Chapter IV: Part 4

In speaking of the work of this committee Miss Bowles said, “The Y. W. C. A. is the only organization that is handling the work with all girls alike, and the result of its efforts is bound to be the building up of the confidence of the colored race, not only in the nation itself but in Christianity. With the colored, as with all other women and girls throughout the world, the aim of the Y. W. C. A. is a constructive foundation of Christian ideals. Girls are girls, whatever their race or complexion. As naturally as a flower demands sunshine and rain, a girl craves good times, pretty clothes and happiness.”

In closing this vital chapter, the writer can think of no better way than to quote the following words of Miss Bowles when she summed up the past and pointed out the future regarding the leaderships of Colored women among their own people in the United States.

“The war has given opportunity to the colored woman to prove her ability for leadership. She had her chance and she made good. With all the strength of having suffered, she will be able, through the patience born of suffering, to lead the women and girls whom only she can lead. The time is past for white leadership for colored people. As white and colored women, we must understand each other, we must think and work and plan together for upon all of us rests the responsibility of the girlhood of our nation.”

THE YOUNG MEN’S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION

THE “Y” MEN

The buildings where, “Y” men do live
Have comforts like, dear mothers give.
Fine lodgings they are for single men,
Who with the best do want to blend.
Without rank smoke and vulgar swear
Billiards and pool are also there
The gym., the baths and sleeping rooms
Give to their healths the greatest booms.
Night schools and also Christian talks
Do most to guide young “Y” men walks.
--_Harrison._

The 110 Negro college Young Men’s Christian Associations and the fifty or more city branches is as many cities in twenty-three different states in the Union are really God-sends to thousands of young Colored men who prefer to spend their spare minutes in the best places of physical cleanliness, social purity and mental advancement. These “Y” branches in the cities are also great blessings for thousands of intelligent, refined and progressive Colored men who are constantly visiting strange places on important businesses and want to be sure they are stopping in modern, sanitary, decent, respectable and congenial lodgings.

Mr. Julius Rosenwald of Chicago, Ill. made an offer in 1911 to give the sum of $25,000 to every city in the United States that would raise $75,000 by public subscription for the construction of a Y. M. C. A. building for the use of Colored people. This offer was gladly and eagerly accepted and as a result buildings have already been erected in Atlanta, Ga., Baltimore, Md., Brooklyn, N.Y., Chicago, Ill., Columbus, O., Indianapolis, Ind., Kansas City, Mo., New York City, N. Y., Philadelphia, Pa., Pittsburgh, Pa., St. Louis, Mo., and Washington, D.C. During the past ten years Mr. Rosenwald has given $350,000 toward the erection of these buildings, other white people have given nearly a million dollars, while Colored people have contributed over a quarter of a million dollars. Thus over two million dollars have already been expended in the construction of Y. M. C. A. buildings in cities for Colored men.

Great credit for the early development and rapid growth of this work is due the late W. A. Hunton, who was made a member on the staff of the International Secretary Board of the Y. M. C. A. Today this work is continuing to rapidly grow and spread with the friendly co-operation and hearty support of Messrs. B. H. Fancher, Treas., A. E. Marling, Chairman and J. R. Mott, Gen’l Sec’y of The International Committee of the Y. M. C. A., and under the wise supervision of Dr. J. E. Mooreland, who is being ably assisted by H. K. Craft, W. C. Craver, R. P. Hamlin, C. H. Tobias, J. B. Watson, Max Yergen and other efficient members on that large staff. During the World War 350 Y. M. C. A. Colored Secretaries, under the guidance of Dr. J. E. Moorland, R. B. DeFrantz, W. J. Faulkner, J. F. Gregory and G. L. Johnson loyally served Colored soldiers stationed in 55 camps, training schools and forts in America. Among those who were the leaders in Y. M. C. A. and social work among the Colored soldiers over-seas were J. E. Blanton, Mrs. Helen Curtis, Miss Helen Hagan, Dr. John Hope, Mrs. Addie Hunton, Miss Katherine Johnson, Dr. B. M. Murrell, Dr. H. H. Proctor, C. H. Williams and Max Yergen.

In the following named cities Y. M. C. A. Branches are being directed and carried on by their secretaries for the encouragement and uplift of Colored youths:

