OPPORTUNITY

VOL. 2

FEBRUARY 1924

No. 14

EDITORIALS

Forecast

IF economic forces are pushing Negroes out of the South we may expect the Spring to bring even larger drafts of workers to northern industrial centers. According to government estimates, the states from which the migration has been heaviest—Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi— are the only ones that were not able at the end of 1923 to exceed their 1922 and 1921 production of cotton. For example, instead of 714,098 bales, the 1922 figure, Georgia is cut to 590,000. This state has maintained to this time a five-year average of 1,573,612 bales.

This may in some measure be a result of the movement of Negroes. It will undoubtedly be a cause for further movement. On the other hand, northern industries appear hopeful of increases in business from the first of the year. The immigration quota has been practically exhausted to June 1924, when, incidentally, the 3 per cent quota law expires and no considerable drafts of foreign labor will be available before mid-summer. The House Immigration Committee, however, in drafting a new bill has voted to restrict the number even more, reducing it to 2 per cent of the foreign citizens here in 1890. This will, if passed, cut the quotas from many countries by more than half and bear heaviest upon the southern and eastern European countries from which the bulk of manual laborers come. The proposed tax reductions give promise of stimulating business even more. The *Bankers Economic Service* forecasts an enormous building program for 1924. Wages remain about constant and from the small number of strikes it seems reasonable to infer that labor, for the moment at least, is fairly content.

All these suggest an invitation to an early movement of southern labor, but likewise an ever increasing social problem for the agencies in the North concerned with the Negro population.

A State Inter-Racial Commission

In the proposed appointment of a State Inter-Racial Commission, Governor Pinchot of Pennsylvania is making a wise and courageous approach at least toward the establishment of an equipment for dealing with the racial and inter-racial difficulties which have begun to multiply in the state with the

sudden increase of the Negro population. Theoretically, no such body should be necessary, and this is the specious argument advanced both by those who pretend to believe that through some sudden miracle of spontaneous conversion the problems now conspicuous will adjust themselves under the existing machinery, and by those who are content with the laissez-faire principle because an active inter-racial body might actually upset some old practices. Such a Commission, indeed, might not accomplish anything. But clearly the chances of accomplishing some good are more on the side of a body definitely charged with this responsibility than with the ordinary machinery which ought to work but does not. It was the failure of the communities to accord the Negro population the consideration to which they as citizens were entitled which prompted the appointment of this body.

There are very definite functions which such a body could perform. The existence of an active body, in itself, has allayed certain violent manifestations of friction, as in the case of the Chicago Race Commission and several of the southern inter-racial groups. If, as is planned, there will be a state survey, an inter-racial body is the most practicable medium for deliberating on the findings and for making and urging the carrying through of recommendations. In spite of beliefs about what is most desirable, no machinery exists for working out a basis of cooperation between the numerous organizations whose activities bring them in touch with the Negro population. In Pennsylvania, as well as in most other states, there are to be dealt with the impracticable and frequently inane suggestions of unqualified individuals who have the ear of persons in authority, and those individuals, organizations, and institutions with honest intentions but without knowledge of dealing satisfactorily with their problems. A Commission would be in position to collect a fund of information and experience valuable not only for their own uses but for the uses of other communities. There is a much larger group of persons than one would suspect quite willing to take the judgment of such a body as final in any situation arising which involves the question of the Negro or inter-racial relations, and in addition to raising the standard of treatment of Negroes and of mutual tolerance their efforts should promote the uniform-

FEBRUARY, 1924

OPPORTUNITY

35

ity of these standards throughout the state. In its official capacity it can interest itself with questions which if assumed by any other organization would be regarded as irritating officiousness. And when there is no longer any question of racial disharmony or inadequate care of the weaker members of the state, the Commission can dissolve.

## Washington

The American Sociological Society met in Washington, D. C., December 27, and held its sessions at the Washington Hotel. This was, presumably, a convenience to the greatest number of its members for the city is fairly central and the hotels are comfortable. But, although the discussions were of grave interest to the growing consciousness of intelligent Negroes on their own problems, the committee on arrangements seems to have overlooked the fact that this meeting was to be held in the nation's capital. The ten Negro delegates who were on hand for the first paper by Dr. Joseph A. Hill on the "Negro Migration Northward," with two exceptions, either rode on the freight elevator or walked up the nine flights of stairs to the meeting. These two exceptions were allowed to go up in a passenger elevator when the starter satisfied himself that they were "with a white gentleman." It is to the credit of the Negroes that there were no unpleasant physical collisions, for the hotel functionaries missed no opportunity to subject them to the most exasperating incivilities.

It might be noted that the Negro delegates represented a very real interest and some actual accomplishment in the field of sociological research. Three of them have books carrying their name and two are listed in "Who's Who" of America.

It was probably a mistake for them to have presumed to attend. But they could not have been expected to guess the technicality upon which the management would become so irritatingly temperamental.

One particularly significant feature of these incidents was the apparent indifference of the members of the society to the predicament of the Negroes. For although groups of them stood by while the attendants bullied, there were no conspicuous instances of anyone's interfering even as an humane act to relieve the confusion of the embarrassed ones.

It is too much to expect that social traits—especially of the type encountered at the Washington Hotel—can be changed suddenly, but it is not unreasonable to hope that these scientific groups will, in the future, give some thought to their less protected membership. Especially is this desirable in the field of sociological research where it is so loudly lamented that the large Negro population needs study and correctional work, and that there are so few competent Negro students to deal with the problems.

It is to be recorded to the credit of the Secretary of the Conference that before the close of the sessions the meeting place was moved to the first floor.

The Negro delegates, however, unable to get satisfactory reports from the newspapers had returned to their homes.

## The Universality of Genius

In the rotogravure section of the *New York Times* for Sunday, December 9, there appeared a photograph of Henry Ossawa Tanner with the following comment:

> *Dean of American Painters Honored by the French Government.*

Henry Tanner, one of the oldest members of the Parisian American Art Colony, has recently been decorated with the Legion of Honor by the French Government. He is a member of the Paris Salon and has many canvasses in museums there and in this country.

Now Mr. Tanner, whose father is a Bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, is, of course, a Negro and has never tried to be anything else. And to be acknowledged as a leader in art without *mention* of race is an achievement which should excite the pride of those who share his friendship, his profession and his country, as well as of those who share his race. For it is admitted that a successful artist must have certain high and commendable merits.

This mode of mention would be passed over in the glowing silence of admiration and contentment did not this same paper, with a speciousness characteristic of the entire press and hard to forgive, in the very next issue give particular prominence to an item about a FAKE NEGRO DENTIST, as if the item of race explained the knavery alleged. A reasonable man might have pointed out that the profession of dentistry among Negroes is young and is endangered by such allusive slander; or that this was but one case of hundreds of other fake doctors, not Negroes, who were caught up in the recent inquiry into fake diploma mills.

But this is a mild example. An even more dangerous effect attaches to the practice of linking the reputation and popular concept of the Negro group to every criminal act committed by one of its members. The most respectable reason given (when, indeed, any reason is given at all) is that the use of the descriptive adjective designating race simply helps to identify the person. Aside from the fact that this identifying adjective is not applied to the numerous other races who, because they are actually less distinguishable to the public, require it most, it is evident that this argument is intended to apply to the Negroes in heaviest incidence only in that species of their behavior which is bad. At least that is the effect of the selection of incidents according to their "news value." This, of course, is a lament ages old. But to it might be added another against the arrant nonsense which is a sequence to this first principle. Not long ago this same paper carried the photograph of an American Negro of unmistakable physiognomy and texture of hair, who had designed a new jazz instrument and was using

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FEBRUARY, 1924

it in England. He was called an *Indian*. The reputation of Indians for jazz music calls for little comment. When another of the metropolitan dailies carried the picture of a group of chorus girls from one of the Negro musical comedies, the identification was misplaced again and they were called *Hawaiians*. Nor were they wearing grass skirts.

American poets are much concerned about recognition from one certain authority on American verse who publishes annually an Anthology. No one refers to this as the Anthology of Mr. Braithwaite, colored. It would be ridiculous. He does not require that kind of identification. Yet, strangely enough, it is just such evidence as this of the capacity for very superior accomplishment that is most needed by the Negro group in its struggle for status and that it fails consistently to get. The Negro criminals must be labelled; but it is convenient to forget the race of Tanner and Braithwaite and Daniel Williams and any others whose achievements contribute to the general culture. If it is right to regard the exceptionally good as universal, it is not only wrong but a cheap dishonesty to regard the other extreme as characteristically racial. John Cowper Powys, discussing the question of race and literature, took issue with a writer who had claimed that contemporary American as well as French and German literature is strongly colored with Judaism and argued that

"The whole business of race discrimination among men of genius belongs to that tedious, pseudo-scientific world of environment and heredity, of group consciousness and tribal cults, *out of which* just because it *is* genius, the creative and original imagination of the writer has lifted him!"

The truth and the unfairness seem to lie in practice here. As a Negro emerges, he becomes like one well known sociologist's "Mulattoes"—less Negro, whatever the degree of race mixture or lack of it, as his importance increased This leaves always a

heavy deposit of dark humanity about whom the public for the most part knows only what it learns from the press, to wit:

* Policeman Killed By Negroes In Black Belt*
* Negro Runs Amuck Injuring Woman*
* Negro Bandit Caught With $10,000 Loot*
* Negro Postal Clerk Rifles Mail.*

There are no *peculiarly* Negro crimes; Negroes cannot commit any worse crimes than other individuals; a newspaper account does not provide a statistical record by which their criminality can be measured; a criminal who has been caught needs no further identification. Why the label?

This is not merely a matter of unfairness; it is a dishonesty that smacks of maliciousness.

## The New Criminology

Birmingham, Alabama, has been greatly agitated by a long series of axe murders which have presented puzzling and at times incomprehensible aspects. One white male victim, for example, was found dead in the Negro residence area beside the body of a Negro woman unconscious from injuries received in the same assault. Where there is mystery, there is good soil for romance. Accordingly, a report has been set out about some weird organization of Negroes who drew lots to decide who should commit the next murder. But the authorities, wearied of old methods of detecting criminals, have resorted to the "truth serum." This is a time saver. It has another advantage in that it imposes but a slight tax upon the brain. Two Negroes were made "dizzy" and the astute detectives presented the court with signed confessions. This is truly remarkable, but questionable. Dr. J. D. Bowling, Birmingham Health Officer, declared that such a confession was purely valueless. He probably knows as much about scopolamin as the police. Is it not significant though that the only records of incriminating confessions obtained through this drug have been those of Negroes?

## Annual Meeting of the National Urban League

THE Annual Meeting of the National Urban League will be held on Wednesday, February 6, 1924, at the Russell Sage Foundation Building, Twenty-second Street and Lexington Avenue, New York City, in the form of two sessions. The formal business session will convene at three-thirty o'clock in the afternoon at which time the Annual Report will be rendered and the election of members to the Board of Directors, for the term expiring in 1927, will take place; immediately following there will be a meeting of the Executive Committee, when officers and standing committees will be elected for the ensuing year. In the evening, at eight-fifteen o'clock, there will be a con-

ference to discuss the problems of "The Negro In Industry." The principal speakers will be Miss Mary Van Kleeck, Director of Industrial Studies of the Russell Sage Foundation, who was in charge of the Women's Bureau of the United States Department of Labor during the war; and Dr. Emmett J. Scott, Secretary-Treasurer of Howard University, who was Assistant to the Secretary of War, and formerly Secretary to Booker T. Washington at Tuskegee Institute.

Readers of *Opportunity* are invited to both meetings, and especially to the evening session when a discussion from the floor will follow the addresses of the speakers.

FEBRUARY, 1924

OPPORTUNITY

37

Apropos of Africa

By ALAIN LOCKE

EXCEPT from the point of view of religious missionarism, it has been until recently almost impossible to cultivate generally in the mind of the American Negro an abiding and serious interest in Africa. Politically, economically, scientifically, culturally, the great concerns of this great continent have engaged the Caucasian and primarily the European mind. The sooner we recognize as a fact this painful paradox, that those who have naturally the greatest interests in Africa have of all other peoples been least interested, the sooner will it be corrected. With notable exceptions, our interest in Africa has heretofore been sporadic, sentimental and unpractical. And,—as for every fact, there is of course a reason: the dark shadow of slavery has thrown Africa, in spite of our conscious wishes, into a sort of chilly and terrifying eclipse, against which only religious ardor could kindle an attractive and congenial glow of interest. The time has come, however, with the generation that knows slavery only as history, to cast off this spell, and see Africa at least with the interest of the rest of the world, if not indeed with a keener, more favored, regard. There are parallels, we must remember, for this: Except for the prosperous Tories, England was a bogey to the American colonists; from the thirties to the nineties, the average Irishman was half-ashamed of Erin in spite of lapses into occasional fervent sentimentalism; and even with the sturdy Jewish sense of patrimony, Zionism has had its difficulties in rekindling the concrete regard for the abandoned fatherland. Only prosperity looks backward. Adversity is afraid to look over its own shoulder. But eventually all peoples exhibit the homing instinct and turn back physically or mentally, hopefully and helpfully, to the land of their origin. And we American Negroes in this respect cannot, will not, be an exception.

The very same facts that have frustrated the healthy, vigorous interest in Africa and things African, have focused whatever interest there was upon the West Coast,—erroneously regarded because of the accidents of the slave-trade as our especial patrimony, if we ever had any. But the colored millions of America represent every one of the many racial stocks of Africa, are descended from the peoples of almost every quarter of the continent, and are culturally the heirs of the entire continent. The history of the wide dispersion of the slave-trade and trading-posts will establish this in the mind of any open-minded person, and an anthropological investigation of American Negro types would conclusively prove this. If the Negro is interested in Africa, he should be interested in the whole of Africa; if he is to link himself up again with his past and his kin, he must link himself up with all of the African peoples. As the physical composite of eighty-five per cent at least

of the African stocks, the American Negro is in a real sense the true Pan-African, and certainly even apart from this, on the grounds of opportunity and strategic position, should be the leader in constructive Pan-African thought and endeavor. Enlightened imperialism,—but who can visualize enlightened imperialism,—would have seen in the American Negro just those resources of leadership and devoted interest which it would have needed, and could have utilized if its real aims had been the development, and not merely the exploitations of this great continent and its varied peoples. But it is rather against than with the wish of the interested governments, that the American Negro must reach out toward his rightful share in the solution of African problems and the development of Africa's resources.

## II.

With a more practical and enlightend vision, the question of the redemption of Africa has become with us the question of the regeneration of Africa. We now see that the missionary condescension of the past generations in their attitude toward Africa was a pious but sad mistake. In taking it, we have fallen into the snare of enemies and have given grievous offence to our brothers. We must realize that in some respects we need what Africa has to give us as much as, or even more than, Africa needs what we in turn have to give her; and that unless we approach Africa in the spirit of the finest reciprocity, our efforts will be ineffectual or harmful. We need to be the first of all Westerners to rid ourselves of the insulting prejudice, the insufferable bias of the attitude of "civilizing Africa,"—for she is not only our mother but in the light of most recent science is beginning to appear as the mother of civilization in general. On the other hand, the average African of the enlightened classes has his characteristic bias,—his pride of blood and bias of clan,—so that the meeting of mind between the African and the Afro-American is dependent upon a broadening of vision and a dropping of prejudices from both sides. The African must dismiss his provincialism, his political-mindedness, his pride of clan; the Afro-American, his missionary condescension, his religious parochialism, and his pride of place. The meeting of the two will mean the inauguration of a new era for both. Above all, it must be recognized that for the present the best channels of cooperative effort lie along economic and educational lines, and that religion and politics, with their inevitable contentiousness and suspicions, are for less promising ways of approach and common effort. America offers the African his greatest educational opportunity; Africa offers the Afro-American his greatest economic opportunity. So we may truly say that the salvation of the one is in the other's hands. I am aware that this

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is not to many a self-evident proposition, but sober
thought will prove to the far-sighted what the
logic of the course of events must ultimately justify
for the multitude.

But here on this point we have, strangely
enough, the feeling of the masses, more ready and
ripe for action than the minds of the leaders and
the educated few. The Garvey movement has
demonstrated that conclusively. Perhaps in the
perspective of time, that will appear to have been
its chief service and mission,—to have stirred the
race mind to the depths with the idea of large-
scale cooperation between the variously separated
branches of the Negro peoples. This is without
doubt the great constructive idea in the race life
during the last decade, and must become the center
of constructive endeavor for this and the next
generation. Unfortunately obscured by the con-
troversy between its radical exponents in the Gar-
vey movement and its liberal exponents, Dr. Du-
Bois and the sponsors of the Pan-African Congress,
and still more unfortunately but temporarily dis-
credited by the financial mal-administration of Mr.
Garvey's over-ambitious ventures, the idea has
seemed to suffer a fatal set-back. But each branch
of the movement has done yoeman service, in spite
of great obstacles and unfortunate mistakes,—for
publicity for the idea is for the present the main
thing; its successful working out is a matter of
paintaking experiment and endeavor. Each has
temporarily failed in what it considered to be its
main objective, and what, if realized, would have
been a great service both to the cause of the race
and humanity at large. The establishment of
a great tropical African State, under international
mandate, was one of the most constructive and
promising proposals in all the grand agenda of the
Peace Conference. If Mr. Wilson had sponsored
it, fewer of his fourteen points would have been
shattered by selfish European diplomacy, and not
only America, but the American Negro would have
had an official share and a responsible opportunity
in the guardianship and development of this great
continent. Many forces combined to crush the
idea; but when the secret history of the Conference
becomes public, General Smuts will probably ap-
pear as the most blameworthy opponent of the
scheme. Time will, however, eventually justify
this idea and acclaim this brilliant sponsor, and out
of the desperate exigencies of the near future we
may yet see it brought forward in altered form in
the councils of the League of Nations, although the
greatest practical opportunity, the disposal of the
German colonies in Africa, has been irrevocably
missed. Similarly, but for internal rather than ex-
ternal causes, the main objective of the Garvey
movement has foundered. Wholly self-initiated
and self-supported trade intercourse with Africa
would have been in itself a wonderful demonstra-
tion of practical economic ability on the part of
American Negroes as well as of a modern and con-
structive interest in their African brethren. It is
more of a pity, more of a reproach, that this was

not realized. But in both cases the idea has sur-
vived its initial defeat. Journalistically the Gar-
vey movement has made a permanent contribution
to the Afro-American press, and has built bridges
of communication for the future. The first great
span in the archway, communication, exchange of
thought and information between American Ne-
groes and their brothers in the West Indies, can be
optimistically regarded as already established.
With greater difficulty, three Pan-African Con-
gresses have been trying to construct the broader
spans of communication and publicity between us
and Africa. The greatest difficulty is in bring-
ing African interests together; that task once
achieved, it will be comparatively easy to link up
with the American groups. This is especially the
problem of the Third Pan-African Congress, which
has just concluded its sessions. In the present
situation when national feeling, especially that of
the French and Belgian contingents, threatens to
disrupt the feeble unity of action already achieved,
it is very necessary that the American Negro, the
most disinterested party, should assume very direct
leadership and responsibility for the movement, in-
sisting upon keeping dominant the Pan-African
character of the scheme. This is Dr. DuBois' pur-
pose in holding the conference at what is consid-
ered by many formerly enthusiastic members as a
singularly inappropriate time. Quixotic as it may
seem to run counter to the wishes of many Afri-
can delegates, such a course is undoubtedly right;
but, pending its justification, the Pan-African
idea is just now at the most critical point of its ca-
reer. The European press and public opinion have
always shown keenest interest, appreciating the
important potentialities of this movement; it is the
apathy and disinterestedness of the American, and
especially the Afro-American press, which is the
strange and disappointing feature of the situation.
If the movement should lag, it will be an indict-
ment of the intelligence, perspicacity, and race-
mindedness of the American Negro.

### III.

The great reason for this unfortunate apathy of
interest is the lack of widespread and matter of fact
information about Africa. Our interests are fed
on sentiment, and not with knowledge. Our first
duty is to cultivate every opportunity for the dif-
fusion among us of the knowledge of Africa both
of today and of the past. Travel, exchange of
students, the spread of journalistic and academic
information are for the moment of paramount im-
portance. In a decade in which the study of Afri-
can art and archeology has come to the very fore-
front of scholarship, it is both a reproach and a
handicap to have no recognized experts of our own
in these fields. Instead of being reluctant, our
Negro colleges should be eager to develop special
scholarship in these directions; in the cultural field,
here is their special and peculiar chance to enter the
academic arena and justify themselves. The pi-
oneer work of the *Journal of Negro History*, un-

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FEBRUARY, 1924

Pasha has assembled in competition with the great endowed museums of Europe and America a collection of Coptic antiquities which almost rivals the best in any line of special collection and in variety outmatches all. Artistically housed in the buildings adjacent to El Moallaka Church, Old Cairo, and maintained as part of that beautiful and historic structure, it is really one of the treasures of Cairo, and though quite off the beaten track, its register of prominent public and academic visitors attests the power of attraction of anything unique and distinctive. For this people, the martyrs and guardians of Christianity in Africa, and their interesting history and institutions, we should cultivate a very special and intimate interest. Certainly it was most pleasant to be assured by their most representative men that they regard us with a brotherly and lively interest and would welcome more cordial and intimate relations. Ethnologists may argue and dispute all they like, but a felt brotherhood and kinship is pragmatically a fact, —and these ancient and rather exemplary people feel a kinship of blood and religion between us. After all, there is no greater difference of ethnic strain between us if as much as between the North and the South German or the Frenchman of Providence and the Frenchman of Flanders. Certainly with our access to the technique of western scientific scholarship, some of us ought to come to the study of the history of the people and their historically important branch of Christianity; for here, with very few exceptions, there is a definite case of the bias and disparagement of alien investigators. Just as the sympathetic call of Samaika Pasha coaxed out of many a hidden corner treasures unknown or inaccessible to the western antiquarian, so in the research history of the Coptic and the Abyssinian church, racial sympathy would open many a closed door and make accessible much that is hidden. We have not merely the word and opinion of this leader of the Egyptian Copts but by a fortunate coincidence of travel, the word and invitation of the august Abuna of the Church of Abyssinia, who has recently made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem where, incidentally, the patriarchoti of this historic branch of Christianity maintains a votive church.

V.

While our active interests in Africa must of necessity and of reason remain educational and eventually economic, there is every reason why we should be keenly interested in the political fortunes of all African peoples. The apathy of our general public opinion in the matter of the proposed American loan and economic protection to Liberia was a shameful dereliction, which should not be allowed to repeat itself on any matter of African politics. Assessing at the lowest value, the motives of this project, and supposing even that it could have militated somewhat against Liberian sovereignty—a too pessimistic and undeserved assumption, especially in view of the moral force of the League of Nations, we may warrantably

ask, what better guarantee of fair and considerate treatment could the Liberians have had than the force of the American Negro electorate, if properly awake and intelligently directed? Minorities have as their best protection today the court of world opinion; if they do not live on an international scale and in the eyes of the world, they are doomed even in the twentieth century to medieval conditions and hardships. Witness the effectiveness of that fine voice in the League of Nations, the former Haytian representative, Monsieur Bellegarde, who ought to have the esteem and gratitude of the entire world of colored people. European statesmen and publicists felt and acknowledged the force of this man; his recall was a calamity to our larger international interest. The success and strength of the Jew, still very precariously situated in some parts of the world, has been his international scale of organization, promoted first of all by his religion, and latterly through many other channels of cooperative race effort, of which Zionism is only one phase. Mr. Ford's phrase is true,—the international Jew; but it is an unwarrantable calumny because his inferences are wrong. In the first place, the Jew has been made international by persecution and forced dispersion,—and so, potentially, have we. In the second place, as a minority threatened here and there, its only intelligent safeguard has been international appeal and international organization. To relieve pressure in one place very often pressure has to be strategically applied in another, and the Jewish people have force become masters in this intelligent and modern strategy of group action. And if the international mind is to be for all people the eventual achievement, the Jew has simply the temporary advantage of having acquired it a little in advance of the rest of the world.

There is much value to us in this great example. We have for the present, in spite of Mr. Garvey's hectic efforts, no Zionist hope or intention. But for protection and mutual development, we must develop the race mind and race interest on an international scale. For that reason, we should be most vitally interested in the idea of the League of Nations and all kindred movements. For that reason, it should be a matter of the profoundest satisfaction that an African State, with almost unsailable sovereignty, has recently achieved recognition and admittance; and on the basis of an enlightened initiative of its own. It was my privilege to meet and congratulate the able envoy,—His Excellency Belata Herony, in Egypt, on his way from Geneva to Adis Abeba; a man of modern view and twentieth century skill and what is more important, international vision. At a time when warrantably he might have been naturally and pardonably nationalistic and characteristic in sentiment, one found his dominant mood that of internationalism and the progressive interests of the darker races the world over. Politically he represents Abyssinia; morally, however, I am sure, our

*(Continued on page 58)*

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# Taking Stock of the Race Problem

## A Statistical Review and Interpretation of the Facts at the End of the Year 1923

By MONROE N. WORK

The writer of this article, who is one of the foremost statisticians dealing with the problems of the Negro population, presents a dispassionate statement of the race problem as it appears in the procession of events and the result of these events upon the Negro. The statement of facts concerning the Negro's present status and condition is followed by a careful analysis and interpretation of these facts.—EDITOR.

## STATEMENT OF FACTS

SOME of the important facts about the Negroes of the nation in 1923 are: they are increasing numerically, they are a forward looking group and are making rapid progress. On the other hand, there is still a great deal of ignorance, inefficiency, poverty, and general backwardness to be found among them. As a group the Negroes of the country are optimistic, their confidence in themselves is increasing, they are trying to do the same things, make the same achievements which the white people have made. This is not a slavish imitation of the white man; it is a most serious effort to master modern civilization and to make it his own.

The 1920 census reported the Negro population of the nation to be 10,463,131, or 9.9 per cent of the total population. The proportion of Negroes in the total population is steadily decreasing mainly because of the rapid increase of the white population through immigration. The Negroes, however, constitute a considerable element of the population and the indications are that for a great many decades to come they will continue to do so.

The rate of increase of the Negro population, 6.5 per cent in 1920, as compared with 11.2 per cent increase for 1910 would appear to indicate that the Negro population is rapidly approaching a stationary state. It is of interest to note that for the decade 1860-1870 the rate of increase was 9.9 per cent, almost as low as for 1920. (1). The rate of increase for Negroes, 1850-1920, shows great fluctuation, part of which is explained by census revisions. The greater part of the difference between the rates of increase in 1850, 1860 and 1870 is due to the sudden change in the status of the Negro as a result of emancipation. The Negro was released from the soil and permitted to move about with a freedom and facility which he had not heretofore possessed. A somewhat similar state existed in the five years, 1916-1920. During this period there occurred the greatest economic and social change which the Negro had experienced since emancipation. This change was almost as sudden as that of emancipation and was accompanied by an even greater movement of population. The results in both periods because of this sudden change and great movement of population were that many Negroes were probably not enumerated in the cen-

sus and that birth and death rates were both affected.

Per Cent Increase of White and Negro Population, 1850-1920

<table><thead><tr><th>Census Years</th><th>Per Cent White</th><th>Increase Negroes</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>1850</td><td>37.7</td><td>26.6</td></tr><tr><td>1860</td><td>37.7</td><td>22.1</td></tr><tr><td>1870</td><td>24.8</td><td>9.9</td></tr><tr><td>1880</td><td>29.2</td><td>34.9</td></tr><tr><td>1890</td><td>27.0</td><td>13.5</td></tr><tr><td>1900</td><td>21.2</td><td>18.0</td></tr><tr><td>1910</td><td>22.3</td><td>11.2</td></tr><tr><td>1920</td><td>16.0</td><td>6.5</td></tr></tbody></table>

The indications are that the migrations of 1916-1920 and of 1922-1923 will probably not have as great an affect on the change of the proportion of Negroes North and South as is popularly supposed. What is happening is that while there is a rapid increase of the number of Negroes in the North the total number of Negroes remaining in the South continues to increase. This total in 1910 was 8,749,427 and in 1920, 8,912,231.

The movement of Negroes to the North is not to this section as a whole but rather to a few industrial centers. It is found that 1,139,505, or 73.4 per cent of the Negro population of the North is living in ten industrial districts, as follows:

<table><tbody><tr><td>Indianapolis District</td><td>47,550</td></tr><tr><td>Detroit-Toledo District</td><td>55,918</td></tr><tr><td>Cleveland-Youngstown District</td><td>58,850</td></tr><tr><td>Kansas City District</td><td>65,393</td></tr><tr><td>Pittsburgh District</td><td>88,273</td></tr><tr><td>Columbus-Cincinnati District</td><td>89,651</td></tr><tr><td>St. Louis District</td><td>102,607</td></tr><tr><td>Chicago District</td><td>131,580</td></tr><tr><td>Philadelphia District</td><td>248,343</td></tr><tr><td>New York District</td><td>251,340</td></tr></tbody></table>

Total .................................... 1,139,505

The so-called migration to the North is a part of the movement of Negroes to cities, both North and South. The increase of Negro urban population in the South, 1910-1920, was 396,444, or 56,000 more than the increase for the same period in the number of Negroes in the North from the South, 340,260. More than one-third, 34.0 per cent, of the total Negro population is living in urban territory. The census reports show an actual decrease of 234,876, or 3.4 per cent, in the Negro rural population of the country. In 1910 the number of Negroes reported as living in rural territory was 7,138,534. In 1920 the number thus living was reported to be 6,903,658.

(1) The census estimate of omissions of Negroes in Southern States in census count of 1870 is 512,000. See Vol. II., p. 15, of 1920 census report.

