Chapter VI: Section 1: Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives, (2)

I have thus striven to give you a glimpse of my mother. In so doing I am conscious of having made frequent mention of my father. It is difficult to say any thing of mother without the mention of father, her life was so enveloped in his. Together they rest side by side, and most befittingly, within sight of the dear old home of hallowed memories and from which the panting fugitive, the weary traveler, the lonely emigrant of every clime, received food and shelter.

ROSETTA DOUGLASS SPRAGUE.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] This paper and the one which _follows_ give valuable information about Frederick Douglass and his wife.

FREDERICK DOUGLASS IN IRELAND

Few persons have any idea as to the connection between the abolition of slavery in the United States and the struggle of the Irish for freedom. According to _The Standard Union_, when in the decade 1830 Negro slavery existed in the British West Indies, a little party of liberal men in the British Parliament began to agitate in season and out of season for emancipation, Daniel O'Connell, with a few Irish members who supported him, threw his strength to this little party on every division. There was a West Indian interest pledged to maintain Negro slavery, and this interest counted twenty-seven votes in Parliament. They came to O'Connell and offered their twenty-seven votes to him on every Irish question if he would oppose Negro emancipation.

"It was," said Wendell Phillips, "a terrible temptation. How
many a so-called statesman would have yielded!" O'Connell said:
"Gentlemen, God knows I speak for the saddest nation the sun ever
sees, but may my right hand forget its cunning and my tongue
cleave to the roof of my mouth, if to serve Ireland, even Ireland,
I forget the Negro one single hour."

The following account taken from _The Liberator_, including a letter from Frederick Douglass, shows the genuineness of this Irish friendship for the Negro in the United States:

A letter of extraordinary interest at this time from Mr. Frederick
Douglass to Mr. William Lloyd Garrison has just come to light in
the columns of _The True American_, a little anti-slavery paper
published in Cortland Village, N. Y., in 1846. The letter, written
with the eloquence and depth of feeling which characterized all
Mr. Douglass's utterances on the subject of slavery and the
abuse of the Negro in this country. The letter, which _The True
American_ copied from _The Boston Liberator_, Mr. Garrison's
Paper, is introduced by the following editorial comment from _The
Albany Journal_ under date of February 11, 1846.

"It is scarcely necessary to direct attention to the letter of
Frederick Douglass which we copy from _The Boston Liberator_.
It will be read with equal pleasure and amazement by those
who remember that eight years ago he was a slave, and that he
literally stole the elements of an education which now gives him
rank among the most gifted and eloquent men of the age.

"We shall not blame those who refuse to believe that Frederick
wrote this letter. Without the personal knowledge we possess of
his extraordinary attainments, we too should doubt whether a
fugitive slave, who, as but yesterday, escaped from a bondage that
doomed him to ignorance and degradation, now stands up and rebukes
oppression with a dignity and force scarcely less glowing than
that which Paul addressed to Agrippa."

The letter is as follows:

VICTORIA HOTEL, BELFAST,
January 1st, 1846.

_My dear Friend Garrison_:

I am now about to take leave of the Emerald Isle, for Glasgow,
Scotland. I have been here a little more than four months.--Up
to this time, I have been given no direct expression of the
views, feelings and opinions which I have formed, respecting
the character and condition of the people of this land. I have
refrained thus purposely. I wish to speak advisedly, and in order
to do this, I have waited till I trust experience has brought my
opinions to an intelligent maturity. I have been thus thankful,
not because I think what I may say will have much effect in
shaping the opinions of the world, but because whatever of
influence I may possess, whether little or much, I wish it to go
in the right direction, and according to truth.

I hardly need say that in speaking of Ireland, I shall be
influenced by no prejudices in favor of America. I think my
circumstances all forbid that. I have no end to serve, no creed
to uphold, no government to defend; and as to nation, I belong to
none. I have no protection at home, or resting place abroad. The
land of my birth welcomes me to her shores only as a slave, and
spurns with contempt the idea of treating me differently.--So that
I am an outcast from the society of my childhood, and an outlaw in
the land of my birth. "I am a stranger with thee, and a sojourner
as all my fathers were." That men should be patriotic is to me
perfectly natural; and as a philosophical fact, I am able to give
it an intellectual recognition. But no further can I go. If ever
I had any patriotism, or any capacity for the feeling, it was
whipt out of me long since by the lash of the American souldrivers.

In thinking of America, I sometimes find myself admiring her
bright blue sky--her grand old woods--her fertile fields--her
beautiful rivers--her mighty lakes, and star crowned mountains.
But my rapture is soon checked, my joy is soon turned to mourning.
When I remember that all is cursed with the infernal spirit of
slaveholding, robbery and wrong,--when I remember that with the
waters of her noblest rivers, the tears of my brethren are borne
to the ocean, disregarded and forgotten, and that her most fertile
fields drink daily of the warm blood of my outraged sisters, I
am filled with unutterable loathing, and led to reproach myself
that anything could fall from my lips in praise of such a land.
America will not allow her children to love her. She seems bent
on compelling those who would be her warmest friends, to be her
worst enemies. May God give her repentance before it is too late,
is the ardent prayer of my heart. I will continue to pray, labor
and wait, believing that she cannot always be insensible to the
dictates of justice, or deaf to the voice of humanity.