Akron, Ohio, G. W. Thompson, Secretary, 259 So. Main Street.
Asheville, N. C., N. Martin, Secretary, Market & Eagle Streets.
Atlanta, Ga., W. J. Trent, Secretary, 146 Butler Street.
Atlantic City, N. J., C. M. Cain, Secretary, 1711 Artic Avenue.
Augusta, Ga., Silas Floyd, Secretary, 9th and Miller Streets.
Baltimore, Md., S. S. Booker, Secretary, 1619 Druid Hill Avenue.
Beloit, Wis., J. D. Stevenson, Secretary, Colored Men’s Branch.
Benham, Ky., Alex. Gregory, Secretary, Colored Men’s Branch.
Birmingham, Ala., A. M. Walker, Secretary, Acipco Branch.
Bluefield, W. Va., P. A. Goins, Secretary, 432 Scott Street.
Boston, Mass., B. F. Seldon, Secretary, 316 Huntington Street.
Brooklyn, N. Y., R. M. Meroney, Secretary, 405 Carlton Avenue.
Buxton, Iowa, W. L. Hutcherson, General Secretary.
Camden, N. J., E. C. Richardson, Secretary, Hunton Branch.
Charleston, S. C., G. D. Brock, Secretary, 61 Cannon Street.
Charlotte, N. C., J. B. F. Prather, Y. M. C. A., State Committeeman.
Chicago, Ill., George R. Arthur, Secretary, 3763 So. Wabash Avenue.
Cincinnati, Ohio, B. W. Overton, 436 W. Ninth Street.
Columbus, Ohio, N. B. Allen, Secretary, 202 E. Spring Street.
Columbus, Ga., Robert D. Kelsey, Secretary, 521 Ninth Street.
Crossett, Arkansas, Chas. E. Johnson, Secretary Colored Men’s Dep’t.
Dallas, Tex., J. D. Rice, Secretary, 3710 State Street.
Dayton, Ohio, John A. Green, Secretary, Fifth Street Branch.
Denver, Col., T. J. Bell, Secretary, 2800 Glenarm Street.
Detroit, Mich., H. S. Dunbar, Secretary, 1930 St. Antonia Street.
Des Moines, Iowa, E. C. Robinson, Secretary, 782 West 9th Street.
East Moline, Ill., B. G. Smith, Secretary, Colored Men’s Branch.
East St. Louis, Ill., J. E. Nance, Secretary, Colored Men’s Branch.
Englewood, N. J., W. H. Kindle, Secretary, 135 W. 132nd St., N.Y. City.
Evanston, Ill., J. D. Ross, Secretary, 1014 Emerson Street.
Fort Worth, Tex., S. H. Fowler, Sr., Secretary, 915½ Calhoun Street.
Gary, Ind., H. K. Craft, Secretary, 1716 Washington Street.
Germantown, Pa., Leon C. James, Secretary, 132 West Rittenhouse St.
Greenwood, Miss., Thos. M. Elliott, Secretary, Hunton Branch, Box 283.
Harrisburg, Pa., Fritz Caneler, Secretary, 644 Broad Street.
Houston, Texas, H. P. Carter, Secretary, 711 Prairie Avenue.
Indianapolis, Ind., F. E. DeFrantz, Secretary, 450 N. Senate Avenue.
Indiana Harbor, Ind., A. G. Fallings, Secretary, 2115 137th Street.
Kansas City, Mo., F. A. Harris, Secretary, 1824 Pasco Boulevarde.
Los Angeles, Cal., T. A. Greene, Secretary, 1400 E. Ninth Street.
Louisville, Ky., J. W. Ramsey in charge, 920 West Chestnut St.
Marshall, Tex., J. W. Davis, Secretary, Colored Men’s Branch.
Miami, Fla., G. P. McKinney, Jr., Secretary, 1st Street & Avenue H.
Mineola, Long Island, R. T. Weatherby, Secretary, Nassau-Suffolk County.
Mobile, Ala., W. J. Williams, Secretary, 510 Congress Street.
Montclair, N. J., C. H. Bullock, Secretary, Bloomfield Avenue Branch.
Nashville, Tenn., W. N. Sanders, Secretary, Cor. Cedar St., & 4th Ave. No.
Newport News, Va., A. F. Williams, Secretary, 2201 Marshall Avenue.
New York City, N. Y., Thos. E. Taylor, Secretary, 181 West 135th Street.
Norfolk, Va., C. C. Dogan, Secretary, 440 E. Queen Street.
Oakland, Cal., Allen O. Newman, Secretary, Colored Men’s Branch.
Orange, N. J., J. W. Bowers, Secretary, 34 Cebtral Place.
Philadelphia, Pa., H. W. Porter, Secretary, 1724 Christian Street.
Pittsburgh, Pa., S. R. Morsell, Secretary, 1847 Central Avenue.
Princeton, N. J., H. H. Cain, Secretary, 102 Witherspoon Street.
Richmond, Va., Secretary, 214 East Leigh Street.
Ridgewood, N. J., A. E. Flournoy, Secretary, 220 Broad Street.
Rouse, Col., W. T. Thornton, Secretary, Colo. Fuel & Iron Company.
Savannah, Ga., T. Walter Moore, Secretary, 817 West Broad Street.
Sewickley, Pa., J. T. Morris, Secretary, 411 Walnut Street.
Springfield, Ohio, W. S. Smith, Secretary, 209 So. Center Street.
St. Louis, Mo., D. D. Jones, Secretary, 2839 Pine Street.
Tulsa, Okla., G. A. Gregg, Secretary, Hunton Branch.
Washington, D.C., Wm. Stevenson, Secretary, 1816 12th Street, N. W.

NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF COLORED WOMEN

NATIONAL COLORED CLUB WOMEN

“Lifting As We Climb”--Their motto in life
Is their battle cry in uplift strife
In leading their women to higher things
So better to rear their Race off-springs.
--_Harrison._

While they went about their self-imposed and greatly beneficial tasks in somewhat crude ways that were executed under circumstances far more trying and peculiar than these modern times; nevertheless, Harriet Tubman and Sojourner Truth may be rightly called the first real welfare and uplift national workers among American Colored women. And the histories of the untiring efforts, speakings and lectures of those two pioneers who fearlessly worked for the freedom of their Race sisters and brothers should be learned by all Colored youths, especially girls.

While leading Colored women throughout the country as far back as 1894 had already decided and carefully planned to gather and form some kind of a national body among themselves, they were indeed suddenly inspired to whole-heartedly and fearlessly carry out those plans immediately, when a prejudiced white editor of a village paper in the United States published an open letter in which he accused alike all American Colored women as being without moral characters and uplifting principles. Not only the educated, refined and moral Colored women resented and challenged that poisoned-pen letter that had lied on and slandered a whole race of their sisters, but the largest nationally known white newspapers of large cities in both America and Europe came out in broad-minded editorials verbally chastising and denouncing without mercy that editor of their race who stained his profession and shamed his race by stooping so low in unsuccessfully using that narrow-minded and short-sighted means of gaining subscriptions for his failing paper and fame for his unheard of name.

