fearlessly denouncing wrong through their convincing columns does not
weaken but eventually strengthens and increases the influence of such
white periodicals; the writer quotes below in part an editorial that
appeared in the September 14, 1921 issue of The Nation, a world-famed
white magazine that has been successfully published in New York for
over fifty years during all which time its publication has continued to
grow and spread as the results of just such Golden Rule editorials as
the following:
“The daughter of Mr. J. B. Webb, “prominent in financial and social
circles,” chose to marry a groom, her sister having previously married
a policeman.... The newspapers sent around special reporters in
battalions. Then up spoke Mr. Webb: “It’s rotten, that’s what I call
it--rotten! To tear a person’s life to shreds like this, and bring
up for the public eye the affairs of one poor little girl.” To which
we say a hearty Amen. But more rotten than this outrageous violation
of individual rights by the press is the careless or malicious zest
with which certain papers, especially in the South, publish stories
from depraved or irresponsible white women accusing some black man of
a more or less grave offense against them. Every newspaperman knows
that just such a story started the Tulsa riots, as well as those in
Washington and in Omaha. Yet here we find on the front pages of the
Memphis Commercial Appeal two circumstantial stories of attack by
Negroes on white women. Both of them were false, as the newspaper
itself admitted less conspicuously next day. This sort of thing is all
too common and not every city has a paper as bold as the Memphis Press
in denouncing it. It is high time for a renascence of ethical standards
in newsgathering.”
In Magazine Writing
Just as Dr. W. E. B. DuBois is recognized as the foremost magazine
writer in the Negro race, not only in America but throughout the
world; it is said he has also made The Crisis Magazine, of which he
is editor-in-chief, the widest read Colored magazine of its kind not
only in the Western but also in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is estimated
that this magazine is read each month by nearly four hundred thousand
people.
Among lettered Colored women, Miss Jessie R. Fauset, a graduate of
Cornell where she was made a member of the Phi Betta Kappa Fraternity,
later becoming a teacher of French and Latin in the M Street High
School, Washington, D.C., and at present Literary Editor of the The
Crisis Magazine, is today recognized by the best critics as a leading
and most versatile magazine writer.
Such wise, timely and meatful articles as “Race Consciousness,” “Heart
Talk,” “Representation of the American Woman,” “World Brotherhood,”
“Oil Upon Troubled Waters” are among the many writings that have
stamped Miss H. Georgiana Whyte, editor of the Women’s Department of
The Favorite Magazine, as one of the most forceful and helpful magazine
writers among Colored women.
Aside from long ago proving himself as one of the ablest Colored
newspaper editors in the country, Attorney Robt. L. Vann of Pittsburgh,
Pa., has shown by the high quality of his Competitor Magazine that as a
writer in this field he is second to none.
The cheerfulness and life that Editor Fenton Johnson puts into his
Favorite Magazine explains why it is having such a rapid growth and has
become a sure-enough favorite with the Colored readers, not only in its
home city of Chicago but throughout the country.
The inspiring snap that Editor Willis N. Huggins throws into his
UpReach Magazine accounts for it being so popular, especially with
the younger and progressive element among the Colored readers who are
always benefited by such well chosen and written articles.
The exceptional ability to so vividly portray human nature from the
viewpoints of both races when building up stories is one of the secrets
that is the cause of Editor Aubery Bowser’s Rainbow Magazine being
sought after by all readers who want to learn and understand the inside
life situations as they really exist when the two races come in close
contact.
Except those people who personally go through the tedious processes
of a similar work, no one is able to fully realize and appreciate the
value of the up-to-date culled, methodically complied, instructively
built-up and tastily arranged matter that Miss Madeline G. Allison
presents each month in The Crisis: under the heading “The Horizon.” In
monthly compiling the tremendous new store of varied and far-reaching
data her department contains, Miss Allison is doing a grand and unique
piece of literary writing the workmanship and quality of which any
magazine of any race would be proud to carry.