My opportunities for learning the character and condition of the
people of this land have been very great. I have travelled almost
from the hill of "Howth" to the Giant's Causeway, and from the
Giant's Causeway to Cape Clear. During these travels, I have met
with much in the character and condition of the people to approve,
and much to condemn--much that has thrilled me with pleasure--and
very much that has filled me with pain. I will not in this letter
attempt to give any description of those scenes which have given
me pain. This I will do hereafter. I have enough, and more than
your subscribers will be disposed to read at one time, of the
bright side of the picture. I can truly say, I have spent some of
the happiest moments of my life since landing in this country. I
seem to have undergone a transformation. I live a new life.

The warm and generous co-operation extended to me by the friends
of my despised race--the prompt and liberal manner with which the
press has rendered me its aid--the glorious enthusiasm with which
thousands have flocked to hear the cruel wrongs of my down-trodden
and long enslaved countrymen portrayed--the deep sympathy of the
slave, and the strong abhorrence of the slaveholder, everywhere
evinced--the cordiality with which members and ministers of
various religious bodies, and of various shades of religious
opinion, have embraced me and lent me their aid--the kind
hospitality constantly proffered to me by persons of the highest
rank in society--the spirit of freedom that seems to animate all
with whom I come in contact--and the entire absence of everything
that looked like prejudice against me, on account of the color
of my skin--contrasting so strongly with my long and bitter
experience in the United States, that I look with wonder and
amazement on the transition.

In the Southern part of the United States I was a slave, thought
of and spoken of as property. In the language of the law, "held,
taken, reputed and adjudged to be chattel in the hands of my
owners and possessors, and their executors, administrators,
or assigns, to all intents, constructions, and purposes
whatever."--Brev. Digest, 224. In the Northern States, a fugitive
slave, liable to be hunted at any moment like a felon, and to be
hurried into the terrible jaws of slavery--doomed by an inveterate
prejudice against color to insult and outrage in every hand.
(Massachusetts out of the question)--denied the privileges and
courtesies common to others in the use of the most humble of
conveyances--shut out from the cabins on steamboats--refused
admission to respectable hotels--caricatured, scorned, scoffed,
mocked and maltreated with impunity by any one (no matter how
black his heart), so he has a white skin.

But now behold the change! Eleven days and a half gone, and I
have crossed three thousand miles of the perilous deep. Instead
of a democratic government, I am under a monarchical government.
Instead of the bright blue sky of America, I am covered with the
soft gray fog of the Emerald Isle. I breathe, and lo! the chattel
becomes a man. I gaze around in vain for one who will question
my equal humanity, claim me as his slave, or offer me an insult.
I employ a cab--I am seated beside white people--I reach the
hotel--I enter the same door--I am shown into the same parlor--I
dine at the same table--and no one is offended. No delicate
nose grows deformed in my presence. I have no difficulty here
in obtaining admission into any place of worship, instruction
or amusement, on equal terms with people as white as any I ever
saw in the United States. I meet nothing to remind me of my
complexion. I find myself regarded and treated at every turn with
the kindness and deference paid to white people. When I go to
church, I am met by no upturned nose and scorned lip to tell me,
"We don't allow niggers in here!"

I remember about two years ago, there was in Boston, near the
southwest corner of Boston Common, a menagerie. I had long desired
to see such a collection as I understood were being exhibited
there. Never having had an opportunity while a slave, I resolved
to seize this, my first, since my escape. I went, and as I
approached the entrance to gain admission, I was met and told by
the doorkeeper in a harsh and contemptuous tone, "We don't allow
niggers here!" I also remember attending a revival meeting in the
Rev. Henry Jackson's meeting house, at New Bedford, and going up
the broad aisle to find a seat. I was met by a good deacon, who
told me in a pious tone, "We don't allow niggers here!" Soon after
my arrival in New Bedford from the South, I had a strong desire to
attend the Lyceum, but was told, "We don't allow niggers here!"

While passing from New York to Boston on the steamer
Massachusetts, on the night of the 9th Dec., 1843, when chilled
almost through with the cold, I went into the cabin to get a
little warm, I was soon touched upon the shoulder and told,
"We don't allow niggers here!" On arriving in Boston from an
anti-slavery tour, hungry and tired I went into an eating house
near my friend Mr. Campbell's, to get some refreshments. I was met
by a lad in a white apron, "We don't allow niggers here!" A week
or two before leaving the United States, I had a meeting appointed
at Weymouth, the home of that glorious band of true abolitionists,
the Weston family and others. On attempting to take a seat on the
omnibus to that place, I was told by the driver (and I never shall
forget the fiendish haste), "I don't allow niggers in here!"

Thank heaven for the respite I now enjoy! I had been in Dublin
but a few days, when a gentleman of great respectability kindly
offered to conduct me through all the public buildings of that
beautiful city; and a little afterwards, I found myself dining
with the Lord Mayor of Dublin. What a pity there was not some
American Democratic Christian at the door of his splendid mansion,
to bark out at my approach, "They don't allow niggers in here!"
The truth is, the people here know nothing of the Republican Negro
hate prevalent in our glorious land. They measure and esteem
men according to their moral and intellectual worth, and not
according to the color of their skin. Whatever may be said of the
aristocracies here, there is none based on the color of a man's
skin. This species of aristocracy belongs pre-eminently to "the
land of the free, and the home of the brave." I have never found
it abroad, in any but Americans. It sticks to them where-ever they
go. They find it almost as hard to get rid of as to get rid of
their skins.