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Number and Per Cent of Negroes in United States
Living in Urban and Rural Communities, 1890-1920

<table><thead><tr><th rowspan="2">Year</th><th colspan="2">Number</th><th colspan="2">Per Cent</th></tr><tr><th>Urban</th><th>Rural</th><th>Urban</th><th>Rural</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>1920</td><td>3,559,473</td><td>6,903,658</td><td>34.0</td><td>66.0</td></tr><tr><td>1910</td><td>2,689,229</td><td>7,138,534</td><td>27.4</td><td>72.6</td></tr><tr><td>1900</td><td>2,005,972</td><td>6,828,022</td><td>22.7</td><td>77.3</td></tr><tr><td>1890</td><td>1,481,142</td><td>6,007,534</td><td>19.4</td><td>80.6</td></tr></tbody></table>

It would appear that the tendency for the concentration of Negroes in the black belt sections of the South is decreasing. The census reports show that these sections of the South in which there is a more rapid increase of Negroes do not correspond with the area of maximum density of Negro population. The number of counties in the South having half or more of their population Negroes is decreasing. There is also a decrease in the total Negro population of these counties. In 1860 there were in the South 244 counties in which half or more of the population were Negroes. The number of these counties in 1880 was 300; in 1890 the number was 282; in 1900 the number was 286; in 1910 the number was 264; and in 1920 the number was 219; that is the greatest number of these counties was in 1880 and the smallest number was in 1920. The population of the counties having half or more of their population Negroes was in 1880, 3,392,235; in 1890, 3,555,970; in 1900, 4,057,619; in 1910, 3,932,484; and in 1920, 3,242,439.

The white population of the South is increasing at a more rapid rate than the Negro population with a result that the proportion of Negroes in the population of the South is decreasing. In 1900 the percentage of Negroes in the South's population was 32.3; in 1910, 29.8; and in 1920, 27.0. There are now no cities of importance in the United States in which 50 per cent or more of their population are Negroes. It is very probable that the 1930 census will show that South Carolina and Mississippi will have a majority of whites. In 1920 Negroes constituted 51.4 per cent of the population of South Carolina and 52.2 per cent of the population of Mississippi.

The most recent available information indicates that the health of Negroes is improving. The death rates for Negroes are considerably higher than those for whites. Mortality statistics indicate that the death rates for both races are decreasing.

<table><caption>Death Rate per 1,000 for the Registration Area</caption><thead><tr><th></th><th>1910</th><th>1911</th><th>1912</th><th>1916</th><th>1920</th><th>1921</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><th>White</th><td>14.5</td><td>13.7</td><td>13.5</td><td>13.5</td><td>12.8</td><td>11.4</td></tr><tr><th>Colored</th><td>24.2</td><td>23.6</td><td>22.9</td><td>20.5</td><td>18.4</td><td>16.0</td></tr></tbody></table>

It appears that there is a greater decrease in the death rates for Negroes in recent years than that for whites. The decline of the rate for whites in the registration area in the period 1910-1921 was 22.7 per cent; that for Negroes, 33.8 per cent. The death rate for Negroes now is about what it was for whites twenty years ago. The rate for whites in 1900 was 17.1 per cent; that for Negroes in 1921 was 16.0 per cent. It further appears that at any one time the death rate among Negroes compares favorably with that of whites in many for-

eign countries as, for example, in 1910 the death rate was for Hungary, 23.6 per cent; Rumania, 24.8 per cent; Spain, 23.3 per cent; Austria, 21.3 per cent; Negroes of the United States, 24.2 per cent.

Life insurance tables show that there is a broadening of the lifespan of insured Negroes. The Metropolitan Life Insurance Company recently stated that in the two years, 1911-1912, the expected life-span of the colored male policyholders at age ten was 41.32 years. In 1922, the expectation was 46.74 years, an increase of about 5 1-2 years or 13.1 per cent. The increase of life expectancy during the same period for insured white males was 6.3 years or 13.8 per cent. The life expectancy for colored female policyholders at age ten increased from 41.30 years in 1911-1912 to 46.07 years in 1922 which is a gain of about 5 years or 11.5 per cent and is a better record than the increase, 3.8 years or 7.5 per cent for insured white females. This indicates that better economic conditions and better living conditions and changes in life and labor which have recently come to the Negro are tending to increase his lifespan.

When compared with the wealth of the nation the wealth of Negroes is small. Since their emancipation, however, the property accumulation of Negroes has rapidly increased from some $20,000,000 in 1866 to over $1,500,000,000 in 1923. Through purchases and increases in value, their property holdings are increasing at the rate of about $50,-000,000 per year. The lands which they now own amount to more than 22,000,000 acres or over 34,000 square miles, an area greater than that of the five New England States, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island. Home owning is an important phase of property accumulation. It is estimated that Negroes now own over six hundred thousand homes; that is, one home out of every four which they have established is owned. This is a remarkable showing and has great significance for the future of the race. It is safe to say that any people, starting with a handicap of poverty and ignorance, who can in fifty years become owners of one-fourth of all the homes which they occupy are making progress along those lines which make for a high degree of citizenship.

With respect to the education of the Negro it is found that there is much improvement. The illiteracy of the group has decreased from 70.0 per cent in 1880 to 22.9 per cent in 1920. Negro education in 1923 shows great progress when compared with that of former years. This is true with respect to equipment and facilities both in public schools and secondary schools and in colleges. Formerly the same schools did work from the kindergarten to college and professional training. The tendency now is to confine a particular grade of work to schools of that grade; that is, elementary work to elementary schools, secondary work to secondary schools, and collegiate work to colleges. Although during the past fifty years there has been

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great progress in Negro education the equipment and facilities in Negro schools today are on the whole far below those in white schools. A large part of the rural schools in the South are still without school buildings and the average length of the terms of many of these schools is still from three to five months. Although the Negroes constitute about 11 per cent of the total population of the country, only a little more than 2 per cent of the $1,300,000,000 expended annually for education is spent upon them.

The Negroes as a group are rising in the scale of occupations and now have a better economic footing than at any time since their emancipation. The Negroes in 1923 are found in many and varied occupations; in fact, there are very few, if any, occupations or grades of occupations in which there are not some Negroes. The distribution of Negroes ten years and over with reference to occupations as reported in the 1920 census is shown in the following table:

<table><thead><tr><th>Occupations</th><th>Number</th><th>Per Cent<br>Distribution</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>Agriculture</td><td>2,178,888</td><td>45.2</td></tr><tr><td>Domestic and Personal Service</td><td>1,064,590</td><td>22.1</td></tr><tr><td>Manufacturing and Mechanical<br>Industries</td><td>886,810</td><td>18.4</td></tr><tr><td>Trade and Transportation</td><td>452,888</td><td>9.4</td></tr><tr><td>Professional Work</td><td>80,183</td><td>1.7</td></tr><tr><td>Mining Industries</td><td>73,229</td><td>1.5</td></tr><tr><td>Public Service, Municipal, State<br>and Federal</td><td>50,552</td><td>1.0</td></tr><tr><td>Clerical Occupations</td><td>37,011</td><td>0.8</td></tr></tbody></table>

## The Negro and Civil Rights

The status of the Negro with respect to civil rights in 1923 is that he must look to the several states for whatever civil rights he wishes to secure under the guarantee of the Constitution through the 14th Amendment. After the United States Supreme Court in 1883 declared the Civil Rights Bill of 1875 unconstitutional, the burden of securing for the Negroes equality of accommodations in public places was placed upon the states. Since that time seventeen states outside of the South have adopted civil rights bills which practically copied the Civil Rights Bill of 1875. These states are Connecticut, Iowa, New Jersey, Ohio, Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, Rhode Island, New York, Pennsylvania, Washington, Wisconsin and California.

Laws for the separation of races in public conveyances are now in force in Tennessee, Florida, Mississippi, Texas, Louisiana, Alabama, Kentucky, Arkansas, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland and Oklahoma.

Separate school laws with respect to races are now in force in Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, and West Virginia.

Laws to restrict the suffrage with special application to the Negro are now in force in Mississippi,

South Carolina, Louisiana, North Carolina, Alabama, Virginia, Georgia and Oklahoma.

The laws restricting suffrage appear to operate to disfranchise both whites and Negroes. An indication of this is shown by a comparison of the votes cast in Southern States in the 1920 presidential election with the number of males, white and Negro, of voting age in these states. It appears that from one-half to four-fifths of the males of voting age are not voting, 83 per cent in South Carolina and 58 per cent in Alabama. Because of the growing intelligence of Negroes in the South and the progress which they are making along all lines, suggestions are being made with respect to their admission to a greater extent to the exercise of the franchise. Some of the prominent white newspapers of the South have stated that it would be a good thing to increase the number of Negro voters and "It would not endanger white supremacy and it could not lead to Negro supremacy." In spite of disabilities Negroes are taking more and more interest both North and South in politics. The Negro newspapers of the South are urging Negroes to qualify for voting. As over against national politics the tendency appears to be to take more and more interest in local politics. The reason for this is that Negroes are appreciating to a larger extent those civic advantages which come largely through politics; such as better educational facilities, better police protection, better sanitary conditions, etc.

## A Growing Race Consciousness

The racial struggle of the years has gradually resulted in the Negro thinking largely in terms of his race, and as a result of this there has evolved a racial consciousness. This race or group consciousness of the Negro is growing. This growth is manifesting itself in various ways important among which are an increasing interest in race literature, more faith in race leadership, a demand for patronage of Negro businesses, a tendency to boycott white firms which do not treat the Negro with courtesy, and a tendency to move away from communities in which lynchings have occurred.

Organization is an indication of the growth of racial consciousness. This means not only organizations through the church, through secret societies, but also organizations for the betterment of conditions, for better educational facilities, for civic improvement, for economic development, and for greater participation in politics. There are among Negroes national organizations as follows: professional, (including education, law, and medicine); business; labor, for political and civic advancement; and organizations in the interest of women.

Another phase of the growth of race consciousness is that the Negro is developing a literature of his own. Through his numerous newspapers, periodicals, books, and articles he is becoming more and more able to set forth his own needs, to state his own case, and to champion his own cause.

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## Race Relations

Since the Negro and the white man live as two separate groups the relations of these groups present a situation that has become a matter of vital importance to both races. The main facts about race relations are that prejudice and discriminations continue. There are lynchings and occasional riots. There is an apparent growth and spread of both tolerance and intolerance. This is a result of a wider and a more continued contact which the Negro group is establishing with the white group. The friendly relations of the two groups are being furthered by the inter-racial cooperation movement which is bringing representatives of the two groups into working relations with each other. The spirit of inter-racial cooperation appears to be growing. There is more and more of a disposition for the white people of the South to aid in efforts for the betterment of conditions among Negroes. Another phase of race relations is that the Negro group is tending to share to a larger degree in the community life. Its importance as a part of the community is being more and more recognized and community activities are being extended to this group. This group is also being asked to participate in the community activities, and as a result, the Negro group is tending to take a more active part in community life.

## The Negro Is an Asset of the Nation

The Negro is one of the most valuable assets of the nation's population elements. The conditions brought about by the World War gave the Negro opportunity to demonstrate in a striking way his importance as an economic asset to the nation. The crisis which developed in the nation by reason of the World War disclosed the fact that many elements of the population were a weakness to the nation and in some instances a hindrance and a danger. It was found that the Negro along with the native American element was one of the strongest assets which the nation had and that in every instance he remained loyal to the nation in spite of German propaganda. When called upon to contribute of his wealth for the prosecution of the war he made a proportionately larger contribution than did any other group. Over $225,000,000 was contributed which is more than $20 for each man, woman, and child of the race. The Negroes offered themselves freely for service in the World War and furnished a larger percentage for their group than did the whites for their group—70.41 per cent of the whites and 74.60 per cent of the Negroes were accepted for service, and 26.84 per cent of the whites and 31.74 per cent of the Negroes were accepted for full military service. As combat troops, as pioneer and working battalions, and in whatever service the Negro was placed he acquitted himself with credit and honor. They were the first soldiers of the American expeditionary forces to get into action and the first soldiers of the American army to be decorated for bravery.

## II.

## ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION

In order to properly analyze and interpret the race problem in 1923 it is important to first consider the problem historically; that is, what was the race problem in the United States in the Ante-Bellum Period and in the Reconstruction Period. It is also well to point out what have been the permanent factors and elements in the race problem during these periods. These permanent factors and elements appear to be race differences, race prejudice, racial friction or race conflict, and efforts for racial adjustment. These factors and elements are found to be present and to constitute the race problem anywhere at any time.

During the Ante-Bellum Period there was both a slavery question and a race question and both were concerned with the same group of people. The slavery question was in the main a question of status; that is, whether those Negroes held as slaves should continue to be slaves or be freed. The race question in the main was one of relations and while including status it was broader because it dealt with relations of black and white whether bond or free. The main features of the race problem during the Ante-Bellum Period were the questions of the relation of master to slave, the right of the slave, the laws relating to the slave, the rights of the free Negro and the laws relating to him and restrictions imposed upon him. The Post-Bellum Period, that is, the Period of Reconstruction, saw the Negro group change from a group part of which was free and part slave with the free only a little above that of the slave as to status and citizens' rights to a group which under the Constitution was accorded all the rights and privileges that had hitherto been accorded only to the white group. This sudden change from the status of slaves and free Negroes to freedmen with full citizenship rights resulted in much confusion and conflict and also in violence which found its expression in the riots of the Reconstruction Period and in the reign of the Ku Klux Klan. Organized discriminations found their expression at a somewhat later period in laws which restricted the rights and privileges of the Negro with respect to schools, with respect to public places, public conveyances, and with reference to the franchise. These restrictions were to a very large degree modified applications of the restrictions which in the Ante-Bellum Period had been imposed upon the free Negro.

In the Ante-Bellum Period the problem of racial adjustment was primarily that of accommodation; that is, of adjusting the slave group to the interests and needs of the master group without any change in status of the slave group and without any special effort to better the social and moral conditions of the group. The basis of adjustment in the Post-Bellum Period and since has been primarily that of assimilation; that is, to take this group of freedmen and by giving them the opportunity for economic, educational, moral, and religious development to

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make them a real part of the nation. The two phases of adjustment, accommodation and assimilation, while in a sense complementary to each other, have continued to the present time in more or less opposition to each other. The accommodation phase of adjustment has been largely expressed in the efforts to continue to keep the Negro in the same relations to the white group as obtained during the period of slavery. This has been crystallized in the expression, "Keep the Negro in his place." It is well to point out here that by assimilation is not meant either miscegenation or amalgamation, although the mulatto element in the Negro group is increasing not so much, however, through miscegenation as through marriage within the group; that is, the marriage of the mulatto with mulatto and the marriage of the mulatto with the so-called black. (1).

## Methods of Dealing with the Race Problem

Until recently the race problem has been dealt with largely from a coercive standpoint. By the coercive method we mean that adjustment is sought by agitation and compulsion particularly by means of the enactment of laws. In the handling of the race problem, as of other social problems, agitation and coercive methods have their place and their value.

During the Reconstruction Period and for some considerable time after, the major portion of the discussion of the race problem was largely in northern periodicals by means of articles written by northern writers, by Negroes, and by southern writers. The present tendency in the discussion of the race problem is that, in general, these discussions and suggestions are more and more often being published in the press of the region where the particular phases of the problem in discussion exist. Whereas formerly the greater part of the discussion of the race problem was in the magazines, by far the greater portion of the present discussions are in the newspapers, white and colored. The present tendency with reference to discussing the race problem in the South by residents of that section appears to be that when an individual, white or black, wishes to express himself on the race problem he more often publishes his views in a southern paper than in a northern paper, thus more effectively molding opinion in the section in which he lives.

The next step resulting from this molding of opinion is the coming together of whites and Negroes in conferences with reference to outlining a basis of adjustment. We have as a result and as an outgrowth of these conferences what is known as the Inter-racial Cooperation Movement, which is

primarily an effort of southern whites and Negroes to get together on a basis of cooperation.

The inter-racial conference method of handling the race problem has universal application. The general advantage is that representatives of the interested groups may meet face to face and outline a policy that is of mutual benefit to both groups. Another aspect of the universality of this method is that it is very closely related to and embodies the idea of working with and not for a group. Under assimilation (the inter-racial method), things are done for the best interest of the two groups and for the general good. But under the accommodation method things are done by one group for the other.

There was inter-racial cooperation during both the Ante-Bellum and Post-Bellum Periods. The Post-Bellum Period was especially notable for inter-racial cooperation. This cooperation, however, was of a kind that did not attract public attention for the reason that it was not organized and was for the most part of individuals with individuals and for religious, economic, and educational purposes. The present inter-racial movement is organized and has specific stated ends for which it is working. These ends are in a general way to secure social justice, a square deal for the Negro, and to bring about the cooperation of whites with Negroes for the best interest of the South and of the nation.

## The Race Problem No Longer Sectional
But National

The race problem in the United States is no longer sectional. It has always been national in that it concerned the whole nation; but so long as there were comparatively few Negroes in the North and the problem in its acuteness was in the South, it was thought of as being sectional. It was on this ground that the statement was often made that the South should be permitted to handle the problem in its own way. The recent migration of the Negro has made the problem in its acuteness a national one. It should be considered, not as a problem of the Negro in the South or the Negro in the North, but as a problem of the nation.

## World Contacts

The Negro groups of the world by means of the World War came into strikingly influencing contact with each other. This contact has been strengthened and continued through the perfecting of world methods of communication and the general diffusion of knowledge concerning what is going on in every part of the world. The Negroes by means of the literature which they have developed in America, in Africa, in the West Indies, and through the general literature of the world have continued this contact. The Negroes in America know what the Negroes in Africa and in the West Indies are thinking. The Pan-African Movement and the so-called Garvey Movement are the direct results of this contact through communication which the Negroes in different parts of the world have established. It is probable that it will be very difficult for the prob-

(1) Census reports the number of mulattoes in 1920 as being 1,660,554, or 390,132 less than the number, 2,050,686, for 1910. Some probable causes for this apparent decrease are (1) as already noted above, many Negroes were probably not enumerated in 1920; (2) many mulattoes of dark complexion were returned as blacks; (3) many mulattoes of very light complexion were returned as whites.

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lem of the Negro in America, the problem of the Negro in the West Indies, and the problem of the Negro in Africa to be handled as one universal problem to the Negro. These groups, however, may be able to give moral and other support to each other.

## Progress and the Race Problem

It is sometimes stated that the progress of the Negro will be a solution of the race problem. The facts, however, indicate that progress, instead of being a solution of the problem, may sometimes intensify, complicate, and make it more difficult. The Negro by reason of his making progress along all lines is coming into contact with the white group in many and varied ways. This contact has two tendencies; one favorable, one unfavorable. One tends to increase friction, the other to promote more friendly relations. An important part of the adjusting of the race problem is to reduce friction and to bring about more friendly relations, more inter-racial cooperation.

# The Housing of Negro Immigrants in Pennsylvania

By BERNARD J. NEWMAN

THE background of any picture of the housing of an immigrant people in a city or state is always the housing that exists there at the time of their arrival, particularly the housing of the people of the same economic level as themselves. Hence, in any discussion of the living accommodations of the Negro families which have recently come to Pennsylvania, there must be kept clearly in mind the picture of conditions which existed in Pennsylvania when these newcomers entered the State. Let us review these conditions:

First—There was the housing shortage, affecting a large percentage of the low-wage earning and renting class.

Second—There was an unchecked and increasingly vicious rent profiteering being practiced upon this same group.

Third—In a measure because of the housing shortage and rent profiteering, though equally due to other causes, there was a widespread prevalence of insanitation and congested occupancy.

Fourth—Racial attractions and antipathies were reacting upon special groups, including Pennsylvania Negroes, and forcing segregation.

I need not elaborate upon these points. I cannot justify the inertia of our State which has permitted these conditions to exist. Our concern with them now is simply to refresh our memory to the housing situation which confronted the Negro migrants from the South who sought out our industries as an aid to improve their economic status, and who crossed our boundaries with the hope that they were entering upon greater social and civic opportunities.

There are other points which we must bear in mind, however, when we consider the problems of

## Progress is Making the Negro a More Assimilable Group

During the days of slavery through the house servant and mechanic, the free Negro class and in other ways the Negro group was in contact with the best culture of the South. Since emancipation through northern education the Negro, as a group, has been in touch with the best culture and traditions of the North. The Negroes of America, as a group, have no traditions binding them to another country or another culture. They have no heritages in the sense that the foreign elements of the country have. No part of the Negro group is advocating that the group should not acquire the culture of the nation; on the other hand, the whole effort of the group is to foster the ideals of America and to make progress not only as Negroes but as Americans.

*This article in large part appeared in the JOURNAL OF SOCIAL FORCES for January, 1924, and is carried in this magazine with several important corrections and additions.*

these people, and by means of which we may clarify our thoughts as to their needs and help to determine the possible relief measures, the adoption of which may be feasible.

When a family comes to a new city to take up residence there, they are controlled in their choice of a dwelling by their economic ability to pay rent, by the type of houses available within that limit, and by the attitude of the community toward them. If there are plenty of available houses, other things being normal, the selection of a home is comparatively simple. But if there are few or no houses for rent within their means, they must then decide either—

First—To take a dwelling larger than their needs, at a higher rental than they can afford and eke out the difference by letting rooms to lodgers, or by reducing their expenditures for other essentials; or

Second—To take houses discarded as unfit by others and make the best of the hazards involved; or

Third—To reduce their standard of living and occupy apartments too small to meet their needs; or

Fourth—To give up housekeeping and go to boarding, to become lodgers themselves; or

Fifth—To go into temporary camps.

The southern Negro coming into Pennsylvania had, in most of our cities, just this restricted field of choice. While many who came brought with them substantial savings, or entered into work that paid them well, thus enabling them to make a better selection of a dwelling, yet large numbers were obliged to restrict their choice and were housed under subnormal conditions. They came to a state

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where the housing problem for persons of their
means was already acute. They unknowingly helped
to accentuate this problem. They did not create it,
but they did intensify it. It is of these that I wish
to speak. And, because I am more familiar with
the problem they present in Philadelphia, I will
draw my illustrations wholly from that city and its
environs. The cross section is sufficient since it
covers more than one-half the Negro population of
the state, according to the 1920 census.

The background of the picture of Negro migrant housing in Philadelphia is practically the same as that for the state at large. We have our housing shortage, affecting tens of thousands of the low-wage earning class. We have our mounting rentals, exceeding, in many instances, by over 100 per cent, rentals charged for the same accommodations in 1914. We have widespread overcrowding and insanitation. We have old houses inherited by the poor as cheaper rental properties but miserable in their fitting for human habitation. Into a large number of these buildings and areas, a Negro population already had been forced to move. Thus when the new Negro immigrant came to the city, he found his choice restricted and he went where doubling-up was understood and taken for granted.

We do not know how many newcomers have thus
obtained residence in Philadelphia, though from sev-
eral surveys that have been made it is estimated the
number approximates 10,500 per year for the past
two years. Some found individual houses in the
newer areas opening up to colored occupancy. But
by far the majority went into the old areas. A spot
map of migrant families, reported to the Migration
Committee and made in the office of the Housing
Association, shows that the bulk of the known resi-
dences of these migrants was in the old and densely
populated Negro centers in the Middle City, South
Philadelphia, and West Philadelphia. Proportion-
ately fewer were in Germantown. Wherever they
have settled in the already congested districts, they
have packed in a few more families than were there
before. Cases are very numerous where practically
every room in a dwelling has been turned into an
apartment or lodgings. Thus on violation cards on
file at the Housing Association may be noted: a
house of six rooms on Waverly Street, occupied by
five families; a four-room house on Kenilworth
Street, occupied by three families; on Sharswood
Street a six-room house with four families, nineteen
persons in all; on South 16th Street, twelve rooms
with nine families and one lodger; on Chancellor
Street, three rooms with two families and also two
lodgers who sleep during the day, eight persons in
all; on South 13th Street, a house of eighteen rooms
occupied by sixteen families.

This same crowding that forces one-room occu-
pancy also forces the overcrowding of single rooms,
in some cases five persons to a room; in other cases
more. On Segal Street, two migrant families, seven
persons, occupied one sleeping room; on North
Woodstock Street, a family of five lived in one
room; while on South 70th Street, three families

were found in one large room, sixteen persons in
all. Situated over a garage, the only sanitary equip-
ment in this room was a spigot and sink. No toilet
was on the premises. Frequently old stores are con-
verted to serve as apartments.

High rents accompany almost every case of overcrowding. Usually one-room apartments are sub-let on a weekly basis and seldom does the rent fall as low as $3.50 per week. Rents on such a basis of occupancy vary, but one house of six rooms returned a rental of $81.00 a month; another, of nine rooms, netted $108.00 a month; a house of twelve rooms brought in $224.00 a month; one six-room house which rented in 1914 to one family for $14.00 a month was changed into three apartments, by the addition of a sink and toilet on the second floor, and now brings in $100.00 a month; and still another house rented to a migrant for $65.00 a month was sub-let by him to 38 persons, nearly all migrants, so as to return him almost $100.00 a week. It had one toilet in the yard and no bath or toilet in the house.

It would be only repetition to say that insanita-
tion and incomplete sanitary equipment go with
such occupancy conditions. To the one-room occu-
pancy, anyone making an enumeration of the housing
evils attending such living would have to add cellar
and attic living, obstructed drainage, disrepair,
accumulation of rubbish and filth, and other nui-
sances unmentionable. One day's inspection of 63
such houses uncovered 90 violations of the Housing
Law.

The situation has reached the point where some
constructive program to meet it must be promoted.
That program has many ramifications but insofar
as it is concerned with the housing of the migrants,
it is no different from the program which is needed
to meet the same housing situation for all low-wage
earning groups. It can be summarized as follows:

First—An adequate sanitary law and efficient sanitary inspection to uncover and to correct nuisance conditions and congested occupancy;

Second—The erection of more houses on a low cost
basis to rent to low-wage earning groups.

Private initiative can do much to carry on this
program, but State encouragement may be necessary
to stimulate such private initiative. New York
State has shown the way and has made remarkable
progress through the adoption of a program for New
York City, the main features of which are—

First—Tax exemption for houses built during a stated period for sale at less than $5,000 per dwelling or per apartment in a tenement house. As a result of this legislation, during the year 1922 New York City erected one-fourth of all the building construction in the entire country. Its program for new dwelling construction alone provided, during that year, for about 100,000 families in new homes, or for approximately 500,000 persons. The tremendous increase over previous construction records can be seen when the contrast is made with 1920 prior to the enactment of this legislation. Then the total number of families provided for in new houses was only 14,323, or accommodations for about 71,000 persons.

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FEBRUARY, 1924

"In many ways the best standard for human dimensions would be the distance of the sternal notch from the buttocks, that is, the sitting height of the sternal notch."

"Negro soldiers are more variable than whites."

"Increase of stature may come of good treatment."

"Average height for United States Army 67.49 inches."

"Difference between white and colored .01 inches."

"The Negro groups appear better nourished than those groups that contain an excess of native whites. This is possibly due to the greater resistance on the part of the Negroes to those parasites that tend to keep down weight."

"Negroes were found to be more variable in stature than the whites."

"Negro troops are slightly heavier and show a greater variability in weight than the white troops."

"The chest girth of the Negro troops was relatively somewhat less than that of whites."

"The best index of build is debatable."

"The general comparative picture we get of the white troops (including a great variety of races) and the Negro troops is this: The Negro troops have relatively longer arms and legs, shorter trunks, narrower pelvis, more nearly circular ellipse of cross section of the chest; larger, shorter neck; more nearly parallel outlines of the trunk, larger girth of leg, and a greater weight than the whites. The waist is less marked because of the relatively small transverse diameter of the pelvis and chest and the greater circumference of the waist. The Negro seems more powerfully developed from the pelvis down and the white more powerfully developed in the chest.

"In summary, then, the main differences of shape between Negro and white troops are that the former have relatively longer appendages, shorter trunks, head and neck, broader shoulders, narrower pelvis, and greater girth of neck, length of thigh and calf, than the latter."

When we note that these data are based on the examination of 93,185 white men and 6,264 colored, the comparative inadequacy of the Negro data becomes at once apparent. America's greatest crime against the Negro is hasty generalization. We are neither all sinners, nor all saints. Most of us are "just folks." A reasonable appraisement of individual worth is a fundamental condition of racial adjustment. We ourselves are not guiltless. We are apt to accept at face-value, praise, and reject as naught all criticism, forgetting that those who are coddled will be kicked.

In health matters we are apt to over-value certain favorable statistics from selected groups, as insurance patrons and northern migrants. Policyholders of life insurance are not only physically a select group, but the fact of having such a policy indicates a kind of forward-looking providence that is a factor of both health and longevity. The present day northern migrant, like his precursor

of a past generation, the fugitive slave, is apt to be above the average in physical endurance, moral stamina, or intellectual alertness, frequently all three. Such statistics have their value but must not in sound reasoning be accepted as having a racial application.

Education, especially the so-called "higher education," should furnish the student a background of culture upon which to build correct health habits and to formulate sound health judgments—freeing him from the blandishments and deceptions of quacks and dreamers. Many of our institutions are awaking to this responsibility. The author of this article is trying to give these ideas material objectivity at Fisk University.

Oscar Peschel, the German geographer and philosopher, says of his people:

"We have appeared on the arena of history as the creators and guardians of the treasures of culture."

