LITTLE RECORD<br> - IS AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED<br> - TO THOSE WHO<br> - STOOD BY MY SIDE<br> - IN<br> - LOVE, LABOR AND SACRIFICE<br> - WHEN<br> - THE FOUNDATIONS<br> - WERE LAID<br> - </div> - <hr class="chap"> - <div class="image-center chapter"> - <img src="images/author.jpg" alt="Photo of the author labeled Hubert H. Harrison."> - </div> - - <hr class="chap"> - <h3>TABLE OF CONTENTS</h3> - <table id="toc"> - <tr> - <th > </th> - <th>CHAPTERS</th> - <th class="right">PAGE</th> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="chapnum"> </td> - <td><a href="#chapter-intro">INTRODUCTION</a></td> - <td class="right"><a href="#chapter-intro">5</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="chapnum">1.</td> - <td><a href="#chapter-1">THE BEGINNINGS</a><BR>Launching the Liberty League. — Resolutions Passed at - Liberty League Meeting. — Petition to Congress.</td> - <td class="right"><a href="#chapter-1">9</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="chapnum">2.</td> - <td><a href="#chapter-2">DEMOCRACY AND RACE FRICTION.</a><br> - The East St. Louis Horror. — - “Arms and the Man.” — - The Negro and the Labor Unions. — - Lynching: Its Cause and Cure.</td> - <td class="right"><a href="#chapter-2">14</a></td> - </tr> - - <tr> - <td class="chapnum">3.</td> - <td><a href="#chapter-3">THE NEGRO AND THE WAR.</a><br> - Is Democracy Unpatriotic? — - Why Is the Red Cross? — - A Hint of “Our Reward.” — - The Negro at the Peace Congress. — - Africa and the Peace. — - “They Shall Not Pass.” — - A Cure for the Ku-Klux. - </td> - <td class="right"><a href="#chapter-3">25</a></td> - </tr> - - <tr> - <td class="chapnum">4.</td> - <td><a href="#chapter-4">THE NEW POLITICS.</a><br> - The New Politics for the New Negro. — - The Drift in Politics. — - A Negro for President. — - When the Tail Wags the Dog. — - The Grand Old Party. - </td> - <td class="right"><a href="#chapter-4">39</a></td> - </tr> - - <tr> - <td class="chapnum">5.</td> - <td><a href="#chapter-5">THE PROBLEMS OF LEADERSHIP.</a><br> - Our Professional “Friends.” — - Shillady Resigns. — - Our White Friends. — - A Tender Point. — - The Descent of Du Bois. — - When the Blind Lead. — - Just Crabs. - </td> - <td class="right"><a href="#chapter-5">54</a></td> - </tr> - - <tr> - <td class="chapnum">6.</td> - <td><a href="#chapter-6">THE NEW RACE-CONSCIOUSNESS.</a><br> - The Negro’s Own Radicalism. — - Race First versus Class First. — - An Open Letter to the Socialist. Party. — - “Patronize Your Own.” — - The Women of Our Race. — - Young Men of My Race. - </td> - <td class="right"><a href="#chapter-6">76</a></td> - </tr> - - <tr> - <td class="chapnum">7.</td> - <td><a href="#chapter-7">OUR INTERNATIONAL CONSCIOUSNESS.</a><br> - The White War and the Colored World — - U-need-a Biscuit. — - Our Larger Duty. — - Help Wanted for Hayti. — - The Cracker in the Caribbean. — - When Might Makes Right. — - Bolshevism in Barbados. — - A New International. — - The Rising Tide of Color. — - The White War and the Colored Races. - <td class="right"><a href="#chapter-7">96</a></td> - </tr> - - <tr> - <td class="chapnum">8.</td> - <td><a href="#chapter-8">EDUCATION AND THE RACE.</a><br> - Reading for Knowledge. — - Education and the Race. — - The Racial Roots of Culture. — - The New Knowledge for the New Negro. - <td class="right"><a href="#chapter-8">123</a></td> - </tr> - - <tr> - <td class="chapnum">9.</td> - <td><a href="#chapter-9">A FEW BOOKS.</a><br> - The Negro in History and Civilization. — - Darkwater. — - The Rising Tide of Color Against White World Supremacy. - <td class="right"><a href="#chapter-9">135</a></td> - </tr> - - - <tr> - <td class="chapnum"> </td> - <td><a href="#chapter-epilogue">EPILOGUE: THE BLACK MAN’S BURDEN;</a><br> - A Reply to Rudyard Kipling</td> - <td class="right"><a href="#chapter-epilogue">145</a></td> - </tr> - - </table> - -<div id="chapter-intro" class="chapter"> -<hr class="chap"> -<h2 id="introductory">INTRODUCTORY</h2> -<p>The Great War of 1914–1918 has served to liberate many new ideas -undreamt of by those who rushed humanity into that bath of blood. During -that war the idea of democracy was widely advertised, especially in the -English-speaking world; mainly as a convenient camouflage behind which -competing imperialists masked their sordid aims. Even the dullest can -now see that those who so loudly proclaimed and formulated the new -democratic demands never had the slightest intention of extending either -the limits or the applications of “democracy.” Ireland and India, Egypt -and Russia are still the Ithuriel’s spear of the great democratic -pretence. The flamboyant advertising of “democracy” has returned to -plague the inventors; for the subject populations who contributed their -millions in men and billions in treasure for the realization of the -ideal which was flaunted before their eyes are now clamoring for their -share of it. They are demanding that those who advertised democracy -shall now make good. This is the main root of that great unrest which is -now troubling the decrepit statesmanship of Europe and America. But the -rigid lines of the old regime will not permit the granting of these new -demands. Hence the new war against democracy which expresses itself in -the clever but futile attempt to outlaw the demands for fuller freedom -as “sedition” and “Bolshevism.”</p> -<p>The most serious aspect of this new situation is the racial one. The -white world has been playing with the catch-words of democracy while -ruthlessly ruling an overwhelming majority of black, brown and yellow -peoples to whom these catchwords were never intended to apply. But these -many-colored millions have taken part in the war “to make the world safe -for democracy,” and they are now insisting that democracy shall be made -safe for them. This, in plain English, their white overlords do not -intend to concede. “The undictated development of all peoples” was, at -best, intended “for white people only.” Thus, white civilization is -brought face to face with a crisis out of which may easily grow military -conflicts of tremendous scope and, more remotely, the passing of -international control out of the hands of a few white nations.</p> -<p>The tenseness of this new situation has been reflected here in the -United States in the mental attitude of the Negro people. They have -developed new ideas of their own place in the category of races and have -evolved new conceptions of their powers and destiny. These ideas have -quickened their race-consciousness and they are making new demands on -themselves, on their leaders and on the white people in whose midst they -live. These new demands apply to politics, domestic and international, -to education and culture, to commerce and industry. It seems proper that -the white people of America should know what these demands are and -should understand the spirit in which they are being urged. Obviously, -it is not well that they should be misrepresented and lied about. Futile -fulminations about the spread of “Bolshevism” among Negroes by -“agitators” will not help toward an understanding of this new -phenomenon. They can but befog the issues and defer the dawning of a -better day. On the other hand, the Negro people will profit by a -clarified presentation of their own side of the case. It is to meet this -dual need that this little book is launched. It is a compilation of some -of the author’s contributions to Negro journalism between 1917 and the -present year and consists of selected editorials, special articles and -reviews written for The Voice, The New Negro, and The Negro World. I -have selected for reproduction those only which could fairly be -considered as expositions of the new point of view evolved during the -Great War and coming into prominence since the peace was signed. So far, -this point of view has not been fully presented-by the Negro. White men, -like Messrs. Sandburg and Seligman, have essayed to interpret it to the -white world. This little volume presents directly that which they would -interpret.</p> -<p>It may seem unusual to put into permanent form the deliverances of -this species of literature. But I venture to think that, as literature, -they will stand the test; and I am willing to assume the risks. Besides, -I feel that I owe it to my people to preserve this cross-section of -their new-found soul. It was my privilege to assist in shaping some of -the forms of the new consciousness; and to preserve for posterity a -portion of its record has seemed a duty which should not be shirked.</p> -<p>It was in 1916 that I first began to hammer out some of the ideas -which will be found in these pages. It was in that year that I gave up -my work as a lecturer and teacher among white people to give myself -exclusively to work among my own people. In the summer of 1917, with the -financial aid of many poor but willing hearts I brought out <em>The -Voice</em>, the first Negro journal of the new dispensation, and, for -some time, the only one. The Voice failed in March, 1919; but in the -meanwhile it had managed to make an indelible impression. Many of the -writings reproduced here are taken from its files. The others are from -<em>The Negro World</em>, of which I assumed the joint editorship in -January of this year. A few appeared in <em>The New Negro</em>, a -monthly magazine which I edited for a short time.</p> -<p>The account of the launching of the Liberty League is given here in -the first chapter because that meeting at historic Bethel on June 12, -1917, and the labors of tongue and pen out of which that meeting emerged -were the foundation for the mighty structures of racial propaganda which -have been raised since then. This is a fact not generally known because -I have not hankered after newspaper publicity.</p> -<p>It is hardly necessary to point out that the AFRICA of the title is -to be taken in its racial rather than in its geographical sense.</p> -<p>HUBERT H. HARRISON.</p> -<p>New York, August 15, 1920.</p> -</div> -<div id="chapter-1" class="chapter"> -<hr class="chap"> -<h2 id="chapter-i.the-beginnings">CHAPTER I.<BR>THE BEGINNINGS</h2> -<h3 id="launching-the-liberty-league">Launching the Liberty League</h3> -<p class="reviewedauthor"> -(From <em>The Voice</em> of July 4, 1917.) -</p> -<p>The Liberty League of Negro-Americans, which was recently organized -by the Negroes of New York, presents the most startling program of any -organization of Negroes in the country today. This is nothing less than -the demand that the Negroes of the United States be given a chance to -enthuse over democracy for themselves in America before they are -expected to enthuse over democracy in Europe. The League is composed of -“Negro-Americans, loyal to their country in every respect, and obedient -to her laws.”</p> -<p>The League has an interesting history. It grew out of the labors of -Mr. Hubert H. Harrison, who has been on the lecture platform for years -and is well and favorably known to thousands of white New Yorkers from -Wall Street to Washington Heights.</p> -<p>Two years ago Mr. Harrison withdrew from an international political -organization, and, a little more than a year ago, gave up lecturing to -white people, to devote himself to lecturing exclusively among his own -people. He acquired so much influence among them that when he issued the -first call for a mass-meeting “to protest against lynching in the land -of liberty and disfranchisement in the home of democracy,” although the -call was not advertised in any newspaper, the church in which the -meeting was held was packed from top to bottom. At this mass-meeting, -which was held at Bethel Church on June 12, the organization was -effected and funds were raised to sustain it and to extend its work all -over the country.</p> -<p>Harrison was subsequently elected its president, with Edgar Grey and -James Harris as secretary and treasurer, respectively. At the close of -this mass-meeting he hurriedly took the midnight train for Boston, where -a call for a similar meeting had been issued by W. Monroe Trotter, -editor of <em>The Boston Guardian</em>. While there he delivered an -address in Fanueil Hall, the cradle of American liberty, and told the -Negroes of Boston what their brothers in New York had done and were -doing. The result was the linking up of the New York and the Boston -organizations, and Harrison was elected chairman of a national committee -of arrangements to issue a call to every Negro organization in the -country to send delegates to a great race-congress which is to meet in -Washington in September or October and put their grievances before the -country and Congress.</p> -<p>At the New York mass-meeting money was subscribed for the -establishment of a newspaper to be known as The Voice and to serve as -the medium of expression for the new demands and aspirations of the new -Negro. It was made clear that this “New Negro Movement” represented a -breaking away of the Negro masses from the grip of the old-time -leaders—none of whom was represented at the meeting. The audience rose -to their feet with cheers when Harrison was introduced by the chairman. -The most striking passages of his speech were those in which he demanded -that Congress make lynching a Federal crime and take the Negro’s life -under national protection, and declared that since lynching was murder -and a violation of Federal and State laws, it was incumbent upon the -Negroes themselves to maintain the majesty of the law and put down the -law-breakers by organizing all over the South to defend their own lives -whenever their right to live was invaded by mobs which the local -authorities were too weak or unwilling to suppress.</p> -<p>The meeting was also addressed by Mr. J. C. Thomas, Jr., a young -Negro lawyer, who pointed out the weakness and subserviency of the -old-time political leaders and insisted that Negroes stop begging for -charity in the matter of their legal rights and demand justice -instead.</p> -<p>Mr. Marcus Garvey, president of the Jamaica Improvement Association, -was next introduced by Mr. Harrison. He spoke in enthusiastic approval -of the new movement and pledged it his hearty support.</p> -<p>After the Rev. Dr. Cooper, the pastor of Bethel, had addressed the -meeting, the following resolutions were adopted and a petition to -Congress was prepared and circulated. In addition the meeting sent a -telegram to the Jews of Russia, congratulating them upon the acquisition -of full political and civil rights and expressing the hope that the -United States might soon follow the democratic example of Russia.</p> -<hr class="tb"> -<h3 id="resolutions-passed-at-the-liberty-league-meeting">Resolutions -Passed at the Liberty League Meeting</h3> -<p>Two thousand Negro-Americans assembled in mass-meeting at Bethel -A.M.E. Church to protest against lynching in the land of liberty, and -disfranchisement in the home of democracy have, after due deliberation, -adopted the following resolutions and make them known to the world at -large in the earnest hope that whenever the world shall be made safe for -democracy our corner of that world will not be forgotten.</p> -<p><em>We believe that this world war will and must result in a larger -measure of democracy for the peoples engaged therein—whatever may be the -secret ambitions of their several rulers.</em></p> -<p><em>We therefore ask, first, that when the war shall be ended and the -council of peace shall meet to secure to every people the right to rule -their own ancestral lands free from the domination of tyrants, domestic -and foreign, the similar rights of the 250,000,000 Negroes of Africa be -conceded. Not to concede them this is to lay the foundation for more -wars in the future and to saddle the new democracies with the burden of -a militarism greater than that under which the world now -groans.</em></p> -<p>Secondly, we, as Negro-Americans who have poured out our blood freely -in every war of the Republic, and upheld her flag with undivided -loyalty, demand that since we have shared to the full measure of manhood -in bearing the burdens of democracy we should also share in the rights -and privileges of that democracy.</p> -<p>And we believe that the present time, when the hearts of ninety -millions of our white fellow-citizens are aflame with the passionate -ardor of democracy which has carried them into the greatest war of the -age with the sole purpose of suppressing autocracy in Europe, is the -best time to appeal to them to give to twelve millions of us the -elementary rights of democracy at home.</p> -<p>For democracy, like charity, begins at home, and we find it hard to -endure without murmur and with the acquiescence of our government the -awful evils of lynching, which is a denial of the right to life; of -segregation, Jim Crowism and peonage, which are a denial of the right to -liberty; and disfranchisement, which is a denial of justice and -democracy.</p> -<p>And since Imperial Russia, formerly the most tyrannous government in -Europe, has been transformed into Republican Russia, whereby millions of -political serfs have been lifted to the level of citizenship rights; -since England is offering the meed of political manhood to the hitherto -oppressed Irish and the down-trodden Hindu; and since these things have -helped to make good the democratic assertions of these countries of the -old world now engaged in war;</p> -<p>Therefore, be it resolved:</p> -<p>That we, the Negro people of the first republic of the New World, ask -all true friends of democracy in this country to help us to win these -same precious rights for ourselves and our children.</p> -<p>That we invite the government’s attention to the great danger which -threatens democracy through the continued violation of the 13th, 14th -and 15th amendments, which is a denial of justice and the existence of -mob-law for Negroes from Florida to New York;</p> -<p>That we intend to protest and to agitate by every legal means until -we win these rights from the hands of our government and induce it to -protect democracy from these dangers, and square the deeds of our nation -with its declarations;</p> -<p>That we create adequate instruments for securing these ends and make -our voice heard and heeded in the councils of our country, and</p> -<p>That copies of these resolutions be forwarded to the Congress of the -United States and to such other public bodies as shall seem proper to -us.</p> -<hr class="tb"> -<h3 -id="the-liberty-leagues-petition-to-the-house-of-representatives-of-the-united-states-july-4-1917">The -Liberty League’s Petition to the House of Representatives of the United -States, July 4, 1917</h3> -<p>We, the Negro people of the United States, loyal to our country in -every respect, and obedient to her laws, respectfully petition your -honorable body for a redress of the specific grievances and flagrant -violations of your own laws as set forth in this statement. We beg to -call your attention to the discrepancy which exists between the public -profession of the government that we are lavishing our resources of men -and money in this war in order to make the world safe for democracy, and -the just as public performances of lynching-bees, Jim-crowism and -disfranchisement in which our common country abounds.</p> -<p>We should like to believe in our government’s professions of -democracy, but find it hard to do so in the presence of the facts; and -we judge that millions of other people outside of the country will find -it just as hard.</p> -Desirous, therefore, of squaring our country’s profession with her -performance, that she may not appear morally contemptible in the eyes of -friends and foes alike, we, the Negro people of the United States, who -have never been guilty of any disloyalty or treason to our government, -demand that the nation shall justify to the world her assertions of -democracy by setting free the millions of Negroes in the South from -political and civil slavery through the enactment of laws which will -either take the Negroes under the direct protection of the U. S. -Congress by making lynching a Federal crime, or (by legislative mandate) -compelling the several States which now deprive the Negroes of their -right to self-government, to give them the suffrage as Russia has done -for her Jews. W ask his in the name of the American declaration that the -world shall be made safe for democracy and fervently pray that your -honorable body will not go back upon democracy. -</div> -<div id="chapter-2" class="chapter"> -<hr class="chap"> -<h2 id="chapter-ii.democracy-and-race-friction">CHAPTER II.<BR>DEMOCRACY -AND RACE FRICTION</h2> -<h3 id="the-east-st.-louis-horror">The East St. Louis Horror</h3> -<p>This nation is now at war to make the world “safe for democracy,” but -the Negro’s contention in the court of public opinion is that until this -nation itself is made safe for twelve million of its subjects the Negro, -at least, will refuse to believe in the democratic assertions of the -country. The East St. Louis pogrom gives point to this contention. Here, -on the eve of the celebration of the Nation’s birthday of freedom and -equality, the white people, who are denouncing the Germans as Huns and -barbarians, break loose in an orgy of unprovoked and villainous -barbarism which neither Germans nor any other civilized people have ever -equalled.</p> -<p>How can America hold up its hands in hypocritical horror at foreign -barbarism while the red blood of the Negro is clinging to those hands? -so long as the President and Congress of the United States remain dumb -in the presence of barbarities in their own land which would tip their -tongues with righteous indignation if they had been done in Belgium, -Ireland or Galicia?</p> -<p>And what are the Negroes to do? Are they expected to re-echo with -enthusiasm the patriotic protestations of the boot-licking leaders whose -pockets and positions testify to the power of the white man’s gold? Let -there be no mistake. Whatever the Negroes may be compelled by law to do -and say, the resentment in their hearts will not down. Unbeknown to the -white people of this land a temper is being developed among Negroes with -which the American people will have to reckon.</p> -<p>At the present moment it takes this form: If white men are to kill -unoffending Negroes, Negroes must kill white men in defense of their -lives and property. This is the lesson of the East St. Louis -massacre.</p> -<p>The press reports declare that, “the troops who were on duty during -the most serious disturbances were ordered not to shoot.” The civil and -military authorities are evidently winking at the work of the -mobs—horrible as that was—and the Negroes of the city need not look to -them for protection. They must protect themselves. And even the United -States Supreme Court concedes them this right.</p> -<p>There is, in addition, a method of retaliation which we urge upon -them.</p> -<p>It is one which will hit those white men who have the power to -prevent lawlessness just where they will feel it most, in the place -where they keep their consciences—the pocket-book. Let every Negro in -East St. Louis and the other cities where race rioting occurs draw his -money from the savings-bank and either bank it in the other cities or in -the postal savings bank. The only part of the news reports with which we -are well pleased is that which states that the property loss is already -estimated at a million and a half of dollars.</p> -<p>Another reassuring feature is the one suppressed in most of the news -dispatches. We refer to the evidences that the East St. Louis Negroes -organized themselves during the riots and fought back under some kind of -leadership. We Negroes will never know, perhaps, how many whites were -killed by our enraged brothers in East St. Louis. It isn’t the -news-policy of the white newspapers (whether friendly or unfriendly) to -spread such news broadcast. It might teach Negroes too much. But we will -hope for the best.</p> -<p>The occurrence should serve to enlarge rapidly the membership of The -Liberty League of Negro-Americans which was organized to take practical -steps to help our people all over the land in the protection of their -lives and liberties. —July 4th, 1917.</p> -<hr class="tb"> -<h3 id="arms-and-the-man">“Arms and the Man”</h3> -<p>In its editorial on “The East St. Louis Horror” <em>The Voice</em> -said:</p> -<blockquote> -<p>How can America hold up its hands in hypocritical horror at foreign -barbarism while the red blood of the Negro is clinging to those hands? -So long as the President and Congress of the United States remain dumb -in the presence of barbarities in their own land which would tip their -tongues with righteous indignation if they had been done in Belgium, -Ireland or Galicia?</p> -</blockquote> -<blockquote> -<p>And what are the Negroes to do? Are they expected to re-echo with -enthusiasm the patriotic protestations of the boot-licking leaders whose -pockets and positions testify to the power of the white man’s gold? Let -there be no mistake. Whatever the Negroes may be compelled by law to do -and say, the resentment in their hearts will not down. <em>Unbeknown to -the white people of this land a temper is being developed among Negroes -with which the American people will have to reckon.</em></p> -</blockquote> -<blockquote> -<p><em>At the present moment it takes this form: If white men are to -kill unoffending Negroes, Negroes must kill white men in defence of -their lives and property. This is the lesson of the East St. Louis -massacre.</em></p> -</blockquote> -<p>To this, the New York <em>Age</em> makes reply in two ways. Its -editor, in an interview given to the <em>Tribune</em>, declares -that:</p> -<blockquote> -<p>The representative Negro does not approve of radical socialistic -outbursts, such as calling upon the Negroes to defend themselves against -the whites.</p> -</blockquote> -<p>And in its editorial of last week it insists that:</p> -<blockquote> -<p>No man, or woman either, for that matter, is a friend to the race, -who publicly advises a resort to violence to redress the wrongs and -injustices to which members of the race are subjected in various -sections of the country at the present time.</p> -</blockquote> -<blockquote> -<p>The Negro race is afflicted with many individuals whose wagging -tongues are apt to lead them into indiscreet utterances that reflect -upon the whole race. … The unruly tongues should not be allowed to -alienate public sympathy from the cause of the oppressed.</p> -</blockquote> -<p>Now, although <em>The Voice</em> seeks no quarrel with <em>The -Age</em>, we are forced to dissent from this cringing, obsequious view -which it champions. And we do this on the ground that cringing has gone -out of date, that <em>The Age’s</em> view does not now represent any -influential or important section of Negro opinion. The group which once -held that view went to pieces when Dr. Washington died. The white papers -in their news items of last week gave instance after instance showing -that Negroes not only counselled self-defense, but actually practiced -it. (And <em>The Age</em>, by the way, was the only <em>Negro</em> paper -in New York City which excluded these items from its news columns.) If -the press reports are correct, then <em>The Voice</em> told the simple -truth when it spoke of the new temper which was being developed -“unbeknown to the white people of this land.” And an outsider might -conclude that <em>The Voice</em> was a better friend to the white people -by letting them know this, than The Age was by trying to lie about -it.</p> -<p>But the controversy goes much deeper than the question of candor and -truthfulness. <em>The Age</em> and <em>The Voice</em> join issue on this -double question: Have Negroes a right to defend themselves against -whites? Should they defend themselves? (And this, of course, means -violence.) <em>The Voice</em> answers, “Yes!” <em>The Age</em> answers -“No!” Who is to decide? Let us appeal to the courts. Every law-book and -statute-book, every court in the civilized world and in the United -States agree that every <em>human</em> being has the legal as well as -moral right to kill those who attack and try to kill him. Then the -question for <em>The Age</em> to decide, is whether Negroes are human -beings. To call our view “socialistic” is to call the courts -“socialistic,” and displays an amazing ignorance both of Socialism and -of human nature.</p> -<p>Before we leave this question, it is proper to consider the near and -remote consequences of the radical view. <em>The Age</em> says that -unruly tongues will alienate public sympathy from the oppressed. Good -God! Isn’t it high time to ask of what value is that kind of sympathy -which is ready to be alienated as soon as Negroes cease to be “niggers” -and insist on being men? Is that the sort of sympathy on which <em>The -Age</em> has thrived? Then we will have none of it.</p> -<p>And, as to the remoter consequences: neither we nor <em>The Age</em> -has a lease on the future. We can but prophesy. But intelligent people -reach the unknown via the known, and prophesy the future from the known -past and present. And we do know that no race or group of people past or -present ever won to the status of manhood among men by yielding up that -right which even a singed cat will not yield up—the right to defend -their lives. If <em>The Age</em> knows of any instance to the contrary -in the history of the past seven thousand years, let it mention that -instance. But <em>The Age</em> may ask:</p> -<p>“What will self defense accomplish?” Let us see first what the -absence of self-defense accomplishes. In its news account of the -St. Louis massacre, the <em>Amsterdam News</em> shows that whenever the -white mobs found a group of Negroes organized and armed, <em>they turned -back</em>; while <em>The Age</em> itself had this significant and -pathetic sentence:</p> -<blockquote> -<p>Since the massacre, which will go down in history alongside the -atrocities committed in Brussels and Rheims, a delegation of Negroes has -held a conference with Governor Lowden at Springfield, <em>but the -outcome of this meeting will not bring back the lives of those who, for -no valid reason, were struck down and murdered in cold blood.</em></p> -</blockquote> -<p>Taking the two things together the answer seems clear enough. When -murder is cheap murder is indulged in recklessly; when it is likely to -be costly it is not so readily indulged in. Will <em>The Age</em> -venture to deny this? No? Then we say, let Negroes help to make murder -costly, for by so doing they will aid the officers of the city, state -and nation in instilling respect for law and order into the minds of the -worst and lowest elements of our American cities. And we go further: We -say that it is not alone the brutality of the whites—it is also the -cowardice of Negroes and the lickspittle leadership of the last two -decades which, like <em>The Age</em>, told us to “take it all lying -down”—it is this which has been the main reason for our “bein’ so aisily -lynched,” as Mr. Dooley puts it.</p> -<p>Whatever <em>The Age</em> may say, Negroes will fight back as they -are already fighting back. And they will be more highly regarded—as are -the Irish—because of fighting back.</p> -<p>We are aiming at the white man’s respect—not at his sympathy. We -cannot win that respect by any conspicuous and contemptible cowardice; -the only kind of sympathy which we may win by that is the kind of -sympathy which men feel for a well-kicked dog which cringes while they -kick it.</p> -<p>“Rights are to be won by those who are ready and willing to fight, if -necessary, to have those rights respected.”</p> -<p>Who says this? Theodore Roosevelt. So does President Wilson. So does -the U. S. Government. That is why we went to war with Germany. Our -country always acts upon the best and highest principle and we Negroes -have just begun to see that our country is quite right. Therefore, we -are willing to follow its glorious example. That is all.</p> -<hr class="tb"> -<h3 id="the-negro-and-the-labor-unions">The Negro and the Labor -Unions</h3> -<p>There are two kinds of labor unionism; the A.F. of L. kind and the -other kind. So far, the Negro has been taught to think that all unionism -was like the unionism of the American Federation of Labor, and because -of this ignorance, his attitude toward organized labor has been that of -the scab. For this no member of the A.F. of L. can blame the Negro. The -policy of that organization toward the Negro has been damnable. It has -kept him out of work and out of the unions as long as it could; and when -it could no longer do this it has taken him in, tricked him, and -discriminated against him.</p> -<p>On the other hand, the big capitalists who pay low wages (from the -son of Abraham Lincoln in the Pullman Co. to Julius Rosenwald of the -Sears Roebuck Co.) have been rather friendly to the Negro. They have -given their money to help him build Y.M.C.A.’s and schools of a certain -type. They have given him community help in Northern cities and have -expended charity on him— and on the newspapers and parsons who taught -him. Small wonder, then, that the Negro people are anti-union.