The second day after my arrival at Liverpool, in company with my
friend Buffum, and several other friends I went to Eaton Hall, the
residence of the Marquis of Westminster, one of the most splendid
buildings in England. On approaching the door, I found several
of our American passengers who came out with us in the Cambria,
waiting at the door for admission, as but one party was allowed in
the house at a time. We all had to wait till the company within
came out. And of all the faces, expressive of chagrin, those of
the Americans were pre-eminent. They looked as sour as vinegar,
and as bitter as gall, when they found I was to be admitted on
equal terms with themselves. When the door was opened I walked in,
on an equal footing with my white fellow citizens, and from all
I could see I had as much attention paid me by the servants who
showed me through the house as any with a paler skin. As I walked
through the building, the statuary did not fall down, the pictures
did not leap from their places, the doors did not refuse to open,
and the servants did not say, "We don't allow niggers in here!"

A happy new year to you and to all the friends of freedom.

Excuse this imperfect scrawl and believe me to be ever and always
yours,

FREDERICK DOUGLASS

BOOK REVIEWS

_The History of the Afro-American Group of the Episcopal Church._
By GEORGE F. BRAGG, Rector St. James First African Church,
Baltimore. With an Introduction by the Rt. Rev. T. DuBose Bratton,
D.D., LL.D., Bishop of Mississippi. The Church Advocate Press,
Baltimore, 1922, pp. 319.

This work is intended to supply the need of a volume tracing the connection of the Negro with the Protestant Episcopal Church in America. As this particular group of communicants has not the status of independent organization, its peculiar history has remained only in fragments. To embody these in the form of a handy volume to show how this denomination has influenced the life of the Negro and how members of the race have been affected thereby, will be a distinct service for which the public would feel thankful. Whether or not the author has accomplished this task the readers themselves will decide. He has undertaken the work with so much enthusiasm and found so many things to praise and such a few to condemn that the reader may find the work somewhat _ex parte_. The struggle of the Negro communicants in this denomination and its indifference toward the strivings of the race before the Civil War are not emphasized. Approaching the volume with reservation, however, the investigator will find the work of some value.

The volume begins with the early baptism of African children during the early days. He directs attention to the work of missionaries in South Carolina, Maryland, Georgia, and Virginia and brings his story down to the days of the independent movement among Negro communicants as it culminated in the organization of the Free African Society of Philadelphia out of which emerged the St. Thomas African Church under the leadership of Absalom Jones. He then discusses the rise of such churches as St. Phillips in New York, St. James in Baltimore, Christ Church in Providence, St. Luke in New Haven, The Church of the Crucifixion in Philadelphia, St. Matthews in Detroit, St. Phillips in New Jersey and St. Phillips in Buffalo. The renewed interest of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the uplift of the Negro is interwoven around his discussion of the Freedman's Commission organized in 1868 to Christianize and educate the Negroes recently emancipated in the South. He then discusses the further interest shown by the General Convention of 1871 and treats with some detail the efforts through mission schools in the South.

The remaining portion of the book consists of biographical sketches. It contains a list of the Negro clergy prior to 1866, mentioning such names as Absalom Jones, Peter Williams, William Levington, James C. Ward, Jacob Oson, Gustavus V. Caesar, Edward Jones, William Douglass, Isaiah G. DeGrasse, Alexander Crummell, Eli Worthington Stokes, William C. Munroe, Samuel Vreeland Berry, Harrison Holmes Webb, James Theodore Holly, William Johnson Alston, and John Peterson. Among these are accounts of such veteran friends as Bishops Atkinson, Lyman, Johns, Whittie, Smith, Quintard, Whittingham, Howe, Stevens, Young, and Dudley, along with Mr. Joseph Bryan, General Samuel C. Armstrong, and Mrs. Loomis L. White. He then gives sketches of some self-made strong characters like James E. Thompson, Cassius M. C. Mason, James Solomon Russell, James Nelson Denver, Henry Mason Joseph, Henry Stephen McDuffy, Primus Priss Alston, Paulus Moort, Henry L. Phillips, August E. Jensen, Joshua Bowden Massiah, William Victor Tunnell, and John W. Perry. Honorable mention is given to Samuel David Ferguson, John Payne, Edward T. Demby, Henry B. Delany, and T. Momolu Gardiner.

* * * * *

_The Trend of the Races._ By GEORGE E. HAYNES, Ph.D. With an
introduction by JAMES H. DILLARD. Published jointly by Council of
Women for Home Missions and Missionary Education Movement of the
United States and Canada. New York, 1922, pp. 205.

This volume is at once both historical and sociological. It is interesting but might have been more readable if the materials had been better organized so as to avoid unnecessary repetition from chapter to chapter. It marks an epoch in the history of the Negro in the United States, however, in that it was written at the request of white persons constituting the Joint Committee on Home Mission Literature representing the Missionary Education Movement and the Council of Women for Home Missions and the Missionary Educational Boards. The aim of the work is to present to the white workers in the Church the achievements of the Negro, believing that if the Negro becomes known to the white man, he will not be any longer hated by him; or, as the chairman of the committee herself says in the foreword to the volume: "Our seeking to know him must be on the basis of the broadest sympathy. In the friendliest and most helpful spirit we should sincerely desire to understand him in the place where he is and to apprehend something of the road by which he came and the direction of his highest and best aspirations, that we may, so far as we can, make it possible for him to attain his best in our common civilization. We should at the same time quite as earnestly seek to know ourselves in respect to our limitations, achievements, and goals in the building of the social order."