This is a fair sample of race inequality doctrinaire logic. Germany's exclusive claim is as good and as bad as anybody's else. "Civilization is the altruistic fruition of the ages and rests upon man's unselfish service to man. Every one who does a kind deed is a contributor, from the humble slave who did his duty in the dim and distant past, to the brilliant inventor of today; and while it is the patrimony of mankind, the white man is the present administrator. He must, however, deal fairly with all the heirs or vacate his office; for civilization is the product of no particular breed of men and is, therefore, the heritage of all. Universality will mean perpetuation. World-wide peace can only come with world-wide democracy."*

The colored writers are too apt to content themselves with a quid pro quo argument. This will not do. We cannot construct upon negation. Truth is universal and eternal, but its interpretation is epochal and racial. Statistics cannot become fair until racial bias and ethnic predilection are eliminated. Both races must face the truth. Nature has no step-children. Differences in feature and stature are not to be resolved into terms of superiority of inferiority. These differences are incidental, environmental, or cultural. "There is but one species of man."***

"Humanity seems to move in a confused medley of the most diverse and composite forms, without any of them being able to persist."***

There are no permanently distinctive racial lines in either Anatomy, Physiology, or Pathology; Statistical Compilations, Statural Measurements and Health Codes to the contrary notwithstanding.

American mortuary returns disclosed no lethal diseases peculiar to the Negro. Statistics of stature based on environmental status are determinative of health potentialities in neither body nor mind.

*American Civilization and The Negro—

Roman, Chap. XIII.

**The Races of Man—Deniker, p. 120

***American Civilization and The Negro—Roman, p. 194

FEBRUARY, 1924

OPPORTUNITY

Pennsylvania Holds an Inter-racial Conference

THE Department of Public Welfare of the State of Pennsylvania thru its Director, Dr. Ellen C. Potter, formally initiated the State's program for remedying the needs of its Negro population by holding on January 3, in the Senate Caucus Room of the State Capitol, a conference of social organizations of the State whose activities among this group were felt to have exposed them to these problems. This Conference was attended by about 150 white and Negro delegates from different sections of the State, and their views as expressed are given in part and in substance.

Dr. Ellen C. Potter, Director of the Department of Welfare, State of Pennsylvania, and Chairman of the Conference: "It is one of the functions of the Department of Welfare to focus public opinion upon the needs of the people of the State and upon the necessary programs for meeting these needs. As a preliminary, it is a custom of the Department to confer with the members of the groups most concerned, to get a consensus of their opinions about what is most needed and what programs are most urgent.... Dependency does not seem to be the principal problem of the Negro population. Recently many able-bodied men have come into the State from the South, and some of these have brought money with them."

Governor Gifford Pinchot: "I was brought up 'on both sides of the house.' In my early childhood I had colored friends...I have lived both in the North and in the South and acquired some impression of the difficulties and needs of the colored population....No better thing to my mind can be done than the getting together of members of the two races in some such manner as you have done today. You are probably aware that I have had in mind the appointment of an Inter-racial Commission. The names of these members I hope to be able to announce in the near future. ... We want to put this administration squarely on record as to its attitude toward this problem and toward the new problems which have recently arisen. ... This administration proposes to do everything in its power to meet the issues openly and above board—to deal with the problem as it is. ... We must bring the two sides of the house together to work for the mutual good of both sides of the house. ... The minute you try to do it on one side alone, you begin to do things wrong. ... We shall insist upon equal rights and equal consideration based not upon color but upon the value of the individual."

Dr. Henry M. Minton, Superintendent of Mercy Hospital, Philadelphia, Pa.: "There are three diseases to which Negroes are susceptible,—tuberculosis, venereal disease, small-pox. This susceptibility is not due to race but to bad housing, insanitation, and ignorance. The same difference would be found, if studied, between the

laboring classes and the more favored wealthy classes of society. ... Emphasis upon health work for Negroes in Philadelphia began around 1914. The Henry Phipps House had an average attendance of about 50 Negroes a year for health treatment. Negro physicians and Negro nurses were employed, and in 1923 the number of Negroes receiving attention increased to 700 new cases a year.... I recommend the establishment of 'health clinics' in various cities where Negroes from the South live, manned by Negro physicians and Negro nurses. Let the state issue pamphlets, to be distributed by social workers who meet the trains, to the incoming Negroes; also, use the Associated Negro Press, with its circulation in the South, to advise Negroes where they may receive health treatment. The cases of small-pox among southern Negroes which have become serious in Philadelphia may in this manner be reduced, for when these people are drawn to the health centers a thorough examination can be given them and the physicians would be able to discover other disabilities and direct them to the appropriate clinics for treatment. Negro physicians know best the needs of Negroes and ought to be in charge in all things in which Negroes especially are concerned."

Dr. Turnbull, Director of the Pennsylvania Department of Health: "I have been interested in the health problems of the Negro population, but it has not been clear just what ought to be done. The suggestions made by Dr. Minton are good and the Department will do what it can to carry them out."

Dr. Mossell, of Philadelphia: "Where we make this problem a race problem, we defeat our own ends. If the State has funds they should be divided among the people who need the care of the State, without regard to race or color. The laboring classes produce the wealth. Where there is segregation and exclusion, there will be resentment. It ought not to be necessary to have a conference in this form here at all. To duplicate institutions means doubling of expenses."

Mrs. Layton, of Philadelphia: "With exorbitant rents Negroes are forced to resort to many practices, and they can boot-leg just as any other kind of a man. With the present condition of congestion, children are exposed to an exhibition of many objectionable and infectious practices."

Mr. L. B. Moore: "Something should come out of this association of the minds of both races. The colored people from the South have brought with them everything they have,—money, household goods, small-pox—everything they have.... My people don't always know what to eat or how to eat what they get."

Mr. White, recent appointee on the Boxing Commission of Pennsylvania: "The greatest menace in the migration is that to morals. We took a

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FEBRUARY, 1924

revolver away from a boy at school. On inquiry we learned that he had taken it from his father to keep him from shooting his mother. The lodger situation had broken up this home, the husband accusing his wife of improper relations. They finally separated."

Dr. R. R. Wright, Jr., of the A. M. E. Church: "No one has said anything about the churches here. Health education can be done among the Negroes only thru the cooperation of the churches. ...Hospital discrimination interferes with health development among Negroes. The sick man ought to be admitted where sick persons are treated. Health is health, and race is race."

Dr. Charles R. Zahnizer, Secretary of the Pittsburgh Council of Churches: "You cannot make any far-reaching recreational programs and ignore the church. Practically every Negro is connected with a church. They are the most universally churched of any group. The church is the one organization in which they can express themselves, but I do not believe it is a function of the church to take leadership in recreational programs. It is their duty to see that recreational improvements are made and kept wholesome."

Mrs. E. W. Moore, of Pittsburgh: "We have been handicapped by a lack of cooperation on the part of ministers who feel that recreation is secular and that things which they do not understand should be dealt with an 'absent treatment' or by antagonism."

Dr. Gibson, of Pittsburgh: "The greatest socializing influence is the Lord Jesus Christ. The colored people respond to case building better than anybody else. To the Home for Homeless Men, conducted by the Society for the Improvement of the Poor, 500 men come every night. They are 'down and outs.' We never turn anybody away. Someone has asked why we do not allow a floor for colored men. It would not do. The men who come to us are the worst types in the city and it would not do to mix them with the Negroes. We spend $250,000 a year on this work."

Mr. John T. Clark of the Pittsburgh Urban League: "We have been urging the Society for the Improvement of the Poor to allow us some accommodation for the many homeless Negro 'down and outs,' but they have not seen fit to let Negroes come in. We told them that if it was fear of mixing the men, one floor might be allowed them with communication direct from the outside, so that they would never see each other. This was refused. The problem is serious. There is a group of Negroes in Philadelphia who could do much to relieve their housing difficulty by building on a plot which they have, but the city states that it is not in position to make any extension of facilities through them."

Mrs. Daisy Lampkins, a member of the Executive Board of the Pittsburgh Urban League:

"Our ten welfare men in industrial plants in the Pittsburgh district might be considered 'one man inter-racial committees,' for they stand between white employers and the Negro worker, and Negroes in the small communities....Negro workers need the feeling of 'belonging'...Discrimination and segregation are the heart of the problem in Pittsburgh. A Negro physician cannot be graduated from the University of Pennsylvania because no hospital will allow him to come in for his clinical work. The Negro women who come to McGhee Hospital for confinement are not even allowed in the General Ward; they are carried into the basement."

Mrs. Anne Biddle Stirling, of the Philadelphia Inter-racial Committee: "The Inter-racial Committee of Philadelphia is trying scientifically to get at the bottom of stupid inhibitions on the race question and root them out and replace them with something constructive. It is beginning its work not with the older people, who are hardened in their traditions, but with the children in school. We have placed pamphlets carrying authentic information about the Negroes in the schools, beginning with the Quaker institutions....All of us have had some sort of 'inferiority complex.' I had one. I lived in the country. My cousins lived in the city. That thing troubled me for years. If such a little thing could trouble a person as much as this did me, think of what the Negro's status must mean to him."

Miss Edith Dallas, House of the Holy Child, Philadelphia, Pa.: "In 1918 a survey revealed that there were in Philadelphia 8,000 beds available for dependent white children and 340 for colored. The situation is not changed today."

Miss Pelly, of Philadelphia: "I am convinced that we child placing agencies are placing many children who should not be placed away from home, children for whom other arrangements could be made....It should not be how many children we have placed, but how many we have placed with their parents, relatives, and friends."

Dr. Porter, of Philadelphia: "Our problem is not altogether with the Negroes from the South. It is with ourselves."

The Findings Committee appointed by Dr. Potter, whose membership included Leslie Pinckney Hill, John T. Emlen, Abraham Epstein, Dr. Sadie Mossell-Alexander, and Reverend J. W. Talley recommended (a) that an expression of appreciation be tendered Dr. Potter for calling the conference and (b) that a thoroughly scientific survey be conducted under the Department of Welfare for ascertaining exact needs and providing a basis upon which to formulate an effective program of action. It was further intimated that this Committee after a second meeting (to be held in Philadelphia) would make more definite recommendations concerning the survey, and that another general meeting would be called.

FEBRUARY, 1924

OPPORTUNITY

Alexis Sergiewitch Pushkin

By EDNA WORTHLEY UNDERWOOD

Alexis Sergiewitch Pushkin

ALEXIS SERGIEWITCH PUSHKIN was born in Moscow in May of the last year of the Great Century—1799—the same year in which Heine was born, and a year which saw the birth of numerous statesmen and men of letters. On his father's side he came of an old and celebrated family of the nobility that had been prominent in state affairs for generations. On his mother's side he was a descendant of Ibrahim Hannibal, the Negro of Peter the Great.

His nurse, Arina Rodionovna, developed his imaginative nature in his childhood by telling him fairy tales and legends, and singing to him the folk songs of Russia. When he was grown, Pushkin acknowledged his great indebtedness to her. It was she who, together with his grandmother Maria Alexevna, taught him to read and write the Russian tongue. His first regular instruction, however, was received from French tutors.

At nine years of age a passion for reading took possession of him. He devoured everything in his grandfather's library, which was made up, as were the libraries of Russian noblemen at that day, of French books; Voltaire, Rousseau, and the Encyclopedists. French was really his mother tongue. He wrote his first poems in it. Pushkin's father was a courtly nobleman of the distinguished period

of Catherine the Great. His father had literary and artistic friends, and as a child, in Moscow, in his own home he met Karamzin, Batouchkov, and others. He wrote verses almost as soon as he was able to write words of any kind.

When he became old enough he was sent to Tsarskoe Selo, where he gave less attention to study than to amusement. However, even at this time, his poetic gift attracted attention and won him the friendship of the grey-haired Derzhavin, the one time friend of Catherine the Great, who prophesied rightly enough his brilliant future. At this school Pushkin, Baron Delvig, Goncharov, and others, edited a little journal in which their early poems appeared. He left Tsarskoe Selo when he was about nineteen to enter the service of the government. This brought him to St. Petersburg where he gave himself over unrestrainedly to the enjoyments of the gilded youth of the capital, who formed a society in which duelling was the favorite amusement. His nature was daring and noble and capable of fine enthusiasms. His short story—"The Duel"—is said to be autobiographical, and that he himself—like its hero—really stood calmly and ate cherries, while his opponent in the duel fired at him. His nature embraces such tremendous extremes that it effectually shuts out all snap-shot judgments of commonplaceness even if it is easy to condemn him. He remained in the government service until 1820. This was the year in which his first great poem appeared, "Ruslan and Lyudmila," a romantic tale, in which he sang of Russia's heroic past and the ancient city of Kiev, copying somewhat, perhaps, the manner of Ariosto. The effect of this poem upon his countrymen, together with some shorter poems and epigrams in his own handwriting, which were having circulation at the time, was unparallelled. Shortly after this first dazzling success, a revolutionary ode procured his sudden banishment to the south of Russia. His sojourn there, among the mountains of the Caucasus, had a beneficial effect upon him. He learned to know and to love the people and the country. The unrivaled natural beauty of Crimea was an inexhaustible source of inspiration. Some of his greatest poems date from this period,—"The Prisoner in the Caucasus," which is the story of the love of a Circassian girl for a captive Russian officer; "Bakhchisaray Fountain"; "The Gypsies," a tale of love and vengeance, which grew out of his acquaintance with these wandering people, and his interest in their life; "The Robber Brothers."

It was here he first read Byron in the original, and the poems written during this period of banishment bear the mark of Byron's influence. The beginning of his great novel in verse—"Evgeni Oneygin"—is altogether after the manner of the famous Briton.

In 1824 he was banished to his estate Mikhail-

Quotation limited to 500 words.

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FEBRUARY, 1924

lovski in the Government of Pskov. At the time of banishment from Odessa to this estate, he wrote the Byronic poem of farewell to the sea. In Mikhailovski he began to study again, and try to make up for the time he had squandered in school.

He read Shakespeare and Goethe, and through them a certain change was effected in his viewpoint and his writing. On the whole, English and French literature influenced him most. The two years of enforced solicitude spent here had a salutary influence upon his excitable and stormy nature, taught him, in some measure, self-control, which he greatly needed, and helped to ripen and perfect his genius. It was here that he freed himself from the influence of Byron and first learned to know Shakespeare. And it was here he wrote his play "Boris Godunov," which Mussorgsky made the foundation of his opera.

In 1826 the young Emperor, Nicholas, recalled him from banishment and singled him out for favor and a friendship which did not last. In 1830 he received from his father the estate Boldino in the Government of Nishni Novogrod, where he finished "Oneygin," which had been published piecemeal, from time to time, and where he continued to work upon his plays.

During these years of banishment he had written "Count Nuiin"; "Pultava", a narrative poem describing the defeat of Charles the Twelfth of Sweden by Peter the Great; "The Little House in Kolomna"; and many short stories in prose, the latter being published sometimes under the pen name of Ivan Belkin.

He was at the height of his glory and creative power when he became enamored of the famous Slav beauty, Natalie Gontscharovna, a woman noted both for her great personal charm and her frivolity, whom he married in 1831. The first year of his married life he began his historical romance—"Peter the Great," the Negro of the Czar—unfinished—and which we give—and in which it was his intention to tell the true life story of his great-

grandfather, the Abyssinian Negro who, by his bravery and fine intelligence, won the favor of Russia's cruel and capricious ruler.

His wide reading and historical research led him to the composition of novelettes founded upon historical subjects, the best known of which is "The Captain's Daughter," which in its way is a little masterpiece. In addition, at this time, he wrote poems of varying lengths—"Russalka" (the Russian Lorelei); "The Banquet During the Plague"; "Mozart and Salieri"; "The Avaricious Knight"; "The Bronze Rider."

His life in St. Petersburg in the midst of dissipated and frivolous courtiers, who looked down with something of contempt upon his poet's calling, and who were unable rightly to estimate his intellectual worth, afforded him little happiness. In addition, malicious gossip, attacking his wife, embittered him. The attention of M. Dantes, the adopted son of the Minister from Holland, to his beautiful wife had become the gossip of St. Petersburg.

He was an object of ridicule and envy. His nervous and overstrained nature was incapable of dealing with the situation. Spurred on by jealousy and intriguing friends, he challenged him to a duel, and was killed in the encounter. He died in January 1837 and lies buried at a short distance from his hereditary estate, in Moscow—Mikhailovski.

A statue was erected to him in Moscow in 1880 and another four years later in St. Petersburg.

In Pushkin, Russia lost its greatest poetic genius, whose fame spread far beyond the confines of the empire. He was the first to exploit worthily the splendors of that newly formed Russian tongue. Lermontov, writing of his early and tragic death, said that Russia would be punished for having permitted it by never again producing so great a poet. Time has made good the prophecy. Today Pushkin is still the great classic poet of the Slav world. And he was not only a poet, but a scholar; a man of letters, conversant with many literatures in many languages; a dramatist; and a writer of fine, fluent prose.

## The Negro of Peter the Great

Translated from the Original Russian
By EDNA WORTHLEY UNDERWOOD

AMONG the celebrated people whom Peter the Great sent abroad for the purpose of acquiring the knowledge which was indispensable for a great realm that happened to be in a period of transition, was his god-child, the Negro, Ibrahim. He had been educated indeed in a military school in Paris, from which he had been graduated with honor and with the title of a general of artillery. He had distinguished him-

NOTE: In this article, which the Russian poet Pushkin wrote at the command of Nicholas the First of Russia, using for research imperial archives and private family

self for his bravery in the Spanish War for Succession and when he returned again to the capital of France he was seriously wounded.

Notwithstanding the innumerable demands upon his time, the Emperor of Russia always found an opportunity to keep himself informed about this favorite of his, and the news that he received was always flattering in regard to the young man's progress and likewise in regard to his conduct. Peter

documents, he speaks of the great military man who was his Negro grandfather as Ibrahim, but his real name was Hannibal. This story of Peter the Great remains today a fragment. Pushkin did not live to finish it.

FEBRUARY, 1924

OPPORTUNITY

55

the Great, indeed, was extraordinarily pleased with
this young fellow, whom he had adopted, and kept
begging him to come back to Russia; but Ibrahim
was in no haste to do this. He kept finding one
pretext after the other that would keep him from
going. Sometimes it was because of the wounds
which he had received in the Spanish War, some-
times it was the wish to continue his military
studies, sometimes he declared he had an insufficient
supply of money on hand; but no matter what he
said, Peter the Great was indulgent with him. He
wrote to him and begged him to consider carefully
his health, thanked him for his interest and his zeal
in acquiring knowledge, and although he was
niggardly as regards outlay for his own personal ex-
penditures, his treasure chests were always open for
the requests of Ibrahim. With the gold which Peter
the Great was continually sending him, he took
pains to include kind and fatherly advice and to
sketch continually plans that would be helpful for
his future.

According to the testimony of trustworthy his-
torical documents, nothing has ever equalled the
frivolity, the folly, and the wanton luxury of the
French race at that period. During the last years
of the reign of Louis the Fourteenth, which had
been marked by dignity, piety, and pride among
the court set, there was not a trace left to be seen
now. The Duke of Orleans, who united every
possible personal weakness with so many distin-
guished characteristics was, however, happily free
from hypocrisy. The orgies which went on con-
tinually in the Palais Royal were not a secret to
the people of Paris; the example, however, which
he set was contagious and the people followed it.
If law appeared upon the scene at all, it was united
with a hunger for money and an inexhaustible thirst
for pleasure and dissipation. Great fortunes were
thrown away and flung to the winds, and morality
seemed upon the verge of disappearing forever; the
French nobility were merry, wasteful, and dis-
sipated, and the noble realm seemed in danger of
falling to pieces to the rhythm of the music of vaude-
ville and the echo of satirical jests.

And yet, at the same time, this society was some-
thing fine and worth while to observe. Cultivation
of the mind and senses and a longing for pleasure
and diversion had been drawing all classes some-
what nearer together. Charm, fame, glory, talent,
qualities that were strange or striking, in short, any-
thing that satisfied curiosity or promised a momen-
tary mental diversion, were accepted and taken up
with equal indulgence. Art and letters, scholarly
learning and philosophy, deserted their old time
quiet and retirement in order to show themselves in
the Great World; in order to bow their heads to
fashion and to be guided by public opinion. Women
ruled nowadays, but they asked neither for reverence
nor respect; instead, a purely superficial politeness
had taken the place of the old worshipful esteem
for their sex, which had marked an earlier genera-
tion. The licentiousness of the Duke of Richelieu,
that Alcibiades of this modern Athens, is recorded

in history and gives us an insight into the morals
of the age.

Temps fortuné, marqué par la licence
Où la folie, agitant son grelot,
D'un pied léger parcourt toute la France,
Où nul mortel ne daigne être dévot,
Où l'on fait tout excepté pénitence.

The coming of Ibrahim, his peculiar external ap-
pearance, his extensive education and his great natu-
ral gifts, aroused universal interest in Paris. All
the great ladies wanted the "Negro of the Czar"
at their parties and entertainments, and they emu-
lated each other in sending him invitations. The
Duke of Orleans, who was the Regent of France,
invited him more than once to his merry evening
parties. Indeed, he was usually present at those
famous "Soupers" which were made brilliant and
distinguished by the youth of Arouet, by the old
age of Chaulieu, and the brilliant conversation of
Montesquieu and Fontenelle. He was not missing
from a single ball, a single luxurious fête, nor a
celebrated first night at the theatre. With all the
impetuosity of his youth and his tropical tempera-
ment, he plunged into the brilliant whirlpool of
high life in royal France.

But it was not merely the thought of giving up
these brilliant and luxurious pleasures, the thought
of exchanging the cultivated French court life for
the simplicity and the crudeness of the Petersburg
court, which made Ibrahim restless, and kept him
here. The young African was bound to Paris by
stronger bonds; he was in love.

Countess L—, although no longer in the first
bloom of youth, was still celebrated because of her
beauty. She had been educated in a cloister which
she did not leave until she was seventeen years old,
and which she left then only to marry. She did not
know the man who had been chosen for her, he did
not take the time to teach her to love him, and he
was many years older than she. In the years that
followed, report gave her many affairs of the heart,
but thanks to the indulgent morals of that period,
she still enjoyed a good reputation. Her palace,
indeed, was one of the most fashionable, and the
distinguished society of Paris assembled there.

Ibrahim had been introduced to the Countess by
young Merville, who was credited with being her
latest lover.

The Countess received Ibrahim politely but
without any special attention, which was something
that pleased him, because the young Negro had been
dragged about fashionable Paris as a sort of exhibit.
He had been burdened with compliments, questions,
and invitations until he was weary, and all this
curiosity and attention had something in it that
wounded his vanity. The sweet flattery of women,
which is always something desired by other men,
instead of making him happy, filled him with bitter-
ness and distaste. He had a consciousness that they
looked upon him as something strange and out of
the ordinary, a sort of uncatalogued wild animal,
dropped by chance in their midst. He had received
so much attention, indeed, that now he envied those

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who were obscure, and he felt that insignificance was a measure of happiness.

The thought that nature had made it really impossible for any of them really to care for him left him cold to their flatteries and attention, and his inaccessability lent him an added charm. His conversation was simple and dignified. Because of this he immediately pleased Countess L— who was weary of the super-refined jesting, the artful playing upon words, of the great French wits, and the nimbled tongued courtiers.

Ibrahim called upon her frequently. By degrees she became accustomed to the external appearance of this young man; she even learned to like the black head which formed such an astonishing contrast just now to the white powdered wigs. Ibrahim, who had been wounded in the Spanish War, was now obliged to wear a bandage around his head instead of a wig, which fashion demanded.

At this time he was exactly twenty-seven years old. He was tall, slender, and elegant in appearance, and more than one Beauty of the day had noticed his distinguished person, and knew that he was a fine specimen of a race. But held by prejudices, which he was unable to get rid of, Ibrahim either did not notice this or else considered it a form of coquetry. It was only when he met the eyes of the Countess that these suspicions of his began to disappear. Her conduct toward him was so simple and unaffected that it was impossible for him to believe that either flattery or coquetry were mingled with it.

The thought of love, however, never entered his head; but it became more and more necessary daily for him to see the Countess. At parties he got in the habit of searching for her everywhere, and whenever he happened to meet her, it seemed to him like a special gift of heaven.

At social gatherings where Ibrahim was present, the Countess had acquired the habit of listening to every word he spoke and following him with her eyes at a distance. When he was not present, she became absent-minded, meditative, and did not enjoy herself. Merville was the first person to see what was going on, and he hastened to congratulate Ibrahim.

Nothing escapes the eyes of the penetrating world. The latest inclination of the Countess was soon known and talked about. Some of the great ladies were astonished at her choice; others did not see anything unusual in it, and considered it merely natural. In the beginning of this mutual intoxication, Ibrahim and the Countess saw nothing of all this and they both seemed deaf to what was going on. The affair at length was generally known and commented upon. Ibrahim was deeply in love, but he knew that the Countess was capricious, frivolous, and that she had loved many times before. He felt sure that, sooner or later, a change would set in in her feelings toward him. Indeed, in imagination Ibrahim saw in advance the moment approaching when he would lose her. Up to now he had never

had any knowledge of the meaning of the word jealousy, but now with a sort of terror he had a premonition of what it could be. He came to the conclusion, at length, that the pain of separation would be less bitter; and then he set about meditating how it would be best to break the bonds of this slavery which were holding him a captive. Perhaps it would be wise to leave Paris and go back to Russia, where Peter the Great and a certain dim feeling of duty had long been calling him.

## II.

Days and months rushed by, and Ibrahim was so infatuated that he could not make up his mind to leave the Countess. But one night Ibrahim happened to be at a supper party given by the Duke of Orleans. During the evening once when the Duke happened to be passing near him, he paused suddenly and gave to Ibrahim a letter which he commanded him to read carefully and then consider.

The letter was from Peter the Great of Russia. The Czar, who had heard all about the love affair which had been detaining him in Paris, had written to the Duke of Orleans that he did not wish to influence his god-son's decision in any way and would not force him, of course, to return to Russia; and that whatever happened, he would never desert this adopted son of his.

The kindness of this letter made a deep impression upon Ibrahim. As soon as he finished reading it, his determination was made. The very next day he went to the Regent of France and told him that— with his gracious permission—he would like to go back to Russia at once.

"Meditate well what you are going to do," the Duke of Orleans warned him. "Russia, you must remember, is not your native land. I do not believe, however, that accident will ever bear you back again to the tropics where you were born. You must remember though, however, that you have lived so long in France that you have become accustomed to the climate, and the customs, and the people, and that the half wild life that is lived in Russia will seem both unpleasant and strange. You know you were not born a subject of Peter the Great. Take my advice; make use of the indulgence of your great-hearted protector, and continue to live in France, the land for which you have shed your blood, whose speech and customs you know; and be sure that your merit and your distinguished talent will not remain unrewarded by me."

Ibrahim thanked the Duke of Orleans; but he remained unshaken in his determination.

"I am sorry," replied the Regent of France, "but of course you can do as you wish."

He promised then that he would release him from French military service and wrote to the Czar of Russia all that had taken place in their interview.

Soon Ibrahim was ready for the journey. The day before the one he had set for his departure he appeared, as usual, in the evening gathering in the palace of Countess L—. She knew nothing of what had been going on. Ibrahim had not had the courage to tell her of his determination. She was

FEBRUARY, 1924

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57

happy-hearted and merry, as usual. Several times
during the evening she called him over to her side
and she jested because of his stern and meditative
face. After dinner had been served, the invited
guests had gone away. The Countess, the Count
her husband, and Ibrahim remained alone now in
the great public drawing-room. The unlucky lover
would have given anything in the world just now
if he could only have had her to himself here for a
little while. But Count L— had seated himself
in an easy-chair in front of the fire and a glance
at him, as he sat there, told Ibrahim that there would
be no opportunity for a word with the Countess
alone. Indeed, they were all silent.

"Good night," said at length the Countess.
Ibrahim's heart contracted and suddenly he suffered
the terrors of separation. Motionless, he stood
there.

"Good night!" repeated the Countess. Still he
stood there, motionless and speechless. . . . Every-
thing swam and turned blank before his eyes, his
head whirled, and for a second he was unable to
summon sufficient strength to walk out of the room.

When he reached home, he wrote, almost in de-
pair and not knowing what he really did, the follow-
ing letter:

"I am leaving, dear Leonora. I am leaving you
forever. I write my farewell to you because I did
not have the courage to say farewell in words. I
did not have the courage to tell you any other way.

"Of course, luck could not always be mine. Both
my nature and my destiny were against me. And
yet, I was happy with you. But in time you would
cease to love me. The charm would vanish. This
thought has been persecuting me even in the happiest
moments when we have been together. The friv-
olous world always destroys, sooner or later, what it
has granted. Sooner or later, too, its cold hatred
would have killed you, humbled your proud soul—
and then you would have grown ashamed of your
love for me—then, then what would have become of
me? Than that, even death would be better, rather
than meet that; it is better for me to make up my
mind, as I have done, to go away. It is better for
me to go before that moment of terror comes.

"Your peace of mind is the first consideration
with me. You could not be happy if you knew the
critical eyes of the world were directed toward you.

"Farewell, Leonora. Farewell, my beloved
friend! In leaving you, I am leaving at the same
time the first and the last joy of my life. I have
no home and no fatherland; I have no relatives.
I go to Russia where great loneliness, perhaps, will
prove to be a consolation to me. There serious occu-
pations, to which I shall begin to devote myself,
will at least divert my mind, for periods, from think-
ing of the happiness and the delight which used to
be ours together. Farewell, Leonora. Farewell,
and be happy and think sometimes of me.

Ibrahim.”

That very night he set out upon his long journey
to Russia.

He did not find it half so wearisome or so bore-
some as he had expected. His imagination was able
to triumph over reality. The greater the distance
became between himself and Paris, the more vividly
he visioned the surroundings and the people which
he had just left.

Before he was aware of it, so quickly did the
time go, he found himself on the boundary line of
Russia. The autumn was drawing on; but the
horses seemed to cover the long road with the swift-
ness of the lightning, despite mud and rough going,
and on the seventeenth day of his journey he whirled
into Krasnoie Selo, through which at the time the
public highway ran.