As the results of the deep thinking and outspoken opinions that get
down to the very core and essence of the subjects handled by them,
Editors Owens and Chandler, through the medium of their magazine The
Messenger are fast mounting top rungs in their profession and at the
same time attracting the wide attentions of well-versed and seasoned
newspaper and magazine people in both races.
Although it has not been founded very long, the Method Magazine, edited
by F. H. Hallion, of Richmond, Va., is attracting wide attention on
account of its instructive and helpful articles pertaining to business
relations in their many fields of activities.
The Brownies’ Book, edited by W. E. B. DuBois, & A. G. Dill of New
York City, N. Y., is something entirely new in the field of Negro
journalism. It is, “A monthly magazine for children which attempts to
bring to them: The best in pictures and stories of Negro life. The life
and deeds of famous men and women of the Negro race. The current events
of the world told in beautiful language which children can understand.”
In going out of the way to thoughtfully assert that the Brownies’ Book
should be in every Negro home where there are children; the writer
expresses such a sentiment, not because of being more partial to this
certain magazine and its editors than to other magazines and their
editors, but, because he is ever proud to admit that he is really
cranky partial to any Negro history no matter under what covers it may
appear. Especially is this true when such history is written (as in
the Brownies’ Book) in plain, easy, truthful and interesting English
that makes first and lasting impressions upon young and tender Negro
minds before they are indelibly imprinted and permanently poisoned by
the devilish trash contained in blood-thirsty, underworld, dime novels
so youthfully secured and greedily read by unwatched and idle-minded
children of all races.
Although it is not a monthly magazine but a quarterly journal, The
Journal of Negro History, edited by Carter G. Woodson of Washington,
D.C. is a nationally known publication of instruction, encouragement
and inspiration for the American Colored people, of matured years who
wish to learn their Race history.
Monroe N. Work’s marvelously compiled Negro Year Book is conceded to
be the greatest compact work of literary science ever produced by
an American Negro. What the World Almanac is to the Caucasian Race,
The Negro Year Book is to the Negro Race. The following quotation is
what a leading white newspaper, The New York Sun, commented on this
masterpiece of literature: “Interesting and important is the array of
facts relating to the Negro contained in the Negro Year Book. The book
is a perfect encyclopedia of achievements by Negroes in all ranks of
life, of the history of the race in the United States, of Legislative
enactments relating to them, of activity in all branches, particularly
education. The book is indispensable to all who have to deal with any
phase of the Negro question.”
The following is a list of the most important monthly, quarterly or
yearly magazines or journals published in the United States by Colored
people:
American Caterer & Gazette Guide,
Editor J. A. Ross, Buffalo, N. Y.
American Musicians’ Magazine,
Editor W. A. Potter, Phila., Pa.
Amusement World,
Editor Jack Trotter, Chicago, Ill.
Brotherhood Magazine,
Editor C. H. Taylor, Chicago, Ill.
Brownies’ Book,
Editors W. E. B. DuBois & A. G. Dill, New York, N.Y.
Business Men’s Bulletin,
Editor Edw. Perkins, Chicago, Ill.
Journal of Nat’l Medical Ass’n,
Editor Dr. J. A. Kenney, Tuskegee, Ala.
Journal of Negro History,
Editor C. G. Woodson, Washington, D.C.
Music and Poetry,
Editor Nora Douglass Holt, Chicago, Ill.
National Association Notes,
Editor Mrs. Booker T. Washington, Tuskegee, Ala.
The Colored Teacher,
Editor F. A. McGinnis, Wilberforce, Ohio.
The Competitor,
Editor Robt. L. Vann, Pittsburgh, Pa.
The Crisis,
Editor Dr. W. E. B. DuBois, New York City, N. Y.
The Crusader,
Editor, C V. Briggs, New York City, N. Y.
The Favorite,
Editor Fenton Johnson, Chicago, Ill.
The Half Century,
Editor Katherine W. Irmin, Chicago, Ill.