</p> -<p>Labor unions were created by white working men that they might bring -the pressure of many to bear upon the greedy employer and make him give -higher wages and better living conditions to the laborer. When they, in -turn, become so greedy that they keep out the majority of working -people, by high dues and initiation fees, they no longer represent the -interests of the laboring class. They stand in the way of this class’s -advancement—<em>and they must go</em>. They must leave the way clear for -the 20th century type of unionism which says: “To leave a single worker -out is to leave something for the boss to use against us. Therefore we -must organize in One Big Union of all the working-class.” This is the -type of unionism which organized, in 1911, 18,000 white and 14,000 black -timber workers in Louisiana. This is the I.W.W. type of unionism, and -the employers use their newspapers to make the public believe that it -stands for anarchy, violence, law-breaking and atheism, because they -know that if it succeeds it will break them.</p> -<p>This type of unionism wants Negroes—not because its promoters love -Negroes—but because they realize that they cannot win if any of the -working class is left out; and after winning they cannot go back on them -because they could be used as scabs to break the unions.</p> -<p>The A.F. of L., which claims a part of the responsibility for the -East St. Louis outrage, is playing with fire. The American Negro may -join hands with the American capitalist and scab them out of existence. -And the editor of <em>The Voice</em> calls upon Negroes to do this. We -have stood the American Federation of Labor just about long enough. Join -hands with the capitalists and scab them out of existence—not in the -name of scabbery, but in the name of a real organization of labor. Form -your own unions (the A.C.E. is already in the field) and make a truce -with your capitalist enemy until you get rid of this traitor to the -cause of labor. Offer your labor to capitalism if it will agree to -protect you in your right to labor—and see that it does. Then get rid of -the A.F. of L.</p> -<p>The writer has been a member of a party which stood for the rights of -labor and the principle of Industrial Unionism (the 20th century kind). -He understands the labor conditions of the country and desires to see -the working man win out. But his first duty, here as everywhere, is to -the Negro race. And he refuses to put ahead of his race’s rights a -collection of diddering jackasses which can publicly palliate such -atrocities as that of East St. Louis and publicly assume, as Gompers -did, responsibility for it. Therefore, he issues the advice to the -workers of his race to “can the A.F. of L.” Since the A.F. of L. chooses -to put Race before Class, let us return the compliment.</p> -<hr class="tb"> -<h3 id="lynching-its-cause-and-cure">Lynching: Its Cause and Cure</h3> -<p>Last week we had occasion to comment on the resignation of Mr. John -R. Shillady from the secretaryship of the N.A.A.C.P. Mr. Shillady’s -statement accompanying his resignation contains these significant -words:—</p> -<p>“I am less confident than heretofore of the speedy success of the -association’s full program and of the probability of overcoming within a -reasonable period the forces opposed to Negro equality by the means and -methods which are within the association’s power to employ.”</p> -<p>That the N.A.A.C.P. is not likely to affect the lynchings in this -land can be seen with half an eye by any one who will note that Governor -J. A. Burnquist of Minnesota “is also president of the St. Paul branch -of the association and one of the staunch supporters of its work”; that -the Minnesota lynching of last week was one of the most cynically brutal -that has occurred North or South in the last ten years, and that the -association has offered and is offering to give the Governor all the -assistance possible.</p> -<p>In most of the other cases of lynchings it is assumed that all the -officials were in collusion with the forces of violence, or were at any -rate in acquiescence. In the present case, however, the Governor of the -State is himself a high officer of the association. Yet we venture to -prophesy that no more will be done in the case of the Minnesota -lynchings than in the case of lynchings further south.</p> -<p>This leads us to a front face consideration of the problem of -lynching. Why do white men lynch black men in America? We are not -dealing here with the original historical cause; nor even with its -present social application. We are considering merely the efficient -cause. White men lynch black men or any other men because those men’s -lives are unprotected either by the authorities of the commonwealth or -by the victims themselves. White men lynch Negroes in America because -Negroes’ lives are cheap. So long as they so remain, so long will -lynching remain an evil to be talked about, written about, petitioned -against and slobbered over. But not all the slobber, the talk or the -petitions are worth the time it takes to indulge in them, so far as the -saving of a single Negro life is concerned.</p> -<p>What, then, is the cure? The cure follows from the nature of the -cause. Let Negroes determine that their lives shall no longer be cheap; -but that they will exact for them as high a price as any other element -in the community under similar circumstances would exact. Let them see -to it that their lives are protected and defended, if not by the State, -then certainly by themselves. Then we will see the cracker stopping to -take counsel with himself and to think twice before he joins a mob in -whose gruesome holiday sport he himself is likely to furnish one of the -casualties.</p> -“Let Negroes help to make murder costly, for by so doing they will aid -the officers of the city, State and nation in instilling respect for law -and order into the minds of the worst and lowest elements of our -American cities.” The law of every State says explicitly that killing in -defense of one’s own life is strictly proper, legal and justifiable. -Therefore, if Negroes determine to defend themselves from the horrible -outrage of lynching they should have the support of every official and -every citizen who really believes in law and order and is determined to -make the law of the land stand as a living reality among the people that -made it. —July, 1920. -</div> -<div id="chapter-3" class="chapter"> -<hr class="chap"> -<h2 id="chapter-iii.the-negro-and-the-war">CHAPTER III.<BR>THE NEGRO AND -THE WAR</h2> -<p>[While the war lasted those of us who saw unpalatable truths were -compelled to do one of two things: either tell the truth as we saw it -and go to jail, or camouflage the truth that we had to tell. The present -writer told the truth for the most part, in so far as it related to our -race relations; but, in a few cases camouflage was safer and more -effective. That camouflage, however, was never of that truckling quality -which was accepted by the average American editor to such a nauseating -degree. I was well aware that Woodrow Wilson’s protestations of -democracy were lying protestations, consciously and deliberately -designed to deceive. What, then, was my duty in the face of that fact? I -chose to pretend that Woodrow Wilson meant what he said, because by so -doing I could safely hold up to contempt and ridicule the undemocratic -practices of his administration and the actions of his white countrymen -in regard to the Negro. How this was done is shown in the first two -editorials of the following chapter.]</p> -<h3 id="is-democracy-unpatriotic">Is Democracy Unpatriotic?</h3> -<p>The present administration is all right. But it has its obstacles to -success. As usual some of the worst of these are its injudicious -“friends.” For instance, there are the people who are trying their best -to “queer” us in the eyes of civilized Europe. These silly souls, when -Negroes ask that the principle of “Justice in War Time”: be applied to -Negroes as well as whites, reply, in effect that this should not be; -that Negroes should not want Justice—in war time—and that any such -demand on their part is “disloyalty.” On the contrary, it is the fullest -loyalty to the letter and spirit of the President’s war-aims. To say -that it isn’t is to presume to accuse the President of having war-aims -other than those which he has set forth in the face of Europe.</p> -<p>Besides, no one can deny that freedom from lynching and -disfranchisement and the ending of discrimination—by the Red Cross for -instance—will strengthen the hand of the administration right now by -strengthening its hold on the hearts of the Negro masses and will make -all Negroes—soldiers as well as civilians—more competent to give -effective aid in winning the war.</p> -<p>Let us assume that we consent to being lynched—“during the war”—and -submit tamely and with commendable weakness to being Jim-crowed and -disfranchised. Very well. Will not that be the proof of our spirit and -of its quality? Of course. And what you <em>call</em> that spirit won’t -alter its quality, will it? Now, ask all the peoples of all the world -what they call a people who smilingly consent to their own degradation -and destruction. They call such a people cowards—because they -<em>are</em> cowards. In America we call such people “niggers.”</p> -<p>Is anyone unpatriotic enough to pretend that “cowards” can lick -“Huns”? No, this great world-task can be accomplished only by -men—English men, French men, Italian men, American men. Our country -needs men now more than it ever did before. And those who multiply its -reserve of men are adding to its strength. That is why the true patriots -who really love America and want it to win the war are asking America to -change its Negroes from “niggers” into men. Surely this is a patriotic -request; and any one who says that it isn’t must be prepared to maintain -that lynching, Jim-crow and disfranchisement are consistent with -patriotism and ought to be preserved. Reading the President’s -proclamations in reverent spirit, we deny both of these monstrous -conclusions; and we believe that we have on our side the President of -America, the world’s foremost champion of democracy who defined it as -“the right of all those who submit to authority to have a VOICE in their -own government”—whether it be in Germany or in Georgia. And we believe -that the splendid spirit of our common country, which has buckled on its -sword in support of “democracy” will support us in this reasonable -contention. —July, 1918.</p> -<hr class="tb"> -<h3 id="why-is-the-red-cross">Why Is the Red Cross?</h3> -<p>The Red Cross, or Geneva Association, was the product of a Swiss -infidel. He saw how cruel to man were those who loved God most—the -Christians—and, out of his large humanity and loving kindness, he -evolved an organization which should bring the charity of service to -lessen the lurid horrors of Christian battlefields.</p> -<p>A love that rose above the love of country—the love of human kind: -this was the proud principle of the Red Cross. Its nurses and its -surgeons, stretcher-bearers and assistants were supposed to bring relief -to those who were in pain, regardless of whether they were “friends” or -“enemies.” Discrimination was a word which did not exist for them: and -it is not supposed to exist now even as against the wounded German -aviator who has bombed a Red Cross hospital.</p> -<p>But, alack and alas! The splendid spirit of the Swiss infidel is -seemingly too high for Christian race-prejudice to reach. Where he would -not discriminate even against enemies, the American branch of his -international society is discriminating against most loyal friends and -willing helpers—when they are Negroes. Up to date the American Red Cross -Society, which receives government aid and co-operation to help win the -war, cannot cite the name of a single Negro woman as a nurse. True, it -says that it has “enrolled” some. This we refuse to believe. But even if -that were true, a nurse “enrolled” cannot save the life of any of our -soldiers in France.</p> -<p>The Red Cross says that it wants to win the war. What war? A white -people’s war, or America’s and the world’s? It this were a white -people’s war, as some seem to think, colored troops from Senegal, India, -Egypt, America and the West Indies would have been kept out of it. But -they were not, and we are driven to conclude that this is a world war. -Then why doesn’t the American Red Cross meet it in the spirit of the -President—of world democracy? The cry goes up for nurses to save the -lives of soldiers; yet here are thousands of Negro nurses whom the Red -Cross won’t accept. They must want to give Europe a “rotten” opinion of -American democracy. For we may be sure that these things are known in -Europe—even as our lynchings are. And anyone who would give Europe a -“rotten” opinion of America at this time is no friend of America.</p> -<p>The American Red Cross must be compelled to do America’s work in the -spirit in which America has entered the war. There need be no biting of -tongues: it must be compelled to forego Race Prejudice. If the -N.A.A.C.P. were truly what it pretends instead of a National Association -for the Advancement of Certain People, it would put its high-class -lawyers on the job and bring the case into the United States courts. It -would charge the American Red Cross with disloyalty to the war-aims of -America. And if it does not (in spite of the money which it got from the -“silent” protest parade and other moneys and legal talent at its -disposal) then it will merit the name which one of its own members gave -it—the National Association for the Acceptance of Color Proscription. -Get busy, “friends of the colored people”! For we are not disposed to -regard the camouflage of those who want nurses but do not want Negro -nurses in any other light than that of Bret Harte’s Truthful James:—</p> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse"> -Which I wish to remark— -</div> -<div class="verse indent2"> -And my language is plain— -</div> -<div class="verse"> -That for ways that are dark -</div> -<div class="verse indent2"> -And for tricks that are vain -</div> -<div class="verse"> -The Heathen Chinee is peculiar: -</div> -<div class="verse indent2"> -Which the same I am free to maintain. -</div> -</div> -</div> -<hr class="tb"> -<h3 id="a-hint-of-our-reward">A Hint of Our Reward</h3> -<p>The wisdom of our contemporary ancestors, having decided that “We -Negroes must make every sacrifice to help win the war and lay aside our -just demands for the present that we may win a shining place on the -pages of history,” it must be cold comfort to learn that the first -after-the-war schoolbook of American history is out, that it is written -by Reuben Gold Thwaites and Calvin Noyes Kendall, that it devotes -thirty-one pages to the war and America’s part in the war, and that -<em>not one word is said of the Negro’s part therein.</em></p> -<p>Of course, sensible men should feel no surprise at this, for they -will realize how little the part played by the Negro in the Civil War is -known by the millions of white school children who read the school -histories. Yet, if there is a spark of manhood left in the bosoms of our -“white men’s niggers” who sold us out during the war they must feel -pained and humiliated when the flood of after-the-war school histories, -of which this is the first, quietly sink the Negro’s contributions (as -chronicled by Mr. Emmett Scott and others) into the back waters of -forgetfulness.</p> -<p>The times change, but we don’t change with them.</p> -<hr class="tb"> -<h3 id="the-negro-at-the-peace-congress">The Negro at the Peace -Congress</h3> -<p>Now that they have helped to win the war against Germany, the Negro -people in these United States feel the absurdity of the situation in -which they find themselves. They have given lavishly of their blood and -treasure. They have sent their young men overseas as soldiers, and were -willing to send their young women overseas as nurses; but the innate -race-prejudice of the American Red Cross prevented them. They have -contributed millions of dollars to the funds of this same Red Cross and -scores of millions to the four Liberty Loans; and they have done all -this to help make the world “safe for democracy” even while in sixteen -States of the south in which nine-tenths of them reside, they have no -voice in their own government. Naturally they expect that something will -have to be done to remove their civil and other disabilities. This -expectation of theirs is a just and reasonable one. But— —</p> -<p>Now that the world is getting ready for the Peace Congress which is -expected to settle <em>the questions about which the war was fought</em> -our Negroes want to know if the Peace Congress will settle such -questions as those of lynching, disfranchisement and segregation. IT -WILL NOT! And why? Simply because the war was not fought over these -questions. Even a fool can see that. Lynching, disfranchisement and -Jim-crowing in America are questions of American domestic policy and can -be regulated only by American law-making and administrative bodies. Even -a fool should be able to see this. And, since it was only by the -military aid of the United States that the Allies were able to win the -war, why should our people be stupid enough to think that the allied -nations will aim a slap at the face of the United States (even if such -things were customary) by attempting to interfere in her domestic -arrangements and institutions?</p> -<p>We learn that various bodies of Negroes, who do not seem to -understand the modern system of political government under which they -live, are seeking to get money from the unsuspecting masses of our -people “for the purpose of sending delegates to the Peace Congress.” The -project is sublimely silly. In the first place, the Peace Congress is -not open to anybody who chooses to be sent. A peep into any handbook of -modern history would show that Peace Congresses are made up only of -delegates chosen by the heads of the governments of the countries which -have been at war, and never by civic, propaganda, or other bodies within -those nations. Only the President of the United States has power to -designate the American delegates to the Peace Congress.</p> -<p>Of course, if any body of people wish to send a visitor to Versailles -or Paris <em>at their expense</em>, the government of the United States -has nothing to do with that and would not prevent it. But such visitor, -lacking credentials from the President, could not get within a block of -the Peace Congress. They can (if they read French) get from the papers -published in the city where the Congress meets so much of the -proceedings as the Congress may choose to give to the press. But that is -all; and for that it is not necessary to go to France. Just send to -France for copies of <em>Le Temps</em> or <em>Le Matin</em> and prevent -a useless waste of the money of poor people who can ill afford it in any -case.</p> -<p>“But,” we are told, “such person or persons can make propaganda (in -France) which will force the Peace Congress to consider American -lynching, disfranchisement and segregation,” Passing over the argument -that such person or persons would have to be able to write French -fluently, we wish to point out that the public sentiment of even one -French city takes more than a month to work up; that the sentiment of -one French city can have but slight weight with the Congress, and that, -if it could rise to the height of embarrassing them, the French -authorities would sternly put it down and banish the troublesome -persons. Karl Marx, Prince Kropotkin, Malatesta and Lenine are cases in -point as showing what France has done under less provoking -circumstances.</p> -<p>Let us not try to play the part of silly fools. Lynching, -disfranchisement and segregation are evils HERE; and the place in which -we must fight them is HERE. If foolish would-be leaders have no plan to -lay before our people for the fighting HERE, in God’s name, let them say -so, and stand out of the way! Let us gird up our loins for the stern -tasks which lie before us HERE and address ourselves to them with -courage and intelligence.</p> -<hr class="tb"> -<h3 id="africa-and-the-peace">Africa and the Peace</h3> -<p>“This war, disguise it how we may, is really being fought over -African questions.” So said Sir Harry Johnston, one of the foremost -authorities on Africa, in the London Sphere in June, 1917. We wonder if -the Negroes of the Western world quite realize what this means. Wars are -not fought for ideals but for lands whose populations can be put to -work, for resources that can be minted into millions, for trade that can -be made to enrich the privileged few. When King Leopold of Belgium and -Thomas Fortune Ryan of New York joined hands to exploit the wealth of -the Congo they did it with oiled phrases on their lips. They called that -land of horrors and of shame “The Congo FREE State!”</p> -<p>And, so, when Nations go to war, they never openly declare what they -WANT. They must camouflage their sordid greed behind some sounding -phrase like “freedom of the seas,” “self-determination,” “liberty” or -“democracy.” But only the ignorant millions ever think that those are -the real objects of their bloody rivalries. When the war is over, the -mask is dropped, and then they seek “how best to scramble at the -shearers’ feast.” It is then that they disclose their real war aims.</p> -<p>One of the most striking cases in point is the present peace -congress. Already President Wilson has had to go to look after democracy -himself. Already responsible heads of the Allied governments are making -it known that “freedom of the seas” means a benevolent naval despotism -maintained by them, and that “democracy” means simply the transfer of -Germany’s African lands to England and the others. Africa at the peace -table constitutes the real stakes which the winners will rake in. We may -read in headlines the startling item “Negroes Ask For German Colonies,” -but Negroes of sense should not be deluded. They will not get them -because they have no battleships, no guns, no force, military or -financial. They are not a Power.</p> -<p>Despite the pious piffle of nice old gentlemen like Professor Kelly -Miller, the King-word of modern nations is POWER. It is only Sunday -school “kids” and people of child-races who take seriously such fables -as that in the “Band of Hope Review” when we were children that “the -secret of England’s greatness is the Bible.” The secret of England’s -greatness (as well as of any other great nation’s) is not bibles but -bayonets—bayonets, business and brains. As long as the white nations -have a preponderance of these, so long will they rule. Ask Japan: she -knows. And as long as the lands of Africa can yield billions of -business, so long will white brains use bayonets to keep them—as the -British government did last year in Nigeria.</p> -<p><em>Africa is turning over in her sleep, and this agitation now going -on among American Negroes for the liberation of Africa is a healthy sign -of her restlessness. But it is no more than that.</em> Africa’s hands -are tied, and, so tied, she will be thrown upon the peace table. Let us -study how to unloose her bonds later. Instead of futile expectations -from the doubtful generosity of white land-grabbers, let us American -Negroes go to Africa, live among the natives and LEARN WHAT THEY HAVE TO -TEACH US (for they have much to teach us). Let us go there—not in the -coastlands,—but in the interior, in Nigeria and Nyassaland; let us study -engineering and physics, chemistry and commerce, agriculture and -industry; let us learn more of nitrates, of copper, rubber and -electricity; so will we know why Belgium, France, England and Germany -want to be in Africa. Let us begin by studying the scientific works of -the African explorers and stop reading and believing the silly slush -which ignorant missionaries put into our heads about the alleged -degradation of our people in Africa. Let us learn to know Africa and -Africans so well that every educated Negro will be able at a glance to -put his hand on the map of Africa and tell where to find the Jolofs, -Ekois, Mandingoes, Yorubas, Bechuanas or Basutos and can tell something -of their marriage customs, their property laws, their agriculture and -systems of worship. For, not until we can do this will it be seemly for -us to pretend to be anxious about their political welfare.</p> -<p>Indeed, it would be well now for us to establish friendly relations -and correspondence with our brothers at home. For we don’t know enough -about them to be able to do them any good at THIS peace congress (even -if we were graciously granted seats there); but fifty years from now—WHO -KNOWS?</p> -<hr class="tb"> -<h3 id="they-shall-not-pass">“They Shall Not Pass!”</h3> -<p>When heroic France was holding the Kaiser’s legions at bay her -inflexible resolution found expression in the phrase, “Ils ne passeront -pas!”—they shall not pass! The white statesmen who run our government in -Washington seem to have adopted the poilu’s watchword in a less worthy -cause. The seventy-odd Negro “delegates” to the Peace Congress who have -got themselves “elected” at mass-meetings and concerts for the purpose -of going to France are not going—unless they can walk, swim, or fly. For -the government will not issue passports for them.</p> -<p>Of course, the government is not telling them so in plain English. -That wouldn’t be like our government. It merely makes them wait while -their money melts away. Day after day and week after week, they wearily -wend their way to the official Circumlocution Office where they receive -a reply considered sufficient for their child-minds: “Not yet.”</p> -<p>It is many weeks since Madam Walker, Mr. Trotter, Judge Harrison and -other lesser lights were elected, but “They shall not pass!” says the -government with the backing of Emmett Scott. THE VOICE holds no brief -for these people: in fact it has taken the trouble to tell them more -than once how silly their project was. But it is not out of order to -inquire why the government will not let them go, and to find an answer -to that question.</p> -<p>The government will not let them go to France, because the -government’s conscience is not clear. And the government ordered that -ludicrous lackey, Mr. R. R. Moton, to go—for the same reason. In fact, -the creation of sinecures for Mr. Scott and the other barnacles is due -largely to an uneasy conscience. How would it look to have Negroes -telling all Europe that the land which is to make the world “safe for -democracy” is rotten with race-prejudice; Jim-crows Negro officers on -ships coming over from France and on trains run under government -control; condones lynching by silent acquiescence and refuses to let its -Negro heroes vote as citizens in that part of the country in which -nine-tenths of them live. This wouldn’t do at all.</p> -<p>Therefore: They shall not pass! And if, finally, the government, -nettled by such criticisms, should lift the ban when the Peace Congress -is practically over, the Negroes of America may be sure that those -permitted to go will be carefully hand-picked.</p> -<p>But what is the matter with America as a land for pioneer work in -planting democracy? Are these Negro <em>emigrés</em> afraid to face the -white men here in the Republican Party or any other and raise Hades -until the Constitution is enforced? Is cowardice the real reason for -their running to France to uncork their mouths? It looks very much like -it. Ladies and gentlemen: don’t run. The fight is here, and here you -will be compelled to face it, or report to us the reason why.</p> -<hr class="tb"> -<h3 id="a-cure-for-the-ku-klux">A Cure for the Ku-Klux</h3> -<p>It was in the city of Pulaski in Giles County, Tennessee, that the -original Ku-Klux Klan was organized in the latter part of 1865. The war -had hardly been declared officially at an end when the cowardly -“crackers” who couldn’t lick the Yankees began organizing to take it out -of the Negroes. They passed laws declaring that any black man who -couldn’t show three hundred dollars should be declared a vagrant; that -every vagrant should be put to work in the chain-gang on the public -works of their cities; that three Negroes should not gather together -unless a white man was with them, and other such methods were used as -were found necessary to maintain “white supremacy.” When the national -Congress met in December, 1865, it looked upon these light diversions -with an unfriendly eye and, noting that nothing short of the -re-enslavement of the Negroes would satisfy the “crackers,” it kept them -out of Congress until they would agree to do better. Finding that they -were stiff-necked, Congress passed the 14th and 15th amendments and put -the “cracker” states under military rule until they accepted the -amendments. The result was that the Negro got the ballot as a protection -from “the people who know him best.”</p> -<p>In the meanwhile, the Ku-Klux after rampaging around under the -leadership of that traitor, General Nathaniel B. Forrest, was put -down-for good, as it was thought. Today, after the Negro has been -stripped of the ballot’s protection by the connivance of white -Republicans in Washington and white Democrats at the South, the Ku-Klux -dares to raise its ugly head in its ancestral state of Tennessee. This -time they want to increase that fine brand of democracy which every -coward editor knows that Negroes were getting when they were bidding -them to be patriotic. The Ku-Klux means to shoot them into submission -and torture them into terror before they get to showing their wounds and -asking for the ballot as a recompense.</p> -<p>In this crisis what have the Negro “leaders” got to say on their -people’s behalf? Where is Emmett Scott? Where are Mr. Moton and Dr. Du -Bois? What will the N.A.A.C.P. do besides writing frantic letters? We -fear that they can never rise above the level of appeals. But suppose -the common Negro in Tennessee decides to take a hand in the game? -Suppose he lets it be known that for the life of every Negro soldier or -civilian, two “crackers” will die? Suppose he lets them know that it -will be as costly to kill Negroes as it would be to kill real people? -Then indeed the Ku-Klux would be met upon its own ground. And why -not?</p> -<p>All our laws, even in Tennessee, declare that lynching and -white-capping are crimes against the person. All our laws declare that -people singly or in groups have the right to kill in defense of their -lives. And if the Ku-Klux prevents the officers of the law from -enforcing that law, then it is up to Negroes to help the officers by -enforcing the law on their own account. Why shouldn’t they do it? Lead -and steel, fire and poison are just as potent against “crackers” as they -were against Germans, and democracy is as well worth fighting for in -Tennessee as ever it was on the plains of France. Not until the Negroes -of the south recognize this truth will anybody else recognize it for -them.</p> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse leadingquote"> -“Hereditary bondmen, know ye not -</div> -<div class="verse"> -Who would be free themselves must strike the blow?” -</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> -<div id="chapter-4" class="chapter"> -<hr class="chap"> -<h2 id="chapter-iv.the-new-politics.">CHAPTER IV.<BR>THE NEW -POLITICS.</h2> -<h3 id="the-new-politics-for-the-new-negro">The New Politics for the New -Negro</h3> -<p>The world of the future will look upon the world of today as an -essentially new turning point in the path of human progress. All over -the world the spirit of democratic striving is making itself felt. The -new issues have brought forth new ideas of freedom, politics, industry -and society at large. The new Negro living in this new world is just as -responsive to these new impulses as other people are.</p> -<p>In the “good old days” it was quite easy to tell the Negro to follow -in the footsteps of those who had gone before. The mere mention of the -name Lincoln or the Republican party was sufficient to secure his -allegiance to that party which had seen him stripped of all political -power and of civil rights without protest—effective or otherwise.</p> -<p>Things are different now. The new Negro is demanding elective -representation in Baltimore, Chicago and other places. He is demanding -it in New York. The pith of the present occasion is, that he is no -longer begging or asking. He is demanding as a right that which he is in -position to enforce.</p> -<p>In the presence of this new demand the old political leaders are -bewildered, and afraid; for the old idea of Negro leadership by virtue -of the white man’s selection has collapsed. The new Negro leader must be -chosen by his fellows—by those whose strivings he is supposed to -represent.</p> -<p>Any man today who aspires to lead the Negro race must set squarely -before his face the idea of “Race First” Just as the white men of these -and other lands are white men before they are Christians, Anglo-Saxons -or Republicans; so the Negroes of this and other lands are intent upon -being Negroes before they are Christians, Englishmen, or -Republicans.</p> -<p>Sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander. Charity begins at home, -and our first duty is to ourselves. It is not what we wish but what we -must, that we are concerned with. The world, as it ought to be, is still -for us, as for others, the world that does not exist. The world as it -is, is the real world, and it is to that real world that we address -ourselves. Striving to be men, and finding no effective aid in -government or in politics, the Negro of the Western world must follow -the path of the Swadesha movement of India and the Sinn Fein movement of -Ireland. The meaning of both these terms is “ourselves first.” This is -the mental background of the new politics of the New Negro, and we -commend it to the consideration of all the political parties. For it is -upon this background that we will predicate such policies as shall seem -to us necessary and desirable.