There were still eight and twenty versts to go be-
fore Petersburg. While the horses were being
changed, Ibrahim went into a room of the post-
house. In one corner of this room he saw a large
man who wore a green caftan, and who smoked a
short clay pipe. He was bending over a table, read-
ing a Hamburg newspaper. When he heard the
door open and someone enter, he lifted his head
and looked around.

"Ibrahim!" he called out, getting up from his
chair.

"How are you, my godfather?"

Ibrahim had recognized Peter the Great. In his
joy he had the impulse to rush toward him, but sud-
denly he remembered the great man's rank and
stood still just where he was. The Czar immedi-
ate came to him and embraced and kissed him.

"They told me that you were on the road and
so I drove out here to meet you. I have been await-
ing you here since yesterday."

Ibrahim was unable to find any words to express
his gratitude.

"Give orders for my horses to follow us," con-
tinued the Czar. "And as for you, come and ride
along with me."

The carriage of the Czar drew up; they took
their places in it, side by side, and then they sped
away. In an hour and a half longer we shall reach
Petersburg. With eagerness and pleasure, Ibrahim
looked upon the new-born city which his royal pro-
tector, with a gesture of the hand, so to speak, had
caused to arise from the marshes. Dams, canals
without quays, long wooden bridges, testified every-
where to the triumph of the will of man over the
unfriendly elements. The houses all had the ap-
pearance of having been built in great haste. In
the entire city there was nothing rich and splendid
except the Neva, which, although it had not yet been
edged with granite, was already covered with war-
ships and with various sailing craft, which showed
that commerce was beginning.

The imperial carriage stopped in front of the
royal residence, which at this moment happened to
be the Czarina's Garden. A woman, young and
handsome, not more than thirty-five years old, and
dressed in the latest fashion of Paris, ran to the door
to greet the Emperor. Peter kissed her; then taking
Ibrahim by the hand and pulling her forward, he
remarked:

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FEBRUARY, 1924

"You recognize my adopted son, do you not, Katinka? Love him, then, the way you used to!"

Katherina turned her black eyes toward him and then stretched out her friendly hand. Two youthful beauties, tall, slender, and fresh as roses, stood behind her and then came respectfully toward their father.

"Dear little Elizabeth," addressing one of them, "you remember, don't you, the little Negro who used to steal my apples away from you in Oranienbaum? Well, here he is—I am introducing him to you again."

The Grand Duchess laughed, and then she blushed. They all turned now and went into the dining-room, where the table had been set, and made ready in expectation of the Czar. Peter the Great and his family took their places at the table, and then invited Ibrahim to join them. While they ate, the Czar discussed all sorts of subjects and questions with him; he inquired in detail about the Spanish War; he tried to learn all he could about the private affairs of France; he tried to find out all about the Regent, for whom he cherished a peculiar affection, although there were many things about him that he blamed.

Ibrahim possessed a quick, powerful, and comprehensive mind. Peter was delighted with his answers. Then he began to reminisce, and recall gladly various incidents of Ibrahim's childhood. He related them with such kindness of nature, with such merriment, that no one would have recognized that this amiable, conversationally nimble father of a family and host was the hero of the Battle of Pultava, the cruel dictator, and the stern remaker of Russia.

After the meal was over, the Czar, according to Russian custom, withdrew to his sleeping-room to rest a little. Ibrahim remained alone with the Czarina and the Grand Duchess. He was trying his best to satisfy their curiosity as to the life and amusements of Paris and the present peculiarities of the fashions that ruled there. In the meantime various people, who belonged to the Russian social world, had assembled in the palace. Ibrahim recognized the haughty bearing of Prince Menshikov who, when he saw the young man was conversing with the Czarina, looked upon him proudly. He recognized also Prince Jacob Dolgoruki, the keen witted advisor of the Emperor; learned Bruci, who

responded to the popular nickname of "The Russian Faust"; young Ragusinski, an old champion of his; and several others, who had come with messages or requests for the Czar. At the end of about two hours, Peter the Great came back and joined them.

"Now we'll see," said the Czar to Ibrahim, "whether you have forgotten the old duties I taught you once. Take some writing material and follow me."

Peter the Great went to his study and began to busy himself with affairs of state. He worked first with Bruci, with Prince Dolgoruki, with the Minister of Police—Devier—and dictated to Ibrahim some important papers of state. Ibrahim was overcome with admiration for the sharp, witty, comprehensive brain, the power, the many-sidedness of observation, and the great circle of activity which characterized this ruler. When the work was over, the Czar pulled a notebook out of his pocket in order to convince himself that he had attended to every duty which he had planned for the day for himself. When he left his study, he remarked to Ibrahim:

"It's late now; you are probably tired. Sleep right here tonight, just the way you used to. In the morning I will come in myself and awaken you."

When Ibrahim was alone, he was unable to assemble his various thoughts and impressions. Here he was in Petersburg. He saw again the great man beside whom, but without being able to estimate his ability, he had spent his childhood. He was all but conscience striken when he found himself forced to confess to himself, that for the first time since he left the Countess L— he had forgotten her for an entire day. He felt that the new life which awaited him here, with continued activity, would give back to him the old mental eagerness and ambition which love, idleness, and dissipation had temporarily put to sleep. The thought of becoming a help to such a powerful man as Peter the Great and, in union with him, becoming instrumental in molding the destinies of a great nation, aroused all that was noble and ambitious within him.

In this frame of mind he stretched himself out upon his narrow soldier's bed, and soon dreams bore him back again to distant Paris.

*(To be continued)*

## Apropos of Africa

*(Continued from Page 40)*

interests and those of Negroes everywhere on progressive world legislation and in event of an appeal on any necessary question to the court of world opinion. We already know from the cordial and interested behavior of this man on his American visit, what a vivid sense of racial interest he has. Counselled in another direction, the entire mission regarded the colored people of America as brothers, and the feeling of kinship was warmly reciprocated. To congratulations offered in the name

of our group, his reply, with greetings and assurances of warm interest, was a forecast of progressive reform and development for Abyssinia which proclaimed it, in my judgment, the most promising and stategic center of African development in the near future, a forecast that in itself was tantamount to a cordial invitation for closer relations and cooperative help. I repeat, of the many, here is a special reason for more active and enlightened interest in Africa.

FEBRUARY, 1924

OPPORTUNITY

59

OUR BOOK SHELF

"Holiday"

By WALDO FRANK

(Boni and Liveright, New York)

It isn't poetic prose. It is sheer poetry—poetry running riot, an epic too rich in beauty, hate, and tears to be held in the bonds of meter and form; now singing, now wailing itself to its tragic close thru chapters painted clear by an author who has indeed probed America's open sore and dipped his pen in its blood, cleansed somewhat of its putridness by kind understanding. One can understand why the town where the action of the story takes place is called Nazareth; we could understand even better were it called Jerusalem.

At any rate at Nazareth, not in Judea, but in America's Southland lived John Cloud, young, strong—a man, but black; therefore, not a man. There too lived Bob and Virginia Hade, children of Nazareth's biggest man. Bob was reckless, shiftless, weak, lacking most of the things that made Cloud, color not excepted. Of his sister, Virginia, it is written, "She is tall and firm but her harmony is broken and her eyes are not happy." And in their restless unhappiness her eyes too often sought those of John Cloud who was the foreman of the laborers in her father's orchards. But John didn't see her eyes; he saw her only as something apart from his world, the black world that he loved. Pink and golden, Virginia turned to him in her incompletion; yet John was strong, strong because of Mary, dusky Mary Cartier who lived in black Nazareth and loved John Cloud. He was strong too because of his old mother who with her fears, her premonitions, her love and yearnings typifies the heart of her race. Yet it was this same strength and sense of freedom that in the end betrayed John and delivered him to the people to complete a holiday at Nazareth.

Thruout the tale the influence of a religious frenzy is at work for the holiday brings us to the close of revivals in both white and black Nazareth. Who can say then that it was not the desire for some outward symbol of the purity and virtue that white Nazareth had not attained in its heart which made it offer up the manhood of John Cloud and the loves of his mother and Mary Cartier as sacrifices to its false conception of a vengeful and bloodthirsty God? For in the most crucial Bob Hade in his own soul mused, "He looks honest. He looks clean. Perhaps it is I who am all wrong."

High steel spikes of my Pride,

Save me from being wrong,

Save me from feeling low!

But she is lovely, young. It's she he loves. They love each other.

There might be a mistake.

No mistake this: I can't touch your black breasts!

No mistake this: I can't touch your deep song!

Yet he goes on. Then there is Virginia, whose false pride and lack of virginity of soul held her back from saving John.

And in the end one feels the author's hopelessness. He sees, he understands, and writes with piercing accuracy of the murk that rises from the swamps of the South—spreads over the land and is sucking it into its fetid depths. Yet he sees only black and white—White Bob and Virginia—black John and Mary and their people. Yes, there is black and white but between there is red, the red of rivers of blood, of red hot iron, of glowing coals and barbarous fires, and too, oh God, the red of flaming passion!

EUNICE ROBERTA HUNTON.

"Bursting Bonds"

By WILLIAM PICKENS

(Jordan and More Press)

In 1911, Professor William Pickens published an auto-

biographical sketch "The Heir of Slaves" and he has enlarged it and reprinted it by request. It is splendidly didactic. Like Benjamin Franklin, Mr. Pickens is a water drinker; but his story is more akin to that of Elihu Burrett, the learned blacksmith who studied Hebrew at his forge. He says, "When I was cutting wood, I opened my book and propped it against a piece of wood at a convenient distance, with a chip holding the leaves apart, and studied by glances as I swung the axe."

Mr. Pickens was born in South Carolina in 1881. During his childhood his family were lured to Arkansas by an agent who told them that it was a tropical country where cocoanuts, oranges, lemons, and bananas grew. They finally lived at Argenta, where the educational opportunities were better. He worked as a ferryman and in a stave factory and lumber-yard to get through high school. Next he worked on the Choctaw Railroad, to secure funds for entering Talladega College. He studied for two years at Yale, where he won the Ten Eyck Prize in oratory and made Phi Beta Kappa. Since then he has taught in several colleges and at the present time he is Field Secretary for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

Certain lessons have to be learned anew by each generation. Negroes have written several scholarly treatises or poems in Latin during the last four hundred years; but the incident which seems to have impressed Mr. Pickens most was his being summoned by a lawyer to prove to his partner that a Negro could learn Latin. Apart from his innate love of study, Mr. Pickens seemed filled with a missionary zeal to demonstrate to white people the scholastic ability of his race. As many of his white friends asked about his success in mathematics, he records that at school he always made 100 per cent as a daily average. One of his teachers nick-named him "Always Ready". When he was at Yale, he says: "My ambition to win was stimulated by a desire to further the acquaintance of other people with my race. The surprise with which I was taken struck me as due to a lack of expectation in my fellows, and I would succeed in order to cause others to expect more of the American Negro."

Mr. Pickens was one of the staunch supporters of the Niagara Movement, and when he taught in the South he refused to be over-awed, although he never looked for trouble. In his chapter on "Wiley University and Texas" he gives as incident which shows the peril of "a colored man in such a civilization, if he be inconvenienced by self-respect"; he risked his life by riding in a Pullman car in Arkansas.

Mr. Pickens says, "It is the duty of every human to see as much of the rest of the world as possible. And readers of human history have an inner urge toward the older places of mankind." He, therefore, devotes a chapter to his "Tour of Europe", with Mrs. Pickens.

About 1850 an Indian Chief wrote an account of his life and he quite naturally gave more space to his travel in Europe, which was to him a new experience, than to telling what was commonplace to him; but his readers of today wish he had told more about a mode of living which has gone forever. Mr. Pickens has written a book which will inspire the present generation, but his work would have had much more historical value if he had preserved more of the transitory phases of life.

In his explanation of why he did not join the church until he entered Talladega College, Mr. Pickens presents a quaint and rather charming viewpoint, which has now passed into the limbo of forgotten things. "I believed in God and the church and had always been a most faithful worshipper; but I could not dream dreams and see visions. Without dreams and visions, no one was allowed to join the average Negro church of the past.

FEBRUARY, 1924

OPPORTUNITY

POT POURRI

Roland Hayes

ROLAND HAYES, former Chattanooga resident, has achieved a distinction in the music world which reflects the greatest credit upon his race. Social conditions in the South preclude the paying to him of the personal honors his artistic eminence has brought him elsewhere, but it is a matter for general congratulation that a colored boy, deprived of early advantages, accomplished a notable success, due not only to natural gift but to his own energy and determination.

Naturally, on his first appearance here, his audience was made up largely of members of his own race, who are justified in their pride in his far advancement. It was the same way in other cities, so his manager stated, but it may be expected that in future tours of this section this really great singer will be heard by a large number of white people, for he is, indeed, worth hearing. Racial considerations, the fact that he was unknown in the South as a singer and doubt as to his vocal attainments no doubt contributed to the comparatively small number of white auditors. Now that his musical ability has been demonstrated, it is pretty sure to be enjoyed in the future by larger numbers of music lovers.

The fact that "Blind Tom" was a Negro did not keep southern white people away from his concerts. Roland Hayes bears his honors modestly, and there is no good reason why he should not become generally popular in the South as well as in the other sections of the country. He is a credit to his people and due recognition should not be withheld.

Indeed, recognition of any Negro's worthwhile achievements will do much to promote a better race feeling. The person who succeeds as has Roland Hayes is to be commended, whether his skin be white or black.

Chattanooga, Tenn., TIMES.

In Los Angeles

It is estimated that there are 45,000 Negroes resident in Los Angeles. The number is fast increasing. Southern California's genial climate has strong appeal to them, accustomed as they are to the gentler temperatures. They come here to make homes, in the city and to some extent in the country. The startlingly sudden great migrations from the old Southern States has been directed towards the Pacific Coast, as well as the Central and Northern States.

Yet there is no indiscriminate inpouring here of colored immigrants. Men of their own race prevent it. Men and women leaders of the race, many of them long resident in Los Angeles, have organized themselves into the Commercial Council of Los Angeles, the object of which is to control immigration, to see that only the desirable come, and when they have arrived to assist them to become established in homes and in business. The Commercial

Council performs for the colored people the functions of a chamber of commerce and a housing and settlement bureau combined.

Through its efforts there are coming to this city industrious and thrifty men and women, many of them possessing considerable means, who engage in useful occupations and business; their energies and resources are directed towards fostering and creating manufacturing and commerce, building up local business, and sub-division and settlement and cultivation of agricultural lands.

An announced purpose of the Commercial Council is to stimulate business intercourse and interchange within the group of the colored people. The leaders hope and aim to so arrange matters, that the present 45,000, and the many thousands additional expected to come here, may have the full advantages of the opportunities this splendid country offers. The leaders work for a worthy object.

Los Angeles, Cal., EXPRESS.

A Beastly Punishment

"Marlow has no Negro population and members of that race are not allowed here after dark, under a custom of many years' standing," is the explanation of an absolutely unique lynching in Oklahoma. Commonly there is at least a camouflage charge of impropriety, perhaps speaking insolently to a white man or woman, set up against a victim as an excuse for mob murder. Here there is no allegation of any offense except being a Negro.

It appears that a hotel proprietor, a white man, had employed a black to be a hotel porter, a job that involved being in town after dark. The employer was warned to get rid of the man. He didn't. Indeed, like a self-respecting American, when a gang of fifteen armed men, unmasked, came to the place and demanded the Negro, to hang him, the white man defended the porter and was killed in defending him.

Comment on this incident—lynchings are only incidents in our civilization, worth a few lines in news columns if circumstances are particularly dramatic—would be painting the lily or gilding refined gold. Superfluousness could no further go. Oklahoma is one of our sovereign States. Our world reputation for order and decency is no stronger than its weakest link. That is a sad reflection.

Brooklyn, N. Y., EAGLE.

The New Colored Man

The northerly migration of the colored peoples of this country may be disquieting to some people, but no valid objection to it may be raised by a nation that believes in the principle of self-determination of small races. The Great War made all things new, even the traditional relation between whites and blacks in this country. The colored man of romance and sentiment is dying off. In his place is coming one who is not content to be picturesque

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and exploited. The new colored man has found himself and is helping himself. He is determining for himself the conditions under which he shall give his labor.

If the northward trend of the southern colored people seems fraught with new and difficult problems, it would be well to look at this matter from another and more hopeful angle.

For example, the General Education Board offered a quarter of a million dollars to increase the endowment of Howard University on condition that another quarter of a million be raised by the University itself. Of the $250,000 raised by subscriptions in the campaign, more than $200,000 was pledged by colored men and women. Obviously the Negro is not only out to help himself, but to help his blood brother. He knows that one of the crying needs of the day is for more and better trained colored physicians. Knowing the need, he rises to it manfully.

It is reported that 65 physicians, graduates of Howard University, gave $1,000 each. One colored man gave $5,000. Another colored man and his wife gave $10,000. A large proportion of this money has already been received in cash payments.

Dean E. L. Park is reported to have said: "This is the first time that the colored people have given such large amounts or such a large aggregate for any of their educational institutions. It is the most encouraging thing which has taken place in connection with Howard University since I have known its history."

Encouraging not only to our colored citizens, but to all who know that here is a problem that can never be settled until it is settled right. It is right that the colored man should help himself.

Ithaca, N. Y., JOURNAL NEWS.

## Boll Weevil

I am a southern white man, born and raised in the old-fashioned southern country town where the population was about half black and half white. I have lived nearly all my life in the South and close to colored people. When I was a child I loved my "ole black mammy" and played with the Negro children without prejudice. But I grew up to dislike Negroes generally, just as almost everybody in the South does, for no particular reason at all except that "a nigger is a nigger." I came to manhood with a Southerner's dislike and contempt for black folks. Once or twice I searched by heart and mind for some basis for this dislike. At such times I satisfied myself by contemplating only the vicious, indolent, shiftless, improvident, dirty, ragged, ignorant, offensive type of Negro. I did not give much thought to any other kind or recognize that a new type of Negro was growing up.

And then, a few years ago, a song awoke me. It was more of a chant than a song; it was a new and strange song, the like of which I had never heard before:

"Boll weevil here, boll weevil there,
Boll weevil everywhere;
Oh, Lordy, ain't I glad!"

It was a Negro singing. He was a Georgia Negro who, with a score or more of his kind, was employed on road construction in North Carolina.

I have traveled through Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and parts of Louisiana and Tennessee, in recent months. I have talked with Negroes in Atlanta, Montgomery, New Orleans, Vicksburg, Memphis, and elsewhere. I rode in a railway coach with Negro migrants leaving the Yazoo and Mississippi Valley via Memphis for Cincinnati and other points north. I know now why a black boy from Georgia, slinging hot asphalt in the broiling sun on a North Carolina highway back in 1917, was singing joyfully:

To millions of hungry and oppressed blacks, laboring for a mere subsistence on the cotton plantations of the South, the invasion of the Mexican boll weevil laying waste the acres of the plantation owners was nothing less than an act of Providence. To these blacks, who read the Bible and believe every word of it, the plague of the boll weevil was but the hand of God laid heavily upon their taskmasters.

W. O. Saunders in COLLIER'S.

## The Color Line

As if it did not already have an abundance of troubles, the United States Shipping Board apparently is inviting more woe by drawing the color line. The CHRONICLE published a few days ago the statement of Captain Harry Dean, that he had been refused a Shipping Board vessel, which he intended as the nucleus of the merchant marine of Liberia, when Washington officials discovered he was a Negro. J. A. Robinson, Manager of the Allocations and Contract Department of the Board, wrote, in effect, to H. H. Ebey, District Director of the Emergency Fleet Corporation, that negotiations with Dean would have to be called off because of the discovery that he is a colored man. Robinson declares it would be "inexpedient" and "inadvisable" to transfer a vessel to the colored people. He speaks of "courteous" consideration, and all that; but the color line remains drawn nevertheless.

Having accepted the colored race as citizens of the United States, the Federal Government can hardly deny them any of the rights and privileges of citizenship and maintain a reputation for consistency. Treating the subject "courteously" does not alter the conditions. When "advisability" or "expediency" hinges on a question of color only, there is bound to be the conviction that the elements of fairness and justice are lacking.

San Francisco, Cal., CHRONICLE.

FEBRUARY, 1924

OPPORTUNITY

63

BULLETIN BOARD

Alpha Phi Alpha

HISTORY IN THE MAKING" was the popular characterization of the 16th annual convention of the Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity which met in Columbus, Ohio. There were over 600 college men in attendance by 66 educational institutions and sections of the country stretching from Massachusetts on the New England Coast to California on the Pacific Coast and from Minnesota to Georgia.

Perhaps the outstanding legislation of the convention was that adopting resolutions to send a communication to President Coolidge recommending the release of the remaining members of the 25th Infantry now incarcerated in Leavenworth, and to make a contribution to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People to aid in its campaign for the passage of the Dyer-Anti-Lynching Bill now before the Congress of the United States.

The opening session of the convention was held December 27, at the Spring Street, Y.M.C.A., under the direction of its national officers: S. S. Booker, Baltimore, President; Raymond P. Alexander, Philadelphia, 1st Vice-President; Raymond W. Cannon, Minneapolis, 2nd Vice-President; James W. McGregor, Los Angeles, 3rd Vice-President; Norman L. McGhee, Washington, Secretary; Homer Cooper, Chicago, Treasurer; and Oscar C. Brown, Atlanta, Editor of the *Sphinx*. Among the colleges and universities represented were: Cornell, Yale, Harvard, Columbia, Chicago, Northwestern, Ohio State, Ohio, Howard, Union, Lincoln, Wilberforce, West Virginia Collegiate Institute, Meharry Medical College, University of California, University of Cincinnati, Pennsylvania, and Atlanta.

On December 30, the full convention delegation made a pilgrimage to the home of Paul Laurence Dunbar, in Dayton. Arrangements had been made for special cars over the interurban railway between Columbus and Dayton to take the delegates to Dayton, where they were met by a train of automobiles, which conveyed them to the home of Dunbar. The program conducted here included a welcome address by O. O. Morris, President of Theta Lambda Chapter of Dayton, a presentation address by Raymond W. Cannon, 2nd Vice-President, and a response in the form of an acceptance of a bunch of flowers given by the Fraternity to Mrs. Matilda J. Dunbar, mother of the poet. The master of ceremonies was R. M. Swayne. From the home the delegation was conveyed to Woodlawn Cemetery and Dunbar's grave, where the program included a tribute to Dunbar's contribution to literature by Dr. J. A. Gregg, President of Wilberforce University; a reading of "When All Is Done", one of the poet's compositions, by Miss Edna Browne; and a tribute by S. S. Booker, General President of the Alpha Phi Alpha. The master of ceremonies was B. Andrew Rose. Following these ceremonies the delegation was conveyed to Memorial Hall, Dayton, to be banqueted.

Addresses delivered at the banquet were "Collegiate Fraternal Friendship" by Norman L. McGhee, General Secretary of Alpha Phi Alpha; "The Growth of Sororities" by Dr. Sadie T. Alexander, President of the Delta Sigma Theta Sorority; "The Aim of Alpha Phi Alpha", by James W. McGregor; "Graduate Chapters", by James A. Dunn; also a greeting from Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority by Miss Thelma L. Taylor, one of the youngest members of the Sorority who is connected with the Kappa Chapter in Indianapolis. Vocal and musical selections were given by Miss Helen Walker, Madame Florence Cole Talbert, and Mrs. A. W. Hardy, and a reading of Dunbar's "Ode to Ethiopia" by Miss Edna Browne. The master of ceremonies was William O. Stokes of Theta Lambda Chapter.

Upon the return of the convention delegation to Colum-

bus, the entire body repaired to the Columbus Chamber of Commerce Auditorium to attend the public session, where Attorney Robert L. Vann of Pittsburgh spoke on "The College Man's Opportunity."

The final session of the Fraternity was held Monday, at which time the delegates listened to the report of the Director of the "Go to High School, Go to College" drive, which showed that more than three million children and parents had been reached and influenced to go further in education. The convention authorized that the movement be continued and promoted even more vigorously during 1924. At the end of the session the following officers were elected: Raymond W. Cannon, President; Raymond P. Alexander, 1st Vice-President; James W. McGregor, 2nd Vice-President; D. L. Brown, 3rd Vice-President; Norman L. McGhee, Secretary; Homer Cooper, Treasurer; Oscar C. Brown, Editor of the *Sphinx*.

During the convention week numerous social events were held, including the Annual Smoker and Symposium; an informal dance at Odd Fellows Hall; the Annual Fraternity Dance in the Ohio State University Gymnasium; and dances in honor of the delegates given by the Alpha Kappa Alpha and Delta Sigma Theta Sororities. The Convention ended with the Annual Fraternity Banquet held in the Spring Street Y.M.C.A., as the shrilling of whistles announced the arrival of the New Year. Announcement was made at the banquet of the winning of the McGee cup by Phi Chapter at Ohio University for the best record during 1923. A picture of the delegates is shown on pages 48-49.

The 1924 convention will be held in New York City.

Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Boule

The Sixth Annual Boule of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority convened in Baltimore, Maryland, at Sharp Street Church Community Center, December 27-29. Ninety college women, representing 33 graduate and under-graduate chapters from California to New York and from Minnesota to Georgia, made this the most remarkable Boule in the history of A. K. A.

A large audience attended the open meeting, at which greetings from the citizens of Baltimore and Epsilon Omega Chapter were extended by Mr. Ashby Hawkins and Mrs. Irma Bruce Davis. Mrs. Loraine Green, Supreme Basileus, gave a very fitting response. Miss Julia Brooks related the Sorority history from its incipency to the present. An inspiring message from Miss Lucy Slowe, Dean of Women at Howard University, and musical numbers by Mr. L. Wilson, Miss Helen Walker, and Mrs. Nelson Fortune made the occasion one long to be remembered.

Seven sessions were held, and the reports given by chapters and members of the Directorate proved an inspiration and gave food for serious thought. An educational program of A. K. A. during 1923 was effectively carried out, the chapters stimulating interest in higher education by bestowing scholarships on deserving young women totaling over $2,000; a short story and essay week was observed, demonstrating the literary talent of young women over the whole country, the best of these being awarded Fifty Dollar prizes. A. K. A. women, wherever they may be, take an active part in civic and community affairs and do volunteer social service work with many organizations. The year's reports show real participation along cultural lines, especially in dramatics and music.

The Sixth Boule had an unusual distinction in that five of the charter members of the Sorority were present, Misses Lucy Slowe, Julia Brooks, Nellie Quanders, Norma Boyd, and Mrs. Ethel Lyles. For distinguished

64

OPPORTUNITY

FEBRUARY, 1924

service and excellent scholarship, honorary membership was conferred upon Mrs. Elise Johnson McDougal, Vocational Guidance Director of New York City; Miss Hazel Harrison, noted pianist of Chicago, Ill.; and Mrs. Antoinette Garnes, winner of the diamond medal at the Chicago Conservatory of Music.

Epsilon Omega Chapter gave to the delegates cordial welcome and Baltimore joined in showing unlimited hospitality. The banquet at Royal Palace Hotel, the prom at New Albert Auditorium, the prom by Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, and the closing reception were all most enjoyable and sent the sorors back to their chapters praising their hostesses and friends.

A pilgrimage to the seat of A. K. A. Sorority at Howard University, Washington, D. C., was made on December 30, when Alpha Chapter entertained at a reception in their Sorority Home. Bouquets of roses were presented the retiring Basileus and her successor by Alpha and Ki Omega Chapters.

The following officers were unanimously elected to serve during the year 1924: Supreme Basileus, Miss L. Pearl Mitchell, 2270 East 95th Street, Cleveland, Ohio; 1st Anti Basileus, Mrs. Vivian Johnson Cooke, Baltimore, Md.; 2nd Anti Basileus, Miss Beulah Burke, Kansas City, Kan.; Grammateus, Miss Murray B. Atkins, Indianapolis, Ind.; Assistant Grammateus, Miss Lucille Armstead, Indianapolis, Ind.; Epistoleus, Mrs. Irma Bruce Davis, Baltimore, Md.; Tamiochus, Mrs. Ethel Lyles, Philadelphia, Pa.; Editor-in-Chief, Miss Althea Merchant, St. Louis, Mo.; Eastern Organizer, Miss Grace Hill, Baltimore, Md.; Central Organizer, Miss Carolyn Payne, Wilberforce, Ohio; Western Organizer, Miss Blanche Patterson, Kansas City, Mo.; Northeastern Organizer, Miss C. Vivian Carter, Brooklyn, N. Y.

The Boule adjourned to meet with Mu Chapter, Philadelphia, Pa., December 27-31, 1924.

## Miscellaneous

During last year Howard University had an aggregate registration of 2,277 students, the largest enrollment in the history of the school; 37 states and 13 foreign countries were represented in the student body.

The 369th Infantry, New York's Old 15th Regiment of "Hell Fighters", has received Federal recognition and been added to the National Guard Allotment of the State. An armory is being erected for the regiment on West 142nd Street, between Lenox Avenue and the Harlem River. Colonel Arthur Little, commanding, expects to recruit the unit to full peace time strength.

In the United States during 1923, there were the following lynchings: Florida, 8; Mississippi, 8; Georgia, 4; Arkansas, 2; Texas, 2; Missouri, 1; Virginia, 1; Louisiana, 1; Oklahoma, 1—a total of 28, as compared with 57 for the year 1922. Of the 28 persons lynched during 1923, 26 were Negroes—2 of whom were women—and 2 were Caucasians. The alleged offenses against the Negroes were: rape, 6; murder, 3; no charge reported, 3; murderous assault, 2; killing officer of the law, 2; wounding officer of the law, 2; attempted rape, 1; cattle stealing, 1; resisting posse searching for man charged with rape, 1; peeping in window, 1; striking man in alteration, 1; "trying to act like white and not knowing his place", 1; insulting woman, 1; assisting man charged with rape to escape, 1; the 2 Caucasians were charged with participation in strike depredations. The methods of torture included hanging and burning.