The Master Musician,
Editor G. W. Parris, Phila., Pa.
The Method,
Editor F. H. Hallion, Richmond, Va.
The Messenger,
Editors Owens and Chandler, New York City, N. Y.
The Pullman Porter’s Review,
Editor Z. Withers, Chicago, Ill.
The Rainbow,
Editor Aubrey Bowser, New York City, N. Y.
The Negro Year Book,
Editor Monroe N. Work, Tuskegee Inst., Ala.
The Negro Musician,
Editor Henry L. Grant, Washington, D.C.
The Search Light.
Editor A. B. Vincent, Raleigh, N. C.
The Up-Reach Magazine,
M. N. Huggins, Chicago, Ill.
Some names in above list are extracts from Negro Year Book, 1918-1919
edition, (Page 465).
As a successful magazine essay prize writer, Isaac Fisher, of
Nashville, Tenn., is recognized today as the foremost in the Negro
race. The following quotation is part of an article that appeared in
the July 9, 1921 issue of the Chicago Defender:
“The third prize of $75, offered by the Metropolitan Magazine of New
York in its contest for writers on the subject, “Can We Keep Peace with
Japan,” was won by Isaac Fisher, editor of the Fisk University News,
according to an announcement made in the August issue of the magazine
just released....
“Among the prizes he has won in the past through his writings are first
prize of $500 offered by Everybody’s Magazine; first prize of $100
offered by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch; first prize of $50 offered
for the best digest of the merits of the money-weight scales; second
prize of $400 offered by Hart, Schaffner & Marx’ executive committee of
Chicago; second prize of $100 offered by the Manufacturers’ Record of
Baltimore.
“Those who know Mr. Fisher’s records are aware that these are but a
few of the prizes he has won in competition with the best minds of the
country. It will be remembered that he won the first prize of $500 in
Everybody’s Magazine contest in competition with 900 writers, including
some of the best legal and professional men of the country.”
In summing up, the leading Colored short-story writers of today who are
known throughout the country as standing contributors to newspapers and
magazines are Frances Coston Berry, Indianapolis, Ind., Aubrey Bowser,
New York, Chas. W. Chestnut, Cleveland, O., W. E. B. DuBois, New York,
Jessie R. Fauset, New York, Isaac Fisher, Nashville, Tenn., T. Thomas
Fortune, New York, W. N. Huggins, Chicago, Ill., Jas. A. Jackson, New
York, A. L. Jackson, Chicago, Ill., Jas. Weldon Johnson, N. Y., Fenton
Johnson, Chicago, Ill., Alice Dunbar Nelson, Wilmington, Del., Beatrice
(Neave) Perry, Phila., Pa.
[Illustration]
IN BOOK WRITING
INSPIRING BOOKS
When winds outside are howling loud,
And snows fall fast from winter cloud,
Or burning sun peeps through the leaves;
As gently they dart from summer breeze;
Let me sit near winter’s purring fire,
Or by summer’s gurgling brook retire.
With books to read of great deeds done
By those who from low depths did run.
--_Harrison._
On account of the present day rapid streams of their smoothly flowing
inks into the deep-lettered channels of their versatile works, the
following named persons, according to the estimation of one of
America’s best literary critics, are ten of the foremost American
Colored authors of today:
Wm. S. Braithwaite, Boston, Mass., Benjamin G. Brawley, Atlanta, Ga.,
W. E. B. Dubois, Jessie R. Fauset, Jas. Weldon Johnson, New York City,
Georgia D. Johnson, Kelly Miller, Washington, D.C., Lucian B. Watkins,
Annapolis, Md., Carter G. Woodson, Washington, D.C. and Monroe N. Work,
Tuskegee, Alabama.
The following more detailed list contains the names of some of the
foremost Colored authors and their most important works produced in
America:
Delilah L. Beasley’s
Negro Trail Blazers of California.
Ford S. Black’s
Blue Book of Chicago.
Aubrey Bowser’s
The Man Who Would be White.