As a result of the above plans and decisions nearly a dozen States sent upward of a hundred leading and representative Colored women who met in July 1895 in Boston, Mass., where the first National Convention of Colored Women was formed, with Mrs. Josephine St. Pierre Ruffin as president, Mrs. Booker T. Washington and Mrs. Helen Cook as Vice-Presidents and Miss Elizabeth C. Carter as secretary. During the meeting that convention was given the name of “The National Association of Colored Women.” This body became affiliated with The National Council of Women in 1900 and was incorporated in 1904. At different times it has had as its presidents; Mrs. Mary Church Terrell, A. M., Washington, D.C., Mrs. Booker T. Washington, Tuskegee Institute, Ala., Miss Elizabeth C. Carter, New Bedford, Mass., Mrs. Mary B. Talbert, Buffalo, N. Y. and Miss Hallie Q. Brown, Wilberforce, Ohio, who is its present presiding officer. Those who are Miss Brown’s closest assistants in helping to carry on this noble work are named as follows: Mrs. Janie Porter Barrett, Peake, Va., Mrs. Ruth L. Bennett, Chester, Pa., Mrs. Alice Cary, Atlanta, Ga., Mrs. Charlotte Dett, Niagara Falls, N. Y., Mrs. Addie W. Dickerson, Phila., Pa., Mrs. C. L. Hamilton, Indianola, Ill., Mrs. C. R. McDowell, Hannibal, Mo., Mrs. J. C. Napier, Nashville, Tenn., Miss Georgia A. Nugent, Louisville, Ky., Mrs. Minnie Scott, Toledo, Ohio, Mrs. E. J. N. Simms, Spokane, Wash., Mrs. Mamie E. Steward, Louisville, Ky., Mrs. Marion Wilkerson, Orangeburg, S. C. and Mrs. W. T. B. Williams, Tuskegee Institute, Ala.

In regard to the relations of this association with the International Council of Women, several Colored women have attended different European meetings as representatives from the United States. Foremost among such women are Miss Hallie Q. Brown, Mrs. Mary Church Terrell, Mrs. Mary B. Talbert and Dr. Mary F. Waring. The following is an extract from the July 1921 issue of The Crisis:

“The Committee on International Relations--the highest committee of women in personnel of representatives in the League of Nations--has chosen Mrs. Mary B. Talbert as a member. Mrs. Talbert was the first accredited Negro delegate to sit in the International Council of women and one of five American women to speak for the National Council of Women of the United States of America in the House of Parliament at Norway.”

The quotation below is taken from the February 1921 issue of The Favorite Magazine. “Dr. Mary F. Waring, recently returned from a trip through eleven European countries, and one of twenty American women to represent the United States at the International Council of Women in Norway. She had the distinction of being the only woman commissioner of the Lincoln Jubilee in 1915 and the organizer of the Red Cross units Canteen and Home Nursing classes during the World War. After the war the Community Service appointed her as a national organizer for girls’ work.”

Some of the national leading and most prominent Colored women before the public today who as workers in this association or along other elevating lines have encouraged, inspired and helped thousands of American Colored girls to move out of Nobody’s Alley and live on Somebody’s Avenue are Miss Mary M. Bethune, Daytona, Fla., Miss Eva D. Bowles, New York City, N. Y., Miss Hallie Q. Brown, Wilberforce, O., Miss Nannie H. Burroughs, Washington, D.C., Madame E. Azalia Hackley, Detroit, Mich., Mrs. Addie W. Hunton, New York City, N. Y., Miss Jane E. Hunter, Cleveland, O., Miss Lucey Laney, Augusta, Ga., Mrs. S. W. Layton, Phila., Pa., Mrs. R. R. Moton, Tuskegee, Ala., Mrs. Alice Dunbar Nelson, Wilmington, Del., Mrs. Mary B. Talbert, Buffalo, N. Y., Mrs. Florence C. Talbert, Detroit, Mich., Mrs. Mary Church Terrell, Washington, D. C., Mrs. Maggie L. Walker, Richmond, Va., Dr. Mary F. Waring, Chicago., Ill., Mrs. Booker T. Washington, Tuskegee Institute, Ala. and Mrs. Butler R. Wilson, Boston, Mass.

National Uplift Organization founded and run by Negroes

The National Negro Business League

In 1900 the late Dr. Booker T. Washington, founder of Tuskegee Institute, organized in Boston, Mass. The National Negro Business League, which is now under the forceful and energetic leadership of Dr. Robert R. Moton. Such nationally known men as Chas. Banks, J. C. Napier and Emmett J. Scott are among those who are closely allied with the president of this League in so widely spreading its influences of encouragement, inspiration and business knowledge.

As a description of the workings of this organization, the writer gives below some extracts from an article written for the August 13, 1921 issue of The Chicago Defender by E. Davidson Washington, son of the late Dr. Booker T. Washington.

“While the Business League has a distinctive purpose (that of promoting the commercial and financial development of our Race,) it does not attempt to prescribe for every racial endeavor; yet it is a significant fact that through the instrumentality of this the national body and its more than 600 local branches or local leagues scattered throughout the country a very large part of the progress made by the Race in the direction of home and farm ownership, banking, insurance, manufacturing and mercantile enterprises has been achieved since the organization of the Business League.

“Among the many subjects discussed are such as: “Making Farming Pay,” “Building a Negro Town,” “The Relation of Education to Business,” “Conducting a Grocery Store,” “Editing a Newspaper” and many others which space will not permit me to mention here. Questions are asked, and in that way those who did not come up to their expectations the previous year try, when they return to their various communities, as far as possible, to put into practice what they have gained through the league.

“The symposiums conducted in the main convention by the following organizations are highly interesting and instructive: The National Negro Bankers’ Association, the National Negro Funeral Directors’ Association, the National Negro Press, the National Negro Bar Association and the National Negro Insurance Men.

“Finally, as a Race we must not be discouraged. There will come to us, as to all races, seasons of depression and gloom. Once in a while even those in high places may seem to seek to insult, humiliate and harass us, but they cannot last. “The morning cometh.” Those who treat us unjustly are losing more than we are. Above all, we must not lose faith in ourselves nor in our Race. We must be as proud of being Negroes as a Japanese is of being a Japanese. It is through such meetings as the National Negro Business League that the Negro is encouraged and made to look upon the brighter side of life and with more optimism for the future than ever before.”

Association For The Study of Negro Life and History

American school white boys and girls get the larger part of their inspirations to become great men and women mostly from what they read in the public school United States Histories about big things members of their race have done. As white authors in writing such histories saw fit to leave out of them all references (with the exception of slavery) to the parts the American Colored people have had in helping to make American history, public school Colored boys and girls get no racial encouragements nor inspirations from such histories.