</p> -<p>In the British Parliament the Irish Home Rule party clubbed its full -strength and devoted itself so exclusively to the cause of Free Ireland -that it virtually dictated for a time the policies of Liberals and -Conservatives alike. The new Negro race in America will not achieve -political self-respect until it is in a positon to organize itself as -politically independent party and follow the example of the Irish Home -Rulers. This is what will happen in American politics. —September, -1917.</p> -<hr> -<h3 id="the-drift-in-politics">The Drift in Politics</h3> -<p>The Negroes of America—those of them who think—are suspicious of -everything that comes from the white people of America. They have seen -that every movement for the extension of democracy here has broken down -as soon as it reached the color line. Political democracy declared that -“all men are created equal,” meant only all white men; the Christian -church found that the brotherhood of man did not include God’s bastard -children; the public school system proclaimed that the school house was -the backbone of democracy—“for white people only,” and the civil service -says that Negroes must keep their place—at the bottom. So that they can -hardly be blamed for looking askance at any new gospel of freedom. -Freedom to them has been like one of</p> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse indent2"> -“those juggling fiends -</div> -<div class="verse"> -That palter with us in a double sense; -</div> -<div class="verse"> -That keep the word of promise to our ear, -</div> -<div class="verse"> -And break it to our hope.” -</div> -</div> -</div> -<p>In this connection, some explanation of the former political -solidarity of those Negroes who were voters may be of service. Up to six -years ago the one great obstacle to the political progress of the -colored people was their sheep-like allegiance to the Republican party. -They were taught to believe that God had raised up a peculiar race of -men called Republicans who had loved the slaves so tenderly that they -had taken guns in their hands and rushed on the ranks of the southern -slaveholders to free the slaves; that this race of men was still in -existence, marching under the banner of the Republican party and showing -their great love for Negroes by appointing from six to sixteen -near-Negroes to soft political snaps. Today that great political -superstition is falling to pieces before the advance of intelligence -among Negroes. They begin to realize that they were sold out by the -Republican party in 1876; that in the last twenty-five years lynchings -have increased, disfranchisement has spread all over the South and -“Jim-crow” cars run even into the national capitol—with the continuing -consent of a Republican Congress, a Republican Supreme Court and -Republican President.</p> -<p>Ever since the Brownsville affair, but more clearly since Taft -declared and put in force the policy of pushing out the few near-Negro -officeholders, the rank and file have come to see that the Republican -party is a great big sham. Many went over to the Democratic party -because, as the <em>Amsterdam News</em> puts it, “They had nowhere else -to go.” Twenty years ago the colored men who joined that party were -ostracized as scalawags and crooks. But today, the defection to the -Democrats of such men as Bishop Walters, Wood, Morton, Carr and -Langston—whose uncle was a colored Republican Congressman from -Virginia—has made the colored democracy respectable and given quite a -tone to political heterdoxy.</p> -<p>All this loosens the bonds of their allegiance and breaks the bigotry -of the last forty years. But of this change in their political -view-point the white world knows nothing. The two leading Negro -newspapers are subsidized by the same political pirates who own the -title-deeds to the handful of hirelings holding office in the name of -the Negro race. One of these papers is an organ of Mr. Washington, the -other pretends to be independent—that is, it must be bought on the -installment plan, and both of them are in New York. Despite this -“conspiracy of silence” the Negroes are waking up, are beginning to -think for themselves, to look with more favor on “new doctrines.” <a -href="#fn1" class="footnote-ref" id="fnref1" -role="doc-noteref"><sup>1</sup></a></p> -<p>Today the politician who wants the support of the Negro voter will -have to give something more than piecrust promises. The old professional -“friend to the colored people” must have something more solid than the -name of Lincoln and party appointments.</p> -<p>We demand what the Irish and the Jewish voter get: nominations on the -party’s ticket in our own districts. And if we don’t get this we will -smash the party that refuses to give it.</p> -<p>For we are not Republicans, Democrats or Socialists any longer. We -are Negroes first. And we are no longer begging for sops. We demand, not -“recognition,” but representation, and we are out to throw our votes to -any party which gives us this, and withhold them from any party which -refuses to give it. No longer will we follow any leader whose job the -party controls. For we know that no leader so controlled can oppose such -party in our interests beyond a given point.</p> -<p>That is why so much interest attaches to the mass-meeting to be held -at Palace Casino on the 29th where the Citizens’ Committee will make its -report to the Negro voters of Harlem and tell them how it was “turned -down” by the local representatives of the Republican party when it -begged the boon of elective representation. All such rebuffs will make -for manhood-if we are men and will drive us to play in American politics -the same role which the Irish party played in British politics. That is -the new trend in Negro politics, and we must not let any party forget -it. —1917.</p> -<hr> -<h3 id="a-negro-for-president">A Negro for President</h3> -<p>For many years the Negro has been the football of American politics. -Kicked from pillar to post, he goes begging, hat in hand, from a -Republican convention to a Democratic one. Always is he asking some one -else to do something for him. Always is he begging, pleading, demanding -or threatening. In all these cases his dependence is on the good will, -sense of justice or gratitude of the other fellow. And in none of these -cases is the political reaction of the other fellow within the control -of the Negro.</p> -<p>But a change for the better is approaching. Four years ago, the -present writer was propounding in lectures, indoors and outdoors, the -thesis that the Negro people of America would never amount to anything -much politically until they should see fit to imitate the Irish of -Britain and to organize themselves into a political party of their own -whose leaders, on the basis of this large collective vote, could “hold -up” Republicans, Democrats, Socialists or any other political group of -American whites. As in many other cases, we have lived to see time ripen -the fruits of our own thought for some one else to pluck. Here is the -editor of the <em>Challenge</em> making a campaign along these very -lines. His version of the idea takes the form of advocating the -nomination of a Negro for the Presidency of the United States. In this -form we haven’t the slightest doubt that this idea will meet with a -great deal of ridicule and contempt. Nevertheless, we venture to -prophesy that, whether in the hands of Mr. Bridges or another, it will -come to be ultimately accepted as one of the finest contributions to -Negro statesmanship.</p> -<p>No one pretends, of course, that the votes of Negroes can elect a -Negro to the high office of President of the United States. Nor would -any one expect that the votes of white people will be forthcoming to -assist them in such a project. The only way in which a Negro could be -elected President of the United States would be by virtue of the voters -not knowing that the particular candidate was of Negro ancestry. This, -we believe, has already happened within the memory of living men. But, -the essential intent of this new plan is to furnish a focussing-point -around which the ballots of the Negro voters may be concentrated for the -realization of racial demands for justice and equality of opportunity -and treatment. It would be carrying “Race First” with a vengeance into -the arena of domestic politics. It would take the Negro voter out of the -ranks of the Republican, Democratic and Socialist parties and would -enable their leaders to trade the votes of their followers, openly and -above-board, for those things for which masses of men largely exchange -their votes.</p> -<p>Mr. Bridges will find that the idea of a Negro candidate for -President presupposes the creation of a purely Negro party and upon that -prerequisite he will find himself compelled to concentrate. Doubtless, -most of the political wise-acres of the Negro race will argue that the -idea is impossible because it antagonizes the white politicians of the -various parties. They will close their eyes to the fact that politics -implies antagonism and a conflict of interest. They will fail to see -that the only things which count with politicians are votes, and that, -just as one white man will cheerfully cut another white man’s throat to -get the dollars which a black man has, so will one white politician or -party cut another one’s throat politically to get the votes which black -men may cast at the polls. But these considerations will finally carry -the day. Let there be no mistake. The Negro will never be accepted by -the white American democracy except in so far as he can by the use of -force, financial, political or other, win, seize or maintain in the -teeth of opposition that position which he finds necessary to his own -security and salvation. And we Negroes may as well make up our minds now -that we can’t depend upon the good-will of white men in anything or at -any point where our interests and theirs conflict. Disguise it as we -may, in business, politics, education or other departments of life, we -as Negroes are compelled to fight for what we want to win from the white -world.</p> -<p>It is easy enough for those colored men whose psychology is shaped by -their white inheritance to argue the ethics of compromise and -inter-racial co-operation. But we whose brains are still unbastardized -must face the frank realities of this situation of racial conflict and -competition. Wherefore, it is well that we marshal our forces to -withstand and make head against the constant racial pressure. Action and -reaction are equal and opposite. Where there is but slight pressure a -slight resistance will suffice. But where, as in our case, that pressure -is grinding and pitiless, the resistance that would re-establish equal -conditions of freedom must of necessity be intense and radical. And it -is this philosophy which must furnish the motive for such a new and -radical departure as is implied in the joint idea of a Negro party in -American politics and a Negro candidate for the Presidency of these -United States. —June, 1920.</p> -<hr> -<h3 id="when-the-tail-wags-the-dog">When the Tail Wags the Dog</h3> -<p>Politically, these United States may be roughly divided into two -sections, so far as the Negroes are concerned. In the North the Negro -population has the vote. In the South it hasn’t. This was not always -so.</p> -<p>There was a time when the Negro voters of the South sent in to -Congress a thin but steady stream of black men who represented their -political interests directly. Due to the misadventures of the -reconstruction period, this stream was shut off until at the beginning -of this century George White, of North Carolina, was the sole and last -representative of the black man with a ballot in the South.</p> -<p>This result was due largely to the characteristic stupidity of the -Negro voter. He was a Republican, he was. He would do anything with his -ballot for Abraham Lincoln—who was dead—but not a thing for himself and -his family, who were all alive and kicking. For this the Republican -party loved him so much that it permitted the Democrats to disfranchise -him while it controlled Congress and the courts, the army and navy, and -all the machinery of law-enforcement in the United States. With its -continuing consent, Jim-crowism, disfranchisement, segregation and -lynching spread abroad over the land. The end of it all was the -reduction of the Negro in the South to the position of a political serf, -an industrial peon and a social outcast.</p> -<p>Recently there has been developed in the souls of black folk a new -manhood dedicated to the proposition that, if all Americans are equal in -the matter of baring their breasts to foreign bayonets, then all -Americans must, by their own efforts, be made equal in balloting for -Presidents and other officers of the government. This principle is -compelling the Republican party in certain localities to consider the -necessity of nominating Negroes on its local electoral tickets. Yet the -old attitude of that party on the political rights of Negroes remains -substantially the same.</p> -<p>Here, for instance, is the Chicago convention, at which the Negro -delegates were lined up to do their duty by the party. Of course, these -delegates had to deal collectively with the white leaders. This was to -their mutual advantage. But the odd feature of the entire affair was -this, that, <em>Whereas the Negro people in the South are not free to -cast their votes, it was precisely from these voteless areas that the -national Republican leaders selected the political spokesmen for the -voting Negroes of the North.</em> Men who will not vote at the coming -election and men who, like Roscoe Simmons, never cast a vote in their -lives were the accredited representatives in whose hands lay the destiny -of a million Negro voters.</p> -<p>But there need be no fear that this insult will annoy the black -brother in the Republican ranks. A Negro Republican generally runs the -rhinoceros and the elephant a close third. In plain English, the average -Negro Republican is too stupid to see and too meek to mind. Then, too, -here is Fate’s retribution for the black man in the North who has never -cared enough to fight (the Republican party) for the political freedom -of his brother in the South, but left him to rot under poll-tax laws and -grandfather clauses. The Northern white Democrats, for letting their -Southern brethren run riot through the Constitution, must pay the -penalty of being led into the ditch by the most ignorant, stupid and -vicious portion of their party. Even so, the Northern Negro Republican, -for letting his Southern brother remain a political ragamuffin, must now -stomach the insult of this same ragamuffin dictating the destiny of the -freer Negroes of the North. In both cases the tail doth wag the dog -because of “the solid South.” Surely, “the judgments of the Lord are -true and righteous altogether!” —July, 1920.</p> -<hr> -<h3 id="the-grand-old-party">The Grand Old Party</h3> -<p>In the early days of 1861, when the Southern Senators and -Representatives were relinquishing their seats in the United States -Congress and hurling cartels of defiant explanation broadcast, the -Republican party in Congress, under the leadership of Charles Francis -Adams of Massachusetts, organized a joint committee made up of thirteen -members of the Senate and thirty-three members of the House to make -overtures to the seceding Southerners. The result of this friendly -gesture was a proposed thirteenth amendment, which, if the Southerners -had not been so obstinate, would have bridged the chasm. For this -amendment proposed to make the slavery of the black man in America -eternal and inescapable. It provided that no amendment to the -Constitution, or any other proposition affecting slavery in any way, -could ever be legally presented upon the floor of Congress unless its -mover had secured the previous consent of <em>every Senator and -Representative from the slave-holding States</em>. It put teeth into the -Fugitive Slave Law and absolutely gave the Negro over into the keeping -of his oppressors.</p> -<p>Most Negro Americans (and white ones, too) think it fashionable to -maintain the most fervid faith and deepest ignorance about points in -their national history of which they should be informed. We therefore -submit that these facts are open and notorious to those who know -American history. The record will be found slimly and shame-facedly -given in McPherson’s “History of the Rebellion”; at indignant length in -Blaine’s “Twenty Years of Congress” and Horace Greeley’s “The Great -American Conflict.” The document can be examined in Professor -Macdonald’s “Select Documents of United States History.” These works are -to be found in every public library, and we refer to them here because -there are “intellectual” Negroes today who are striving secretly, when -they dare not do so openly, to perpetuate the bonds of serfdom which -bind the Negro Americans to the Republican party. This bond of serfdom, -this debt of gratitude, is supposed to hinge on the love which Abraham -Lincoln and his party are supposed to have borne towards the Negro; and -the object of this appeal to the historical record is to show that that -record demonstrates that if the Negro owes any debt to the Republican -party it is a debt of execration and of punishment rather than one of -gratitude.</p> -<p>It is an astounding fact that in his First Inaugural Address Abraham -Lincoln gave his explicit approval to the substance of the Crittenden -resolutions which the joint committee referred to above had collectively -taken over. This demonstrates that the Republican party at the very -beginning of its contact with the Negro was willing to sell the Negro, -bound hand and foot, for the substance of its own political control. -This Thirteenth Amendment was adopted by six or eight Northern States, -including Pennsylvania and Illinois; and if Fort Sumter had not been -fired upon it would have become by State action the law of the land.</p> -<p>The Republican party did not fight for the freedom of the Negro, but -for the maintenance of its own grip on the government which the election -of Abraham Lincoln had secured. If any one wants to know for what the -Republican party fought he will find it in such facts as this: That -thousands of square miles of the people’s property were given away to -Wall Street magnates who had corrupted the Legislature in their effort -to build railroads on the government’s money. The sordid story is given -in “Forty Years in Wall Street,” by the banker, Henry Clews, and others -who took part in this raid upon the resources of a great but stupid -people.</p> -<p>But the Civil War phase of the Republican party’s treason to the -Negro is not the only outstanding one, as was shown by the late General -Tremaine in his “Sectionalism Unmasked.” Not only was General Grant -elected in 1868 by the newly created Negro vote, as the official records -prove, but his re-election in 1872 was effected by the same means. So -was the election of Rutherford B. Hayes in 1876. Yet when the election -of Hayes had been taken before the overwhelmingly Republican Congress -this shameless party made a deal whereby, in order to pacify the white -“crackers” of the South, the Negro was given over into the hands of the -triumphant Ku-Klux; the soldiers who protected their access to the -ballot box in the worst southern states were withdrawn, while the -“crackers” agreed as the price of this favor to withdraw their -opposition to the election of Hayes. For this there exists ample proof -which will be presented upon the challenge of any politician or editor. -As a Republican Senator from New England shamelessly said, it was a -matter of “Root, hog, or die” for the helpless Negro whose ballots had -buttressed the Republican party’s temple of graft and corruption. So was -reconstruction settled against the Negro by the aid and abetting of the -Republican party.</p> -<p>And since that time lynching, disfranchisement and segregation have -grown with the Republican party in continuous control of the government -from 1861 to 1920—with the exception of eight years of Woodrow Wilson -and eight years of Grover Cleveland. With their continuing consent the -South has been made solid, so that at every Republican convention -delegates who do not represent a voting constituency but a grafting -collection of white postmasters and their Negro lackeys can turn the -scales of nomination in favor of any person whom the central clique of -the party, controlled as it has always been by Wall Street financiers, -may foist upon a disgusted people, as they have done in the case of -Harding. So long as the South remains solid, so long will the Republican -delegates from the South consist of only this handful of hirelings; so -long will they be amenable to the “discipline” which means the pressure -of the jobs by which they get their bread. Therefore the Republican -leaders will know that the solidarity of the South is their most -valuable asset; and they are least likely to do anything that will break -that solidarity. The Republican party’s only interest in the Negro is to -get his vote for nothing; and so long as Negro Republican leaders remain -the contemptible grafters and political procurers that they are at -present, so long will it get Negro votes for nothing.</p> -<p>Through it all the Republican party remains the most corrupt -influence among Negro Americans. It buys up by jobs, appointments and -gifts those Negroes who in politics should be the free and independent -spokesmen of Negro Americans. But worse than this is its private work in -which it secretly subsidizes men who pose before the public as -independent radicals. These intellectual pimps draw private -supplementary incomes from the Republican party to sell out the -influence of any movement, church or newspaper with which they are -connected. Of the enormity of this mode of procedure and the extent to -which it saps the very springs of Negro integrity the average Negro -knows nothing. Its blighting, baleful influence is known only to those -who have trained ears to hear and trained eyes to see.</p> -<p>And now in this election the standards will advance and the cohorts -go forward under the simple impulse of the same corrupting influence. -But whether the new movement for a Negro party comes to a head or not, -the new Negro in America will never amount to anything politically until -he enfranchises himself from the Grand Old Party which has made a -political joke of him. —July, 1920.</p> -</div> -<div id="footnotes" class="footnotes footnotes-end-of-document" -role="doc-endnotes"> -<hr> -<ol> -<li id="fn1"><p>The first part of this editorial is reprinted from an -article written in 1912.<a href="#fnref1" class="footnote-back" -role="doc-backlink">↩︎</a></p></li> -</ol> -</div> -<div id="chapter-5" class="chapter"> -<hr class="chap"> -<h2 id="chapter-v.-the-problems-of-leadership.">CHAPTER V.<br>THE -PROBLEMS OF LEADERSHIP.</h2> -<p>[In all the tangles of our awakening race consciousness there are -perhaps none more knotty than the tangles relating to leadership. -Leadership among Negro Americans, as among other people, means the -direction of a group’s activities, whether by precept, example or -compulsion. But, in our case, there is involved a strikingly new -element. Should the leading of our group in any sense be the product of -our group’s consciousness or of a consciousness originating from outside -that group? What the new Negro thinks on the problem of “outside -interference” in the leadership of his group is expressed in the first -and sixth editorials of this chapter, one of which appeared in <em>The -Voice</em> and the other in <em>The Negro World</em>.</p> -<p>“A Tender Point” formulates one part of the problem of leadership -which is seldom touched upon by Negro Americans who characteristically -avoid any public presentation of a thing about which they will talk -interminably in private; namely, the claim advanced, explicitly and -implicitly, by Negroids of mixed blood to be considered the natural -leaders of Negro activities on the ground of some alleged “superiority” -inherent in their white blood.</p> -<p>“The Descent of Du Bois” was written at the request of Major Loving -of the Intelligence Department of the Army at the time when Dr. Du Bois, -the editor of <em>The Crisis</em>, was being preened for a desk -captaincy at Washington. Major Loving solicited a summary of the -situation from me as one of those “radicals” qualified to furnish such a -summary. This he incorporated in his report to his superiors in -Washington, and this I published a week later in <em>The Voice</em> of -July 25, 1918, as an editorial without changing a single word. I was -informed by Major Loving that this editorial was one of the main causes -of the government’s change of intention as regards the Du Bois -captaincy. Since that time Dr. Du Bois’s white friends have been -fervidly ignoring the occurrence and the consequent collapse of his -leadership. “When the Blind Lead” was written as a reminder to the souls -of black folks that “while it is as easy as eggs for a leader to fall -off the fence, it is devilishly difficult to boost him up again.” “Just -Crabs” was a delightful inspiration in the course of defending, not -Mr. Garvey personally, but the principles of the New Negro Manhood -Movement, a portion of which had been incorporated by him and his -followers of the U.N.I.A. and A.C. L. It was the opening gun of the -defense, of which some other salvos were given in the serial satire of -The Crab Barrel—which I have been kind enough to omit from this record. -This controversy also gave rise to the three first editorials of chapter -6.]</p> -<h3 id="our-professional-friends">Our Professional “Friends”</h3> -<p>This country of ours has produced many curious lines of endeavor, not -the least curious of which is the business known as “being the Negro’s -friend.” It was first invented by politicians, but was taken up later by -“good” men, six-per-cent philanthropists, millionaire believers in -“industrial education,” benevolent newspapers like the <em>Evening -Post</em>, and a host of smaller fry of the “superior race.” Just at -this time the business is being worked to death, and we wish to -contribute our mite toward the killing-by showing what it means.</p> -<p>The first great “friend” of the Negro was the Southern politician, -Henry Clay, who, in the first half of the nineteenth century organized -the American Colonization Society. This society befriended the “free men -of color” by raising funds to ship them away to Liberia, which was -accepted by many free Negroes as a high proof of the white man’s -“friendship.” But Frederick Douglass, William Still, James McCune Smith, -Martin R. Delaney, and other wide-awake Negroes were able to show (by -transcripts of its proceedings) that its real purpose was to get rid of -the free Negroes because, so long as they continued to live here, their -freedom was an inducement to the slaves to run away from slavery, and -their accomplishments demonstrated to all white people that the Negro -(contrary to the claims of the slave-holders) was capable of a higher -human destiny than that of being chattels—and this was helping to make -American slavery odious in the eyes of the civilized world.</p> -<p>Since that time the dismal farce of “friendship” has been played many -times, by politicians, millionaires and their editorial adherents, who -have been profuse in giving good advice to the Negro people. They have -advised them to “go slow,” that “Rome was not built in a day,” and that -“half a loaf is better than no bread,” that “respect could not be -demanded,” and, in a thousand different ways have advised them that if -they would only follow the counsels of “the good white people” who -really had their interests at heart, instead of following their own -counsels (as the Irish and the Jews do), all would yet be well. Many -Negroes who have a wish-bone where their back-bone ought to be have been -doing this. It was as a representative of this class that Mitchell’s -man, Mr. Fred R. Moore, the editor of <em>The Age</em>, spoke, when in -July he gave utterance to the owlish reflection that,</p> -<blockquote> -<p>The Negro race is afflicted with many individuals whose wagging -tongues are apt to lead them into indiscreet utterances that reflect -upon the whole race. … The unruly tongues should not be allowed to -alienate public sympathy from the cause of the oppressed.</p> -</blockquote> -<p>It was as a fairly good representative of the class of “good white -friends of the colored people” that Miss Mary White Ovington, the -chairman of the New York Branch of the National Association for the -Advancement of Colored People, sent to <em>The Voice</em> the following -bossy and dictatorial note:</p> -<div class="letter"> -<p> -My dear Mr. Harrison, -<p> -I don’t see any reason for another organization, or another paper. If -you printed straight socialism it might be different. -<p> -Yours truly, -<p class="signature"> -MARY W. OVINGTON. -</div> -<p>These “good white people” must really forgive us for insisting that -we are not children, and that, while we want all the friends we can get, -we need no benevolent dictators. It is we, and not they, who must shape -Negro policies. If they want to help in carrying them out we will -appreciate their help.</p> -<p>Just now the white people even in the South—have felt the pressure of -the new Negro’s manhood demands, in spite of the fact that -backward-looking Negroes like <em>The Age</em>’s editor condemn the -inflexible spirit of these demands. All over the South, the white -papers, scared by the exodus of Negro laborers who are tired of begging -for justice overdue, are saying that we are right, and friendlier -legislation has begun to appear on Southern statute books. Mr. Mencken -and other Southern writers are saying that the Negro is demanding, and -that the South had better accede to his just demands, as it is only a -matter of time when he will be in position to enforce them. One should -think, then, that those who have been parading as our professional -friends would be in the van of this manhood movement. But the movement -seems to have left them in the rear. Now, that we are demanding the -whole loaf, they are begging for half, and are angry at us for going -further than they think “nice.”</p> -<p>It was the N.A.A.C.P. which was urging us to compromise our manhood -by begging eagerly for “Jim Crow” training camps. And the same group is -asking, in the November <em>Crisis</em>, that we put a collective -power-of-attorney into their hand and leave it to them to shape our -national destiny. The N.A.A.C.P. has done much good work for -Negroes—splendid work—in fighting lynching and segregation. For that we -owe it more gratitude and good will than we owe to the entire Republican -party for the last sixty years of its existence. But we cannot, even in -this case, abdicate our right to shape more radical policies for -ourselves. It was the realization of the need for a more radical policy -than that of the N.A.A.C.P. that called into being the Liberty League of -Negro Americans. And the N.A.A.C.P., as mother, must forgive its -offspring for forging farther ahead.</p> -<p>Then, there is the case of the New York <em>Evening Post</em>, of -which Mr. Villard is owner. This paper was known far and wide as “a -friend to Negroes.” But its friendship has given way to indifference and -worse. In the good old days every lynching received editorial -condemnation. But the three great lynchings this year which preceded -East St. Louis found no editorial of condemnation in the <em>Post</em>. -It was more than luke-warm then. But, alack and alas! As soon as the -Negro soldiers in Houston, goaded to retaliation by gross indignities, -did some shooting on their own account, the <em>Evening Post</em>, which -had no condemnation of the conduct of the lynchers, joined the chorus of -those who were screaming for “punishment” and death. Here is its brief -editorial on August 25th:</p> -<blockquote> -<p>As no provocation could justify the crimes committed by mutinous -Negro soldiers at Houston, Texas, so no condemnation of their conduct -can be too severe. It may be that the local authorities were not wholly -blameless, and that the commanding officers were at fault in not -foreseeing the trouble and taking steps to guard against it. But nothing -can really palliate the offence of the soldiers. They were false to -their uniform; they were false to their race. In one sense, this is the -most deplorable aspect of the whole riotous outbreak. It will play -straight into the hands of men like Senator Vardaman who have been -saying that it was dangerous to draft colored men into the army. And the -feeling against having colored troops encamped in the South will be -intensified. The grievous harm which they might do to their own people -should have been all along in the minds of the colored soldiers, and -made them doubly circumspect. They were under special obligation, in -addition to their military oath, to conduct themselves so as not to -bring reproach upon the Negroes as a whole, of whom they were in a sort -representative. Their criminal outrage will tend to make people forget -the good work done by other Negro soldiers. After the rigid -investigation which the War Department has ordered, the men found guilty -should receive the severest punishment. As for the general army policy -affecting colored troops, we are glad to see that Secretary Baker -appears to intend no change in his recent orders.