The Crisis 1925-06: Vol 30 Iss 2
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fa Bune 9925 FIFTEEN CENTS \ AAS ‘ ; 2 25 Paris Ue
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Business is good—it ile ed getting better each day with the Southern hid Society of INC. The first quarter offi 1925 records substan- 4 tial gains in New ness and Premium Collections over any previous year—and thi means two things, namely:— | That the good people in Virginia and thei District of Columbia are highly pleased with the Superior Policy and Service of the Society; and that our efficient field staff is leaving nog stone unturned in its effort to make 1925 thely Banner Year for the Society. To live well and die safe you need thea Superior Three-in-One Policy— affording, one small premium, protection against Sickness, 4 Accident and Death—of the HOME OFFICES—527-29 N. 2nd St., RICHMOND, VA. Operating in Virginia and District of Columbia ¢ | 7 | % | -— ________
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THE CRISIS A RECORD OF THE DARKER RACES PUBLISHED MONTHLY AND COPYRIGHTED BY THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF COLORED PEOPLE AT 69 FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK, N. Y. CONDUCTED BY W. E. BURGHARDT DU BOIS; JESSIE REDMON FAUSET, LITERARY EDITOR; AUGUSTUS GRANVILLE DILL, BUSINESS MANAGER. Vol. 30 No. 2 JUNE, 1925 Whole No. 176 COVER Page After An Etching. By Albert Smith. Portraying a Negro Family Under the Protection of the N. A. A. C. P. OPINION Krigwa; Social Equality at Hampton; The New Fisk; Special Num- THE TENTH SPINGARN MEDAL. Walter F. White Illustrated...... 68 THE LITTLE PAGE. Effie Lee Newsome. Illustrated................. 70 “CLOSE RANKS.” William Stwart Nelsom.....ccccscccscccsscvvesens 71 THE GHOST OF NEGRO LABOR. An Etching. Albert Smith........ 76 TEMPERAMENT. H. M. Bond............. 83 THE LOOKING GLASS skated es et 87 SPRING A Peam. Agme 93 The July CRISIS will carry some vacation hints. FIFTEEN CENTS A COPY; ONE DOLLAR AND A HALF A YEAR FOREIGN SUBSCRIPTION TWENTY-FIVE CENTS EXTRA RENEWALS: The date of expiration of each subscription is printed on the wrapper. When | the subscription is due, a blue renewal blank is enclosed. CHANGE OF ADDRESS: The address of a subscriber can be changed as often as desired. In ordering a change of address, both the old and the new address must be given. Two weeks’ notice is required. MANUSCRIPTS and drawings relating to colored people are desired. They must be accom- panied by return postage. If found unavailable they will be mailed carefully to the sender but we assume no responsibility. Entered as second class matter November 2, 1910, at the post office at New York, New York under the Act of March 3, 1879. } 2 | q ; | |
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THE CRISIS ADVERTISER PAINE CO AUGUSTA, GA. STANDARD COLLEGE COURSES Approved Two-Year Normal Accredited Senior High School Up-to-Date Junior High School “To develop leaders you must have the best possible equipment for literary training and that is what we are striving for at Paine College”, said one of the leaders of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. This Church contributes largely to the support of Paine College. A Good School at Reasonable Rates For further information, address RAY S. TOMLIN, President, PAINE COLLEGE. Virginia Union University is now a Class A College Excellent courses are offered in College as well as in Theology and in High School Work. The summer session is for college students only. For full information address the President at Richmond, Virginia. Lincoln University Pioneer in Collegiate and Theological Education Lincoln Graduates are Leaders in the various professions and im all parts of the country. Address: The Dean of the University ITY School of High Standards and a Rigorous Pace WILEY COLLEGE Marshall, Texas Recognized as a Class ““A’’ College by Standardizing Agencies. Has operated on the basis of four quarters a vear since June, 1921 Graduation in June an! August Entrance any quarter. Leading colleges and universities represented on its faculty More than two hundred and “(fifty enrolled in college department. $35,000 invested in scientific laboratory and library research equipment Due prominence given to music and to wholesome athletics. M. W. DOGAN, President. THE CHEYNEY an... SCHOOL FOR TEACHERS Cheyney, Pa. A Pennsylvania State Normal School offering, in addition to the regular Normal Course of two years, professional three year courses in Home Economics and Shop Work. A diploma from any of these courses makes a graduate eligible to teach in the public schools of Penn- sylvania, Courses are offered to enable students to make up high school entrance requirements. For further particulars and catalog, write LESLIE PINCKNEY HILL, Principal Cheyney, Pa. Mention Tue Crisis. LLEGE %
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THE CRISIS Vol. 30 No. 2 JUNE, 1925 Whole No. 176 ITHOUT Beauty, Freedom has no plea; without Truth, Freedom has no goal; and yet, without Freedom, Beauty is not born; without Freedom, Truth is not known; wherefore Beau- ty, Truth and Freedom—these three; but the greatest of these is Freedom. KRIGWA mpemmN August 15, in New York and elsewhere, Krigwa holds its first costumed assembly and listens to the masque, “Black Man: A Fantasy”, staged and directed by Charles Burroughs; and hears a program and a prophecy of the development of art, literature, drama and music in Black America. What is Krigwa? Write us and learn. Meantime suffice it to say that Krigwa is born of the Amy Spingarn Prizes. We have received in this con- test: 130 short stories 20 plays 64 essays 321 poems 94 drawings 629 total These will all be read and viewed by four separate critics and all those with any considerable merit selected for submission to the preliminary judges. A small selection of the best will be passed on to the final judges. We expect to announce the prize win- ners August 15, in our September number. But that is not all. most. This is not Krigwa is this; but especially WEB Du Bois the writers who do not win are the care of Krigwa. SOCIAL EQUALITY AT HAMPTON HE editor of the Newport News Daily Press has asked the principal of Hampton In- stitute some pointed questions as to social equality between the races at that institution. We discussed the motives of the editor last month and promised this month to suggest the answer which James E. Gregg, Prin- cipal of Hampton Institute, should make. The editor of the Daily Press asked: Do not white and colored folk at Hampton meet as social equals? Do they not sometimes eat to- gether? Are not Hampton students taught the equality of races? Was not Booker Washington enter- tained socially by Hampton trustees in the North and are not black Moton and white Gregg often thus enter- tained together? To this the Principal should an- swer: “Yes, we do practice social equality at Hampton. We always have prac- ticed it and we always shall. How else can teacher and taught meet but as equals? Yes, we eat together at times. To be sure we have some ‘Jim Crow’ dining halls to appease our Southern friends but we are ashamed of this and try to conceal it. Yes, our white principal and some of our white teachers are entertained in the North and in the South now and then where distinguished black folk are present and we appreciate this | 5 | 59
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60 THE opportunity. The results of the social equality practiced at Hampton have been fine friendships, real knowledge of human souls, high living and high thinking; and we know of no single racial inter-marriage or mulatto child as a result; while, on the other hand, the result of racial segregation in the state of Virginia was officially report- ed at 164,171 mulattoes in 1920. Hampton endeavors to keep the spirit of the laws of Virginia and for this reason ‘nstead of admitting every- body to its course of study it admits only colored people. When white folk, however, come voluntarily as our guests, we welcome them and treat them with every courtesy, al- though we can expect for our stu- dents no reciprocal courtesy from them. But when they demand the right to cross this color line which they themselves have drawn, and then to have a second and internal drawing of race distinctions inside a Negro institution, we say, No. You are not compelled to enter this colored world and it is monstrous when you do come as guests to ask us to insult these already twice insulted people within the very bounds you yourselves have set. “No other civilized group in the world—and you admit that the Hamp- ton graup of students is civilized— is asked to accept such personal insult in their own homes and schools and in their own social life as you demand of these Hampton Negroes. To sub- mit to such a request is not simply criminal—it is silly. “Moreover we realize this: Either we who teach and associate with Ne- groes must treat them as social equals or they will refuse increasingly to meet us. We cannot hope that edu- cated modern men and women are going to have friends and fellou~ workers, teachers of their children and leaders of their thought, who * deem it a disgrace and contamination to drink tea with them or sit side by CRISIS side with them at a play of Shake. speare. If we demand such intoler- able distinctions they will eventually drive us from their homes and schools and make the line between the races an impassable gulf. What kind of a World does such a program fore- shadow ? “It foreshadows ‘Ku Klux Klans’ and ‘Anglo-Saxon Leagues’ and the continuance of hatred, lynching and war. Already and perhaps as a re- sult of your editorial, 2,000 white men yesterday burned a human being to death within 50 miles of your doors!” This is what James E. Gregg ought to say to the Daily Press. We are waiting for him to say it. And to be perfectly frank, we ex- pect to wait a long, long time. THE NEW FISK N order to receive the endow- ment of $1,000,000 pledged to Fisk University by the Gen- eral Education Board and the Carnegie Foundation, it is necessary that the accumulated deficit in the current expenses of this institution be paid before January 1, 1926. This accumulated debt is now $83,000 and by that date it will be near $100,000. It is the clear and bounden duty of the alumni of Fisk University as- sisted by all friends, both white and black, of the higher training of Negroes to raise this $100,000. It ought not to be difficult to do this. Already the Chairman of the Trus- tee Board has offered to duplicate all contributions of Fisk Alumni up to $25,000. This leaves $75,000 to be raised. Probably if the alumni can raise $50,000 the other $25,000 will be forthcoming. Of this $50,000 New York and Chicago should raise half, while St. Louis, Louisville, Nashville and the South ought easily raise the other half. It is a peculiarly appropriate mo- ment for the American Negro to show 4 |
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JUNE, with what great unity and generos- ity he can and will restore and re- build this magnificent institution. Persons interested should write to the Rev. H. H. Proctor, Chairman of the Associated Fisk Clubs, Herkimer and Troy Avenue, Brooklyn, New York. SPECIAL NUMBERS HE CRISIS is going to pub- lish three special numbers in the near future. On July 15 we shall publish the August number and in that number we shall make our usual report of college grad- uates among the Negro population of the United States. This gives a lit- tle more time for the collection of pictures and facts. Our readers will help the completeness and reliability of this number by forwarding to us immediately the names of graduates and prospective graduates who will take degrees during the year 1925 in any of our colleges. In the case of Negro colleges we cannot, on account of the large num- ber of graduates, publish individual pictures but we shall publish group pictures of the graduating classes if the classes will furnish them to us in time. These must be real group pic- tures and not individual pictures pasted together. In the case of graduates of North- ern institutions we would like indi- vidual pictures and data sent us just as quickly as possible and in no case later than June 15. Contrary to our former custom we shall not continue the publication of graduates’ pictures after the one College Number. On August 15 we shall publish the September number of THE CRISIS which wiil have two special features. First, the publication of the first prize stories, poems or essays which will be awarded August 1 at the first official assembly of the Krigwa in New York City; and, secondly, in this 1925 61 September number we shall say something about the High School graduates. Pictures intended for this number should reach us not later than July 15. On September 15 we shall publish the October number of THE CRISIS which will be our annual Children’s Number. All pictures of babies in- tended for this number should reach us by August 15. As we have said many times, we cannot by any possi- bility publish all the pictures sent us but we will use our best judgment and publish as many as we can of those that seem to have sufficient interest for our readers. GERMANY T no one think that Hinden- burg in Germany and Musso- lini in Italy and Baldwin in England and Coolidge in America mean the death of true re- form. What has happened is this: In the crash of worlds when by sheer brute destruction something of the old accumulated hindrances to the ad- vance of mankind was cleared away, the blind mass rose and groped for- ward. They were bound to fail. So- cialists in Germany, Socialists in Russia, Socialists in Belgium, Italy, France and England failed, but not because the underlying truth of So- cialism was false. It was true, it is true, it will al- ways be true that social good and not individual profit is the end of indus- try. Capitalism today argues that this end cannot be reached openly and directly but only by the bribe of huge individual gain to the strong and cun- ning. Capitalism has proven its the- sis in part by giving the world ex- traordinary industrial organization. But Socialism has also in part proven its thesis by curbing wealth tor pub- lic good and establishing a great, even if vague, ideal. It has failed to ap- proximate this ideal not because the ideal is faulty but because human be- i 4 a i t 5 |
