WHEN AFRICA AWAKES
THE “INSIDE STORY” OF THE STIRRINGS AND STRIVINGS
By HUBERT H. HARRISON, D.S.C.
Author of “The Negro and the Nation,” “Lincoln
and Liberty,” and Associate Editor of the Negro World
COPYRIGHTED
By HUBERT H. HARRISON, 1920.
PUBLISHED BY
THE PORRO PRESS
513 Lenox Avenue
1920
THIS LITTLE RECORD
IS AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED
TO THOSE WHO
STOOD BY MY SIDE
IN
LOVE, LABOR AND SACRIFICE
WHEN
THE FOUNDATIONS
WERE LAID
[Illustration: Hubert H. Harrison]
TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTERS PAGE
INTRODUCTION 5
1. THE BEGINNINGS 9
Launching the Liberty League. — Resolutions Passed at
Liberty League Meeting. — Petition to Congress.
2. DEMOCRACY AND RACE FRICTION. 14
The East St. Louis Horror. — “Arms and the Man.” —
The Negro and the Labor Unions. — Lynching: Its Cause
and Cure.
3. THE NEGRO AND THE WAR. 25
Is Democracy Unpatriotic? — Why Is the Red Cross? —
A Hint of “Our Reward.” — The Negro at the Peace
Congress. — Africa and the Peace. — “They Shall Not
Pass.” — A Cure for the Ku-Klux
4. THE NEW POLITICS. 39
The New Politics for the New Negro. — The Drift in
Politics. — A Negro for President. — When the Tail Wags
the Dog. — The Grand Old Party.
5. THE PROBLEMS OF LEADERSHIP. 54
Our Professional “Friends.” — Shillady Resigns. — Our
White Friends. — A Tender Point. — The Descent of Du
Bois. — When the Blind Lead. — Just Crabs.
6. THE NEW RACE-CONSCIOUSNESS. 76
The Negro’s Own Radicalism. — Race First versus Class
First. — An Open Letter to the Socialist. Party. —
“Patronize Your Own.” — The Women of Our Race. — To
The Young Men of My Race.
7. OUR INTERNATIONAL CONSCIOUSNESS. 96
The White War and the Colored World — U-need-a
Biscuit. — Our Larger Duty. — Help Wanted for Hayti. —
The Cracker in the Caribbean. — When Might Makes
Right. — Bolshevism in Barbados. — A New International.
The Rising Tide of Color. — The White War and the
Colored Races.
8. EDUCATION AND THE RACE. 123
Reading for Knowledge. — Education and the Race. —
The Racial Roots of Culture. — The New Knowledge for
the New Negro.
9. A FEW BOOKS. 135
The Negro in History and Civilization. — Darkwater. —
The Rising Tide of Color Against White World-Supremacy.
EPILOGUE: THE BLACK MAN’S BURDEN; A Reply 145
to Rudyard Kipling
INTRODUCTORY
The Great War of 1914–1918 has served to liberate many new ideas
undreamt of by those who rushed humanity into that bath of blood. During
that war the idea of democracy was widely advertised, especially in the
English-speaking world; mainly as a convenient camouflage behind which
competing imperialists masked their sordid aims. Even the dullest can
now see that those who so loudly proclaimed and formulated the new
democratic demands never had the slightest intention of extending either
the limits or the applications of “democracy.” Ireland and India, Egypt
and Russia are still the Ithuriel’s spear of the great democratic
pretence. The flamboyant advertising of “democracy” has returned to
plague the inventors; for the subject populations who contributed their
millions in men and billions in treasure for the realization of the
ideal which was flaunted before their eyes are now clamoring for their
share of it. They are demanding that those who advertised democracy
shall now make good. This is the main root of that great unrest which is
now troubling the decrepit statesmanship of Europe and America. But the
rigid lines of the old regime will not permit the granting of these new
demands. Hence the new war against democracy which expresses itself in
the clever but futile attempt to outlaw the demands for fuller freedom
as “sedition” and “Bolshevism.”
The most serious aspect of this new situation is the racial one. The
white world has been playing with the catch-words of democracy while
ruthlessly ruling an overwhelming majority of black, brown and yellow
peoples to whom these catchwords were never intended to apply. But these
many-colored millions have taken part in the war “to make the world safe
for democracy,” and they are now insisting that democracy shall be made
safe for them. This, in plain English, their white overlords do not
intend to concede. “The undictated development of all peoples” was, at
best, intended “for white people only.” Thus, white civilization is
brought face to face with a crisis out of which may easily grow military
conflicts of tremendous scope and, more remotely, the passing of
international control out of the hands of a few white nations.
