The Crisis 1926-10: Vol 32 Iss 6

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GHIUDRENSMNUMBER LIC LIBRARY | SF22 8 1996 | } DETROIT Boers

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A cordial invitation is extended all to visit SOUTHERN AID BOOTH Necro EXHIBIT PALACE OF AGRICULTURE SESQUI-CENTENNIAL Home Office 525-7-9 N. 2nd St., PHILADELPHIA, PA. Richmond, Va. Southern Aid Society of Va., Inc., takes pleasure in exhibiting to the world the Patriotism and Progress of our group in America. But its chief function is to render a Superior Insurance Service through its Superior Insurance Policy, which provides for One Small Premium, protection against Sickness, Accident and Death. A Postman commends the Policy and Service 918 Lexington St., Norfolk, Va. Southern Aid Society of Va., Inc. Richmond, Virginia. Gentlemen: I have been a policyholder of your company for several years and can truth- fully say that during each period of illness I was promptly paid my sick benefits with every courtesy. I look upon the company as a strong right arm in the time of need. Because I appreciate the help rendered me and mine, and believe that every- one should take advantage of the great benefits of your company, I highly rec- commend it to all of my friends. Very truly yours, (Signed) JAMES R. JONES. Southern Aid Society of Va., Inc. Home Office: 525-27-29 N. Second St., Richmond, Va. District Offices and Agencies in State of Virginia and District of Columbia

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Che Crisis cA Record of the Darker Races (JoNTENTS FOR (.)ctToseR, 1926 COVER PICTURES OF 500 CHILDREN. OPINION Roland Hayes Holiday of Boston, Massachusetts. Page “Crisis Children’’, “Prizes”, “‘Pan-Africa”, “‘Albert Bushnell Hart”, “Coralie Cook’’, “Crime”, “ ‘Colonel’ ” CRITERIA OF NEGRO ART. W. E. Burghardt Du Bois THE LITTLE PAGE. WISCONSIN. THE HORIZON. see ee eee wees Vol. 32, No. 6 Whole No. 192 October, 1926 / THe Crists Macazine: Published monthly and copyrighted by the National Association for the Advancement of Col- ored People at 69 Fifth Avenue, New York, N. Y. Conducted by W. E. Burg- hardt Du Bois; Jessie Redmon Fauset, Contributing Editor; Augustus Granville Dill, Business Manager. 15 cents a copy, $1.50 a year. Foreign subscriptions $1.75. The date of expiration of each subscrip- tion is printed on the wrapper. When the subscription is due a blue renewal blank is enclosed. The address of a sub- scriber may be changed as often as de- sired, but both the old and rtew address must be given and two weeks’ notice is necessary. Manuscripts and drawings re- lating to colored people are desired. They must be accompanied by return postage and while THE Crisis uses every care it assumes no responsibility for their safety -in transit. Entered as second class mat- ter November 2, 1910, at. the post office at New York, N. Y., under the act cf March 3, 1879. Illustrated. Effie Lee Newsome NATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF COLORED PEOPLE re eee eee eee SCHOOL OF SAINT BENEDICT THE MOOR MISSION, MILWAUKEE, Illustration ...... THE STORY OF MIRIAMMNE. Burke Harcourt cee eee eee eee eee wee eee ew eee In the November CRISIS, Charles W. Chesnutt contributes to our Sym- posium on Negro Art.

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THE CRISIS ADVERTISER The North Carolina College for Negroes FORMERLY The Durham State Normal School Opened its fall session September 14, 1926 THE FOLLOWING COURSES WILL BE OFFERED: THE LIBERAL ARTS COURSE Leading to the A. B. Degree and offering sufficient work in Secondary Educa- tion to enable students to secure High School Teachers’ Certificates, Class A, and High School Principals’ Certificates at the cempletion of the course. THE SCIENTIFIC COURSE Leading to the B. S. Degree. THE PRE-MEDICAL COURSE A two-year pre-medical course preparing students for entrance into medical colleges will be given. SPECIAL COURSES IN COMMERCE AND MUSIC The faculty will consist of men and women from the best colleges and uni- versities in the country and will meet the requirements of the Nerth Carolina College Conference. For Catalog and further information address: THE NORTH CAROLINA COLLEGE FOR NEGROES James E. Shepard, Durham, N. C. Virginia Union University RICHMOND, VIRGINIA Lincoln University Pioneer in Collegiate and Boards of i ; Deied so 2. ems, 8. cotane by, Sp. ate Theological Education In addition to the general college curriculum, work Accredited by the Association of Colleges of is offered in the following departments: the Middle States Maryland THEOLOGICAL, TEACHERS COLLEGE, PRE-MEDICAL, Lincoln Graduates are oe guelcssions apd tn GR parte of the canater. LAW, COMMERCIAL. Address: Fer additional information address THE PRESIDENT School of High Standards and a Rigorous Pace WILEY COLLEGE Marshall, Texas Recognised as a Class “‘A’’ College by Standardizing Agencies. Has of juarters The Dean of the University LINCOLN UNIVERSITY CHESTER COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA The gg, trang School eac hers (A State Normal School) Cheyney, Pa. _ A Pennsylvania State Normal Scheel offering, in addition to the regular Normal Academic cs of two years, professional ‘aon courses in Home ics and Shop om A diploma from any of these courses makes a graduate eligible to teach in the public schools of Pennsylvania. First semester began Wednes- day, September 15, 1926. For further information and catalog, write LESLIZ PINCKNEY HI Principal Cheyney, peel, Mention Tue Crisis

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.< RE THE CRISIS Vol. 32 No. 6 ¢ OPINION CRISIS CHILDKEN AGAIN WE COME to the Annual Children’s Number. Few magazines have tried to do more for the children than THE CRISIS. The space we have given them is indeed much too small and of this they have frequently com- plained; but at any rate, we have given them space every year and dur- ing the last years, with the help of Effie Lee Newsome, almost each month. This is as it should be, for the development of sound children and the youth among us is the aston- ishing thing of our history. There are to be sure not enough children in families of the better class; and this is a matter for earnest thought among us. If children are not born to the family, why not adopt them? There are numbers and num- bers of cases of adoption among col- ored folk today and THE CRISIS has helped in many cases. Then beyond quantity of children there comes the matter of quality—a thing of much greater importance. We have still the spoiled and pampered child, over-protected and over-in- dulged, because the parent had so little of guarding and joy. Common sense and social education will weed these children out. Send your little girls and boys to summer camps and let them learn physical hardness and sportsmanship, and the glory of the great outdoors. Schooling is still our grave prob- lem. The colored child in the mixed OCTOBER, 1926 Whole No. 192 of W. E. B. DU BOIS public school has for the most part a hard road to travel. But he will be often stronger and sturdier for the experience, if he pulls through. The colored child in the better colored public schools has also the difficulty of contact with masses who have had small opportunity in this world. It frightens the careful mother and father to know what their children must meet here; but nevertheless, the masses of this world have always been unpleasant companions and only by contact with the better can they be made more pleasant and more use- ful. At least in your home you have a chance to make your child’s sur- roundings of the best: books and pic- tures and music; cleanliness, order, sympathy and understanding; infor- mation, friendship and love,—there is not much of evil in the world that can stand against such home sur- roundings. There is a real sense in which the world is growing young; and that is the reason we are paying more atten- tion to the Youth, the Child and the Baby; and we are doing this because here we have glimpsed Eternal Life. PRIZES ON OCTOBER 25TH in the hall and theatre of International House on Riverside Drive, New York City, THE CRIsIs will give a program of plays and readings in honor of those who have entered manuscripts and drawings in THE CRISIS Prize Compe- 283

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284 THE tition of 1926 and to all. friends of these contestants and of the Renais- sance of Negro Art. The plays will be interesting, the speeches will be few and short, the prize winners will be announced and presented, and a reception will follow. The price of admission will be one dollar. The public is cordially invited to be pres- ent. At this time also we shall an- nounce certain prize competitions for 1926-27. PAN-AFRICA I AM MORE THAN PLEASED to announce that the Fourth Pan- African Congress will meet in New York City in August, 1927. The First Pan-African Congress met in Paris in February, 1919; the Second met in London, Brussels and Paris in August and September, 1921; the Third met in London and Lisbon in November, 1923. With every meeting came increased although more or less veiled opposi- tion, particularly from the great colonial powers and from many mis- sionaries and philanthropists. The suggestions for a Fourth Congress in 1925 brought little tangible response and on the other hand redoubled ef- fort on the part of certain white leaders to take personal charge of all efforts toward African uplift and unity. Personally, I had determined that, unless the idea of Pan-Africa took such root in the minds of thinking men of African descent as to make them rally voluntarily to the idea, I would not-push it further. Already, at my solicitation, the N. A. A. C. P. had financed the first two Congress- es; while the Peace and Foreign Re- lations Committee of the National Association of Colored Women had stood behind the Third. Finally, this year the Circle of Peace and Foreign Relations, which under the leadership of Mrs. A. W. Hunton had become an independent body, announced its intention of con- CRISIS vening the Fourth Pan-African Con- gress and asked my aid and co-opera- tion. This I have promised and we hope that the coming Congress will be the greatest and most important gathering of representatives of all branches of the black race which the world has yet seen; and that it will settle for all time the question as to whether Negroes are to lead in the rise of Africa or whether they must always and everywhere follow the guidance of white folk. ALBERT BUSHNELL HART LAST MONTH Albert Bushnell Hart, for over forty years Professor of History and Government in Har- vard University, retired from active duty. He was one of my teachers when I went to Harvard; together with William James and Josiah Royce. He made tremendous impres- sion upon me. Primarily the impres- sion made by Albert Bushnell Hart was a eertain thoroughness and method, the cataloging and filing in Manila folders of the endless, multi- tudinous, confusing facts of history. Under him I delved into historical re- search and adventure; published my first book, “The Suppression of the Slave Trade”, which he with delicate compliment made the initial volume in the Harvard Historical Studies. But with all this there was still a greater impression which these three men made. In judging me, they did not make the color of my face the prime and faithful and important fact. Apparently they quite for- got my face and my hair and my ancestors and they treated me as simply human. At first shyly and with some perturbation, I visited their homes; afterward quite na- turally I ate with them; I met their wives and children; I became a friend of the family, and was invited with other friends. How sin- gularly a commentary upon this