The Association for the Study of Negro Life and History, organized in 1915, is doing a grand work in helping to supply the American Colored youth with the desired encouraging and inspiring information relating to Negro historical achievements in the United States. The president of this organ, R. E. Park is ably assisted in this work by such scholars as Drs. J. E. Mooreland and C. G. Woodson.

The National Equal Rights League

The National Equal Rights League was started in 1910 and one of its chief purposes is contending for and securing in peaceful but firm ways the same equal rights in the United States for American Colored citizens as those so generously given to members of other races, especially many foreigners in this country who do not understand the laws, cannot speak the language and have no intentions of becoming naturalized. The president of this organization is N. S. Taylor, who is loyally assisted by such race leaders as Wm. Monroe Trotter, and B. N. Murrell.

The Lincoln League of America

The Lincoln League of America is an organization that was started in 1919, and one of its main objects is to instil race pride on a broader scale among Colored people and at the same time encourage them along all lines of citizenship privileges and advancement. Roscoe C. Simmons is president of this body and is nobly aided in this work by such national figures as Henry Lincoln Johnson and Walter Cohen.

National Association of Teachers for Colored Schools

The National Association of Teachers for Colored Schools is under the scholarly and experienced leadership of Prof. J. M. Gandy. It is due mostly to this organization that the managements and sentiments of the different Southern Colored colleges and schools have come to better understand each other and thereby work in closer conjunction and harmony for the broadest and most practical development of Negro youths in both industrial and higher education. Other officials who have helped to bring about such good feelings are S. X. Floyd and W. H. A. Howard.

Negro Organization Society

Although it has not yet developed into a national organization, the Negro Organization Society of Virginia is making rapid strides in that direction. It was organized several years ago, at the wise suggestion of the late Dr. H. B. Frissell, by Major R. R. Moton, who with the valuable assistance of Captain Allen Washington, Profs. J. M. Gandy, T. C. Erwin, Rev. A. A. Graham, Lawyer T. C. Walker, Hon. Robert. E. Clay and others soon made it a leading source of encouragement and helpfulness throughout the entire State. While its purpose is to unite into one large solid body for more mutual understandings all the church, fraternal and social organizations and societies, big and little, in the State; it has no desires nor intentions whatever of selfishly absorbing within itself or taking away the individuality of any organized body that comes under its advice and help.

One of the chief objects of this society is to gather all such organizations in the state under its guiding wisdom and sheltering arms into one big congenial family, whose members may then be constantly taught how best to work in helpful understandings and harmony among themselves and in brotherhood co-operations with their white neighbors in order to secure “better health, better schools, better homes and better farms” for the Colored people. These efforts have proven so fruitful that this society has already overflown its Virginian cup of uplift influence that is now running and dripping over the sides into surrounding states. And under the continued successful “Whooping-up” campaigns of its present leader, Major Allen Washington, this organ is destined some day to become one of the most helpful national movements in America in aiding to bring about stronger and broader good-will feelings between the two races and at the same time more friendly and solidly uniting all Colored organizations for a more rapid and all-round advancement of the Negro Race.

THE PAN-AFRICAN CONGRESS

On February 19, 1919, Dr. W. E. B. DuBois, editor of The Crisis, called a meeting known as The Pan-African Congress that held three days’ session in the Grand Hotel, Paris, France. It was attended by fifty-eight delegates representing sixteen different Negro groups, who passed resolutions of which two of the most important paragraphs are quoted below as follows:

“Whenever persons of African descent are civilized and able to meet the tests of surrounding culture, they shall be accorded the same rights as their fellow citizens: they shall not be denied on account of race or color a voice in their own Government, justice before the courts and economic and social equality according to ability and desert.

“Whenever it is proven that African natives are not receiving just treatment at the hands of any State or that any State deliberately excludes its civilized citizens or subjects of Negro descent from its body politic and cultural, it shall be the duty of the League of Nations to bring the matter to the attention of the civilized world.”

Along with Dr. DuBois, some of the other internationally known persons who attended that first Congress were Boisneuf, Deputy from Guadaloupe; Captain Boutte; Canadace, French Deputy from Guadaloupe; Mme Chapoteau; Mrs. Helen M. Curtis; Diagne, French Deputy from Senegal; Grossilliere, Deputy from Martinique; Mrs. Ida Gibbs Hunt; Mrs. Addie W. Hunton; Dr. John Hope; President King, Peace Delegate from Liberia; B. F. Seldon and Roscoe C. Simmons.

The Pan-African Congress plans to hold its second meeting in Europe in 1921 and hold sessions in four different countries as follows: in London, England on August 28th and 29th; in Brussels, Belgium on August 31st, September 1st and 2nd; in Paris, France on September 4th and 5th, and a “Special Committee to visit the Assembly of the League of Nations, Geneva, Switzerland, after September 6th.”

In brief (according to the July 1921 issue of The Crisis) the chief working plans mapped out on the practical progress of this Congress are as follows: to satisfy the urgent need of securing first-hand information “about Africa’s physical, climatic and commercial conditions, as well as the attitude of the natives and the European governments”; to thresh such newly gained knowledge and put it into the form of a statement, presenting the main social problems which face the Negros of the world; to enable the leaders of the different Negro groups the world over to become acquainted; to get in touch with and put before those persons, groups, nations and organizations of various races who either do sympathize with the peoples of Africa and their descendants or who would sympathize with them if they knew the fundamental characteristics, needs and deserts of the black man all over the globe; to have the Pan-African Congress finally evolved into one permanent body that welds the Negro people and their friends for the emancipation of the race.

“For his services in originating and conducting in Paris the Pan-African Congress”, Dr. DuBois was presented with the Spingarn Medal. And this Pan-African Congress, “in the judgment of President Hope of Morehouse College”, “made the Negro representatives from seventeen countries discover that the problems of colored people the world over are the same.” The origin and purpose of the above mentioned Spingarn Medal is explained in the following quotation:

“A few years ago Dr. J. E. Spingarn of New York decided that he would offer each year a gold medal to be awarded to the man or woman of African descent who had rendered valuable, though perhaps somewhat inconspicuous, service to his race and to modern civilization. Dr. Spingarn had very clearly in his mind the “for merit” type of decoration. This idea has always been kept before the committee on award”. (Ref. July 1920 issue of the Southern Workman).