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62 THE ings today are so largely stupid, ig- norant and selfish. This stupidity and selfishness Russia would cure by a bridge of tyranny. If she succeeds we will all forgive the tyranny as we have forgiven in ages gone many other tyrants. If she fails the End remains great even though the means were terrible. The rest of Europe has tried to conquer stupidity and selfishness by reaction toward autocracy. If the re- action were complete, we should be as bad off as ever. But the reaction is not complete and the real advance of the world is measured by the dis- tance between the old pre-war autoc- racy and the furthest limit of post- war reaction. Germany today has a war lord. But Hindenburg curbed by an electorate of thirty millions and by parliamentary responsibility is far different from a Hohenzollern who could and did say “Voluntas Regis, Lex suprema!”’ Italy and Spain with their dictators have at least a vast popular support for these dictators. The Toryism of Baldwin is ages in advance of that of Salisbury, and Caillaux is better than Poincaré. And in the United States? Well LaFollette at least ran and on a platform broader than Theo- dore Roosevelt’s. The world has then stepped for- ward but not far. We still seek the ideal of a nation’s capital owned by the nation; of industry directed by talent, of income divided according to the broadest national need. It will take sad, long years of effort, of slow and painful experiment, of deep and careful education before modern men can lift themselves high enough out of their present beastliness, envy and hatred to approximate so high an ideal. DISFRANCHISEMENT OW is the Negro disfran- chised? The process is so complicated that few Ne- groes themselves know def- initely. Beginning with 1890 laws CRISIS have been passed in various Southern states which today disfranchise ap- proximately four million Negroes 21 years of age and over, over half of whom can read and write and who own property which runs into the hundreds of millions. The restric- tions by which these have been ac- complished are eight in number: 1. Illiteracy: The voter must be able to read and write. 2. Property: The voter must own a certain amount of property. 3. Poll Tax: The voter must have paid his poll tax for the present year or for a series of years. 4. Employment: The voter must have regular employment. 5. Army service: Soldiers in the Civil War and certain other wars, or their de- scendants, may vote. 6. Reputation: Persons of good reputation who un- derstand the duties of a citizen may vote. 7. “Grandfather” clause: Per- sons who could vote before the freed- men were enfranchised or descend- ants of such persons may vote. 8. Understanding clause: Persons may vote who understand some selected clause of the Constitution and can explain it to the satisfaction of the registration officials. The laws are often obscurely drawn and many of them have not had full judicial determination but apparent- ly these restrictions are distributed as follows: 1890—Mississippi (1 or 8) +3. 1895—South Carolina 1 or 2 or 8. 1898—Louisiana (1+2) or 7. 1901—North Carolina (1+-3) or 7. 1901—Alabama (1+-4) or 2 or 5 or 6. 1902—Virginia (143 or 5) or 8 or 2. 1909—Georgia 1 or 2 or 5 or 6. That is, in Mississippi the voter must be able to read and write or he must understand and explain a sec- tion of the Constitution read to him and, in addition to that, he must have paid his poll tax, etc. The Grandfather Clause, No. 7, has | 3
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JUNE, 1925 63 been declared unconstitutional but as it was in force for nearly a genera- tion most illiterate white people were able to register under it. The effect of these laws can be il- lustrated in the case of Louisiana where out of 147,348 colored men 21 years of age and over, of whom 57,000 were reported to be able to read and write, there were in 1908 only 1,748 voters. But all this amounts to nothing as compared with the effect of the White Primary. The White Primary is based on law and custom and is le- gally the primary election of the Dem- ocratic Party. In fact, the Demo- cratic Party admits to this primary any white person who wishes to vote on condition that he pledge himself to stand by the decision of the pri- mary. On the other hand, no Negro is allowed to vote in the White Pri- mary save in exceptional cases. The White Primary therefore becomes the TO THE NEGRO real election and all over the country the newspapers report the results of primary elections in the South as the real decisién. When the legal elec- tion takes place very few people vote. I lived 13 years in the city of Atlanta where in a population increasing from 100,000 to 200,000 people, usu- ally 700 votes were cast in the legal election. In addition to the power of dis- franchisement thus held by the White Primary there is social and economic pressure. Colored men are continu- ally told to keep out of politics or lose their jobs and it has become a point of honor with many Negroes of edu- cation and character not to vote nor even to attempt to vote. It is in this way that democratic government is made of no account in a large por- tion of the United States and it is against this that the N. A. A. C. P. is fighting in its latest judicial case against the White Primary of Texas. L. MATTES OU black slave In the land of the Right, In the land of the Free, To you I raise my voice. You cotton-picker in swampy Mississippi, You cane-cutter in smothering Louisiana, You mud-digger, hod-carrier, You harvest-hand, mill-hand, dock-hand, Laborer! You, Who gave to the skyscraper your toil and sweat And to the subway all your breath; You, Who laid the shining tracks the States around And brought forth riches from underground For the good of Men. In slums you live, In indigence you multiply. Yet, With head stiff and high on the watch you stand, Swinging doors wide open, Giving a hand to the noble rich. ; O, slave, You slave! Out of the night I heard you call. On the cross-ways I have met your children weeping in bit- terness. Did the mother abandon her children As the shepherd deserted his sheep? Why do you roam at this hour? Who is seeking your eyc? I know! Out of the dark comes the light, And this I say to you: Escape not! Open your eyes, Look back and see | H ‘ ¥ 4 » 4 a * 4 t 4 4 ¥
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64 THE The stern mask of the lynched chiseled in agony. And here— Turn your face- Observe: The drunken beast chasing your father, Its prey. And your brother dipped in tar, Befeathered— Heed his expiring cry “God, my God, why hast me, why?” Thou forsaken Fear not! Curse not! But like a phantom in the night “Bring before their sight: The Slain, The Suffering, The Lame— THEIR BEASTLY, BLOODY HANDS, THEIR SHAME! Arise, You slave! CRISIS Behold: Two chariots come racing. The chariot with the black horses carries oppression ; The chariot with the red horses carries revolt. Hear the hoofs in flight. Know: The race is yours; The prize is LIBERTY! Hark: I know the day, And I know it’s near. Lift your head. And as the swaying bells in the blazing night SOUND YOUR VOICE WITHOUT FRIGHT— Be brave! And with the legions of the right Set yourself free, Slave! BURUTU MOON An Evening in an African Village By LANGSTON HUGHES IFE is a ripe fruit too delicious for the taste of man: the full moon hangs low over Burutu. We walk through the quiet streets of the great native-town, my comrade and I. There are no pavements, no arc-lights. Only the wide grassy streets, the thatched huts and the near, low-hung moon. Dark figures with naked shoulders, a single cloth about their bodies and bare feet, pass us often, their foot-steps making no sounds on the grassy road, their voices soft like the light of the orange-gold moon. Through the open doors of some of the houses, fires gleam. Women move about preparing focd. Peace is everywhere. In the clearing great mango trees cast purple shadows across the path. There is no wind. Only the moon, peace and the moon. “How still it is,” I said to Pey. “Yes, how still,” Pey replied, “but bye and bye they make Ju-ju.” “Tonight? Where?” I cried excited. “I want to go.” Pey shook his head, but pointed toward the edge of the town where the wall of the forest began. “Christian man no bother with Ju-ju,” Pey said. “Omali dance no good for Christian man.” “But I want to see it,” I insisted. “No, him too awful” Pey cried. “White man never go see Ju-ju. Him hurt you! Him too awful! White man never go.” “But I’m not a white man,” I objected. | “You no black man, neither,” said Pey simply. So I gave up going to the Ju-ju. We were invited to the house of Nagary, the trader. It was a little larger than the other houses. There were two or three small rooms. We sat down on the floor in the first room, the moon-light streaming through the door-way. A large, green par- rot slept on a wooden ring hung from the ceiling. Nagary was an old Mohammedan in voluminous, long robes. He must have been a large, strong man in his youth. There was a lingering nobleness in his dark, old face and proud carriage. |
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JUNE, Nagary called his wife. She came, a pretty, brown woman, young, much younger than Nagary. Her own body was wrapped in a dull red cloth of rich fiber. She spoke no English, but she smiled. Nagary sent her for two candles. Nagary sent her for the only chair, which she offered to me. Nagary sent her for three heavy boxes which she placed before him. Nagary opened the boxes. Then he showed us beaten brass from up the Niger; statuettes that skilled hands had made; fiber cloth woven by women in far-off villages; the skins of jungle animals and the soft white feathers of birds found in the dangerous forests of “the bush”. Nagary opened the third box with a rusty key. It contained a fortune in ivory. Great, heavy bracelets for women when they marry; solid ivory tusks, smooth and milk-white; little figures and tiny panels, intricately carved; and one great white tusk circled with monkeys and _ coiled snakes. Nagary did not ask me to buy any of these things. He seemed satisfied with my surprise and wonder. He told me of his trips up the river to Wari and down to Lagos. He gave me a great spray of feathers. When I left, he said, with out- stretched hands, “God be with you”. When we came out the moon had risen in the sky. It was not so large now, but it was brighter, much brighter. I had never seen a moon so bright. We turned into a narrow street. There there was a bit of animation. Men were walking up and down. “This is where the whores stay,” said Pey. And even here the oldest profession flourished. The women of the night stood before low doors with oiled hair and henna-dyed nails. In the golden light, they were like dark flowers 1925 65 offering their beauty to the moon. With slender bodies wrapped in bright cloths, they waited for lovers. They said no word to those who passed. They stood still, waiting. In front of one hut three white young sailors were bargaining with an old woman. Behind her, frightened and ashamed, stood a girl of fifteen, a virgin. The price was four pounds. The sailors argued for a cheaper rate. They hadn’t that much money. We crossed the dry bed of a creek. In the distance we heard the drums of Omali, the Ju-ju. Their measured beating came across the swamp-lands at the edge of the forest. Tonight the natives danced to their strange Gods. We turned back towards the docks and followed the river road. Hundreds of tiny house-boats lay rocking at their moorings, each with its lantern on a slender pole. The long, flat, paddle-wheel steamers of the Niger were anchored in mid-stream. The river flowed quietly under the moon. We came to the docks where the great ships from the white man’s land rested,— an American boat, a Belgian tramp, an English steamer. Tall, black, sinister ships, high above the water. “Their men,” say the natives, “their white strong men come to take our oil and ivory, our ebony and mahogany, to buy our women and bribe our chiefs I climbed the straight ladder to the deck of my ship. Far off, at the edge of the clearing, over against the forest, I heard the drums of Omali, the Ju-ju. Above, the moon was like a gold-ripe fruit in heaven, a gold-ripe fruit too sweet for the taste of man, ON TO DENVER LB) aa & ae HE 16th Annual Conference of the N. A. A. C. P. will be held in Denver, Colorado, June 24 to 30, 1925. Convention sessions in comfort, scenic thrills! That’s Colorado’s invitation to represen- tatives who are coming to Denver in June to attend the Convention of the National and ‘ored People. Association for the Advancement of Col- It matters not if they should want to spend the entire summer around Denver, for the Rocky Mountains make an ideal playground. Fishing, hiking, rough- ing it in camp life or idling away the hours are diversions within an hour’s drive of Colorado’s capital, which stands in the 5 4 a — — | | | AS ‘
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66 THE Rev. Coyden H. Uggams Rev. H. T. S. Johnson shadow of these snow-capped sentinels and boasts of short scenic trips almost without number. And here, in the midst of cosmopolitan Denver, there is a touch of early-day ro- mance and history; of the cowboy and his woolly chaps, the Indian day-dreaming in his skin tepee and the pioneer with his overland schooner—a means of early day transportation that has since been replaced in part by steel rails. Fancy and inspira- tion lead the way to Indian trails in Den- ver’s Mountain Parks now widened into comfortable automobile roads, or to the ruins of a mining town where prospectors became rich overnight when the sunset’s gold was reflected in the precious ore they took from the earth. Clear Creek, Bear Creek and South Platte Canyons have delightful scenic attractions. Idaho Springs, the famous Georgetown rail loop and Silver Plume are reached in a: one-day return trip out of Denver. Nature has sculptured South Platte Canyon in a water-worn ravine until the visitor gasps in wonderment at the succession of scenic thrills in the one-day trip to the head- waters. So in fairness to themselves, dele- gates should plan upon additional time, either before or after the convention, or both, to make of the convention trip a real vacation in the Rockies as well. Denver, Colorado’s capital, has many points of interest. The Capitol building has a gold-encrusted dome as a tribute to the prospectors who were lured to the Rockies in quest of the precious dust. The Colorado State Museum, across the street from the Capitol, contains relics of Indian Cliff CRISIS | Rev. Harry Rahming Fritz Cansler Dwellers from their ruins in Mesa Verde National Park, in southwestern Colorado, while in the Colorado Museum of Natural History, in City Park, are skeletons of pre- historic monsters and wonderful displays of bird life and wild animal groups. Standing in Cheesman Park, one gets an inspiring view of 200 miles of snow-crowned mountains, from Pikes Peak, seventy-five miles south, to Mount Evans, directly west in the Denver Mountain Parks, northward to Longs Peak in Rocky Mountain National Park, and on toward Wyoming. Denver al- ready has expended $1,000,000 on a sys- tem of forty park areas outside its munici- pal boundaries, through special legislative act. These things have sprung up in frontier settlement within the span of a lifetime— years filled with romantic deeds and stories of sacrifice and sudden wealth after W. Green Russell and other Georgians found traces of gold in Cherry Creek and South Platte, within what is now the municipal limits of Denver. The gold hunt led to Clear Creek, forty miles west of Denver. That was in °'59. In 1876, Colorado was admitted to statehood. Today Denver’s area is fifty-eight square miles and its pop- ulation more than 300,000. There are four living glaciers in the Boulder region, fifty-five miles from Den- ver, one-day return trips to which are made by rail and auto. Estes Park Village, sev- enty-five miles to the north, is the eastern entrance to Rocky Mountain National Park. Then there are Municipal Auditorium with its $85,000 pipe organ, Fitzsimmons U. S. General Hospital and Fort Logan. Noon- | | | | | | ; | | é.