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OCTOBER, 1926 SANS | ' ' ) Above: GARNETT ROY HIGGENBOTHAM, eae Georgia Below: LUTHER PORTER JACKSON, JR., Chicago, Ill. Oval: ROBERT JACOBSON, Hugoton, Kansas

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286 great, free Republic of the West that this does and ought to remain in my mind as the greatest fact about three great teachers! In this way then and later in personal intercourse and by his writing about slavery and Re- construction, Albert Bushnell Hart has done much for the Negro in America. May the end of his days be peace! CORALIE COOK CORALIE FRANKLIN COOK has retired after twelve years’ service as member of the Board of Education of the District of Columbia. Her ser- vices have been inestimable. She has brought dignity and intelligence to bear in a nest of intrigue and graft. She has protected Negro woman- hood from white skunks in Congress and out, Northern and Southern. She has maintained to her utmost ability a high standard of appointment and administration and she leaves a sys- tem of Negro schools at the capital of the nation which compares favor- ably with any school system black or white in America. The Negro race owes Mrs. Cook a deep debt of grati- tude. CRIME FOR A LONG TIME the South has treated Crime as a matter of race. It used the courts to disfranchise the Negroes, to excuse mob violence and to secure cheap labor for. the State and for individuals. The result was Negro “crime” on a tremendous scale. It was to this crime that the South pointed with calm assurance whenever there was talk of Negro uplift or Negro suffrage. But this sort of thing defeats itself. The Southern Negro today does not expect justice in the courts. He seeks not protection by policemen, but protec- He does not tion from policemen. THE CRISIS depend upon the law because he knows that the law is arranged to cheat him. He has no faith in judge and juries, and thus shows good sense. The result is seen in various places in the South and particularly has been brought out in South Carolina lately. The Weekly News of the University of South Carolina, May 5, 1926, shows that while there is a majority of Ne- groes in the state, fifty-one and one-tenth per cent of the legal prose- cutions in the state were against white people; that the rate of court cases was two and two-tenths per one thousand white inhabitants and two for the Negroes. In addition to this, in the last ten years white prosecu- tions have increased eighty-seven and one-tenth per cent while Negro prose- cutions have decreased sixteen and six-tenths per cent. In the rate per thousand inhabitants, white prosecu- tion has increased fifty-seven per cent and Negro prosecution has decreased twenty per cent. Even these figures tell but half the story. As a well- known South Carolina lawyer writes us “when we consider that the crimes of many white people in this part of the country never reach the courts, which is scarcely true of the Negro, these statistics become more illumi- nating”. Then too, the Negroes get much more severe punishment than the whites and the jails are perfect incu- bators of ‘crime. It is doubtful if a more distressing picture could have been given than the report of the Spe- cial Joint Legislative Committee to investigate conditions at the State Penitentiary made at the regular ses- sion of the General Assembly of South Carolina in 1923 and published by the State. Half of the cells are in darkness all day: The kitchen is “filthy”; the buildings are “dilapi- dated” ; three hundred prisoners have

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OCTOBER) 1926 Top Row: Louise Taylor Hayden, Dayton, Ohio; Doris Marie Brown, Lima, Ohio; Geraldine Prentiss, Lex- ington, Kentucky; Janet.Turner, Dayton, Ohio. Second Row: Estelle Parker, Frankfort, Kentucky; Elerene Myrtle Murphy, Salt ‘Lake City; Harriet Elizabeth Bell, Frankfort, Kentucky; Samuel-Sanford Dunston, Lexington, Kentucky. Third’ Row: Daniel Echols, Buffalo; Bessie Lee Davis, Raton, N. M.; Theodore, Morgan, McKee, ‘Frankfort, Keritucky; Ruby ‘Iréne Kirk, Portland, Oregon. Bottorh Row: Bernard Douglas Philips, Buffalo; Arthur Sayres Anderson, Buffalo; Cecile Eileen Biggs, Dayton, Ohio; ‘Loraine Tatman,

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288 only ten toilets; there are almost no decent facilities for bathing and the prisoners dry themselves with their own soiled clothing. There is almost a “complete lack of personal rec- ords”. There is no adequate arrange- ments for dish washing so that the dishes are dirty and greasy. During the winter months 280 cells are too dark for reading. No recreation is allowed except gambling. “There are no written or printed rules to govern the conduct of and control over pris- oners.” Accounts and records are un- believably inadequate and incomplete. There is every chance for dishonesty and graft on the part of the keepers. Brutal punishments are inflicted, like flogging, chaining around the neck. The constitution unadmittedly de- Glares that “corporal punishment shall not be inflicted”, and yet, as the official report declares: “As many as forty-seven lashes have been admin- istered to men and twenty-five to Ne- gro women. (White women are not whipped). Women and men are stripped naked to the waist, men are sometimes entirely naked. The wo- men have their arms placed in stocks ’ while being whipped. Men whipped in the death house are laid face down on the table used to lay out dead bodies after electrocution, they are held in place by guards or trusties who hold their wrists and ankles, and by a stick placed across the neck, the ends of which are held down by the assistants. Men whipped in the base- ment of the hospital building have their wrists handcuffed and secured above their heads to a ring in the wall. The whipping strap used for the women is a duplicate of that used for the men—a piece of smooth, plia- ble harness leather about a quarter of an inch thick, two inches wide and twenty inches long secured to a round wooden handle ten inches long . We heard evidence that men have lost THE CRISIS consciousness under the lash. A ' trusty who works out of doors 200 feet from the women’s building testi- fied that he could hear not only the cries for mercy of the women under- going punishment in their second story barracks room, but that he could hear and count the stroke of each lash on the bare back. Floggings in the death house can be heard in the near- by main cell house. Those in the upper stories can count the strokes as they are administered in the whip- ping room in the basement of the hospital building. One Negro woman was put in the stocks, her back bared and whipped for breaking ranks and picking a flower in the prison yard.” “COLONEL” I WAS PROFOUNDLY astonished to find myself put down in the pas- senger list of the steamship “Penn- land” as “Col. W. E. B. Du Bois”. I have in my day achieved several titles and had many thrust upon me by the exigencies of the color line and for other reasons; but “Colonel’’! I puz- zled over it and then I saw light. Of course I may be quite wrong, but sup- . pose—just suppose, that a careful steamboat agent had entered me this way: “W. E. B. Du Bois (Col.)”, not for publication of course but as—an evidence of good faith. And then the intelligent stenographer comes along and seeing this obvious slip of the Boss, corrects it, and lo! “Col. W. E. B.” ete. If this wasn’t true it was good enough to be true and I’ve chuckled over the grand joke on the Red Star Line from Sandy Hook to the Hook of Holland. But, honor bright, I neither as- sumed a “military” bearing nor even flashed an eagle eye! An early issue of THE CRISIS will contain Marieta Bonner’s “Nothing New”.

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OCTOBER, 1926 Sey Gous See Hall, Jr St. Louis; Frank Folds, Jr., Middleshoro, Ky. Second Row: eeves, New York; Hazel L. "Skipper, ‘Savannah . Third Row: John Winston, Boston; J New York, Cornelite Aiphews on, Jr., Thomasville, Ga.; Beatrice J Bottom Row: Sucher ee eee ; La

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Criteria of Negro Art W.E. BURGHARDT DU BOIS. So many persons have asked for the com- plete text of the address delivered by Dr. Du Bois at the Chicago Conference of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People that we are publishing the address here. DO not doubt but there are some in this audience who are a little disturbed at the subject of this meeting, and par- ticularly at the subject I have chosen. Such people are thinking something like this: “How is it that an organization like this, a group of radicals trying to bring new things into the world, a fighting organiza- tion which has come up out of the blood and dust of battle, struggling for the right of black men to be ordinary human beings— how is it that an organization of this kind can turn aside to talk about Art? After all, what have we who are slaves and black to do with Art?” Or perhaps there are others who feel a certain relief and are saying, “After all it is rather satisfactory after all this talk about rights and fighting to sit and dream of something which leaves a nice taste in the mouth”. Let me tell you that neither of these groups is right. The thing we are talking about tonight is part of the great fight we are carrying on and it represents a for- ward and an upward look—a pushing: on- ward. You and I have been breasting hills; we have been climbing upward; there has been progress and we can see it day by day looking back along blood-filled paths. But as you go through the valleys and over the foothills, so long as you are climbing, the direction,—north, south, east or west,— is of less importance. But when gradually the vista widens and you begin to see the world at your feet and the far horizon, then it is time to know more precisely whither you are going and what you really want. .-What do we want? we are after? What is the thing As it was phrased last night it had a certain truth: We want to be Americans, full-fledged Americans, with | all the rights of other American citizens: But is that all? Do we want simply to be Americans? Once in a while through all = of us there » fashes some. clairvoyance, some clear, j ea, of what America really - We wi re dark can see America in a a Way, thal white Americans can not. And seeing-.our country thus, are we satisfied with” its present goals and ideals? In the high school where I studied we learned most of Scott’s “Lady of the Lake” by heart. In_after life once it was my privilege to see the lake.“ It was Sundhy. It was quiet. You ‘could glimpse the deer wandering in unbroken forests; you could hear the soft. ripple of romance on the wa- ters. Around me fell the cadence of that poetry of my youth. I fell asleep full of the enchantment of the Scottish border. A new day broke and with it came a sudden rush of excursionists. They were mostly Americans and they were loud and strident. They poured upon the little pleasure boat,— men with their hats a little on one side and drooping cigars in the wet corners of their mouths; women who shared their con- versation with the world. They all tried to get everywhere first. They pushed other people out of the way. They made all sorts of incoherent noises and gestures so that the quiet home folk and the visitors from other lands silently and half-wondering!y gave way before them. They struck a note not evil but wrong. They carried, perhaps, a sense of strength and accomplishment, but their hearts had no conception of the beauty which pervaded this holy place. If you tonight suddenly should become full-fledged Americans; if your color faded, or the color line here in Chicago was miraculously forgotten; suppose, too, you became at the same time rich and power- ful;—what is it that you would want? What would you immediately seek? Would you buy the most powerful of motor cars and outrace Cook County? Would you buy the most elaborate estate on the North Shore? “Would you be a Rotarian or a Lion or a What-not of the very last de- gree? Would you wear the most striking clothes, give the richest dinners and buy the Tongest' press’ notices? Even as you visualize such ideals you know in your hearts that these are not the things you really want. You realize this sooner than the average white American 290