R. H. Boyd’s
Sunday School Commentary.
St. Elmo Brady’s
Household Chemistry for Girls.
Wm. S. Braithwaite’s
Anthology of Magazine Verse--Golden Treasury of
Magazine Verse--Lyrics of Life and Love--Story of the Great War.
C. F. Bragg’s
Men of Maryland--Afro-American Church Workers.
Benj. G. Brawley’s.
History of The Negro--The Negro in Literature and Art.
Chas. W. Chestnutt’s
The Conjur Woman--The House Behind The Cedars--The
Marrow of Tradition--Frederick Douglass.
Jos. S. Cotter, Sr’s.
Caleb The Degenerate--Links of Friendship--Sequel
to The Pied Piper--White Song and A Black Song.
Jos. S. Cotter, Jr’s.
Band of Gideon--Out of The Shadows.
L. J. Coppin’s
Unwritten History.
A. B. Cosey’s
American and English Law on Titles of Record.
J. W. Cromwell’s
The Negro in American History.
D. W. Culp’s
Twentieth Century of Negro Literature.
Frederick Douglass
My Bondage and Freedom--Life and Times of Frederick Douglass.
W. E. B. DuBois
The Suppression of The Slave Trade--Souls of Black
Folks--The Quest of The Silver Fleece--John Brown--Darkwater.
Paul Lawrence Dunbar’s
Folks From Dixie--Love and Landry --Lyrics of Lowly
Life--Uncalled--Heart of Happy Hollow--Lyrics of The He
Hearthstone-- Strength of Gideon and Other Stories--Complete
Poems--Lyrics of Love and Laughter--Lyrics of Sunshine and Shadow--Poems
of Cabin and Field--Life and Works of Paul Lawrence Dunbar.
H. O. Flipper’s
Colored Cadets At West Point.
A. H. Grimke’s
Negro and The Elective Franchise.
S. E. Griggs’
Life’s Demand or According to Law--The Hindered Hand-Unfettered.
Frances E. Harper’s
Iola Leroy--Miscellaneous Poems --Sketches of Southern Life.
Algernon B. Jackson’s
The Man Next Door.
Jas. Weldon Johnson’s
The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man--Fifty Years and Other Poems.
Edw. A. Johnson’s
Light Ahead For the Negro-- School History of The Negro Race
In America--The Negro in The Spanish-American War.
Georgia D. Johnson’s
An Autumn Love Cycle--Heart of A Woman and Other Poems--Shadow Song.
M. A. Majors’
Noted Negro Women.
Jas. E. McGirth’s
The Triumph of Ephraim --Some Simple Songs.
Kelly Miller’s
Out of The House of Bondage--Race Adjustment--World War For Human Rights.
J. E. Moorland’s
Training of The Negro Minister.
Mrs. N. F. Mosselle’s
Afro-American Women.
R. R. Moton’s
Finding A Way Out.
Daniel Murray’s
Encyclopedia Of The Negro.
Alice Dunbar Nelson’s
Masterpieces of Eloquence--Goodness of St. Rocque And Other Stories.
D. A. Payne’s
History Of The A. M. E. Church
I. G. Penn’s
The Afro-American Press.
C. H. Phillips’
History of The C. M. E. Church.
William Pickens’
The Heir of Slaves.
J. A. Rogers’
From Superman to Man--An Open Letter To Congress.
Emmett J. Scott’s
Booker T. Washington, Builder of a Civilization--Scott’s Official History
of The American Negro In The World War.
W. H. Shackelford’s
Along the Highway--Poems.
Mrs. S. M. Steward’s
Women In Medicine.
Allison W. Sweeney’s
History Of The World War.
B. T. Tanner’s
History & Government Of The A. M. E. Z. Church Men.
Booker T. Washington’s
Up From Slavery--Frederick Douglass--My Larger
Education--Character Building--The Man Farthest
Down--Working With The Hands--Future Of The American
Negro--Negro In Business--Sowing
and Reaping--Tuskegee and Its People.--Story of
My Life And Work.