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JUNE, 1925 67 THE GLENARM BRANCH OF day organ recitals are given in the Munici- pal Auditorium especially for visitors and band concerts in the parks are a delightful and inspiring treat, under sparkling lan- terns hung in the sky. At the gateway to this land of enchant- ment, Colorado’s capital also impresses the visitor as a jobbing and manufacturing center, the mid-continental area with its 30,000,000 inhabitants being tributary to Denver. Denver’s bank clearings in 1924 totaled $1,602,976,000; its deposits $214,- 000,000; manufactured products $140,000,- 000 while the value of the retail trade was $120,000,000. Denver is the leading feeder market of the West and the third largest sheep market in the world. The city’s in- dustrial roll now has 1,500 factories, mer- chandise normally carried by Denver retail stores is worth $60,000,000. Building per- mits for 1924 totaled $26,536,900, while re- ceipts at the Denver Union Stock Yards were valued at $54,950,000. The colored peo- ple of Denver are a virile, pushing group. The Epis- copal Church is represented by the Rev. H. E. Rahm- ing, a graduate of the General Theo- logical Seminary. He has a church property worth $75,000 and is Ex- Victor Walker THE Y. M. C. A., DENVER amining Chaplain to the Bishop of Colorado. The Scott M. E. Church is conducted by the Rev. H. T.S. Johnson, a graduate of Gam- mon. The Presbyterian Church is pastored by the Rev. C. H. Uggams who was trained at Lincoln and is President of the Inter- denominational Ministers Alliance. The best known church is the Shorter A. M. E. Chapel, whose building was recently burned. The Rev. Mr. Ward is pastor here. The Glenarm branch of the Y. M. C. A.., dedicated only last December, is a building of three stories and basement, modern in equipment and design. It has dormitory accommodations for 65 men. Thomas J. Bell long served as secretary and was suc- ceeded last February by Fritz Cansler who was formerly of Philadelphia. Mr. Bell remains as his assistant in business and promotion. The program for the N. A. A. C. P. Con- ference has not yet been completed. It will include welcoming addresses by state and city officials and discussion of Segregation, Lynching and the “Jim Crow” pro- gram in the North. The Renaissance of Negro Art and Literature, Science and Race Rela- tions, and Modern Industrialism and the Negro will be . | | re, ; - > 7 ¢
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68 THE taken up. Among the speakers who have already been invited are Senator Borah, Judge Albert George, Scipio Jones and Judge Ben Lindsey. A pageant will be given on the opening night and an elaborate musical program has been arranged. The round trip cost from New York to Denver will be $93.22. In addition to this a lower berth will cost $19.88. For $45 additional persons may visit San Francisco. Every effort will be made among the hos- pitable colored people of Denver to see that the delegates and friends are well housed and entertained. CRISIS Victor Walker is Vice-Chairman of the Publicity Committee of the Denver Branch. He is one of the substantial citizens of that city, and a printer and publisher. He has a large clientele among the white business men in addition to his own people and it is said that for the first time in the history of the Association it will have the benefit of the National service of the Western News- paper Union publication in its behalf, which will include over 4000 weekly News- papers in America, Mrs. Leona Barbee and a host of other workers, together with the officers of the Denver Branch, are striving to make this Conference a success. 9 MR. HAYES RECEIVES THE SPINGARN MEDAL THE TENTH SPINGARN MEDAL WALTER F. WHITE UJ [At the Philadelphia Conference of the N. A. A. C. P. in June, 1924, it was an- nounced that Mr. Roland Hayes had been chosen as Spingarn Medalist for the year 1923. Mr. Hayes could not at that time be present in person, so that the medal was actually handed him April 7, 1925. The eleventh Spingarn medalist, for 1924, will be announced at the Denver Conference in June, 1925.] O* the deck of the huge Cunard trans- Atlantic liner, the Aquitania, flooded -
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JUNE, with warm April sunlight, there stood more than a hundred distinguished persons. On the steel hatches, some few feet higher than the deck, perched twenty-five or thirty pho- tographers representing various New York newspapers and syndicates which furnish photographs to papers throughout the United States and the world. Off to one side and facing the crowd stood two men. One of them, tall, heavy-set, with white hair and distinguished face spoke to the other. This other one was slender of form, almost boyish. His skin was dark and the hair rose straight from the high forehead. Walter Damrosch, one of America’s most eminent musicians, who on March 27th had celebrated his fortieth year as conductor of the New York Symphony Orchestra, was presenting to Roland Hayes the Spingarn Medal. Mr. Damrosch spoke: “It is with a double pleasure that I take part in this ceremony to-day, as an Ameri- can citizen and as a musician. “The so-called civilization of the colored race dates back a few hundred years since they first left darkest Africa. Their partici- pation in what we might call the culture of the white race dates back hardly more than fifty years, and yet, during that short pe- riod of time, they have amply demonstrated not only their potentiality for civilization, but their actual achievement—what they have accomplished in this short time. Throughout the previous history of their race, throughout the period of their slavery in our country, they have always cultivated music, the one cultural outlet of their emo- tions which they as a race have always possessed to a supreme degree, to accom- pany not only their religious rites with the intense feeling of the old spirituals, but in their moments of recreation. “And so it is natural that among the finest achievements the race can boastfully point to to-day, their achievements in music are eminent if not preeminent, and | am glad to see present to-day one of the older recipients of the Spingarn Medal who dur- ing his time has also brought honor to the Negro through his achievements in music. I refer to Mr. Harry Burleigh. “But to-day I must say that I cannot imagine a worthier recipient of this medal than he who stands here at my side, who, though a mere youth, has already achieved sc much, who has penetrated into the deep- 1925 69 est mysteries of the music of the great mas- ters; and I do not know of any singers of the white race who can sing a song of Schumann or Schubert with keener feeling or with more emotion. “Therefore, it is an honor and a pleasure to me to present to this young musician, Roland Hayes, this distinguished mark of appreciation—the Spingarn Medal, not only with the hope but with the confidence that he will continue to be an honor to his race and to the profession to which we both be- long, a proof that we two, like all of us, you and I, are God’s own children.” Mr. Damrosch bowed low to Mr. Hayes and passed into his hands the medal. Mr. Hayes moistened his lips and in an even, calm tone began to speak: “It is now nearly twenty years since I entered upon my artistic career. I did it because I had the conviction that my talent was the gift of an Infinite Mind and that it had been entrusted to me for a divine purpose, and that purpose was that the various racial groups that make up the hu- man family should be served with the high- est expression of that gift. “Recognizing that fact I have striven without thought of honor, save that honor which comes by achievement. “By this, dear friends, you will under- stand what a tremendous surprise it was to me when I learned that the Spingarn Medal Award Committee of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People had recognized my achievements to be worthy of this most significant honor. Indeed, it is a great honor, and yet not any part of that honor can I accept, except with the understanding that the honor which the award carries with it includes all of the colored people of these United States and the world so far as my talent has been recognized, because that which you recog- nize of merit in my work is that which you yourselves have helped me to bring into a vivid, conscious existence, through me, a living instrument.” Mary White Ovington, a large parcel in her arms, approached Mr. Hayes and hand- ed the bundle to him with the words: “The National Association for the Ad- vancement of Colored People’ wishes, through me, to make you this gift of a few books to read on your journey; but in do- ing this we want you to realize that we | 4 | +
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70 | THE know we can never repay you for what you have done for us. The gift that an artist makes is incalculable. The songs that you have sung and that we have heard are beyond any gift that we could ever make.” The simple and impressive ceremony was ended. Roland Hayes, introduced by James Weldon Johnson, who presided, as “the great- est singer of his race and one of the great- est living artists of any race”, had become officially the Tenth Spingarn Medalist. That night, April seventh, having completed a CRISIS magnificently successful tour of the United States, which included more than eighty concerts and appearances as soloist with six symphony orchestras, he set sail for Spain where he is to give two concerts and then rest until the fall. Then, after singing on the continent in Germany and France, he returns to America for another tour, wear- ing the well-merited tribute as “The Amer- ican Negro who had in 1923 made the highest and noblest achievement in any field of elevated and honorable human endeavor”. THE LITTLE PAGE as Errig Lee NEWSOME L CALENDAR CHAT » ee have been hearing of May poles, May baskets so long, I think now it is time for me, June, to have a basket of some kind. But an empty vessel in itself seems scarcely interesting, therefore, let me see, what shall I put into my basket? Autumn has her horn of plenty, among the curves of which are nestled rose-red apples, nut-brown pears and pumpkins as gold as sunrise. And then, May’s basket runs over with all the flowers that she and the children can find, for May is a month rich with wild flowers, as I am the month of gardens, though brown-eyed-Susan waits patiently for me, as do the dainty elder blooms and the wild rose, which is my flower. These blossoms of the field I claim, and yet shall not gather them into a basket, for a wonderful thought has just come to me! There was the season of fruit, there was the month of flowers, so why could not I, June, the month of beauty, fill a basket with RHYMES? There! Little rhymes no larger, no heavier than tiny sea shells! Do you recall Robert Louis Stevenson’s birthday greetings to a lady? How he said that verses stood tapping at her door and wished to kiss her hand? This was not greatly unlike having a basket at the door waiting to kiss one’s nose, with fragrance. And what about rhymes to kiss one’s heart, as butterflies in great hosts, coming over the millet, kiss one’s eye with the whimseys of their light movement? So here is my basket. Let us unpack it, and read the rhymes as we come to them. The First A KILLDEER T pleases me to hear The little strange killdeer. He hurries through the sky, And seems as he goes by, To be a-ringing bells, A-ringing tiny bells! The Second MILD MISTRESS MOOW .— as a moth, and just as white, Mild Mistress Moon moves through the Night, And on and on, till yellow dawn, And then behold—Milady’s gone! The Third WILD ROSE _ roses dainty in a meadow, Where all the cattle browse? Strange they don’t fear the very shadow Of daddy’s big rough cows! The Fourth THE CRICKET’S WOOING CRICKET went wooing at twilight in June, And started to singing without any tune, “A-crickety, crickety, crickety, cricket.” He made such a racket deep down in the thicket! An owl asked him wisely to kindly say WHO, Who-oo, who-oo in this manner he thought he might woo. 4 ‘ |
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JUNE, Gric Ker Went NEX’ of “A rickety prickety mate”, the reply, “Would scarce suit a cricket so steady as I.” “Unless”, from the forest a voice sounded shrill, “You whip her will, whip her will, just whip her will!” The Fifth RED INDIANS CF DAWN ED Indians of dawn, come chase Across the eastern sky 1925 71 But save, I pray, that calm “pale face”, My Lady Moon, so shy. The Sixth GARDEN SO BRIGHT ASTURTIUM loves the sunlight; Soft Pansy likes the gloom; So, gay the lights Nasturtium wears, And rich the pansy’s bloom. The Last FANTASY CLOUD sprite caught the slim new moon, Called it a “ship”, and sailed to June, But when sun rays touched Cloudlet’s face, He fell, all trembling, into space, And dropped to earth, the story goes, To make June’s flower, the gay wild rose. T the bottom of THE JUNE BASKET at last! But hello, here! What’s this? Not another rhyme, surely? No, no. A rose bud! A gold one, at that. It is a baby sweet briar rose which had been hiding un- der all that litter of little rhymes and almost smothering. Oh, I know it was happy when the last rhyme was lifted out and the breath of the mother rose could blow in upon the little lost child! “CLOSE RANKS!” WILLIAM STUART NELSON The problem of American Negro unity discussed by a young colored man educated at Howard and Marbach and now professor in the Howard University School of Religion. HE difficulty with which the Negro group unites even upon those projects which are vital to its existence merits very earnest consideration. This tendency to discord is lamented by our orators and pub- licists, capitalized by our comedians, ex- ploited by our enemies. If sixty years of continuous struggle against a common foe has given rise toa profound group conscious- ness, it has not, paradoxically, served ef- fectively to unite us. The very human selfish instinct has yielded scarcely a whit to the exigencies of group needs. We dif- fer, we quarrel, we contend; we oppose, we defeat, we destroy; and this among our- selves who already are cruelly abused from without. If it be true that there have been times of special stress when we have stood unitedly upon an issue and won, it is also true that with the same lack of foresight characteristic of the human race, we have seen our effective co-operation limited to those moments when crises have arisen and less than united action would have proved fatal. If it is true that other racial groups are equally as divided as we, it is also true that no one of them has attained to any place of merit thus divided. The oppressor has been at our door, crossing the threshold of our sacred domain for these decades; and how often have we faced him as one? In war when your back is to the wall and the enemy is taking a heavy toll of your scat- ! > - \ ~
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72 | THE tered forces you mass your command, close ranks—and win! Or, if in modern fashion you deploy, it is under one command, with a method and a singleness of purpose. Have we as a group a distinct contribution to make for humanity’s weal? If so, the time arrives for us to unite upon it. For the forces of racial disintegration await no man’s hour and tomorrow may see us lost in humanity’s mass, merged into mankind. Let us look into the causes of our constant discord. They are many. It is quite pos- sible that different blood strains in a peo- ple make unity among them difficult. Cer- tainly personal idiosyncrasies cannot be discounted; and the diverse influences aris- ing out of our different environments and playing persistently upon us must perforce give a variety of viewpoints. But it is an- other group of factors making for disunity which we elect to discuss here. They are three—religious intolerance, fraternal ex- clusiveness and, finally, the differences that arise between youth and their elders. In common with the rest of mankind we have suffered from cleavage on religious lines. Even before the passing of slavery, denominations and sects among us were working at cross purposes. And who has not observed certain of our religious groups standing aloof unwilling to meet similar groups in counsel and co-operation for racial and general uplift? There is a great city in which the whites are bent upon segregating the Negroes. Protestants take counsel with Catholics, and Jew with Gen- tile unite to rob us of more of our “in- alienable” rights. But in this same city our religious leaders divided along sect : lines pursue the even tenor of their de- nominational way and look askance at any gesture toward united action. It is one of the most tragic commentaries upon the history of the human race that the very ideal which Providence has given to unite it has served as the source of its greatest division. Christian brotherhood should ef- fectively bind men together and when aided by a strong group consciousness should make for an impregnable unity. But alas, we re-crucify the Saviour upon the cross of individual selfishness and denominational bigotry. It is true that religious differences of view-point will always exist and also that men once fought bloodily for their beliefs, CRISIS and conscientiously; but in this twentieth century of presumed enlightenment to pro- ject religious disagreements into our social life, estop racial and civic progress, erect impassable barriers between men is the es- sence of intolerance and a complete denial of the fundamental principles of the Chris- tian religion. We are called a religious people. But mere emotion is not worthy of the name religion. Do we aspire to make a real con- tribution to humanity? Then let us dem- onstrate that we have grasped the funda- mentals in the teachings of the Son of Man, that with us “religion pure and undefiled before God” is “to love mercy and do just- ly”, to serve our fellow and be a friend to men. And we might well begin within our own group. Imagine that for one day all the denominations of the race, all its pro- fessed Christians should pool their re- sources and their energies, unite upon a common plan for race redemption—then would we see our major problems and dif- ficulties giving way before an irresistible force. Now our fraternal exclusiveness. Fra- ternal orders have survived out of the dim past and while many of the reasons for their foundation may no longer exist they still have their virtue—otherwise they should long since have gone the way of many other institutions of ancient origin. But their every raison d'etre is negatived when they interfere with the general social progress. It is not to be denied that many fraternal organizations have made remark- able individual advance and have fostered no small amount of racial enterprise. These cannot be too greatly praised. On the other hand instances are innumerable where fra- ternal societies might have co-operated for the common good but rather have given their energies to the defeat of laudable pur- poses. The selfish instinct in the individual is sufficiently reprehensible but when in organizations a premium is put upon it, when it is cultivated, lauded and rewarded, it becomes thrice culpable and the most sin- ister menace to society. The spirit of friendship and loyalty developed in secret societies is worthy—worthy when it has its beginning there but its end in a more pro- found friendship for and loyalty to all mankind. It would be no ‘inconsiderable step toward this should our fraternal] or- ganizations aim consciously at the forging |