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OCTOBER, 1926

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292 THE ‘ because, pushed aside as we have been in America, there has come to us~not only a certain distaste for the tawdry and flam- boyant but a vision of what the world could be if it were really a beautiful world; if we had the true spirit; if we had the Seeing Eye, the Cunning Hand, the Feeling Heart; if we had, to be sure, not perfect happi- ness, but plenty of good hard work, the inevitable suffering that always comes with life; sacrifice and waiting, all that—but, nevertheless, lived in a world where men know, where men create, where they real- ize themselves and where they enjoy life. It is that sort of a world we want to create for ourselves and for all America. After all, who shall describe Beauty? What is it? I remember tonight four beau- tiful things: The Cathedral at Cologne, a forest in stone, set in light and changing shadow, echoing with sunlight and solemn song; a village of the Veys in West Africa, a little thing of mauve and purple, quiet, lying content and shining in the sun; a black and velvet room where on a throne rests, in old and yellowing marble, the broken curves of the Venus of Milo; a single phrase of music in the Southern South—utter melody, haunting and -appeal- ing, suddenly arising out of night and eter- nity, beneath the moon. Such is Beauty. Its variety is infinite, its possibility is endless. In normal life all may have it and have it yet again. The world is full of it; and yet today the mass of human beings are choked away from it, and their lives distorted and made ugly. This is not only wrong, it is silly. Who shall right this well-nigh universal fail- ing? Who shall let this world be beauti- ful? Who shall restore to men the glory of sunsets and the peace of quiet sleep? We black folk may help for we have within us as a race new stirrings; stirrings of the beginning of a new appreciation of joy, of a new desire to create, of a new will to be; as though in this morning of group life we had awakened from some sleep that at once dimly mourns the past and dreams a splendid future; and there has come the conviction that the Youth that is here to- day, the Negro Youth, is a different kind of Youth, because in some new way it bears this mighty prophecy on its breast, with a new realization of itself, with new deter- mination for all mankind. CRISIS What has this Beauty to do with the world? What has Beauty to do with Truth and Goodness—with the facts of the world and the right actions of men? “Nothing”, the artists rush to answer. They may be right. I am but an humble disciple of art and cannot presume to say. I am one who tells the truth and exposes evil and seeks with Beauty and for Beauty to set the world right. That somehow, somewhere eternal and perfect Beauty sits above Truth and Right I can conceive, but here and now and in the world in which I work they are for me unseparated and inseparable. This is brought to us peculiarly when as artists we face our own past as a people. There has come to us—and it has come especially through the man we are going to honor tonight*—a realization of that past, of which for long years we have been ashamed, for which we have apologized. We thought nothing could:come out of that past which we wanted to remember; which we wanted to hand down to our children. Suddenly, this same past is taking on form, color and reality, and in a half shame- faced way we are beginning to be proud of it. We are remembering that the romance of the world did not die and lie forgotten in the Middle Age; that if you want romance to deal with you must have it here and now and in your own hands. I once knew a man and woman. They had two children, a daughter who was white and a daughter who was brown; the daugh- ter who was white married a white man; and when her wedding was preparing the daughter who was brown prepared to go and celebrate. But the mother said, “No!” and the brown daughter went into her room and turned on the gas and died. Do you want Greek tragedy swifter than that? Or again, here is a little Southern town and you are in the public square. On one side of the square is the office of a colored lawyer and on all the other sides are men who do not like colored lawyers. A white woman goes into the black man’s office and points to the white-filled square and says, “I want five hundred dollars now and if I do not get it I am going to scream.” Have you heard the story of the conquest of German East Africa? Listen to the un- told tale: There were 40,000 black men and * Carter Godwin Woodson, 12th Spingarn Mediallist.

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294 THE 4,000 white men who talked German. There were 20,000 black men and 12,000 white men who talked English. There were 10,- 000 black men and 400 white men who talked French. In Africa then where the Mountains of the Moon raised their white and snow-capped heads into the mouth of the tropic sun, where Nile and Congo rise and the Great Lakes swim, these men fought; they struggled on mountain, hill and valley, in river, lake and swamp, until in masses they sickened, crawled and died; until the 4,000 white Germans had become mostly bleached bones; until nearly all the 12,000 white Englishmen had returned to South Africa, and the 400 Frenchmen to Belgium and Heaven; all except a mere handful of the white men died; but thousands of black men from East, West and South Africa, from Nigeria and the Valley of the Nile, and from the West In- dies still struggled, fought and died. For four years they fought and won and lost German East Africa; and all you hear about it is that England and Belgium con- quered German Africa for the allies! Such is the true and stirring stuff of which Romance is born and from this stuff come the stirrings of men who are begin- ning to remember that this kind of material is theirs; and this vital life of their own kind is beckoning them on. The question comes next as to the inter- pretation of these new stirrings, of this new spirit: Of what is the colored artist capable? We have had on the part of both colored and white people singular unanim- ity of judgment in the past. Colored peo- ple have said: “This work must be in- ferior because it comes from colored peo- ple.” White people have said: “It is in- ferior because it is done by colored people.” But today there is coming to both the reali- zation that the work of the black man is not always inferior. Interesting stories come to us. A professor in the University of Chicago read to a class that had studied literature a passage of poetry and asked them to guess the author. They guessed a goodly company from Shelley and Robert Browning down to Tennyson and Masefield. The author was Countée Cullen. Or again the English critic John Drinkwater went down to a Southern seminary, one of the sort which “finishes” young white women of the South. The students sat with their wooden faces while he tried to get some CRISIS - response out of them. Finally he said, “Name me some of your Southern poets”. They hesitated. He said finally, “I'll start out with your best: Paul Laurence Dun- bar”! With the growing recognition of Negro artists in spite of the severe handicaps, one comforting thing is occurring to both white and black. They are whispering, “Here is - a way out. Here is the real solution of the color problem. The recognition accorded Cullen, Hughes, Fauset, White and others shows there is no real color line. Keep quiet! Don’t complain! Work! All will be well!” I will not say that already this chorus amounts to a conspiracy. Perhaps I am naturally too suspicious. But I will say that there are today a surprising number of white people who are getting great sat- isfaction out of these younger Negro writ- ers because they think it is going to stop agitation of the Negro question. They say, “What is the use of your fighting and com- plaining; do the great thing and the re- ward is there”. And many colored people are all too eager to follow this advice; especially those who are weary of the eter- nal struggle along the color line, who are afraid to fight and to whom the money of philanthropists and the alluring publicity are subtle and deadly bribes. They say, “What is the use of. fighting? Why not show simply what we deserve and let the reward come to us?” And it is right here that the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People comes upon the field, comes with its great call to a new battle, a new fight and new things to fight before the old things are wholly won; and to say that the Beauty of Truth and Freedom which shall some day be our heritage and the heritage of all civilized men is not in our hands yet and that we ourselves must not fail to realize. There is in New York tonight a black woman molding clay by herself in a little bare room, because there is not a single school of sculpture in New York where she is welcome. Surely there are doors she might burst through, but when God makes a sculptor He does not always make the pushing sort of person who beats his way through doors thrust in his face. This girl is working her hands off to get out of this country so that she can get some sort of training.

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OCTOBER, 1926 Top Row: Josie Elizabeth Pleasant, Savannah; Mamie ee Roberta Harriet Bal. New Grinsn Orleans; Joyce Levert Ti rt Todd, Sen’ Antonie. Second Rows Albert E. Colle j Esther E. Newton, Gonain B, Beruce Com Elizabeth Lockitt, Boston. Gwendolyn Marie McCann, New Orleans, Sige Sigal Frocman’ Topeka rown, estfield, wis"Neat Ea , Killarney, W. Va.;_ City Tomy Willian Card Betta Row: Phyl Middlesbro, Ky.; Hortense Campbell, Bedford,

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296 THE There was Richard Brown. If he had been white he would have been alive today instead of dead of neglect. Many helped him when he asked but he was not the kind of boy that always asks. He was simply one who made colors sing. There is a colored woman in Chicago who is a great musician. She thought she would like to study at Fontainebleau this summer where Walter Damrosch and a score of leaders of Art have an American school of music. But the application blank of this school says: “I am a white Amer- ican and I apply for admission. to the school.” We can go on the stage; we can be just as funny as white Americans wish us to be; we can play all the sordid parts that Amer- ica likes to assign to Negroes; but for any thing else there is still small place for us. And so I might go on. But let me sum up with this: Suppose the only Negro who survived some centuries hence was the Negro painted by white Americans in the novels and essays they have written. What would people in a hundred years say of black Americans? Now turn it around. Suppose you were to write a story and put in it the kind of people you know and like and imagine. You might get it published and you might not. And the “might not” is still far bigger than the “might”. The white publishers catering to white folk would say, “It is not interesting”—to white folk, naturally not. They want Uncle Toms, Topsies, good “darkies” and clowns. I have in my office a story with all the ear- marks of truth. A young man says that he started out to write and had his stories accepted. Then he began to write about the things he knew best about, that is, about his own people. He submitted a story to a magazine which said, “We are sorry, but we cannot take it”. “I sat down and revised my story, changing the color of the characters and the locale and sent it under an assumed name with a change of address and it was accepted by the same magazine that had refused it, the editor promising to take anything else I might send in pro- viding it was good enough.” We have, to be sure, a few recognized and successful Negro artists; but they are not all those fit. to survive or even a good minority. They are but the remnants of that ability and genius among us whom the accidents of education and opportunity CRISIS have raised on the tidal waves of chance. We black folk are not altogether peculiar in this. After all, in the world at large, it is only the accident, the remnant, that gets the chance to make the most of itself; but if this is true of the white world it is infinitely more true of the colored world. It is not simply the great clear tenor of Roland Hayes that opened the ears of America. We have had many voices of all kinds as fine as his and America was and is as deaf as she was for years to him. Then a foreign land heard Hayes and put its imprint on him and immediately Amer- ica with all its imitative snobbery woke up. We approved Hayes because London, Paris and Berlin approved him and not simply because he was a great singer. Thus it is the bounden duty of black America to begin this great work of the creation of Beauty, of the preservation of Beauty, of the realization of Beauty, and we must use in this work all the methods that men have used before. And what have been the tools of the artist in times gone by? First of all, he has used the Truth— not for the sake of truth, not as a scientist seeking truth, but as one upon whom Truth eternally thrusts itself as the highest hand- maid of imagination, as the one great ve- hicle of universal understanding. Again artists have used Goodness—goodness in all its aspects of justice, honor and right—not for sake of an ethical sanction but as the one true method of gaining sympathy and human interest. The apostle of Beauty thus becomes the apostle of Truth and Right not by choice but *-y inner and outer compulsion. °Free he ‘s but his freedom is ever bounded by T:uth and Justice; and slavery only dogs him when he is denied the right to tell the Truth or recognize an ideal of Justice. Thus all Art is propaganda and ever must be, despite the wailing of the purists. I stand in utter shamelessness and say that whatever art I have for writing has been used always for propaganda for gaining the right of black folk to love and enjoy. I do not care a damn for any art that is not used for propaganda. But I do care when propaganda is confined to one side while the other is stripped and silent. In New York we have two plays: “White Cargo” and “Congo”. In “White Cargo” there is a fallen woman. She is black. In “Congo” the fallen woman is white. In