A complete list of those who have been awarded the Spingarn Medal since 1915, when it was first presented, up to the present date is as follows:

1915, Dr. Ernest E. Just, Scholar-Scientist.
1916, Colonel Chas. Young, United States Army.
1917, Harry T. Burleigh, Singer-Composer.
1918, Wm. Stanley Braithwaite, Poet-Critic.
1919, Archibald H. Grimke, Author-Orator.
1920, Dr. W. E. B. DuBoise, Sociologist-Author.
1921, Charles E. Gilpin, Celebrated Actor.

MARCUS GARVEY

Whatever may be their private thoughts and judgements as to the methods, purposes and final results of his efforts; the one conclusion at which close observing Colored and white people alike have unanimously arrived and publically admitted is that the Negro, Marcus Garvey (who is estimated to have united more than a million of his Race people into different organizations) has unquestionably become “The World’s Greatest Group Organizer” of today.

Relative to the Race interests, efforts and leaderships of Dr. DuBois and Mr. Garvey, the writer quotes below the very logical and impartial editorial that appeared in Editor J. Finley Wilson’s “Washington Eagle” that was published September 17, 1921, in Washington, D.C.

“WORLD LEAGUE OF THE AFRICAN RACES NECESSARY”

“We are very much in favor of the Pan-African movement which Dr.
W. E. B. DuBois has in charge and is trying to make a success of.
The race needs an international organization which will gather
representatives of the African peoples of the world, where their
rights and wrongs may be registered and looked after, and where,
annually, they may gather in an open congress or a discussion and
agreement upon questions affecting them. The question is a broad
one, race-embracing, and should be considered from that viewpoint.

“On the other hand, we are very much in favor of the movement
fostered by Mr. Marcus Garvey, the provisional president of Africa,
to create a sentiment in Africa in favor of a oneness of sentiment
among Africans themselves and the building up of African States
for Africans. Mr. Garvey has been pointing out, recently, and very
wisely, we think, that the time may come when Afro-Americans who
are dissatisfied with their conditions in States of the United
States may desire to go to Africa, and to a State in Africa
governed by Africans. This is reasonable foresight.

“There are millions of Jews working hard for the rehabilitation of
Palestine who have no desire to make it their home, as they are
satisfied in the States where they are, but there are millions
who are not satisfied, as in Turkey and Russia, who would go
to Palestine and build its waste places while repatriating it.
It is in the same way that we regard the building of a strong
African State as a sufficient asylum of those of the race who are
persecuted anywhere on the globe that they may be.

“Mr. Garvey is as much of a prophet in his way as Dr. DuBois, and
we should be willing to hold up the hands of both of them in any
plans they may advance which seems possible of working out for the
good of the race. Both of them have ideas and methods we do not
approve, but that would be the case with any movement whatsoever,
that may be started, on a large or small scale, by any man or group
of men of the race, but it should not prevent us from encouraging
them in any idea or plan which appears reasonable and possible of
resulting in good for the race.

“A World League of African People is necessary. An Independent
African State in Africa is necessary. We already have Liberia and
Abyssinia, but we need more than these, and stronger than both of
them.”

ON THE FARM

EDUCATION THE NEGRO NEEDS ALL

Wild men first learned to scratch the ground:--Agricultural Education
In building caves first trades they found: --Industrial Education
Then exchange of hides made business boom, --Commercial Education
And science was born gazing stars and moon --University Education
--_Harrison._

Since the raising of tobacco, cotton, corn, sugar cane and other farm products had been the main reason for starting slavery in America, it is plainly seen that farming was the chief work of the Colored people until they were set free. And it is quite natural that they took a great dislike to a work that they had been compelled to do against their wills for over two hundred years. So at the close of the Civil War when they were free to choose their own work, the majority of ex-slaves were willing to do any kind of labor under the sun (or over the sun for that matter) but work on the farm. Such a state of affairs continued for a number of years and caused much of the rich fertile lands in the South to go unfarmed, neglected and runned-down, but after some years away from the only kind of work they knew the most about, their dislike to farming began to lessen and they gradually drifted back to work patches of land on shares with their former owners who had survived the war. And their return to the bosom of nature rapidly increased as the ex-slaves saw how it would enable them to make a living and save money to buy land for themselves.

As a result of that movement back to the farms which continued to increase, there were, according to the 1910 census, over two hundred thousand farms or twenty-one million acres of land owned in the United States by Colored people. Negroes in the South alone own more than two hundred thousand of those farms that are valued at more than four hundred million dollars. Just in the state of Virginia Colored people own over one million acres of land that are valued at over ten million dollars. The following named are just a handful of the Colored farmers throughout the South and West who own and cultivate farms ranging in size from 500 to 3,000 acres of land; J. N. Brown, Tenn.,; J. Collins, S. C.; Robt. Chatman, Texas; Wash Dillard, Texas; Lewis Dolphin, Okla.; J. G. Groves, Kan.; Wiley Hinds’ family, Cal.; J. A. Hickey, G. N. Humphries, Texas; Howard Jackson, Ala.; Chas. Jackson, La.; Deal Jackson, Ga.; Y. U. Jones, Texas; John Lyttle, N. C.; J. H. McDuffy, Fla.; Wm. Mazy, John F. McGowon, L. A. Nash, Lance Parker, Dennis Pollard, H. Penneth, Jack Taylor, Texas; Jake Simmons, Okla.; R. L. Smith, Newton Smith, La.; A. W. Taylor, Texas; J. Thompson, Ga.; W. B. Turner, Va., and Frank Wallace, Texas.