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JUNE, of the ties of brotherhood among all the members of our racial group. The tasks of the race bid us have a new vision and in the fraternal realm enter upon a new era of co-operation. From this point of view we would appeal! especially to our college fraternities and sororities. The future of the race depends very largely upon what the youth of today elects. We must choose to co-operate. Our college fraternities have already given evi- dence of having caught a real vision. Many have abandoned their traditional exclusive- ness and entered upon programs of a large service. “Go to High School, Go to Col- lege”, “Guide Right”, ‘‘National and In- ternational Scholarship’”—these are move- ments with which the country is becoming familiar and which it is commending. There is but one criticism—the absence of co-operation among these organizations. Not only non-co-operation; but there is not infrequently real opposition on the part of one to the efforts of the other. Now divide the college youth in this manner and the result for racial injury is manifest. As- sistance in making effective the program of each other is the least college fraterni- ties can do. Indeed, it is not too much to hope that they unite in a single effort. While considering their own problems and welfare they must not forget the larger group, their race. One further cause of dissension among us is the difference of view-point held by the youth of the race and its elders. Youth begins to look lightly upon tradition and is restive under the authority which the years or achievements of their elders have seemed to impose. And youth, strong, willful, im- petuous, has become in frequent instances derisive of old men, even disrespectful. It has dared to criticize without restraint, if with cause, and to declare against the most precious idols of the passing generation. On the other hand there are those men of achievement among us and likewise of many years whose attitude toward the in- tentions and assertions of the youth has always been hostile. They have decided a priori that young men are incapable of 1925 73 addressing themselves intelligently to cer- tain problems and have discouraged their doing so whenever possible. The youths whose aspiring souls have been crushed by their unsympathetic elders are legion. The promising ideas of young men tiiat have failed to mature because older men would not take them in nurture are numberless. Thus young men resent the arbitrary crush- ing of their hopes; and older men complain of youthful tirades. Of all the differences within the race this certainly is to be most deplored. It is obvious that old men, with rare exceptions, cannot see through the eyes of youth. They are fixed in their opinions, relinquish a view-point with difficulty; and the youth could well take cognizance of this fact. There is certainly no virtue in the Negro youth’s flinging epithets, deriding those who erected the foundation upan which they stand. Out of gratitude for the achievements of their elders, young men could well afford to be reverent although disagreed. And as for our elders, their experience and wisdom, presumed to have come with the years, should at least broaden their sympathies and teach them the neces- sity of adjustment even to those whose ability they might question. They ought gracefully and philosophically to acknowl- edge that youth must be served and permit the juvenile pulses to beat—for they will beat. If we are to attain the mark of our stupendous calling we must unite in a common cause—our elders must prove more tolerant, our youth more thoughtful and considerate. The hour strikes for us to close ranks. We cannot take refuge behind the belief that “there is power in negation, stimulating force in opposition and that spiritua] ad- vance is made through struggle”. The op- position from without should afford us suf- ficient stimulus. Whether we take the view- point of defending ourselves against a com- mon foe or whether we take the higher ground that we as a group have a mission and a contribution to make to humanity, whatever our incentive, the only avenue to the realization of our hope is through in- telligent united action. Before we advance, we must close ranks! | | |
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( Mrs. Maggie L. Walker has celebrated her twenty-fifth anniversary as Right Worthy Grand Secretary-Treasurer of the Independent Order of St. Luke, in honor of which a formal program was held and a testimonial presented to Mrs. Walker. She is a member of the Board of Directors of the N. A. A. C. P., a trustee of the Fred- crick Douglass Home and vice-president of the National Association of Colored Women’s Clubs. A $12,000 Funeral House has been erected in Miami, Florida, by Kelsey L. Pharr. The structure is of hollow tile and concrete, 90 feet in length. The chapel will seat 90 persons. On the main floor is the waiting room and office; upstairs, a three- room apartment, display room and embalm- ing room. ( Roland Hayes sang by royal command before the Queen Mother of Spain at her palace. Roland Hayes’ season will be fol- PHARR’'S FUNERAL HOUSE MRS. MAGGIE L. WALKER lowed by a period of rest. He will make a tour of the German cities at the end of the summer and sing for the first time in Stockholm. He will return to America for his 3rd tour of this country in November. ¢ Atlanta University won the debate be- tween Howard and Atlanta on the subject: ‘Resolved: That Capital Punishment should be abolished in the United States”. How- ard University upheld the affirmative, At- lanta the negative. This makes for At- lanta five victories out of six dual contests with Howard. @ On Palm Sunday at St. George’s Church, Sixteenth Street, New York, “The Palms” was sung by Mr. Harry T. Burleigh. This is the 3lst consecutive year in which this solo has been sung in St. George’s by Mr. Burleigh. (@ James Fletcher Henderson was born at. | ix G ~~ > SS > + 2 == \ Be AGIA Az 4 ©) * J é my PHARAS — By i4
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JUNE, PRIZE BABIES John Robert Dorsey Joseph Glenn Watters Pittsburgh Duluth ist Prize 2nd Prize Cuthbert, Georgia, in 1897. He is the son of Professor and Mrs. Fletcher H. Hender- son, principal of Howard Normal School. He was educated at Atlanta University from which he graduated in 1920 with the degree of A.B. He came to New York and worked for the Pace and Handy Music Com- pany. Then he opened an office and got to- gether an orchestra, making records for every phonograph company in New York. His first continuous engagement in New York was at the Club Alabam for six months. From there he went to The Rose- land and is still there. His orchestra has become one of the most noted in New York. FLETCHER HENDERSON’S ORCHESTRA Celia Henry Billie Maupins Duluth Duluth ist Prize 3rd Prize (@ The 64th General Assembly of Tennes- see has appropriated $160,000 for the Agri- cultural and Industrial State Normal, Nashville, Tennessee, to match a gift of $160,000 from the General Education Board of New York City and friends. The entire amount will be spent for buildings and equipment. This institution has the largest Negro summer school in the world. W. J. Hale is president. @ Clifton R. Wharton, colored attorney of Boston, has been appointed to the Diplo- matic Service as Secretary of the United States Legation at Monrovia, Liberia. Mr. Wharton was one of the twenty who passed «61925 75 ‘ | vt, | |
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THE CRISIS >. => .¥, THE HAUNTING GHOST OF NEGRO LABOR. AFTER AN ETCHING BY ALBERT SMITH out of one hundred and fifty in the exam- ination for Foreign Service. rs. Anna T. Cooper, former principal unbar High School, Washington, D. C.., has received her doctorate in Philosopby at the Sorbonne in Paris. Mrs. Cooper pre- sented a thesis, “L’attitude de la France a L’Egard de L’esclavage”’. € Cortez W. Peters of Dunbar High School, Washington, D. C., was awarded the Under- ‘a Oru
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JUNE, GIRLS’ ATHLETIC ASSOCIATION, ON, LANE COLLEGE, JACKSON, TENNESSEE wood diamond medal emblem for accuracy and speed in a typewriting test given at the Washington office of the Underwood Type- writer Company. Mr. Peters, a graduate of the Department of Business Practice of Dunbar, maintained a net speed of 109 five-stroke words a minute for 30 minutes. ¢ A new Odd Fellows’ Hall has been dedi- cated in Houston, Texas. It was erected at a cost of $247,500. The ground cost $85,000 and the furnishings $23,000. ( The colored musicians and music lovers of Texas have formed a state association at Fort Worth. Mrs. S. H. Fowler is Presi- dent and Mrs. Will E. Smith, Recording Secretary. ODD FELLOWS’ HALL, HOUSTON, TEXAS 1925 i x + } if ™ f | Nf F ~ = — ~ | | j
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78 THE @ Dr. John Alcindor is dead in London. He was born in Trinidad, B. W. IL., in 1873. He was educated there and at Edinburgh where he was graduated in medicine in 1899. For over twenty years he practiced in Paddington, London, and was, at his death, Senior District Medical Officer of his district. He was the author of several papers and a strenuous and unselfish work- er for the Negro race. ( Sergeant Edward M. Monroe, retired, of Philadelphia, has received the Distinguished Service Cross for extraordinary heroism in the Philippine Islands, December 7, 1899. ( Samuel B. Hart, a member of the Penn- sylvania legislature, was born in Philadel- phia in 1863, and educated in the public schools and in the Quaker Home in Bucks County. He was a captain in the colored company of the State Guard, a sanitary inspector, for ten years clerk in the law offices of John A. Sparks, and afterward lien clerk for the Board of Education; from this position he was elected to the legis- lature. ( The late Edwin Hill of Philadelphia was a composer and music publisher. He was born in Maryland and was the first Negro to be admitted to the Philadelphia Academy of Fine Arts, in 1871. He composed some thirty pieces of music including many an- thems. He leaves one son, Edwin Hill, Jr. ¢ G. D. Brantley was born in Alabama in 1899 and educated at Talladega. He has been for five years principal of the Tren- holm High School at Tuscumbia. Recently he was awarded a scholarship by the Gen- eral Education Board for university study. He is a member of the Omega Psi Phi Fraternity. ¢ Dr. Fayette A. McKenzie, Pres‘dent of Fisk University, has resigned and his resignation was accepted by the trustees at a meeting in New York City, April 20, 1925. Dr. McKenzie was born in Penn- sylvania in 1872, was educated at Lehigh and the University of Pennsylvania. He was Professor of Economics and Sociology at Ohio State University, 1905-15, and has been President of Fisk University since 1915. He will sever his connection with Fisk this month. He is married and has two children. ¢C Dr. Arthur D. Butler was born in 1881 in Georgia and educated at Atlanta Uni- versity and North-Western University where he was graduated as a doctor of medi- cine in 1909, He married Dr. Isabella Gar- CRISIS nett, a graduate of the University of Illi- nois, and together they founded the Evans- ton Sanitarium in 1915, at Evanston, IIL., where they did notable work until Dr. But- ler’s untimely death in 1924. He leaves one son. @ Edward H. Savoy, who for a half cen- tury has been chief usher at the State De- partment, in Washington, D. C., reached his 70th birthday, at which age the law required that he retire. However, he was ordered restored for at least two years more by Secretary Kellogg. Mr. Savoy was selected to give the Spanish Envoy Barrobe his passport in 1898 at the outbreak of the Spanish-American War and was with Sec- retary Day in Paris at the conclusion of the Peace of Versailles. ( Mrs. Irene C. Moats is a member of the Advisory Council to the West Virginia State Board of Education. Mrs. Moats was educated at Ohio University and has been in school work for nineteen years. She has been Principal of Reidville Public School, teacher of English at Sumner High School, Parkersburg, West Virginia, and is a mem- ber of the Executive Committee of the State and National Teachers’ Association. MRS. IRENE C. MOATS — 4 4 {
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JUNE, John Alcindor Hill Dr Edwin F. Dr. Arthur D. 3 1925 | | | | | | | | | | | | - | | | Now | j | | | | é % | | “ =, | ¢ | | ~_ | » Samuel Copeland i. E. M. Monroe Samuel B. Hart G. D. Brantley Fayette A. McKenzie Butler Edward H. Savoy 79
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80 THE CRISIS ~ i$ ‘ i ATLANTIC OCEAN Q 2350 MILES ke FRENCH 7 AFRICA — vig 7/ ( Rew Vern le Ci ) Here is where mulatto Moors of Arab and Negro descent are fighting for autonomy against France and Spain and seeking the “New Freedom”. [ ( The late Congress gave over half a mil- lion dollars to Howard University, including $370,000 for a medical school building and $221,000 for the maintenance of the Uni- versity. A new gymnasium and armory are provided for and a dining hall. C Louisville, Kentucky, has built a $40,000 swimming pool for its colored folk. ( At Jackson, Mississippi, a colored woman, Miss Mary Ragland, and her niece have recovered damages from a cotton oil mill for discharging dust over their premises. S. D. Redmond was their attorney. It is unusual in Mississippi for a Negro to re- cover anything. @ Mercy Hospital, Philadelphia, expended $72,000 last year in its work and treated 1492 patients in the hospital and 3265 out- BRICE L. TAYLOR Colored Sprinter of the University of California side. Dr. George G. Strickland is presi- dent. ( Mrs. Adelaide Casely Hayford’s Girl;’ Vocational School at Freetown, Sierra Leone, has made its first annual report. It enrolled forty students during 1924 under six teachers. The income for the year was $2500. Donations are needed and well de- served. The editor of THe CRrIsIs visited the school last year. THE INTER-RACIAL CONFERENCE, CINCINNATI, 114 COLORED AND 102 WHITE DELEGATES >. | t= | ~ | | = |
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JUNE, 1925 81 THE CO-OPERATIVE WOMEN’S LEAGUE, BALTIMORE, MARYLAND ( The Co-operative Women’s League of Baltimore, Maryland, was organized in 1913 by Mrs. Sarah C. Fernandis. They main- tain co-operative relations with the white Women’s Civic League and are working out with them a program of health and san- itation, home economics, art and education. They recently held their 12th annual pro- gram, ( During Inauguration the Treble Clef of Washington, D. C., entertained 300 resi- dents and visitors with a program of music by Negro composers. ( Knoxville College, Tennessee, and the State Agricultural and Mechanical Institute, Alabama, are celebrating their fiftieth anni- versaries this year. Clark University, At- lanta, is inaugurating Matthew S. Davage as President. ( The Distinguished Service Cross has been given to Samuel Copeland of St. Louis, retired private of the Twenty-fourth Infan- try, for extraordinary heroism in the Phil- ippine Islands in 1899. 4 PRIZE BABIES Jay Garland McRae, Jr. Estelle Augusta Holsey Baltimore Baltimore ist Prize 3rd Prize Quinton H. Vaughan, Jr. Brooklyn rook] ist Prize 2nd Prize | | iy > + | | |