The book begins with a presentation of the case of the Negro, reviewing two methods of racial adjustment. It then discusses the conditions under which some choice of procedure must be made in view of the white and Negro public opinion. The author then endeavors to show what the Negro has accomplished during the sixty years emphasizing his achievements both economic and industrial. In this chapter he deals largely with the progress of Negro farmers, the growth of business enterprises, improvements in health, moral uplift, the development of homes, achievements in community life, education, inventions, scientific discovery, and religious life. The author then treats in some detail the mental capacity of the Negro, his feelings, his conduct, his humor and his dramatic ability. He shows how the Negro practices self-abnegation, toleration and optimism in spite of oppression and yet brings out the fact that there is a rising tide of race consciousness, increasing resentment and suspicion. The development of racial self-respect, and the forward looking program of self-assertion are also mentioned in showing how the Negroes are learning to depend upon their own leaders and to undertake to do for themselves what they have long requested others to accomplish for them.

One of the important features of the book is its emphasis on the part which the Negro has played in the various wars in the United States beginning with the American Revolution and bringing the story through all of our national and international struggles. Most space, however, is devoted to the Negro's participation in the World War and to the local economic situation in which the Negroes figured during the dearth of labor and the scarcity of money when they responded to the call to render non-combatant service and to lend the Government their means by purchasing Liberty Bonds. Following this the author finds it opportune to show the trend of the white world, bringing out its attitude and ways of action due to conscience. Here he discusses the influence of economic motives, survivals from the past, attitudes due to ideals of race, the effects of the principles and ideals of democracy and the interracial mind. The author believes that the way to interracial peace is through racial contacts, church co-operation, efficient reorganization in the division of labor, and through mutual economic and life interests, group interdependence between mental and social factors, educational institutions, popular government, and voluntary organizations coordinating interracial activities.

* * * * *

_In the Vanguard of a Race._ By L. H. HAMMOND. Published jointly
by Council of Women for Home Missions and Missionary Education
Movement of the United States and Canada. New York, 1922, pp. 176.

This is a volume not so serious as that of Dr. Haynes's but written for the purpose of presenting to the American public a number of useful leaders now shaping the destiny of the Negro race. Inasmuch as all famous workers of the race could not be mentioned, the author endeavored to select one typical of each particular thought and to portray them as the representatives of a large host of laborers rebuilding the civilization of a large portion of mankind. The persons sketched have worked as musicians, painters, sculptors, actors, singers, poets, educators, physicians, farmers, and clergymen. When one considers several of the selections made, however, he must be astounded at the lack of judgment shown as to who are the leading Negro workers doing something worth while. The author seems to have obtained advice from such friends and helpers as Miss Ida A. Tourtellot of the Phelps-Stokes Foundation, Miss Flora Mitchell of the Woman's Home Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church, Mrs. Booker T. Washington of Tuskegee, Mr. Jackson Davis of the General Education Board, Mr. N. C. Newbold of the North Carolina State Department of Education, Mr. W. T. B. Williams of the Jeanes and Slater Boards, Professor G. L. Imes of Tuskegee, and Dr. A. M. Moore of Durham, North Carolina, all of whom do not claim to be authorities in matter of this kind.

On the whole, however, the book has a value. In the first chapter, "A Long Ascent," there is an interesting sketch of the rising race showing unusual possibilities which must convince the world of the inherent worth and bright future of the Negro. The sketch of Booker T. Washington entitled "A Story of Service" is decidedly interesting and is written in such a style as to popularize the achievements of the great educator. Presented very much in the same way is the account of the valuable service of Dr. C. V. Roman whose efforts have not been restricted to medicine, inasmuch as he is an author and a lecturer of recognized standing. Miss Nannie H. Burroughs is properly presented to typify that part of the story known as "Saving an Idea." Herein is sketched the rise and the culmination of the career of one of the most useful women of our day. In the same style the work of Dr. William N. DeBerry of Springfield, Massachusetts, appears. There follows the sketch of the career of Mrs. Jane Barrett, a believer in happiness, then that of John B. Pierce, a builder of prosperity, and next that of Mrs. Maggie L. Walker, a woman banker. Much space is given also to the career of the famous composer, Harry T. Burleigh. This sketch is followed by two others directing attention to Miss Martha Drummer and James Dunston. The book closes with a brief biography of Joseph S. Cotter, Jr., the young poet who recently attained distinction in expressing the strivings of an oppressed people.

* * * * *

_The Negro in Chicago. A study of race relations and a race riot._
By the Chicago Commission on Race Relations. The University of
Chicago Press, Chicago, Illinois, 1922, pp. 672.

It is generally admitted that this report of the Commission on Race Relations is the most important contribution to this interesting subject. The very organization of the commission deepens this impression. Before the end of this racial conflict in which 38 lives were lost and 537 persons injured between July 27 and August 6, 1919, representatives of 48 social, civic, commercial and professional organizations of Chicago met on the first of August and requested Governor Frank O. Lowden, of Illinois, to appoint an emergency State Committee "to study the psychological, social and economic causes underlying the conditions resulting in the present race riot and to make such recommendations as will tend to prevent a recurrence of such conditions in the future." In response to this and other urgent requests, according to the report and pursuant to his personal knowledge of the situation derived from investigations made by him in Chicago during the riot, Governor Lowden appointed as a commission, Edgar A. Bancroft, William Scott Bond, Edward Osgood Brown, Harry Eugene Kelley, Victor F. Lawson, and Julius Rosenwald as representatives of the white race and Robert S. Abbott, George Cleveland Hall, George H. Jackson, Edward H. Morris, Adelbert H. Roberts, and Lacey Kirk Williams representing the Negroes, all to serve as a commission to undertake the work suggested by the memorialists. Mr. Bancroft was designated by the Governor as chairman but on account of his absence due to ill health, Dr. F. W. Shepardson, Director of the State Department of Registration and Education, was appointed to serve as acting chairman and on the return of Mr. Bancroft, Dr. Shepardson was added to the commission and made its Vice-Chairman. Inasmuch as the commission had no funds a committee consisting of Messrs. James B. Forgan, chairman, Abel Davis, Treasurer, Arthur Meeker, John J. Mitchell, and John G. Shedd, together with Messrs. R. B. Beach and John F. Bowman of the staff of the Chicago Association of Commerce, enabled the commission of inquiry to meet this emergency. The actual work was done under the direction of an Executive Secretary, Graham Romeyn Taylor and an Associate Executive Secretary, Charles S. Johnson, the latter assuming charge of the actual inquiries and investigation.