Through the encouragement and helpfulness of such farming agencies as the Smith-Lever Funds for Agricultural Extension Education, the Smith-Hughes Funds for Vocational Education, The Federal Farm Loans and the Farmers’ Co-operative Demonstration Work, a new interest, rekindled enthusiasm and extra efforts have been aroused among Colored farmers in all parts of the country. They have at last been made to plainly see and fully understand that it is always to their seemingly dull country barnyard gates that the boiled-shirt, stiff-collared and learned business and college men of the cities must sooner of later turn for their ham and eggs, steak and chops, bread and butter and different vegetables. These same farmers manfully realize that they or others can only produce such necessities of life by daily mingling among the neighing horses, the mooing cows, the grunting pigs, the bleating sheep, the cackling hens and the crowing roosters. They are the people who with rolled-up sleeves cheerfully feel they must be stained with the earth’s sweet dirt (for what is so fragrant, so refreshing and so sweet as the smell of newly plowed furrows on an early spring morn, when crows overhead fly with taunting caws and robins scratch the sods for a wormy cause?) or the city folks for want of life-giving foods would soon die of starvation.

In order to help prevent the above dreaded calamity overtaking the country by learning how to better intensify crops and redouble their products, Colored farmers both young and old are taking either short or full courses in scientific agriculture in the following named schools that are a few among the many giving such instructions:

Agricultural & Mechanical College for Negroes, Normal, Ala.; Agricultural & Industrial State School, Nashville, Tenn.; Agricultural & Technical College, Greensboro, N. C.; Agricultural & Normal University., Langston, Okla.; Alcorn Agricultural & Mechanical College, Alcorn, Miss.; Branch Normal College, Pine Bluff, Ark.; Downingtown Industrial & Agricultural College, Downingtown, Pa.; Florida Agricultural & Mechanical College Tallahassee, Fla.; Georgia Normal & Agricultural College, Albany, Ga.; Hampton Normal & Agricultural Institute, Hampton, Va.; Armstrong Agricultural & Industrial Institute, West Butler, Ala.; Tuskegee Normal & Industrial Institute, Tuskegee, Ala. (extracts from Negro Year Book, 1918-1918 edition, pgs. 2-308-345)

As soon as Colored men have finished agricultural courses in the above named or other schools, they are fully prepared to locate in any section of the country and put into practice the farming theories they have just learned. It is quite natural that the majority of them want to settle and farm in the South--the birth place of their parents and usually of themselves, and the best farming district in the United States, and many of them do settle there. But quite a few (and the number is rapidly increasing) after deciding to follow farming as a life work have settled in the North, or even better have followed Horace Greeley’s famous advice “Young man, go West”. There they have settled with assurances of better human treatments and fuller civic rights due all human beings and American citizens, than they would have received if they had settled in many parts of the South. On the Pacific Coast they have found farming conditions more in accord with their special agricultural training than any place in America with the exception of the South. And whenever any of those Colored farmers arrived in California, for instance, without money to buy a few acres of land, they at once hired themselves out to farmers (without any fear of Southern peonage systems) and in a little while had saved enough money to strike out for themselves. During the time they served as farm laborers they were able to get practical and valuable experience in three ways; through experimenting they got acquainted with the Western crops that were new to them; they got acquainted with the customs and habits of the people, and they had time to carefully and slowly investigate many sections of the country before selecting the plot of land and district in which they planned to later and permanently settle.

The following two quotations are parts of articles written by Governor Wm. D. Stephens and Secretary of State Frank C. Jordan of California, and which articles appeared in the April 1, 1920 issue of the California Free Lance that has since been absorbed into the California Voice. The reading of these quotations may be of interest to those concerned.

Governor Stephens said--“Workers are what we need and opportunity was never so widely open to the Negro as it is today. A very large number of Colored workers are well fitted for farm labor and it would be better for them, and a measure of aid to our agricultural interests, if they could be diverted from the cities into the country. The farm laborer situation is difficult in this state and steps might well be taken to shift to the country those Colored men who are residing in large cities, under conditions unsuited to them. Our Negro workers could themselves help to solve this problem. Any effort initiated on their part undoubtedly would meet with active encouragement. Some adaptation to new conditions would be necessary, but this could easily be brought about through co-operation between Negro workers and the employing farmers of our state. I regard this matter of shifting workers who are misplaced in cities to the farms of our state as a matter of importance, and I invite the earnest attention of the Negro people to it as one primarily in their interest as well as being for the best interest of our state.”

Secretary of State, Jordan said in part: “California today has need of farmers and farm laborers. There is a general alarm felt by persons acquainted with farming conditions at the shortage of laborers. The farmer or farm laborer has a comfortable living under health-giving conditions and the money he makes he can save. He is an independent producer and plays a most important part in the national welfare. The California lands are marvels of richness. Truck gardening, fruit orchards, wheat and rice fields, cotton lands--in fact, nearly all farm culture--can be found in this State. The important question at present is, Where are we to find laborers to increase and intensify cultivation? Immigration from European countries has practically ceased. Mexican labor is difficult and uncertain. We can only hope for laborers to come from the more thickly settled parts of the country. The youth of today needs to be educated not only in the technique of farming, but also in the advantages of farm life. The prosperity of the nation rests largely on the agricultural workers. The city dwellers cannot reduce the high cost of living without the farmer’s co-operation in increased production. The factory worker depends upon the farmer for food. His high wages mean little to him unless food is plentiful. Let a young man consider carefully the opportunities offered by country as well as civic life--the sturdy independence, the healthful surroundings, the wholesome food, of the former--before he decides what his life work will be.”

Copied below is another article “Land Conditions” that appeared in the same issue of the Free Lance and which article goes more in detail regarding the wonderful opportunities of farm life in California--the land of not-too-cold nor not-too-hot climate, the land of singing birds, blooming flowers and golden fruits.

“Probably the greatest opportunity for the race lies in the agricultural sections of the state. Land at reasonable prices is now being offered by the Southern Pacific Land Company in sixteen counties in various parts of the state. While a great deal of this land is available for grazing purposes, yet there are large tracts awaiting the coming of the man with the plow, chief among which are sections laying in the beautiful Antelope Valley, situated in Los Angeles county, which section’s chief products are alfalfa, grain, fruit and dairying products. The soil of this valley is somewhat varied. The upper mesas and slopes in the main valley are decomposed granite of fine texture, with considerable vegetable humus. In the lower levels there are great deposits of silt and in every case the soils are light and easy to work The water conditions are all that can be desired, there being quite a deal of artesian wells, where the water is found at depths varying from 50 to 600 feet. Prices of land in this valley vary from $2 to $10 per acre for grazing land and from $10 to $71.50 for agricultural lands, with possibilities of irrigation by pumping.