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CRISIS ate HOME OF DR. OTHO D. PORTER, ( The two renditions of Negro spirituals given by Paul Robeson and Lawrence Brown, at the Greenwich Village Theatre in New York, have been markedly success- ful. The variety of the program, the pic- tures of another day and tradition, the rich resonant voice of Mr. Robeson and the sympathetic accompaniments by Mr. Brown lent a new setting to these old but always significant songs. (| Opportunity Magazine gave a dinner on May first at which prizes were awarded to the participants in the Literary Contest. The winners of first and second prizes were:. for the short story, John Matheus and Zora Neale Hurston; for poetry, Langston Hughes and Countée Cullen; for essays, E. Franklin Frazier and Sterling Brown; for plays, G. D. Lipscomb, with Warren A. MacDonald and Zora Neale Hurston divid- ing second prize; for personal experience sketehes, G. A. Steward and Fidelia Ripley. ( The 3,500 members of the Alpha Phi Al- pha conducted in May their sixth annual “Go to High School—Go to College” cam- paign. They reached fully five million par- ents and students. Raymond W. Cannon is National President. @ The Mme. C. J. Walker Company is making permanent its offer of trips abroad to persons winning in its popularity con- BOWLING GREEN, KENTUCKY tests. Mme. A’Lelia Walker, the president, offers four trips, two scholarships and sev- eral cash prizes this year. Persons wishinz to compete should send their names and addresses to the company at Indianapolis. (€ The North Carolina Mutual Life Insur- ance Company reports a total income for 1924 of $3,739,854, including the balance brought forward. It paid to policy holders $729,833. It has first mortgages on real estate of over a million dollars and owns $386,997 worth of real estate and $317,916 in government bonds. Its surplus, deduct- ing all questionable assets and making all legal reserves for policy holders, etc., amounts to $107,737. The president is C. C. Spaulding and the secretary J. M. Avery. The company was founded in 1898. @ The celebration of emancipation at Georgetown, South Carolina, is an unusual event. Both white and colored people crowd to witness the celebration. The parade is led by the City band headed by fraternal and city organizations and was last year a moving pageant of industrial progress with automobiles and floats. Two of the floats represented the business places of W. H. Brown and W. C. Atkinson, who operate two of the best meat markets in the state. J. N. Robinson also had a float. He has the oldest and best bakery in the city. THE “7 “he = 5 x > be } ‘ | a ia ~~. wk wad é \
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TEMPERAMENT H. M. Bonp Horace Mann Bond was born at Nasi- ville, .Tennessee, the son of Dr. James Bond and Jane Brown Bond, of the Howard Con- gregational Church of that city; graduated from Lincoln University, Pennsylvania with degree of A.B. in 1923; Instructor in Edu- cation at the same institution 1923-24; graduate student at University of Chicago. At present he is Director of Education at the C. A. & N. University, Langston, Ok- lahoma. E are all intimately interested in the nature and amount in detail by which one individual differs from another. This one is quick and strong—that one slow and weak—to adapt Wundt’s familiar classifica- tion of temperamental traits. This man de- votes his energies with unflagging zeal to a disagreeable task; that one shirks the slightest exaction upon his time or effort. These are the manifest and evident pecu- liarities which are laid before our eyes daily, in a hundred interesting fashions. For them we have an easy explanation and one which serves to satisfy the demands of science. It is quite logical to locate these differences in the inherited pattern of be- haviour, granted always that environment may obscure individual facts and mask the significance of group exhibitions of these same factors. In the same manner, we are apt to make classifications of races based upon our ob- servance of certain facts. The Italian is quick and emotional, we decide; while op- posed to his warm, impassioned southern temperament is the stolid determination and steadfast vision of the Teuton and the child of the North. The Negro is governed by his emotions, docile and childlike; the Nor- die is a thinker, an individualist and self- assertive where the other is instinctively submissive. So the man in the street runs the gamut of impression and belief. It is not only this much maligned person who subscribes heartily to such a credo, but the littérateur, the commercial man, the military man and in many cases the man of science. An ex- planation for this fact is not far in abey- ance; temperament is one subject which heretofore has not been given scientific and experimental investigation. Anatomical differences have been discarded as super- ficial and unimportant; differences in in- telligence have been admittedly reduced to vague and inconclusive ranges; but tem- perament represents a field whose soil is still virgin. It thus is the vantage ground for many of the weird and impossible spec- ulations which formerly took refuge under the wing of other factors, now discredited as significant of total race cleavage. That our conception of the factor of tem- perament is ill-defined is shown by the inomalous variety of adjectives used by dif- fering commentators to describe one racial type. In the course of a study recently made, it was found that Negro tempera- ment was considered to be cowardly, fero- cious, loyal, treacherous, deceptive, truthful, docile, recalcitrant, submissive, individual- istic, by as many different writers. As a concrete example of this confusion as to exact classification, we know the variant viewpoint contrasted in reports on the dis- cussion of the Negro of Civil War days and the same Negro of ten or fifteen years later. Surely, we have the same Negro; yet there is an astonishing amount of literature ex- istent on the loyal and faithful Negro of the former period and an equally astonish- ing amount of literature treating of the Negro of the latter period as thief, rapist and treacherous scoundrel. It is such facts as these which serve to indicate that temperamental differences are no more to be relied upon as separating races than anatomical or intellectual dif- ferences. As one of the fruitful sources of data as to temperamental traits, the Negro in America affords a tempting subject for investigation as to the genuineness and au- thenticity of his inherent characteristics which have been so laxly considered racial in extent. What are the temperamental features which are generally relied on in classifying the Negro? Although, as we have pointed out, there exists a conflicting mass of opin- ion relative to these features, there is al- most general agreement in regarding the Negro as possessing a high degree of emo- tional tonicity. We hear him referred to 83 | =
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84 THE as an emotional animal, as the child of his emotions and in other ways descriptive of a rather genera) crystallization of comment on this factor. Another temperamental characteristic which receives almost general approbation is that of a docile and sub- missive nature. Since attention is more concentrated upon these features than oth- ers, it is well to choose them as the starting off points in our investigation of the unique form of temperament, which, it is alleged, is the ear-mark of race and people. In the first place, we are struck by the fact that it is not the emotion as such which causes an association of this tempera- mental characteristic with the Negro, but rather the mode of expression of emotional states of feeling. In other words, we do not know whether the weeping mourner is more or less emotional than the stolid mourner; we only know that one expresses his feeling in a less inhibited fashion than the other. Thus, with examples of emo- tional expression which lead to class fica- tion as characteristic of a racial, inherited pattern of feeling, we know nothing of the comparative depth of the subjective ex- perience, but only are aware of the manner of manifestation. Turning from consideration of this fact, it is evident that manners of acting and the expressions of emotions are controlled more by social pressure than by _ instinctive promptings. Although a naive observer might so conclude, we are not to suppose that the Spartan youth suffered less agony of flesh and spirit than would some modern urchin. It was merely the stern form of social urge which meant action of a sub- dued nature as interpretative of emotional feeling. This fact is so obvious that one feels like proffering an apology for its presentation. The casual way in which writers imply a contrary conclusion, however, must serve as ~alliative for the inclusion of such matter here. It thus follows that all of the ways in which Negroes, as well as other people, ex- press their emotional states of feeling are controlled by social forms of practice. Cus- tom is the force which dictates exaggeration, on the one hand, or inhibition, on the other, of tendencies to action. One of the evidences most usually re- lied-‘upon in demonstrating the inferior con- trol which the Negro—inherently—pos- CRISIS sesses over his emotions is his religious activities. There is no gain-saying the fact that the typical Negro religious gathering is replete with all sorts of emotional scenes and instances. The atmosphere is sur- charged with impulsion; and the ejacula- tions, physical contortions and other phe- nomena indicate a freedom from “cloying convention”. which might forbid any such expressions. In fact, it is quite probable that there exists a convention of exhibition rather than one of inhibition. It is the fashion to “shout”, to see a “little white man”, just as much as it is the fashion in the church across the street to be staid and sober in the matter of religious ex- perience. That this explanation is valid is shown by comparison of groups within the major limits of races. There is little difference, if any, between the actions of the back- woods Methodist and Baptist revivalists of the Middle West and the exhibition of re- ligious conviction to be witnessed in Negro churches of today. One need not go beyond ‘he limits of the race itself to find a con- trast as striking as any which might be imagined. Witness the contempt with which certain Negro church people regard the farm of procedure in other churches! It is evident, then, that we have here a matter of convention, of custom, of social pressure and not of fundamental and racial import. It is conceivable that with further development of social disapproval of hyper- emotional expressions, Negro religion and religious observances will approximate the forms found in the ecclesiastical life of other groups. This is a fact often over- looked by Negroes as well as whites. Many are prone to offer vicarious apologies for Negro excesses in religious affairs by claim- ing a distinct religious fervor as part of the Negro temperament. One prominent thinker goes so far as to claim that therein lies the hope of Negro contribution to civilization. The white man, it is said, has developed a highly mechanized form of society which is a child of Mammon, but sadly neglectful of the glories of theistic devotion. The Negro was divinely introduced into America in order to offer salvation to this mercenary people in the form of a fervid devotion to religion. The Negro faith is to be the leaven of American unrighteousness. Such a statement is a typical instance of the beliefs which assign to various races
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JUNE, different temperamental characteristics. It is forgetful of all of the facts of Negro life, it is careless of all of the facts of social psychology as well. If the Negro is to make a unique contribution to American religion, or to any other field, it will come as the re- sult of a unique experience involving group pressure; and not as a result of a peculiarly constructed racial complex or psychosis. To say that the folk songs of the Amer- ican Negro were the result of a distinct racial endowment seems less of a correct explanation than to say that those songs would never have been produced if their authors had not suffered the experiences related in them. This is a proposition to which many may find it difficult to sub- scribe; yet it will be found to be the most consistent with the facts in the case. If it be logical, in the light of this exami- nation, to conclude that the Negro does not differ temperamentally from other peo- ples, in so far as a hyper-emotionalism is concerned, what shall we decide as to the other trait most confidently assumed to mark distinctively Negro temperament? So prominent and authoritative an observer as McDougall has asserted that the Negro is submissive by instinctive tendency; that he is temperamentally the ideal hewer of wood and drawer of water. It is easy to dismiss McDougall’s opinions in view of his well known “Nordic complex” and to consider them as the biased esti- mates of a prejudiced observer. However, it is better that the issue be met squarely and without shirking, for the one vulnera- ble point in the synthetic armor of the “In- stinct psychologists”, represented by Mc- Dougall, lies in this very assumption of a separate instinctive endowment for differ- ing races. The status of the. Negro in America has always been that of a subject people, save in certain isolated instances where revolt has swept away the over-lordship of white masters. The very antecedents of the American Negro indicate that he, has been the victim of an overwhelming culture. The Hebrew remains isolated and maintains his cultural identity because preservation is the law of the tribe; and never have the mem- bers of that race been totally divorced from their cultural affinities. The Negro, however, was transported piece-meal to America; with every boat load came the transfusion and mingling of di- Not any of the ma- verse types of culture. 1925 85 terial evidences, upon which a culture must largely be built, were retained; they were left behind absolutely. No race-transporta- tion in history parallels that of the Negro; and nowhere in history can be found such an abrupt disruption of home ties and native culture. Add to this the fact, the social law, that a superior culture tends to supplant the less- developed one and we have an explanation of the manner in which the Negro found himself wholly at the mercy of white cul- ture. As a result, there was no escape from imitation; the alien group had the bitter alternative of accommodation or elimina- tion; and with the cultural bands which might have made for a death struggle lack- ing, the choice, inevitable in the light of circumstances, was adaptation to the de- sires and wishes of the master class. For some three or four hundred years this accommodation has persisted. In America, the Negro has always had the choice of sub- mission or extermination. As we have point- ed out, a more vigorous cultural background might have prompted the latter; but the way in which the Negro was brought to this country totally deprived him of any such background. We then have as a necessary and perfectly natural corollary the fact of accommodation, of submission in the face of the master class. But to reason from this fact to a belief in submission as a hereditary element of Negro temperament is manifestly absurd. As the above alternative becomes less imperative, so also becomes less evident the tendency to submission. The comment, not uncom- monly heard, that northern Negroes are not as “polite” as southern Negroes is rele- vant. Even without this modification in re- sponse which can be seen developing, even without the ferment of revolt which is be- coming more and more apparent on the part of the Negro today, we have the evi- dence of members of the race in other parts of the world. It would be hard to classify the Sudanese Negro, the “big, black, bound- ing beggar” whom Kipling praised because he broke the British squadron at Khartoum, as possessing an instinctive tendency to submit to authority; nor does it seem quite in order to regard as particularly submis- sive the Zulus with whom Boer and Eng- lishmen waged bitter warfare for a century or more. These peoples are certainly more representative of the Negro type than the i 4 |
