Richmond planet. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1883-1938, 1923-02-24
WILLIAM H. FERRIS POINTS OUT TEN
MISTAKES IN THE DUBOIS ARTICLE ON
MARCUS CARNEY IN CENTURY MAGAZINE
EDITOR OF THE NEGRO WORLD SAYS THAT
"BACK TO AFRICA" is BRILLIANT BIT OF FICTION
(Aew FORK Negro Wc,ld.o

hardt Du Bots. in the February issue
of the Century Magazine is one of the
most brilliant bits of fiction and prose
poetry that ever emanated from the
facile pen of that gifted writer. Never
did his genius as short-story teller
shine more resplendently. Prose and
poetry, fact and fancy, fiction and his
tory. and imagination and reality were
so subtly blended and flowed so easily
on the prose cadences of DR.. Du Bots
inimitable style that the reader fipus
1t difficult to tell when Dr. Du Bots IS
envisaging reality and when imagin-
ing.
By getting some scraps of informa-
tion here and there and by bringing
his imagination into play. DR.. Du Bots
has created an imaginary Marcus Gar
vey and an imaginary Universal Negro
Improvement Association, which is
both like and unlike the real person
and the real organization. In his essay
on Alexander Cromwell, DR.. Du Bots,
by his poetic imagination and his mag
ic style made a real man look like an
imaginary portrait. In his Back to
Africa" he made an imaginary por-
trait and an imaginary organization
look like real man and real orgact.
cation. snS
The same poetic description and
philosophic musings which character
jed THE Souls OF Back Folk" anil
"Darkwater" may be observed in the
article that we are now discussing. lii
his pen pictures of High Harlem at
the beginning and ending of his ar.i-
Gle; in his philosophical reflections up
on the Negro whirlpool and other small
Ter swirlings affecting the stream OF
American life, upon Garvey's move
ment representing something spiritual
upon the Negroes craving for manhood
and in his showing that Garvey is a
type of man WHOM the white world ie
making daily-moulding, marring. tos
sing in the air"-Dr. Du Bots writes
in the vein that gave "Souls of Black
Folk" and "Darkwater" their deserved
fame.
DIR. DU BOIS AN IMPRESSIONIST
/, AND NOT A REALIST.
And yet the reader somehow feels
that with all the poetic descriptions.
pensive musings and philosophical ra'
ing, and that Is q gripping hold upon
reality Back to Africa" like THE
Souls of Black Folk +" represents more
THE subjective impression which tho
Gcrvey movement made upon the SEN
sitive mind of DR.. Du Bots than an
objective presentation of the move
ment as it really is. DR.. Du Bots Ia
more of an impressionistic rather than
realistic painter. He gets general inl-
preston and few general outlines.
and then his imagination complet IS
the picture.
In the case Of Marcus Garvey and
the u. N. I. A., Garvey was thirty
three years old and tire u. N. I. A..
two and half years old before DR.. DM
Bois began to consider them seriously.
He heard that a Jamaican harangu-d
the crowds from a soap box in Harlem
organized thirteen in a small room
started a weekly paper and talked
about building factories and operating
a steamship line, but he paid no atte:,
tion to what he regarded as a transi-
ent ebullition Of emotion.
Consequently, when in August 1920,
Garvey three times congested
the Streets of Harlem with
a parade, packed Madison Square Gar.
den to the very doors and held an inter
national convention for thirtv-ona
days in Liberty Hall with twice the
seating capacity of any Negro church
in the world-filing it in the daytime,
overcrowding it at night, and with
thousands turned away from the Sun
day evening services-the white people
o. H.
Quite naturally they would ask DR.. Du
Bots, recognized Negro leader AMI
writer, about it. He knew very little
about it. For three months he wander
ed in the wilderness. picking up scraps
Of information from former officials
and friends Of present officials, getting
nearly all of his information second
hand The result was the sketchy arti
Gle in the Crisis in January 1921.
Then DR.. Du Bots began seriously 10
study Marcus Garvey and the move
ment he had launched. But the u. N
]. A.. was too big and too complex and
il had too many ramifications all over
the world to be easily focused. The
late Prof. Josiah Royce, Harvard's
famous meta-physician, once said tina:
1t was very difficult to convince q
man or change his views by merely
arguing with him, for his point 81
view and his ideas are the resultant Of
his character, temperament. education
environment and the experiences that
he has passed through. That is quite
true.
1t is very difficult to understand the
psychic reactions or n man and his
dominant motifs when you don't meat
him or don't begin to study him unt;
he is thirty-three. To really know hin
you must know his parents, his early
teachers and associates and early en-
vironment. To really know him you
must know him in his boyhood. his
youth and early manhood; you must
know the men who inspired him thu
forces that fashioned and shaped him
the influences that operated upoT
him and the pleasant or rough ex
Deriences the boots or hard
knocks that colored his ways Of think
ing. You can't simply see him rs rlar
and then imagine what his previous o,
periences had been.
So IS II with movement. When D.
Du Bots first began really to study the
U N. |. A.. ii was like a mighty river