_The American Civilization and the Negro._ By C. V. Roman, A.M., M.D. F. A.
Davis Company, Philadelphia, 1916. 434 pages.
This volume is a controversial treatise supported here and there by facts
of Negro life and history. The purpose of the work is to increase racial
self respect and to diminish racial antagonism. The author has endeavored
to combine argument and evidence to refute the assertions of such writers
as Schufeldt and agitators like Tillman and Vardaman. But although on the
controversial order the author has tried to write "without bitterness and
bias." The effort here is directed toward showing that humanity is one in
vices and virtues as well as in blood; that the laws of evolution and
progress apply equally to all; that there are no diseases peculiar to the
American Negro nor any debasing vices peculiar to the African; that there
are no cardinal virtues peculiar to the European; and that all races having
numerous failings, one should not give snap judgment of the other,
especially when that judgment involves the welfare of a people.
The work contains an extensive zoological examination of man as an
inhabitant of the world, the differences in the separate individuals
composing races, the forces with which they must contend, the morals of
mankind, and the general principles of human development. The question of
Negro slavery in America is discussed as a preliminary in coming to the
crucial point of the study, the presence of the colored man in the South.
The author frankly states what the colored man is struggling for. Making a
review of the history of the Negroes of the United States, he justifies
their claim to political rights on the ground that they are reacting
successfully to their environment.
The book abounds with illustrations of prominent colored Americans,
successful Negroes, individual types, typical family groups, arts and
crafts among the Africans, public schools and colleges.