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OCTOBER, 1926 “White Cargo” the black woman goes down further and further and in “Congo” the white woman begins with degradation but in the end is one of the angels of the Lord. You know the current magazine story: A young white man goes down to Central America and the most beautiful colored woman there falls in love with him. She crawls across the whole isthmus to get to him. The white man says nobly, “No”. He goes back to his white sweetheart in New York. In such cases, it is not the positive propa- ganda of people who believe white blood divine, infallible and holy to which I ob- ject. It is the denial of a similar right of propaganda to those who believe black blood human, lovable and inspired with new ideals for the world. White artists them- selves suffer from this narrowing of their field. They cry for freedom in dealing with Negroes because they have so little free- dom in dealing with whites. DuBose Hey- wood writes “Porgy” and writes beauti- fully of the black Charleston underworld. But why does he do this? Because he can- not do a similar thing for the white people of Charleston, or they would drum him out of town. The only chance he had to tell the truth of pitiful human degradation was to tell it of colored people. I should not be surprised if Octavius Roy Cohen had approached the Saturday Evening Post and asked permission to write about a different ‘kind of colored folk than the monstrosities he has created; but if he has, the Post has replied, “No. You are getting paid to write about the kind of colored people you are writing about.” In other words, the white public today demands from its artists, literary and pic- torial, racial pre-judgment which deliber- ately distorts Truth and Justice, as far as colored races are concerned, and it will pay for no other. On the other hand, the young and slowly growing black public still wants its pro- phets almost equally unfree. We are bound by all sorts of customs that have come down as second-hand soul clothes of white patrons. We are ashamed of sex and we lower our eyes when people will talk of it. Our religion holds us in superstition. Our worst side has been so shamelessly empha- 297 sized that we are denying we have or ever had a worst side. In all sorts of ways we are hemmed in and our new young artists have got to fight their way to freedom. The ultimate judge has got to be you and you have got to build yourselves up into that wide judgment, that catholicity of temper which is going to enable the artist to have his widest chance for freedom. We can afford the Truth. White folk today cannot. As it is now we are handing every- thing over to a white jury. If a colored man wants to publish a book, he has got to get a white publisher and a white news- paper to say it is great; and then you and I say so. We must come to the place where the work of art when it appears is reviewed and acclaimed by our own free and unfet- tered judgment. And we are going to have a real and valuable and eternal judgment only as we make ourselves free of mind, proud of body and just of soul to all men. And then do you know what will be said? It is already saying. Just as soon as true Art emerges; just as soon as the black artist appears, someone touches the race on the shoulder and says, “He did that be- cause he was an American, not because he was a Negro; he was born here; he was trained here; he is not a Negro—what is a Negro anyhow? He is just human; it is the kind of thing you ought to expect”. I do not doubt that the ultimate art com- ing from black folk is going to be just as beautiful, and beautiful largely in the same ways, as the art that comes from white folk, or yellow, or red; but the point today is that until the art of the black folk com- pells recognition they will not be rated as human. And when through art they com- pell recognition then let the world discover if it will that their art is as new as it is old and as old as new. I had a classmate once who did three beautiful things and died. One of them was a story of a folk who found fire and then went wandering in the gloom of night seeking again the stars they had once known and lost; suddenly out of blackness they looked up and there loomed the heav- ens; and what was it that they said? - They raised a mighty cry: “It is the stars, it is the ancient stars, it is the young and everlasting stars!” + a

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The Little Page With Autumn Greetings ta the Children CALENDAR CHAT HIS is going to be a very strange CAL- ENDAR CHAT. I dont know what you will think of it. It is about wheat- thrashing in Ohio when I was a child. This was a great season for us—the time of thrashing that extended from late sum- mer to early autumn. We loved to hear the thrashing machines approaching with a clattering noise and an occasional sound of the whistle from far up the pike. It was next to having a circus come to town, not that any circus ever visited our tiny village. The boys would drop the jol- liest game of croquet or run forth from the most enticing orchard tent at the sound of the thrashing “mush-ine”, if I may give m-a-c-h-i-n-e the pronunciation that our childhood speech bestowed upon it. If the boys had been munching mellow golden harvest apples these became as naught in their hands and were dropped to earth because of the magic call of that thrasher that came crawling like a dark caterpillar up the white dusty pike. It seemed that it would never reach our gate. We girls had no thought of following the machine. This wild escapade appealed rather to the boys. Yet we enjoyed watch- ing the grimy wheels at close range from our post. at the front gate. A sooty dusty affair, that thrashing machine, manned by soiled laborers in blue overalls and flap- ping straw hats. They would signal cheer- ily to the boys if any of these remained as spectators; but usually by the time the machine had reached our gate the boys were aboard as well-established passengers and would gaze upon us with menacing triumph as we threatened, “I’m going to tell ON YOU. I’m going TO TELL!” There seemed something absolutely reck- less and, to the last degree dare-dévil in hopping up on a thrashing machine and riding off with its hilarious crew. We had all heard terrible stories of boys having limbs torn from them in the course of thrashing machines’ operations, which was possible and true. But off went our brothers nevertheless, EFFIE LEE NEWSOME 298 leaving us the alloyed solace of reporting their departure to our disgusted elders. The boys followed the machine with the hope of being employed to “feed”, that. is, armed with pitchforks, to stand on the great golden heaps of wheat and toss up bunches of it into the thrasher. The beauty of that scene! The splendor of it! To stand on a hill and look down upon some great broad plane with full sum- mer sun upon it and the thrashing machine puffing out clouds of amber chaff, and the men in blue overalls jumping and trotting about, and the boys tossing straw upon one another or rolling down the mountains of straw. At noonday the work ceased. The farmer host would have laden tables waiting for the toilers. Frequently the machine’s crew included well-to-do farmers who with their own field hands had come to help their neighbor out, or who, to use our local designation, were “neighboring”. So they exchanged courtesies. But back to the thrashing dinner! The boys upon returning home at dusk barefooted, conscience-stricken, approach- ing by some deep hidden cow path or sneak- ing over a stile to avoid parental chal- lenges, would share with us as the price of silence their proceeds from feeding the machine and pass around some rare sweet pears and give most eloquent accounts of those dinners, rich with all the apple pie— flecked with nutmeg, I imagine—that one could eat. But sometimes in the midst of these vivid descriptions a parent would surprise the runaway. His story would end. Some- times the day abruptly closed for him, for he would be sent to bed, if the punishment ended there. No dread of consequent suf- fering, however, could cure the boys of their love for following thrashing machines. They might allow the busy wheels to roll past our house for perhaps two days after the last chastisement. But on the third day they would surely be off again on the first thrasher passing toward the boundless fields of wheat.

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OCTOBER, I “Lantem 3 JACK O-LANTERN ACK-O-LANTERN ‘came to town Just as sunset settled down. Eyes of red in his head And a smile like any clown. Jack-o-lantern bold and gay, Drive the goblins all. away With your light burning bright, Though you’re here for just one day. Jack-o-lantern, jolly Jack, Send away when you come back All the witches with their switches And their high-peaked hats of black.. THE HASTY APPLES 66 OME, .lets fall, this is fall!” Cried the apples one and all. “Very well!” And they fell Quicker than my words can tell. To the ground with a sound, And they tumbled all around Where they lay through the day, Since no one came that way. Save the sun, just for fun, When he saw what they. had done: “Most wise trees, if you please, Wait for Heaven to send the breeze. 1926 “Then they drop, then ‘they stop. * ‘Theh come, others. with a’ ‘pop’— 4. G'S pont just spill-at ‘their will, ’ And lay scattered on the hill. “Sad to do, sad but true, I’ll just have to shine on you!” Then the sun touched each one Till its rosy cheeks were gone. - “Ah, dear: me”, sighed the trée, “Oh, how’ patient one should be! Rushing. sd ends in woe, Every young thing ought to know.” THE FLYING REGIMENT .- ; (The Leaves in Autumn) HE FLYING REGIMENT swirls down, = All smart in suits of khaki brown.: It camped through summer in the trees, Till orders came—borne by the breeze— To move for quarters on the ground. - Oh, hear that rustling, whisking sound Of THE FLYING REGIMENT! ON CONCERTINA N concertina grandmamma Made music long ago. I guess\she sang to-its strange sound, “Do, fa, sol, re, me, do.” = On Concer oO cIina