“In Fresno county, the home of the raisin and the Thompson grapes, there will be found plenty of opportunities for dairying, fruit and general farming. This county has now quite a large number of Negro ranchers who are engaged profitably in various agricultural pursuits. The price of land in this vicinity ranges from $20 to $143 per acre, with fine possibilities of irrigation by pumping.

“Nearly all sections in the State of California are filled with opportunities for men with small capital to engage in various kinds of farming. While some are impressed by the large ranches, there is ample opportunities to engage in small farming projects. Land at reasonable prices and for all purposes can be obtained in the following counties; Siskiyou, Shasta, Tehama, Butte, Nevada, Yuba, El Dorado, Monterey, Stanislaus, Fresno, Imperial, Riverside, San Bernardino, Los Angeles, Kern and Tulare, Recent reports from various sections of the State show that there are now over 2100 Negroes engaged in agricultural, forestry and animal husbandry in this State.”

In his annual report of February 1920, Secretary Houston of the Department of Agriculture pointed out that when both the acreage and yield per acre are taken into account, the American farmer leads the world in individual production of crops. He further pointed out that the aggregate value of all crops raised in the United States for that year amounted to over fifteen billion dollars. These facts are truly very encouraging and complimentary to the American farmer and are quite apt to give him somewhat of a “big-head” until he reads “Social Aspects of the Decreasing Food Surplus in The United States.” This is a nation-wide agricultural survey written by one of America’s best authorities on that subject, Prof. Bernhard Ostrolenk, Director of the National Farm school at Farm School, Pa.

One of the most startling facts and timely warnings he brings out in his survey is that three million farms in the United States are idle on account of the American people not developing their unimproved lands. In writing about the already improved lands and abandoned farms, he says in part:

“And now we come to the most serious aspect of the agricultural situation in the United States. For the period of 1900 to 1910 more than two and a half million people left the country to go to the cities. Double that figure could safely be assumed to be the true situation from 1910 to 1920. A tragedy is facing the country. Scarcity of food means dissatisfaction, unrest, riots, mob rule, anarchy.

“Instead of proud boasting when new acquisitions are made in our cities, new apprehensions for the future food supply should be aroused. Can the Nation afford to be indifferent to the farmer much longer? We need an exodus from our congested districts back to the soil and the National Farm School is ready to lead in that movement. We have proved that it can be done by taking raw city youths and training them to be successful farmers. Eighty-seven per cent of our graduates own and operate their own farms.”

In giving out this advice and information of deep thought and timely warning, Prof. Ostrolenk has meant for it to apply to and benefit the great masses of Colored people who are jammed in the cities living in unsanitary courts and alleys, as he has meant for it to influence the masses of his own people who have left the country for the cities. And in putting a last spread on this bread-and-butter subject, the writer can truthfully say that just as the National Farm School, under the direction of Prof. Ostrolenk, is taking the lead among other white agricultural schools in helping to solve this great problem by turning out such efficient white farmers; so are Hampton Institute, under the guidance of Dr. Jas. E. Gregg, and Tuskegee Institute, under the leadership of Dr. Robt. R. Moton, gladly and whole-heartedly joining hands with the National Farm School in helping to bring about this “Back-to-the-Farm” movement by taking the lead among other Negro agricultural schools in turning out practically and scientifically trained Colored farmers.

Young men who wish to take a scientific course in agriculture but hesitate to do so because they fear their race and color will prevent them from getting sales for their products, should remember that:

The greatest and only food supplier in the world (the earth) is Colored, and that no race of people ever attempts to wean itself from sucking its daily life-giving nourishments from Nature’s nippled breasts just because those breasts are made of the brown colored dust and dirt from which all crops must come.

ON THE FARM

CHESTNUT HUNTING

It was after four, one Friday when
We all rejoiced at school-week end,
And plans were made for Saturday roves
Among the trees of chestnut groves.

And half that night we thought of fun
That we would have when day begun;
So up we got with early sun
To get our chores real quickly done.

The cross-roads by the old mill-dam
Was where we formed our happy band
Of laughing girls and whistling boys,
Who vied their chums in making noise.

Blushing maids in tam-o’-shanters,
And teasing lads with roguish banters
All romped away one happy crew
To where we knew the best nuts grew.

What luck to be a boy or girl,
When leaves begin to brown and curl!
What joy it is to feel the thrill
That’s in the air from hill to hill!

Tramping over knolls and dales,
We saw a woods fenced in with rails;
And there tree limbs were bending down
Thick with burs all big and round.

Then we raced by rocky juts,
Until we spied the brownish nuts
Peeping down from sticky burs
Smooth inside as softest furs.

Boys shook boughs and nuts rained down
Rolling over frost-bit ground:
Those whose hands the burs did bruise
Upon them stamped with heavy shoes.

Some stood on the ground below
So their clubs to better throw:
Girls with sacks from flour mill
Picked enough each bag to fill.

When on a fence we climbed to chat,
The top rail broke and down we sat
On sticky burs all round about
That made us dance as well as pout.

What jolly times we had out there
Joking some two as a loving pair,
’Till baskets all were well heaped up,
When home we went to get our sup’.

We hid the nuts clear out of sight,
To roast or boil some winter night,
When coals glowed red within the grate
And snow outdoors fell deep and late.

Oh! that I were a youth once more
To gather chestnuts as of yore
From trees that once had blooming health
But long since dead from insects’ stealth.

Whenever now through woods I go,
My anguished heart does overflow
To see the blighted chestnut die
While puzzled science no cure does spy.
--_Harrison._

IN THE TRADE SCHOOLS

BOOKER T. WASHINGTON

He loved both mankind and the soil,
And taught his folks to learn to toil
In all trades of the manual work
That kept them from an idle shirk.