The tenseness of this new situation has been reflected here in the
United States in the mental attitude of the Negro people. They have
developed new ideas of their own place in the category of races and have
evolved new conceptions of their powers and destiny. These ideas have
quickened their race-consciousness and they are making new demands on
themselves, on their leaders and on the white people in whose midst they
live. These new demands apply to politics, domestic and international,
to education and culture, to commerce and industry. It seems proper that
the white people of America should know what these demands are and
should understand the spirit in which they are being urged. Obviously,
it is not well that they should be misrepresented and lied about. Futile
fulminations about the spread of “Bolshevism” among Negroes by
“agitators” will not help toward an understanding of this new
phenomenon. They can but befog the issues and defer the dawning of a
better day. On the other hand, the Negro people will profit by a
clarified presentation of their own side of the case. It is to meet this
dual need that this little book is launched. It is a compilation of some
of the author’s contributions to Negro journalism between 1917 and the
present year and consists of selected editorials, special articles and
reviews written for The Voice, The New Negro, and The Negro World. I
have selected for reproduction those only which could fairly be
considered as expositions of the new point of view evolved during the
Great War and coming into prominence since the peace was signed. So far,
this point of view has not been fully presented-by the Negro. White men,
like Messrs. Sandburg and Seligman, have essayed to interpret it to the
white world. This little volume presents directly that which they would
interpret.
It may seem unusual to put into permanent form the deliverances of this
species of literature. But I venture to think that, as literature, they
will stand the test; and I am willing to assume the risks. Besides, I
feel that I owe it to my people to preserve this cross-section of their
new-found soul. It was my privilege to assist in shaping some of the
forms of the new consciousness; and to preserve for posterity a portion
of its record has seemed a duty which should not be shirked.
It was in 1916 that I first began to hammer out some of the ideas which
will be found in these pages. It was in that year that I gave up my work
as a lecturer and teacher among white people to give myself exclusively
to work among my own people. In the summer of 1917, with the financial
aid of many poor but willing hearts I brought out _The Voice_, the first
Negro journal of the new dispensation, and, for some time, the only one.
The Voice failed in March, 1919; but in the meanwhile it had managed to
make an indelible impression. Many of the writings reproduced here are
taken from its files. The others are from _The Negro World_, of which I
assumed the joint editorship in January of this year. A few appeared in
_The New Negro_, a monthly magazine which I edited for a short time.
The account of the launching of the Liberty League is given here in the
first chapter because that meeting at historic Bethel on June 12, 1917,
and the labors of tongue and pen out of which that meeting emerged were
the foundation for the mighty structures of racial propaganda which have
been raised since then. This is a fact not generally known because I
have not hankered after newspaper publicity.
It is hardly necessary to point out that the AFRICA of the title is to
be taken in its racial rather than in its geographical sense.
HUBERT H. HARRISON.
New York, August 15, 1920.
CHAPTER I. THE BEGINNINGS
_Launching the Liberty League_
(From _The Voice_ of July 4, 1917.)
The Liberty League of Negro-Americans, which was recently organized by
the Negroes of New York, presents the most startling program of any
organization of Negroes in the country today. This is nothing less than
the demand that the Negroes of the United States be given a chance to
enthuse over democracy for themselves in America before they are
expected to enthuse over democracy in Europe. The League is composed of
“Negro-Americans, loyal to their country in every respect, and obedient
to her laws.”
The League has an interesting history. It grew out of the labors of
Mr. Hubert H. Harrison, who has been on the lecture platform for years
and is well and favorably known to thousands of white New Yorkers from
Wall Street to Washington Heights.
Two years ago Mr. Harrison withdrew from an international political
organization, and, a little more than a year ago, gave up lecturing to
white people, to devote himself to lecturing exclusively among his own
people. He acquired so much influence among them that when he issued the
first call for a mass-meeting “to protest against lynching in the land
of liberty and disfranchisement in the home of democracy,” although the
call was not advertised in any newspaper, the church in which the
meeting was held was packed from top to bottom. At this mass-meeting,
which was held at Bethel Church on June 12, the organization was
effected and funds were raised to sustain it and to extend its work all
over the country.
Harrison was subsequently elected its president, with Edgar Grey and
James Harris as secretary and treasurer, respectively. At the close of
this mass-meeting he hurriedly took the midnight train for Boston, where
a call for a similar meeting had been issued by W. Monroe Trotter,
editor of _The Boston Guardian_. While there he delivered an address in
Fanueil Hall, the cradle of American liberty, and told the Negroes of
Boston what their brothers in New York had done and were doing. The
result was the linking up of the New York and the Boston organizations,
and Harrison was elected chairman of a national committee of
arrangements to issue a call to every Negro organization in the country
to send delegates to a great race-congress which is to meet in
Washington in September or October and put their grievances before the
country and Congress.
At the New York mass-meeting money was subscribed for the establishment
of a newspaper to be known as The Voice and to serve as the medium of
expression for the new demands and aspirations of the new Negro. It was
made clear that this “New Negro Movement” represented a breaking away of
the Negro masses from the grip of the old-time leaders—none of whom was
represented at the meeting. The audience rose to their feet with cheers
when Harrison was introduced by the chairman. The most striking passages
of his speech were those in which he demanded that Congress make
lynching a Federal crime and take the Negro’s life under national
protection, and declared that since lynching was murder and a violation
of Federal and State laws, it was incumbent upon the Negroes themselves
to maintain the majesty of the law and put down the law-breakers by
organizing all over the South to defend their own lives whenever their
right to live was invaded by mobs which the local authorities were too
weak or unwilling to suppress.