The report does not present any solution by which all racial troubles may be avoided. It well fulfills its mission, however, in finding facts which, if properly studied, will serve to guide others in promoting amicable relations between racial groups. It at once convinces the general public that causes of racial friction may be insignificant in themselves but are nevertheless capable of leading to serious results, although a little effort can easily effect their removal in time to avoid such fatal consequences. It shows, moreover, that grievances too often portrayed as justifiable reasons for self-help are generally exaggerated primarily for the purpose of inflaming the public mind and should such findings be given adequate publicity the effects of such unwise action may be counteracted in time. It is claimed for this commission, moreover, that its work has promoted an understanding between the two racial groups in the city of Chicago and removed misunderstandings which have been such prolific sources of trouble.

The report covers in some detail an informing account of the race riot itself and of other outbreaks in the State of Illinois. Going to the very causes of things, the commission studied the migration of the Negroes from the South, the Negro population in Chicago, directing attention to the housing of Negroes, racial contacts, vicious environments, and lines of industry. One of the most informing parts of the work is a treatment of public opinion in race relations, bringing out beliefs concerning Negroes and the background of such and public opinion as expressed by Negroes themselves. Adequate space is given to the instruments of opinion-making, such as Chicago newspapers and the Negro press as well as to rumors, myths, and propaganda. The recommendations of the Commission require careful attention. While the public will not generally accept these recommendations as final, they are at least suggestive and require careful consideration.

One defect of the work, however, if it has a defect, is that it fails to take into account one important cause, namely, the migration of many poor whites to the North during the period of scarcity of labor incident to the World War when these southerners brought north their own opinions about how to keep the Negro down and helped to aggravate the situation in Chicago.

NOTES

Mr. George W. Brown, a graduate of Howard University who, as a result of a year of graduate work in History and Political Science at Western Reserve University, has received the degree of Master of Arts, has been appointed Instructor in History at the West Virginia Collegiate Institute. Mr. Brown is the author of a dissertation entitled _Haiti and the United States_.

Mr. Miles Mark Fisher who contributed to the last issue of THE JOURNAL OF NEGRO HISTORY the valuable dissertation and documents bearing on the career of Lott Cary and who has written two other valuable works, _The History of the Olivet Baptist Church_ and _The Master's Slave_, has been appointed an instructor at the Virginia Union University, Richmond, Virginia.

Mr. Luther P. Jackson, a graduate of Fisk University, who specialized at Columbia in History and Education leading to the degree of Master of Arts, and who contributes to the current number of THE JOURNAL OF NEGRO HISTORY the dissertation entitled _The Educational Efforts of the Freedmen's Bureau and Freedmen's Aid Societies in South Carolina, 1862-1872_, has been appointed an instructor in the Virginia Normal and Industrial Institute, Petersburg, Virginia.

The Macmillan Company has published _A Boys' Life of Booker T. Washington_ by W. C. Jackson, Vice President of the North Carolina College for Women, Greensboro, and Professor of History.

The A. B. Caldwell Publishing Company, Atlanta, Georgia, has brought out an autobiography, _Echoes from a Pioneer Life_ by Jared Maurice Arter, an instructor in Storer College, Harpers Ferry, West Va.

From the University of Chicago Press there has come another interesting volume on the Negro. This is entitled _The Negro Press in the United States_ by Frederick G. Detweiler.

Sir Harry H. Johnston, G. C. M. G., K. C. B., Sc.D., has published through Oxford at the Clarendon Press his second volume of _A Comparative Study of the Bantu and Semi-Bantu Languages_.

THE PROCEEDINGS OF THE ANNUAL MEETING OF THE ASSOCIATION FOR THE STUDY OF NEGRO LIFE AND HISTORY

The Association met in annual session on the 22d, 23d and 24th of November in Louisville, Kentucky. The day sessions were held at the Chestnut Street Branch Library and the evening sessions at the Quinn Chapel A. M. E. Church. The meeting was a success from both the local and national points of view. Persons from afar came to take an active part and the citizens of Louisville and nearby cities of Kentucky attended in considerable numbers.

The meeting was opened at eight o'clock Wednesday evening at the Chestnut Street Branch Library with a stereopticon lecture on the History of the Negro by Dr. A. Eugene Thomson, principal of Lincoln Institute, Lincoln Ridge, Kentucky. This lecture covered the early history of the Negro in Egypt and Ethiopia with illustrations of the historic monuments exhibiting the progress of the natives in architecture and the fine arts. There followed an informing discussion of the importance of the study of this particular part of the past of the dark races.