Six American Negroes have been selected by Secretary of Labor James J. Davis to constitute a Government Commission to investigate economic conditions in the Virgin Islands. The Commission—which consists of Robert R. Church of Memphis, chairman; Cornelius Richardson, of Richmond, Ind., vice-chairman; George H. Woodson of Des Moines, secretary; Jefferson H. Coage of Delaware; Prof. Charles E. Mitchell of the Institute of West Virginia; and William C. Brown of Norfolk—will leave the States during January, for a period of from six to eight weeks. A study will be made of labor and living conditions, employment, immigration and emmigration, farming, etc., with particular reference to the possibility of establishing industries in the Virgin Islands to offset the loss of the bay-rum industry. The latest census figures give these Islands a population of 17,000 Negroes, 5,000 mixed, 400 Japanese, Chinese and Orientals, and 1,900 white people.

## WHO'S WHO

Alain Locke is Professor of Social Philosophy at Howard University; a former Rhodes scholar at Oxford; and a Doctor of Philosophy from Harvard. He has just returned from Europe and Northern Africa.

Monroe N. Work is Director of Research and Records of Tuskegee Institute and Editor of the *Negro Year Book*.

Dr. Bernard J. Newman is Director of the Philadelphia Housing Association.

Edna Worthley Underwood is author of "The Penitent", "The Songs of Hafiz", "Famous Stories from Foreign Countries", "The Garden of Desire" and other volumes; a member of the Authors' League of America; and a well known linguist.

Dr. C. V. Roman is a physician, instructor in medicine at Meharry Medical College, and author of "American Civilization and the Negro".

Eric D. Walrond is one of the younger group of

essayists and short story writers whose work is attracting wide and enthusiastic attention.

Eunice D. Hunton is a Smith College graduate and a teacher in the New York Public Schools.

Joseph Gould is a literary critic and a contributor to several of the prominent literary journals.

## ANNOUNCEMENT

*Opportunity* will carry in its issue for April articles by Alain Locke and Paul Gillaume on the *African Art Movement*. In this issue will appear the article on "Obscurities of Negro Art", by Arsene Alexander, announced for February. Other articles to appear include: "The Negro in American Paintings", by F. H. M. Murray; "The Negro As Represented in American Ficino", by J. M. Sampson; "The Disappearing Mulatto", by Monroe N. Work; "Negro Humor", by Hershell Brickell of the New York *Evening Post*; "A Note on Negro Education", by E. F. Frazier; "Health of Pennsylvania Negroes", by H. M. Minton, M.D.; and others of equal interest.

FISK UNIVERSITY

ADMISSION AT BEGINNING OF EACH TERM OR
QUARTER IN OCTOBER, DECEMBER, MARCH OR JUNE

*High Grade Opportunities for Serious Students*

## SUMMER QUARTER

June 6—August 15

The Summer Quarter is divided into two terms, June 6—July 11, and July 11—August 15, in order to meet the requirements of ambitious teachers. Furthermore, in order to lessen the period of strain of summer study and to leave some vacation for everybody, classes will recite for six days a week for ten weeks and give the same credit as is usual for five recitations a week for twelve weeks. This is the practice of one of the great universities.

## CONCENTRATED STUDY

Students are offered three credit hours of work per day, covering three, or two, or one subject.

Students can give their full term to one subject such as Physics, Chemistry, Latin, French, and so secure in ten weeks the work ordinarily given in one subject for an entire year.

## SUMMER QUARTER

OPPORTUNITY FOR TEACHERS

Ambitious teachers desiring credit toward degrees have wide opportunities here.

Training in fundamentals in English, in mathematics and other High School subjects.

* Methods of Teaching

* High School Administration

* Supervision and. Critic Work

* Music

* Manual Arts

## THOUGHTFUL PEOPLE

whether college graduates or not will be interested in our

* Home Reading Circle

* The Fisk Chautauqua Course
leading to a diploma.

For Information Address

THE PRESIDENT, Fisk University, Nashville, Tennessee

## SHAW UNIVERSITY

RALEIGH, N. C.

OPENED SEPTEMBER 18, 1923,
AS AN "A" COLLEGE

The first Institution for Colored Youth in North Carolina to receive "A" rating by the State Department of Education.

Other Departments are Academy (beginning second year), Business, Theological, Missionary and Social Service.

Degrees given: A.B., B.S., and Th.B.

Terms reasonable. Send for new catalogue.

Address:

SHAW UNIVERSITY, Raleigh, N. C.

## ROBERT M. TAYLOR

*New England Employment Office*

REAL ESTATE AND
INSURANCE

72 HUMBOLT AVENUE
Roxbury, Mass.

*If Coming to Boston, Write Us*

## MEHARRY MEDICAL COLLEGE

*A Class "A" College*

With Departments of Medicine, Dentistry and Pharmacy, and a Nurse Training School

ALL DEPARTMENTS RECENTLY
REORGANIZED

Two years (Class One) College work required for admission to the study of Medicine and for admission to the Department of Dentistry. Applicants must have had one year of standard college training. Graduation from a four years High School or Normal School required for admission to the Departments of Pharmacy and Nurse Training. For catalog and application blank, address:

JOHN J. MULLOWNEY, M. D., President of
Meharry Medical College, Nashville, Tenn.

The Daytona Normal and Industrial Institute
at Daytona, Florida

*Under the Auspices of the*
**BOARD OF EDUCATION FOR NEGROES of the**
**METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH**

"A School of Personality"
Co-educational—A Balanced Curriculum. Academic
training through Junior College, Model Training
School for Teachers.

**SPECIAL INDUSTRIAL TRAINING**
*Featuring for Boys:* Bricklaying, Carpentry, Tailoring, Agriculture, Laundering.
*Featuring for Girls:* Sewing, Cooking, Weaving, Home-Gardening, Poultry-raising, Laundering.

MCLEOD HOSPITAL AND TRAINING SCHOOL
FOR NURSES (Registered)
Physical Education and Athletics Emphasized
For further information write

MARY McLEOD BETHUNE, - - President

These Books Should Be Read and Owned

<table>
  <tbody>
    <tr>
      <td>THE NEGRO IN CHICAGO<br>Chicago Commission on Race Relations</td>
      <td>$4.00</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>THE BOOK OF AMERICAN NEGRO POETRY<br>James Weldon Johnson</td>
      <td>1.75</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>HARLEM SHADOWS<br>Claude McKay</td>
      <td>1.35</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>A SHORT HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN NEGRO</td>
      <td>2.00</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>YOUR NEGRO NEIGHBOR</td>
      <td>.75</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>A SOCIAL HISTORY OF THE NEGRO<br>Benj. Brawley</td>
      <td>4.00</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>THE MODERN KU KLUX KLAN<br>H. P. Fry</td>
      <td>2.00</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>THE VOICE OF THE NEGRO<br>Robt. T. Kerlin</td>
      <td>2.50</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>NIGGER—A NOVEL<br>Clement Wood</td>
      <td>2.00</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>THE NEGRO PRESS IN THE UNITED STATES<br>Frederick Detweiler</td>
      <td>3.00</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>DEMOCRACY AND RACE FRICTION<br>J. M. Mecklin</td>
      <td>2.00</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>THE NEGRO FACES AMERICA<br>Herbert J. Seligmann</td>
      <td>1.75</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>THE MIND IN THE MAKING<br>James Harvey Robinson</td>
      <td>2.50</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>HISTORY OF THE NEGRO CHURCH<br>Carter G. Woodson</td>
      <td>2.00</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>DARKWATER<br>W. E. B. DuBois</td>
      <td>2.00</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>IN THE VANGUARD OF A RACE<br>L. H. Hammond</td>
      <td>.75</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>THE TREND OF THE RACES<br>George E. Haynes</td>
      <td>.75</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>BURSTING BONDS<br>William Pickens</td>
      <td>1.50</td>
    </tr>
  </tbody>
</table>

Orders may be placed with us for any of the books listed above

With a year's subscription to "OPPORTUNITY" ($1.50) you may procure any one of four valuable and interesting books at an amazing saving:

1. NEGRO YEAR BOOK

*Edited by Monroe N. Work*

A standard reference volume on matters relating to the Negro; a compendium of dependable and useful information. Price 50c. With "Opportunity" $1.60.

2. WHEN BLACK MEETS WHITE

*By Louis T. Hill*

A masterful plea for inter-racial cooperation. Price $1.50. With "Opportunity" $2.25.

3. THE NEGRO IN OUR HISTORY

*By Carter G. Woodson*

A valuable historical treatise; concise, dependable, illustrated—a book for the library of every American citizen. Price $2.00. With "Opportunity" $2.75.

4. NEGRO FOLK RHYMES

*By Thomas W. Talley*

A delightful and stimulating collection of Negro folk-poetry. Price $2.25. With "Opportunity" $3.00.

Please add 10 cents for postage on books.

Address: "OPPORTUNITY"

127 EAST 23rd STREET, NEW YORK CITY

PRINTED BY WINSON PRESS. NEW YORK CITY

THE NATIONAL URBAN LEAGUE

ORGANIZED 1910—INCORPORATED 1913

127 EAST 23rd STREET

NEW YORK CITY

THE National Urban League is an organization which seeks to improve the relations between the races in America.

Its special field of operation embraces cities where Negroes reside in large numbers.

The Executive Boards of the national and of the forty local organizations are made up of white and colored people who have caught the vision of social work and believe in justice and fair play in the dealings of men with each other.

The expenses of the National headquarters in 1921 were $29,398; in 1922 they were over $40,000; in 1923 they were over $45,000. The 1924 budget is $47,835. In 1910, $2,500 was spent in the whole Urban League movement. In 1919, $140,000 was expended by the movement. In 1920 the amount was $185,000. In 1921 it was $220,000. In 1922 it exceeded $250,000. In 1923 it was over $275,000.

We invite the general public to membership, which is secured through contributions.

L. HOLLINGSWORTH WOOD, Chairman

A. S. FRISSELL, Treasurer

EUGENE KINCKLE JONES, Executive Secretary

Virginia Union University

RICHMOND, VIRGINIA

Courses offered in College, High School and Theology. Teacher's Training, Law, Pre-Medical. Moderate Expenses, Healthful Location, Strong Faculty.

For full information, address

W. J. CLARK, President

Atlanta University

Is beautifully located in the city of Atlanta, Georgia. The courses of study include High School, Normal School and College.

Special emphasis is laid upon the training of teachers.

Students come from all parts of the South. Graduates have a fine record for successful work.

For further information, address

The President, Atlanta University
ATLANTA, GEORGIA

Howard University

WASHINGTON, D. C.

Founded by
GENERAL O. O. HOWARD

J. STANLEY DURKEE, A.M., Ph.D., D.D.,
President

EMMETT J. SCOTT, A.M., LL.D.,
Secretary-Treasurer

## Collegiate and Professional Schools

All departments of this great institution are on a strictly collegiate basis. The University offers courses in the Schools of Architecture; Liberal Arts; Commerce and Finance; Civil, Electrical and Mechanical Engineering; Education; Languages; Library Science; Law; Medicine; Dentistry; Pharmacy; Music; Art; Household Economics; Public Health and Hygiene; the Sciences; Theology.

Students may enter for collegiate work at the beginning of any quarter

## REGISTRATION

Autumn Quarter Sept. 28, 29, '23

Winter Quarter Jan. 2, 1924

Spring Quarter March 15, 1924

For Catalogue and Information Write

F. D. WILKINSON, Registrar

Howard University Washington, D. C.

["L. HOLLINGSWORTH WOOD\nChairman", "EUGENE KINCKLE JONES\nExecutive Secretary", "CHARLES S. JOHNSON, Editor", "OPPORTUNITY", "A JOURNAL OF NEGRO LIFE", "Published Monthly by\nThe Department of Research and Investigations", "NATIONAL URBAN LEAGUE", "127 EAST 23rd STREET, NEW YORK, N. Y.", "Telephone Gramercy: 3978", "WILLIAM H. BALDWIN\nSecretary", "A. S. FRISSELL\nTreasurer", "PAUL G. PRAYER, Bus. Mgr.", "VOL. 2", "MARCH, 1924", "No. 15", "Contents", "COVER. ALEXIS SERGIEWITCH PUSHKIN", "A pen drawing by W. E. Braxton\nfrom a rare photograph loaned\nfrom the collection of Arthur A.\nSchomburg", "Frontispiece. YOURS RESPECTFULLY,\n“UNCLE REMUS”", "By C. M. Battey", "Page", "EDITORIALS", "67", "TRADITION AND EMPLOYMENT", "SCIENCE", "TUBERCULOSIS AND ENVIRONMENT", "THE NEW GENERATION", "THE WHITE ONES. A Poem", "By Langston Hughes", "68", "ARTICLES", "THE WAY OPENS. A Report of\nthe Accomplishments of the Na-\ntional Urban League for the Year\n1923", "By Eugene Kinckle Jones", "69", "A SOCIAL PROGRAM TO HELP THE\nMIGRANT", "By Jesse O. Thomas", "71", "NEGRO PHYSICIANS AND PUBLIC\nHEALTH WORK IN PENNSYLVANIA", "By Henry M. Minton, M.D.", "73", "A NOTE ON NEGRO EDUCATION", "By E. Franklin Frazier", "75", "METHODS IN CONDUCTING RECREA-\NTIONAL WORK", "By Martha Travilla Speakman", "78", "THE SCOUT MOVEMENT AND THE\nCOLORED BOY", "By R. M. Wheat", "79", "STORIES IN SCULPTURE", "By Madeline G. Allison", "81", "LOST OPPORTUNITY, A Poem", "By Henry Coffin Fellow", "83", "AFTER READING BRYANT'S LINES TO\nA WATERFOWL. A Poem", "By Eloise Bibb Thompson", "83", "THE NEGRO OF PETER THE GREAT", "By Alexis Sergiewitch Pushkin", "84", "(Translated by Edna Worthley Underwood)", "A PHYSICIAN DISCOURSES ON THE\nRACE PROBLEM", "89", "OUR BOOKSHELF", "90", "NEGRO SCHOOL ATTENDANCE IN\nDELAWARE", "Reviewed by Joseph Gould", "MARCHING ON", "Reviewed by Lilian A. Lottier", "INTER-RACIAL FORUM", "91", "CORRESPONDENCE", "92", "POT POURRI", "94", "BULLETIN BOARD", "95", "\"OPPORTUNITY\" desires the following contributions: drawings, paintings and photographs for covers; fiction, poetry, local news of interest with photographs; and authentic articles. These contributions should be accompanied by return postage.", "Single Copies, FIFTEEN CENTS—Yearly Subscription, ONE DOLLAR AND A HALF", "Copyright 1923", "Entered as second-class matter October 30, 1923, at the Post Office at New York, New York, under the act of March 3, 1879."]

OPPORTUNITY

VOL. 2

MARCH, 1924

No. 15

EDITORIALS

Tradition and Employment

Within recent years women have been cracking the crust of some age old traditions. One of these was pointed out by Mary Van Kleek in an address before the National Urban League. Employers, following blindly the myths about the incapacity of women and their industrial traits, have persisted in denying certain positions to them and equal pay for the same quality of service rendered by men. There is no sound reason in support of the discrimination, as repeated experiences show. This situation is almost identical with that of Negro workers. There is the same positive differences of opinion as to their efficiency, the same quibble about their pay, the same denial of their fitness for advanced positions even over their own kind, and the same pre-judgments covering exclusive adaptability to routine jobs because of a very special temperament. It develops in the case of women, as with Negro workers, that in general they have given satisfactory service in those plants with fewest established pre-judgments about their temperament and needs and where, incidentally, the conditions of the experiment have been reasonably fair, and they have in general been found unsatisfactory in those plants in which it was most positively known beforehand that they would fail. The difficulties yet remaining are not those which easily respond to reason. A man who objects to a woman's receiving pay equal his own because she has no family to support is perhaps guessing about her responsibilities, in the first place, and even if he were right, would not consent to a lower wage than his fellow male worker because this worker had more children. In these attitudes there is reflected the strength of a restrictive tradition and one as difficult to destroy by argument and contrary fact in the experience of Negroes as in that of women.

Science

In those matters about which there is admitted ignorance it is the task of science not merely to repeat moth-eaten dogmas, but to bring to them the new light of discovery, or at least the honest gestures of experimentation. Elmer D. Mitchell, presumably connected in some manner with the University of Michigan, has contributed to our fund of knowledge about racial "traits" a discussion of these "racial traits in athletics." It has the sanction of formal scientific bodies to the extent that the Eugenics Record Office, at Cold Springs Harbor, distributes it with its literature as scientific information.

In this thesis an examination is made of the traits of the American, English, Irish, German, Scandinavian, Latin, Dutch, Pole, Jew, Oriental, South American, Greek, Indian, and Negro as expressed in their free and spontaneous play. "Nowhere," says the author, "can we better see the inherent traits of the group; and these traits of the primary group extend in influence and make or unmake the larger group."

It appears that, scientifically considered, the white American is the superb athlete, with all the social and political significance that this connotation is made to carry. "The American athlete is the greatest in the world. . . The American training methods are the most progressively modern and scientific. . . The American has the physical vigor of a hustling environment, and the confidence which comes from masterful success."

With the colored American, however, it is inherently different. These are his traits:

"The Negro mingles easily with white participants, accepting an inferior status and being content with it." Evidence: "I have often seen a gay-spirited crowd of college players play pranks upon a colored teammate, even to overheaping his share of equipment that was necessary to be carried, or to decorating his uniform so that it showed conspicuously." Had the author wished to continue, he might have added that in this same playful mood, Washington and Jefferson University elected Charles West the Captain of its 1924 football team.

"The Negro lacks the nervous make-up which often makes a weakling white seem strong." Evidence: "Medical studies show the black race to have blunted nervous sensibilities as compared with the white," so much so that "*the British soldiers in the South African wars were forced to use dum dum bullets against the charges of their black assailants, as an ordinary bullet would not produce immediate shock, and would fail to abate their fighting propensities.*" (Italics ours)

"Temperamentally he is inclined to be lazy."

"He is superstitious, capable of self-devotion or hatred, imitative, loves frankness and praise."

The author shows by his bibliography that he has consulted many "authorities." The dignity of his own contribution makes of him in turn an authority to be quoted by the next student. And so on ad infinitum.

68

OPPORTUNITY

MARCH, 1924

## Tuberculosis and Environment

A significant observation has been made by Dr. Henry Barton Jacobs, of Baltimore, who is an authority on the subject of tuberculosis. The Baltimore Health Department statistics show a rate of mortality from this disease among the Negroes in alarming excess of that of the white population. In 1916 the rate for whites was 16 for every 10,000 of the population and for Negroes 58, or nearly four times as great. In 1910 the rate had dropped to 14 for whites and 44 for Negroes, but the disparity was still serious. Dr. Jacobs suggests that the distribution of these cases over the city provides a first clue to the causes of this difference. A spot map, with each white and Negro death noted, shows a most erratic scattering of these deaths. There are areas almost entirely free from tuberculosis. They embrace, he points out, "First, the business portions of the city where there are few or no inhabitants and, second, those portions of the old city where the houses are least crowded and for the most part are better built and, third, the newer portions of the city where there is a maximum of light and air for each house. All these three portions of the city are inhabited for the most part by white citizens, so that there is a large portion of the white population which may be said to be free from tuberculosis. How large a number this is can not be told; but this may be said, that the deaths from tuberculosis among whites are confined to a restricted portion of the white race, and it may be true that the death rate among this restricted portion may not differ so widely from the death rate among the colored population."

But this is not the whole of his observations. The distribution reveals, further, that tuberculosis is most prevalent where there is greatest crowding, where the houses are oldest, where the streets are narrowest and the people poorest. The sections holding these common factors show an exceptionally high rate. Some of them are almost exclusively white and some almost exclusively colored.

It is easy enough to slur over the guilt of a community in forcing Negroes to live in the shadow of slow death by fabricating the solacing explanation that their constitutions are different. Plainly enough, what they need is not more philosophy but, as Dr. Jacobs quite incisively suggests, the chance to live in hygienic surroundings.

## The New Generation

There has been manifest recently a most amazing change in the public mind on the question of the Negro. There is a healthy hunger for more information—a demand for a new interpretation of characters long and admittedly misunderstood. The moderate success of books like "Black and White," "Birthright," "Nigger," followed by the even more daring departure, both in style and content, in books like "Holiday" and "Cane" is enormously significant. They point to a gentle awakening among a large mass of the reading public which until recently would take its pictures from virulent Negro baiters only, or remain indifferent.

The subject "Negro" like the subject "sex" has been taboed in polite circles, and the stripping off of the veil within the last two years follows with stern consistency our modernistic trend in literature as well as in life. There are three shows on Broadway with or about Negro characters and another planning appearance. Periodicals for the general reading public are carrying with increasing frequency stories and discussions of this long pocketed element of the population.

For a large measure of this new and generally distributed curiosity the numerous formal inter-racial bodies, with their discussions and study groups, are responsible. It is perhaps fortunate that interest in the Negro is a stamp of liberal-mindedness. But sharing with these formal agencies is the undoubted influence of the new group of young Negro writers who have dragged themselves out of the deadening slough of the race's historical inferiority complex, and with an unconquerable audacity are beginning to make this group interesting. They are leaving to the old school its labored la-mentations and protests, read only by those who agree with them, and are writing about life. And it may be said to the credit of literary America, that where these bold strokes emancipate their message from the miasma of race they are being accepted as literature. A good instance of this may be noted in the quite unqualified appraisal of the work of Eric D. Walrond, one of this new group, by the editor of *Success* in introducing him to its nationwide circulation. There was no racial coddling or philanthropic condescension in the statement:

"Success takes pleasure in presenting this new, young master of vivid narrative, believing that in him eventually is the making of one of the greatest novelists and short story writers of our day. . . . The Godless City is a portrait of a modern Pompeii that even Pliny could not have equaled—bald, brilliant descriptions of men and manners—or lack of manners, which ever you chose."

Jean Toomer, author of the exotic "Cane," is at work on a second volume and two other novels by Negro writers are about to appear. This is a healthy state for race relations. This freedom of discussion and new curiosity may well be regarded a first effectual blow in the destruction of those barriers of mutual ignorance and prejudice, hatred and fear, which long have throttled understanding.

## The White Ones

LANGSTON HUGHES

I do not hate you,
For your faces are beautiful, too;
I do not hate you,
Your faces are whirling lights of loveliness and
splendor, too;
Yet why do you torture me,
O, white strong ones,
Why do you torture me?

MARCH, 1924

OPPORTUNITY

The Way Opens

A Report of the Accomplishments of the National Urban League for the Year 1923

By EUGENE KINCKLE JONES

THE year 1923 has seen extraordinary devel-
opments in the problems of race relations to
which the National Urban League has com-
mitted itself. The attitude of the public mind
toward the Negro expresses itself in the improve-
ment in the type of public statements concerning
achievements by members of the Negro race and
praiseworthy incidents in which the Negro is a
prominent factor or is vitally involved. This is
due, of course, to many forces, most notable among
them being the outstanding accomplishments of in-
dividual Negroes and groups of Negroes which
have commanded the thoughtful and respectful at-
tention of both friends and detractors; for exam-
ple, the sudden rise to fame of Roland Hayes, the
great Negro tenor; the presence of 25,000 intel-
ligent and enthusiastic persons at a Negro football
classic in Philadelphia; the attendance of 5,000 per-
sons at a mass meeting in Kansas City, Mo., to pro-
test against racial discrimination; the development of
an eight and a half million dollar corporation in At-
lanta, Ga., manned and controlled by Negroes, with
2500 employees; a colored college student winning
the second prize in a nation-wide poetry contest;
a colored girl valedictorian of a high school grad-
uating class with 91 members—87 of whom are
white—with this young lady winning in addition
the French and Latin prizes for the four-year
course, and another colored girl being described as
“the girl athlete” of the class and standing third;
discussion by the Chamber of Commerce of many
southern cities as to steps that may be taken by
these organizations to make more attractive the lives
of Negroes in the South as a means of offsetting the
tempting social and industrial advantages in the
North; the radical reduction in the number of
lynchings during 1923 as compared with those of
the previous year; President Coolidge's reference in
his message to Congress, now in session, of the need
of Federal action in regard to some of the most
difficult problems faced by Negroes in America.

With these indications of conscious thought on
the part of America to consider seriously this very
important question of race relations, the responsibil-
ity of such organizations as the Urban League be-
comes most evident—that is, to help crystallize this
sentiment into favorable action by Municipal, State,
Federal and private agencies for community im-
provement.

It is important to note that some very definite
statistical evidence of improvement in Negro life
is available—for example, the general reduction in
the Negro death rate and especially in the mortality
rate from the pulmonary diseases which have taken
the greatest toll of Negro lives. From the reports

of industrial organizations, such as the American
Management Association, facts are presented show-
ing the improvement in the service of Negroes em-
ployed in industrial plants and the growing satis-
faction on the part of managers of these plants
with their Negro employees. Withal, one could
safely say that the cause of better race relations
and improved social conditions of Negroes is re-
ceiving a decided impetus forward; their self-respect
and self-help have become more in evidence; their
leadership has become wiser and more conscious.

To this end the work of the Urban League move-
ment has contributed its share. New cities have
been organized for service, notably St. Paul, Minn.,
and preliminary steps for organizations have been
taken in Hartford and Waterbury, Conn., and Hot
Springs, Ark. Other communities have been re-
organized with more substantial budgets and more
definite programs—for example, Atlanta and Rich-
mond.

In Atlanta, through the efforts of the League's
Southern Field Secretary, six Negro social service
organizations, including the Atlanta Urban League,
were taken in the newly organized Community
Chest and the colored citizens of Atlanta contrib-
uted towards the total budget approximately what
the six organizations are to receive from the Chest.

The total money allotted the Negroes for the
Chest was $37,950—the Negroes raised $37,500.
(This was a most significant accomplishment and
this precedent in Atlanta will be accepted as a
standard for other southern cities as local Com-
munity Chests are organized from time to time).

The League's locals are now parts of Commu-
nity Chests in sixteen cities—all of the cities with
Chests where the League is located. In all, 26
Leagues have paid Executive Secretaries with Staffs.
Forty-one communities have Urban Leagues. Others
have modeled organizations after Urban Leagues
without formally affiliating with the movement.
The League continues to be the movement most
sought after to aid in work of helping the thou-
sands of Negro migrants who come from the South
to the North.

Our local organizations in industrial centers,
such as Chicago, Detroit, Kansas City, Columbus,
Cleveland, Atlanta, Pittsburgh, Newark and Phila-
delphia, have found homes for Negro workers;
placed them in positions; counseled with them to
secure greater efficiency; advised with their families
on education for their children and the standardiz-
ing of their home life, and interceded in their
behalf with employers in an effort to secure fairer
treatment and more consideration as to wages and
advancement when merited. When one considers

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that no less than 400,000 additional Negro migrants have come to the North during the past eighteen months, the work of the League through its various branches has been most far-reaching.

The national organization not only recommends executive secretaries for the local branches but is frequently called in to effect transfers of workers from one field to another and to supply additional workers to replace those who are advanced to other positions or who are transferred to other fields. This service has not only been available to local Leagues, but to other social welfare organizations that have sought trained Negro social workers.

In connection with the securing of personnel for social work organizations interested in the Negro, the League has continued to maintain fellowships at the most important schools for training social workers and to bring into the League's service promising individuals who by experience gain the League's point of view and become more proficient in handling social work problems. Two "Fellows" of the League have completed a year's study in social service at training schools and four additional students have been appointed for study under the League's fellowship plan during 1923-24. The schools now willing to receive "Fellows" recommended by the League without tuition charges are the New York School of Social Work, the Graduate School of Social Administration of the University of Chicago, the School of Social Work of Simmons College, Boston, Mass., the University of Pittsburgh, the Carnegie School of Technology, in Pittsburgh, and the Pennsylvania School of Social Work, in Philadelphia.

Through the Department of Research and Investigations, lecturers, writers and students of the race question have sought and received valuable data. As an example, writers for *THE WORLD'S WORK, DEARBORN INDEPENDENT, HOSPITAL SOCIAL SERVICE MAGAZINE, THE SURVEY, CURRENT HISTORY, FORBES MAGAZINE, CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR, CHICAGO DAILY NEWS, IRON AGE*, among others, have applied to the League for statistics and records about the Negro for feature articles. Many graduates students in prominent colleges and universities are preparing theses from data supplied by the League and with the aid of bibliographies we have furnished.

*Opportunity*, a monthly magazine, has appeared during each of the twelve months of 1923 with live, authentic reports and practical discussions of Negro life. Surveys of Negro social conditions have been completed in Baltimore, Md., Waterbury, Conn., and Buffalo, N. Y., and in two instances the surveys were published in *Opportunity*. The Buffalo survey was conducted under the auspices of the Council of Social Agencies; the Waterbury survey under an inter-racial committee, and the Baltimore survey under a similar committee with the endorsement of

the Board of Trade, the Manufacturers' Association, and the Mayor of the City.

Our annual conference was held in Kansas City, Mo., with representatives from thirty-eight cities. Some of the prominent social workers who appeared on the program were Miss Grace Abbott, Chief of the Children's Bureau, United States Department of Labor, and President of the National Conference of Social Work; C. C. Spaulding, President of the North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company; the Reverend Robert Nelson Spencer, Rector of Grace Holy Trinity Episcopal Church, Kansas City; Miss Julia Lathrop, Ex-President of the National Conference of Social Work; Elwood Street, Director of the Community Council of St. Louis; John Hope, President of Morehouse College, Atlanta; and George Melcher, Assistant Superintendent of the Public Schools of Kansas City.