The meeting was also addressed by Mr. J. C. Thomas, Jr., a young Negro
lawyer, who pointed out the weakness and subserviency of the old-time
political leaders and insisted that Negroes stop begging for charity in
the matter of their legal rights and demand justice instead.
Mr. Marcus Garvey, president of the Jamaica Improvement Association, was
next introduced by Mr. Harrison. He spoke in enthusiastic approval of
the new movement and pledged it his hearty support.
After the Rev. Dr. Cooper, the pastor of Bethel, had addressed the
meeting, the following resolutions were adopted and a petition to
Congress was prepared and circulated. In addition the meeting sent a
telegram to the Jews of Russia, congratulating them upon the acquisition
of full political and civil rights and expressing the hope that the
United States might soon follow the democratic example of Russia.
_Resolutions Passed at the Liberty League Meeting_
Two thousand Negro-Americans assembled in mass-meeting at Bethel A.M.E.
Church to protest against lynching in the land of liberty, and
disfranchisement in the home of democracy have, after due deliberation,
adopted the following resolutions and make them known to the world at
large in the earnest hope that whenever the world shall be made safe for
democracy our corner of that world will not be forgotten.
_We believe that this world war will and must result in a larger measure
of democracy for the peoples engaged therein—whatever may be the secret
ambitions of their several rulers._
_We therefore ask, first, that when the war shall be ended and the
council of peace shall meet to secure to every people the right to rule
their own ancestral lands free from the domination of tyrants, domestic
and foreign, the similar rights of the 250,000,000 Negroes of Africa be
conceded. Not to concede them this is to lay the foundation for more
wars in the future and to saddle the new democracies with the burden of
a militarism greater than that under which the world now groans._
Secondly, we, as Negro-Americans who have poured out our blood freely in
every war of the Republic, and upheld her flag with undivided loyalty,
demand that since we have shared to the full measure of manhood in
bearing the burdens of democracy we should also share in the rights and
privileges of that democracy.
And we believe that the present time, when the hearts of ninety millions
of our white fellow-citizens are aflame with the passionate ardor of
democracy which has carried them into the greatest war of the age with
the sole purpose of suppressing autocracy in Europe, is the best time to
appeal to them to give to twelve millions of us the elementary rights of
democracy at home.
For democracy, like charity, begins at home, and we find it hard to
endure without murmur and with the acquiescence of our government the
awful evils of lynching, which is a denial of the right to life; of
segregation, Jim Crowism and peonage, which are a denial of the right to
liberty; and disfranchisement, which is a denial of justice and
democracy.
And since Imperial Russia, formerly the most tyrannous government in
Europe, has been transformed into Republican Russia, whereby millions of
political serfs have been lifted to the level of citizenship rights;
since England is offering the meed of political manhood to the hitherto
oppressed Irish and the down-trodden Hindu; and since these things have
helped to make good the democratic assertions of these countries of the
old world now engaged in war;
Therefore, be it resolved:
That we, the Negro people of the first republic of the New World, ask
all true friends of democracy in this country to help us to win these
same precious rights for ourselves and our children.
That we invite the government’s attention to the great danger which
threatens democracy through the continued violation of the 13th, 14th
and 15th amendments, which is a denial of justice and the existence of
mob-law for Negroes from Florida to New York;
That we intend to protest and to agitate by every legal means until we
win these rights from the hands of our government and induce it to
protect democracy from these dangers, and square the deeds of our nation
with its declarations;
That we create adequate instruments for securing these ends and make our
voice heard and heeded in the councils of our country, and
That copies of these resolutions be forwarded to the Congress of the
United States and to such other public bodies as shall seem proper to
us.
_The Liberty League’s Petition to the House of Representatives
of the United States, July 4, 1917_
We, the Negro people of the United States, loyal to our country in every
respect, and obedient to her laws, respectfully petition your honorable
body for a redress of the specific grievances and flagrant violations of
your own laws as set forth in this statement. We beg to call your
attention to the discrepancy which exists between the public profession
of the government that we are lavishing our resources of men and money
in this war in order to make the world safe for democracy, and the just
as public performances of lynching-bees, Jim-crowism and
disfranchisement in which our common country abounds.
We should like to believe in our government’s professions of democracy,
but find it hard to do so in the presence of the facts; and we judge
that millions of other people outside of the country will find it just
as hard.
Desirous, therefore, of squaring our country’s profession with her
performance, that she may not appear morally contemptible in the eyes of
friends and foes alike, we, the Negro people of the United States, who
have never been guilty of any disloyalty or treason to our government,
demand that the nation shall justify to the world her assertions of
democracy by setting free the millions of Negroes in the South from
political and civil slavery through the enactment of laws which will
either take the Negroes under the direct protection of the U. S.
Congress by making lynching a Federal crime, or (by legislative mandate)
compelling the several States which now deprive the Negroes of their
right to self-government, to give them the suffrage as Russia has done
for her Jews. W ask his in the name of the American declaration that the
world shall be made safe for democracy and fervently pray that your
honorable body will not go back upon democracy.