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POLICE PROTECTION OF HOMES N two cases recently, the National As- sociation for the Advancement of Col- ored People has had occasion to appeal for protection to the police in the case of law- abiding and respectable colored people who had been threatened with eviction from their homes in neighborhoods predominant- ly white. One of the cases was that of Dr. Charjes H. Garvin of Cleveland, Ohio, who had been threatened with death if he did not leave his home and from whose house it was proposed to remove police protection on August first. The Association sent a vigorous letter to the Director of the De- partment of Public Safety urging that proper protection of Dr. Gar- , vin’s home be continued, as to protect a man’s home and pre- vent violence had proven far less expensive to city govern- ments than long and elaborate court trials arising out o: such disorder as had been per- mitted in Detroit in the case of Dr. Sweet’s home. A prompt reply came from Mr. Edwin D. Barry, Director of the De partment of Public Safety in Cleveland, giving assurance that the City of Cleveland in- tended to have no such out- rages as disgraced Detroit and promising full protection for Dr. Garvin in his. citi- zenship rights. The second case in which an appeal was made to the police occurred in New York where Mr. and Mrs. N. H. Jefferson of Jamaica, Long Island, were threatened in a letter signed “Ku Klux Klan” with physi- cal violence if they did not leave their home. Appeals by Mr. Jefferson to the Jamaica police having proved unsatisfac- tory, the N. A. A. C. P. took the matter directly to Mr. George V. McLaughlin, Po- lice Commissioner of New York City, and received a letter from Commissioner Mc- Laughlin saying that he had turned the matter over to the Detective Bureau for in- National Association for the Advance-% ment of Colored People Tommie and Johnnie Evans Oswego, Kansas % vestigation. Since then, there has been no report of any further threats or incon- venience to Mr. Jefferson. RESOLUTIONS OF APPRECIATION From GENERAL BAPTIST SUNDAY SCHOOL AND B. Y. P. U. CONVENTION To THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF COLORED PEOPLE. Our dear Mr. Johnson: As an assembly of young people rep- resenting the brain, character and flower of our race and the Baptist denomination of this State, (Florida), we wish through you, a product of our beloved State, to ex- press to your very great. timely and far- reaching organization our most hearty ap- preciation for the most inval- uable service it is rendering our race and nation in its bat- tle for right and justice for the darker races on earth. Realizing fully the delicacy and difficulty of such an un- dertaking we wish to assure you of our most hearty co- operation and support in same. We would have you further appreciate the very keen in- terest with which we followed the recent case of our own Dr. Sweet and the very great joy and relief that was ours at the much prayed-for outcome. We would also have you know that we are highly sensi- ble for the recent injustice being heaped upon us throughout the na- tion and apereny here in our State, viz: at Labelle, St. Petersburg and Palatka, the information which has no doubt reached ou in full. We pray = co-operation in elping to see that full justice is obtained in same and that such flagrant disregard = and order be forever done away with. We are yours for the Cause of Right. (Committee) Dr. W. C. Brown, Pres. Gen. Convention. Rev. H. K. Hill, Pres. S. S. Con. Rev. W. M. Poe, Pres. State B.Y.P.U. Con. Mrs. Viola T. Hill, Pres. Women’s Gen. State Con. Rev. K. D. Reddick, Rev. B. J. Gattis, Rev. J. Tinsley.

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1926 OCTOBER, Tucson, Arizona Medford Allens, Jr., Little Rock; Alva Louis iphiladelphia; D | Atlanta. Second Row: Annie Lee Ta: Ww ord Banke, wford Lucille pugence Top Row: Gas Cra Graves, Jacksonville, Guess, Okmulgee,

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SCHOOL OF SAINT BENEDICT THE MOOR MIS

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HE MOOR MISSION, MILWAUKEE, WISCONSIN

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The Story of Miriammne BURKE HARCOURT T all happened long, long ago. ze The name of the town doesn’t matter, nor that of the country either. Their names had a far-away sound like the sea-song in a brown conch shell held close to the ear. They are both long forgotten like a sweet, confused dream of childhood. No one trav- els their streets today, though perhaps the birds are still singing in the woods that surround the little village which nestles in the soft caressing arms of palm trees as a tired babe rests in the arms of its mother. The child Miriammne lived in that town, in a little house away from the centre of things, close to the edge of the wide-spread- ing wood. She had a dear, kind mother, a sister and a brother. Miriammne being the baby of the family was likewise, as most babies indeed are, the very light of the hame. From that first hour when she opened her tiny, bright eyes to the sun Miriammne was considered to be quite dif- ferent from any other babe that ever had been born in that village. Everybody thought so, and a few said so. Those who did not say so kept back their thoughts in a grudging sort of way from a spirit of jealousy. And who could blame them,— when their own babies did give more trou- ble and did cry oftener than Miriammne? Now the little town in which Miriammne lived was a town so loved by the sun that he seemed to spend most of the year there. People in other towns used to grow quite irritated because the sun paid such long visits to Miriammne’s town. natural enough so far as Miriammne’s town- folk were concerned: They lived so long in company with dear old Father-Sun that, whether they wanted to or not, they had let their skins become quite dark just to protect them from the tremendous love of the sun, which was very warm love indeed. So that by the time Miriammne was born she herself was quite dark in skin-color, because so many of her ancestors had been darkened by the sun. Some people might have called her “black”, but that would have been only half true. On the outside Miri- amme was very dark indeed, but within The result was _ she was all light, which of course is vastiy more important. In fact Miriammne was very much like another little girl who was born ever so many years ago and whose name was not unlike “Miriammne”. That little girl too was very dark on the outside, bat inside she was a great burning light. Hef, mother’s name was Anne—but that’s another story entirely and doesn’t belong here. The little town in which Miriammne lived was not rich. The very nicest thing about it was that it was poor. So of course it was impossible for Miriammne to be rich; and that was one of the many nice things about Miriammne. Her family lived in a tiny house that could not hold many things and yet it somehow seemed always full of the nicest things possible. People often wondered why the little house seemed so full; and then they began to see that it was being filled by the love of little Miri- ammne. They soon forgot the many nice things the house might have had in it be- cause Miriammne’s love was so big it hardly left room for anything else even, in so small a house. As Miriammne grew a wee bit bigger each day, her love seemed to grow with her. Wherever she went, either toddling about from room to room, or wandering under ‘the banana trees or the great scarlet-plum tree in the little garden, she seemed to carry a bright cloud of love with her. And the very nicest thing of all about this particu- larly nice child was that she didn’t know anything about this cloud of love. Other people noticed it and spoke about it, but to Miriammne it seemed only natural to be lov- ing and gentle to her family and all her friends. After all she was not a “stuck-up” child—she was only very good and she grew in goodness. In most ways she was very much like the other children in the village. She played at their games and did all that a normal child wanted to do that was right. Likewise she often got into mischief, but you may be sure that it was never anything mean or vicious. And what happy days those were! Such 804

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OCTOBER, 1926 ABOVE: CHILDREN’S BALL AT THE PORT-AU-PRINCE CLUB, HAITI BELOW: A GROUP OF PORTO RICAN YOUTH

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306 THE long games of doll-baby house as_ they played under the plum tree, such sweet hours spent in the little church nearby. Long, happy days of childhood! And al- ways Miriammne was the joy of her family and the delight of her friends. And dance, how Miriammne could dance! She seemed to float through the air like-a gently blown cloud. So; the little village went its quiet way, in a_half-waking, -half-sleeping sort of dream, just doing the simple duties of each day and doing them rather well. Miriammne soon grew big enough to go to school and also to take her share in the daily toil. She did simple little things such as running errands and sweeping, and sometimes even helping with the cooking. But whatever she did, she did so well and with a loving spirit that the tiny house became the very happiest spot on earth for her mother and sister and brother (and for Miriammne too) which, of eourse, is just what a home should be for those who live in it. They would not have ehanged it for the grandest palace money could buy. ' And so the years went by, very swiftly and very happily, and Miriammne was grow- ing into quite a big child when a very strange and terrible thing happened. We have not forgotten that at the back of the little village there was a dense and beautiful wood. Oh! such a cool shady place, where Miriammne and her little friends loved to play. Often on holy-days they took their lunch baskets into the woods and had such jolly picnics as you could never imagine. At other times Miriammne used to wander there alone when she wished to be quiet and all by herself. She was not a pious child, which would have been unnatural, but her little church was very dear to her; and ever since that day ‘she had been confirmed (all drest in white, with a soft lawn veil about her forehead) she liked sometimes to slip quietly into the eool dark church or to wander alone in the cool dark woods. . Now it had often been hinted that in those very woods there lived great, fierce, brown bears. Some of the older men in the village claimed to have seen them, but most of-the ‘children never believed it and thought it only a terrible tale invented to frighten them when they were: naughty. They knew they had never seen the bears, CRISIS but that might have been because the ani- mals had learned not to come to that part of the woods close to the village. The older men said that a time was when there had been no bears at all in those woods, but one.day a traveler was passing through the village and he had two performing bears on a great strong chain. The -vil- lage people were much amused at the an- tics of these trained bears and they de- cided that it would be nice to buy the bears and keep them to amuse the villagers when things grew a bit dull. They decided too that it would be profitable to charge a fee from people of other villages who might come to see the bears perform and that would be a way of raising some money for the rather poor village. So they bought the bears and kept them for a long time. As time went by they grew so used to the bears that they were no longer afraid of their strange pets, and one day they let them loose just to see what they would do. At first the bears were very quiet but when they: began to feel that they were no longer chained up they became quite wild again and ran off into-the woods. There they lived, and died, and left many little bears behind to take their places. But that all happened long. before Miriammne was born, and even if there were bears in those woods the vil- lage children were certainly not afraid of them. ty So it happened that one afternoon Miri- ammne finished all her little tasks of the day quite early and she got leave from her mother to go for a walk. Naturally she went to her favorite spot and wandered long in the shade of the cool green ‘woods just thinking and thinking of what a happy life she led and what a dear, kind family and pleasant home she had, and not think- ing at all of bears, when, suddenly with- out any warning, she heard a terrible growling right behind her. She turned quickly to see a huge brown bear rushing at her with his sharp claws and terrible teeth. And that was all Miriammne remem- , bered. “3 Oh! what a weeping and wailing there, was when the torn and bleeding body*of little Miriammne was carried into-the -vilk lage. Two strange woodsmen had come ‘upon Miriammne and the bear just in time to save the child from being torn to death.

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r¥ible mem- - Herman, Fred Milton theré and Hamilton Cloud Frank a, Jr. Little R: Gussie Louise Harleston Charleston, S. C. Julia Mae Hubert Sumter, S. C. OCTOBER, 1926 oe ai eee {POL Sree: *- Little Rock M Juanita Jordan “ omasville, Ga. Clifford Kirby Newark, N. Gwendolyn fons ? ‘Thomasville, Ga. Ella Wease Nathan * Amos Alvin Carter, Jr. Bloomington, III. Columbus, Ohio George W. Rash, Jr.