In addition to publicity either through the daily press or magazine articles on the proceedings of the conference, the cause of inter-racial cooperation was presented to many other meetings and groups, such as the National Conference of Social Work, forums, churches, Young Men's and Young Women's Christian Associations, the City Clubs of Kansas City and St. Louis, the Councils of Social Agencies of Hartford, Conn., Buffalo, N. Y., and St. Louis, Mo., the National Teachers' Association, in Tuskegee, the Buffalo Manufacturers' Association, and others too numerous to record here. The Extension Secretary of the League alone addressed seventy audiences, with approximately 39,580 hearers, on the importance of organizing social service activities for better living conditions among Negroes. These audiences were mainly in the states of Texas, Maryland, North Carolina, New York, Illinois, Massachusetts, Missouri, Virginia, and Arkansas.

The League has in the past eight years cooperated each spring in the conduct of the National Negro Health Week. In most of the cities where the League is located, it has taken the leadership in arranging the details for the observance of Health Week and has extended the interest created for the balance of the year through the organization of suitable "better health" clinics and other agencies for health education. In such cities as New York, Brooklyn, Detroit and St. Louis, the League has made a specialty of arranging for the housing of nursing associations, baby clinics, and dental clinics for public school children. Significant improvement in the condition of the Negro's health is noted in most of the cities where the League is working.

A minimum budget for 1924 of $47,835 has been adopted and a budget of $69,800, allowing for expansion and the establishment of a National Industrial Program, has been approved. Last year we expended $45,331.10 in the work but because of the extra expense of launching *Opportunti* we were forced to close with a deficit of $5,471.96. During the year we received a special contribution of $10,101.05 from a group of friends of the late

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MARCH, 1924

and Richmond have experienced quite an influx of Negroes from the smaller towns and rural districts within the states in which these various cities are located. Some ten or twelve physicians have moved to Atlanta within the past three years from smaller towns in the state. While several thousand Negroes have migrated from Atlanta to the North, the Negro population of Atlanta is constantly on the increase. This is true largely because of the feeling of relative insecurity of life and limb in the average small town or rural section of the South.

It has also been stimulated by the activity of the masked mobs and night-riders of the Ku Klux Klan. The boll weevil and other agricultural uncertainties, too, have contributed largely to this migratory influence. When one realizes how limited the colored man or woman is in his educational, economic and social opportunities in the average rural districts or small towns in Georgia, or in Louisiana, or in Alabama, it is apparent that a social program for migrants—if it is to represent a national movement, must be sufficiently comprehensive to provide for and give consideration to the larger cities in the South as well as the North, because all of them have their quota of migrants.

Now that we have before us the types of migrants as they are classified and the territories affected, we might turn our attention briefly to some of the causes for a social program being inaugurated by welfare organizations and socially-minded and public-spirited individuals in the cities, North and South, where a large number of migrants are located.

Most of the influences that make it difficult for the migrant to become quickly assimilated in his new environment are those of poor educational advantages and early training; economic inefficiency; lack of contact with elevating personalities; difficulties in securing adequate housing accommodations; and disposition to cling to the customs and habits of their old environment.

While these people have little or no difficulty in becoming absorbed in the economic life of their new environment, they do experience much difficulty in becoming adjusted in the social and fraternal life of the urban communities and industrial centers. That is to say, they are able to find jobs and positions almost immediately after they arrive, if they desire to do so; but they may live in the community indefinitely without any social status or fraternal recognition in terms of a congenial fellowship with the constructive influences in the community life.

A program adequately providing recreational opportunity for the migrant as well as for other safeguards, health and well being, together with educational advantages and industrial and economic efficiency would require more of what is being regarded as community organization than has been attempted in any large measure in any of our cities thus far. Social workers must develop community organization in their sections, to the point where a majority of the people of fortunate circumstances

will concern themselves more directly with the welfare of the under-privileged. This to a large extent will require the changing of the mental attitude of the more fortunate members of our society group toward the social needs of the man farthest down.

People must realize that maladjustment for whatever reason and of whatever character, whether resulting from ignorance, economic inefficiency, disease, vice or crime, is the common peril; that all money and effort spent toward their elimination should be regarded as a common defence. The whole concept of many of the stronger members of our society group of their duty, obligation, and relationship to the social well being of the weaker members must be radically changed. If you will approach many of them in the interest of suffering humanity in their immediate community, whose unfortunate circumstances threaten the well being of his family, they will tell you that they would be glad to help YOU out, or they would impress you that they are painfully condescending from their position of ease and security to help the unfortunate.

There is a sufficient number of intelligent young men and women in every city to constitute or organize recreational influence if they were sufficiently interested. Each high school could have a recreational center largely directed by the young people in the high school. College students in college towns could be a wonderful factor in making possible recreational programs. Each church could have a recreational committee, just as a Stewardess Board or a Board of Deacons, to provide entertainment at the church—not for the purpose of raising money for foreign missions, but for the purpose of providing recreation for the young people. A vocational councillor should be located at every large center where hundreds of children migrate from the South, to help them determine their adaptability or their compatibility. And then all of the national organizations with branches in local communities should federate and concentrate on certain phases of community development. Community centers on a large scale, supported by the business men of the community, should provide capable supervisors, and the churches should pool together their finances and employ nurses.

In the average southern city the only public building, save the church, where the working girls and young men too, for that matter, can find social contact in an environment of any degree of respectability is at the railroad station. There are thousands of this class of young people who are being demoralized because of the lack of a social program that would provide them with healthy recreation. There are those who feel too humble in circumstances to go to church. Many people who send their children to the public schools do not send their children or carry them to the church. They have a feeling that there is a degree of cast in the church, resulting from the social position or prestige of the more fortunate members, that creates an atmosphere of aristocracy.

MARCH, 1924

OPPORTUNITY

73

However, many of them go to church on their own accord. There are others who feel that the church is only concerned in enrolling them in its membership, and that its zeal for their spiritual salvation is so all consuming that their physical, economic and social salvation are very often overlooked. This is a challenge to the church of tomorrow.

Large industrial and manufacturing concerns and

business enterprises, as well as private individuals who employ these migrants and profit by their toil, must be induced to recognize efforts on behalf of their social well being as an investment in industrial and economic efficiency.

Where the employee eats and sleeps and spends his leisure hours must be of as much concern to the employing interest as to where he works, and to the business man as to where he spends his money.

Negro Physicians and Public Health Work in Pennsylvania

By HENRY M. MINTON, M.D.

CITY, state and national statistics show that the mortality rate from tuberculosis among Negroes is about three times as great as among the whites. As the general mortality rate has been reduced there has been a reduction among Negroes. Nevertheless, whatever is responsible for this reduction has been shared to some degree by the Negro group. Millions of dollars have been spent in recent years by the National Tuberculosis Association and its local branches, municipal bureaus of health and state departments of health in the fight against this disease, and for this expense and effort they are able to show a reduction in the mortality rate to the extent of 50 per cent in twenty years.

Previous to 1914 no particular attention was paid to colored people in Pennsylvania so far as this disease was concerned. To the casual observer it might occur that no particular attention is necessary, especially in such a progressive state as Pennsylvania. It might be felt by him that any propaganda to ameliorate a condition among the entire population would necessarily reach every group of that population. But experience is demonstrating every day that the best way to carry a message to any group, especially where that group is in any way segregated, is through members of that group.

At the Henry Phipps Institute previous to 1914 the annual attendance of Negroes at its clinics numbered from 28 to 76, and in the majority of the years less than 50. The most regrettable fact about this was that but few of this number returned for treatment more than once or twice. All of this was in spite of the fact that the Institute was located most conveniently for a large proportion of the Negro population of Philadelphia, and especially that class who, by virtue of housing and financial status, were mostly in need of dispensary care.

These facts caused those directing the Institute to feel that unless the Negroes could be brought into the clinics in appreciable numbers, creditable tuberculosis work was not being done. They felt that this could be brought about by employing a colored social worker, and then obtaining a Negro physician to conduct a clinic. In 1914 a worker was engaged, with the consequent boosting of attendance that year to 121 separate patients, more than double any previous year, except one. In 1915 a colored

physician took charge of a clinic. The numbers increased rapidly, not only so far as separate cases were concerned, but as regards revisits. During the fiscal year ending February 1, 1923, there were 727 new cases with 2,746 visits to the clinic.

This rapid, yet consistent, growth necessitated an expansion of the personnel of this department until at the present time there are three colored physicians in the chest clinics four days a week, and five social workers.

Shortly after the establishment of the Negro clinic at the Phipps Institute, the Jefferson Hospital Chest Department instituted a clinic under a Negro physician, and later added a colored worker. The amount of work compelled them to add another Negro physician to the staff.

A further expansion of this work was made nine months ago by the establishment in the northern section of the city, in proximity to a densely populated Negro community, of a third clinic under a Negro physician and worker. This was a success from the beginning, and it was necessary after the first month to increase the number of clinic days from one a week to two, and to have one of the Phipps workers assist in order to relieve the congestion. During the first six months 190 individuals made 565 visits to this clinic.

Recently a tuberculosis clinic was established under the auspices of the Department of Health of the city of Philadelphia at the Douglass Hospital. This clinic employs two Negro physicians and two workers, and is successfully drawing to itself a creditable number of patients.

From the recital of these facts we may conclude that an experiment started ten years ago has become a proven demonstration of the value of Negro physicians and social workers in reaching colored people. This Philadelphia project has been watched with interest in all parts of the country and has already been followed by some.

Venereal Diseases

In the fight against tuberculosis, especially since Negro physicians and nurses have become a part of the army of workers in this combat, it has become easy to interest the Negro clergy and the Negro press in this propaganda. In regard to venereal diseases there is a prudery, natural or false, whichever you may choose to call it, which prevents public atten-

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tion being called to a disease which physicians and social workers know is causing intense and prolonged suffering not only to adults but to innocent children. It is not yet possible to find a minister who would get up in his pulpit and preach about venereal diseases as he would about tuberculosis, or a newspaper that would give space to an anti-syphilitic crusade as readily as it would to one against the white plague. Consequently, we find a more subtle problem in the case of venereal diseases than in that of tuberculosis.

In my experience in the Mercy Hospital and the Phipps Institute, as well as in private practice, I have found that the Negro will readily and even enthusiastically subject himself to anti-luetic treatment, often for long periods of time, even without knowing why he is doing so, except to be relieved of certain symptoms. The problem is—How may these infected people be reached? There is one thing about the employment of Negro physicians and nurses in the anti-tuberculosis crusade which has been impressed upon me—it has given to the colored community a group of their own men and women who, representing a great movement, are regarded as authorities and as such are welcomed into their churches, lodges, clubs, public gatherings, and by their newspapers, that they may bring a message. There is in the Negro race today a growing sense of racial consciousness which makes these people feel proud of any creditable work that is propagated by members of that race—and to the same degree of pride there will exist an interest in this work.

When Negro physicians are placed in venereal clinics with the support of such publicity as is used in this work, there is warrant for believing that the number of Negro patients will be increased, especially if these clinics are placed near, or in, the Negro neighborhood. These physicians will become not only medical attaches to these clinics, but ambassadors from the department to the Negro population. The only public demonstrations made in Philadelphia on venereal diseases were some screen pictures shown under the auspices of our Negro medical society and arranged through the intervention of a colored physician of Harrisburg, who was connected with the State Department of Health.

### Small-Pox

During the past year Philadelphia has been more or less excited over small-pox. From December 13, 1922, to December 27, 1923, 79 cases of small-pox were discovered, and all the victims were Negroes. Thousands of people were vaccinated in block quarantines by physicians from the Bureau of Health.

Dr. Cairns, Chief Medical Inspector of the Philadelphia Bureau of Health, writes me: "All of these cases have been imported cases, or traced to direct contact with such imported cases. These people

have come from Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia; the great number of them came from Georgia and the Carolinas. A high per centage of these people were above normal in intelligence and thrift, and some lived in crowded houses, while in others the conditions were good.

"In conversation with many of these people, when asked why they had not been vaccinated, their reply invariably was that they had never been asked to be vaccinated and no one had ever suggested it to them."

I believe, most assuredly, in vaccination. The problem is—How shall we reach the unvaccinated? My observation has convinced me that voluntary measures will not accomplish anything. About a year ago, at the request of the Philadelphia Bureau of Health, there was established at the Mercy Hospital a vaccination clinic. About the only ones to come to it were a few children who were sent by a neighborhood public school.

The industrial insurance companies might aid by making vaccination a membership requirement. I have also to suggest that the employers of all labor insist upon vaccination as a condition of employment. And in addition, I would urge that an appeal be made to the national government to attack this matter at its source. Much money and effort have been spent by the United States Public Health Service toward eradicating certain mosquitoes and malaria in various portions of the South. Surely this small-pox problem merits attention, and the laxity of one community should not be permitted to endanger the health and lives of another.

### Conclusion

In conclusion, I want to urge that in the consideration of all health problems in this state affecting the Negro, due consideration be given the Negro physician and the Negro nurse. There are today about 150 colored physicians in Philadelphia alone, administering to 75 per cent of the 150,000 Negroes within the borders of our city. The Negro nurse is just coming into her well deserved prominence. The members of these two professions know the innermost thoughts, ambitions and peculiarities of their own people, and receive from them that response and confidence which would be impossible in a program from which they were omitted.

And in order that these physicians may become most capable of protecting the state, and that these aspiring women may become well educated nurses, I would ask that the Negro hospitals of the state be liberally supported.

In any program it should be realized that recognition begets pride, the hope of recognition begets ambition, and proper ambition will make better men and women of all of us.

MARCH, 1924

OPPORTUNITY

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# A Note on Negro Education

By E. FRANKLIN FRAZIER

THE aim of this article is to evaluate the past education of the Negro in relation to the culture complex in which he has been placed, and indicate the direction its future development should take. Consequently, we shall not consider those well-known travesties upon education where schools calling themselves universities have conferred imaginary degrees; or where thousands of dollars are spent annually to perfect athletic teams and nothing is expended for library books; or where orating is the chief scholastic effort; or, finally, where quartets are the most prized products. Such instances of short-sightedness and ignorance must find a place in the sadder pages of the history of Negro education. They concern us only as they relate to the theme of this article, namely: How has the education given the Negro so far fitted him for participation in the particular culture complex known as American civilization?

Before considering the question raised above, let us review briefly the main features in the history of Negro education. The fact that strikes us is its missionary and religious nature. Among the pioneers who undertook the education of the Negro, the majority were inspired with missionary zeal. Their aim was primarily religious. Inspired by the missionary endeavors of the nineteenth century to Christianize backward peoples, they sought, on the one hand, to train ministers of the gospel and, on the other hand, to convert Negroes to Christianity. Allied with but somewhat differentiated from the missionary aim was the philanthropic spirit. This was also a product of nineteenth century humanitarian ideals. Those influenced by these ideals endeavored through educating the Negro not only to assist him because he was disadvantaged socially but, in many cases, to fit him for full citizenship in the American commonwealth.

The reaction of the South is too well known to repeat. It is sufficient to say that the South has never seriously opposed giving to the Negro ministers who would prepare him to live in another world so long as it did not interfere with the Negro's working in this world. As long as his leaders unlocked the mysteries of heaven, there was no opposition. It was only when his teachers unfolded the mysteries of this world that the southern white man has objected. A landmark in Negro education, so far as the white man was concerned, was reached when a type of education was discovered that concerned itself with this world and at the same time did not disturb the Negro as a worker. Tuskegee has stood in the white man's imagination as such a reconciliation.

It may be well to restate here the main features of the culture complex in which the American Negro has been placed. According to one student of culture, this complex is characterized by mechanical

invention, universal suffrage, and mass education under which religion is included. Such a descriptive formula is acceptable for our purpose. Surely no one can gainsay the dominating role of mechanical invention in our civilization. Not only are we concerned with the more obvious aspects and results of a highly developed mechanical environment, but with those subtler effects which are reflected in the habits of thoughts. With this understanding of our culture complex, we are prepared to evaluate Negro education.

In this connection we must recall the controversy between the proponents of industrial education under the leadership of Tuskegee and the defenders of the so-called higher education. It is strange that in this controversy the fundamental value of industrial education was never mentioned. It was neither the undoubtable value of the inculcation of regular habits nor the boasted achievement of making Negroes industrially efficient. The chief value of this education was psychic. The Negro was brought from a culture in which certain primitive mental habits moulded his environment. His experiences under the slave regime affected these psychic attitudes but slightly. In order for the Negro to participate in spirit as well as in outward practices in American culture, it was necessary for him to acquire the basic mental assumptions of western civilization. Mechanical causation is the basis of our thought life. This is quite different from the habit of primitive minds to be indifferent to secondary causes. The surest way to make this transition from primitive to scientific habits of thought was to place the Negro in an environment which he must manipulate according to the principles of mechanical causes. This was the sure antidote to mystic and invisible forces, omens and divination.

The foregoing does not deny that the so-called higher education did not seek and attain the same ends. Its field of operation was, of course, more restricted. But it was restricted in a more fundamental sense. Higher education was an indirect means by which scientific causal relations were impinged upon the Negro's mind through symbols. That this was a less effective method of displacing certain primitive mental habits cannot be denied. In spite of this disadvantage, higher education did allow its students to drink in spiritual values that all leaders must have. This brings us to the chief indictment against Negro education in the past.

Negro education in the past, to characterize it briefly, has been too much inspiration and too little information. This charge applies equally to all kinds of Negro education. Even that type of education that has claimed to concern itself with the realities of life has wasted much time in giving inspiration. Of course, much of this false emphasis has been due to an erroneous conception of the

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springs of human behavior. The Negro student has been kept constantly tuned up, so to speak. He has heard inspiring speeches daily from his leaders, who bubble over with platitudes. The whole gamut of his emotional nature has been played upon. He has dissipated grand emotional experiences and squandered the stirrings of his soul in inaction. Instead of filling the Negro's mind with knowledge and training him in the fundamental habits of civilization, his teachers have quite often led him from one emotional debauch to another. Surfeited with emotional appeals never resulting in action, the product of Negro education has become a spectator of civilization incapable of participation.

He has been a spectator mainly because he has maintained the attitude of one enjoying rather than one helping to create. The environment in which he has been placed has been one in which rational rather than sentimental attitudes were demanded. Some will assign this to a difference in racial temperament. But the operation of environmental factors can, to a large extent, account for this distinctive difference in reaction to the psycho-social environmental. In this case the type of education given the Negro has produced a sentimental rather than rational attitude towards life. This sentimental attitude displays itself all along the line of Negro life. While it may not be fair to charge it entirely to education, it is true that whether we look back upon fraternalizing of the older generation in their secret societies or the newer generation in their college fraternities, or medical conventions degenerated into social functions, we see the same old emotional or sentimental life of school days.

We come now to an aspect of Negro education that accounts for many of the cultural scarecrows who have been the products of Negro education. In their missionary zeal and philanthropic enthusiasm the early apostles, who carried education to Negroes, called in all who labored and were heavily burdened with ignorance. While, it is true, there did not exist even the present unperfected means of selecting students qualified for different grades of work, some degree of selection was possible. This failure to select students has produced queer schools and queer students. Some schools have been crosses between a reformatory and a school for feeble-minded and an ordinary school. They were true melting-pots with religious, or rather emotional, education as the solvent. The products have varied in ignorance of and disharmony with the spirit of western culture. While most of the outstanding products are trained in "turning on" the emotions, there are a few exceptions who possess the spirit and culture of our civilization.

Such has been Negro education in the past. Today Negro education faces a crisis. This crisis is not so much due to the passing of missionary and philanthropic support. It is a spiritual rather than an economic crisis. The old ideals are inadequate. Missionary education might have prepared the Negro to live in heaven, but it did not fit him for the culture complex in which he finds himself. But the old

education in its day did give the Negro an objective. Negro education offers no objective to the Negro today. Old ideals have been dissipated. The Negro is either revolting against the old ideals or is adopting a narrow and selfish individualism. Hence the large number of students who are preparing themselves for the professions as a means to wealth and enjoyment, and not as a means for deeper and more responsible participation in our civilization.

What of the new educational ideals? In the first place, the education of the future must make the Negro himself of first consideration. The education of the past did not do this. It must be conceded that in the absence of adequate Negro leadership someone else had to assume the responsibility, and our gratitude for this leadership, that offered itself when a nation shirked its duty and the South determined to keep the Negro in ignorance and economic slavery, can never be too great. Yet this education was to satisfy certain impulses and mould the Negro in accordance with certain prejudices and ideals. This is excellently illustrated by the case of a philanthropic white woman who had given large sums of money for years to the education of Negroes. After these many years of an apparently high appreciation of the Negro, she happened to attend a meeting of Negroes for social development. She came away alarmed and determined not to give another cent for Negro education because she found Negroes as cultured and as intelligent as white people! She felt guilty and dismayed when she beheld the result of her efforts. Her attitude towards Negroes was primarily that of a kindly lady who has sponsored a society for the prevention of cruelty to animals, but naturally resents rescued dogs, for example, assuming roles reserved for homo sapiens; or our general refusal to confer citizenship upon the intelligent ape at Hollywood, however much we are willing to pay for him to do tricks. It is evident that such educational efforts do not make the Negro the center of their aims. They do not represent attempts to develop the Negro into full manhood and afford ample development for a personality that has been abridged. This means that if white people are to assume the direction of Negro education, the older missionary and philanthropic ideals must be abandoned, or Negroes must assume the direction of their education. His educational institutions can no longer be the prizes in church politics or furnish berths for failures in other walks of life. The Negro must be educated for his own sake as a constituent member of American civilization.

The new education must be built upon the sure foundation of sound scholarship. The Bachelor's degree from a Negro school should assure us at least that the holder can read and write English. We should expect this from those of high school standing. Aside from mere technical knowledge, the educated Negro should understand the moral and scientific values afloat in our civilization. Recently the Negro ministers of a large city prided themselves on the fact that they were 100% "strong" in believing in the Virgin birth. Since Negroes cannot boast of su-

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perior "spiritual" or "mysterious" insight, this fact
can only be a monument to the ignorance of the
Negro preacher. The equipment of the educated
Negro should represent an attitude determined by
a possession of the most advanced knowledge extant
in the world. But to achieve this end it will be
necessary to select students. However much we may
be inclined to excuse the wholesale education of
Negroes in the past, with the means available today,
there is no excuse whatever for the past indiscrim-
inate education of Negroes which has produced so
many scarecrows of culture.

We must hasten to a consideration of moral and
religious aspects of the new education before some
object to "soulless" scholarship as the ideal in edu-
cation. The old education of Negroes depended
upon the easily communicable emotional states to
mould conduct and character. This has been one
of the main weaknesses in Negro education gener-
ally. Conduct and character are the results of
habits. The exploitation of the emotions in the
Negro has not built up motor responses but has
dissipated itself in the air.

Sound moral education for the Negro must sub-
ject him to situations where desirable motor re-
sponses will be elicited so as to build up habits valu-
able for the civilization in which he is placed. If the
Negro is endowed with an extra share of emotion so
much the better for the desirable habits he has ac-
quired. Negro education has had in this respect the
same ill effects that American athletic contests have
upon the mob of spectators, who lose themselves in
emotional debauches which never result in activity.
Negroes must be taught to act as well as feel.

When we consider the place of religion in the
education and life of the Negro we are keenly aware
of the statement of Dean Kelly Miller, that the re-
ligion of Jesus has been interpreted to the Negro
through Teutonic eyes and that the Negro must re-
turn to the source for inspiration in the future. For
people situated as the Negro, in the midst of a mili-
tant and overbearing civilization, there could be no
better religion than the simple, fundamental prin-
ciples, taught by Jesus, of the brotherhood of man
and the superiority of moral force. As we know,
these principles have been ignored by the Teeton and
the militant, hypocritical and ceremonial Christianity
with its castes, which we behold today has nothing
to offer the Negro. His preachers have aped the
Teutonic interpretation; but in many cases, it must
be said, out of pure ignorance. Some cowardly
preachers and leaders have pretended to emulate
Jesus' humility and reliance upon moral forces by
lying to the white man and bartering away for favors
the moral sanctions of justice in the face of an op-
ponent depending upon physical force. Except in
a few rare cases the non-resistance of the Negro has
never been actuated by the religion of Jesus. His

reliance upon moral force has been a cowardly denial
of his right to the enjoyment of the same treatment
as the white man; and his humility has been lying
about his desire for this. If the new education for
the Negro includes in its program religious training,
let it return to the source as Dean Miller so aptly
counsels. Let it avoid both the aimless emotional
dissipations of the past and the hypocritical and
militant counterfeit Christianity of white civiliza-
tion.

In the evolution of Negro culture there is one fac-
tor making for rational attitudes, namely,—economic
development. Business experience for the Negro is
proving more fundamentally educative in certain re-
spects than his formal education, because it has put
him in contact with an environment requiring less
expenditure of emotion and a greater exercise of
rational habits. Of course, business has its narrow
outlook and restricted aims and can not exercise the
influence on the Negro we are seeking.

This brings us to the greatest task of the new edu-
cation, namely,—the rationalization of the culture
process with Negroes. Recently a young European,
who visited this country and noted his impressions
concerning the Negro problem, was struck by the
servile way in which Negroes imitated the white
man's ideals and values and his fear of being differ-
ent. Imitation, of course, is a natural social process
and the Negro responds according to the universal
laws of imitation. But a group situated as the Ne-
gro must avoid the danger of unconsciously assimili-
lating values which either have no meaning for him
or which the leaders of thought in the world are
trying to replace with higher values. The Negro,
rather advantageously situated, should be a pioneer
in enunciating values that those overwhelmed by
their own culture could never attain. For example,
there is no reason for the Negro to be an intense
nationalist. When his leaders boasted after the War
that there was not one Negro conscientious objector,
they reflected the subservient and short-sighted out-
look of Negro leaders; and, if the claim were true,
the unidealistic mind of the Negro. It is the func-
tion of Negro educators to disseminate those desir-
able values and elements of the environing culture
that the Negro is to incorporate into his life. Al-
ready the Negro, unguided or rather misguided, has
unconsciously drunk in values and ideals that have
no meaning to him. The accomplishment of a con-
sciously built up culture will depend upon leaders
with a vision and understanding of cultural pro-
cesses. Nevertheless, spiritual and intellectual eman-
cipation of the Negro awaits the building of a Negro
university, supported by Negroes and directed by
Negro educators, who have imbibed the best that
civilization can offer; where his savants can add to
human knowledge and promulgate those values
which are to inspire and motivate Negroes as a cul-
ture group.

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# Methods in Conducting Recreational Work

By MARTHA TRAVILLA SPEAKMAN

PLAY is the serious business of childhood. It should mean not only happiness and health but mental, moral, and spiritual development as well.

Parents, teachers, playground leaders, social workers in other lines—all of us who have to do with children—have in our keeping not only their present-day happiness but their future happiness as well. What they do today will surely be reflected in their future lives. The paths of expression we open for them today will lead to greater opportunities later on. Habits and ideals formed in childhood usually remain. Aren't many of us influenced by the way we are taught to do things? Isn't our appreciation of some songs and stories greater because of our childhood memories? Don't we usually enjoy most those games we played in our childhood? Some of us don't know any others to play!

If we can teach the children of today enough interesting, vigorous games, games that train in alertness, in self-control, in team spirit, and in fair play, but most of all games that are good fun, we are giving the children of today an inheritance that will remain with them always.

If we can teach dancing, both folk dancing and social dancing, in the right way and with good music we are creating in children a taste for wholesome dancing so that when they grow older they will be much more likely to desire the right kind of dancing.

If we can give the children of today an opportunity to express themselves in story-acting, in dramatics, in different kinds of handicraft, and in music; if we can create in them a desire for good reading, when they grow older they will have a store of interesting, wholesome things to do in their leisure time.

The problem of what to do with leisure time is a real one with many of us grown-ups. The recreation theory that one should use other muscles and different brain cells in one's leisure time than those cells and muscles which are used during the working hours is all very well, if we have had the proper training to do this; but when one comes home from a tiresome day's work it isn't natural to say, "This evening I will use the muscles and brain cells that have been at rest all day." For usually we do the thing which is easiest for us to do and consequently use the same muscles and brain cells we have been using all day simply because these muscles we can most easily coordinate.

For example: During the war soldiers in training camps, after having hours of drilling each day, usually preferred a vigorous game of baseball instead of some kind of recreation that would use other muscles and brain cells than those that had been used all day. In the same way, a woman who has been sitting at a machine all day often sits down

in the evening to do fancy work instead of dancing or in some way using her "big" muscles.

If children learn a great many kinds of activities in their childhood it isn't so difficult to find plenty of the right sort of things to do in their leisure time when they are grown.

An illustration of how play can be introduced into a community which has failed to emphasize its importance is the work done by the Children's Bureau in Porto Rico. "Play and Recreation" was one part of the Bureau's Porto Rican Children's Year survey.

First we talked with the Commissioner of Education and secured his approval and support. Then we talked to the Supervisor of Schools in the largest district, as we wanted to have our main demonstration there. After a few weeks this Supervisor was entirely convinced that the idea was a sound one and told us that he would require every teacher to have twenty minutes of supervised play each day in place of the old-fashioned "recess" of fifteen minutes. In order that the teachers should have plenty of material with which to work, we went into each school and held classes with the teachers to teach them games and folk dances, and to talk about storytelling, story-acting, dramatics, music, singing, and any other phases of play and recreation which the teachers wished to know more about. Every day groups of forty or fifty teachers met together not only to talk over the games but to play them themselves. It was perfectly delightful to see how much they themselves enjoyed playing games!

Some of the suggestions we gave to these Porto Rican teachers may be of interest to you.