On Thursday morning at ten o'clock a conference on "The Present State of the Negro" was held. Mr. E. E. Reed, principal of the Bowling Green High School, delivered an address on "The Social and Economic Status of the Negro." This was the main feature of the conference. The general discussion was opened by Mr. E. A. Carter, secretary of the Louisville Urban League, who discussed "The Political Status of the Negro." The views of the speakers were such as to present both the optimistic and the pessimistic sides of the question. They believed that while there have been some developments which indicate improvement in the status of the Negro, there have been also other changes which indicate a tendency of things to become static.

Early in the afternoon at 1:30 P. M. a special session was held at the William J. Simmons University. The aim here was to interest the students in the importance of the preservation of the records of the Negro. Several members of the Association discussed the history of the organization, its achievements and plans, and welcomed the cooperation of all as coworkers in this long neglected field. Dr. W. H. Steward, the editor of _The American Baptist_, then spoke from his experience on "The Value of a Written Record," mentioning several cases in Kentucky where important matters have been decided by such documentary evidence. He emphasized the importance of the work accomplished by the Association and encouraged the youth to connect themselves with it that the cause may be promoted more successfully.

At three o'clock Thursday afternoon with Professor W. B. Matthews, principal of the Central High School, presiding, there followed a session devoted to "The Teaching of Negro History." Many of the teachers from the local school system were present. In a very thoughtful and impressive manner Mr. J. W. Bell, principal of the Hopkinsville High School, discussed the teaching of Negro history as a matter of concern not only to the Negro himself but to the white man. He expressed the opinion that through the dissemination of such information the one race may become better acquainted with the other. He was then followed by Mr. P. W. L. Jones, instructor in History at the Kentucky Normal and Industrial Institute, Frankfort, Kentucky. Mr. Jones directed his attention to "The Value of Negro Biography" as a means of keeping before the race the records of a number of useful citizens who might otherwise be forgotten and as a means of inspiring the youth to useful endeavor and noble achievement. He took occasion to present brief sketches of a number of Negroes once prominent in the past but now almost forgotten because of the failure to pass their story on to the coming generation. Mr. Thomas F. Blue, librarian of the Chestnut Street Branch Library, then opened the general discussion showing from his experience the need for directing more attention to these neglected aspects of this peculiar problem of a race in the making.

The first evening session was held at the Quinn Chapel A. M. E. Church with Dr. Noah W. Williams presiding. On this occasion the Honorable C. C. Stoll, representing the Mayor of Louisville, welcomed the Association in words adequate to arouse interest and enthusiasm. Dr. L. G. Jordan, secretary emeritus of the National Baptist Foreign Mission Board, responded to this address on behalf of the Association. He took occasion, moreover, to make some interesting observations out of his experiences in America and in Africa. Then followed an address by Dr. C. G. Woodson who briefly connected the achievements of the Negro with such movements in history as the commercial revolution, the intellectual revival, the struggle for the rights of man, the industrial revolution, the reform movements of the nineteenth century, and the present effort to attain social justice.

On Friday morning at ten o'clock with Dr. James Bond presiding there followed a conference on the Negro slave. Mr. W. H. Fouse, principal of the Russell High School of Lexington, read an informing paper on "The Contribution of the Slave to Civilization." He emphasized especially the value of Negro labor as the basis upon which Southern society was established, showing that whatever valuable culture was developed was made possible by the work of the Negro slave. He did not, however, subscribe to the theory that it is necessary to enslave one part of the population that the other may apply itself to the study of science, philosophy and politics. Dr. R. S. Cotterill, instructor in History at the University of Louisville, then read a valuable dissertation entitled "The Use of Slaves in Building Southern Railroads." The speaker showed that he had made an extensive research into documentary material, and he presented an array of facts which unusually enlightened his audience in this neglected field. During the general discussion which followed some other important facts were brought forward, and much interest in the researches of these two speakers was generally expressed.

From Friday afternoon at two o'clock to 5:30 P. M. there were exhibited at the Chestnut Street Branch Library samples of the publications of the Association and a number of valuable engravings of the Antique Works of Art in Benin, West Africa. This offered the public an opportunity to judge the progress made by the Association since its organization in 1915 and to form an opinion as to the sort of work prosecuted and the manner in which it has been done. The engravings setting forth the achievements of an important group of African peoples of the 16th century convinced a large number that the Negro race has behind it a valuable record which can never be known except through such research and expeditions as will unearth these important contributions.

At three o'clock there was held the business session of the Association. The reports of the Director and the Secretary-Treasurer were read and, after favorable comment, were accepted and approved by vote of the Association. These reports follow:

THE REPORT OF THE DIRECTOR.

With respect to the most difficult task of the Director, that of
raising money, the work of the Association has been eminently
successful. Encouraged by the appropriation of $25,000 obtained
from the Carnegie Corporation last year, the Director appealed
to several boards for the same consideration. Last February one
of these, the Laura Spelman Rockefeller Memorial, appropriated
$25,000 to this work, payable in annual installments of $5,000,
as in the case of that obtained from the Carnegie Corporation.
It is to be regretted, however, that smaller contributions,
heretofore yielding most of the income of the Association prior to
obtaining the two appropriations, have diminished in number and
amount. Appealed to repeatedly, many of these persons give the
heavy income tax as an excuse, while not a few make the mistake
of thinking that the other funds received by the Association are
sufficient to take care of the general expenses. During the fiscal
year 1921-1922, thirty-seven persons, most of whom were Negroes,
contributed $25.00 each, whereas during the previous fiscal year
the number was larger.

The following report of the Secretary-Treasurer shows how these
funds have been used:

FINANCIAL STATEMENT OF THE SECRETARY-TREASURER

WASHINGTON, D. C., July 1, 1922

THE ASSOCIATION FOR THE STUDY OF
NEGRO LIFE AND HISTORY, INC.,
WASHINGTON, D. C.