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86 THE mixed Negro races of America; and the only answer to their spirit of resistance, compared to the attitude of the American Negro, is to be found in the fact that they have not been the victims for centuries of a propaganda and instruction calculated to enervate the strongest. Are we not justified, then, in rejecting any conclusion which would intrude submis- sion as a hereditary trait of Negro tempera- ment? Surely no other opinion ever demon- strated its fallacious nature more striking- ly. And if there is no basis for separating Negro temperament from the tempera- mental types of other peoples, in the facts of emotionalism and submission, there is even ‘less of reason in considering it separa- ble on the basis of other traits. For these are the major traits in which it is considered the Negro temperament is unique; and re- moval of these traits leaves only a vague and ill-defined belief in difference which cannot be maintained in the face of fur- ther investigation. The importance of such a demonstration is obvious. Because of the false ideas now in vogue relative to the unique temperament of the Negro, most impossible things are *xpected of us and the most illogical con- clusions drawn. If different races have different temperamental types, it is thought, there can be no objection to the proscription of well defined avenues of expression for these types. If the Negro is tempera- mentally different from the white, it follows that different treatment is necessary for the two. If the white is temperamentally in- dividualistic, democracy may be said to constitute his ideal of government; while for a people who are highly emotional, dependent and subm’‘s- sive by nature, domination by another group is the most logical treatment, and that cal- culated to obtain the best results. The distinguished l'terary critic of the Chicago Tribune, Miss Fanny Butcher, was only expressing the naiveté of the unthink- ing when she criticized Miss Fauset’s novel “There is Confusion” on the ground that it did not catch “that essential something which makes the Negro what he is”. Peo- ple actually believe that there is something strange and mysterious in the psychological make-up of those of other races. The Slav has earned such a reputation; and litera- independent and aggressive, CRISIS ture is replete with references to the “in- scrutable Orient”, as though the phenomena of human existence there apparent were woven in an occult fashion to make the woof of reality. A more scientific approach will place the mystery, not in our differences, but in the factors of which we must confess ignorance. The mystery of the Orient is not of the erm-plasm but of the social mechanism. The presence of a Tartar beneath the veneer of Russianism is not genetic but conven- tional. We have long since foregone attempts to call the anatomical differences of races in- superable; they have been exposed as super- ficial, transitory, unimportant. Even those who would make intelligence a scale for race differentiation admit that overlapping and social factors can obscure the pattern of intellectual traits which might other- wise indicate actual differences. Temperament remains as the only refuge for those intent on setting up barriers to the full participation in society of all races. Temperament is called upon in justification of those who brand Jeffersonian democracy as a glittering generality and regard the words of Christ as the dream of an impos- sible visionary. Investigation must doom such reliance to the fate which has befallen its predecessors. The results of scientific research are slightly appreciated when first proposed in the face of universal ignor- ance and opposition, but powerful in their ultimate conquest. The Negro is beginning to develop a race- consciousness which is of utility in destroy- ing the submissive and dependent attitude he has hitherto assumed. But too strong a race-consciousness may be as disastrous as none at all. One wonders whether the preservation of Hebrew culture and family life has been worth the price paid—the travail of centuries and the hatred of the world. What we should value as more enduring and important than any race con- sciousness is a realization of ourselves as simply and wholly human; not separable by any anatomical, or intellectual, or tem- peramental barriers from our fellows. To realize that we are but human beings; prone to err, subjected to the vices of others, heirs of the virtues of the saints and fellow bene- ficiaries of the common weal. Than this there can be no diviner racial goal. |
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Zhe Looking Glass LITERATURE J. BENDER publishes “Proverbs of ® West Africa” (Haldeman-Julius Co.) : “The egg gives the hen instruction in brooding.” “A sheep that bites off its own tail shames the entire family (the misdeeds of one af- fect all).” “Do not build your hope upon the word of any man.” “A cock is not supposed to crow for the whole town.” _— and quantity of an empty cala- yash!” “Filthy water cannot be washed.” “A man who is abused on the streets re- turns to his home. But where shall a man go who is being abused in his own home?” “Silence is might.” * * * It was a white American who was doing Europe for the first time. He found an American Negro running an elevator in Vienna. He was surprised, joyous and cor- dial. He said, “Why, hello! George. What are you doing over here?” “I am running an elevator, you?” sir,—and * * _ The appeal of the Alpha Phi Alpha Fra- ternity is worth wide attention: Every year Alpha Phi Alpha designates a week in May for the Go To High School, Go To College Campaign. The purpose of the Campaign, as you know, is the uplift and betterment of race and mankind through education of our youth. It is not necessary to go into details at this time other than to state during the week, May lith to May 17th, inclusive, fifty-three chapters of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity in the United States, the majority of which are located at most of our foremost institu- tions of learning, from Yale and Harvard Universities in the east to the University of California in the west; and from the Uni- versity of Minnesota in the north to At- lanta University in the south, will conduct Campaigns, carrying and explaining the sacred message of education to millions of our boys and girls. Ministers, educators, public officials, busi- ness and professional men and women, authors and publishers, scientists and cap- tains of industry, of every race and nation- ality, as well as churches, social and wel- fare organizations eagerly volunteer their support in this great movement each year. Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity represents our oldest and largest group of college men. 87 Many of the members are themselves struz- gling. Even so, they are trying to give assistance to others. Will you help them to help others? * Garland Anderson, a colored bell-boy, is seeking to have his play, “Judge Not Ac- cording to Appearances”, staged in New York. Recently the play was read before six hundred guests at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. Al Jolson is sponsoring it. + * > Dr. R. Wellesley Baily, M.D., C.M., post graduate of the University of London, has issued a pamphlet on “Mental Hygiene: Its Necessity and Socio-Economic Importance”: The saving of time and energy may be profitably considered in the light of mental sanitation. Better and more practical sys- tems of operation, as to the regulation of time and expenditure of energy require the exhibition of mental power, well balanced by the growth of experience, example and fore- thought. It will be a great boon to human- ity if, internationally, standardized institu- tions of mental hygiene can be established. The commercial and social] relations of na- tions will be immensely furthered, and the now useless waste of time, money and ma- terial prevented. Dr. Baily practices in Germantown, Phila- delphia. “The Journal of Social Forces” published by the University of North Carolina Press is a large quarterly of one hundred pages and devotes a part of its space to inter- racial co-operation. The March number has an article by E. Franklin Frazier and bibliographical notes. THE BOURBON SOUTH OUTHERN papers are preening them- selves because white people of Rich- mond, Virginia, have given honorable burial to the black sexton of St. Paul’s Church, while those of Bluntville have buried Aunt Julia Dulaney. The Richmond Times Dis- patch goes into dithyrambs: They say the War Between the States was fought to preserve slavery; they say the South hates and is cruel to the Negroes; they say that true freedom and true kindli- ness are to be found by the Negro only outside the South. Without bitterness and without spleen, it is asked: Can there be | | |
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88 THE hatred and cruelty and oppression here, when in the capital of the Confederacy, in the church which was its chief temple, an old Negro man who has died in service draws together at his death the very flower of the South to join in sorrow and in hope to do him honor? * Meantime there is testimony not quite so reassuring. For instance, the Tampa, Florida, Tribune remarks: The remarkable growth of the city, the opening of subdivisions restricted to whites, the expansion of the business district, have driven Negro residents from one location to another and, at present, there is no sec- tion of the city where they can live, main- tain their homes and rear their children in peace and security. Recent instances of Negroes being ter- rorized by threats and overt acts, compelling them to give up their habitats and seek other sections, where they were equally un- welcome, have accentuated the situation until formal notice has been taken of it by the City Commission. It is suggested that a desirable location is available northwest of the city, adjoin- ing West Tampa, where there is an abun- dance of vacant property, street car service, practically no white residents, and where no complication between the two races will arise. It is entirely practicable to obtain this property and to establish for our Negro citizens a place of abode where they will be able to enjoy the privileges and comforts of home, without the constant fear of “notices to move”. When Negroes do move the South is most exercised. The Richmond News has an ar- ticle on “Harlem’s Horrors”: How are they fleeced? By the lotteries. Nondescripts pore over the evening papers for “the numbers”. They have bet on a certain combination of figures which they hope will be identical with the day’s totals of bank exchanges and bank balances. pose they win? Negroes or whites in charge of the lottery fail to pay up! They are fleeced by the rents. It is cus- tomary for Negro tenants to pay twice as much for an apartment as whites would pay for the same. There is the Negro district. If a Negro is to live in New York, he must live in Harlem. The Negro is fleeced in the clothing and grocery stores, by the druggists, by the doc- tors. What is this life doing for the Negro? Has he liberty there which he had not in the South? Where is that happy-go-lucky, banjo-playing attitude toward life? Where is the opportunity to rise from the depths and help the race to progress? Is there not more happiness in the South? Are there not more school advantages for the young in the South? Has the migration to Har- lem helped in the greater number of in- stances? Sup-. CRISIS Practically all of Negro Harlem is owned by Negroes. And the tenant is far worse off, it would appear, than the tenant in Virginia who lives on land which is owned by a white man. * * Nearly all the other papers of the coun- try have discovered from this same Harlem Graphic that the Negroes are getting on pretty well. The Minneapolis Journal, for instance, says: The Negroes of this Country are today making a new life for themselves. As they migrate northward and renew their folk- art and music, they tend to move out of a status of social dependence to one of greater self-reliance. Harlem, at any rate, has be- come the center of what is termed Negro Zionism. It is something larger and better than the transient and spectacular Garvey- ism, for it aims to lift up a race that has made marked progress since the days of slavery. It is, however, in the unconscious testi- mony that we get the real attitude of the South. For instance the Greenville, South Carolina, Piedmont: In the Guilford county, North Carolina, jail last year there were 869 white prisoners and 704 Negroes. The whites exceeded the Negroes by 165. If the number of federal prisoners be deducted, the races were equal- ly divided. Whereupon a writer in the Greensboro News says: “One finds support for the contention of some of our Superior court judges, who have called attention to the fact that the number of whites—especially white youths —is increasing on the criminal dockets of our courts, while Negro defendants are de- creasing. The conclusion would seem to be that in the matter of law observance the Negro population is showing improvement, while the whites are deteriorating. While it is gratifying to believe that the Negro race is improving, it is very discouraging to find the whites, the superior race, with superior opportunities and less tempta- tion to go astray, the race that should set the example for betterment, going in the other direction. That is something to think about.” Indeed it is—and right here in South Carolina, too. Not the least sinister and ominous of the facts about crime in South Carolina is that white criminals are rapidly increasing. In 1900 only 22 out of the 246 prisoners in our state penitentiary were white. In 1923 the whites in the penitentiary ee 346 of the total population of In other words, in 1900 the whites consti- tuted less than one-eighth of the peniten- tiary population, but in 1923 they consti- tuted more than half. Up to 1920 our state penitentiary never had at one time more than nine white wo-
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JUNE, men, but in 1923 there were 42 white women there. Morover, there has been an alarming increase of white youths in the same in- stitution. Why is crime in South Carolina increas- ing among the whites and decreasing among the Negroes? Where does the fault lie? * * Get the naiveté of that last sentence: Where is the Fault? * * Again, when the Daily Press of Newport News, Virginia, complains of “social equal- ity” at Hampton this is what “William C. Ritter, Superintendent,” writes to the Daily Press “respectfully”: We out here at the Virginia State School for Colored Deaf and Blind Negro Children have read with much interest your editorial! of Sunday on the “Integrity of the Anglo- Saxon Race”. _ The color line is strictly drawn in this institution. Our white teachers go to the class rooms at 9 a. m. and are out at 12:30. They resume work at 2 p. m. and teach until 3:30. That is the sum total of their association with the Negro race. * * Poor little wretched waifs! RACE DRAMA ELL Battle Lewis who writes a column in the Raleigh, North Carolina, News saw Negroes at Shaw University play “Twelfth Night”: They did it on the whole creditably, and they were letter-perfect. Yet the play seemed to weigh heavily upon the cast, and the general effect of the performance was strikingly artificial. I say this without the slightest desire to belittle the effort which was admirable. I am very much interested in the advancement of the Negroes along any artistic line. I should greatly like to see them develop a genuine drama of their own. But Shakespeare, I think, is not their vehicle except, perhaps, in the case of ex- traordinarily talented actors of their race. Ira Aldridge, for instance, played Othello with great success. Though Shakespeare wrote in what is now the Negroes’ language, he does not ex- press their spirit, nor do I think that, in general, they can ever adequately express ‘is. This means nothing more than that the spirit of races differs. English actors would probably be very unsuccessful in giv- ing a play of the Chinese. Racial consciousness and racial pride can be very eas'ly carried to excess. We have a wicked example of it in this country now. But I am a great believer in trying to be what you are, in “taking yourself for better or worse as your portion”. Just as I think 1925 89 individuals are never so surely at their best as when they are simply themselves, | think this principle applies to races, too. It is unfortunate that the advancement of the Negroes has been largely imitative. But perhaps this has been inevitable because of their close proximity and association with the whites in this country. But for their own sake I am very much in favor of their emphasizing as much as possible in their art their own distinct racial character. Negroes immediately answered Miss Lewis and she gamely published what they said. The Dean of Shaw writes: “T wish, however, not as one competent to pass criticism upon the merits of dra- matic art, but as a student of social psy- chology with due appreciation for the re- sults of modern biological investigation, to call attention to a question discussed by you with respect to race capacities and art. You assert by implication that Shakespeare can- not be properly the vehicle of Negro dra- matic expression because the language of Shakespeare is for Negroes only an adopted language. English is an adopted language not for Negroes only, but for all who speak it. Psychologists and sociologists are now quite generally agreed that language, whether it be English, French or German or what not, is a part of man’s social her- itage, and as such it is a thing to be adopted or appropriated in fundamentally the same way by every individual, regardless of race or nationality. The recent researches of John B. Watson further confirm this view. Science is now reasonably certain that we bring nothing into the world in the form of language, nor any racial predilection for any particular language. The child born of any race will accept with equal facility the language of any group in which it may be born. No language is native to anyone ex- cept in relation to the social environment of birth. White babies learn language through the same process that black babies learn. The former may learn to talk more correctly owing to superior environment, but not on account of differences in biologi- cal heredity. “What you and others deplore as exces- sive imitation on the part of Negroes is, after all, but the natural attempt of black folk to appropriate their only social herit- age. The transition of the Negro from Africa to America involved a sharper break with the past than that experienced by any other race group on this continent. The efficiency of the slave system necessitated as completely as possible the destruction of the Negro’s African culture, his family and tribal organization. Africa is as blank to American Negroes as China. Anyone who is waiting for the Negroes in this country to produce something distinctly African has a lone time to wait. I. too, think that it would be an excellent thing for Negroes to produce plays portraying their own life.