The importance of having the teacher see that all the children play was particularly stressed. As every teacher knows, there are always many children who are natural leaders, strong, healthy, and perhaps a bit overbearing and dictatorial, who are always "in the game." On the other hand, there are always groups of children who are bashful or backward and for some reason are not "in it." It's very important that the teacher shall see to it that the timid children have their "turn" and that while of course the "bold and forward" children have their turns, too, they should also be made to feel that there are others in the game besides themselves. For after all we live in a world where some are strong and some are weak and it is vitally important that the two groups learn to play with each other.

It is important for the supervising teacher to throw herself so wholeheartedly into the game that the children feel that she is one with them, and to put enough joy and happiness into the game so that the children get plenty of laughter out of it. The teacher should sometimes make an effort to help those who rarely ever win to occasionally do so, so these children will know the feeling of being suc-

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cessful; it encourages them to try again.

In teaching games it is also important to alternate active games and quiet games. Children get much more from the recess time or from their playground activities or any other play, for that matter, if the teacher in charge sees that they do not play too many games that are active and tiring. Quiet games should be played as well as active ones.

In certain communities throughout the country splendid work is being done in the recreation field among colored groups. Several weeks ago I went over to Baltimore to talk with Dr. William Burdick who is in charge of the Maryland Playground Athletic League, an organization that has not only Baltimore but the entire State of Maryland as its field. I was delighted to find how great an interest this League is taking in the colored communities

of Maryland. There are 325 Community Leagues already formed and in each of the 23 counties Field Days have been held, so that each county has come together for a day of Play and athletic contests. Those who were in charge told me with great pride that the spirit was perfectly splendid; that great crowds, often 3000 people or more, would come together and have a happy day, with a band and a picnic to add to the gayety.

During work and school hours our actions are guided by others. In our leisure time we do as we please—our own desires predominate. "What modern industry represses, modern play must free." It is up to us to see to it that there are enough recreation facilities for us all to be able to express ourselves in the best, fullest, and happiest way.

## The Scout Movement and the Colored Boy

By R. M. WHEAT

THE Louisville council of the Boy Scouts was the first in the United States to formulate a definite plan of work among colored boys. The writer, a southern white man, who has spent his entire life in the South, and in close touch with the colored people of the South, was induced to undertake the task of building up an organization that would bring all the advantages of Scouting to the colored boys of Louisville. After being assured of the full and hearty co-operation of Mr. A. T. Benson, who at that time was Scout Executive of Louisville, as well as that of the splendid men who composed the Executive Board, he began his work. The first step was to establish Division Headquarters in the center of the colored population. The next step was to surround the executive with an Advisory Board, composed of eighteen outstanding colored men in Louisville. These men have been the constant advisors and helpers of the executive during the past three and a half years and at all times there has been the closest harmony and heartiest co-operation. The next step was to get in touch with the pastors of the colored churches, the principals and teachers of the public schools, and other leaders of the race. These people have responded in a splendid way and have always given the executive the finest assistance in his efforts to help them solve the boy problem in the different parts of the city.

We have built up an organization of twenty-three colored troops, with about five hundred boys. Each troop is under the jurisdiction of some institution, the majority of them being connected with the churches. Each group has also a Troop Committee of at least three men, who are appointed by the governing body of the institution. These men elect the Scoutmaster and his assistants and supervise the

work of the troop. The Scoutmaster of each troop is a colored man. Many of these boys are doing splendid work in the passing of various Scout tests. We have two boys who have reached the very high rank of Eagle Scouts. They were among the first colored boys in the United States to reach this rank. The boys are very faithful in the observance of the "Scout Oath and Scout Laws," and in the practise of the daily "good turn," and are always ready to respond to calls for civic service.

Each summer there is a camp for these lads—"Camp Dan Beard"—which is named in honor of Mr. Dan Beard, National Scout Commissioner. It has been in existence four years and was the first established for colored Boy Scouts in the United States. It has been well attended each year and has been a source of great pleasure and benefit.

One very fine feature in connection with our work is the kindly relationship existing between the boys of the white troops and the boys of the colored troops. There has never been at any time the slightest friction. The boys of both races have always shown a disposition to respect each other and to recognize the fact that a Scout is a Scout, whether he be a white boy or a colored boy. If we can instill into these lads the principles of the "Scout Oath and Scout Laws," we will have taken a long step toward the solution of the problem of race relationship in the future. The executive has at all times accorded to the leaders of the colored race, with whom he has been associated, respect and courtesy. They in turn have given him, without stint, their confidence and their genuine friendship. He learned long ago to appreciate the character and the ability of these men and to respect them for the splendid work they are doing. He has found the colored people to be ap-

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Louisville Boy Scouts in Camp

preciative of his efforts in behalf of their boys and responsive to every call for sympathy and support in the work he has tried to do. No people on earth are more loyal in their friendship. They are a generous, big-hearted, kindly race. In the efforts to improve themselves, they are quick to recognize every good thing that is attempted for them by their friends and in the Boy Scout Movement they give evidence of seeing a program which means much in the development of future manhood.

Another very fine feature is the co-operation of the best class of white people of the city. The present Scout Executive of Louisville, Mr. Thornton Wilcox, and the Executive Board, composed of some of the outstanding men of the city, are in full accord with every plan to advance the Boy Scout Movement among the colored boys. The colored Work Committee of the Louisville Council, which is the point of contact between the executive and the Advisory Board of the colored organization and the central organization of the city, has as its chairman Colonel P. H. Callahan, a man of national influence, and one who is always ready and willing to do everything possible to make our work a complete success.

The success of the Boy Scout Movement for the colored boys in Louisville, Ky., has created interest all over the country. In speaking of the accomplishment, Dr. George J. Fisher, National Field Director, has assured us that we have perhaps "builded better than we know." He and other officials at National Headquarters have given us every

encouragement in our work and we believe that the time is not far distant when the benefits of the great Boy Scout program will be made available to every colored boy of Scout age in the United States.

As in the development of all pioneer organizations, there have been serious problems to face. But after three and one-half years of strenuous toil, we can begin to see the realization of that for which we have toiled, and hoped, and prayed.

The wisdom of the plan we have used in Louisville, Ky., has long ago become so apparent that it is generally recognized that a program similar in form must be used in other parts of the country. If the writer can be of assistance to any one who is interested in the development of Scouting among the colored boys, he will be very happy to do so. We feel that we have the opportunity at this time to develop a fine type of leadership among the colored men of the country and to develop a fine class of troops among the colored boys. The races must live side by side in this country and they must develop side by side, if we are to have the type of manhood in the future that will make our beloved country safe and insure its progress in all lines of activity. These boys of today, both white and colored, will be the citizens of tomorrow. What that citizenship will be depends upon what we, to whom the training of these boys has been committed, do in the way of training them at the present time. Let us regard it as a sacred trust, and govern ourselves accordingly.

## WHO'S WHO

Jesse O. Thomas is Southern Field Representative of the National Urban League.

Henry M. Minton, Mr. D., is Superintendent of Mercy Hospital, Philadelphia, Pa.

E. Franklin Frazier is Director of the School of Social Work located at Morehouse College, Atlanta, Georgia. He was awarded a scholarship for one year at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark.

Martha Travilla Speakman is a Representative of the Federal Children's Bureau, Washington, D. C.

R. M. Wheat is a southern white man and director of the work among Negro boys in Louisville, Kentucky, under the Boy Scout movement.

Henry Coffin Fellow is a resident of Wichita, Kansas, and a Quaker. He has written several volumes of poetry.

Eloise Bibb Thompson is a resident of Los Angeles, California, and a writer.

Edna Worthley Underwood is the author of "The Penitent" and other books.

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## Stories in Sculpture

> "And Art's higher message, after all, is not for
> the pen nor the tongue, but for the sight, the sense,
> the soul."

In the sense that art is idealization, it holds another angle of significance for Negroes. It is, perhaps, unfortunate that beauty or those representations of it coaxed from stone or molded from metal need be taken seriously as having racial importance. But this is not so much the fault of beauty or its appreciation as of the other elements which go to make up the peculiar cultural environment by which Negroes are surrounded. They do well to seek out and appraise and guard zealously those symbols of their life and history which the skilled hands of American sculptors hand down to posterity. Quietly and painstakingly, over a long period of years, Freeman H. M. Murray has sought out and attempted to appraise the representations of Negroes in sculpture. His studies made a book which has, unfortunately, been but little known. To this work he has brought such careful study that a much wider acquaintance both with his estimates and the information is well warranted. The volume contains forty-eight illustrations of sculpture, in each one of which there is a vivid human story. One of the classics in this field is a piece by John Rogers—"The Slave Auction."

"In this group there are three adult figures, also a child and a baby. The slave man, barefoot and roughly but neatly dressed, stands at the side of a goods-box, behind which, on a smaller box, stands the auctioneer. A woman, apparently his wife, stands on the other side of the box. She is pressing to her bowed face a nearly naked baby whose chubby hand rests on her tear-wet cheek. She, too, is bare-foot; but she looks neat. A small barefoot boy hides in the folds of her skirt. On the front of the box is tacked a piece of muslin bearing these words:

> Great Sale of Horses, Cattle,
> Negroes, and Other Farm Stock,
> This day at Public Auction."

To see these words written, or to hear them spoken, must yield even in the most unemotional being at least an impression; but to see this group—sculpture though it is—needs must quicken the delicate pulses of that part of us that is our life—the soul, and arouse a peculiar sorrow—a great joy that from the depths of despair these dismantled people have risen to the heights of civilization.

Since many of us are of the opinion that credit for the Emancipation of the Negro slaves is due solely to Abraham Lincoln, it is interesting to have in sculpture the following conceptions regarding this widely known historical event.

Thomas Ball, in 1865, modeled "Lincoln and a Kneeling Slave." This work was expanded into an

"Emancipation" group and set up in 1876 in Lincoln Park, Washington. A comment reads:

"The original group was in Italian marble, and differs in some respects from the bronze group. In the original the kneeling slave is represented as perfectly passive, receiving the boon of freedom from the hand of the great liberator. But the artist has justly changed all this to bring the presentation nearer to the historical fact, by making the emancipated slave an agent in his own deliverance. He is represented as exerting his own strength, with strained muscles, in breaking the chain which had bound him. A greater degree of dignity and vigor, as well as of historical accuracy, is thus imparted."

Bearing out this idea there is the "Emancipation" monument by George Edwin Bissell, which was unveiled in the old Calton Burying Ground in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1893.

Tavssaint L'Ouverture, statue by Anne Whitney

"Emancipation and the Freed in American Sculpture," by Freeman H. M. Murray. Published by the author, at 1733 7th Street, N. W., Washington, D. C.

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Greek Slave, statue by Hiram Powers

"He (Mr. Lincoln) stands quietly and com-
posedly, holding the Proclamation in his right hand.
His left hand is behind him, instead of being—as in
Ball's first group—extended as if in blessing or bene-
diction."

Another sculptor, John Quincy Adams Ward,
gave expression to his conception in the "Freedman,"
which was exhibited in New York in 1863 and
brought forth this remark from James J. Jarves:

"Completely original in itself, a genuine inspira-
tion of American history, noble in thought and lofty
in sentiment. A naked slave has burst his shackles,
and with uplifted face thanks God for his freedom.
We have seen nothing in our sculpture more soul-
lifting or more comprehensively eloquent. It tells
in one word the whole sad story of slavery and the
bright story of emancipation."

Nor could the sculptor neglect to portray woman-
hood.

In 1862, William Wetmore Story, a New
Englander, then working in Rome, sent to the Lon-
don Exhibition his "Cleopatra" and "The Libyan
Sibyl." Of these works, Jarves has written:

"Unhappily, England has secured the two concep-
tions, Cleopatra and the Libyan Sibyl, which have
placed him (Story) in European estimation at the
head of American sculptors. Their greatness con-

sists in originality of thought. They are the growth
of new art-blood. We may ethnographically object
that Cleopatra, sprung from Hellenic blood, could
not be African in type. Still it is a generous idea,
growing out of the spirit of the age—the uplifting
of down-trodden races to an equality of chances in
life with the most favored—to bestow on one of
Africa's daughters the possibility of the intellectual
power and physical attractions of the Greek siren.
The Sibyl is Africa's prophetic annunciation of her
future among nations. Sculpture of this character
displays a creative imagination and daring of no
mean order. Born of, yet in some degree forestall-
ing the great political ideas of the age, it is high art
teaching noble truth."

And what more truthful sentiment could be ex-
pressed than the words composed and read by the
late John Boyle O'Reilly, in 1888, at the dedication
of the "Attucks Memorial"—

And now is the tree to blossom? Is the bowl of
agony filled?

Shall the price be paid and the honor said and the
word of outrage stilled?

And we who have toiled for freedom's law, have we
sought for freedom's soul?

Have we learned at last that human right is not a
part, but the whole?

That nothing is told while the clinging sin remains
in part unconfessed?

That the health of the nation is periled if one man
is oppressed?

Indian and Negro, Saxon and Celt, Teuton and
Latin, and Gaul—

Mere surface shadow and sunshine, while the sound-
ing unifies all!

One love, one hope, one duty theirs! No matter
the time or the ken,

There never was separate heart-beat in all the races
of men!

This monument, to cherish the memory of Crispus
Attucks, was modeled by Robert Kraus and is one
of the exhibits in Boston.

"The Democracy of Childhood," by Bissell, lends
its own glow to our rainbow of hope! This group
was dedicated in 1884 in Waterbury, Conn. The
Rev. Joseph Anderson gives a comprehensive descrip-
tion:

"The seated figure, whose face is full of motherly
tenderness, leans forward in an attitude of listening.
Her clasped hands rest on a large book which stands
on her knee; her right foot is upon a cannon, beside
which is a broken shackle. The fillet which binds
her hair is ornamented with a miniature shield,
graven with stars and stripes, which marks her out
as representing the American government. A well-
dressed school-boy—his bundle of books beside him—
stands at her knee; and while she leans forward to
listen to him, she looks benignantly upon a ragged
little Negro sitting on a cotton bale at her feet, who
holds in one hand a hoe, and is trying with the other
to force open the leaves of the book upon her knee.
In the school-boy, making an earnest appeal in be-
half of the young Negro, the North is represented

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The Democracy of Childhood, group, on Military Monument, Waterbury, Conn., by George E. Bissell

(by one of its children—for children have no prejudices and know no color line) as appealing to the Government to extend to the African race the educational and other advantages which white people, North and South, had long enjoyed. And the Negro, who represents an emancipated people, illus-

trates by his position and action the eager desire of his race to secure the education which they know to be necessary to success in a free republic.”

And there's a sculpture of Toussaint L'Ouverture by the late Anne Whitney, of which Mrs. Livermore writes:

"It was this noble Haytien, whom the world would proudly remember in immortal marble but for his unpardonable crime of wearing a black skin over his white soul, that Anne Whitney chose. Could she have selected a worthier subject? The event of his life which she embodied in her representation is his imprisonment by Napoleon. . . He sits alone in his stony dungeon, nude, save for a rude covering about his waist. . . . He is scorned, betrayed, ignored, doomed—he must die. Above the lust of gold, pure in private life, generous in his use of power, always obedient to the law, he is yet to die—ignominiously, starved, like a rat in a hole. He comprehends it all.

"But not a line of his face betrays weakness or fear—not a shade of bitterness or hate darkens it. Instead of this, it is noble in its expression of endurance and heroism. Intensely serious and sad, he leans forward, while his right hand indicates the inscription he has traced on the floor, *Dieu se charge!* Forsaken by all, justice denied him, he is yet brave and strong; for a just God is in the heavens. With Him he rests his case."

These are merely extracts from the rare collection to be found in Mr. Murray's volume.

And who is Mr. Murray?

A colored man whose ambition is a passionate desire to garner objects of beauty for the glory of his group. For thirty years he was an employe in the Government Service in Washington—to him, a service not so dull as the statement sounds; he has been a journalist, and is a contributor of art articles to various periodicals, a lecturer on this subject, and a member of the American Negro Academy. His first volume, "Emancipation and the Freed in American Sculpture," is indeed an unusually meritorious document.

MADELINE G. ALLISON.

## Lost Opportunity

HENRY COFFIN FELLOW

O Mother of the night-wold,
Out of a window of heaven,
On the wings of silken moonlight
Thou hast come at the shadowy moontide
Into a radiant day dawn,
Weft with a web of star-light;

Hast come to the stoop of my cottage,
Passed on with a willowy whisper,
Not seeing a scarlet lintel;
Went out in the night forever,
To wrap at the shrine of her fledgling
In the unhewn forest of Sorrow.

## After Reading Bryant's Lines To a Waterfowl

ELOISE BIBB THOMPSON

No forward soul, ambition stung,
And sunk in carnal bliss,
E'er dreamed a dream so fraught with heav'n
And gave us verse like this.
No lute attuned for flattery's ear,
Or struck by greed for gain,
E'er woke such cadences so sweet
Or played so rare a strain.

Not men, but Angels sing like this,
Lit with celestial fire,
And sweep the strings with airy touch
Of an immortal lyre.

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# The Negro of Peter the Great

By ALEXIS SERGIEWITCH PUSHKIN

By EDNA WORTHLEY UNDERWOOD

*(Continued from the February issue of Opportunity)*

THE next morning, just as he had promised, Peter the Great came in and awoke him, and at the same time he congratulated him upon his having been made Lieutenant Captain of the Preobrashenki Regiment, at the head of which was Peter the Great himself. The courtiers vied with each other, seeking for his friendship; everyone tried to flatter in some way and obtain the good graces of the powerful favorite. The haughty Prince Menshikov grasped him warmly by the hand; Scheremetjeff inquired about all his old Parisian friends; and Golowin invited him to come and dine with him. All the other members of the court followed the example of these leading men. And for a month Ibrahim dined out every night.

If the days of Ibrahim were monotonous and all alike, still they were filled with work, and he did not have time to be lonesome. His devotion to the Czar increased from day to day, the more he learned to understand and to value the great soul of the man. Just to watch the mental operations of such a man as Peter the Great is a highly interesting study. Ibrahim saw Peter the Great in the Senate, where he heard him debate laws and questions of government with Buturlin and Dolgoruki; in the College of the Admiralty he heard him lay the plan for making Russia a sea power; and in hours of recreation and idleness, he watched him making translations from various foreign countries with the aid of Feofan, Gabriel Buschinski, and Kopjewitch. He was with him when he investigated the factories of the mercantile class and the work-rooms of various craftsmen, or went to pay a call to the study of a scholar. To Ibrahim, Russia seemed to be one gigantic work-room, where there was one great central machine in action, and where all the men worked in unison under one higher command. He now looked upon it as a duty to put himself in this same manner of working and to forget, as much as possible, the idleness and the pleasures of his old life in Paris.

The most difficult thing of all that it took away from his mind was the dear memory of Countess L—. He could not help picturing to himself what her grief must be. And then sometimes a thought of terror took possession of him and pain entered his heart at the thought that probably another favorite had taken his place. Jealousy made his African blood boil; hot tears came to his eyes.

One morning he was sitting in his study, as usual, when he heard someone without, who was speaking French rapidly. Ibrahim turned around quickly and saw young K— whom he had known in the whirlpool of the old life in Paris, and who embraced him and called out merrily.

*Quotation limited to 500 words.*

"I have just this moment arrived," declared K—. "I came straight to you. All of our old friends in Paris sent their greetings to you, and told me to tell you how they miss you. Countess L— insisted that I bring you straight back to Paris. Here is a letter from her."

Ibrahim seized it with trembling hands; he saw again the well remembered writing of the address. He could hardly believe his eyes.

"How glad I am," continued K—, "that you have not already died in this barbarous Petersburg! What are you doing here? How do you manage to kill the time? Don't forget to tell me who your tailor is. Has the opera been introduced here yet?"

Ibrahim answered, absentmindedly, that the Emperor at that moment was probably engaged in shipbuilding. K— began to laugh.

"I see that I have come at an inconvenient time. But some other time you and I can say all the things we want to say. Now I am going, because it is my duty to be presented to the Czar."

Just as soon as Ibrahim was alone, he tore open the letter. The Countess was grieved because he had gone away, and she blamed him for his dissembling and for his lack of faith in her. Ibrahim read the letter twenty times. He became impatient to learn more about the Countess, so he decided he would run over to the Admiralty, where he expected to find K—. But just at that moment the door opened and K— stepped in.

He had already been presented to the Czar, and as was his habit, he was more than satisfied with himself.

"Just between us," he remarked to Ibrahim, "this Czar of yours is a very strange man. Consider, if you will, I found him wearing a workman's blouse and perched up on the mast of a ship. And I was obliged to climb up there with my dispatches in my hand. I stood on the little rope ladder and I did not even have space enough to make a proper ceremonial bow. So, you see, I could not live up at all to what I consider the dignity of my birth and breeding; nothing like this ever happened to me before. But after the Czar had read the papers, he looked me over from head to foot and he evidently got a favorable impression from my elegant and tasteful clothes. Anyway, he laughed; and he invited me to be present at his gathering tonight. But I am altogether a stranger in Petersburg, you know. During the six years which I have been away, I have forgotten all about the customs. I wish you'd be my tutor and take me around."

Ibrahim agreed readily enough, and then he hastened to turn the subject to something that was nearer his heart.

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"Well, now, what about Countess L—?"

"Countess L—? Well, in the first place, she was broken-hearted because you had gone away. But by degrees, of course, naturally enough—she consoled herself. Can you guess who it is? It's that tall Marquis R—. What makes you look at me with such angry eyes? Why should that statement surprise you? Do you not know that human nature is not fitted for a long grief, and especially if it happens to be the human nature of a woman? Now you weigh that carefully in your mind, while I go to rest a bit from my journey; and then don't forget to come and get me."

Who could describe the feelings which surged within the soul of Ibrahim? Jealousy, anger, despair; it was none of these, but instead it was melancholy and deep mental depression. He kept saying over to himself, "I should have known it; it could not well have been different."

Then he picked up the letter from the Countess and read it over and over, and he wept. The tears made his heart lighter. When, at length, he glanced up at the clock, he saw that it was time to go. Ibrahim would have much preferred to remain at home, but the evening gatherings at the Imperial Palace were regarded as a sort of diplomatic duty, and the Czar insisted that all his entourage should be present. He dressed himself hastily and set out for the residence of K—.

He found K— sitting with his nightgown on and engrossed in a French novel.

"So early!" he exclaimed, the moment his eyes rested upon Ibrahim.

"Early! It's more than half-past five now. We'll be late as it is. Put on your clothes and let us set out."

K— jumped up and pulled the bell with all his might. The servants came rushing in, and he dressed as speedily as possible. His French man handed him his shoes with the red trimming, the blue velvet trousers, and the bright red coat covered with spangles. His wig, which the servants had been powdering with the greatest haste in the next room, was brought in next. K— pulled it on over his head, which had been completely shaven in order to wear it, and then he asked for his sword and his gloves. He whirled around at least ten times in front of the mirror, and at length declared to Ibrahim that he thought he was ready. As they went out, the hall male attendants helped them on with their overcoats, and then they sped away to the Winter Palace.

K— kept pelting Ibrahim with questions. "Who is the greatest beauty in Petersburg just now? Who do they say is the best dancer? Which dance is, in your opinion, most fashionable?"

Ibrahim satisfied his curiosity as best he could, although he was not talkative by nature, and in this occupation they reached the palace. Already, upon the level meadow land in front of it there was a great quantity of long, old-fashioned sleds, which were called *kolymagas*, together with gaily gilded vehicles. The entrance stairs were crowded with bearded men in livery; footmen, whose gay

caps had a feather struck in the side; Hussars, tall and awkward men servants laden with the fur coats and the muffs of their masters and mistresses—in short, all that accompanied usually the rich *boyar* of that day. When they saw Ibrahim driving up, a murmur began to run through the crowd.

"The Negro—the Negro of the Czar!"

Through this gay and noisy crowd Ibrahim hastened with K—. A court lackey opened the door for them and they stepped into the ball-room.

K— was as astonished as if he had been turned to stone. In this vast room, which was lighted by tallow candles that burned but dimly because of clouds of tobacco smoke, a great mass of men were moving this way and that, to the ceaseless monotony of a melody. Some of them wore blue ribbon decorations across their breasts; some were merchants from foreign countries; officers in their green uniforms; shipmasters in short jackets and striped trousers. The women were sitting along the walls, and the younger ones were dressed with great luxury and in the latest fashion. Their dresses shone with gold and silver embroidery; their slender waists arose from their wide, spread-out skirts like the stock of a flower; huge and precious jewels dangled from their ears, circled their throats, and were intertwined with their long hair. They were laughing and looking to right and left, hoping that their partners would come, so that the dance could begin. The older women had tried skillfully to commingle the fashions of their youth with the fashions of the present; the awkward hoods they had on resembled the *sarafan* and fashions of a bygone age. It seemed as if they looked upon the new kind of amusements, which Peter the Great had introduced, more with astonishment than pleasure. The young Frenchman observed with disdain the wives and daughters of the Dutch shipbuilders, who were present in numbers, and who wore short skirts, red jackets, and coarse striped stockings, and who had been laughing and jesting together just as if they belonged here.

When a servant noticed the newcomer, he at once brought him a tray containing beer and glasses. K— was so astonished that he didn't know what to do.

"What the devil does that mean?" the young Frenchman asked in a whisper of Ibrahim.

Ibrahim could not restrain his laughter. They saw the Empress and the Grand Duchess, distinguished by their beauty and the splendor of their costumes, moving graciously about among the guests and pausing to talk amiably with everyone. Peter the Great, however, was in an adjoining room. K—, who wished to present his greetings to him, had all the trouble in the world in making his way through the crowd and pressing an entrance into the room. Here he found, for the most part, foreign men; they sat smoking short clay pipes and drinking beer out of stone mugs with a great deal of dignity. On the table there were bottles of beer and wine, leather tobacco pouches, punch glasses and chessboards. In front of one of the chessboards sat Peter the Great, playing with an

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English skipper. The Czar had just been so as-
tonished by a brilliant play on the part of his op-
ponent that he did not see K— when he entered.
Just at that instant, too, a fat man, with a large
bouquet pinned upon his breast, dashed into the
room and announced in a loud voice that the danc-
ing was going to begin. Then he disappeared as
speedily as he had come. Some of the guests fol-
lowed him, and among them was young K—.

It was a strange sight, indeed, that presented
itself to the Frenchman's eyes. Along the sides of
the wall of the great ball-room, as soon as the
peculiarly sad music began, rows of men and women
took their places, standing opposite each other, in
two long lines. First the men made a deep bow.
Then the women made a still deeper bow, first
straight ahead, next to the right, and after that
to the left; then they bowed again, straight in front
of them, next to the right, and then to the left;
and so they kept it up.

Young K— watched this amazing performance
until he had to bite his lips to keep from laughing.
This bowing and nodding kept up for a full half
hour. After a while, when they seemed to have
done enough of this, the fat man, who wore the
huge bouquet, made the announcement that now the
ceremonial dances were over, and commanded the
musicians to play a minuet. The thought of this
dance rejoiced young K— exceedingly, because it
gave him a chance to show himself off in a most
resplendent light. Among the young ladies there
was one who attracted him more than the others.
She was about sixteen years old; she was most
expensively dressed; and she was sitting by the side
of an old man who observed the scene with a cer-
tain stern dignity. Young K— went up to her
and begged the honor of a dance. The young
beauty looked at him as if she were confused and
did not know what to say. The face of the man,
who sat beside her, wore an expression of displea-
ure.

K— was standing there, waiting for her de-
cision. The man with the huge bouquet approached
him then, and led him back to the center of the
ball-room, where he remarked to him reprovingly:

"Sir, you are guilty of a misdemeanor. First, because you approached a young lady without making the three necessary bows and, secondly, because you took to yourself the liberty of asking her to dance the minuet with you, when that right here belongs only to the lady. It is my duty, therefore, to impose a penalty upon you. You will be obliged to empty the Cup of the Great Eagle."

Young K—'s astonishment had increased from
moment to moment while the man spoke. In fewer
than five minutes he was surrounded by a great
throng of guests, who were noisily clamoring for a
fulfillment of the punishment. When Peter the
Great heard the noise and the laughter, he darted
out of the nearby room, because there was nothing
he enjoyed more than to look on while a penalty,
such as this, was being paid. The crowd swept
back as soon as they saw him and left a space for
him to enter the circle, where the young culprit was

now standing in front of the Marshall of the Eve-
ning Pleasures, who held in his hand a huge cup.
In vain he was trying to convince the offender will-
ingly to submit to the punishment.

"Ha! Ha!" laughed Peter the Great, when he
saw young K—. "You let them catch you, dear
little friend, didn't you? Drink it down! Don't
sulk!"

There was nothing else to do, it seemed. The
poor young fellow was forced to empty the huge
cup to the last drop, before he handed it back
to the Marshall.

"Listen now, K—," remarked Peter the
Great, "those trousers which you have on are made
of velvet and they are just exactly what I want to
wear myself. And I am a good deal richer than
you are. That is an unpleasant display of pride;
look out that I don't pick a quarrel with you
about it."

When K— received this admonition he wanted
to make an escape from the circle. But when he
tried to, he came within one of them falling to the
floor, to the indescribable merriment of the Czar
and all the merry crowd of onlookers. This did
not increase the happiness of the French guest in
any way, but it did serve to amuse the others. Then
the men and women took up those two long lines
again, and they bowed and nodded, and nodded and
bowed, without any regard to the rhythm of the
music. K— did not know how to take part in
and enjoy this strange amusement. The young
lady whom he had chosen now came up to Ibrahim
because her father, Gavrilo Afanassjewitch Rschev-
ski, commanded her to, and reached out her hand,
modestly casting down her blue eyes as she did so.
Ibrahim danced the minuet with her and then he
brought her back to her seat. After that he sought
out young K—, got him out of the ball-room,
put him into a carriage, and drove away home with
him. As they rolled along, the young Frenchman
kept grumbling:

"What an accursed amusement . . . . Curse that
Cup of the Great Eagle!"