</p> -</blockquote> -<p>We ourselves cannot forget that while the question of whether the -<em>Post’s</em> editor would get a diplomatic appointment (like some -other editors) was under consideration during the first year of Woodrow -Wilson’s first administration, the <em>Post</em> pretended to believe -that the President didn’t know of the segregation practiced in the -government departments. The N.A.A.C.P., whose letter sent out at the -time is now before us, pretended to the same effect.</p> -<p>After viewing these expressions of frightful friendliness in our own -times, we have reached the conclusion that the time has come when we -should insist on being our own best friends. We may make mistakes, of -course, but we ought to be allowed to make our own mistakes—as other -people are allowed to do. If friendship is to mean compulsory compromise -foisted on us by kindly white people, or by cultured Negroes whose ideal -is the imitation of the urbane acquiescence of these white friends, then -we had better learn to look a gift horse in the mouth whenever we get -the chance. —November, 1917.</p> -<hr> -<h3 id="shillady-resigns">Shillady Resigns</h3> -<p>Mr. John R. Shillady, ex-secretary of the N.A.A.C.P., states in his -letter of resignation that “I am less confident than heretofore of the -speedy success of the association’s full program and of the probability -of overcoming within a reasonable period the forces opposed to Negro -equality by the means and methods which are within the association’s -power to employ.” In this one sentence Mr. Shillady, the worker on the -inside, puts in suave and serenely diplomatic phrase the truth which -people on the outside have long ago perceived, namely, that the -N.A.A.C.P. makes a joke of itself when it affects to think that lynching -and the other evils which beset the Negro in the South can be abolished -by simple publicity. The great weakness of the National Association for -the Advancement of Colored People has been and is that, whereas it aims -to secure certain results by affecting the minds of white people and -making them friendly to it, it has no control over these minds and has -absolutely no answer to the question, “What steps do you propose to take -if these minds at which you are aiming remain unaffected? What do you -propose to do to secure life and liberty for the Negro if the white -Southerner persists, as he has persisted for sixty years, in refusing to -grant guarantees of life and liberty?” The N.A.A.C.P. has done some good -and worth-while work as an organization of protest. But the times call -for something more effective than protests addressed to the other -fellow’s consciousness. What is needed at present is more of the -mobilizing of the Negro’s political power, pocketbook power and -intellectual power (which are absolutely within the Negro’s own control) -to do for the Negro the things which the Negro needs to have done -without depending upon or waiting for the co-operative action of white -people. This co-operative action, whenever it does come, is a boon that -no Negro, intelligent or unintelligent, affects to despise. But no Negro -of clear vision, whether he be a leader or not, can afford to predicate -the progress of the Negro upon such co-operative action, because it may -not come.</p> -<p>Mr. Shillady may have seen these things. It is high time that all -Negroes see these things whether their white professional friends see -them or not. —July, 1920.</p> -<hr> -<h3 id="our-white-friends">Our White Friends</h3> -<p>In the good old days when the black man’s highest value in the white -man’s eye was that of an object of benevolence especially provided by -the Divine mind for calling out those tender out-pourings of charity -which were so dear to the self-satisfied Caucasian—in those days the -white men who fraternized with black people could do so as their guides, -philosophers and friends without incurring any hostility on the part of -black folk. Today, however, the white man who mixes with the black -brother is having a hard time of it. Somehow Ham’s offspring no longer -feels proud of being “taken up” by the progeny of Japhet. And when the -white man insists on mixing in with him the colored brother will persist -in attributing ulterior motives.</p> -<p>What is the cause of this difference? The answer will be found only -by one who refuses to wear the parochial blinkers of Anglo-Saxon -civilization and sees that the relations of the white and black race -have changed and are changing all over the world. Such an observer would -note that the most significant fact of the growing race consciousness is -to be found in the inevitable second half of the word. It isn’t because -these darker people are motivated by race that their present state of -mind constitutes a danger to Caucasian overlordship. It is because they -have developed consciousness, intelligence, understanding. They have -learned that the white brother is perfectly willing to love them—“in -their place.” They have learned that that place is one in which they are -not to develop brains and initiative, but must furnish the brawn and -muscle whereby the white man’s brain and initiative can take eternally -the products of their brawn and muscle. There are today many white men -who will befriend the Negro, who will give their dollars to his comfort -and welfare, so long as the idea of what constitutes that comfort and -welfare comes entirely from the white man’s mind. Examples like those of -Dr. Spingarn and Mr. E. D. Morel are numerous.</p> -<p>And not for nothing does the black man balk at the white man’s -“mixing in.” For there are spies everywhere and the <em>agent -provocateur</em> is abroad in the land. From Chicago comes the news by -way of the Associated Press (white) that Dr. Jonas, who has always -insisted in sticking his nose into the Negro peoples’ affairs as their -guide, philosopher and friend, has been forced to confess that he is a -government agent, presumably paid for things which the government would -later suppress. Dr. Jonas is reported to have said that he is connected -with the British secret service; but since the second year of the -European war it has been rather difficult for us poor devils to tell -where the American government ended and the British government began, -especially in these matters. In any case, we have Dr. Jonas’ confession, -and all the silly Negroes who listened approvingly to the senseless -allegations made by Messrs. Jonas, Gabriel and others of a standing army -of 4,000,000 in Abyssinia and of Japanese-Abyssinian diplomatic -relations and intentions, must feel now very foolish about the final -result.</p> -<p>How natural it was that Jonas, the white leader, should have gone -scot free, while Redding and his other Negro dupes are held! How natural -that Jonas should be the one to positively identify Redding as the -slayer of the Negro policeman! And so, once again, that section of the -Negro race that will not follow except where a white man leads will have -to pay that stern penalty whereby Dame Experience teaches her dunces. -Under the present circumstances we, the Negroes of the Western world, do -pledge our allegiance to leaders of our own race, selected by our own -group and supported financially and otherwise exclusively by us. Their -leadership may be wise or otherwise; they may make mistakes here and -there; nevertheless, such sins as they may commit will be our sins, and -all the glory that they may achieve will be our glory. We prefer it so. -It may be worth the while of the white men who desire to be “Our -Professional Friends” to take note of this preference.</p> -<hr> -<h3 id="a-tender-point">A Tender Point</h3> -<p>When the convention of turtles assembled on the Grand Banks of -Newfoundland it was found absolutely impossible to get a tortoise -elected as leader. All turtles, conservative and radical, agreed that a -land and water creature, who was half one thing and half another, was -not an ideal choice for leader of a group which lived exclusively in the -water. Whenever a leader of the Irish has to be selected by the Irish it -is an Irishman who is selected. No Irishman would be inclined to dispute -the fact that other men, even Englishmen like John Stuart Mill and the -late Keir Hardie, could feel the woes of Ireland as profoundly as any -Irishman. But they prefer to live up to the principle of “Safety -First.”</p> -<p>These two illustrations are to be taken as a prelude to an important -point which is not often discussed in the Negro press because all of -us—black, brown and parti-colored—fear to offend each other. That point -concerns the biological breed of persons who should be selected by -Negroes as leaders of their race. We risk the offense this time because -efficiency in matters of racial leadership, as in other matters, should -not be too tender to these points of prejudice when they stand in the -way of desirable results. For two centuries in America we, the -descendants of the black Negroes of Africa, have been told by white men -that we cannot and will not amount to anything except in so far as we -first accept the bar sinister of their mixing with us. Always when white -people had to select a leader for Negroes they would select some one who -had in his veins the blood of the selectors. In the good old days when -slavery was in flower, it was those whom Denmark Vesey of Charleston -described as “house niggers” who got the master’s cast-off clothes, the -better scraps of food and culture which fell from the white man’s table, -who were looked upon as the Talented Tenth of the Negro race. The -opportunities of self-improvement, in so far as they lay within the hand -of the white race, were accorded exclusively to this class of people who -were the left-handed progeny of the white masters.</p> -<p>Out of this grew a certain attitude on their part towards the rest of -the Negro people which, unfortunately, has not yet been outgrown. In -Washington, Boston, Charleston, New York and Chicago these proponents of -the lily-white idea are prone to erect around their sacred personalities -a high wall of caste, based on the ground of color. And the black -Negroes have heretofore worshipped at the altars erected on these walls. -One sees this in the Baptist, Methodist and Episcopal churches, at the -various conventions and in fraternal organizations. Black people -themselves seem to hold the degrading view that a man who is but half a -Negro is twice as worthy of their respect and support as one who is -entirely black. We have seen in the social life of some of the places -mentioned how women, undeniably black and undeniably beautiful, have -been shunned and ostracised at public functions by men who should be -presumed to know better. We have read the fervid jeremiads of “colored” -men who, when addressing the whites on behalf of some privilege which -they wished to share with them, would be, in words, as black as the ace -of spades, but, when it came to mixing with “their kind,” they were -professional lily-whites, and we have often had to point out to them -that there is no color prejudice in America—except among “colored” -people. Those who may be inclined to be angry at the broaching of this -subject are respectfully requested to ponder that pungent fact.</p> -<p>In this matter white people, even in America, are inclined to be more -liberal than colored people. If a white man has no race prejudice, it -will be found that he doesn’t care how black is the Negro friend that he -takes to his home and his bosom. Even these white people who pick -leaders for Negroes have begun in these latter years to give formal and -official expression to this principle. Thus it was that when the -trustees of Tuskegee had to elect a head of Tuskegee and a putative -leader of the Negroes of America to succeed the late Dr. Washington, -they argued that it was now necessary to select as leader for the Negro -people a man who could not be mistaken by any one for anything other -than a Negro. Therefore, Mr. Emmett Scott was passed over and Dr. Robert -R. Morton was selected. We are not approving here the results of that -selection, but merely holding up to Negroes the principle by which it -was governed.</p> -<p>So long as we ourselves acquiesce in the selection of leaders on the -ground of their unlikeness to our racial type, just so long will we be -met by the invincible argument that white blood is necessary to make a -Negro worth while. Every Negro who has respect for himself and for his -race will feel, when contemplating such examples as Toussaint -Louverture, Phyllis Wheatley, Paul Laurence Dunbar and Samuel Ringgold -Ward, the thrill of pride that differs in quality and intensity from the -feeling which he experiences when contemplating other examples of great -Negroes who are not entirely black. For it is impossible in such cases -for the white men to argue that they owed their greatness of their -prominence to the blood of the white race which was mingled in their -veins. It is a legitimate thrill of pride, for it gives us a hope nobler -than the hope of amalgamation whereby, in order to become men, we must -lose our racial identity. It is a subject for sober and serious -reflection, and it is hoped that sober and serious reflection will be -given to it.</p> -<hr> -<h3 id="the-descent-of-du-bois">The Descent of Du Bois</h3> -<p>In a recent bulletin of the War Department it was declared that -“justifiable grievances” were producing and had produced “not -disloyalty, but an amount of unrest and bitterness which even the best -efforts of their leaders may not be able always to guide.” This is the -simple truth. The essence of the present situation lies in the fact that -the people whom our white masters have “recognized” as our leaders -(without taking the trouble to consult us) and those who, by our own -selection, had actually attained to leadership among us are being -revaluated and, in most cases, rejected.</p> -<p>The most striking instance from the latter class is Dr. W. E. Du -Bois, the editor of the <em>Crisis</em>. Du Bois’s case is the more -significant because his former services to his race have been -undoubtedly of a high and courageous sort. Moreover, the act by which he -has brought upon himself the stormy outburst of disapproval from his -race is one which of itself, would seem to merit no such stern -condemnation. To properly gauge the value and merit of this disapproval -one must view it in the light of its attendant circumstances and of the -situation in which it arose.</p> -<p>Dr. Du Bois first palpably sinned in his editorial “Close Ranks” in -the July number of the <em>Crisis</em>. But this offense (apart from the -trend and general tenor of the brief editorial) lies in a single -sentence: “Let us, while this war lasts, <em>forget our special -grievances</em> and close our ranks, shoulder to shoulder with our white -fellow-citizens and the allied nations that are fighting for democracy.” -From the latter part of the sentence there is no dissent, so far as we -know. The offense lies in that part of the sentence which ends with the -italicized words. It is felt by all his critics, that Du Bois, of all -Negroes, knows best that our “special grievances” which the War -Department Bulletin describes as “justifiable” consist of lynching, -segregation and disfranchisement, and that the Negroes of America can -not preserve either their lives, their manhood or their vote (which is -their political life and liberties) with these things in existence. The -doctor’s critics feel that America can not use the Negro people to any -good effect unless they have life, liberty and manhood assured and -guaranteed to them. Therefore, instead of the war for democracy making -these things less necessary, it makes them more so.</p> -<p>“But,” it may be asked, “why should not these few words be taken -merely as a slip of the pen or a venial error in logic? Why all this -hubbub?” It is because the so-called leaders of the first-mentioned -class have already established an unsavory reputation by advocating this -same surrender of life, liberty and manhood, masking their cowardice -behind the pillars of war-time sacrifice? Du Bois’s statement, then, is -believed to mark his entrance into that class, and is accepted as a -“surrender” of the principles which brought him into prominence—and -which alone kept him there.</p> -<p>Later, when it was learned that Du Bois was being preened for a berth -in the War Department as a captain-assistant (adjutant) to Major -Spingarn, the words used by him in the editorial acquired a darker and -more sinister significance. The two things fitted too well together as -motive and self-interest.</p> -<p>For these reasons Du Bois is regarded much in the same way as a -knight in the middle ages who had had his armor stripped from him, his -arms reversed and his spurs hacked off. This ruins him as an influential -person among Negroes at this time, alike whether he becomes a captain or -remains an editor.</p> -<p>But the case has its roots much farther back than the editorial in -July’s <em>Crisis</em>. Some time ago when it was learned that the -<em>Crisis</em> was being investigated by the government for an alleged -seditious utterance a great clamor went up, although the expression of -it was not open. Negroes who dared to express their thoughts seemed to -think the action tantamount to a declaration that protests against -lynching, segregation and disfranchisement were outlawed by the -government. But nothing was clearly understood until the conference of -editors was called under the assumed auspices of Emmet Scott and Major -Spingarn. Then it began to appear that these editors had not been called -without a purpose. The desperate ambiguity of the language which they -used in their report (in the War Department Bulletin), coupled with the -fact that not one of them, upon his return would tell the people -anything of the proceedings of the conference—all this made the Negroes -feel less and less confidence in them and their leadership; made them -(as leaders) less effective instruments for the influential control of -the race’s state of mind.</p> -<p>Now Du Bois was one of the most prominent of those editors “who were -called.” The responsibility, therefore, for a course of counsel which -stresses the servile virtues of acquiescence and subservience falls -squarely on his shoulders. The offer of a captaincy and Du Bois’s -flirtation with that offer following on the heels of these things seemed, -even in the eyes of his associate members of the N.A.A.C.P. to afford -clear proof of that which was only a suspicion before, viz: that the -racial resolution of the leaders had been tampered with, and that Du -Bois had been privy to something of the sort. The connection between the -successive acts of the drama (May, June, July) was too clear to admit of -any interpretation other than that of deliberate, cold blooded, -purposive planning. And the connection with Spingarn seemed to suggest -that personal friendships and public faith were not good working -team-mates.</p> -<p>For the sake of the larger usefulness of Dr. Du Bois we hope he will -be able to show that he can remain as editor of the <em>Crisis</em>; but -we fear that it will require a good deal of explaining. For, our -leaders, like Caesar’s wife, must be above suspicion. —July, 1918.</p> -<hr> -<h3 id="when-the-blind-lead">When the Blind Lead</h3> -<p>In the February issue of the <em>Crisis</em> its editor begins a -brief editorial on “Leadership,” with the touching reminder that “Many a -good cause has been killed by suspected leadership.” How strikingly do -these words bring back to us Negroes those dark days of 1918! At that -time the editor of the <em>Crisis</em> was offering certain unique -formulas of leadership that somehow didn’t “take.” His “Close Ranks” -editorial and the subsequent slump in the stock of his leadership have -again illustrated the truth long since expressed in Latin: “Descensus -Averni facilis; sed revocare gradus,—hoc opus est,” which, being -translated, might mean that, while it’s as easy as eggs for a leader to -fall off the fence, it is devilishly difficult to boost him up again. In -September, 1918, one could boldly say, “The <em>Crisis</em> says, first -your Country, then your Rights!” Today, when the Negro people everywhere -are responding to Mr. Michael Coulsen’s sentiment that “it’s Race, not -Country, first,” we find the “leader” of 1918 in the position described -by Lowell in these words: “A moultin’ fallen cherubim, ef he should see -ye’d snicker, Thinkin’ he warn’t a suckemstance.”</p> -<p>How fast time flies!</p> -<p>But the gist of Dr. Du Bois’s editorial is the moral downfall of -another great leader. “Woodrow Wilson, in following a great ideal of -world unity, forgot all his pledges to the German people, forgot all his -large words to Russia, did not hesitate to betray Gompers and his -unions, <em>and never at any single moment meant to include in his -democracy twelve million of his fellow Americans, whom he categorically -promised `more than mere grudging justice,’ and then allowed 350 of them -to be lynched during his Presidency.</em> Under such leadership what -cause could succeed?” He notes that out of the World War, with the -Allies triumphant, have come Britain’s brutal domination of the seas, -her conquest of Persia, Arabia and Egypt, and her tremendous tyranny -imposed on two-thirds of Africa.</p> -<p>But we saw these things, as early as 1917, to be the necessary -consequences of the Allies’ success, when the editor of the -<em>Crisis</em> was telling his race: “You are not fighting simply for -Europe; you are fighting for the world.” Was Dr. Du Bois so blind then -that he couldn’t see them? And if he was, is he any less blind today? In -1918 the lynchings were still going on while Dr. Du Bois was solemnly -advising us to “forget our grievances.” Any one who insisted then on -putting such grievances as lynchings, disfranchisement and segregation -in the fore-ground was described by the <em>Crisis</em>’ editor as -seeking “to turn his country’s tragic predicament to his own personal -gain.” At that time he either believed or pretended to believe every one -of the empty words that flowed from Woodrow Wilson’s lips, and on the -basis of this belief he was willing to act as a brilliant bellwether to -the rest of the flock. Unfortunately, the flock refused to follow the -lost leader.</p> -<p>“If the blind lead the blind they will both fall into the ditch.” But -in this case those being led were not quite so blind as those who wanted -to lead them by way of captaincies in the army. Which was why some -captaincies were not forthcoming. The test of vision in a leader is the -ability to foresee the immediate future, the necessary consequences of a -course of conduct and the dependable sentiments of those whom he assumes -to lead. In all these things Dr. Du Bois has failed; and neither his -ungrateful attack on Emmett Scott nor his belated discovery of Wilsonian -hypocrisy will, we fear, enable him to climb back into the saddle of -race leadership. This is a pity, because he has rendered good service in -his day. But that day is past. The magazine which he edits still remains -as a splendid example of Negro journalism. But the personal primacy of -its editor has departed, never to return. Other times, other men; other -men, other manners.</p> -<p>Even the Negro people are now insisting that their leaders shall in -thought and moral stamina keep ahead of, and not behind, them,</p> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse leadingquote"> -“It takes a mind like Willum’s [fact!] ez big as all outdoors -</div> -<div class="verse"> -To find out thet it looks like rain arter it fairly pours.” -</div> -</div> -</div> -<p>The people’s spiritual appetite has changed and they are no longer -enamoured of “brilliant” leaders, whose chorus is:</p> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse leadingquote"> -“A marciful Providence fashioned us holler -</div> -<div class="verse"> -O’purpose that we might our principles swaller; -</div> -<div class="verse"> -It can hold any quantity on ’em—the belly can— -</div> -<div class="verse"> -An’ bring ’em up ready fer use like the pelican.” -</div> -</div> -</div> -<p>And this is a change which we commend to the kindly consideration of -all those good white friends who are out selecting Negro “leaders.” It -is a fact which, when carefully considered, will save them thousands of -dollars in “overhead expense.” The Negro leaders of the future will be -expected not only to begin straight, take a moral vacation, and then go -straight again. They will be expected to go straight all the time; to -stand by us in war as well as in peace; not to blow hot and cold with -the same mouth, but “to stand four-square to all the winds that blow.” -—1920.</p> -<hr> -<h3 id="just-crabs">Just Crabs</h3> -<p>Once upon a time a Greedy Person went rummaging along the lagoon with -a basket and a stick in quest of Crabs, which he needed for the Home -Market. (Now, this was in the Beginning of Things, Best Beloved.) These -were Land Crabs—which, you know, are more luscious than Sea Crabs, being -more Primitive and more full of meat. He dug into their holes with his -stick, routed them out, packed them on their backs in his basket and -took them home. Several trips he made with his basket and his stick, and -all the Crabs which he caught were dumped into a huge barrel. (But this -time he didn’t pack them on their backs.) And all the creatures stood -around and watched. For this Greedy Person had put no cover on the -barrel. (But this was in the Beginning of Things.)</p> -<p>He knew Crab Nature, and was not at all worried about his Crabs. For -as soon as any one Crab began to climb up on the side of the barrel to -work his way toward the top the other Crabs would reach up, grab him by -the legs, and down he would come, kerplunk! “If we can’t get up,” they -would say—“if we can’t get up, you shan’t get up, either. We’ll pull you -down. Besides, you should wait until the barrel bursts. There are Kind -Friends on the Outside who will burst, the barrel if we only wait, and -then, when the Great Day dawns, we will all be Emancipated and there’ll -be no need for Climbing. Come down, you fool!” (Because this was in the -Beginning of Things, Best Beloved.) So the Greedy Person could always -get as many Crabs as he needed for the Home Market, because they all -depended on him for their food.</p> -<p>And all the creatures stood around and laughed. For this was very -funny in the Beginning of Things. And all the creatures said that the -Reason for this kink in Crab Nature was that when the Creator was giving -out heads he didn’t have enough to go around, so the poor Crabs didn’t -get any.</p> -<p>And the Greedy Person thanked his lucky stars that Crabs had been -made in that Peculiar way, since it made it unnecessary to put a cover -on his barrel or to waste his precious time a-watching of them. (Now, -all this happened long ago, Best Beloved, in the very Beginning of -Things.)</p> -<p>—</p> -<p>The above is the first of our Just-So Stories—with no apologies to -Rudyard Kipling or any one else. We print it here because, just at this -time the Crabs are at work in Harlem, and there is a tremendous clashing -of claws as the Pull ’Em Down program goes forward. It’s a great game, -to be sure, but it doesn’t seem to get them or us anywhere. The new day -that has dawned for the Negroes of Harlem is a day of business -accomplishment. People are going into business, saving their money and -collectively putting it into enterprises which will mean roofs over -their heads and an economic future for themselves and their little -ones.</p> -<p>But the Subsidized Sixth are sure that this is all wrong and that we -have no right to move an inch until the Socialist millennium dawns, when -we will all get “out of the barrel” together. It does not seem to have -occurred to them that making an imperfect heaven now does not unfit any -one for enjoying the perfect paradise which they promise us—if it ever -comes. Truly it is said of them that “the power over a man’s subsistence -is the power over his will”—and over his “scientific radicalism,” too. -But we remember having translated this long ago into the less showy -English of “Show me whose bread you eat, and I’ll tell you whose songs -you’ll sing.” Surely this applies to radicals overnight as well as to -ordinary folk. And if not, why not?</p> -<p>But when the reek of the poison gas propaganda has cleared away and -the smoke of the barrage has lifted it will be found that “White Men’s -Niggers” is a phrase that need not be restricted to old-line politicians -and editors. Criticism pungent and insistent is due to every man in -public life and to every movement which bids for public support. But the -cowardly insinuator who from the safe shelter of nameless charges -launches his poisoned arrows at other people’s reputation is a -contemptible character to have on any side of any movement. He is -generally a liar who fears that he will be called to account for his -lies if he should venture to name his foe. No man with the truth to tell -indulges in this pastime of the skulker and the skunk. Let us, by all -means, have clear, hard-hitting criticism, but none of this foul filth -which lowers the thing that throws it. In the name of common sense and -common decency, quit being Just Crabs.</p> -</div> -<div id="chapter-6" class="chapter"> -<hr class="chap"> -<h2 id="chapter-vi.the-new-race-consciousness.">CHAPTER VI.<BR>THE NEW -RACE CONSCIOUSNESS.</h2> -<h3 id="the-negros-own-radicalism">The Negro’s Own Radicalism</h3> -<p>Twenty years ago all Negroes known to the white publicists of America -could be classed as conservatives on all the great questions on which -thinkers differ. In matters of industry, commerce, politics, religion, -they could be trusted to take the backward view. Only on the question of -the Negro’s “rights” could a small handful be found bold enough to be -tagged as “radicals”—and they were howled down by both the white and -colored adherents of the conservative point of view. Today Negroes -differ on all those great questions on which white thinkers differ, and -there are Negro radicals of every imaginary stripe—agnostics, atheists, -I.W.W.’s Socialists, Single Taxers, and even Bolshevists.</p> -<p>In the good old days white people derived their knowledge of what -Negroes were doing from those Negroes who were nearest to them, -generally their own selected exponents of Negro activity or of their -white point of view. A classic illustration of this kind of knowledge -was afforded by the Republican Party; but the Episcopal Church, the -Urban League, or the U. S. Government would serve as well. Today the -white world is vaguely, but disquietingly, aware that Negroes are awake, -different and perplexingly uncertain. Yet the white world by which they -are surrounded retains its traditional method of interpreting the mass -by the Negro nearest to themselves in affiliation or contact. The -Socialist party thinks that the “unrest” now apparent in the Negro -masses is due to the propaganda which its adherents support, and -believes that it will function largely along the lines of socialist -political thought. The great dailies, concerned mainly with their chosen -task of being the mental bellwethers of the mob, scream “Bolshevist -propaganda” and flatter themselves that they have found the true cause; -while the government’s unreliable agents envisage it as “disloyalty.” -The truth, as usual, is to be found in the depths; but there they are -all prevented from going by mental laziness and that traditional -off-handed, easy contempt with which white men in America, from scholars -like Lester Ward to scavengers like Stevenson, deign to consider the -colored population of twelve millions.</p> -<p>In the first place, the cause of “radicalism” among American Negroes -is international. But it is necessary to draw clear distinctions at the -outset. The function of the Christian church is international. So is -art, war, the family, rum and the exploitation of labor. But none of -these is entitled to extend the mantle of its own peculiar -“internationalism” to cover the present case of the Negro -discontent—although this has been attempted. The international Fact to -which Negroes in America are now reacting is not the exploitation of -laborers by capitalists; but the social, political and economic -subjection of colored peoples by white. It is not the Class Line, but -the Color Line, which is the incorrect but accepted expression for the -Dead Line of racial inferiority. This fact is a fact of Negro -consciousness as well as a fact of externals. The international Color -Line is the practice and theory of that doctrine which holds that the -best stocks of Africa, China, Egypt and the West Indies are inferior to -the worst stocks of Belgium, England and Italy, and must hold their -lives, lands and liberties upon such terms and conditions as the white -races may choose to grant them.