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308 THE These woodsmen were quite unknown in that part of the country and no one in the village could remember ever having seen them before, nor were they ever seen after- wards. But they seemed to know exactly where Miriammne lived and they bore her tenderly to her mother’s home. What a terrible sight Miriammne was to her poor mother! Everybody in the vil- lage was quite sure that the child could not possibly live after the dreadful way the bear had battered her about. Doctors, nurses, friends, relatives did all they could for the little patient but soon they gave up all hope of being able to save her life. One person only refused to give up hope, and that was Miriammne’s mother. She was a good pious soul, who did not talk much about her religion, but deep down she had a rich, strong faith. Though her lit- tle daughter’s life was hanging by the mer- est thread this good woman still believed that there was One Who “is mighty to save”. She thought of Him Who raised the little daughter of Jairus, though every- body laughed Him to scorn when He said “the child is not dead but sleepeth”. It was to Him the mother went. She knew that all that man could do had been done; no human aid could restore to her that pre- cious life, so she sought the God-Man through His appointed means—she sent for His priest. The holy man came, and even then some of the mother’s friends laughed him to scorn. Of course they were too polite to laugh openly amid such grief, but they thought that the whole performance which he went through was but a worn-out custom in which only ignorant people believed. But the mother and the man of God thought differently. With a great outpouring of prayer, he anointed the little body of Miri- ammne, so close now to death, with the Holy Oil. Then, He Who had shown such’ tender compassion to Jairus, He Who had called back the beloved brother of Mary and Mar- tha from the grave, He Who had restored her-only son to the poor widow of Nain, He it was Who now sent His Holy Spirit into the mangled body of little Miriammne; and from the moment of anointing the pre- cious life blood began to beat more strongly in the little heart. From that hour she be- gan to recover. CRISIS Deep and holy was the joy that came to Miriammne’s family when they realized that she was to be spared to them, when they knew that the precious love-light of their home was not to be so suddenly blown out. But they still had their human part to do; and for weeks they nursed their little pa- tient slowly back to health. And now that sweet love which had always been the spe- cial mark of Miriammne came to her aid and helped her to bear patiently the long, slow days of recovery. She lay on her little bed thinking and thinking for hours at a time of all that had been done for her. She realized in her childish way that somehow God had been very good to her and given her back the precious gift of life. She felt that He would not have done this unless He had some special use to make of her. But her thoughts were the thoughts of a little child and she did not find it easy to settle the problem for herself nor to make it clear to grown-ups all that was passing through her little mind. Then one day another very strange thing happened. It was late afternoon and the last lin- gering glow of sunset was tinting the white walls of Miriammne’s room with a soft pink light. She lay drowsing on her little cot, with her thoughts just coming and going, like leaves blown gently about by a soft southern breeze. As she looked, the walls of her room seemed to grow far away as though they would disappear altogether. A sweet voice began to sound in her ears and she looked up to see a bright light shining all about her bed. It was not a steady light but seemed to move in waves as though a host of spirits troubled it. In the midst of this glow of splendor Miriammne be- gan to notice a figure appearing. It was that of a woman “clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars”. Then Miriammne heard her speak. She said, in a voice that rang like a soft played harp, “Miriammne!” And when the little Miriammne heard that gentle voice she was not at all afraid but felt a strange, sweet peace flowing through her soul. She answered, “Yes, mother, dear”, in that same tone in which she always answered her own dear earthly mother, which by the way, was another of those very nice things about Miriammne. Then the figure seemed to leave the cloud, and the stars in her crown went out one

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OCTOBER, by one, and the whole glow &bout her slowly faded away. Miriammne saw that the lady was now sitting on the edge of her little cot. She was clothed all in soft blue. Her face was very beautiful. Miriammne knew it to be the most beautiful face she had ever seen. It was a face dark with the color of olive and from it two soft black eyes shone with a smile upon the little girl. Then Miriammne knew that the lady had taken her weak little hand into her own; and the child felt a great peaceful sort of strength running through her tired little body. Miriammne, like most children, was not without natural curiosity, and the lady seemed so kind and gentle that she dared to say to her very softly, “Lady-Mother”, (it was what Miriammne felt she must call: her—the two sweetest names on the lips of a child) “Lady-Mother, you have come to tell me something?” “Yes”, replied ‘the lady in that same sweet, gentle voice, “I have come to tell you something. You must listen very carefully for I want you never to forget my message. I was once a little girl like you on this earth long years ago. And one day I was called to do a very special work for God. I was frightened at first, but then I remembered that He would give me strength to do whatever work He put upon me. Are you willing to do the ,5ame?” “Yes, Lady-Mother”, replied Miriammne, beginning to tremble a little. “My child”, continued the lady, “the work you have to do is almost the same as that which was given to me, only a little bit different. God wants you to bear His Son forever in your heart, and to show Him forth in your life to all the world.” But Miriammne was still just a little bit afraid and she said, “Lady-Mother, I am only a little colored girl, and most people will pay no attention to what I do, how then can I do any great work for God?” . “True, my child”, relied the lady, “you are only a little girl, but there are many others like you doing this work for God, and you know that little children are espe- cially dear to my Son. True also that you are colored, but in God’s garden there are roses of all colors. I know that you have sometimes seen the earth-people plant only one kind of rose in their garden, and then all the year round they have only that one 1926 309 kind of rose to gaze upon; but you have also seen people who put all kinds of roses in their gardens, which because of the vari- ety are much more beautiful to look at. For the Pink rose is no more perfect in God’s sight than the Red rose, nor is the Red rose more perfect than the Yellow rose. God made them all, and it is His will that every rose should be perfect in its own color and give forth a sweet fragrance of joy for Him Who made them. Do you understand me, my child?” Miriammne nodded her little head. She did not quite understand, but she thought she saw what the lady meant and she felt she would understand it the more she pon- dered over it. Then she said, “Tell me clearer, sweet lady, just what I must do, so that I may never make a mistake”. “Only this”, answered the lady, “bear God’s Son always in your heart, live by His spirit—the Holy Spirit of Love, and show Him forth, even as I did, to all the world. You must go back to your own happy childhood life and just keep on do- ing the simple things that you have always done, whether at home, or in school, or at play; but remember always that you have Him in your heart and it is His life that you are using. Don’t expect to do any- thing that your friends will call great or wonderful. Don’t expect to travel far in the great world. For after all, there is nothing truly great or wonderful except Him, and compared with Him, what the earth-people call big is often very small indeed. You see it is all very much like what He asked me to do and today ‘all generations call me blessed’, He has trusted you with His life and you must try to live it in a quiet, simple way entirely for Him”. Then the lady ceased speaking and Miri- ammne saw the glow beginning to envelop her once more. Again the stars in her crown were relighted one by one, and she began to fade into the light. As the cloud of glorious splendour began to fade from before her eyes, Miriammne ‘heard the sound of melody. It was the sweetest tune she had ever heard, and the tone more glorious and bright than ever heard on earth, but Miriammne recognized the words as those dear, dear words she had always loved: : “Rless’d are the pure in heart, For they shall see our God.”

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oe ¥ The Horizon % - ciation for the Advancement of Colored Peo- ple and further gifts of upward of $21,000 as the N. ‘A. A. C. P. met its offers. It also gave $5,000 to THE CRIsIs to carry on a survey of public school education among Negroes in the South. Mr. Johnson has been a member of the Board for several, years. @ Among the delegates to the In te rnational Conference on Africa recently held in Le Zoute, Belgium, were Dr. John Hope, President of Morehouse College, and Reverend J. C. Olden of Wash- ington, D. C. @ Wallace Thurman, a graduate of the University of Southern California, and for the past year connected with the editorial staff of The Messenger, has recently re- signed to become a member of the editorial staff of The World Tomorrow. After a brief suspension, this magazine resumes publication in October with Kirby Page as editor. 310

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OCTOBER, Reading from ri, _~ Senator Attorney E. Stes The Republican Protective League and Citizen’s Committee of Los Angeles, Cali- fornia, gave a reception in honor of Senator Samuel Shortridge some time ago. Be- cause of his firm stand on race questions, Senator Shortridge had the backing of the colored electorate in the California Repub- lican State Primaries and was the winning candidate. @ During the summer there have been many interesting conventions. The meet- ing of the N. A. A. C. P. has already been noted in the August Crisis. A brief ac- count of the more important conventions follows :— The National Negro Business League met in Cleveland. Expansion of Negro business, improvement of race relations and betterment of health conditions among Negroes were the major topics of discus- sion. Dr. R. R. Moton was re-elected presi- dent. At Cleveland, also, the Improved Benevo- lent Order of Elks of the World (Colored) met. The Order plans to raise $70,000 for the education of Negro youth next year. J. Finley Wilson was re-elected Grand- Exalted Ruler. The National Convention of Congrega- tional Workers Among Colored People met at Detroit. Negro church membership, inter-racial relationships and the youth movement were some of the topics discussed. Over 8,000 Colored Masons attended the 27th session of the Imperial Council, An- cient Egyptian Arabic Order, Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, and the ninth biennial session of the international conference of 1926 5 mary, See sate Fortin, Dav. T. 1. Gritith, Rev. Wade and Attorney C . Olivie: . Knights Templar in Boston, Mass. Caesar B. Blake, the Imperial Potentate, presided at the convention. The first session was ad- dressed by the President of the convention, Mr. Albert R. Lee of Champaign, Illinois. The National Negro Medical Association met in Philadelphia. Interesting discus- sions on medical subjects were given and clinics were held. A testimonial was given to Dr. Walter G. Alexander of Orange, New Jersey, the retiring President. Dr. Carl T. Roberts of Chicago is president-elect. The National Association of Colored Wo- men’s Clubs met in Oakland, California. Mrs. Mary McCleod Bethune, president of the Bethune-Cookman Institute at Day- tona, Florida, was re-elected President. One of the new features of the Association, born at this meeting, is a Young Women’s Department, which was organized to inter- est young women throughout the country in club work, with Ella Phillips Stewart of Toledo, Ohio, as Chairman. Two hundred delegates and representa- tives of various railroad systems attended the annual convention of the Association of Colored Railway Trainmen, held in Memphis. Subjects relating to the wage seales and working conditions of the Ne- gro trainmen occupied most of the discus. sions. E.R. Helind of Memphis, Tennessee, was elected President. The National Association of Negro Musi- cians met in Philadelphia. Rodman Wana- maker presented the Association $1000 to be awarded in scholarships for musical compositions. The Association awarded other scholarships amounting to $700. One