Geo. W. Williams’
History Of The Negro Race
In America--History Of The Negro Troops In The Rebellion.
Carter G. Woodson’s
A Century of Negro Migration--Education Of The Negro Prior To 1861.
John W. Work’s
Folk Songs Of The American Negro.
Monroe N. Work’s
Negro Year Book.
R. R. Wright, Sr’s.
Negro Education in Georgia.
R. R. Wright, Jr’s.
Centennial Encyclopedia Of The African M. E. Church.
(Some names in above list are from Negro Year Book, 1918-1919 edition,
Pgs. 481-2-3.)
Noted Colored Statisticians
Dr. W. E. B. DuBois, Harvard graduate, Editor of The Crisis and The
Brownies’ Book, New York City, and recognized as the leading Negro
Sociologist in the world, is in possession of more authentic data
covering the social life of the American Colored people than any other
member of the race.
Dr. Geo. E. Haynes, Columbia graduate, U. S. Director of Negro
Economics during the World War, and Dr. R. R. Wright Jr., graduate of
the University of Pa., and editor of the Christian Recorder, Phila.,
Pa., are the two leading American Colored authorities on economic data
relative to the all-round labor, industrial and living conditions of
the Colored people in America.
Prof. W. T. B. Williams, Harvard graduate, Vice-Principal of Tuskegee
Institute and Field Agent for the Jeanes and Slater Funds, is estimated
to have on his “finger tips” more convincing and reliable facts and
figures pertaining to the purposes, needs kinds and grades of work done
and results obtained in Negro universites, colleges, industrial normal
schools and rural county schools than any educator in America.
Prof. Monroe N. Work, a University of Chicago graduate, editor of
the Negro Year Book and Director of Department Records and Research,
Tuskegee Institute, Ala., is the foremost Negro not only in America,
but throughout the world, who has in his possession the greatest
amount of authentic statistics covering the all-round past and present
activities of the Colored people in the United States of America.
Colored Orators and Lecturers
Some of the foremost Colored orators and lecturers who are most
frequently on the platform before the American public today are J.
W. E. Bowen, Atlanta, Ga., W. E. B. DuBois, New York City, N. Y.,
Geo. E. Haynes, Washington, D.C., Eva D. Bowles, New York City.,
Hallie Q. Brown, Wilberforce, Ohio, E. K. Jones, Jas. Weldon Johnson,
New York City, N. Y., Mordecai Johnson, Charleston, W. Va., Kelly
Miller, Washington, D.C., Chas. S. Morris, Jr., Norfolk, Va., J. E.
Moorland, New York, N. Y., R. R. Moton, Tuskegee, Ala., Wm. Pickens,
New York City, N. Y., C. V. Roman, Nashville, Tenn., Roscoe C. Simmons,
Louisville, Ky., Mary C. Terrell, Washington, D. C., Wm. M. Trotter,
Boston, Mass.
Now, if after reading through the foregoing pages of inspiration,
regarding the successes of Negro writers, some Colored girls and boys
should still lack courage, because of their color and race, to throw
their talents into such literary avenues, they should remember that:--
The most important thing about a newspaper, magazine or book is not its
white pages, (because such pages can be and often are colored) but the
most important thing in such a publication is its print of jet black
letters and words. But if those genuine Ethiopian letters refused, just
because of their color, to mingle with and make lasting impressions
upon the fair Caucasian pages of newspapers, magazines and books; why
my discouraged young friends, there would be no fields nor meadows of
journalism in which white people could even enter to frolic in the
games of “pen and pencil pushing.”
[Illustration]
IN HIGHER EDUCATION
GLAD HELLOES
Did joys spring up within your heart,
When autumn days bade you depart
Back to your campus truly veer
To meet classmates to you so dear?
--_Harrison._
SAD GOOD-BYES.
Did you ever have glad feelings sad,
When June told you the books to shirk
And classmates whom with fun you had
You parted from to face life’s work?