</p> -<p>On the part of the whites, the motive was originally economic; but it -is no longer purely so. All the available facts go to prove that, -whether in the United States or in Africa or China, the economic -subjection is without exception keener and more brutal when the -exploited are black, brown and yellow, than when they are white. And the -fact that black, brown and yellow also exploit each other brutally -whenever Capitalism has created the economic classes of plutocrat and -proletarian should suffice to put purely economic subjection out of -court as the prime cause of racial unrest. For the similarity of -suffering has produced in all lands where whites rule colored races a -certain similarity of sentiment, viz.: a racial revulsion of racial -feeling. The peoples of those lands begin to feel and realize that they -are so subjected because they are members of races condemned as -“inferior” by their Caucasian overlords. The fact presented to their -minds is one of race, and in terms of race do they react to it. Put the -case to any Negro by way of test and the answer will make this -clear.</p> -<p>The great World War, by virtue of its great advertising campaign for -democracy and the promises which were held out to all subject peoples, -fertilized the Race Consciousness of the Negro people into the stage of -conflict with the dominant white idea of the Color Line. They took -democracy at its face value—which is—equality. So did the Hindus, -Egyptians and West Indians. This is what the hypocritical advertisers of -democracy had not bargained for. The American Negroes, like the other -darker peoples, are presenting their checques and trying to “cash in,” -and delays in that process, however unavoidable to the paying tellers, -are bound to beget a plentiful lack of belief in either their intention -or their ability to pay. Hence the run on Democracy’s bank—“the Negro -unrest” of the newspaper paragraphers.</p> -<p>Undoubtedly some of these newly-awakened Negroes will take to -Socialism and Bolshevism. But here again the reason is racial. Since -they suffer racially from the world as at present organized by the white -race, some of their ablest hold that it is “good play” to encourage and -give aid to every subversive movement within that white world which -makes for its destruction “as it is.” For by its subversion they have -much to gain and nothing to lose. Yet they build on their own -foundations. Parallel with the dogma of Class-Consciousness they run the -dogma of Race-Consciousness. And they dig deeper. For the roots of -Class-Consciousness inhere in a temporary economic order; whereas the -roots of Race-Consciousness must of necessity survive any and all -changes in the economic order. Accepting biology, as a fact, their view -is the more fundamental. At any rate, it is that view with which the -white world will have to deal. —The <em>New Negro</em>, October, -1919.</p> -<hr> -<h3 id="race-first-versus-class-first">Race First Versus Class -First</h3> -<p>“In the old days white people derived their knowledge of what Negroes -were doing from those Negroes who were nearest to them, largely their -own selected exponents of Negro activity or of their white point of -view. * * * Today the white world is vaguely, but disquietingly, aware -that Negroes are awake; different, but perplexingly uncertain. Yet the -white world by which they are surrounded retains its traditional method -of interpreting the mass by the Negro nearest to themselves in -affiliation or contact. The Socialist party still persists in thinking -that the unrest now apparent in the Negro masses is due to the -propaganda which its paid adherents support, and believes that the -unrest will function largely along the lines of Socialist political -thought.” It is necessary to insist on this point today when the -Socialist party of America has secretly subsidized both a magazine and a -newspaper to attempt to cut into the splendid solidarity which Negroes -are achieving in response to the call of racial necessity. It is -necessary to point out that “radical” young Negroes may betray the -interests of the race into alien hands just as surely as “the old -crowd.” For, after all, the essence of both betrayals consists in making -the racial requirements play second fiddle to the requirements dictated -as best for it by other groups with other interests to serve. The fact -that one group of alien interests is described as “radical” and the -other as “reactionary” is of very slight value to us.</p> -<p>In the days when the Socialist Party of America was respectable, -although it never drew lines of racial separation in the North, it -permitted those lines to be drawn in the South. It had no word of -official condemnation for the Socialists of Tennessee who prevented -Theresa Malkiel in 1912 from lecturing to Negroes on Socialism either in -the same hall with them or in meetings of their own. It was the national -office of the party which in that same presidential year refused to -route Eugene V. Debs in the South because that Grand Old Man let it be -known that he would not remain silent on the race question while in the -South. They wanted the votes of the white South then, and were willing -to betray by silence the principles of inter-racial solidarity which -they espoused on paper.</p> -<p>Now, when their party has shrunk considerably in popular support and -sentiment, they are willing to take up our cause. Well, we thank honest -white people everywhere who take up our cause, but we wish them to know -that we have already taken it up ourselves. While they were refusing to -diagnose our case we diagnosed it ourselves, and, now that we have -prescribed the remedy—Race Solidarity—they come to us with their -prescription—Class Solidarity. It is too late, gentlemen! This racial -alignment is all our own product, and we have no desire to turn it over -to you at this late day, when we are beginning to reap its benefits. And -if you are simple enough to believe that those among us who serve your -interests ahead of ours have any monopoly of intellect or information -along the lines of modern learning, then you are the greater gulls -indeed.</p> -<p>We can respect the Socialists of Scandinavia, France, Germany or -England on their record. But your record so far does not entitle you to -the respect of those of us who can see all around a subject. We say Race -First, because you have all along insisted on Race First and class after -when you didn’t need our help. We reproduce below a brief portion of -your record in those piping times of peace, and ask you to explain it. -If you are unable to do so, set your lackeys to work; they may be able -to do it in terms of their own “radical scientific” surface slush. The -following is taken from the majority report of one of your national -committees during one of your recent national conventions. It was signed -by Ernest Untermann and J. Stitt Wilson, representing the West, and -Joshua Wanhope, editor of the <em>Call</em>, and Robert Hunter, -representing the East, and it was adopted as a portion of the party -program. We learn from it that—</p> -<blockquote> -<p>“Race feeling is not so much a result of social as of biological -evolution. It does not change essentially with changes of economic -systems. It is deeper than any class feeling and will outlast the -capitalist system. It persists even after race prejudice has been -outgrown. It exists not because the capitalists nurse it for economic -reasons, but the capitalists rather have an opportunity to nurse it for -economic reasons because it exists as a product of biology. It is bound -to play a role in the economics of the future society. If it should not -assert itself in open warfare under a Socialist form of society, it will -nevertheless lead to a rivalry of races for expansion over the globe as -a result of the play of natural and sexual selection. We may temper this -race feeling by education, but we can never hope to extinguish it -altogether. Class-consciousness must be learned, but race consciousness -is inborn and cannot be wholly unlearned. A few individuals may indulge -in the luxury of ignoring race and posing as utterly raceless -humanitarians, but whole races never. Where races struggle for the means -of life, racial animosities cannot be avoided. Where working people -struggle for jobs, self-preservation enforces its decrees. Economic and -political considerations lead to racial fights and to legislation -restricting the invasion of the white man’s domain by other races.”</p> -</blockquote> -<p>It is well that the New Negro should know this, since it justifies -him in giving you a taste of your own medicine. The writer of these -lines is also a Socialist; but he refuses in this crisis of the world’s -history to put either Socialism or your party above the call of his -race. And he does this on the very grounds which you yourselves have -given in the document quoted above. Also because he is not a fool. -—March 27th, 1920.</p> -<hr> -<h3 id="an-open-letter-to-the-socialist-party-of-new-york-city">An Open -Letter to the Socialist Party of New York City</h3> -<p>Gentlemen: During 1917 the white leaders of the Republican party were -warned that the Negroes of this city were in a mood unfavorable to the -success of their party at the polls and that this mood was likely to -last until they changed their party’s attitude toward the Negro masses. -They scouted this warning because the Negroes whom they had selected to -interpret Negro sentiment for them still confidently assured them that -there had been no change of sentiment on the part of the Negro people, -and white politicians did not think it necessary to come and find out -for themselves. Consequently they were lied to by those whose bread and -butter depended on such lying. Then came the mayoralty campaign, and, -when it was too late they discovered their mistake. At a memorable -meeting at Palace Casino John Purroy Mitchell, the candidate of the -Republican party, and Theodore Roosevelt, its idol, were almost hissed -off the stage, while the Mitchell outdoor speakers found it impossible -to speak on the street corners of Harlem. The party went down to defeat -and Judge Hylan was elected.</p> -<p>All this is recent history, and it is called to your attention at -this time only because you are in danger of making a similar costly -mistake. You, too, have selected Negro spokesmen on whose word you -choose to rely for information as to the tone and temper of Negro -political sentiment. You have chosen to adopt the same faulty method of -the white Republican politicians, and you do not care to go behind the -word of your selected exponents of Negro thought and feeling. Yet the -pitiful vote which you polled in the last election might have warned you -that something had gone wrong in your arrangements. What that something -is we shall now proceed to show you—if you are still able to see.</p> -<p>During the recent world war the Negro in America was taught that -while white people spoke of patriotism, religion, democracy and other -sounding themes, they remained loyal to one concept above all others, -and that was the concept of race. Even in the throes of war, and on -the battlefields of France it was “race first” with them. Out of this -realization was born the new Negro ideal of “race first” for us. And -today, whether Negroes be Catholics or Protestants, capitalists or wage -workers, Republicans or Democrats, native or foreign-born, they begin -life anew on this basis. Alike in their business alignments, their -demands on the government and political parties, and in their courageous -response to race rioters, they are responding to this sentiment which -has been bred by the attitude of white men here and everywhere else -where white rules black. To be sure, neither Burleson nor Palmer have -told you or the rest of the white world this. The Angle-Saxon white man -is a notorious hypocrite; and they have preferred to prate of -Bolshevism—your “radicalism”—rather than tell the truth of racialism, -our “radicalism,” because this was an easier explanation, more in -keeping with official stupidity. But we had supposed that you were -intelligent enough to find this out. Evidently, you were not.</p> -<p>Your official Negro exponents, on behalf of their bread and butter, -have seized on this widely-published official explanation to make you -believe that the changed attitude of the Negro masses was due to the -propaganda which you were paying them (at their published request) to -preach. But this is a lie. Don’t take our word for it. Do some reading -on your own account. Get a hundred different Negro newspapers and -magazines, outside of those which you have subsidized, and study their -editorial and other pronouncements, and you will see that this is -so.</p> -<p>But let us come nearer home. The propaganda of Socialism has been -preached in times past in Harlem by different people without awakening -hostility of any sort. Today it elicits a hostility which is outspoken. -Send up and see; then ask yourselves the reason. You will find a Negro -Harlem reborn, with business enterprises and cultural arrangements. And -these things have been established without any help from you or those -who eat your bread. Even the work of Socialist propaganda was neglected -by you between 1912 and 1917. Consult your own memories and the columns -of the Call.</p> -<p>All these things are the recent products of the principle of “race -first.” And among them the biggest is the Universal Negro Improvement -Association, with its associate bodies, the Black Star Line and the -Negro Factories Corporation. No movement among American Negroes since -slavery was abolished has ever attained the gigantic proportions of -this. The love and loyalty of millions go out to it as well as the cold -cash of tens of thousands. Yet your Negro hirelings have seen fit to use -the organs which you have given them to spread Socialist propaganda for -the purpose of attacking all these things, and the Black Star Line in -particular. Do you wonder now that they meet with such outspoken -opposition that they have been driven to seek an underhanded alliance -with the police (as your Negro Socialist organ avows in its latest -issue)? Isn’t that a glorious alliance for purposes of Negro propaganda? -When such things can happen you may depend upon it that someone has been -fooling you.</p> -<p>And, just as the white Republicans did, you have assumed that those -whom chance or change brought your way have, somehow, achieved a -monopoly of the intellect and virtue of the Negro race. Do you think -that this is sound sense on your part? Of course, it was natural that -they should tell you so. But was it natural for you to be so simple as -to believe it? On March 27 this newspaper in an editorial quoted a -passage from one of your official documents showing that the white men -of your party officially put “race first” rather than “class first,” -which latter phrase is your henchmen’s sole contribution to -“sociology”—for us. The quoted passage cuts the very heart out of their -case. And yet, those whom you have selected to represent you are so -green and sappy in their Socialism that, although six weeks have elapsed -since this was hurled at their thick heads, not one of them has yet been -able to trace to its source, this quotation from one of your own -official documents. Think of it! And in the meantime you yourselves are -such “easy marks” that you believe them, on their own assertion, to be -the ablest among the Negroes of America. It is not easy to decide which -of the two groups is the bigger joke—you or they.</p> -<p>You have constantly insisted that “there is no race problem, only an -economic problem,” but you will soon be in a fair way to find out -otherwise. Some day you will, perhaps, have learned enough to cease -being “suckers” for perpetual candidates who dickered with the Democrats -up to within a month of “flopping” to your party only because they -“couldn’t make it” elsewhere; some day, perhaps, you will know enough to -put Socialism’s cause in the hands of those who will refrain from using -your party’s organ for purposes of personal pique, spite and venom. When -that day dawns Socialism will have a chance to be heard by Negroes on -its merits. And even now, if you should send anyone up here (black or -white) to put the cause of Karl Marx, freed from admixture of rancor and -hatred of the Negro’s own defensive racial propaganda, you may find that -it will have as good a chance of gaining adherents as any other -political creed. But until you change your tactics or make your -exponents change theirs your case among us will be hopeless indeed. -—May, 1920.</p> -<hr> -<h3 id="patronize-your-own.">“Patronize Your Own.”</h3> -<p>The doctrine of “Race First,” although utilized largely by the Negro -business men of Harlem, has never received any large general support -from them. If we remember rightly, it was the direct product of the -out-door and indoor lecturers who flourished in Harlem between 1914 and -1916. Not all who were radical shared this sentiment. For instance, we -remember the debate between Mr. Hubert Harrison, then president of the -Liberty League, and Mr. Chandler Owen, at Palace Casino in December, -1918, in which the “radical” Owen fiercely maintained “that the doctrine -of race first was an indefensible doctrine”; Mr. Harrison maintaining -that it was the source of salvation for the race. Both these gentlemen -have run true to form ever since.</p> -<p>But to return to our thesis. The secondary principle of “patronize -your own,” flowing as it does from the main doctrine of “race first,” is -subject to the risk of being exploited dishonestly—particularly by -business men. And business men in Harlem have shown themselves capable -of doing this all the time. They seem to forget that “do unto others as -you would have them do unto you” is a part of the honest application of -this doctrine. Many of these men seem to want other black people to pay -them for being black. They seem to think that a dirty place and -imperfect service and 3 cents more a pound should be rewarded with -racial patronage regardless of these demerits.</p> -<p>On the other hand, there have grown up in Harlem Negro businesses, -groceries, ice cream parlors, etc., in which the application of prices, -courtesy and selling efficiency are maintained. This is the New Negro -business man, and we say “more power to him.” If this method of applying -the principle should continue to increase in popularity we are sure to -have in Harlem and elsewhere a full and flowing tide of Negro business -enterprises gladly and loyally supported by the mass of Negro purchasers -to their mutual benefit.</p> -<p>The Negro business man who is unintelligently selfish, makes a hash -of racial welfare in the attempt to achieve individual success. A case -in point is that of the brown-skinned dolls. Twenty years ago the Negro -child’s only choice was between a white Caucasian doll and the “nigger -doll.” On the lower levels the one was as cheap as the other. Then, a -step at a time came the picturesque poupee, variously described as the -“Negro doll,” the “colored doll” and the “brown-skinned doll.” This was -sold by white stores at an almost prohibitive price. It was made three -times as easy for the Negro child to idolize a white doll as to idolize -one with the features of its own race. When the principle of “Race -First” began to be proclaimed from scores of platforms and pulpits, -certain Negro business men saw a chance to benefit the race and, -incidently to reap a wonderful harvest of profits, by appealing to a -principle for whose support and maintenance, here and elsewhere, they -had never paid a cent. “Factories” for the production of brown-skinned -dolls began to spring up—most of the factoring consisting of receiving -these dolls from white factories and either stuffing them with saw dust, -excelsior or other filling, or merely changing them from one wrapper to -another. Bear in mind that the proclaimed object was to make it easier -for the Negro mother to teach race patriotism to her Negro child. Yet it -was soon notorious that these leeches were charging $3, $4 and $5 for -Negro dolls which could sell at prices ranging from 75 cents to $1.25, -and yet leave a handsome margin of profit.</p> -<p>The result is that today even in Negro Harlem nine out of ten Negro -children are forced to play with white dolls, because rapacious -scoundrels have been capitalizing the principle of “patronize your own” -in a one-sided way. By lowering their prices to a reasonable level, they -could extend their business tremendously. Failing to do this, they are -playing into the hands of the vendors of white dolls and making it much -easier for the Negro mother to select a white doll for her child; -limiting at once their own market and restricting the development of a -larger racial ideal.</p> -<hr> -<h3 id="the-women-of-our-race">The Women of Our Race</h3> -<p>America owes much to the foreigner and the Negro in America owes even -more. For it was the white foreigner who first proclaimed that the only -music which America had produced that was worthy of the name was Negro -music. It naturally took some time for this truth to sink in, and, in -the meantime, the younger element of Negroes, in their weird worship of -everything that was white, neglected and despised their own race-music. -More than one college class had walked out, highly insulted, when their -white teachers had asked them to sing “Swing Low Sweet Chariot” and “My -Lord, What a Morning.”</p> -<p>It is to be hoped that they now know better. But the real subject of -this editorial is not Negro music, but Negro women. If any foreigner -should come here from Europe, Asia or Africa and be privileged to pass -in review the various kinds of women who live in our America he would -pick out as the superior of them all—the Negro woman. It seems a great -pity that it should be left to the foreigner to “discover” the -Negro-American woman. For her own mankind have been seeing her for -centuries. And yet, outside of the vague rhetoric of the brethren in -church and lodge when they want her to turn their functions into -financial successes, and outside of Paul Dunbar and perhaps two other -poets, no proper amount of esthetic appreciation of her has been -forthcoming from their side.</p> -<p>Consider the facts of the case. The white women of America are -charming to look at-in the upper social classes. But even the Negro -laundress, cook or elevator-girl far surpasses her mistress in the -matter of feminine charms. No white woman has a color as beautiful as -the dark browns, light-browns, peach-browns, or gold and bronze of the -Negro girl. These are some of the things which make a walk through any -Negro section of New York or Washington such a feast of delight.</p> -<p>Then, there is the matter of form. The bodies and limbs of our Negro -women are, on the whole, better built and better shaped than those of -any other women on earth—except perhaps, the Egyptian women’s. And their -gait and movement would require an artist to properly describe. The -grace of their carriage is inimitable.</p> -<p>But their most striking characteristic is a feature which even the -crude mind of mere man can appreciate. It is, to quote “Gunga Din,” “the -way in which they carry their clothes.” They dress well—not merely in -the sense that their clothing is costly and good to look at; but in that -higher sense in which the Parisian woman is the best-dressed woman in -Europe. From shoes and stockings to shirtwaists and hats, they choose -their clothes with fine taste and show them off to the best advantage -when they put them on. That is why a man may walk down the avenue with a -Negro cook or factory girl without anyone’s being able to guess that she -has to work for a living. And, finally, in the matter of that -indefinable something which, for want of a better word, we call simply -“charm”—the Negro women are far ahead of all others in America. They -have more native grace, more winsomeness, greater beauty and more fire -and passion. These facts have already begun to attract attention, here -and elsewhere, and, eventually, the Negro woman will come into her -own.</p> -<p>What say you, brothers! Shall we not love her while she is among us? -Shall we not bend the knee in worship and thank high heaven for the -great good fortune which has given us such sisters and sweethearts, -mothers and wives?</p> -<hr> -<h3 id="to-the-young-men-of-my-race">To the Young Men of My Race</h3> -<p>The Negro is already at work on the problems of reconstruction. He -finds himself in the midst of a world which is changing to its very -foundations. Yet millions of Negroes haven’t now—and have never had—the -slightest knowledge or idea of what those foundations are. How can they -render effective aid to the world without understanding something of how -the world, or society, is arranged, how it runs, and how it is run?</p> -<p>No one, friendly or unfriendly, can deny that the Negroes of America -do wish to help in constructing this world of men and things which will -emerge from the Great War. They want to help, because they realize that -their standing and welfare and happiness in that world will very largely -depend upon what kind of world it is. They have not been happy, so far, -in America—nor, so far as the white man’s rule is concerned,—anywhere -else under it. And they want to be happy, if that be possible. For which -reason they want to help in the re-shaping of the world-to-be.</p> -<p>They feel the burdens put on them by the White Lords of subjection -and repression, of 39 cents worth of education a year in Alabama, of the -deep race hatred of the Christian Church, the Y.M.C.A. and the -Associated Press; of lynching in the land of “liberty,” disfranchisement -in “democratic” America and segregation on the Federal trains and in the -Federal departments. They feel that the world should be set free from -this machinery of mischief-for their sakes as well as that of the -world.</p> -<p>Such is the state of mind of the Negro masses here. And now what does -this attitude of the Negro masses require? GUIDANCE! Guidance, shaping -and direction. Here is strength, here is power, here is a task to call -forth the sublimest heroism on the part of those who should lead them. -And what do we find? No guidance, no shaping of the course for these -millions. The blind may not safely lead the blind in these critical -times—and blind men are practically all that we have as leaders.</p> -<p>The old men whose minds are always retrospecting and reminiscing to -the past, who were “trained” to read a few dry and dead books which they -still fondly believe are hard to get—these do not know anything of the -modern world, its power of change and travel, and the mighty range of -its ideas. Its labor problems and their relation to wars and alliances -and diplomacy are not even suspected by these quaint fossils. They think -that they are “leading” Negro thought, but they could serve us better if -they were cradelled in cotton-wool, wrapped in faded roses, and laid -aside in lavender as mementoes of a dead past.</p> -<p>The young men must gird up their loins for the task of leadership and -leadership has its stern and necessary duties. The first of these is -TRAINING. Not in a night did the call come to Christ, not in a day was -He made fit to make the great sacrifice. It took thirty years of -preparation to fit him for the work of three. Even so, on you, young men -of Negro America, descends the duty of the great preparation. Get -education. Get it not only in school and in college, but in books and -newspapers, in market-places, institutions, and movements. Prepare by -knowing; and never think you know until you have listened to ten others -who know differently—and have survived the shock.</p> -<p>The young man’s second duty is IRREVERENCE. Reverence is in one -sense, respect for what is antiquated because it is antiquated. This -race has lived in a rut too long to reverence the rut. Oldsters love -ruts because they help them to “rub along,” they are easy to understand; -they require the minimum of exertion and brains, and they give the -maximum of ease. Young man! If you wish to be spiritually alert and -alive; to get the very best out of yourself—shun a rut as you would shun -the plague! Never bow the knee to Baal because Baal is in power; never -respect wrong and injustice because they are enshrined in “the sacred -institutions of our glorious land”; never have patience with either -Cowardice or Stupidity because they happen to wear venerable whiskers. -Read, reason, and think on all sides of all subjects. Don’t compare -yourself with the runner behind you on the road; always compare yourself -with the one ahead; so only will you go faster and farther. And set it -before you, as a sacred duty always to surpass the teachers that taught -you—and this is the essence of irreverence.</p> -<p>The last great duty is COURAGE. Dear man of my people, if all else -should fail you, never let <em>that</em> fail. Much as you need -preparation and prevision you are more in need of Courage. This has -been, and is yet, A DOWNTRODDEN RACE. Do you know what a down-trodden -race needs most? If you are not sure, take down your Bible and read the -whole story of Gideon and his band. You will then understand that, as -Dunbar, says:</p> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse leadingquote"> -“Minorities since time began -</div> -<div class="verse"> -Have shown the better side of man; -</div> -<div class="verse"> -And often, in the lists of time, -</div> -<div class="verse"> -One Man has made a cause sublime.” -</div> -</div> -</div> -<p>You will learn the full force of what another American meant when he -told the young men of his age:</p> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse leadingquote"> -“They are slaves who dare not choose -</div> -<div class="verse"> -Hatred, scoffing and abuse, -</div> -<div class="verse"> -Rather than in silence shrink -</div> -<div class="verse"> -From the truth they needs must think, -</div> -<div class="verse"> -They are slaves who dare not be -</div> -<div class="verse"> -In the right with two or three.” -</div> -</div> -</div> -<p>A people under the heels of oppression has more need of heroic souls -than one for whom the world is bright. It was in Egypt and in the -wilderness that Israel had need of Moses, Aaron and Joshua. No race -situated like ours, has any place of leadership for those who lack -courage, fortitude, heroism. You may have to turn your eyes away from -the fleshpots of Egypt; you may be called on to fight with wild beasts -at Ephesus; you may have to face starvation in the wilderness or -crucifixion on Calvary. Have the courage to do that which the occasion -demands when it comes. And I make you no promise that “in the end you -will win a glorious crown.” You may fail, fall and be forgotten. What of -it? When you think of our heroic dead on Messines Ridge, along the Aisne -and at Chateau Thierry—how does your heart act? It thrills! It thrills -because</p> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse leadingquote"> -“Manhood hath a larger span -</div> -<div class="verse"> -And wider privilege of life than Man.” -</div> -</div> -</div> -<p class="noindent"> -and you, young Negro Men of America, you are striving to give the gift -of manhood to this race of ours.</p> -<p>The future belongs to the young men. —January, 1919.</p> -</div> -<div id="chapter-7" class="chapter"> -<hr class="chap"> -<h2 id="chapter-vii.our-international-consciousness.">CHAPTER -VII.<BR>OUR INTERNATIONAL CONSCIOUSNESS.</h2> -<p>[The ideas expressed in the title of this chapter were formulated as -early as 1915 when I was in the unique position of being the black -leader and lecturer of a white lecture forum, organized by white -liberals, radicals and others at the old Lenox Casino, at 116th -St. & Lenox Ave., New York City. What white people in general -thought of the value of my services at this forum can be read in a -letter written by a white southerner and appearing in the New York Globe -of December 15, 1920. After the closing of this lecture forum the same -explanation of the racial significance of the whole process of the war -was expressed in other lectures given to white people at a lecture forum -which I maintained in the Brownsville section of Brooklyn. I make these -explanations here because I value somewhat the point of priority in the -face of Mr. Lothrop Stoddard’s remarkable book, “The Rising Tide of -Color Against White World-Supremacy” and the sweeping tide of racial -consciousness which found expression subsequently in those Negro -newspapers and magazines which have been called radical.]</p> -<h3 id="the-white-war-and-the-colored-world">The White War and the -Colored World</h3> -<p>The newspapers which we read every day inform us that the world is at -war. Searching the pages of the statisticians, we find that the world is -made up of 17 hundred million people of which 12 hundred million are -colored—black and brown and yellow. This vast majority is at peace and -remains at peace until the white minority determines otherwise. The war -in Europe is a war of the white race wherein the stakes of conflict are -the titles to possession of the lands and destinies of this colored -majority in Asia, Africa and the islands of the sea.