Tuskegee stands a monument
To Booker T. whose life was spent
On begging trips for cash and fuel
To build and run that world-famed school.
--_Harrison._

Just as the late Dr. Booker T. Washington, founder of the wonderful school, Tuskegee, was the greatest agricultural and industrial leader of his race in the United States; so Dr. Robert R. Moton, former educator at Hampton Institute and present principal of Tusgkee Institute, is today the foremost leader of the American Colored people in industrial and agricultural education. And the tireless efforts and uplifting influence of those two great industrial leaders have either originated or greatly encouraged and advanced much of the skilled industrial and intensive agricultural progress made by the Colored people in America during the past thirty or more years.

But the pioneer and greatest industrial educator of them all was General Samuel Chapman Armstrong who founded in 1868 the famous Hampton Institute, which is said to be the leading school of its kind in America, and among the best in the world. For years not even many intelligent white and Colored people looked with kindly favor upon General Armstrong’s then new and strange methods of teaching the head, the hand and the heart to work together for the highest development of an individual or a race. People then generally thought that it was foolish to go to school just to learn the trades or how to work on a farm, as they had always been taught that schools were places where one went to learn to study books alone. And that was what nearly every one wanted to do as it was thought to be a disgrace and dishonor to work with the hands. But many years had not passed before it was seen and proved that General Armstrong’s methods were among the most valuable educational teachings in the world.

And today civilized countries throughout the world are using in their private, public and government schools vocational and industrial plans and methods copied after those originated by the far-sighted General Armstrong and so successfully carried on after his death by Dr. Hollis Burke Frissell. The unusual beneficial careers of those two life long friends of Colored peoples stand with the foremost among the careers of many brave white men and women who have not been ashamed to follow the footsteps of Christ by unselfishly giving their lives and fortunes for the encouragement and uplift of an oppressed people. Since the death of Dr. Frissell a few years ago, Hampton has been under the careful and progressive leadership of Dr. Jas. E. Gregg who has kept up the high grade of industrial education he found there. He has also raised the academic standards to higher planes, in order to better fit his graduates to more successfully face the advanced educational requirements they have to meet when going out into the world to wring success from the opportunities that will constantly come into their callings.

Below are named a few of the other Colored industrial schools that are yearly turning out hundreds of skilled and practical auto repairers, blacksmiths, bricklayers, carpenters, cabinetmakers, domestic science teachers, dressmakers, engineers, house matrons, machinists, milliners, painters, printers, plumbers, school teachers, shoemakers, steamfitters, tailors, tinsmiths, upholsters, wheelwrights and other artisans.

Albion Academy, Franklintown, S. C.; Americus Institute, Americus, Ga.; Berean Ind. School, Phila., Pa.; Calhoun Colored School, Calhoun, Ala.; Camden Colored High School, Camden, Ark.,; Coleman College, Gibsland, La.; Betts Academy, Trenton, S. C.; Cheyney Training School, Cheyney, Pa.; Christiansburg Ind. Institute, Cambria Va.; Clayton Ind. School, Manor, Texas; Clinton Nor. & Ind. College, Rockhill, S. C.; Colored Industrial School, Cincinnati, O.; Cookman, Institute, Jacksonville, Fla.; Daytona Training School for Girls, Daytona, Fla.; Delaware Nor. & Ind. School, Dover, Del.; Dunbar Training School, Brownsville, Tenn.; Florida Bapt. Academy, St., Augustine, Fla.; Fort Valley High & Ind. Inst., Fort Valley, Ga.; Fort Worth Ind. & Mech. Col., Fort Worth, Tex.; Georgia State & Ind. College, Savannah, Ga.; Greenville Ind. Inst., Greenville, Miss.; Haines Nor. & Ind. Insti., Augusta, Ga.; Henderson Normal Inst., Henderson, N. V.; Joseph Brick Ind. School, Bricks, N. C.; Lincoln Normal School, Marion, Ala.; Lincoln Inst, of Kentucky, Lincoln Ridge, Ky.; Knox Academy, Selma, Ala.; Manassas Ind. School, Manassas, Va.; Mary Potter Memorial School, Oxford, N. C.; Mayesville Ind. Inst., Mayesville, S. C.; Mound Bayou Ind. Col., Mound Bayou, Miss.; National Training School, (women) Washington, D.C.; New Jersey Nor. Training School, Bordentown, N. J.; Oklahoma Nor. & Ind. Inst., Boley, Okla.; Penn Normal & Ind. School, Frogmore, S. C.; Princess Anne Academy, Princess Anne, Md.; Prairie View State Nor. & Ind. School, Prairie View, Texas; Schofield N. & Ind. Inst., Aiken, S. C.; Sater State Normal & Ind. School, Winston-Salem, N. C.; Snow Hill Inst., Snow Hill, Ala.; St. Augustine School, Raleigh, N. C.; St. Paul Nor. & Ind. Inst. Lawrenceville, Va.; Vicksburg Ind. School, Vicksburg, Miss.; Voorhees Ind. School, Denmark, S. C.; State College for Colored Youth, Dover, Del.; Walker Bapt. Inst., Augusta, Ga.; Waters Normal Inst., Winton, N. C. (extracts from Work’s Negro Year book, 1918-1919 edition, pages 309-10-11-12-13-14-15-16-17-18-19-20).

IN THE TRADE SCHOOLS

While a great many of these schools are kept going through the donations of money by Northern white individuals and organizations as well as by the aid of several state appropriations, the majority of them are supported and run by Colored people themselves. “The African Methodist Episcopal Church is raising each year about $500,000 for the support of its twenty colleges and normal schools. The Negro Baptists are giving support to about 110 colleges and academies.” All together there are about 175 such schools supported by different Colored church denominations that raise each year for this purpose about two million dollars. The properties of these schools thus supported are worth about two million five hundred thousand dollars. (Ref: Works Negro Year Book 1918-1919 edition page 286.)