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v0 THE t is probably true that Americans generally and Negroes part:cularly have not the cultural background to interpret Shakes- peare adequately. But it is not a matter of olood. Our social heritage does not pass through the blood.” W. A. Robinson of the State Division of Negro Education adds: “We cannot agree with you that English is our ‘adopted language’ any more than it s yours. We were born and nurtured in it und have known no other language, nor have we inherited the body of traditions of any other land than this. To act in terms of this inheritance in which we live and move and have our being we do not call imitation. “We surely must agree that Shakespeare is ‘for all the world and for all time’, but we think that Hamlet was a Dane, Shylock a Jew, Olivia an Illyrian, and Cleopatra an Egyptian. Is not all drama ‘artificial’, a dream world, where Fay Bainter makes a most acceptable Chinese, though most miraculously transformed, features and all, into an Occidental for a happy ending; where also Jane Cowl is a wonderful Egyp- tian even without iodine? be boys! “We hesitate to analyze your feeling in the matter but seeing the play from our Even girls may own angle we feel sure that, far from ‘heavy’, those youne peovle at Shaw rol- licked through those parts even of dukes and countesses with as much abandon as the occasion would allow. Now the ‘heavi- ness’ of traditional thought may make it difficult for some to associate those parts with Negroes. “True, we want the sorrows and humors of certain phases of Negro life of this and past periods of our acceptance in America preserved in dramatic values, but the ‘Be Yourselves’ idea surely would not limit us to those vehicles in dramatic expression. For where would we get the technique even for producing such things if we do not first study the universal standard drama? Real- ly, Shakespeare emancipates, as some would put it, while others might feel that noth- ing, even Shakespeare, is safe from these grasping Negroes.” DYING OUT E notice that the Negro is dying out again. The Memphis News-Cimeter and all of the Southern papers and a lot of Western papers have got hold of re- ports of “one Northern city where the death rate of native whites was 7.9 per thou- sand while that of the Negroes was 29.1”. This is, of course, delicious piffe. There may have been a half dozen Negroes in town whose accidental mortality caused all this talk. CRISIS For the truth we have only to quote Dr. Henry M. Minton, superintendent of Mercy Hospital, Philadelphia, on the part the Negro is playing in the reduction of mortality: The Metropolitan Life Insurance Com- pany in its Statistical Bulletin has shown by statistics from the mortality records of Negroes insured in its industrial depart- ment that in ten years, from 1912 to 1922, the expected life span of colored male policy holders at age of ten had increased five and a half years, or 13.1 per cent. This appears most favorably especially when compared with an increase among the whites of 6.3 years or 13.8 per cent. The exact figures were for Negro males 41.32 years in 1911-1912 and 46.74 in 1922. For white males the figures were 45.61 in 1911- 1912 and 51.91 in 1922. A rather peculiar fact was noted that among Negro females at the age of ten the expectation increased from 41.30 years in 1911-1912 to 46.07 years in 1922, a gain of about five years or 11.5 per cent, while as to white females the increase was from 50.66 to 54.54 years, an increase of but 3.8 years or 7.5 per cent. Such figures must make us feel that the Negro’s optimism is not without ground and that his faith in the future is not by any means unreasonable. We must also recog- nize that some forces for good have been at work. Doubtless such general sanitary im- provements as improved sewerage and elimination of mosquito breeding spots have had their good effects toward lessening both morbidity and mortality. Together with these, larger efforts have been put forth by the Negroes themselves. Booker Washington’s “out-of-the-one-room- log-cabin movement”. instituted more than 20 years ago, has resulted in a better home for the Negro throughout the country. This and the Negro Health Week have certainly helped to bring about this lowered mortality. SOUTH AFRICA HE Servant of India has this comment on the racial and industrial clash in South Africa: The latest news from South Africa is to the effect that the decision of the Supreme Court last year, which made it illegal racial- ly to differentiate between what constitutes “skilled” and “unskilled” labour, is to be made void by a special Bill promoted by Mr. Hertzoe’s government. Our readers wil! probably remember the case which created auite a stir last year and made the round of all the papers—our London correspon- dent also referring to it at the time. As is well known, the South African conception of colour is that the white man is by nature designed for rule and the black for the dirty work. Hence all mining and agricultural manual labor is done by the black man, and superintended by the white man. The latter is sometimes poor, but he cannot be
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JUNE, less than a foreman. The blacks on the other hand, whatever their intellectual or moral qualifications, can never be more than “hewers of wood and drawers of water”. As it happened. an African last year qualified as engine driver; but a cer- tificate was denied him, not because he was not proficient, but because he was black. The matter went to the highest legal in- stance and the black man—to the consterna- tion of all whites—won. Now Mr. Hertzog is going to put that “right” again. The matter can cause no surprise. As we have said before, the South African Labour Party is not the party of all the workers, but only of the white foreman caste; and it is clear that they are not going to allow themselves to be swamped by Africans— nor Indians. As for the Hertzogites, they stand for the good old Boer principle that there cannot be and there must not be any uality of white and black in State or Church. That Indians have now been classed together with Africans is only in the fitness of things, and we really have no patience with Indians who fail to see the solidarity of all non-whites—anywhere, but certainly in Africa. Perhaps the pres- ent case will bring it home to them. NORTH CAROLINA ORTH CAROLINA is advancing more rapidly than any other Southern state in emancipation from race prejudice. At the last Negro State Teachers’ Association the following resolutions were passed: Whereas: The North Carolina State Negro Teachers’ Association has enrolled 2300 teachers and represents every phase of educational activity of the State; Be it resolved: That it is the common mind of this Association that we go on record— (1) As standing for a larger and more liberal support of High Schools; especially do we plead for the smaller High Schools entitled to consideration from the State School Fund. (2) As recommending the establishment of curricula similar in cultural content in the High Schools of both races. (3) As favoring an increase in the num- ber of Supervisors in our City Grammar Schools to the end that the elementary work of our children may have closer supervision. (4) To the end that special emphasis be mage on music and drawing in our schools y those thoroughly competent to do the work. We feel that the musical talent of our group should be given the largest oppor- tunity for development. (5) As discouraging the building of small rural school houses where consolida- tion of these smaller units is practical and feasible. (6) As giving our unqualified endorse- ment to the establishment of an A Grade 1925 91 College for the training of Negro youth for arger usefulness and more complete living. Immediately the legislature responded by making the National Training School an “A” grade state college. The Charlotte Observer says: “The one surprise about the passage of the bill by which a grade ‘A’ college for Negroes is to be created at Durham is that it was provocative of debate. The view ex- pressed by Representative Murphy is the view that ultimately prevailed. Justice de- manded that the Negro be given ‘a fair deal’. The state has been making liberal provision for the education of the Negro in other ways; it has but to take one more step when it could regard a duty performed. The Negroes, the public might be inclined to agree, are entitled to one institution of higher learning, for it has developed that they have made intelligent and appreciative use of the privileges so far provided.” And here is another tid-bit which a cor- respondent sends us: The Board of Editors of the North Caro- lina Teacher, published by the North Caro- lina Education Association (white), has agreed to revise its rules for capitalization and to capitalize the word Negro in the magazine. They did this out of deference to the request of the Negro teachers of the State through the North Carolina Negro Teachers’ Association. The Negro teachers of the State are taking a wide interest in the magazine and many of them are sub- scribers. It is hoped that the generous policy of the North Carolina Teacher will make publication of a separate Negro Teachers Magazine unnecessary. MUSIC AND DANCING ILLIAM RICHARDSON, accompa- nied by Mrs. Maud Cuney Hare, has given a recital in Jordan Hall, Boston. The Boston Transcript says: Although Mr. Richardson’s baritone voice is not very large in volume, it possesses such richness and depth of resonance as to seem heavier and more powerful than in actuality it is. The velvety finish and roundness of tone he achieves make the en- tire range of the voice colorful and ex- pressive, while the higher tones display ethereal lightness and clarity. Feeling, fine and expressive, pervades Mr. Richardson’s work. “A visitor” writes to the New Orleans, Louisiana, Item concerning something miss- ing in the carnival: . Perhaps prohibition is responsible. I, for one, think the Carnival would have been
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92 THE an unheard of success had all of those who paraded up and down Canal street through- out the day had four or five drinks before they started their alleged fun-making. But prohibition is not entirely responsi- ble! The Negroes of the city proved that. In some way they managed to get the true spirit of Carnival where the white revelers failed. And by “spirit” I am not harking back to my last paragraph about “four or five drinks”. I think anyone who saw the parade of the Zulus, or saw the bands of Negro mask- ers parading Carnival day will agree with me when I say that Mardi Gras would be much better if the whites could throw away some of their dignity (aloofness, perhaps, is a better word) and join in the fun-mak- ing. * The Radio Broadcast says: When listening to the first radio broad- cast performance ever given by the Navy Band of the Virgin Islands, we made a note on a handy writing pad, “Very smooth play- ing. Not quite as much zip as the Ameri- can bands, but a good deal more sentiment”. We were not cognizant at the time that the Virgin Islands are inhabited mostly by the colored race, and we are still a bit hazy about just where they are situated. But there is no haziness in the impression made by that band, and we know now that the members, who are all colored men, were true to their race when they showed some- what less aggressiveness and more sentiment in their playing than do American bands- men. Their performance at station WCAP immediately followed their serenading of President Coolidge on the White House lawn. We hope the President enjoyed their performance as much as did those who later heard them over the radio. A NEW COLORED NATION 6 ter Riff Republic is causing Great Bri- tain some apprehension. A Member of Parliament writes in The African World: The successful revolt of a few thousand wild mountaineers in Spain’s Moroccan ter- ritory may have percussions and repercus- sions of the greatest importance to Europe. This is the second successful uprising of a Mohammedan people since the end of the Great War, and it has been watched, and is being watched, with the greatest atten- tion throughout the Mohammedan world. And not least in Moslem India. The first successful Mohammedan move- ment was the rising of the Turkish Nation- alists under Ghazi Mustapha Kemal Pasha, as the result of which the Treaty of Sevres was torn up, the Treaty of Lausanne took its place, while Turkey, bankrupt, ex- hausted, but more compact and nationally CRISIS alive, re-emerged as the first Moslem Re- ublic . In Morocco the first act of a similar drama opened in the years before the war. The second successful Moslem insurrec- tion since the armistice has been the revolt of the Riffian tribes against Spanish rule A remarkable man has arisen as a Riffian national leader in the person of Ab- del-Krim. He is a military genius of the first order, a great leader of men, and as such is looked on with great admiration by the more militant of the Faithful in the Mohammedan world. It has even been sug- gested in the bazaars of India and Bagdad, and the cafés of Cairo, that Abdel-Krim should be the new Commander of the Faith- ful, the holder of the sword of Islam. FEDERAL LAW ICHIGAN and Alabama are not agreed on federal legislation. For instance, the Birmingham Age Herald says: It was most regrettable that Senator Un- derwood should be the first to attempt suc- cor to the incoming Republican Adminis- tration when freedom of Senate debate was sought to be restricted by Vice-President Dawes. The present rules of the Senate prevented the passage of the Lodge force bill aimed at the Southern people and not forgotten by them. The same rules made possible the defeat of the Dyer anti-lynching bill, also aimed at this section. On the other hand, the Grand Rapids, Michigan, Chronicle remarks: The Washington Bureau of the Detroit Free Press has rendered a public service in calling attention to the amazing disparity in the vote cast in the last election by Southern and by Northern states. Eight of the former polled 1,085,839 votes, an aver- age of 135,730 per state. The figures range all the way from 50,751 in South Carolina, to 223,177 in Virginia. The sixth congres- sional district of Michigan, which gave Con- gressman Hudson a majority of 144,514, a record by the way, cast more than 200,000 votes, which, with but a single exception, exceeded the vote in each of the eight South- ern states cited. The exception was Virginia. The combined population of these states is approximately 15,500,000, and they send to Washington 66 congressmen and 16 sena- tors, all Democrats. What does it mean that South Carolina, with a population of a million and a half, polls but 50,751 votes in a general election, or about one-quarter of the vote in Michigan’s sixth district? Of course, the Negroes are included in the pop- ulation, but not in the election figures. South ‘Carolina, however, has seven con-