Then he fell into a deep sleep, and did not even
know when he reached home, and was lifted out
of the carriage, undressed, and put to bed. The
next morning when he awoke, it was with a heavy
headache and a dazed memory of long rows of
people bowing and nodding, in a room that was
thick with tobacco smoke, and where a fat man
with a hug bouquet carried around the Cup of
the Great Eagle.

It is our duty to introduce to the gracious reader,
Gavrilo Afanassjewitch Rschevski. He came of
an old *boyar* family and he was fabulously rich.
He was benevolent by nature, fond of the falcon
hunt, and had a great retinue of servants. In short,
he was a genuine old Russian *Barin* and could not,
as he expressed it, tolerate this German spirit which
was beginning to creep into his land, and who tried
as best he could to preserve in everything the na-
tional spirit of his country, which he reverenced.

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His daughter was seventeen years old. Her mother had died when she was a little child. She had been brought up in the genuine old Russian manner, that is, with a crowd of old women, nurses, girl companions, and serving maids to wait upon her. She had been taught to embroider in gold thread; but she could neither read nor write.

Her father, in spite of his aversion to everything that came from abroad, or from across the sea, was unable to oppose her wish to learn how to dance from an old Swedish officer, who had been taken captive in the war and had long lived in their house. This worthy dancing master of the old days was now fifty years old. His right leg had been shot off, at Narva; and, therefore, he was not altogether suited for the minuet and dancing. The left leg, however, was especially good; he could use it with the greatest nimbleness and lightness, and with it he could dance the most difficult *pas*. His pupil was a credit to his teaching. Natalia Gavrilovna was the most celebrated and the best dancer in society, and that was partly the cause of the mistake which young K— made the next day when he went to call upon the old Russian noble in order to beg pardon for his social error. But the merriment and the elegance of the young French dandy did not meet the approval of the haughty *Barin*, who wittily described him as a nimble little French ape.

It happened to be a fete day. Gavrilo Afanassjewitch had invited all his relatives and friends. In a long, old-fashioned room furnished wholly in the manner of the past, a long table had been set up and spread. The men guests had brought along their wives and daughters, who by a *ukase* of Peter the Great had been just released from the *terem*—the harem quarters of the women. Natalia Gavrilovna went up to each guest, bearing a little waiter upon which stood a diminutive cup of gold. The guest emptied the cup, and then he expressed his regret that it was not now considered proper to kiss the one who had offered it.

Then they seated themselves at the long table. The place of honor beside the host was given to his father-in-law, Loris Alexejewitch Lykoff, a *boyar* in the seventies. The other guests took their places according to their ages, which was a gentle reminder of the good old days when age was held in reverence. The men sat on one side of the table and the women faced them on the other side. The woman of the house, in her ancient costume, a little old woman who was about thirty years old, who was a dwarf, and whose face was covered with parallel lines of wrinkles, together with the captive Swedish dancing master, who wore a faded, old, blue uniform, sat together, as usual, at one end of the table. The table, which was literally covered with dishes, groaned under its weight of food. The serving was done by a huge crowd of waiters, under the careful supervision of a dignified master of the household. He was very fat, and he had a sort of majestic immobility.

While the meal was being served, the attention of the guests was fully taken up with the products

of our old art of cookery; the silence was broken only by the jingling sound of knives and forks and plates. At length it occurred to the host that it was time to begin amusing his guests, so he turned in his chair a bit and inquired in a loud voice:

“But where now is Yekimovna? Call her in.”

The servants began to run about in the various directions, when just then the old woman herself came dancing in. Her face was gayly painted and she was decked out with ribbons and flowers. She had on a silk dress, the neck of which was cut very low. Her entrance was greeted with universal approbation.

“Welcome, Yekimovna,” called out Prince Lykoff. “How are you today?”

“Well and happy, little father; singing, dancing, chasing after lovers.”

“Where have you been, my dear little Fool?” inquired the host.

“Decking myself out, dear little father, for our honored guests for this holy fete day, according to the command of the Czar, to make the whole world laugh.”

Laughter followed these words, and the Fool took her place beside the chair of the host.

“The Fool lies shockingly, and yet she tells the truth sometimes, too,” declared Tatania Afanassjevna, the older sister of the host and a person to whose advice he sometimes listened. “In fact, the present fashions are ridiculous to everyone. But when you men have been forced to shave off your long beards and to pull on short coats, it doesn’t seem important to talk about what women wear. Of course, it’s a shame to give up the *sarafan* and the band the young girls wear and our old national Russian headdress—the small *povoynik!* You just look at these young girls sitting along the table. It is sad and ridiculous at the same time. They are wearing their hair coiled and twisted round and round, so that it looks just like a long rope, and then powered all over with that white French meal, with decorations stuck into it. Their waists are nipped in until they look as if you could break them right in two. And the skirts are padded and puffed out and out, until they have to get into a carriage sidewise and twist and squirm to go through a door. In their new clothes they are not able to stand nor sit nor breathe. They are all martyrs—the poor little doves.”

“Dear little mother Tatania Afanassjevna”, replied Kyrila Petrowitch F—, once a celebrated Voyevod from Rasan, where he owned three thousand surfs and a young wife, none of which he had procured by fair dealing. “As for me, I say let a woman wear anything she wants to. Let her wear a genuine dress or let her wear some kind of a drapery. I don’t care, if she doesn’t ask for a new dress every month and doesn’t throw away the old dress before it is worn out. In the old time the *sarafan* of the grand-mother always formed part of the trousseau of the grand-daughter. But now, just look at the dresses! Today the mistress wears a new dress; tomorrow she gives it to the maid.

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What is a man to think of such actions? I tell you, it is the ruin of our old Russian nobility! A great misfortune!"

As he spoke, sighing, he looked across at his Maria Ilinitschna, who did not seem to be enjoying greatly his words. She disapproved of his praise of the past and his blame for the new ways of living introduced by Peter the Great. The other young women agreed with her, but they did not dare to say so, because modesty and silence were still considered the virtues of women.

"Whose fault is it, I ask you?" questioned Gavrilo Afanassjewitch, while he filled his glass with kisli-schtschi. "Aren't we at fault? I'd like to know. The women keep making themselves ridiculous, and we encourage them."

"Well, what do you expect us to do, when our opinion is not asked?" retorted Kyrilo Petrowitch. "We men would all be glad to put our wives back in the women's apartment and shut them in there, if we could. But Royal command opened the doors for them and commanded that they be present at all evening gatherings. It's a man's place to swing the knout, and a woman's to put on finery. These parties! God has ordered them for a punishment for our sins."

Maria Ilinitschna was sitting upon pins and needles. Her tongue was burning. She wanted to answer back so badly! At length she could restrain herself no longer, and she turned to her husband, asking him with a little, bitter laugh, what there was to find fault with in a party like this present one.

"This is the fault I have to find", retorted the enraged husband. "Since these parties have been given, a man can no longer watch his wife. Women have forgotten the words of the prophets—'Let the wife fear the husband.' The women don't pay any more attention to their housekeeping; they spend their time flirting with any dandified young officer whose eye they are able to catch. And now I want to ask you, gracious Lady Hostess, whether it is proper for the wife or daughter of an old Russian boyar to associate with Dutch workmen when they are smoking tobacco, or with their women? Did any one ever hear of decent women dancing all night with young men? If the young men happen to be relatives always, I would not blame the custom. But to dance with strange men, with unknown people!"

"I would not mind adding my word, too", explained Gavrilo Afanassjewitch, frowning. "I've got to confess that these parties do not please me either. Before you know it you stumble over a drunken man, or before you know it you are forced to get drunk yourself, to help provide amusement for the rest of the crowd. You've got to keep on the lookout all of the time, that some insolent young dandy does not take liberties with your daughter. Young men of today are so advanced, so emancipated, that there aren't any limits to what they will do. Now to give you an example of just what I mean,—at one of the recent parties, the son of

the late Yevgraf Sergejewitch K— tried to play such pranks with my dear little Natalia, that my cheeks actually turned red. The next morning early I saw somebody coming up the road toward my dwelling. In amazement I said to myself, Who can God be sending to my house at this early hour? Can it perhaps be Prince Alexander Danilowitch? It was none other than the Ivan Yevgrafowitch! He didn't know enough to stay without, at the gate, but instead he came right in and up the stairs, and stamped noisily with his feet and kept making a sound with his tongue, so I didn't know where my own head was." The Fool Yekimovna was telling his speech merrily in pantomime while he spoke. Then he called out: "Show us once. how that Fool from over the sea looks and acts."

The Fool Yekimovna picked up the metal cover of a dish, thrust it under her arm as if it were a hat, and then began to make faces and mimic. She bowed. She murmured: "Monsieur—mamselle—assemblée—pardon!" The laughter of the guests, restrained so long, broke forth and showed how much she pleased them.

"Exactly like that young Frenchman K—," declared old Prince Lykoff, while he wiped away the tears of laughter, happy in the thought that peace was restored. "What's the use of trying to conceal the truth from ourselves? He is not the first foreigner, and he will not be the last, to be sent into our holy Russia. What are children to learn from such people? Make bows; prattle in God knows what tongues; forget the respect that is due to old people; and run around after other men's wives. Of all the young men I know who have been sent abroad to be educated (I hope God will pardon me!) the Negro of the Czar is superior and more like a man than any of the rest of them."

"My God, Prince, what are you saying?" exclaimed Tatania Afanassjevna.

"Without doubt, he is a thinking, well-mannered man, and not to be mentioned in the same breath with the others," observed Gavrilo Afanassjewitch. "Who's that out there, coming through the door of the courtyard? You don't suppose it could be that French ape from abroad, do you? What are you doing, you sheeps-head, you?" angrily addressing the servants. "You run out if it is, and in the future for him not . . . ."

"Are you raving, old man?" interrupted the Fool Yekimovna. "Or are you blind? Tell me. That is the Imperial sleigh. Peter the Great comes."

Gavrilo Afanassjewitch jumped up. The guests all ran to the window, peered out, to see Peter the Great climbing the stairs, leaning on his servant. There was universal confusion. The head of the house rushed out to meet the Czar. The servants ran around in all directions, wildly; the guests had lost their heads completely, some were even occupied in thinking how best to run away and disappear quickly. Suddenly the loud and resonant voice of Peter the Great was heard in the outer hall. Silence followed this. Then the Czar entered, accom-

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panied by the head of the house, who was all but beside himself with joy.

"Good day, gentlemen," he called out, his face merry. They made the deep reverence to Royalty. The keen eyes of the Czar darted at once toward the youthful daughter. He beckoned her to come forward.

Natascha Gavrilovnna approached him boldly, although she not only blushed to her ears, but the blush spread down over her shoulders.

"You grow lovelier every day," declared the Czar, kissing her upon her head as was his custom, and then turning toward the guests, he added, "Well, I suppose I've disturbed you, haven't I? You were eating. I beg you to take your places again. As for me, Gavrilo Afanassjewitch, I will thank you for a glass of brandy mixed with anise."

The host rushed up to the Majestic Master of the Household and snatched the tray out of his hand. He filled then a small gold cup and with a deep reverence offered it to the Czar.

Peter the Great emptied it and then invited the guests a second time to go back to their former places with the exception of the dwarf and the lady of the house, who would never dare sit at a table which the Czar was honoring with his presence. Peter the Great drew his chair up beside the host and asked for some *schttschi*. The Czar's servant hastened to procure for him a wooden spoon set in

an ivory handle, together with a knife and a fork which had been decorated with green paint, because Peter the Great never used knives or forks which did not belong to himself. His table companions, who a little while ago had been merry and so noisy, were now silent and acted as if they were depressed. The host did not eat a single thing, because of his joy and of his great esteem for the Royal guest. The rest were now following his example and were listening with something that resembled reverence to the conversation which Peter the Great was carrying on in the German language with the old Swedish captive, who had taken part in the campaign of 1701. The Fool Yekimovna, whom the Czar occasionally addressed, replied with a certain bashful coldness, which did not bear witness at all to the fact that she was called a fool.

At length the meal was over. The Czar got up; the rest of the guests followed his example.

"Gavrilo Afanassjewitch," he called, turning to his host, "I must talk with you alone."

Taking him by the arm, he led him into the living-room, taking care to close the door behind him. The rest of the guests remained in the dining-hall and conversed in whispers about this surprising visit. The few who were a little afraid began to disappear skillfully, one right after the other, without taking time to thank their host for the entertainment.

*(To be continued)*

## A Physician Discourses on the Race Problem

*(The Physician quoted has been practicing for forty years in a Western City)*

A. (The physician) These niggers, now There's something left out of their make-up. They're not reliable. Won't pay their bills.

B. You were saying something like that the other day and I thought then I'd like to know about it more specifically. Definite statements, based on actual experience, are what we need. Do you remember the details of any cases?

A. Why, yes. I used to have one nigger family I thought quite a lot of. I'd go every time they called. They never did pay me in money, but they'd take it out in work of different kinds. Finally got so they wouldn't pay at all though, and I had to drop them.

B. How many years did you doctor them?

A. Oh, that was 15 years ago. I was their regular family physician for about 20 years.

B. And when did they stop paying?

A. Three or four years before I gave up doctoring them.

B. Did they have more money than at first?

A. No, less, I should say. Big family of children growing up—earning money, but squandering it.

B. Any other such instances?

A. I remember one young buck. His thumb had been nearly torn off when a firecracker exploded

in his hands. If he had been a white man I should have amputated at once, but as he was a nigger I went to work and sewed it up. It was a pretty hard job, but it healed up so fine you could hardly see the scar. Oh, yes, a nigger's resistance to disease is less than a white man's but his repairative power is much greater. . . . Well, it was a good piece of work; but do you suppose he ever paid me? Not a cent. Promised to pay—oh, yes—but he never did. And then he had the nerve to run for councilman a short time later, and he got up and said before some audience that the white folks had had things their own way long enough and it was time the niggers had a chance. Pure conceit on his part—putting himself up for office. He didn't even get the nomination.

B. Did you ever have any white families that didn't pay up?

A. Yes.

B. Not so many, I suppose, as colored?

A. Yes, I believe just as many in proportion.

B. Then why do you call it a racial rather than an individual characteristic?

A. (Pause) I don't know. (Pause) There was one nigger woman used to come to the office for treatment regularly for years, and she always paid cash—$2.00 a treatment.

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OUR BOOK SHELF

Negro School Attendance in Delaware

By RICHARD WATSON COOPER and HERMAN COOPER
(University of Delaware Press, Newark, Del.) Price $5.00

IN theory a democracy admits that universal education is necessary, but neither individuals nor communities are always willing to take their own medicine. Many improvements are set afoot by private initiative. Thus it is with the State of Delaware, where the DuPont family occupy a position similar to that of the Medici in Florence. As a member of the Board of Education of the State, Mr. Pierre S. DuPont has been able to make great changes. Through his generosity the colored schools, which hitherto were supported only by the colored tax-payers, are to be made equally efficient with the white. Modern charity is of the head as well as of the heart. Hence as a preliminary to reform, the existing conditions were thoroughly investigated. Delaware has a dual system of schools. It happens that the study of attendance in Negro schools, by Richard Watson Cooper and Herman Cooper, was printed before that on the white schools.

Any study of the race question is apt to be influenced by the prejudices of the student and, therefore, this study is valuable testimony as it is primarily a study of school attendance and only incidentally concerned with the Negro. The authors pay a special tribute to the colored people of Delaware as law-abiding and industrious citizens and endorse Sherwood Anderson's statement, that by nature the Negro is "squarer with the kids" than the white man.

"The 125 colored school-rooms in 88 colored schools are scattered among a white population which is four times as numerous. The white elementary school-rooms number about 535 in about 300 schools and enroll 20,000 pupils. In the same territory the colored schools enroll 5,000 pupils. This thin scattering of colored people over three counties is a conditioning circumstance that will help to interpret the attendance and non-attendance records of these 88 colored schools. . . Except for the Special Schools districts, the colored schools are, and for the present will remain, almost entirely single teacher schools."

Under the old school law, attendance was not compulsory for pupils living more than two miles from the school-house and no arrangement was made for their transportation. The child labor law did not apply to agricultural work and there was and is a belief that the parents are entitled to the labor of a child until he is twenty-one. Under these circumstances, one-fourth of all days enrolled by colored pupils was recorded as days absent. "Forty-six colored schools—more than one-half of all colored schools—have a per pupil attendance average of less than 110 days. . . In all schools, even those with lowest attendance averages, some pupils attend well." Well-attending pupils must mark time with those who are not present enough to make a grade a year. The absence of so many students causes an enormous unnecessary waste of time and money for re-education.

The authors found that colored children progressed as well as white children when the attendance was the same. They say: "The over-age condition of colored school pupils is popularly attributed to a lack of capacity on the part of colored children. It is not the purpose of this study to refute popular fallacies, but this particular fallacy may be to blame for an absence of public pressure on parents of colored children to keep those children in colored schools a sufficient portion of each year to warrant their normal advancement in school. So long as children are not in school they can not be taught and unless they are taught, how can any one know whether or not they are capable of making a grade a year as well as attending white children do?"

The School Code of 1919 assures the colored schools of Delaware a stable income from taxes levied alike upon all property within the county, white and colored. In an address to the colored people of Delaware, the authors say: "Delaware has now provided for the schooling of Negro

children. If at this time our colored children fail to make use of the proffered opportunities and to profit by them, sponsors for Negro education will everywhere find it difficult to argue higher taxes for better schools for colored children. The people of Delaware have expressed their confidence in the Negroes of Delaware by the provision made for the education of the colored children. Will the Negroes make good the trust thus given?"

The patriotism of the American Negro in times of war has been a splendid contribution to human dignity. In times of peace, he should train his infantry.

JOSEPH GOULD.

Marching On

By RAY STRACHEY

(Harcourt-Brace Company, New York) Price $2.00

A CERTAIN reviewer of "The Bridal Wreath" by Sigrid Undset says of historical novels, "As a rule they present the life of past ages from the outside, so to speak"; they have the effect of a "travelogue, with the lecturer's voice droning out more or less needless explanations as our attention is made to jump from one picture to another without always detecting the connection between them."

This criticism certainly does not apply to Ray Strachey's historical novel of America in the three decades preceding the Civil War. Convincingly real and closely connected pictures of an epochal period of American history are presented to the reader with simple earnestness and a conscientious attention to necessary detail. These pictures form an interesting background for the story of a pioneer feminist, who also becomes an ardent supporter of the great Abolition cause.

The book falls very naturally into its three divisions. Part One swiftly portrays Susan Bright's unhappy and misunderstood girlhood amid the crude surroundings, inevitable hardships, and ignorant bigotries of the life of a pioneer farmer in northern Michigan. The girl's eager desire for an education, her avowed intention of some day writing a book, and her passionate ambition to play a great and glorious part in the life of the world as God's instrument in some divine mission, were all deemed "crazy notions" by her family, and she herself a trial and disgrace.

However, Susan was blessed with a goodly supply of natural perseverance, so Part Two begins with the early days of her struggle for an education, after having deliberately walked away from home. Thereafter follow her first girl-friendship, her first love affair, her meeting with a prominent woman worker among the Abolitionists and her subsequent whole-souled espousal of the "Cause."

This part of the book deals largely and most interestingly with the history of the Anti-Slavery Movement, in descriptions of leading Abolitionists and in a dispassionate, fair-minded analysis of the spirit which animated them. Familiar names—among them Frederick Douglass—crowd the pages, and we feel that the author's avowed attempt to keep the "atmosphere" of his narrative true to fact was quite successful. Also, an account of some of the workings of the "Underground Railroads" adds much to the vivid picture of these stirring days.

Part Three finds Susan married to her lover of earlier days and with him joining the rush of Free Soil Emigrants to Kansas. The story of the tragic, blood-stained "struggle for Kansas" follows, culminating with the account of that strange figure, John Brown, and his two historic actions, in which were also tangled the life-threads of Susan and her husband.

"Marching On" is a portrayal of a section of American history but a few years behind us, and yet which seems a part of the dim, dark past. It rather startles one to be reminded that the ideals, standards and opportunities of these times which we take so much for granted were so recently in their birth-throes. The crude, rugged, simple

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folk of this yesterday may prove somewhat of a revelation to the hot-house products of this generation.

In all probability, the readers of "Marching On" will react in two ways. To some, it will be merely a most interesting story of an eager-minded, ardent-souled girl who became involved in the Anti-Slavery Movement. To others, it will be this story and something more. It will be also the story of a recent part of America's chapter in the great world-history of the struggle of mankind for liberty. It will be a glimpse of the golden thread of God's divine purpose of human freedom running in and through indi-

vidual lives and actions,—imperfect and fanatical though they be. It will be a reminder of the great basic principles upon which this government is founded, and by which the Union was kept intact.

The book is well and conscientiously written, with the calm, judicial manner of the true historian. It presents facts, carefully culled from authentic records. It is an invigorating, wholesome breath from an important, all too quickly forgotten, past. It is well worth the reading.

LILIAN A. LOTTIER.

## INTER-RACIAL FORUM

Compiled by Madeline G. Allison

FROM the New York World: "Unsettled questions have no regard for the repose of nations, and no question is ever settled until it is settled right. Brave words, high purpose, lofty aim, self-sacrifice for duty and humanity, golden example—these are the treasures the rich and purposeful life of Woodrow Wilson bequeaths as an inheritance to his countrymen. Let them take up his work and carry it forward without faltering or turning from the path until the goal is reached, in a better understanding of the brotherhood of all mankind."

Ulysses S. Posten in Current History: "Slavery, with its practices of miscegenation, has divided the race into many color groups, resulting in the Negro's social life taking on as many forms as there are colored groups in the race."

In an address delivered before the Ohio State Bar Association, at Columbus, by Nicholas Murray Butler, President of Columbia University: "Every attempt to enforce the 14th or 15th amendment has been denounced as a force bill. Oddly enough, it has been so denounced by those very Senators and Representatives who will go to any length to enforce the provisions of the 18th amendment. The practical question is not whether or not the colored man should vote in the Southern States, but whether the American people will frankly face the problem presented by the nullification throughout a large part of the land of a most important provision of the Constitution of the United States."

Rodney W. Roundy, in "The Negro, An Asset of the American Nation": "For colored and white men alike, everywhere, the standard is 'Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.'"

In the Intercollegian: "If our dislike of another man is because of his ignorance, he can acquire knowledge; if due to uncleanliness, he can wash and become clean; if on account of poverty, he can acquire wealth; but if based on his color or cast of features, is it not founded on something that he is powerless to change?"

Sir Basil Thompson in Travel: "There is no better object of the status of the Negro in Cuba than the spectacle of a black policeman maintaining order among whites, unless it be the magnificent statue erected on the Malecon to the black General Maceo—perhaps the only example in the world of a Negro being so honored in a white country."

The Northwestern Bulletin Appeal, St Paul, Minn.: "America is for Americans—not white Americans nor black Americans; not Polish Americans nor Scandanavian Americans; not Irish Americans, German Americans nor French Americans. In banishing the hyphen from our Americanism, it needs must follow that Americans are not white, they are not black, they are not Irish, they are not French or Swedish—but All American. When our forefathers wrote the immortal Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation, and 'We the People' in presenting the great American Constitution, they were building an America for Americans."

Right Reverend Monsignor John E. Burke in the New York Age: "Caucasians, particularly, have always fought oppression, and we must not forget that the colored race of America today is in a very large proportion of Caucasian blood. Hardly more than 50 per cent of the total Negro population is full-blooded Negro. . . . For every white woman outraged by a black man, who can count the number of black women outraged by white men?"

Howard Snyder in the North American Review: "Nowhere on earth, among civilized nations, are such atrocious outrages committed against human being as are committed in the South against the Negro. Almost any day we can read of some benighted Negro peasant being hunted down with hounds, or shot by a posse of men, or burned at the stake amid the multitudinous cheers of a vast concourse of people. That the South should expect these same benighted people to remain with her and uncomplainingly endure all this, when a twenty dollar bill will carry a man beyond its occurrence, passes my understanding."

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Dr. J. Stanley Durkee: "Prejudice and igno-
rance of history have fettered most white thinkers
for hundreds of years. They have not allowed their
thinking to include any possible contributions from
the Negro. The race is shattering that ignorance,
not by producing a few exceptional men and women,
but by revealing the fact that the race as a whole
has those inherent powers which feed civilization.
That old phrase, 'a friend of the Negro'-is dead.
The Negro does not want a friend any more than
does the white man. All he wants is a fair field
and no favors . . . . . . Be as discouraged as our
pessimism or chronic indigestion disposes, yet the fact
remains that a new air is sweeping through the
world and a new brotherhood is coming up the
years to meet us. 'All ye are brethren' is the word
of God. Poetry translates it—'A man's a man,
for a' that'."

The Dallas, Tex., News: "In every county,
in every town and community, there is an abundant
force of righteous public opinion to put down law-
lessness. It only needs to be bestirred. One may
hope, and even expect, that it will be."

In The *New Republic*: "Until, however, the South has conquered malaria, built up its schools, and devised a less spectacular way of dealing with the Negro problem, there is little chance that European families would remain on the soil, even if imported especially for this purpose. And with those

problems solved, perhaps the need for immigration
would be less keenly felt."

Bert Leston Taylor in his book "*The So-Called Human Race*": "The fact that Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, and other great departed whose names are taken in vain every day by small-bore politicians do not return and whack these persons over the head with a tambourine is almost— as Anatole France remarked in an essay on Flaubert —is almost an argument against the immortality of the soul."

Cora Wilson Stewart, Chairman of the Illiteracy Commission of the National Educational Association, in *Time*: "The three R's are comparatively easy subjects for the adult mind, and none are too old to grasp them . . . . If there should be one Booker T. Washington, Edison, or Lincoln among them, although it cost $20,000,000 to bring him out, it would be well worth the price."

In an interview with John E. Milholland,
published in *The Review of Reviews*, London:
"The colored men keep hoping that Constitutional
rights may be constitutionally vindicated. If they
were once to feel themselves entirely deserted—"

"Well, what then?"

"What then? Well, then I guess that despair
would unlock the gates of hell!"

CORRESPONDENCE

"Roseanne"

I see in your current number a review of the play "Roseanne" which ends, —"Roseanne is good art and punk propaganda." Your reviewer asks, "Shall it be art or propaganda?" Meaning, apparently, should the Negro admire and support a play which does not show off his race as well as it might, provided it is good art? I do not think the Negro has cause to worry in this case as "Roseanne," to my mind, is neither good art nor good propaganda. The lack of apparent repentance on the part of the colored preacher, Cicero Brown, is far more flagrant artistically than it could be were the play taken merely for propaganda. Good art would have made the end convincing. Good art would have given some hope for the man's future, or it would have permitted the stark grim ending the play called for. The line that divides good art from good propaganda is more subtle than your reviewer apparently realizes. The happy (?) ending of "Roseanne" is a blot on the artistic sincerity of the entire play. There is nothing in the characterization to lead one to believe in the man's repentance; there is also absolutely nothing in John Harrington's acting that shows a glimmer of any other emotion than fear.

There is something else that is to my mind a distinct blot upon the play—that is the side-stepping—quite unnecessary, it would seem to me—of the episode with the young sister. Her fear of the preacher is something quite different from a dread that he is going to make her steal; there is suggested all through, by the dialogue and by means of the acting, a dread of physical violence. Later on Roseanne refers to her little sister as a Magdalene, and yet nothing

really takes place and nothing is even said that definitely
shows what probably happened. Probably at some other
period the big black evil man, masquerading in the uni-
form of God, had raped the little thing. Would it not
have been a far stronger play, a far more convincing
one, if the author had allowed the facts to come to the
surface, if they had not been so elegantly "side-stepped"?

To me, the obvious lack of courage, besides the defect I
have pointed out in the unconvincing end, prevented me
from taking the play seriously as a work of art at all. It
is taking a vaudeville sketch with some amusing charac-
terizations extended beyond its legitimate length, but giving
one very lovely interpretation—that of Chrystal Herne as
the heroine of the play.

ANNE NATHAN MEYER.

Harleston

I have been much interested in the story which ap-
peared in the January *Opportunity* about Mr. Harleston,
the Negro artist. The Negro is emotional, spiritual,
and imaginative. Mr. Harleston, possessing these gifts,
has in a remarkable degree succeeded in delineating
these distinctive racial characteristics.

What depth of soul is portrayed in his "Bible Student"! What strength of the body, mind, and concentrated gaze, what pondering over the truths of Holy Writ! This man of lowly toil, reverent, inquisitive and eager to learn, typifies the ambition, emotion, and spirituality of his race.

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Also, his "A Type" is a classical portrayal of unamalgamated feminine Negro beauty. Her ebony hue, amiable expression, and virility of form well portray a 'type of Negro pulchritude and at the same time bespeak a new era of creative, artistic expression. "The Soldier", in my opinion, is done in the artist's best manner and is a distinct contribution to Art, irrespective of race.

It is to be hoped that Mr. Harleston will favor us with many such examples of technique, color, and draftsmanship as were reproduced in your journal and depict the emotion, imagination, and spirituality of his race hereunto so inadequately portrayed.

W. RUSSELL.

## The Negro's Contribution

To the ball of civilization every nation has made some great contribution to give it a push along the way, save a few. We are among that few. What is our contribution?

Are we to be hard, calculating business men? Shall we contribute thru great inventions? These seem to be the lines along which Anglo-Saxon America is progressing. Do we desire to become the inhuman, intolerant machines into which they seem to be turning? No! A thousand times, no! What with our passion, tenderness, depth of feeling? It can not, it must not, be!

What can we do in the world of science? These are realms into which we have not yet ventured. We can only wait and see.

Can we produce a Rembrandt, Caruso, