Arkansas survey., 1924-09-20
BOOK CHAT
By
MARY WHITE OVINGTON

Chairman, Board of Directress
of the National Association
for the Advancement of
Colored People
"THE NEGRO FROOM AFRICA
TO AMERICA"
BY w. D. Weatherford. Pub
lished by George H. DOran Co.,
244 Madison Avenue, New York
City. Price $500. BY Mail
S5.10.
There have been so many
books upon the Negro in Africa
and America, that one scans
critically the advent of a new
one. What does it stand for?
What has it to say that has not
been said already? One can an
swer regarding DR.. Weather
| ford's book that it stands for
| the opinion of the advance guard
among the enlightened South to-
day, and that while it does not
say much that is new it gathers
together a great deal of materi-
al. The first half deals with
the Negro in Africa and the
slave trade. The second halt
with the Negro today in his va
rious relations to the life of the
country. l is a source book ra-
thern tina nan original treatise
more than half the closely print
ed 450 pages being in quota,
ton marks. The writer has
read widely and has woven his
material cleverly together end
ing each chapter with short,
well-balanced opinion o fhis own
" hen one remembers the i'm
passioned diatrlbes of Smith in
his "Color-Line;" the white
washed studios Of Stone, planta-
ton lord of Mississippi; even
the pleading of Edgar Gardner
Murphy for Noblesse Obflge,
one doubly apprecis . DR.. Wea-
therford and sees how far a por-
tion of the South has travelled in
the new century. We are shown
the hideousness of the slave
trade and Of slavery. We read
quotations from Fannie Kemble
and Olmsted as often as from
Smedes. And when we come to
the present time, we are shown
unsparingly the horrors of lynch
ing an dthe utterly inadequate
provisions for colored children
in the public schools.
The book is lacking in some
ways. It omits the reconstruc-
tion period where we should
have welcomed the new material
that could be so easily found to-
day but that with the death of
the men who participated in that
movement will soon be lost; and
it shows its Southern bias by its
omissions. Half the book is on
present day conditions, health
housing, business, education, le-
gal status. To give up whole
chapters to the Economic Con-
dition of the Negro with but one
mention of the Urban League,
and the Negro and the Law with
out naming the N. A. A. c. P.
was really an achievement. 1t
is interesting too, to notice that
while the beginnings of Hamp-
ton and Tuskegee are cited, not
a word is said Of the founding OF
the colleges, Atlanta. Fiske, Tai
ladega. The wonderful begin
nings of Negro education by
Northern philanthropists are ig.
nored. But since the material
quoted by DR., Weatherford is
often written or compiled by
workers in these ORGANIZATIONS,
one IL meticulous to demand any
thing moe. And in the Re-
view of Sources, the last chap
ter of the book, a scholarly state
ment is made regarding each of
the one hundred odd volumes, re-
presenting every shade of opin-
ion, from which the book is
made up. Especially the gather
ing together of information re-
garding Religious Life Of the
Negro and the Negro and Edu-
cation is an achievement. One
gets for the first time clear
statement Of the numebr and ex-
tent and work Of the various re-
ligious denominations and a
summarizing of the situation of
Negro education, public and pri-
vate. One is truly thankful for
the description Of the functions
Of the various funds, General
Education Board, Slater Phelps