_Gentlemen_:

I hereby submit to you a statement of the amount of money received
and expended by the Association for the Study of Negro Life and
History, Incorporated, from July 1, 1921, to June 30, 1922,
inclusive:

_Receipts_

Subscriptions $ 1,772.63
Memberships 241.00
Contributions 9,113.75
Advertising 195.45
Rent and Light 180.14
Books 1.70
Refunds 50.42
----------
Total receipts $11,555.09
Bal. on hand July 1, 1921 43.09
----------
$11,598.18

_Expenditures_
Printing and Stationery $ 4,929.97
Petty Cash 670.00
Stenographic service 990.23
Rent and Light 714.67
Salaries 3,450.00
Traveling Expenses 468.09
Miscellaneous 286.46
----------
Total expenditures $11,509.42
Bal. on hand June 30, 1922 88.76
----------
$11,598.18

This report does not cover the $5,000 annually received
for research into the Free Negro Prior to 1861 and Negro
Reconstruction History. This fund was made available on the
first of July, the beginning of the fiscal year, and has been
apportioned so as to pay three investigators and a copyist
employed to do this work.

Respectfully submitted,
(Signed) S. W. RUTHERFORD,
Secretary-Treasurer.

The appropriation of $25,000 obtained from the Laura Spelman
Rockefeller Memorial requires the employment of investigators
to develop the studies of the Free Negro Prior to 1861 and of
Negro Reconstruction History. The annual allowance of $5,000 is
devoted altogether to this work, inasmuch as special instructions
received from the Trustees of the Laura Spelman Rockefeller
Memorial prohibit the use of this money for any other purpose. The
Association has, therefore, employed Dr. George Francis Dow to
read the eighteenth century colonial newspapers of New England, C.
G. Woodson to make a study of the Free Negro Prior to 1861, A. A.
Taylor to study the Social and Economic Conditions of the Negro
during the Reconstruction, and a clerk serving the investigators
in the capacity of a copyist.

At present Mr. A. A. Taylor is spending only one-half of his
time at this work, but after the first of next June he will have
the opportunity to direct his attention altogether to this task.
During this year it is expected that he will complete his studies
of the Social and Economic Conditions in Virginia and South
Carolina.

In the study of the Free Negro the Director has spent the year
compiling a statistical report giving the names of free Negroes
who were heads of families in the South in 1830 showing the number
in each family and the number of slaves owned. Within a few months
that part of the report dealing with Louisiana, South Carolina and
North Carolina will be completed.

The Association is also directing attention to the work of
training men for research in this field. The program agreed
upon is to educate in the best graduate schools with libraries
containing works bearing on Negro life and history at least three
young men a year, supported by fellowships of $500 from the
Association and such additional stipend as the schools themselves
may grant for the support of the undertaking. One of these
students will take up the study of Negro History, one will direct
his attention to Anthropometric and Psychological measurements
of Negroes, and one to African Anthropology and Archaeology. In
this undertaking the Director has not only the cooperation of
Prof. Carl Russell Fish, of the University of Wisconsin, and
Prof. William E. Dodd, of the University of Chicago, who with him
constitute the Committee on Fellowships, but also the assistance
of Professors Franz Boas and E. L. Thorndike of Columbia
University and of Professor E. A. Hooton of Harvard University.

Closely connected with these plans, moreover, are certain other
projects to preserve Negro folklore and the fragments of Negro
music. In this effort the Association has the cooperation of Mrs.
Elsie Clews Parsons, the moving spirit of the American Folklore
Society. She is now desirous of making a more systematic effort
to embody this part of the Negro civilization and she believes
that the work can be more successfully done by cooperation with
the Association. As soon as the Director can obtain a special fund
for this particular work, an investigator will be employed to
undertake it.

The interest manifested in the study of Negro History in clubs
and schools has been very encouraging. Most of the advanced
institutions of learning of both North and South make use of
_The Journal of Negro History_ in teaching social sciences. The
Director's two recent works, _The History of the Negro Church_ and
_The Negro in Our History_ are being extensively used as textbooks
in classes studying Sociology and History. The enthusiasm of some
of these groups has developed to the extent that they now request
authority to organize under the direction of the Association local
bodies to be known as State Associations for the Study of Negro
Life and History.

Respectfully submitted,
C. G. WOODSON,
_Director_.

Upon taking up the election of officers there prevailed a motion to cast the unanimous ballot of the Association for the following officers:

John R. Hawkins, _President_
S. W. Rutherford, _Secretary-Treasurer_
C. G. Woodson, _Director_

The following were elected members of the Executive Council:

John R. Hawkins Henry C. King
S. W. Rutherford William E. Dodd
Carter G. Woodson E. A. Hooton
Julius Rosenwald Bishop John Hurst
James H. Dillard Alexander L. Jackson
Bishop R. A. Carter Bishop R. E. Jones
Robert R. Church Clement Richardson
Franz Boas Robert C. Woods
Carl Russell Fish

John R. Hawkins, S. W. Rutherford and C. G. Woodson were chosen as trustees of the Association. John R. Hawkins, S. W. Rutherford and A. L. Jackson were elected members of the Business Committee.

There then followed a brief discussion of plans and ways and means for the expansion of the work. Most of this discussion developed from the various items of the report of the Director. Mr. W. H. Fouse, of Lexington, Kentucky, proposed that the Association should authorize the organization of State Associations for the Study of Negro Life and History to cooperate with the national body in preserving local biographical records of Negroes in counties and cities inaccessible to national workers. This proposal was favorably received.