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312 of these, $200, went to Harold Brown, Kansas City pianist, for study abroad; a like sum to Harrison Ferrell, Chicago vio- linist, and two scholarships of $75 each, to Fisk University and Hampton Institute, the winners to be chosen by the faculties of the schools. Carl Diton, of Philadelphia, was elected President: The Association was the guests of the John Wanamaker Store for an entire day and rendered a program under the auspices of the Robert Curtis Ogden Association. This body, organized for educational, social and recreational purposes, is recruited from the colored employees of the John Wana- maker Store. Dr. Melville Charlton gave a recital on the Wanamaker Grand Organ. His program included numbers from Bach, Burleigh, Thiel, Diton and Widor. A let- ter to Dr. Charlton from the organist in charge commented: “Your program was most interesting and your recital in its entirely was greatly appreciated”. @ The work in aiding rural schools has been carried on very actively during the past year. Con- tributions were made for the construction of 493 buildings, 479 of which were schools and 14 teachers’ homes. These schools and homes were located as follows: Alabama, 29; Arkansas, 41; Florida, 9; Georgia, 12; Kentucky, 6; Louisiana, 30; Maryland, 17; Mississippi, 61; North Carolina, 74; Ok- lahoma, 26; South Carolina, 64; Texas, 57; Tennessee, 35; Virginia, 32. The 493 completed buildings. and the 57 added rooms cost $2,467,755. Of this amount Negroes contributed $447,400, white people, $94,923, public school authorities, $1,523,- 601, the Julius Rosenwald Fund $401,831. The total teacher capacity of the buildings constructed during the past year is 1,336 and the pupil capacity 60,120. The amount of land on which these schools are located is 1,448 acres. @ David D. Jones, of Atlanta, Georgia, has been called to the presidency of Bennett College, in Greensboro, N. C., which was re- cently made an institution solely for wo- men. President Jones was formerly Secre- tary of the St. Louis Y. M. C. A. C In a recent playground track meet held at Lincoln Park, Chicago, Viola Edwards, 14 years old, cleared the bar at five feet one-eighth inch, breaking the former rec- ord of the National Women’s Amateur Ath- of the Rosenwald Fund THE CRISIS letic Union made in Philadelphia, which was four. feet eleven and seven-eighths inches. Previous to this, the record was four feet nine inches. @ Mrs. Cora J. Carter, who was for the last two years President of the local branch of the N. A. A. C. P. in Pasadena, Cali- fornia, died in San Francisco while attend- ing the convention of the Colored Women’s Clubs. Mrs. Carter was a vital factor in the development of the local branch of the Association. @ Mr. and Mrs. George B. Mathews of Buffalo, New York, have established a trust fund of $100,000. The income from this amount, about $6,000, is to be used by the Buffalo Y. M. C. A. for work among the Negro population. Mr. Mathews is President of the Niagara Milling Company. Mr. William H. Jackson, Executive Secre- tary of the Michigan Avenue Branch of the Y. M. C. A. in Buffalo, was instrumental in securing this gift. @ Not a parcel or a letter lost in thirty- four years was the record of Charles E. Goode, a Negro letter carrier of Cincinnati, Ohio, who retired recently having reached the age limit of 65. A. L. Behymer, post- master, congratulated Mr. Goode on his rec- ord in a letter. Many of the business firms on his route remember his services with substantial gifts. @ Detective Lieutenant W. L. Stevens has retired from the service of the Los Angeles, California, Police Department after twenty- one years of service. He was presented by his fellow officers with a diamond studded badge as a token of their esteem. At all times during his twenty-one years of service he was diligent, resourceful and efficient. @ Mrs. Clara Burrill Bruce, a graduate with high honors from the Boston Uni- versity School of Law, has passed the Massachusetts State Bar examination. She is the second Negro woman to do so. Mrs. Bruce plans to return to Boston University for her degree of Master of Law. @ James Elias Rector, of Little Rock, Ar- kansas, a delegate to the recent Chicago Convention of the N. A. A. C. P., has been made a member of the Republican State Central Committee of Arkansas. Mr. Rec- tor has served on the Little Rock school board. @ Charlotte Ruth Wright, 15 years old, who graduated from the West Philadelphia High School last June, has been awarded

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OCTOBER, Charles Method William Middleton one of the Mayor’s scholarships to the Uni- versity of Pennsylvania. Miss Wright was one of the twenty out of 2500 graduates who won these scholarships. @ Charles Arthur Method of Columbus, Ohio, was a delegate to the World’s Y. M. C. A. Conference at Helsingfors, Finland. He is violinist in a Sunday School orchestra, Vice President of the Christian Endeavor Society and a member of a symphony or- chestra. @ William Middleton, of Los Angeles, California, won the district elimination con- test in a National Oratorical Contest. He defeated five white rivals and won the right to compete in the state contest at Holly- wood. @ Effie Stroud of Colorado Springs, Colo- rado, is a senior in the Colorado Springs High School. She won first prize in an essay contest on chemistry with all the high schools in the city and second prize in the state contests. Miss Stroud is an honor student. @ Thomas Tolbert was President of the Hy-Y Club of the Booker T. Washington High School, Dallas, Texas, and represen- tative to the International Y. M. C. A. Conference at Helsingfors. Tolbert was the only colored student delegate from the Southwest. ( Henry Williams is director of the Wil- liams Violin School in Duluth, Minnesota. In addition to his private pupils he con- ducts a juvenile orchestra of 60 children. Mr. Williams is also a composer. Among his compositions are “Minnesota So Fair” and “The Bells of Emancipation”. He was the first colored musician to be awarded a contract for band concert in the parks of St. Louis, Missouri. @ George B. Wright, one of the oldest col- ored firemen in Los Angeles, California, is to give away free 100 acres in one-acre tracts to ex-soldiers. 1926 @ Miss Augusta Savage, a sculptress of New York City, has been granted $500 a year for three years by the Baptist Young People’s Union Convention to study in the School of Fine Arts at Rome.. @ A new building for the Leonard Street Orphanage in Atlanta, Georgia, has been built. Its cost was $50,000 and was con- tributed by colored and white friends. The maintenance of the home is provided for largely by the Atlanta Community Chest Fund. @ Wiley College at Marshall, Texas, has been recognized as an accredited institution by Harvard, Northwestern University and the University of Wisconsin. @ Dr. Louis T. Wright is the first colored doctor to be promoted to the position of permanent surgeon on the staff of the Har- lem Hospital in New York City. @ The Wage Earners Realty and Invest- ment Company has opened to do banking business in the city of Macon, Georgia. The institution was organized by the col- ored business men of the city. The Presi- dent of the company is Mr. T. J. Coleman. @ James E. Reed, expert photographer and photostatic operator for the City of Boston, is engaged in duplicating a collec- tion of 200,000 papers that tell the story of the Massachusetts Bay Colony from 1625 down to the beginning of the United States of America. Last year Mr. Reed, who migrated north from North Carolina in 1878, made 30,000 prints. In one period of eighteen hours he turned out and washed, dried, trimmed to size and assembled 722 prints, which is said to be the photostatic record of the world. @ John A. Brown graduated this year from DeWitt Clinton High School, New York City. While there he was especially pro- ficient in English, receiving 3rd prize in a short story contest in 1925. He was Presi-

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THE CRISIS John A. Brown John L. Taylor dent of the Short Story Club of the School and Vice-President of the Short Story Club League of New York. @ John L. Taylor, sixteen years old, grad- uated this year from Morgan Park High School, Chicago, Illinois, with high honors. Besides being an honor pupil, he won an unconditioned scholarship from Armour In- stitue of Technology. He expects to take a full course in electrical engineering. C Poindexter Orr, a graduate of Wendell Phillips High School, Chicago, Illinois, served as Class Marshall, President of the Boosters Club and President of the Student The last named is the highest Council. student honor at Wendell Phillips. q@ Arthur B. Hart of the Thomas Jeffer- son High School, has distinguished himself as a basketball player, ranking among the best players in the High School class in New York City: @ Gilchrist Stewart, a prominent New York politician and fraternal man, died suddenly while attending the Elks Conven- tion in Cleveland. @ Gordon H. Kitchen, formerly Director of the Frederick Douglass Community Asso- ciation at Toledo, Ohio, is now Executive Secretary of the Crocker Street Y. M. C. A. of Des Moines, Iowa. He is a graduate of the Tuskegee Institute where he was the captain of the football team of 1921, later matriculating at Grinnell College where he excelled as an athlete and a scholar. @ Two colored students, James H. Mon- tague and Miss Florence A. Taylor, of Hartford, Connecticut, have been awarded scholarships of $300 each a year during their college course by an anorfymous donor who is a resident of Hartford. Both of them are exceptional students. Mr. Mon- tague is now attending Oberlin and Miss Taylor is at Middlebury College. @ Attorney Miles Anderson Paige, of New Poindexter Orr Arthur B. Hart York City, has been selected as a Republi- can candidate for State Senator. Attorney Paige, a native of Montgomery, Alabama, received his collegiate education -at Howard University and graduated an honor student of Columbia University Law School in 1924. C Mrs. Alice Lathon of Tulsa, Oklahoma, was nominated for Justice of Peace in the 4th District of the Republican primaries held recently. She is the first woman who ever ran for such an office in that district. @ Tom King of Hutchinson, Kansas, is one of the largest wheat raisers in the South- west. He harvested a crop of 22,000 bushels of wheat from his 600 acre farm this year. Its worth is estimated at $28,000. @ Harvey J. Borders, of Buffalo, New York, employed at the Pullman Car Shops, holds the world’s record on wheel turning on the new Seller’s wheel lathe. Borders was appointed as a battery helper and was transferred to the machine shop to turn wheels. The capacity of the lathe was said to be sixteen pairs of wheels a day of eight and three-fourths hours. In two weeks time, Borders was turning out 22 pairs of wheels per day and a week later he reached his highest mark of twenty-nine and one-half pairs in one day. His highest mark for one week was one hundred thirty- five pairs of wheels. From August 25, 1922, to March 30, 1926, he has turned out 21,000 pairs of wheels, which is 8,000 more than any other wheel turner’s work recorded the same length of time. C The Heflin Manufacturing Company of Los Angeles, California, a Negro concern devoted to the manufacture of furniture, with toy making as a side line, received an order recently from a New York firm for $93,000 worth of the “‘Wampus 8” toy automobiles which the company makes. The company has a capacity of 1,000 of the toys a day and last year employed 52 persons.

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OCTOBER, Row: Julia Caiborne ey, _ os T onl Roland Hayes Glover, Savannah; Second Row: - Melba Theresa and oo Sloss Hughes, Ocala, Fia.; and Harris, Philadelphia. Below: John

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= —eIeaeaeES The Looking Glass OO ———————————————n ¥ LITERATURE TO COUNTEE CULLEN ie matters not if your skin is dark As the midnight jungle track, I thrill to the beat of the song you sing Feeling the torture and rack That sundered the souls of your brother slaves For hundreds of dead years back. Under the march of your musical lines, Under the tread of their feet, I hear the wind in the jungle pines And the drone of the tom-tom’s beat, - With ebon savages under the sun In the shimmering tropic heat. Chance gave you the soul of a minstrel fair Housed in a blackmoor’s frame, With your heart tuned high to the upper air Though a scion of scorn and shdme, Refusing an outcast’s usual lot And turning it into fame! * THE FAUN. In The Chicago Tribune. CRAFTSMANSHIP IN WROUGHT IRON ELEN BULLET LOWRY, writing in the New York Times, has revealed some interesting facts about the beautiful wrought iron work to be found in the South and especially in New Orleans. She writes: : While scanning the horizon for debata- ble achievements of “the talented Negro” appropriate to his race, W. E. Burghardt Du Bois quite overlooked the first Afro- American art—the famous old wrought iron of New Orleans. It is solid and tangible proof that the Negro brought with him into his slavery the ancient art tendencies of Africa. f Without any race consciousness about it, these gracious iron balconies, these crafts- men-like grilles and charmingly designed lunettes wrought by slave labor have won their expensive place in the world of col- lectors, antique dealers and connoisseurs. Far ‘from making any “to-do” over their work, the individualities of the dark-skinned craftsman who wrought the heavy bars of iron into beautiful and sensitive line have 316 + been sunk in obscurit fulness as impenetrable as the mists of antiquity that hang low over Africa. Only in the realm of our imagination may we come upon them—experiencing the artist’s pure joy of creation. Refuting the claim that this craftsman- ship might have been done under the in- struction of white craftsmen, she says: The only flaw in the argument-is that there were no white craftsmen in New Or- leans at the time when the best of the iron was wrought. It was only after the War of 1812 restored the sea to America that the immigration of German artisans was to begin—an immigration that was to culmi- nate around 1830 with riots of white arti- sans, because all skilled trades and crafts were monopolized by Negroes. To quote Booker Washington: The Southern white man did business with the Negro in a way that no one else has done business with him. In most cases, if a Southern white man wanted a house built he con- sulted a Negro mechanic about the plan and about the actual building of the struc- ture. If he wanted a suit of clothes made he went to a Negro tailor, and for shoes to a shoemaker of the same race. Speaking of the origin of these crafts- men, she says: Tantalizing it is to wonder whence came the black craftsmen who wrought so well and so permanently in New Orleans. Did their fathers come from the Ivory Coast, where the art of Africa was most primi- tive, most hugely creative? Came they from Bushonogo, where the portrait sculp- ture of long dead savage kings seized upon characterization in character’s intensest moments? Came they from the Sudan, where the influences of civilization had been percolating throughout the millenniums— where old Egyptian idols of 2000 B.C., conventionalized, traditionalized, have, as it. were, gone back to nature? Secrets of vital importance, these, to the believers in the Negro’s indigenous talent. All we know is that, when: opportunity came, training and talent were ready for the emergency. THE NEGRO ON THE STAGE oo BELASCO, producer of “Lulu Belle”, writing in Liberty Magazine has predicted steady progress of the-Negro in the field of dramatic art within the next ten years. He writes: “Fate has decreed that I should know the Negre of our mod- ern times, that I should know him and his by years of forget-

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OCTOBER, 1926 psychology intimately and the contact has brought me to this finding: The theatre of tomorrow must reckon with a new force —the race of Ham! “I say this in all sincerity, with all my fifty years of labor for the American stage: The Negro from today onward will com- pel recognition through the sheer power of his instinctive ability. The same recep- tivity that drove their African ancestors to battle frenzy at the sound of the war drums has been translated by generations of contact with civilization into terms of emotion-expression, delicate and sensitive in the extreme. And as a climax to my pre- diction I believe that another decade will see a Negro theatre in which we of the Caucasian race will witness his surprising © development of this hitherto dormant nature gift. The Negro with his submerged, in- stinctive voice is a natural actor. He has sufficient background of tragedy to make him fertile ground in which to implant the seeds of splendid acting I found them neither parrot-like nor, as I had thought, conscious poseurs. Instead, I realize that they have the faculty of react- ing emotionally to their surroundings, each individual falling naturally into the role his own station of life would indicate un- der the new circumstances. Actually, they are emotional chameleons. I found that a jazzy, lively bit of music brought flashing smiles, shouts of mirth and foot-patting. A sentimental song caused’ an instant hush and an attitude of reverence. A waltz tune followed. Before the three bars had been played, every form in the room was swaying rhythmically in time to the music.” That both on the legitimate stage and in 317 the motion picture field producers have come to realize the latent dramatic ability of the Negro is evidenced by the increased number of Negro actors who have been engaged for productions this fall. Paul Robeson, in a play called “Black Boy” written by Jim Tully and Frank Dazey and staged by Horace Liveright; and Char- lotte Wallace Murray and Julius Bledsoe in an operetta, “Deep River”, written by Law- rence Stallings with music by W. Franke Harling and staged by Arthur Hopkins are to appear on Broadway this fall. Robeson has played the leading role in “The Em- peror Jones” both in New York and in London and also in “All God’s Chillun’ Got Wings”. Mrs. Murray and Mr, Bledsoe have had considerable experience on the concert stage. : . In the motion picture field Negro actors are being used in increasing numbers. Frank Lloyd directing for the Paramount- Lasky Company is using a large number of Negroes as extras and minor characters in his motion picture, “The Eagle of the Sea”. Bordering on stardom is Charles Gil- pin’s adventure into the motion picture world in the role of Uncle Tom. Hazel Calloway Jones who plays opposite Leon Chaney in “The Road to Mandalay” is also to be in this production, as well as Carolyn Snowden and many others. A film featuring the middleweight pugilis- tie champion, Tiger Flowers, has been made. Numerous other Negro actors are being given opportunities to play im- portant roles in serious drama. The marked progress of actors, like Gilpin and Robe- son, and actresses, such as Florence Mills, can leave no doubt as to the success of Ne- gro actors in the future. To Beauty LANGSTON HUGHES O worship At the altar of Beauty, To feel her loveliness and pain, To thrill At the wonder of her gorgeous moon Or the sharp, swift, silver swords Of falling rain. To walk in a golden garden When an autumn sun Has almost set, When near-night’s purple splendor Shimmers to a star-shine net. To worship At the altar of Beauty Is a pleasure divine, Not given to the many many But to fools Who drink Beauty’s wine. Not given to the many many But to fools Who seek no other goddess Nor grapes Plucked from another’s Vine.

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THE CRISIS ADVERTISER Hampton Institute Hampton, Virginia TEACHERS CO) School of ture—four-year course leading to de- gree of Bachelor of Science. School of Education—four-year high-school teacher's course leading to degree of Bachelor and two two-year courses for primary, intermedi- ate and upper-grade teachers. Economics—four-year course leading of Bachelor of Science; and two-year Summer School for Teachers—courses leading to degree of Bachelor of Science and State Certificates. SCHOOL OF BUSINESS Offers four-year course leading to degree of Bachelor of Science and two-year course—aims to prepare men and women for business positions or to teach business subjects. LIBRARY SCHOOL Offers one-yedr, professional course—aims to prepare librarians for normal schools, colleges and branch libraries in city systems. TRADE SCHOOL Offers four-year course leading to degree of Bachelor of Science; and two year course—aims to train skilled builders. FACTS Enrollment, including practice and summer school and classes for teachers in service, 2,251; graduates, 2,753; and ex-students, over 8,800. JAMES E. GREGG, Principal. 1891 1926 AGRICULTURAL TECHNICAL COLLEGE GREENSBORO, NORTH CAROLINA A Technical School of High Grade College courses in Agriculture, En- gineering and Education. A strong Commercial Course, Vo- cational High School and Trade School. Fall Term began September 15, 1926. For further information address F. D. Bluford, President, Dept. C A. & T. COLLEGE Greensboro, N. C. THE TUSKEGEE NORMAL AND INDUSTRIAL INSTITUTE Founded by Dr. Booker T. Washington ities to Negro Youth fer Jherens Education H Mechanical 2 Ss ST THE DEPARTMENT OF MECHANICAL a for Boys comprises forty trades including try Bricklayi ving, Auto-Me- chanics, ao ied islecericity, hotography, Printing, Machine Shop Practice and Tailoring. THE WOMAN’S INDUSTRIES _ include Home Economics—Courses in Foods, Cog Millinery, Applied Art, Laundering, Household Management in addition to Home Crafts and Ladies’ Tailoring. THE AGRICULTURAL DEPARTMENT with 2,000 acres of land offers a comprehensive four- on course in Secondary Agriculture and a full four-year college course in Advanced Agriculture to train young men and women as Farm Demonstration and Home Demonstration Agents, Teachers of Agriculture and as Scien- tific Farmers. TWO-YEAR COLLEGE COURSES re offered in Education for the training of Teach- ers in Elementary Schools, for Teachers of Me- chanical Industries and in Business Training. ROBERT R. MOTON, Principal fp Shes and College Industries and in Industries women. FOUR-YEAR COLLEGE COURSES leading to the Bachelor of Science degree are offered in Agriculture and in Home Economics. THE BIBLE TRAINING SCHOOL offers courses in Theological Training and Christian Service for Active Pastors, Sunday Workers and Candidates for the Ministry, in- cluding a Summer School for Ministers for five nies beginning July 6th. THE JOHN A. ANDREW MEMORIAL HOSPITAL and Nurse, Training School pro- vides a three-year course in Nurse Training which qualifies its graduates for registration in all southern states. A SUMMER SCHOOL FOR TEACHERS, of ten weeks, divided into two terms, begin- ning oe Ist and meeting the requirements of the Boards of Education of all southern states. Location Unsurpassed Information furnished upon application WILLIAM H. CARTER, Treasurer TUSKEGEE INSTITUTE, ALABAMA Mention Tue Crisis

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