</p> -<p>There can be no doubt that the white race as it exists today, is the -superior race of the world. And it is superior, not because it has -better manners more religion or a higher culture; these things are -metaphysical and subject to dispute. The white race rests its claim to -superiority on the frankly materialistic ground that it has the guns, -soldiers, the money and resources to keep it in the position of the -top-dog and to make its will go. This is what white men mean by -civilization, disguise it how they may. This struggle is a conflict of -wills and interests among the various nations which make up the white -race, to determine whose will shall be accepted as the collective will -of the white race; to decide, at least for this century, who shall be -the inheritors of the lands of Africa and Asia and dictators of the -lives and destinies of their colored inhabitants.</p> -<p>The peculiar feature of the conflict is that the white race in its -fratricidal strife is burning up, eating up, consuming and destroying -these very resources of ships, guns, men and money upon which its -superiority is built. They are bent upon this form of self-destruction -and nothing that we can say will stop them.</p> -<p>As representatives of one of the races constituting the colored -majority of the world, we deplore the agony and blood-shed; but we find -consolation in the hope that when this white world shall have been -washed clean by its baptism of blood, the white race will be less able -to thrust the strong hand of its sovereign will down the throats of the -other races. We look for a free India and an independent Egypt; <em>for -nationalities in Africa flying their own flags and dictating their own -internal and foreign policies.</em> This is what we understand by -“making the world safe for democracy.” Anything less than this will fail -to establish “peace on earth and good will toward men.” For the majority -races cannot be eternally coerced into accepting the sovereignty of the -white race. They are willing to live in a world which is the equal -possession of all peoples—white, black, brown and yellow. If the white -race is willing, they will live at peace with it. But if it insists that -freedom, democracy and equality are to exist only for white men, then, -there will be such bloodshed later as this world has never seen. And -there is no certainty that in such a conflict the white race will come -out on top. Not the destinies of the world, but the destinies of the -white race are in the hands of the white race. —1917.</p> -<hr> -<h3 id="u-need-a-biscuit">U-Need-a Biscuit</h3> -<p>There is one advertisement which appears in the magazines, on the -streets and bill boards which has always seemed to us a masterly -illustration of the principle of repetition. When going to work in the -morning we look up from our daily newspaper and see the flaring sign -which states that U-need-a Biscuit, we may ignore its appeal the first -time, but as the days go by the constant insistence reaches our inner -consciousness and we decide that perhaps after all we do need a biscuit. -At any rate, whenever we have biscuits to buy it is natural that the -biscuit which has been most persistently advertised should recur at once -to our minds and that we should buy that particular biscuit.</p> -<p>We beg to call the above apologue to the attention of the white -people of this country who guide the ship of state either in the halls -of Congress or through the columns of the white newspapers. They are -seemingly at a loss to account for the new spirit which has come over -the Negro people in the Western world. Some pretend to believe that it -is Bolshevism—whatever that may be. Others tell us that it is the -product of alien agitators, and yet others are coming to the front with -the novel explanation that it springs from a desire to mingle our blood -with that of the white people.</p> -<p>Perhaps we are wasting our time in offering an explanation to the -white men of this country. It has been proven again and again that the -Anglo-Saxon is such a professional liar that with the plain truth before -his eyes he will still profess to be seeing something else. Nevertheless -we make the attempt because we believe that a double benefit may accrue -to us thereby. Does any reader who lived through the years from 1914 to -1919 and is still living remember what “Democracy” was? It was the -U-need-a Biscuit advertised by Messrs. Woodrow Wilson, Lloyd George, -Georges Clemenceau and thousands of perspiring publicists, preachers and -thinkers, who were on one side of a conflict then raging in Europe.</p> -<p>Now, you cannot get men to go out and get killed by telling them -plainly that you who are sending them want to get the other fellow’s -land, trade and wealth, and you are too cowardly or too intelligent to -go yourself and risk getting shot over the acquisition. That would never -do. So you whoop it up with any catchword which will serve as sufficient -bait for the silly fools whom you keep silly in order that you may -always use them in this way. “Democracy” was such a catch-word, and the -honorable gentlemen to whom we referred above advertised it for all it -was worth—to them. But, just as we prophesied in 1915, there was an -unavoidable flare-back. When you advertise U-need-a Biscuit incessantly -people will want it; and when you advertise democracy incessantly the -people to whom you trumpet forth its deliciousness are likely to believe -you, take you at your word, and, later on, demand that you make good and -furnish them with the article for which you yourself have created the -appetite.</p> -<p>Now, we Negroes, Egyptians and Hindus, under the pressure of -democracy’s commercial drummers, have developed a democratic complex -which in its turbulent insistence is apt to trouble the firms for whom -these drummers drummed. Because they haven’t any of the goods which they -advertised in the first place, and, in the second place, they haven’t -the slightest intention of passing any of it on—even if they had.</p> -<p>So, gentlemen, when you read of the Mullah, of Said Zagloul Pasha and -Marcus Garvey or Casely Hayford; when you hear of Egyptian and Indian -nationalist uprisings, of Black Star Lines and West Indian -“seditions”—kindly remember (because we know) that these fruits spring -from the seeds of your own sowing. You have said to us “U need a -biscuit,” and, after long listening to you, we have replied, “We do!” -Perhaps next time—if there is a next time—you will think twice before -you furnish to “inferior” peoples such a stick as “democracy” has proved -for the bludgeoning of your heads. In any case your work has been too -well done for even you to obliterate it. The Negro of the Western world -can truthfully say to the white man and the Anglo-Saxon in particular, -“You made me what I am today, I hope you’re satisfied.” And if the white -man isn’t satisfied—well, we should worry. That’s all. —July, 1920.</p> -<hr> -<h3 id="our-larger-duty">Our Larger Duty</h3> -<p>The problem of the twentieth century is the problem of the Color -Line. But what is the Color Line? It is the practice of the theory that -the colored and “weaker” races of the earth shall not be free to follow -“their own way of life and of allegiance,” but shall live, work and be -governed after such fashion as the dominant white race may decide. -Consider for a moment the full meaning of this fact. Of the seventeen -hundred million people that dwell on our earth today more than twelve -hundred million are colored—black and brown and yellow. The so-called -white race is, of course, the superior race. That is to say, it is on -top by virtue of its control of the physical force of the worldships, -guns, soldiers, money and other resources. By virtue of this control -England rules and robs India, Egypt, Africa and the West Indies; by -virtue of this control we of the United States can tell Haytians, -Hawaiians and Filipinos how much they shall get for their labor and what -shall be done in their lands; by virtue of this control Belgium can -still say to the Congolese whether they shall have their hands hacked -off or their eyes gouged out—and all without any reference to what -Africans, Asiatics or other inferior members of the world’s majority may -want.</p> -<p>It is thus clear that, as long as the Color Line exists, all the -perfumed protestations of Democracy on the part of the white race must -be simply downright lying. The cant of “Democracy” is intended as dust -in the eyes of white voters, incense on the altar of their own -self-love. It furnishes bait for the clever statesmen who hold the -destinies of their people in their hands when they go fishing for -suckers in the waters of public discussion. But it becomes more and more -apparent that Hindus, Egyptians, Africans, Chinese and Haytians have -taken the measure of this cant and hypocrisy. And, whatever the white -world may think, it will have these peoples to deal with during this -twentieth century.</p> -<p>In dealing with them in the past it has been considered sufficient -that the white man should listen to his own voice alone in determining -what colored peoples should have; and he has, therefore, been trying -perpetually to “solve” the problems arising from his own assumption of -the role of God. The first and still the simplest method was to kill -them off, either by slaughter pure and simple, as in the case of the -American Indians and the Congo natives, or by forcibly changing their -mode of life, as was done by those pious prudes who killed off the -Tasmanians; or by importing among them rum, gin, whiskey and -consumption, as has been attempted in the case of the Negroes of Africa -and North America. But, unlike the red Indians and Tasmanians, most of -these subject peoples have refused to be killed off. Their vitality is -too strong.</p> -<p>The second method divides itself into internal and external -treatment. The internal treatment consists in making them work, to -develop the resources of their ancestral lands, not for themselves, but -for their white overlords, so that the national and imperial coffers may -be filled to overflowing, while the Hindu ryot, on six cents a day, -lives down to the level of the imperialist formula:</p> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse leadingquote"> -“The poor benighted Hindoo, -</div> -<div class="verse"> -He does the best he kin do; -</div> -<div class="verse indent2"> -He never aches -</div> -<div class="verse indent2"> -For chops and steaks -</div> -<div class="verse"> -And for clothes he makes his skin do.” -</div> -</div> -</div> -<p>The external treatment consists of girdling them with forts and -battleships and holding armies in readiness to fly at their throats upon -the least sign of “uppishness” or “impudence.”</p> -<p>Now, this similarity of suffering on the part of colored folk has -given, and is giving, rise to a certain similarity of sentiment. Egypt -has produced the Young Egypt movement; India, the Swadesha, the -All-India Congress, and the present revolutionary movement which has lit -the fuse of the powder-keg on which Britain sits in India today; Africa -has her Ethiopian Movement which ranges from the Zulus and Hottentots of -the Cape to the Ekoi of Nigeria; in short, the darker races, chafing -under the domination of the alien whites, are everywhere showing a -disposition to take Democracy at its word and to win some measure of it -for themselves.</p> -<p>What part in this great drama of the future are the Negroes of the -Western world to play? The answer is on the knees of the gods, who often -make hash of the predictions of men. But it is safe to say that, before -the Negroes of the Western world can play any effective part they must -first acquaint themselves with what is taking place in that larger world -whose millions are in motion. They must keep well informed of the trend -of that motion and of its range and possibilities. If our problem here -is really a part of a great world-wide problem, we must make our -attempts to solve our part link up with the attempts being made -elsewhere to solve the other parts. So will we profit by a wider -experience and perhaps be able to lend some assistance to that ancient -Mother Land of ours to whom we may fittingly apply the words of -Milton:</p> -<p>“Methinks I see in my mind a mighty and puissant nation, rousing -herself like a strong man after sleep and shaking her invincible locks; -methinks I see her like an eagle mewing her mighty youth and kindling -her undazzled eyes at the full noon-day beam; methinks I see her scaling -and improving her sight at the fountain itself of heavenly radiance, -while the whole noise of timorous and flocking birds—with them also that -love the twilight—hover around, amazed at what she means, and in their -useless gabble would prognosticate a year of sects and schisms.” —The -New Negro, August, 1919.</p> -<hr> -<h3 id="help-wanted-for-hayti">Help Wanted for Hayti</h3> -<p>While we were at war our President declared, over and over again, -that we were calling upon the flower of our manhood to go to France and -make itself into manure in order that the world might be made safe for -democracy. Today the deluded people of the earth realize that the accent -is on the “moc(k).” Ireland, India and Egypt are living proofs that the -world has been lied to. We need not bite our tongues about it. Those who -told us that the world would be made safe for democracy have lied to us. -All over the world men and women are finding out that when an American -President, a British Premier or a French “tiger” speaks of “the world,” -he does not include the black and brow: and yellow millions, who make up -the vast majority of the earth’s population. And now the sheeted ghost -of a black republic rises above the tomb where its bones lie buried and -points its silent but accusing finger at American democracy. What can we -answer in the case of Hayti? British India and Ireland, Turkish Armenia -or Russian Poland have never presented such ruthless savagery as has -been let loose in Hayti in a private war for which President Wilson has -never had the consent of Congress. The white daily papers speak -complacently of the repulse of “bandits.” What is this but a developing -disease of the American conscience, to put the blinkers of a catchword -over the eyes of the spirit?</p> -<p>The people of Hayti are being shot, sabred and bombed, while -resisting an illegal invasion of their homes, and, if public decency is -not dead in America white and black men and women will insist that -Congress investigate this American Ireland.</p> -<p>When Ireland feels the pressure of the English heel, the Irish in -America make their voices heard and help to line up American public -opinion on their side. When Paderewski’s government massacres Jews in -Poland, the Jews of America raise money, organize committees, put the U. -S. Government on the job—and get results. But when Negroes are -massacred—not in Africa, but in Hayti, under American control—what do we -American Negroes do? So far, nothing. But that inaction will not last. -Negroes must write their Congressmen and Senators concerning the -atrocity perpetrated at Port au Prince last week. They should organize -committees to go before Congress and put the pitiful facts, demanding -investigation, redress and punishment.</p> -<p>For as long as such things can be done without effective protest or -redress, black people every where will refuse to believe that the -democracy advertised by lying white politicians can be anything but a -ghastly joke.</p> -<hr> -<h3 id="the-cracker-in-the-caribbean">The Cracker in the Caribbean</h3> -<blockquote> -<p>“Meanwhile the feet of civilized slayers have woven across the fair -face of the earth a crimson mesh of murder and rapine. The smoke of -blazing villages ascends in lurid holocaust to the bloody god of battles -from the altar of human hate in the obscene temple of race -prejudice.”</p> -</blockquote> -<p>These words, which we wrote in 1912, come back to our mind eight -years later with no abatement of the awful horror which they express. -And what gives a special point to them at this moment is the bloody rape -of the republics of Hayti and Santo Domingo which is being perpetrated -by the bayonets of American sailors and marines, with the silent and -shameful acquiescence of 12,000,000 American Negroes too cowardly to -lift a voice in effective protest or too ignorant of political affairs -to know what is taking place. What boots it that we strike heroic -attitudes and talk grandiloquently of Ethiopia stretching forth her -hands when we Africans of the dispersion can let the land of L’Ouverture -lie like a fallen flower beneath the feet of swine?</p> -<p>The facts of the present situation in that hapless land are given in -the current issue of <em>The Nation</em> (a white American weekly). -Taken together with the accounts which we have printed from time to -time, it tells a tale of shuddering horror in comparison with which the -Putumayo pales into insignificance and the Congo atrocities of Belgium -are tame. The two West Indian republics have been murderously assaulted; -their citizens have been shot down by armed ruffians, bombed by -aeroplanes, hunted into concentration camps and there starved to death. -In their own land their civil liberties have been taken away, their -governments have been blackjacked and their property stolen. And all -this by the “cracker” statesmanship of “the South,” without one word of -protest from that defunct department, the Congress of the United -States!</p> -<p>The Constitution of the United States says that the power to declare -war shall belong exclusively to the Congress of the United States. But -the Congress of the United States has been shamelessly ignored. In -furtherance of the God-given “cracker” mandate to “keep the nigger in -his place,” a mere Secretary of the Navy has assumed over the head of -Congress the right to conquer and annex two nations and to establish on -their shores the “cracker-democracy” of his native Carolina -slave-runs.</p> -<p>It is high time that the Negro people of the United States call the -hand of Josephus Daniels by appealing to the Legislature of the United -States to resume its political functions, investigate this high-handed -outrage and impeach the Secretary of the Navy of high crimes and -misdemeanors against the peace and good name of the United States. The -ordinary excuse of cowards will not obtain in this case. We would not be -violating any law—wartime or other—but, on the contrary, we should be -striving to put an end to a flagrant violation of the Constitution -itself on the part of a high officer, who took an oath to maintain, -support and defend it. This is our right and our duty. Irishmen, on -behalf of Ireland, sell the bonds of an Irish loan to free Ireland from -the tyranny of Britain—with whom we are on friendly terms—on the very -steps of New York’s City Hall, while we black people are not manly -enough to get up even a petition on behalf of our brothers in Hayti.</p> -<p>Out upon such crawling cowardice! Rouse, ye slaves, and show that the -spirit of liberty is not quite dead among you! You who elected -“delegates” to go to a Peace Conference to which you had neither -passport nor invitation, on behalf of bleeding Africa, get together and -present a monster petition to the American Congress, over which you have -some control. Remember that George the Third engaged in a contest with -these colonies because he had trouble at home. He could not defeat the -Pitts, Burkes and Foxes at home, and wanted to win prestige from the -colonials. Had he succeeded in setting his foot on their necks he would -have returned home with increased prestige and power to bend the free -spirits of</p> -<p>England to his will. Pitt knew this, and so did Fox and Burke. That -is why they took the side of their distant cousins against the British -king. And the British liberals of today thank their memories for it. If -the “crackers” of the South can fasten their yoke on the necks of our -brothers overseas, then God help us Negroes in America in the years to -come!</p> -<p>If we were now appealing directly to the white men of America we -might dwell upon the moral aspects of the question. But we must leave -that to others. Yet we cannot do so without recalling the words of a -great poet:</p> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse indent2"> -“But man, proud man, -</div> -<div class="verse"> -Drest in a little brief authority, -</div> -<div class="verse"> -Most ignorant of what he’s most assured— -</div> -<div class="verse"> -His glassy essence—like an angry ape, -</div> -<div class="verse"> -Plays such fantastic tricks before high heaven -</div> -<div class="verse indent2"> -As make the angels weep.” -</div> -</div> -</div> -<p>And we draw some slight consolation from the fact that, even if he -should escape impeachment, Josephus Daniels must surrender up his “brief -authority” in another twelvemonth.</p> -<p>But we who are still free in a measure must not wait twelve months to -act. We could not do that and preserve our racial self-respect. For—</p> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse leadingquote"> -“Whether conscious or unconscious, yet Humanity’s vast frame -</div> -<div class="verse"> -Through its ocean-sundered fibres feels the gush of joy or shame; -</div> -<div class="verse"> -In the gain or loss of one race all the rest have equal claim.” -</div> -</div> -</div> -<hr> -<h3 id="when-might-makes-right">When Might Makes Right</h3> -<p>A correspondent whose letter appears elsewhere raises the question of -the relation between mental competence and property rights. “Does -inability to govern destroy title to ownership?” he asks. The white race -assumes an affirmative answer in every case in which the national -property of darker and weaker races are concerned and deny it in cases -in which their own national property interests are involved. It seems -strange that whereas the disturbances occurring in our own southern -states are never considered sufficient to justify the destruction of -their sovereignty, on the other hand, such disturbances occurring in -Hayti or Mexico are considered a sufficient reason for invasion and -conquest by white Americans. The same is true of England, France and -Italy. A disturbance in Alexandria, Delhi, Ashanti or the Cameroons -suffices to fix upon those territories and cities the badge of -inferiority and incompetence to rule themselves. The conclusion is -always drawn in such cases that the white race has been called by this -fortunate combination of circumstances to do the ruling for them. But -similar disturbances occurring in Wales, Essen or Marseilles would never -be considered as sufficient to justify the dictatorship of foreign -powers in the interest of “law and order.”</p> -<p>The truth is that “might makes right” in all these cases. White -statesmen, however, often deny this at the very moment when they are -using “force without stint, force to the utmost” to establish “rights” -which they claim over territories, peoples, commerce and the high seas. -Their characteristic hypocrisy keeps them from telling the truth as -plainly as Von Bernhardi did in his now famous book, “Germany and the -Next War.” The “sociological” reason for this hypocrisy is the fact that -they need to preach “goodness,” “right” and “justice” to those over whom -they rule in order that their ruling may be made easy by the consequent -good behavior of the ruled. But they themselves, however good, must -practice ruthlessness, injustice and the rule of the strong hand to make -their governance go. It is this fact which causes intelligent Negroes, -Filipinos, Chinese and Egyptians to spurn with contempt the claims which -Caucasian diplomats, statesmen, writers and missionaries make on behalf -of their moral superiority. They lie; they know that they lie, and now -they’re beginning to know that we know it also. This knowledge on our -part is a loss of prestige for them, and our actions in the future, -based upon this knowledge, must needs mean a loss of power for them. -Which is, after all, the essential fact.</p> -<hr> -<h3 id="bolshevism-in-barbados">Bolshevism in Barbados</h3> -<p>Among the newspapers in Barbados there is a charming old lady by the -name of the <em>Barbados Standard</em>. From time to time this faded -creature gets worried about the signs of awakening observable in those -Negroes who happen to be living in the twentieth century. Then she -shakes and shivers, throws a few fits, froths at the mouth, and, -spasmodically flapping her arms, yells to all and sundry that there is -“Bolshevism among Negroes.”</p> -<p>Recently this stupid old thing and its congeners have discovered -evidences of a Bolshevist R–r–r–revolution in Trinidad, and, -presumptively, all over the British West Indies. Now the specter which -these fools fear is nothing but the shadow cast by the dark body of -their own system of stiff-necked pride, stark stupidity and stubborn -injustice whenever the sun of civic righteousness rises above the -horizon of sloth and ignorance. But, like fools afraid of their own -shadows, they point at the thing for which they alone are responsible -and shriek for salvation.</p> -<p>We shouldn’t care to suggest to them that to lie down and die would -be one good way to avoid these fearful shadows, because we see the -possibility of another way. Let them resolve that they will cease making -a lie of every promise of liberty, democracy and self-determination that -they frantically made from 1914 to 1919. Let the white Englishman learn -that justice exists not only for white Englishmen, but for all men. Let -him get off the black man’s back, stand out of the black man’s light, -play the game as it should be played, and he will find very little need -for wasting tons of print paper and thousands of pounds in a crusade -against the specter of Bolshevism.</p> -<hr> -<h3 id="a-new-international">A New International</h3> -<p>In the eyes of our overlords internationalism is a thing of varying -value. When Mr. Morgan wants to float a French or British loan in the -United States; when Messrs. Wilson, Clemenceau, Lloyd George and Orlando -want to stabilize their joint credit and commerce; when areas like the -Belgian Congo are to be handed over to certain rulers without the -consent of their inhabitants—then the pæans of praise go up to the god -of “internationalism” in the temple of “civilization.” But when any -portion of the world’s disinherited (whether white or black) seeks to -join hands with other groups in the same condition, then the lords of -misrule denounce the idea of internationalism as anarchy, sedition, -Bolshevism and disruptive propaganda.</p> -<p>Why the difference? It is because the international linking up of -peoples is a source of strength to those who are linked up. Naturally, -the overlords want to strengthen themselves. And, quite as naturally, -they wish to keep their subject masses from strengthening themselves in -the same way. Today the great world-majority, made up of black, brown -and yellow peoples, are stretching out their hands to each other and -developing a “consciousness of kind”—as Professor Giddings would call -it. They are seeking to establish their own centers of diffusion for -their own internationalism, and this fact is giving nightmares to -Downing street, the Quai d’Orsay and other centers of white capitalist -internationalism.</p> -<p>The object of the capitalist international is to unify and -standardize the exploitation of black, brown and yellow peoples in such -a way that the danger to the exploiting groups of cutting each other’s -throats over the spoils may be reduced to a minimum. Hence the various -agreements, mandates and spheres of influence. Hence the League of -Nations, which is notoriously not a league of the white masses, but of -their gold-braided governors. Faced by such a tendency on the part of -those who bear the white man’s burden for what they can get out of it, -the darker peoples of the world have begun to realize that their first -duty is to themselves. A similarity of suffering is producing in them a -similarity of sentiment, and the temper of that sentiment is not to be -mistaken.</p> -<p>To the white statesmen “civilization” is identical with their own -overlordship, with their right and power to dictate to the darker -millions what their way of life and of allegiance shall be. To this the -aroused sentiment of the world’s darker majority demurs. They want to be -as free as England, America or France. They do not wish to be “wards of -the nations” of Europe any longer. And the problem for the white -statesmen of the future will be to square democracy with the subjection -of this dark majority. Can they achieve either horn of this dilemma? Can -they effect a junction of the two?</p> -<p>Frankly, we doubt it. Continued suppression may be fraught with -consequences disastrous to white overlordship. In any case the tendency -toward an international of the darker races cannot be set back. -Increasing enlightenment, the spread of technical science, and the -recently acquired knowledge of the weak points of white “civilization” -gained by the darker peoples during the recent World War, are enough to -negative such a supposition. The darker peoples will strive increasingly -for their share of sunlight, and if this is what white “civilization” -opposes, then white “civilization” is likely to have a hard time of -it.</p> -<hr> -<h3 id="the-rising-tide-of-color">The Rising Tide of Color</h3> -<p>Mr. William Randolph Hearst, the ablest white publicist in America, -has broken loose, and, in a recent editorial in the New York -<em>American</em>, has absolutely endorsed every word of the warning -recently issued by Lothrop Stoddard in his book, “The Rising Tide of -Color.” In justice to Mr. Hearst, it must be pointed out (as we -ourselves did in 1916) that he saw this handwriting on the wall long -ago. Mr. Hearst is not particularly famous as a friend of the darker -races; but one must give him credit for having seen what was involved in -the war between the white nations of Europe and America. As far back as -1915, the present writer was engaged in pointing out to white people -that the racial aspect of the war in Europe was easily the most -important, despite the fact that no American paper, not even -Mr. Hearst’s, would present that side of the matter for the -consideration of its readers. Now, however, they are beginning to wake -up—as people generally do when disaster is upon them—frantically with -much screaming and flapping of arms. But, in such cases, the doom -approaching is but the ripened result of deeds that have been done, and -is, therefore, absolutely inescapable.</p> -<p>The white race has lied and strutted its way to greatness and -prominence over the corpses of other peoples. It has capitalized, -christianized, and made respectable, “scientific,” and “natural,” the -fact of its dominion. It has read back into history the race relations -of today, striving to make the point that previous to its advent on the -stage of human history, there was no civilization or culture worthy of -the name. And with minatory finger it admonishes us that if it were to -pass off the stage as the controlling factor in the World’s destiny, -there would be no civilization or culture remaining. Naturally, we take -exception to both these views, because, for the past, we know better -and, for the future, we think better of the many peoples who make up the -cycle of civilization.</p> -<p>But these conditions are not the gravest at present. The fact of most -tremendous import is that the white race in trying to settle its own -quarrels has called in black, brown and yellow to do its fighting for -it, with the result that black, brown and yellow will learn thereby how -to fight for themselves, even against those whom they were called in to -assist. The white race cannot escape from its dilemma, however. If it -were to decree hereafter that wars between whites should be restricted -to whites alone, then we should be given the poignant spectacle of the -white race continuing to cut its own throat while the increasing masses -of black, brown and yellow remained unaffected by that process, “It is -to laugh,” as the cynical gods would say. Or, to use a trite -Americanism, it is, “heads I win, tails you lose.” It is thumbs down for -the white race in the world’s arena, and they are to be the dealers of -their own death blow. Such are the consequences of conquest!</p> -<p>The analogies between the present situation of the white race and the -situation of the Roman Empire in the fourth century of the Christian era -are too many and striking to be easily ignored. Now, as then, we have -“barbarians” and “super-men.” Now, as then, the super-men are such in -their own estimation. Now, as then, they have, as they fondly think, a -monopoly of the money power, brain power and political power of the -world. Now, as then, the necessities of their own selfishness and greed, -constrain and compel them to share their education and their culture -with the races whom they exploit. Now, as then, in the crisis of their -fortunes, they must utilize the knowledge and abilities of these -barbarian folk, and now, as then, this exercising of abilities on behalf -of the overlord develops abilities and ambition at an equal rate; and, -having given the barbarian tiger its first taste of blood, the unleashed -results can not now be restrained.</p> -<p>In the Roman days, as in the days of Charlemagne’s successors, those -who hold the balances generally also wield the sword; and if -<em>their</em> blood and sand determine which among the rulers shall get -the prizes of victory, then these same qualities must needs urge them to -take from such victors-by-proxy so much of the fruits of victory as -their own needs may suggest or their own power maintain. Truly “they -that take the sword shall perish by the sword.”