The Colorado statesman., 1916-02-19

Among the differences that set apart
the Negro race as a peculiar people.
none is more significant than the fact
that he is mistakenly adjured to look
to the future. Other men may rejoice
not only in the present, but also in
the past. But If the Negro recalls
the past, this is merely to enable him
to measure his progress away from it.
If he thinks of the present, it is as
basis for the radiant time that is to
come. No doubt may ever cross his
mind as to whether the present is as
noble as some parts of the past. His
past is happily dead. There is moth
ing in it he would perpetuate. His
duty and his pleasure are to travel
as fast and as far from it as he may.
His own feeling about it has been en-
forced frosS the first day of freedom
by those of more fortunate races who
have shown an interest in him.
Why then, asks the New York Eve
ming Post, should the new year be
signalized by the appearance of q
magazine bearing the title, The Jour-
nal of Negro History? How can
there be such thing as history for
race which is just beginning to live?
For the Journal does not juggle the
words; by history" it means history
and not current events. The answer
is to be found within its pages. The
opening article, THE Negroes of Gin
cinnati Prior to the Civil War" is a
reminder that slavery did not cover
all the country. Undaunted by per-
sistent opposition, writes Doctor
Woodson, the Negroes of Cincinnati
achieved so much during the years
between 1885 and 1910 that they de-
served to be ranked among the most
progressive people of the world"
Still, 1885 and 1870 are not very far
back in the past, as other races meas
ure time. By history" most people
mean ancient history. What has the
Negro to look back to in that sort of
past that he would not prefer to ig-
more? Well, in an article on THE
Passing Tradition and the African
Civilization" Monroe N. Work pre-
sents little-regarded developments in
the Dark Continent thousand years
ago which show that the black man
need not despise the rock whence he
was hewn. Not all black men every
where throughout the ages have been
hewers of wood and drawers of water.
On the contrary, through long periods
of time there were powerful black ma
tions which have left the records of
their achievements and of which we
are just now beginning to learn a lit
tle.'
More impressive than these shad-
owy records are literary productions
of which neither the Negro nor his
better-educated white brother is often
aware. These are the most interest.
ing and impressive things in the mi
tial number of the Journal, as to the
Negro they should be the most in
spring Here is one passage:
THAT the Americans after consider
ing the subject in this light-after
making the most manly of all possible
exertions in defense of liberty-after
publishing to the world the principle
upon which they commended, viz. ::
That all men are by nature and of
right ought to be free,' should still re-
tain in subsection a numerous tribe of
the human race merely for their own
private use and emolument, is, of all
things, the strongest inconsistency.
the deepest reflection on our conduct
and the most abandoned apostacy
that ever took place, since the AL
mighty fiat spoke into existence this
habitable world
How many white men have argued