On Friday evening at 8:30 P. M. there took place the second evening session at the Quinn Chapel A. M. E. Church with Prof. H. C. Russell presiding. The chief feature of the occasion was the address of Dr. C. V. Roman entitled "The American Civilization and the Negro." Following the line of his researches and his opinions already expressed in various works, Dr. Roman discussed the meaning of culture and connected the achievements of the Negro therewith. He took occasion also to show how the history of the race has been neglected and how many records worth while have been accredited to the defamers of the Negro race. Mr. J. W. Bell, of Hopkinsville, Kentucky, then entertained the audience with a very eloquent address, speaking in general of the achievements of the Association and emphasizing the importance of close cooperation therewith. The meeting was then closed with a few remarks by the Director who thanked the people of Louisville and of Kentucky for their cooperation in making the meeting a success.

THE JOURNAL

OF

NEGRO HISTORY

VOL. VIII., NO. 2 APRIL, 1923.

THE TEACHING OF NEGRO HISTORY[1]

The teaching of Negro history will serve the two-fold purpose of informing the white man and inspiring the Negro. The untoward circumstances under which the Negro lives make the teaching of his history imperatively necessary. When the founders of this government brought forth a new nation conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal, many thought that the Negro was not regarded as a man. Thomas Jefferson himself, the writer of that document, held the Negro as a slave. The Negro was regarded as mere property, as a mere beast of burden. It required four years of bloody war to transform him from the position of a thing and place him in the ranks of men with a mere chance to struggle for actual democracy. These circumstances have caused one of the most intricate problems, the race problem. They have placed the American Negro in a category by himself. They have brought about the peculiar situation of a nation within a nation.

The teaching of Negro history would contribute much to the solution of this complicated race problem. The solution of any problem depends upon an adequate understanding of it. The most illuminating approach to the race problem is the historical approach. The white man of this country must be supplied with the real facts pertaining to the Negro. If not, all of his generalizations will be mere verbiage based upon tradition inspired by prejudice. To prevent a distorted social perspective and to develop a wider community consciousness, the white man should read history from the Negro's point of view.

For more than four centuries the Negro has been brought into contact with the European white man. For the most part the Teutonic stocks have regarded the Negro as a negative factor in history. The Latin and Slavic races have been more kindly disposed toward him. They have been disposed to give honor to whom honor is due regardless of race or color. To them color has been an incident of birth, not a badge of inferiority. In the annals of Russia Alexander Pushkin is recognized as her national poet. France considered Toussaint L'Ouverture, one of the most commanding figures of any age, a conspicuous example of the possibilities of the pure-blooded Negro. She recognized Alexander Dumas as her most distinguished romancer. Today she places this mantle upon the shoulders of René Maran.

The white people of the United States consider their race to be men of a superior breed and have ignored the Negro in recording European and American history. In their desire to substantiate the theory of the superiority of the white man and the inferiority of the Negro, they have failed to publish or suppressed the truth about the achievements of the Negro. They have looked for nothing praiseworthy in him; they have widely proclaimed his faults and failures. Well did Macaulay say:

By exclusive attention to one class of phenomena, by exclusive
taste for one species of excellence the human intellect was
stunted. The best historians of later days have been seduced from
truth, not by their imagination, but by their reason. They far
excel their predecessors in the art of deducing general principles
from facts, but unhappily they have fallen into the error of
distorting the facts to suit the general principles. They arrive
at a theory from looking at a part of the phenomena; the remaining
phenomena they strain or curtail to suit the theory. In every
human character and transaction there is a mixture of good and
evil: a little exaggeration, a little suppression, a judicious
use of epithets, a watching and searching skepticism with respect
to the evidence on one side, a convenient credulity with respect
to every report or tradition on the other side may easily make a
saint of Laud or a tyrant of Henry IV.

The Negro's most important contribution to American history is his unparalleled progress--his rise from poverty to wealth, from ignorance to knowledge, from backwardness to civilization. No other race has achieved more under the same conditions. No authentic history of the United States, then, can ignore or exclude the Negro. The part which he has played in American history has served largely to make the nation what it is today.

The fidelity of the Negro slave to his master, his devotion and loyalty to his country should constitute interesting historical themes. Under the regime of slavery the Negro was literally bought and sold like the very soil. His life was but one unceasing round of toil and misery; his faith, his hope, and his ambition, were fettered down with chains which he had no power to rend. Under these circumstances he contributed two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil. With the muscles of his brawny arms he cleared away the forests, tilled the soil, and made the wilderness to blossom like the rose. With his callous hands he has built railroads and cities in this country and has thus made this a goodly land in which to live.

Every time a foreign foe has threatened this nation, the Negro with unswerving patriotism and undaunted courage has contributed his full quota of protection. With profound sincerity he has offered his services to his country; with voluntary devotion he has laid himself upon her altar. It was Crispus Attucks who rushed upon the plains of Boston, struck the first blow and thus became the first martyr to the cause of American independence. It was the Negro soldiers who plunged dauntlessly into the face of death, scaled the heights of El Caney and San Juan and brought victory to the American flag. It was the black boys of the Ninth and the Tenth Cavalry that led the van and spilt their blood upon the troublous soil of Mexico in order that the dignity of the United States might be maintained. Negro soldiers were among the first to carry the stars and stripes into the trenches upon the gory field somewhere in France. These Negro soldiers have written their names high upon the scroll of fame.