</p> -<hr> -<h3 id="the-white-war-and-the-colored-races">The White War and the -Colored Races</h3> -<p>[The following article was written in 1918 when the Great War still -raged. It was written for a certain well known radical magazine; but was -found to be “too radical” for publication at that time. It is given now -to the Negro public partly because the underlying explanation which it -offers of the root-cause of the war has not yet received treatment (even -among socialistic radicals) and partly because recent events in China, -India, Africa and the United States have proved the accuracy of its -forecasts.]</p> -<hr> -<p>The Nineteenth Christian Century saw the international expansion of -capitalism—the economic system of the white peoples of Western Europe -and America-and its establishment by force and fraud over the lands of -the colored races, black and brown and yellow. The opening years of the -Twentieth Century present us with the sorry spectacle of these same -white nations cutting each other’s throats to determine which of them -shall enjoy the property which has been acquired. For this is the real -sum and substance of the original “war aims” of the belligerents; -although in conformity with Christian cunning, this is one which is -never frankly avowed. Instead, we are fed with the information that they -are fighting for “Kultur” and “on behalf of small nationalities.” Let us -look carefully at this camouflage.</p> -<h4 id="the-sham-of-democracy">The Sham of “Democracy”</h4> -<p>In the first place, we in America need not leave our own land to seek -reasons for suspecting the sincerity of democratic professions. While we -are waging war to establish democracy three thousand miles away, -millions of Negroes are disfranchised in our own land by the “cracker” -democracies of the Southern States which are more intent upon making -slaves of their black fellow-citizens than upon rescuing the French and -Belgians from the similar brutalities of the German Junkers. The -horrible holocaust of East St. Louis was possible only in three modern -States—Russia of the Romanoffs, Turkey and the United States—and it ill -becomes any one of them to point a critical finger at the others.</p> -<p>But East St. Louis was simply the climax of a long series of -butcheries perpetrated on defenseless Negroes which has made the murder -rate of Christian America higher than that of heathen Africa and of -every other civilized land. And, although our government can order the -execution of thirteen Negro soldiers for resenting the wholesale insults -to the uniform of the United States and defending their lives from -civilian aggressors, not one of the murderers of black men, women and -children has been executed or even ferreted out. Nor has our war -Congress seen fit as yet to make lynching a Federal crime. What wonder -that the Negro masses are insisting that before they can be expected to -enthuse over the vague formula of making the world “safe for democracy” -they must receive some assurance that their corner of the world—the -South—shall first be made “safe for democracy!” Who knows but that -perhaps the situation and treatment of the American Negro by our own -government and people may have kept the Central Powers from believing -that we meant to fight for democracy in Europe, and caused them to -persist in a course which has driven us into this war in which we must -spend billions of treasure and rivers of blood.</p> -<p>It should seem, then, that “democracy,” like “Kultur,” is more -valuable as a battle-cry than as a real belief to be practised by those -who profess it. And the plea of “small nationalities” is estopped by -three facts: Ireland, Greece and Egypt, whose Khedive, Abbas Hilmi, was -tumbled off his throne for failing to enthuse over the claims of -“civilization” as expounded by Lord Grey.</p> -<h4 id="sir-harry-johnston-speaks">Sir Harry Johnston Speaks</h4> -<p>But this is merely disproof. The average American citizen needs some -positive proof of the assertion that this war is being waged to -determine who shall dictate the destinies of the darker peoples and -enjoy the usufruct of their labor and their lands. For the average -American citizen is blandly ignorant of the major facts of history and -has to be told. For his benefit I present the following statement from -Sir Harry Johnston, in “The Sphere” of London. Sir Harry Johnston is the -foremost English authority on Africa and is in a position to know -something of imperial aims.</p> -<blockquote> -<p>“Rightly governed, I venture to predict that Africa will, if we are -victorious, repay us and all our allies the cost of our struggle with -Germany and Austria. The war, deny it who may, was really fought over -African questions. The Germans wished, as the chief gain of victory, to -wrest rich Morocco from French control, to take the French Congo from -France, and the Portuguese Congo from Portugal, to secure from Belgium -the richest and most extensive tract of alluvial goldfield as yet -discovered. This is an auriferous region which, properly developed, -will, when war is over, repay the hardest hit of our allies (France) all -that she has lost from the German devastation of her home lands. The -mineral wealth of trans-Zambezian Africa—freed forever, we will hope, -from the German menacemis gigantic; only slightly exploited so far. -Wealth is hidden amid the seemingly unprofitable deserts of the Sahara, -Nubia, Somaliland and Namaqua. Africa, I predict, will eventually show -itself to be the most richly endowed of all the continents in valuable -vegetable and mineral substances.”</p> -</blockquote> -<p>There is the sum and substance of what Schopenhauer would have called -“the sufficient reason” for this war. No word of “democracy” there, but -instead the easy assumption that, as a matter of course, the lands of -black Africa belong to white Europe and must be apportioned on the good -old principle:—</p> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse leadingquote"> -“… the simple plan, -</div> -<div class="verse"> -That he shall take who has the power, -</div> -<div class="verse"> -And he must keep who can.” -</div> -</div> -</div> -<h4 id="the-economics-of-war">The Economics of War</h4> -<p>It is the same economic motive that has been back of every modern war -since the merchant and trading classes secured control of the powers of -the modern state from the battle of Plassy to the present world war. -This is the natural and inevitable effect of the capitalist system, of -what (for want of a worse name) we call “Christendom.” For that system -is based upon the wage relationship between those who own and those who -operate the gigantic forces of land and machinery. Under this system no -capitalist employs a worker for two dollars a day unless that worker -creates more than two dollars’ worth of wealth for him. Only out of this -surplus can profits come. If ten million workers should thus create one -hundred million dollars’ worth of wealth each day and get twenty or -fifty millions in wages, it is obvious that they can expend only what -they have received, and that, therefore, every nation whose industrial -system is organized on a capitalist basis must produce a mass of surplus -products over and above, not the need, but the purchasing power of the -nation’s producers. Before these products can return to their owners as -profits they must be sold somewhere. Hence the need for foreign markets, -for fields of exploitation and “spheres of influence” in “undeveloped” -countries whose virgin resources are exploited in their turn after the -capitalist fashion. But, since every industrial nation is seeking the -same outlet for its products, clashes are inevitable and in these -clashes beaks and claws—armies and navies—must come into play. Hence -beaks and claws must be provided beforehand against the day of conflict, -and hence the exploitation of white men in Europe and America becomes -the reason for the exploitation of black and brown and yellow men in -Africa and Asia. And, therefore, it is hypocritical and absurd to -pretend that the capitalist nations can ever intend to abolish wars. -For, as long as black men are exploited by white men in Africa, so long -must white men cut each other’s throats over that exploitation. And -thus, the selfish and ignorant white worker’s destiny is determined by -the hundreds of millions of those whom he calls “niggers.” “The strong -too often think that they have a mortgage upon the weak; but in the -domain of morals it is the other way.”</p> -<h4 id="the-color-line">The Color Line</h4> -<p>But economic motives have always their social side; and this -exploitation of the lands and labor of colored folk expresses itself in -the social theory of white domination; the theory that the worst human -stocks of Montmartre, Seven Dials and the Bowery are superior to the -best human stocks of Rajputana or Khartoum. And when these colored folk -who make up the overwhelming majority of this world demand decent -treatment for themselves, the proponents of this theory accuse them of -seeking social equality. For white folk to insist upon the right to -manage their own ancestral lands, free from the domination of tyrants, -domestic and foreign, is variously described as “democracy” and -“self-determination.” For Negroes, Egyptians and Hindus to seek the same -thing is impudence. What wonder, then, that the white man’s rule is felt -by them to rest upon a seething volcano whose slumbering fires are made -up of the hundreds of millions of Chinese, Japanese, Hindus and -Africans! Truly has it been said that “the problem of the 20th Century -is the problem of the Color Line.” And wars are not likely to end; in -fact, they are likely to be wider and more terrible—so long as this -theory of white domination seeks to hold down the majority of the -world’s people under the iron heel of racial repression.</p> -<p>Of course, no sane person will deny that the white race is, at -present, the superior race of the world. I use the word “superior” in no -cloudy, metaphysical sense, but simply to mean that they are on top and -their will goes—at present. Consider this fact as the pivotal fact of -the war. Then, in the light of it, consider what is happening in Europe -today. The white race is superior—its will goes—because it has invented -and amassed greater means for the subjugation of nature and of man than -any other race. It is the top dog by virtue of its soldiers, guns, -ships, money, resources and brains. Yet there in Europe it is -deliberately burning up, consuming and destroying these very soldiers, -guns, ships, money, resources and brains, the very things upon which its -supremacy rests. When this war is over, it will be less able to enforce -its sovereign will upon the darker races of the world. Does any one -believe that it will be as easy to hold down Egypt and India and Persia -after the war as it was before? Hardly.</p> -<h4 id="the-racial-results-of-the-war">The Racial Results of the -War</h4> -<p>Not only will the white race be depleted in numbers, but its quality, -physical and mental, will be considerably lowered for a time. War -destroys first the strongest and bravest, the best stocks, the young men -who were to father the next generation, The next generation must, -consequently, be fathered by the weaker stocks of the race. And thus, in -physical stamina and in brain-power, they will be less equal to the task -of holding down the darker millions of the world than their fathers -were. This was the thought back of Mr. Hearst’s objection to our -entering the war.</p> -<p>He wanted the United States to stand as the white race’s reserve of -man-power when Europe had been bled white. But what will be the effect -of all this upon that colored majority whose preponderant existence our -newspapers ignore? In the first place, it will feel the lifting of the -pressure as the iron hand of “discipline” is relaxed. And it will -expand, when that pressure is removed, to the point where it will first -ask, then demand, and finally secure, the right of self-determination. -It will insist that, not only the white world, but the whole world, be -made “safe for democracy.” This will mean a self-governing Egypt, a -self-governing India, and independent African states as large as Germany -and France—and larger. And, as a result, there will come a shifting of -the basis of international politics and business and of international -control. This is the living thought that comes to me from the newspapers -and books that have been written and published by colored men in Africa -and Asia during the past three years. It is what I have heard from their -own lips as I have talked with them. And, yet, of this thought which is -inflaming the international underworld, not a word appears in the -parochial press of America, which seems to think that if it can keep its -own Negroes down to servile lip-service, it need not face the world-wide -problem of the “Conflict of Color,” as Mr. Putnam-Weale calls it.</p> -<p>But that the more intelligent portions of the white world are -becoming distressingly conscious of it, is evident from the first great -manifesto of the Russian Bolsheviki last year when they asked about -Britain’s subject peoples.</p> -<p>And the British workingmen have evidently done some thinking in their -turn. In their latest declarations they seem to see the ultimate -necessity of compelling their own aristocrats to forego such imperial -aspirations as that of Sir Harry Johnston, and of extending the -principle of self-determination even to the black people of Africa. But -eyes which have for centuries been behind the blinkers of race prejudice -cannot but blink and water when compelled to face the full sunlight. And -Britain’s workers insist that “No one will maintain that the Africans -are fit for self-government.” And on the same principle (of excluding -the opinion of those who are most vitally concerned) Britain’s ruling -class may tell them that “No one maintains that the laboring classes of -Britain are fit for self-government.” But their half-hearted demand that -an international committee shall take over the British, German, French -and Portuguese possessions in Africa and manage them as independent -nationalities(?) until they can “go it alone,” would suggest that their -eyesight is improving.</p> -<p>To sum it all up, the war in Europe is the result of the desire of -the white governments of Europe to exploit for their own benefit the -lands and labor of the darker races, and, as the war continues, it must -decrease the white man’s stock of ability to do this successfully -against the wishes of the inhabitants of those lands. This will result -in their freedom from thralldom and the extension of political, social, -and industrial democracy to the twelve hundred million black and brown -and yellow peoples of the world. This, I take it, is what President -Wilson had in mind when he wished to make the world “safe for -democracy.” But, whether I am mistaken or not, it is the idea which -dominates today the thought of those darker millions.</p> -</div> -<div id="chapter-8" class="chapter"> -<hr class="chap"> -<h2 id="chapter-viii.-education-and-the-race.">CHAPTER -VIII.<br>EDUCATION AND THE RACE.</h2> -<p>[With most of the present sources of power controlled by the white -race it behooves my race as well as the other subject races to learn the -wisdom of the weak and to develop to the fullest that organ whereby -weakness has been able to overcome strength; namely, the intellect. It -is not with our teeth that we will tear the white man out of our -ancestral land. It isn’t with our jaws that we can ring from his hard -hands consideration and respect. It must be done by the upper and not by -the lower parts of our heads. Therefore, I have insisted ever since my -entry into the arena of racial discussion that we Negroes must take to -reading, study and the development of intelligence as we have never done -before. In this respect we must pattern ourselves after the Japanese who -have gone to school to Europe but have never used Europe’s education to -make them the apes of Europe’s culture. They have absorbed, adopted, -transformed and utilized, and we Negroes must do the same. The three -editorials in this chapter and the article which follows them were -written to indicate from time to time the duty of the transplanted -African in this respect.]</p> -<h3 id="reading-for-knowledge">Reading for Knowledge</h3> -<p>Some time ago we wrote an editorial entitled “Read, Read, Read!” We -touch upon the same subject again, because in our recent trip to -Washington we found thousands of people who are eager to get in touch -with the stored-up knowledge which the books contain, but do not know -just where to turn for it. In New York the same situation obtains, and -no help is afforded by the papers of our race.</p> -<p>The reason is that some of our newspaper editors don’t read and don’t -know beans themselves. James W. Johnson is one of the notable -exceptions. We were cheered up a good deal by noting his recent -editorial advice to our “leaders” to read Arthur Henderson’s “The Aims -of Labor.” But that was six months after the editor of <em>The -Voice</em> had been telling thousands of the “led” all about it and -about the British Labor Party and the Russian Bolsheviki in his outdoor -talks in Harlem.</p> -<p>But there is no doubt that the New Negro is producing a New -Leadership and that this new leadership will be based not upon the -ignorance of the masses, but upon their intelligence. The old leadership -was possible partly because the masses were ignorant. Today the masses -include educated laymen who have studied science, theology, history and -economics, not, perhaps in college but, nevertheless, deeply and down to -date. These young men and women are not going to follow fools and, -indeed, are not going to follow any one, blindly. They want a reason for -the things that they are asked to do and to respect. The others, the -so-called Common People, are beginning to read and understand. As we sat -in the great John Wesley A.M.E. Zion Church in Washington one Sunday -night, and heard the cultured black minister speak to his people on -literature, science, history and sociology, and yet so simply that even -the dullest could catch the meat and inspiration of his great ideas, we -could not help saying as we went out of the church: “Depend upon it, -these people will demand as much from their next minister.” In fact our -race will demand as much from all its leaders. And they will demand no -less for themselves.</p> -<p>So, with a glad heart, we reprint the following paragraphs from our -earlier editorial trusting that our readers everywhere may find them -helpful:</p> -<p>As a people our bent for books is not encouraging. We mostly read -trash. And this is true not only of our rank and file but even of our -leaders. When we heard Kelly Miller address the Sunrise Club of New York -at a Broadway hotel two or three years ago, we were shocked at the -ignorance of modern science and modern thought which his remarks -displayed. His biology was of the brand of Pliny who lived about -eighteen hundred years ago. For him Darwin and Spencer and Jacques Loeb -had never existed nor written. His ignorance of the A.B.C.’s of -astronomy and geology was pitiful. If this is true of the leaders to -whom our reading masses look, what can we expect from those reading -masses? The masses must be taught to love good books. But to love them -they must first know them. The handicaps placed on us in America are too -great to allow us to ignore the help which we can get from that -education which we get out of school for ourselves—the only one that is -really worth while.</p> -<p>Without the New Knowledge the New Negro is no better than the old. -And this new knowledge will be found in the books. Therefore, it would -be well if every Negro of the new model were to make up his (or her) -mind to get the essentials of modern science and modern thought as they -are set down in the books which may be easily had. Don’t talk about -Darwin and Spencer: read them!</p> -<p>To help the good work along we append the following list of books -that are essential. When you <em>master</em> these you will have a -better “education” than is found in nine-tenths of the graduates of the -average American college.</p> -<p>“Modern Science and Modern Thought,” by Samuel Laing; “The Origin of -Species” and “The Descent of Man,” by Charles Darwin; “The Principles of -Sociology” and “First Principles,” by Herbert Spencer; “The Childhood of -the World” and “The Childhood of Religion,” by Edward Clodd; -“Anthropology,” by E. B. Tylor (very easy to read and a work of standard -information on Races, Culture and the origins of Religion, Art and -Science); Buckle’s “History of Civilization”; Gibbon’s “Decline and Fall -of the Roman Empire”; “The Martyrdom of Man,” by Winwood Reade; the -books on Africa by Livingstone and Mungo Park, and “The Mind of -Primitive Man,” by Franz Boas. —Sept., 1918.</p> -<hr> -<h3 id="education-and-the-race">Education and the Race</h3> -<p>In the dark days of Russia, when the iron heel of Czarist despotism -was heaviest on the necks of the people, those who wished to rule -decreed that the people should remain ignorant. Loyalty to interests -that were opposed to theirs was the prevailing public sentiment of the -masses. In vain did the pioneers of freedom for the masses perish under -the knout and the rigors of Siberia. They sacrificed to move the masses, -but the masses, strong in their love of liberty, lacked the head to -guide the moving feet to any successful issue. It was then that Leo -Tolstoi and the other intelligentsia began to carry knowledge to the -masses. Not only in the province of Tula, but in every large city, young -men of university experience would assemble in secret classes of -instruction, teaching them to read, to write, to know, to think and to -love knowledge. Most of this work was underground at first. But it took. -Thousands of educated persons gave themselves to this work-without pay: -their only hope of reward lay in the future effectiveness of an -instructed mass movement.</p> -<p>What were the results? As knowledge spread, enthusiasm was backed by -brains. The Russian revolution began to be sure of itself. The -workingmen of the cities studied the thing that they were “up against,” -gauged their own weakness and strength as well as their opponents’. The -despotism of the Czar could not provoke them to a mass movement before -they were ready and had the means; and when at last they moved, they -swept not only the Czar’s regime but the whole exploiting system upon -which it stood into utter oblivion.</p> -<p>What does this mean to the Negro of the Western world? It may mean -much, or little: that depends on him. If other men’s experiences have -value for the New Negro Manhood Movement it will seek now to profit by -them and to bottom the new fervor of faith in itself with the solid -support of knowledge. The chains snap from the limbs of the young giant -as he rises, stretches himself, and sits up to take notice. But let him, -for his future’s sake, insist on taking notice. To drop the figure of -speech, we Negroes who have shown our <em>manhood</em> must back it by -our <em>mind</em>. This world, at present, is a white man’s world—even -in Africa. We, being what we are, want to shake loose the chains of his -control from our corner of it. We must either accept his domination and -our inferiority, or we must contend against it. But we go up to win; and -whether we carry on that contest with ballots, bullets or business, we -can not win from the white man unless we know at least as much as the -white man knows. For, after all, knowledge <em>is</em> power.</p> -<p>But that isn’t all. What kind of knowledge is it that enables white -men to rule black men’s lands? Is it the knowledge of Hebrew and Greek, -philosophy or literature? It isn’t. It is the knowledge of explosives -and deadly compounds: that is chemistry. It is the knowledge which can -build ships, bridges, railroads and factories: that is engineering. It -is the knowledge which harnesses the visible and invisible forces of the -earth and air and water: that is science, modern science. And that is -what the New Negro must enlist upon his side. Let us, like the Japanese, -become a race of knowledge-getters, preserving our racial soul, but -digesting into it all that we can glean or grasp, so that when Israel -goes up out of bondage he will be “skilled in all the learning of the -Egyptians” and competent to control his destiny.</p> -<p>Those who have knowledge must come down from their Sinais and give it -to the common people. Theirs is the great duty to simplify and make -clear, to light the lamps of knowledge that the eyes of their race may -see; that the feet of their people may not stumble. This is the task of -the Talented Tenth.</p> -<p>To the masses of our people we say: Read! Get the reading habit; -spend your spare time not so much in training the feet to dance, as in -training the head to think. And, at the very outset, draw the line -between books of opinion and books of information. Saturate your minds -with the latter and you will be forming your own opinions, which will be -worth ten times more to you than the opinions of the greatest minds on -earth. Go to school whenever you can. If you can’t go in the day, go at -night. But remember always that the best college is that on your -bookshelf: the best education is that on the inside of your own head. -For in this work-a-day world people ask first, not “Where were you -educated?” but “What do you know?” and next, “What can you do with it?” -And if we of the Negro race can master modern knowledge—the kind that -counts—we will be able to win for ourselves the priceless gifts of -freedom and power, and we will be able to hold them against the -world.</p> -<hr> -<h3 id="the-racial-roots-of-culture">The Racial Roots of Culture</h3> -<p>Education is the name which we give to that process by which the -ripened generation brings to bear upon the rising generation the -stored-up knowledge and experience of the past and present generations -to fit it for the business of life. If we are not to waste money and -energy, our educational systems should shape our youth for what we -intend them to become.</p> -<p>We Negroes, in a world in which we are the under dog, must shape our -youth for living in such a world. Shall we shape them mentally to accept -the status of under-dog as their predestined lot? Or shall we shape them -into men and women fit for a free world? To do the former needs nothing -more than continuing as we are. To do the latter is to shape their souls -for continued conflict with a theory and practice in which most of the -white world that surrounds them are at one.</p> -<p>The educational system in the United States and the West Indies was -shaped by white people for white youth, and from their point of view, it -fits their purpose well. Into this system came the children of Negro -parents when chattel slavery was ended—and their relation to the -problems of life was obviously different. The white boy and girl draw -exclusively from the stored-up knowledge and experience of the past and -present generations of white people to fit them for the business of -being dominant whites in a world full of colored folk. The examples of -valor and virtue on which their minds are fed are exclusively white -examples. What wonder, then, that each generation comes to maturity with -the idea imbedded in its mind that only white men are valorous and fit -to rule and only white women are virtuous and entitled to chivalry, -respect and protection? What wonder that they think, almost -instinctively, that the Negro’s proper place, nationally and -internationally, is that of an inferior? It is only what we should -naturally expect.</p> -<p>But what seems to escape attention is the fact that the Negro boy and -girl, getting the same (though worse) instruction, also get from it the -same notion of the Negro’s place and part in life which the white -children get. Is it any wonder, then, that they so readily accept the -status of inferiors; that they tend to disparage themselves, and think -themselves worth while only to the extent to which they look and act and -think like the whites? They know nothing of the stored-up knowledge and -experience of the past and present generations of Negroes in their -ancestral lands, and conclude there is no such store of knowledge and -experience. They readily accept the assumption that Negroes have never -been anything but slaves and that they never had a glorious past as -other fallen peoples like the Greeks and Persians have. And this despite -the mass of collected testimony in the works of Barth, Schweinfurth, -Mary Kingsley, Lady Lugard, Morel, Ludolphus, Blyden, Ellis, Ratzel, -Kidd, Es-Saadi, Casely Hayford and a host of others, Negro and -white.</p> -<p>A large part of the blame for this deplorable condition must be put -upon the Negro colleges like Howard, Fisk, Livingstone and Lincoln in -the United States, and Codrington, Harrison and the Mico in the West -Indies. These are the institutions in which our cultural ideals and -educational systems are fashioned for the shaping of the minds of the -future generations of Negroes. It cannot be expected that it shall begin -with the common schools; for, in spite of logic, educational ideas and -ideals spread from above downwards. If we are ever to enter into the -confraternity of colored peoples it should seem the duty of our Negro -colleges to drop their silly smatterings of “little Latin and less -Greek” and establish modern courses in Hausa and Arabic, for these are -the living languages of millions of our brethern in modern Africa. -Courses in Negro history and the culture of West African peoples, at -least, should be given in every college that claims to be an institution -of learning for Negroes. Surely an institution of learning for Negroes -should not fail to be also an institution of Negro learning. —The New -Negro, Sept. 1919.</p> -<hr> -<h3 id="the-new-knowledge-for-the-new-negro">The New Knowledge for the -New Negro</h3> -<p>Quite a good deal of unnecessary dispute has been going on these days -among the guardians of the inner temple as to just which form of worship -is necessary at the shrine of the Goddess Knowledge. In plain English, -the pundits seem to be at odds in regard to the kind of education which -the Negro should have. Of course, it has long been known that the -educational experts of white America were at odds with ours on the same -subject; now, however, ours seem to be at odds among themselves.</p> -<p>The essence of the present conflict is not the easy distinction -between “lower” and “higher” education, which really has no meaning in -terms of educational principles, but it is rather “the knowledge of -things” versus “the knowledge of words.” The same conflict has been -waged in England from the days of Huxley’s youth to the later nineties -when the London Board Schools were recognized and set the present -standard of efficiency for the rest of England. The present form of the -question is, “Shall education consist of Latin and Greek, literature and -metaphysics, r of modern science, modern languages and modern thought?” -The real essence of the question is whether we shall train our children -to grapple effectively with the problem of life that lies before them, -or to look longingly back upon the past standards of life and thought -and consider themselves a special class because of this.</p> -<p>If education be, as we assert, a training for life, it must of course -have its roots in the past. But so has the art of the blacksmith, the -tailor, the carpenter, the bookbinder or the priest. What the -classicists really seek is the domination of the form, method and aim of -that training by the form, methods and aims of an earlier age.</p> -<h4 id="classics-clerics-and-class-culture">Classics, Clerics and Class -Culture</h4> -<p>Perhaps an explanation of that earlier training may serve to give the -real innerness of the classicists’ position so that ordinary people may -understand it better than the classicists themselves seem to do. In the -Middle Ages, the schools of Western Europe and the subject matter of the -education given in them were based upon the Latin “disciplines.” Western -Europe had no literature, no learning, no science of its own. It was the -church—particularly the monasteries—to which men had to go to get such -training as was obtainable in a barbarous age. This training was, of -course, given in the tongue of the church which was Latin, the clerical -language. The contact of medieval Europeans with the dark-skinned Arabs -added Greek and the knowledge of Greek literature and philosophy to the -earlier medieval discipline. Imbedded in this was the substance of -science nurtured by the Arabs and added to by them.</p> -<p>The ruling classes kept their children within the treadmill of these -two literatures and languages and it came to be thought that this was -the indispensable training for a gentleman. But:—</p> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza" lang="la"> -<div class="verse leadingquote"> -<em>“Tempora mutantur, nos et mutamur in illis.”