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JUNE, gressmen, and, taking the vote cast as a basis, the sixth district of Michigan ought to have 28 congressmen. The illiteracy of these states has been recently stressed, as evidenced by the records of the War De- partment, which shows that about 39 per cent of their drafted men could neither read nor write. Sure. The South made the North pay for the war in both money and men, from their point of view, for 80 per cent of their drafted men were Negroes. It is high time this matter of representa- tion was leveled up in some way. When one Michigan congressman represents four times as many voting citizens as the entire congressional delegation from South Caro- lina does, there is something rotten some- where. 1925 93 THE WASHINGTON UNION STATION UR publication of the Station Master’s Orders to Porters not to take Negroes into the dining room has brought this letter to an inquiring friend who wrote to the terminal company: THE WASHINGTON TERMINAL COM- PANY UNION STATION Washington, D. C., March 23rd, 1925. The notice which you quote I have no knowledge of whatever but I do know it is something that would not and does not have the approval of the management. (Signed) B. R. ToLson Chief Clerk. SPRING MUSIC ARNA BONTEMPS H the brown leaves Fall in the bitter blast like tears From an aged widow. And whispering winds Steal the violets’ breath And bury their leaves in snow. And the tides flow back Like the ebbing years Into cool immunity. But memory’s voice, Like the music of waves, Sings April tunes Forever. Outer Pocket Satyagrah-Ashram, P. O. Sabarmati, (Ahmedabad) I am very grateful to you indeed for your letter of September 17 and for your sample copies of THE CRISIS. I entirely agree with you when you say that the different colored peoples and more especially the Indians and the American Negroes must get into touch and co-opera- tion with each other. Your idea of visit- ing India, China and Japan js really ex- cellent. I would suggest that East Africa should also be included in this list. It is so near to India and you can visit Kenya, Uganda, Tanganyika and Zanzibar within two months. I have made many friends in these East African territories and they will, I am sure, consider it a privilege to do any service to you. As regards India your name is already known to a very large num- ber of educated Indians and you will have no difficulty here. Still I shall do all I can to make your stay in India comfortable. | must confess here that I am only an humble journalist and I may not be able to do much, but my services to you will be honor- ary and unselfish. I hope you already realize what an im- portant part India can play in the regen- eration of the African races. You will there- fore like to hear something about Indian problems in Africa. I shall, from time to time, send you some information on these | |
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94 THE problems. I have been reading your book “The Negro” of the Home University Library with great interest. Please do not mind if I have to write to you again and again on the subject. I shall not expect replies to all my letters as I know how very busy you must be. You may write to me when you like. Only kindly give me the liberty to write to you frequently. BENARN DA MATIOVEDI. Aluval North, South Africa. I liked your comment on the “adjectives” used in reporting the wonderful tale of a few Boers who were found in the employ of an African chief in South Africa. It is true, as you say in the November number of THE CRISIS, no adjectives are used to de- scribe the state of, not a group, but hun- dreds of Africans in the Union of South Africa who work for “white, civilized” far- mers and receive for their wages a few shillings, mealie-meal and cast off rags per month. These wages are paid to men with families; and I believe most of the farmers are Christians. We see nothing in the newspapers about the pathetic story of these unfortunate natives. On the other hand white men, Britons and Dutch Boers, boast that they are civilizing the natives. What appeared in THE CRISIS some time back about the way Europeans deal with other people in order to prevent competition is carried on in this country. They want to keep down the Africans by forbidding them to engage in any skilled work, paying them low wages, making their education inferior to that of the whites. By doing these things I believe they will be able to prove that Africans can never rise in the scale of civilization. For them it is: “Protect your much vaunted superiority (by artificial bars) against your inferiors!” Ye Teu- tons! M. No. P. BuLuse. New York City, N. Y. I am a constant reader of THE CRISIS and have been for some years; but never before has its cover won my admiration as the one for January, 1925. The small drawings seem to beautify the already beautiful Moroccan maidens which makes the cover very attractive and worth keeping in one’s scrapbook. PRENTICE THOMAS. CRISIS Gujran Wala (Punjab), India. Your sacred work of liberating the Ne- groes from the bondage of aristocrats and capitalists revealed to me the greatness of your personality. Dear DuBois yours is a hard task, but I am convinced that with un- flinching faith in the Lord the success will also be yours... The struggle for honorable existence that the American Negroes are now in is one of the great democratic movements of the mod- ern world, ABDUR RAOOF MALIK. Louisville, Ky. | WANT ~ express my appreciation for your splendid editorial on “Business Failures” in the April issue of THE CRIsIs. You really seem to have the infallible ability to express thoughts which a great many of us have not even succeeded in for- mulating. Your summary of some of the difficulties in the way of business pioneering will cause many Negroes to take a more charitable and broader view of the com- paratively few failures and at the same time, I believe, cause colored business men to be doubly conscious of their responsi- bility. WILSon Lovett, President, Standard Bank. As to your review of the case for and against Negro business enterprise, illus- trated by the recent debacle of Standard Life, I agree so emphatically with its under- lying philosophy and conclusions, and ad- mire so much the thoughtful restraint of its tone, that my one point of disagreement stands out in bolder relief than it may de- serve, There is no disputing the fact that you have handled a thorny and dangerous theme with consummate delicacy and tact. I own it is often unfair to charge individuals with the blame for happenings which may spring from causes outside their control. Nor have I any wish to make a bad situation worse for the individuals concerned in it. Nevertheless, in the interest of the gen- eral good as transcending the interest of the individual, something should be said of the failure of the management of Standard Life to take into their confidence in time the financial interests of our own group who had a common interest in the salvaging of Standard Life as an outstanding enterprise within the commercial life of the Race. 4
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JUNE, Omitting to do this, you may give impetus to false impressions of far-reaching im- portance to Negro bysiness in general. If a conference at which the exact needs were frankly stated had been called before outside assistance was sought at the price of signing away eventual control, a confer- ence attended by the responsible heads of the other large Negro institutions, it is satcely conceivable that a way to save the Standard Life Insurance Company could not have been found. For some reason no such conference was called by the management of Standard Life, so far as I am aware, until the die was cast. A meeting was held, it is true, but too late to take effective action. Our modern Shylock had taken all precau- tions. The consideration nominated in the bond was entirely legal and collectible. And, as you succinctly put it, “Standard Life is today the property of Southern whites”. If, through an entirely commendable wish to avoid doing the slightest injustice to the then management of Standard Life, you re- frain from bringing out this essential point you may leave the way open to general doubt of the capacity of Negro business en- terprise in general to withstand invasion and to prosecute any sort of big business successfully. For unless it is understood that the error of judgment (to term it a lapse of loyalty might be unfair) which led the Standard Life management to deal with white financial interests rather than “put the cards on the table” and enlist in its aid the resources of sister institutions within the Race was merely an individual error, and not necessarily typical of Negro busi- ness management in general, you run the risk of creating an impression that will do much harm. In fairness to many substantial institu- tions of Negro foundation and management, as well as in fairness to the future of Ne- gro commercial enterprise, the distinction between individual error or mischance and general causation should be more strongly emphasized. That there is such a distinc- tion you will readily agree .... R. H. RuTHERFORD, President, National Benefit Life Insurance Co. Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Enclosed you will find $2.00 as entrance membership fee in the N. A. A. C. P. so that I will be in a position to take interest truly in this work and to help colored Amer- ican tourists to come over and visit and 1925 95 enjoy this beautiful country that, since they are selling to strangers, I feel that the col- ored American ought to invest and buy as you can buy small plantations from $200 up, wonderful fertile land, cotton grows wild anywhere. White companies are mak- ing millions on their sugar plantations, cof- fee brought in a fortune this year. On ac- count of the language we need a colored American colony. Buy the place up for if you don’t the whites will; friends of these marines, ignorant, undesirables as far as race prejudice is concerned, are inclined to crowd in. They are wild about the climate and the ease of having three efficient servants for ten dollars a month. There is a great need for a woman’s home where the women of the middle and lower classes can congregate and hear the word of God and hear lectures on hygiene; for the masses are illiterate and there is the great need to raise the standard of the women of this country. They do not go to church, they do not read the papers, being illiterate. It is a sad case. They are do- cile, polite and can learn quickly. The journalists write wonderful articles of how they need to learn and the best way to do this and the other but the ones that need to know, don’t read it and they are slow to put into practice what they preach on account of lack of funds and more so, lack of charity. There are too many free think- ers, philosophers, who say I don’t care. In the meantime whites are oozing in, renting and buying their beautiful homes and do- ing horrible things that are hushed up with a little money and much flattery. Please write and ask a few questions as I am in a position to give information. Don’t fail to give much propaganda to this land purchasing project. Imagine the Houston Association of Commerce, the Georgia Association of Com- merce, being invited over to visit Haiti to see the beautiful island and to see the com- mercial possibilities between the two coun- tries. I overheard some remarks on the fine cotton prospects as labor is so cheap and they are willing to work at any price. You can buy a beautiful home for $1500 and $2000. You can buy a beautiful retired villa with all the picturesqueness one can imagine, five or ten minutes drive from the heart of the city. Hoping to hear from you svon and that you will encourage this project.
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96 THE CRISIS ADVERTISER Six Weeks Medicine, Internal Physical Diagnosis. | Health Service. apply early to Post-Graduate Courses for Physicians HOWARD UNIVERSITY Washington, D. C. J. Stanley Durkee, A.M., Ph.D., D.D., President Emmett J. Scott, A.M., LL.D., Secretary-Treasurer June 8 to July 18, 1925 CERTIFICATES GRANTED The School of Medicine in conjunction with the School of Public Health offers a six weeks’ intensive Post-Graduate Course in the following subjects: General Surgery, Gynecology, Genito-Urinary Surgery, Oto-Laryngology, Roentgenology, Public Health, Laboratory Methods and Ophthalmology, Eminent Instructors drawn from the Faculty of Medicine and the U. S. Public Attendance limited to 100 Students. For further information Dr. E. A. Balloch, Dean, School of Medicine Washington, D. C. Hampton Institut Hampton, Virginia Hampton is an industrial village: 1,000 acres, 149 buildings; 928 boarding students, including 197 college students; 330 day pupils in practice-school; 1,017 summer-school stu- dents; 250 teachers and other workers. Hampton has over 2,622 graduates and more than 8,800 former students; also numer- ous outgrowths, including Tuskegee, founded by Booker T. Washington. Hampton’s Collegiate Division: (1) The Teachers College offers two- and four-year courses leading to diplomas and the Bachelor of Science degree and aims to train teachers of agriculture, home economics and high- school academic subjects. The summer ses- sion aims to help teachers in service. (2) The School of Business offers two two-year courses—General Business and Secretarial. (3) The Trade School offers a two-year course leading to a diploma and a four-year contractors’ and builders’ course leading to the Bachelor of Science degree. JAMES E.GREGG FRANK K. ROGERS Principal Treasurer Mention Tue Crisis. The Durham State Normal al School The National Tra Training School Durham, N. C. A standardized Normal School offering courses as follows: Four year High School, Department of Commerce and Finance, Depart- ment of Music, Department of Home Economics, Department of Normal — (Graded as a Junior Col- ege). The DURHAM STATE NORMAL SCHOOL of- fers exceptional advantages to am- bitious young men and women to fit themselves for life’s duties. High School graduates who finish the Nor- mal Course will be nted State Pri- mary or Grammar Grade Certificate. For further information, address James E. Shepard, Principal, Durham, N. C.