The Duluth rip-saw. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1917-19??, 1918-10-05
Claude MacKay-Negro Poet

While the opponents of kultur and
autocracy are fighting to put all
Europe and much of Asia under the
yoke of autocracy, the sons of dark
est Africa are fighting effectively to
make the world free for democracy.
Some of Frances most. efficient
shock troops are native African
blacks. Some of Uncle Sans best
soldiers are colored men from the
Southland-soldiers whose grandpar-
ents roamed the forests of the Dark
Continent in savagery and who ended
their days in slavery to the white
man, in free republic.
White Europeans, whose fathers
and grandfathers came to America to
escape tyranny and find freedom
have, in this world war, sided with
autocracy and proved recreant to
democracy. On the other hand, the
Negro, whose ancestors were cap
tured by slavetraders in the Dark
Continent and brought in chains to
the Land of Liberty to serve expo
nents of democracy in chains and
servitude, have rallied around the
Stars and Stripes with promptness
and enthusiasm. Among the colored
people, there have been no slackers,
draft evaders or traitors.
Not only are the colored people of
the New York World intensely loyal
and patriotic but, here and there are
minds and characters, equal to the
best among the boosted white race,
srI fho% fh1 INcricaI n
man has soul and mind capable
of attaining the highest in real civili-
Zation.
More and more frequently does
genius crop up from the depths In
which the black race has been sub
merged farther back than history has
any record. Orators, musicians and
poets naturally attract the most at
tention. The number of colored men
and women to achieve distinction is
rapidly and steadily increasing. In
the trades and agriculture, the Negro
has a broad field which he is not
neglecting.
While the black man Is slowly
emerging from his centuries Of dark
ness, degenerate white men make
him their prey. The mulatto too
often is the result of the white mans
bestiality and lust. The degenerate
white man provides the ignorant
black man with stimulants, drugs and
narcotics and then lynches him with
terrible torture when he commits
crimes while under the influence Of
contraband agencies.
Claude MacKay, a Negro poet,
came to the United States from ia
maica, his heart high with hope for
opportunity in the Land of Liberty.
He Is as sweet singer as many a
white man who has greater fame and
name. He proved his strength of
character by going through the
scorching fires of prejudice and in
tolerance without coming out embit-
tered and hopelessly discouraged.
"The government Of jamaica"
says MacKay in an article in recent
number of Pearsons Magazine, sis
tolerant, somewhat benevolent, based
on the principle of equal justice to
all. 1 had heard of prejudice in
America but never dreamed of it be-
ing so intensely bitter; for at home
there is also prejudice of the English
sort, subtle and dignified, rooted in
class Observation-Disclosures and race be-
ing hardly taken into account.
1T was such an atmosphere left,
for America, to find here strong
white men, splendid types, of better
physique than any I had ever seen,
exhibiting the most primitive animal
hot rdc fhnir h1onk
brothers. In the South daily MUIR
ders of a nature most hideous and
revolving, in the North silent acquies-
cence, deep hate half-hidden under
Puritan responsibility, oft flaming up
into an occasional lynching-this
ugly raw sore in the body of great
nation. At first I was Mortified, my
spirit revolving against the ignoble
cruelty of it all. Then 1 soon found
myself hating in return; but this
feeling could not last long, for to
hate is to be unhappy.
Looking about me with bigger
and clearer eyes 1 saw that this
cruelty in. different ways was going
on all over the world. Whites were
exploiting and depressing whites even
as they exploited and oppressed the
yellows and blacks. And the op-
pressed, grooming under the lash,
evinced the same despicable hate and
harshness towards their weaker fell
lows. I ceased to think of people
and things in mass-why should I
fight with mad dogs only to be bitten
and probably be transformed into
mad dog myself? I felt and still feel
that one must seek for the noblest
and best in individual life only; each
soul must save itself.
"And now this great catastrophe
has come upon the world, proving the
real hollowness Of nationhood, pa
triotism, racial pride and most of the
things which one was taught to re-
spect and reverence"
Claude MacKay was born in the |
heart of Jamaica, Sept. Is, 1889. His
grandparents were slaves but his par
ents free-born. His mother was
sweet-natured and fond of books; his |
father was honest, stern even to
harshness and hardworking. A firm
believer in education, he tried to give
each of his eight children the best |
he could afford.
When years old, Mckay went to
a brother who was teacher. From
that time he became interested in
books. He read heavily and broadly
Of the best English masters. He