</em> -</div> -</div> -</div> -<p>**</p> -<p>We are in a different age, an age in which the nation, not the -church, gives training to all children, and not merely to the children -of aristocrats who will grow up to do nothing. The children of the -people must become the doers of all that is done in the world of -tomorrow, and they must be trained for this doing. Today in England, not -Oxford, the home of lost ideals, but such institutions as the University -of London, are the sources of that training which gives England its -physicians, surgeons, inventors, business men and artists.</p> -<h4 id="classicists-ignorant-of-latin-and-greek">Classicists Ignorant of -Latin and Greek</h4> -<p>But the noise of the classicists may be rudely stopped by merely -pointing out the hollowness of their watch words. These persons would -have us believe that Latin and Greek are, in their eyes, the backbone of -any education that is worth while. Very well then, let us take them at -their word. I make the broad assertion that not one in one thousand of -them can read a page of Greek or Latin that may be set before them. I -offer to put under their noses a page of Athenaeus or Horace (to say -nothing of more important classical authors) and if they should be able -to read and translate it at sight I shall be genuinely surprised. Let -the common reader who is a man of today make the test with this little -bit of Latin verse:</p> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza" lang="la"> -<div class="verse leadingquote"> -<em>“Exegi momentum acre perennius</em> -</div> -<div class="verse"> -<em>Regalique situ pyramidum altius.”</em> -</div> -</div> -</div> -<p>Let him ask some classicist to translate off-hand this common school -boy’s tag from a most popular author and note whether they can place the -author or translate the lines. Here is another:</p> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza" lang="la"> -<div class="verse"> -<em>Per varios casus, per tot discrimina rerum,</em> -</div> -<div class="verse"> -<em>Tendimus in Latium.</em> -</div> -</div> -</div> -<p>To speak in plain United States, when it comes to the showdown it -will be found that those of us who argue in favor of the modern -discipline (in so far as we have any knowledge of classical literature) -know more about them than those whose sole defence they are.</p> -<p>It is said by the classicists that a knowledge of Latin and Greek is -necessary to an adequate comprehension of the English language. But so -is the knowledge of Sanscrit, Arabic, French and Italian. And when it -comes to facility and clearness of expression, it will be found that -Huxley’s prose is superior to that of Matthew Arnold, and Brisbane’s -superior to that of any professor of the Latin language in Harvard or -Yale. So much for the ghost fighters. Requiescant in pace!</p> -<h4 id="the-knowledge-we-need">The Knowledge We Need</h4> -<p>Now, what is the knowledge which the New Negro needs most? He needs -above all else a knowledge of the wider world and of the long past. But -that is history, modern and ancient: History as written by Herodotus and -John Bach McMaster; sociology not as conceived by Giddings, but as -presented by Spencer and Ward, and anthropology as worked out by Boas -and Thomas. The Negro needs also the knowledge of the best thought; but -that is literature as conceived, not as a collection of flowers from the -tree of life, but as its garnered fruit. And, finally, the Negro needs a -knowledge of his own kind, concerning which we shall have something to -say later, And the purposes of this knowledge? They are, to know our -place in the human processus, to strengthen our minds by contact with -the best and most useful thought-products evolved during the long rise -of man from anthropoid to scientist; to inspire our souls and to lift -our race industrially, commercially, intellectually to the level of the -best that there is in the world about us. For <em>never until the -Negro’s knowledge of nitrates and engineering, of chemistry and -agriculture, of history, science and business is on a level, at least, -with that of the whites, will the Negro be able to measure arms -successfully with them.</em></p> -</div> -<div id="chapter-9" class="chapter"> -<hr class="chap"> -<h2 id="chapter-ix.-a-few-books.">CHAPTER IX.<br>A FEW BOOKS.</h2> -<h3 id="the-negro-in-history-and-civilization">The Negro in History and -Civilization</h3> -<p class="reviewedauthor"> -(From Superman to Man, by J. A. Rogers.) -</p> -<p>This volume by Mr. Rogers is the greatest little book on the Negro -that we remember to have read. It makes no great parade of being -“scientific,” as so many of our young writers do who seem to think that -science consists solely in logical analysis. If science consists -fundamentally of facts, of information and of principles derived from -those facts, then the volume before us is one of the most scientific -that has been produced by a Negro writer. It sweeps the circle of all -the social sciences. History, sociology, anthropology, psychology, -economics and politics—even theology—are laid under contribution and -yield a store of information which is worked up into a presentation so -plain and clear that the simplest can read and understand it, and yet so -fortified by proofs from the greatest standard authorities of the past -and present that there is no joint in its armor in which the keenest -spear of a white scientist may enter.</p> -<p>Unlike an older type of scholar (now almost extinct) the author does -not go to vapid verbal philosophers or devotional dreamers for the facts -of history and ethnology. He goes to historians and ethnologists for -them and to anthropologists for his anthropology. The result is -information which stands the searching tests of any inquirer who chooses -to doubt and investigate before accepting what is set before him.</p> -<p>From this book the unlearned reader of the African race can gather -proof that his race has not always been a subject or inferior race. He -has the authority of Professor Reisner, of Harvard; of Felix Dubois, -Volney, Herodotus, Finot, Sergi, the modern Egyptologists and the -scholars of the white world who assembled at the Universal Races -Congress in London in 1911, for the belief that his race has founded -great civilizations, has ruled over areas as large as all Europe, and -was prolific in statesmen, scientists, poets, conquerors, religious and -political leaders, arts and crafts, industry and commerce when the white -race was wallowing in barbarism or sunk in savagery. Here he can learn -on good authority, from St. Jerome and Cicero, Herodotus and Homer down -to the modern students of race history, that cannibalism has been a -practise among white populations like the Scythians, Scots and Britons; -that the white races have been slaves; that here in America the slavery -of white men was a fact as late as the 19th century, and “according to -Professor Cigrand, Grover Cleveland’s grandfather, Richard Falley, was -an Irish slave in Connecticut.” In short, he will learn here, not that -newspaper science which keeps even “educated” Americans so complacently -ignorant, but the science of the scientists themselves. He will learn -all that this kind of science has to tell of the relative capacity and -standing of the black and white races—and much of it will surprise him. -But all of it will please and instruct.</p> -<p>The book also deals with the facts of the present position of the -Negro in America and the West Indies; with questions of religion, -education, politics and political parties, war work, lynching, -miscegenation on both sides, the beauty of Negro women and race -prejudice. And on everyone of these topics it gives a minimum of opinion -and a maximum of information. This information flows forth during the -course of a series of discussions between an educated Negro Pullman -porter and a Southern white statesman on a train running between Chicago -and San Francisco. The superior urbanity of the Negro, coupled with his -wider information and higher intelligence, eventually wins over the -Caucasian to admit that the whole mental attitude of himself and his -race in regard to the Negro was wrong and based on nothing better than -prejudice.</p> -<p>This conversational device gives the author an opportunity to present -all the conflicting views on both sides of the Color Line, and the -result is a wealth of information which makes this book a necessity on -the bookshelf of everyone, Negro or Caucasian, who has some use for -knowledge on the subject of the Negro. The book is published by the -author at 4700 State Street, Chicago.</p> -<h3 id="darkwater">“Darkwater”</h3> -<p class="reviewedauthor"> -By W. E. B. Du Bois. -</p> -<p>An unwritten law has existed for a long time to the effect that the -critical estimates which fix the status of a book by a Negro author -shall be written by white men. Praise or blame—. the elementary -criticism which expresses only the reviewer’s feelings in reference to -the book—has generally been the sole function of the Negro critic. And -the results have not been good. For, in the first place, white critics -(except in music) have been too prone to judge the product of a Negro -author as Dr. Johnson judged the dancing dog: “It isn’t at all like -dancing; but then, one shouldn’t expect more from a dog.” That is why -many Negro poets of fifth grade merit are able to marshal ecomiums by -the bushel from friendly white critics who ought to know better. On the -other hand, there is the danger of disparagement arising solely from -racial prejudice and the Caucasian refusal to take Negro literary -products seriously.</p> -<p>In either case the work fails to secure consideration solely on its -merits. Wherefore, it is high time that competent appraisal of Negro -books should come from “our side of the street.” But, then, the Negro -reading public should be taught what to expect, viz., that criticism is -neither “knocking” nor “boosting”; but an attempt, in the first place, -to furnish a correct and adequate idea of the scope and literary method -of the book under review, of the author’s success in realizing his -objects, and of the spirit in which he does his work. In the second -place, the critic should be expected to bring his own understanding of -the subject matter of the book to bear upon the problem of enlightening -the readers’ understanding, that at the end the reader may decide -whether the work is worth his particular while.</p> -<p>This book of Dr. Du Bois’ is one which challenges the swing of -seasoned judgment and appraisal. It challenges also free thinking and -plain speaking. For, at the very outset, find ourselves forced to demur -to the publishers’ assumptions as to its author’s status. “Even more -than the late Booker Washington, Mr. Du Bois is now chief spokesman of -the two hundred million men and women of African blood.” So say the -publishers—or the author. But this is outrageously untrue. Once upon a -time Dr. Du Bois held a sort of spiritual primacy among The Talented -Tenth, not at all comparable to that of Booker Washington in scope, but -vital and compelling for all that. The power of that leadership, -however, instead of increasing since Mr. Washington’s death, has -decreased, and is now openly flouted by the most active and outspoken -members of The Talented Tenth in Negro America. And, outside of the -twelve or fifteen millions “of African blood” in the United States, the -mass of that race in South and West Africa, Egypt and the Philippines -know, unfortunately, very little of Dr. Du Bois. It may be, however, -that this is merely a publishers’ rhodomontade.</p> -<p>And it is the publishers themselves who challenge for this volume a -comparison with “The Souls of Black Folk,” which was published by -McClurg in 1903. It is regrettable that they should force the issue, for -“The Souls of Black Folk” is a greater book than “Darkwater” in many -ways. In the first place, its high standard of craftsmanship is -maintained through every chapter and page. There are no fag-ends, as in -the chapter “Of Beauty and Death” in the present volume, where the -rhetoric bogs down, the author loses the thread of his purpose and goes -spieling off into space, spinning a series of incongruous purple patches -whose tawdry glitter shows the same reversion to crude barbarism in -taste which leads a Florida fieldhand to don opal-colored trousers, a -pink tie, pari-colored shirt and yellow shoes. Artistically, that -chapter is an awful thing, and I trust that the author is artist enough -to be ashamed of it.</p> -<p>And, though it may savor of anti-climax, “The Souls of Black Folk” -was more artistically “gotten” up—to use the grammar of its author. -“Darkwater” is cheaply bound and cheaply printed on paper which is -almost down to the level of the Seaside Library. Neither in mechanical -nor mental quality does the book of 1920 come up to the level of that of -1903.</p> -<p>Yet, in spite of some defects, “Darkwater” (with the exception of -chapters six, seven, eight and nine) is a book well worth reading. It is -a collection of papers written at different times, between 1908 and -1920, and strung loosely on the string of race. One wishes that the -author could have included his earlier essay on The Talented Tenth and -his address on the aims and ideals of modern education, delivered some -twelve years ago to the colored school children of Washington, D. C.</p> -<p>Each paper makes a separate chapter, and each chapter is followed by -a rhetorical sprig of symbolism in prose or verse in which the -tone-color of the preceding piece is made manifest to the reader. Of -these tone-poems in prose and verse, the best are the Credo; A Litany at -Atlanta; The Riddle of the Sphinx, and Jesus Christ in Texas. In these -the lyrical quality of the author’s prose is lifted to high levels. In -these elegance does not slop over into turgid declamation and rhetorical -claptrap—which has become a common fault of the author’s recent prose as -shown in The Crisis. In this, the first part of the book, the work is -genuine and its rhetoric rings true. Nevertheless, the sustained -artistic swing of “The Souls of Black Folk,” which placed that work (as -a matter of form and style) on the level of Edgar Saltus’ <em>Imperial -Purple</em>—this is not attained in “Darkwater.”</p> -<p>The book may be said to deal largely with the broad international -aspects of the problem of the color line and its reactions on -statecraft, welt-politik, international peace and international trade, -industry, education and the brotherhood of man. Each chapter, or paper, -is devoted to one of these reactions. Then there is a charming -autobiographical paper, “The Shadow of Years,” which first appeared in -The Crisis about three years ago, in which we have the study of a soul -by itself. The growth of the author’s mind under the bewildering shadow -cast by the color line is tragically set forth. I say tragically with -deliberation; for what we see here, despite its fine disguise, is the -smoldering resentment of a mulatto who finds the beckoning white doors -of the world barred on his approach. One senses the thought that, if -they had remained open, the gifted spirit would have entered and made -his home within them. <em>Mais, chacun a son gout</em>, and no one has -the right to quarrel with the author on that doubtful score.</p> -<p>In the chapter on “The Souls of White Folk” we have a fine piece, not -so much of analysis, as of exposition. The author puts his best into it. -And yet that best seems to have failed to bite with acid brutality into -the essential iron of the white man’s soul. For the basic elements of -that soul are Hypocrisy, Greed and Cruelty. True, the author brings this -out; but he doesn’t burn it in. The indictment is presented in terms of -an appeal to shocked sensibilities and a moral sense which exists, for -the white man, only in print; whereas it might have been made in other -terms which come nearer to his self-love. Nevertheless it is -unanswerable in its logic.</p> -<p>In “The Hands of Ethiopia,” as in “The Souls of White Folk,” we catch -the stern note of that threat which (disguise it as our journals will), -the colored races are making, of an ultimate appeal in terms of color -and race to the white man’s only God—the God of Armed Force. But the -author never reaches the height of that newer thought—an international -alliance of Black, Brown and Yellow against the arrogance of White.</p> -<p>In “Work and Wealth” and “The Servant in the House” the problems of -work and its reward, and the tragedy of that reward, are grippingly set -forth in relation to the Negro in America and in the civilized world. -“The Ruling of Men” is followed by three papers of very inferior merit -and the book ends with a fantastic short story, “The Comet” which, like -“The Coming of John” in “The Souls of Black Folk,” suggests that Dr. Du -Bois could be a compelling writer of this shorter form of fiction. The -touch in this story of incident is light, but arresting.</p> -<p>Dr. Du Bois, in the looseness of phrase current in our time in -America, is called a scholar—on what grounds we are not informed. But -Dr. Du Bois is not a scholar; his claim to consideration rests upon a -different basis, but one no less high. And when the Negro culture of the -next century shall assay the products of our own it will seem remarkable -that this supreme wizard of words, this splendid literary artist, should -have left his own demesne to claim the crown of scholarship. Surely, -there is honest credit enough in being what he is, our foremost man of -culture. And this “Darkwater,” despite its lapses from artistic grace, -helps to rivet his claim to that consideration. It is a book which will -well repay reading.</p> -<h3 id="the-rising-tide-of-color-against-white-world-supremacy">The -Rising Tide of Color Against White World Supremacy</h3> -<p class="reviewedauthor"> -By Lothrop Stoddard -</p> -<p>About ten years ago Mr. B. L. Putnam Weale in “The Conflict of Color” -tried to open the eyes of the white men of the world to the fact that -they were acting as their own grave diggers. About the same time -Mr. Melville E. Stone, president of the Associated Press, in an address -before the Quill Club on “Race Prejudice in the Far East” reinforced the -same grisly truth. Five years later “T. Shirby Hodge” wrote “The White -Man’s Burden: A Satirical Forecast,” and ended it with these pregnant -words: “The white man’s burden is—himself.” His publishers practically -suppressed his book, which, by the way, should have been in the library -of every intelligent Negro. The white world was indisposed then to -listen to its voices of warning. But today the physical, economic and -racial ravages of the World War have so changed the white world’s mind -that within four weeks of its appearance “The Rising Tide of Color -Against White World Supremacy,” by Lothrop Stoddard, has struck the -bull’s-eye of attention and has already become the most widely talked-of -book of the year. White men of power are discussing its facts and its -conclusions with bated breath and considerable disquietude.</p> -<p>Here is a book written by a white man which causes white men to -shiver. For it calls their attention to the writing on the wall. It -proves that the white race in its mad struggle for dominion over others -has been exhausting its vital resources and is exhausting them further. -It proves to the hilt the thesis advanced in 1917 in my brief essay on -“The White War and the Colored Races” that, whereas the white race was -on top by virtue of its guns, ships, money, intellect and massed -man-power, in the World War it was busy burning up, depleting and -destroying these very resources on which its primacy depended. But even -though the white capitalists knew all this their mad greed was still -their master. This great race is still so low spiritually that it sells -even its racial integrity for dollars and cents. Mr. Stoddard’s book may -disturb its sense of security for a brief space, but it cannot keep -white “civilization” from its mad dance of death. “What shall it profit -a man if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul?” And the white -race will finally find that this is even more true racially than -individually.</p> -<p>We have noticed for many years that whereas domestic journalism was -merely journalism—the passing register of parochial sensations—the -journalism of the international publicists like Lord Bryce, Meredith -Townsend, Archibald Colquhoon, Putnam Weale and Hyndman was something -more solid than journalism. In the writings of these men hard fact and -stark reality are wedded to wide reading and deep thinking. They are the -real social scientists rather than the stay-at-home, cloistered -sociologists who, presuming to know everything, have seen nothing. The -present volume is one of the best of the former and is full of the -qualities of its class. But at the very outset it suffers from the -unwelcome assistance of Dr. Madison Grant, “chairman of the New York -Zoological Society and trustee of the American Museum of Natural -History.” Dr. Grant has accumulated a large stock of musty ethnological -ideas of which he unburdens himself in what he evidently intends as a -“learned” introduction, without which freightage the book would be much -better. The difference in value and accuracy between Mr. Stoddard’s text -and the pseudo-scientific introduction of Dr. Grant would furnish fair -material for philosophic satire. Unfortunately we cannot indulge the -inclination in the columns of a weekly newspaper.</p> -<p>Dr. Grant, in owlish innocence, splutters out the usual futile folly -which (in other domains) has brought the white race to the frontiers of -the present crisis. He reads back into history the racial values of -today and trails the Anglo-Saxon’s crass conceit and arrogance across -the pages of its record, finding “contrast of mental and spiritual -endowments … elusive of definition,” and other racial clap-trap whose -falsity has been demonstrated again and again by warm-hearted -enthusiasts like Jean Finot and coldly critical and scientific scholars -like Dr. Taylor (“Origin of the Aryans”), Sergi (“The Mediterranean -Race”) and J. M. Robertson (“The Evolution of States”). But one can -forgive Dr. Grant; he is a good American, and good Americans (especially -“scientists” on race) are usually fifty years behind the English, who, -in turn, are usually twenty years behind the Germans. Dr. Grant’s -annexation of the past history of human culture to the swollen record of -the whites sounds good—even if it smells bad. And he is in good -Anglo-Saxon company. Sir Harry Johnston does the same thing and gets -titles (scientific and other) by so doing. The Englishman takes the very -Egyptians, Hindus and tribal Liberians, whom he would call “niggers” in -New York and London, and as soon as he finds that they have done -anything worth while he tags them with a “white” tag. Thus, to the -professional “scientist” like Dr. Grant, living in the parochial -atmosphere of the United States, science is something arcane, recondite -and off the earth; while to the American like Mr. Stoddard, who has been -broadened by travel and contact with the wider world, science, is, as it -should be, organized daily knowledge and common sense. Thus journalists, -good and bad, are the ones who form opinion in America, because -“scientists” are so distressingly stupid.</p> -<p>Mr. Stoddard’s thesis starts from the proposition that of the -seventeen hundred million people on our earth today the great majority -is made up of black, brown, red and yellow people. The white race, being -in the minority, still dominates over the lands of black, brown, red and -(in the case of China) has assumed a right of dictatorship and disposal -even in the yellow man’s lands. In the course of this dictatorship and -domination the white race has erected the barrier of the color line to -keep the other races in their place. But this barrier is cracking and -giving way at many points and the flood of racial self-assertion, -hitherto dammed up, threatens to overflow the outer and inner dikes and -sweep away the domination of the whites.</p> -<p>The author approaches his theme with a curiously graduated respect -for other races. This respect, while it is a novelty in the attitude of -the blond overlords, is always in direct proportion to the present power -and discernible potentialities of the races discussed. For the yellow -man of Japan and China he shows the greatest deference. The browns (of -India, Persia, Afghanistan, Egypt and the Mohammedan world in general) -are, of course, inferior, but must be respected for their militancy. The -reds (the original American stock which is the backbone of the -population of Mexico, Central and South America) are a source of -contamination for white blood and an infernal nuisance, capable of -uniting with Japan and China in an onslaught on the land areas reserved -for white exploitation in the western world; while the blacks, at the -foot of the ladder, have never amounted to anything, don’t amount to -anything now, and can never seriously menace the superiority of the -whites.</p> -<p>The gradation is full of meaning, especially to those fervid -theorists who affect to believe that religion, morality, loyalty and -good citizenship constitute a good claim to the white man’s respect. For -it is Japan’s actual military might and China’s impending military might -which have put them in Grade A, while the brown man’s show of resistance -in Egypt, India and elsewhere under Islam, and his general physical -unrest and active discontent have secured for him a classification in -Grade B. The American in Mexico and South America keeps his window open -toward the east; but the black man still seems, in our author’s eyes, to -be the same loyal, gentle, stupid beast of burden that the white man’s -history has known—except in those parts of Africa in which he has -accepted the Mohammedan religion and thus become a part of the potential -terror of the Moslem world. In this we think our author mistaken; but, -after all, it is neither arguments nor logic that will determine these -matters, but deeds and accomplishments.</p> -<p>But, however his racial respect may be apportioned, Mr. Stoddard -holds that his race is doomed. “If the present drift be not changed we -whites are all ultimately doomed. Unless we set our house in order the -doom will sooner or later overtake us all.” The present reviewer stakes -his money on “the doom,” for the white race’s disease is an ingrowing -one whose development inheres in their very nature. They are so -singularly constituted that they would rather tear themselves to pieces -parading as the lords of creation than see any other people achieve an -equal favor of fortune.</p> -<p>In the pages of this book the author presents many chastening truths -and wide vistas of international politics which are enlightening when -carefully studied. But it is not our intent to cover the entire field of -his work, and we think that we have said enough to indicate the high -value and suggestiveness of the work. But we may be allowed to point out -that all the way through the author, though clear and enlightened, -remains an unreconstructed Anglo-Saxon, desirous of opening the eyes of -his race to the dangers which beset them through their racial injustice -and arrogance; but sternly, resolutely, intent that they shall not share -their overlordship with any other of the sons of earth. His book is -written in a clear and commendable style; he shows but few defects of -temper and a shrewd mastery of his materials. The book should be widely -read by intelligent men of color from Tokio to Tallahassee. It is -published by Charles Scribner’s Sons at $3, and is well worth the -price.</p> -</div> -<div id="chapter-epilogue" class="chapter"> -<hr class="chap"> -<section id="the-black-mans-burden" class="poetry-container"> -<h2>THE BLACK MAN’S BURDEN</h2> -<p class="reviewedauthor"> -(A Reply to Rudyard Kipling.) -</p> -<p class="poemauthor"> -By HUBERT H. HARRISON -</p> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse"> -Take up the Black Man’s burden— -</div> -<div class="verse indent2"> -Send forth the worst ye breed, -</div> -<div class="verse"> -And bind our sons in shackles -</div> -<div class="verse indent2"> -To serve your selfish greed; -</div> -<div class="verse"> -To wait in heavy harness -</div> -<div class="verse indent2"> -Be-devilled and beguiled -</div> -<div class="verse"> -Until the Fates remove you -</div> -<div class="verse indent2"> -From a world you have defiled. -</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse"> -Take up the Black Man’s burden— -</div> -<div class="verse indent2"> -Your lies may still abide -</div> -<div class="verse"> -To veil the threat of terror -</div> -<div class="verse indent2"> -And check our racial pride; -</div> -<div class="verse"> -Your cannon, church and courthouse -</div> -<div class="verse indent2"> -May still our sons constrain -</div> -<div class="verse"> -To seek the white man’s profit -</div> -<div class="verse indent2"> -And work the white man’s gain. -</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse"> -Take up the Black Man’s burden— -</div> -<div class="verse indent2"> -Reach out and hog the earth, -</div> -<div class="verse"> -And leave your workers hungry -</div> -<div class="verse indent2"> -In the country of their birth; -</div> -<div class="verse"> -Then, when your goal is nearest, -</div> -<div class="verse indent2"> -The end for which you fought, -</div> -<div class="verse"> -Watch other’s trained efficiency -</div> -<div class="verse indent2"> -Bring all your hope to naught. -</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse"> -Take up the Black Man’s burden -</div> -<div class="verse indent2"> -Reduce their chiefs and kings -</div> -<div class="verse"> -To toil of serf and sweeper -</div> -<div class="verse indent2"> -The lot of common things: -</div> -<div class="verse"> -Sodden their soil with slaughter, -</div> -<div class="verse indent2"> -Ravish their lands with lead; -</div> -<div class="verse"> -Go, sign them with your living -</div> -<div class="verse indent2"> -And seal them with your dead. -</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse"> -Take up the Black Man’s burden— -</div> -<div class="verse indent2"> -And reap your old reward: -</div> -<div class="verse"> -The curse of those ye cozen, -</div> -<div class="verse indent2"> -The hate of those ye barred -</div> -<div class="verse"> -From your Canadian cities -</div> -<div class="verse indent2"> -And your Australian ports; -</div> -<div class="verse"> -And when they ask for meat and drink -</div> -<div class="verse indent2"> -Go, girdle them with forts. -</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse"> -Take up the Black Man’s burden— -</div> -<div class="verse indent2"> -Ye cannot stoop to less. -</div> -<div class="verse"> -Will not your fraud of “freedom” -</div> -<div class="verse indent2"> -Still cloak your greediness? -</div> -<div class="verse"> -But, by the gods ye worship, -</div> -<div class="verse indent2"> -And by the deeds ye do, -</div> -<div class="verse"> -These silent, sullen peoples -</div> -<div class="verse indent2"> -Shall weigh your gods and you. -</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse"> -Take up the Black Man’s burden— -</div> -<div class="verse indent2"> -Until the tale is told, -</div> -<div class="verse"> -Until the balances of hate -</div> -<div class="verse indent2"> -Bear down the beam of gold. -</div> -<div class="verse"> -And while ye wait remember -</div> -<div class="verse indent2"> -That justice, though delayed, -</div> -<div class="verse"> -Will hold you as her debtor -</div> -<div class="verse indent2"> -Till the Black Man’s debt is paid. -</div> -</div> -</div> -</section> -</div> - -<hr class="chap"> - - <div class="transnote"> - <a id="TN"></a> - - <p><strong>TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE</strong></p><br> - <br> - <p>Obvious typographical errors and punctuation errors have been - corrected after careful comparison with other occurrences within - the text and consultation of external sources.</p> - - <p>Except for the changes noted below, misspelling in the text, and - inconsistent or archaic usage, have been retained.</p> - <br> - In Chapter 3, “Emmet” has been replaced with “Emmett”.<br> - “posiiton” has been replaced with “position”. <br> - In Chapter 5, “conquences” has been replaced with “consequences”; - “lke” has been replaced with “like”; “whch” has been replaced with “which”. <br> - In Chapter 6, “Chanler” has been replaced with “Chandler”.<br> - In Chapter 7, “behaf” has been replaced with “behalf”; - “perpertrated” has been replaced with “perpetrated”; - “delibertaely” has been replaced with “deliberately”; - “whtie” has been replaced with “white”; - “sovereignity” has been replaced with “sovereignty”. <br> - In Chapter 8, “anthroplology” has been replaced with “anthropology”.<br> - “preceeding” has been replaced with “preceding”; - In Chapter 9, “resoures” has been replaced with “resources”. - Additionally, the header “CHAPTER NINE” - has been replaced with “CHAPTER IX” to match with - other chapter headings in the book. - </div> - -<div style='display:block; margin-top:4em'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WHEN AFRICA AWAKES ***</div> -<div style='text-align:left'> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -Updated editions will replace the previous one—the old editions will -be renamed. -</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United -States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. 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