--_Harrison._
For the Colored youths of exceptional mental abilities and talents who
desire to fit themselves along higher educational lines, there are 86
Negro universities and colleges and numerous white universities and
colleges in the North and West where they can learn art, chemistry,
dentistry, law, medicine, music, pharmacy, theology and other higher
subjects. Up to the present time over 7000 Colored students have
graduated from American colleges and of this number upward of ten
or eleven hundred have graduated from white colleges. According to
the July 1921 issue of The Crisis, 85 Colored Bachelors of Arts, &
Sciences, 11 Masters of Arts and 3 Doctors in Philosophy graduated
from white colleges in 1921, while 376 Bachelors of Arts, 80 Doctors
of Medicine, 73 Dentists, 27 Pharmacists, 25 Lawyers and 45 Ministers
graduated from Colored colleges in 1921. The three Colored scholars
who graduated from the white colleges with the honors of Doctor of
Philosophy are Misses Eva B. Dykes, Radcliffe College; Sadie T.
Mossell, University of Pennsylvania, and Georgiana Simpson, University
of Chicago. Miss Eunice R. Hunton, “an excellent student throughout her
course” has the distinction of receiving the two honor degrees A. B.
and A. M. upon her graduation in 1921 from Smith College, Mass.
The first Colored person to graduate from a Northern white college
was John Brown Russworm, who graduated from Bowdoin in 1826. Aside
from holding for years the world recognition and honor of being both
the greatest scholastic and athletic university in America, Harvard
University is also known throughout the Eastern and Western Hemispheres
as practicing the truest and highest standards of broad-minded,
one-hundred percent Americanism toward its Colored students of any
similar white institution in America. As a result of such brotherhood
feelings existing there between the two races, more Negroes on an
average enter and graduate from the different departments of Harvard
than from any other great Northern white college. Its front doors
(as well as back doors) are always standing ajar with latch strings
hanging on the outside for the unembarrassed entrance of any worthy
applicant whether he be rich or poor, white or black. And when a
Colored student at Harvard joins his white school chums in singing
their college song--“Fair Harvard,” he sings it with the same fullness
and pathos in heart, the same peacefulness and contentment in mind
and the same truthfulness and sincerity in words that he hopes when
he enters the world to be able to sing in every country, over which
floats the “Red White and Blue”--“My Country ’tis of thee, sweet land
of liberty”--letting his voice come to its fullest accent and climaxing
crescendo on the word--LIBERTY.
Other leading white universities or colleges having encouraged and
welcomed Colored students to study in and graduate from their class
room, as well as to play and star on their varsity teams are as follows:
Amherst, Mass., Bates, Maine, Brown, R. I., California, Cal.,
Carnegie, Pa., Chicago, Ill., Cincinnati, O.; Clark, Mass., Colby,
Me., Columbia, N. Y., Cornell, N. Y., Dartmouth, N. H., Dubuque, Ia.,
Illinois, Ill., Indiana, Ind., Kansas, Kan., Lafayette, Pa., (and the
racial broad-mindedness, human brotherhood and one-hundred percent
Americanism sentiment relative to the Negro at Lehigh University, Pa.,
as a student, is becoming so pronounced there as to indicate that
Lehigh may eventually join these other white schools with her sister
Lafayette in having Colored American citizens to study and recite in
her class rooms) Massachusetts, Mass., Michigan, Mich,. New York, N.
Y., Northwestern, Ill., Ohio State, O., Pennsylvania, Pa., Pittsburgh,
Pa., Radcliffe, Mass., Rutgers, N. J., Smith, Mass., Syracuse, N. Y.,
Temple, Pa., Tufts, Mass., Washington & Jefferson; Wellesley, Williams,
Mass., Wisconsin, Wis., Yale, Conn.
Some of the Negro universities and colleges that are preparing
young men and women of the Race to enter the different fields of
professionalism for the betterment and uplift of themselves and their
people are named below as follows: