_Dear Sir:_
The first number of your magazine reached me a few days ago. It is a fine
publication, doing credit to its editor and to the association. I think it
has a fine field.
Sincerely yours,
T. G. Steward,
_Captain, U. S. Army, Retired_
_Dear Dr. Woodson:_
I have the first number of THE JOURNAL OF NEGRO HISTORY. Permit me to
congratulate you and to earnestly hope that it may live long and prosper.
It is excellent in purpose, matter and method. If the present high standard
is maintained, you and your friends will not only make a most valuable
contribution to a dire need of the Negro, but you will add in a
substantial measure to current historical data.
Truly yours,
D. S. S. Goodloe,
_Principal, Maryland Normal and Industrial School_
"Why then, should the new year be signalized by the appearance of a
magazine bearing the title THE JOURNAL OF NEGRO HISTORY? How can there be
such a thing as history for a race which is just beginning to live? For the
JOURNAL does not juggle with words; by 'history' it means history and not
current events. The answer is to be found within its pages...."
"But the outstanding feature of the new magazine is just the fact of its
appearance. Launched at Chicago by a new organization, the Association for
the Study of Negro Life and History, it does not intend 'to drift into the
discussion of the Negro Problem,' but rather to 'popularize the movement of
unearthing the Negro and his contributions to civilization ... believing
that facts properly set forth will speak for themselves.'"
"This is a new and stirring note in the advance of the black man.
Comparatively few of any race have a broad or accurate knowledge of its
part. It would be absurd to expect that the Negro will carry about in his
head many details of a history from which he is separated by a tremendous
break. It is not absurd to expect that he will gradually learn that he,
too, has a heritage of something beside shame and wrong. By that knowledge
he may be uplifted as he goes about his task of building from the bottom."
_The New York Evening Post._
When men of any race begin to show pride in their own antecedents we have
one of the surest signs of prosperity and rising civilization. That is one
reason why the new JOURNAL OF NEGRO HISTORY ought to attract more than
passing attention. Hitherto the history of the Negro race has been written
chiefly by white men; now the educated Negroes of this country have decided
to search out and tell the historic achievements of their race in their own
way and from their own point of view. And, judging from the first issue of
their new publication, they are going to do it in a way that will measure
up to the standards set by the best historical publications of the day.
The opinions which the American Negro has hitherto held concerning his own
race have been largely moulded for him by others. Himself he has given us
little inkling of what his race has felt, and thought and done. Any such
situation, if long enough continued, would make him a negligible factor in
the intellectual life of mankind. But the educated leaders of the race, of
whom our colleges and universities have been turning out hundreds in recent
years, do not propose that this shall come to pass. They are going to show
the Negro that his race is more ancient than the Golden Fleece or Roman
Eagle; that Ethiopia had a history quite as illustrious as that of Nineveh
or Tyre, and that the Negro may well take pride in the rock from which he
was hewn. The few decades of slavery form but a small dark spot in the
annals of long and great achievements. That embodies a fine attitude and
one which should be thoroughly encouraged. It aims to teach the Negro that
he can do his own race the best service by cultivating those hereditary
racial traits which are worth preserving, and not by a fatuous imitation of
his white neighbors.
At any rate, here is a historical journal of excellent scientific quality,
planned and managed by Negro scholars for readers of their own race, and
preaching the doctrine of racial self-consciousness. That in itself is a
significant step forward.
_The Boston Herald._
A new periodical, to be published quarterly, is the journal of "The
Association for the Study of Negro Life and History," a society organized
in Chicago in September, 1915. The commendable aim of the Association is to
collect and publish historical and sociological material bearing on the
Negro race. Its purpose, it is claimed, is not to drift into discussion of
the Negro problem, but to publish facts which will show to posterity what
the Negro has so far thought, felt, and done.
The president of the association, George C. Hall, of Chicago; its
secretary-treasurer, Jesse E. Moorland, of Washington, D.C.; the editor of
the JOURNAL, Carter G. Woodson, also of Washington; and the other names
associated with them on the executive council and on the board of associate
editors, guarantee an earnestness of purpose and a literary ability which
will doubtless be able to maintain the high standard set in the first issue
of the JOURNAL. The table of contents of the January number includes
several historical articles of value, some sociological studies, and other
contributions, all presented in dignified style and in a setting of
excellent paper and type. The general style of the JOURNAL is the same as
that of the _American Historical Review._
_The Southern Workman._
An undertaking which deserves a cordial welcome began in the publication,
in January, of the first number of the _Journal of Negro History_, edited
by Mr. Carter G. Woodson, and published at 2223 Twelfth Street, N.W.,
Washington, by the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History,
formed at Chicago in September, 1915. The price is but $1 per annum. The
objects of the Association and of the journal are admirable--not the
discussion of the "negro problem," which is sure, through other means, of
discussion ample in quantity at least, but to exhibit the facts of negro
history, to save and publish the records of the black race, to make known
by competent articles and by documents what the negro has thought and felt
and done. The first number makes an excellent beginning, with an article by
the editor on the Negroes of Cincinnati prior to the Civil War; one by W. B.
Hartgrove on the career of Maria Louise Moore and Fannie M. Richards,
mother and daughter, pioneers in negro education in Virginia and Detroit;
one by Monroe N. Work, on ancient African civilization; and one by A. O.
Stafford, on negro proverbs. The reprinting of a group of articles on
slavery in the _American Museum_ of 1788 by "Othello," a negro, and of
selections from the _Baptist Annual Register_, 1790-1802, respecting negro
Baptist churches, gives useful aid toward better knowledge of the American
negro at the end of the eighteenth century.
_The American Historical Review._
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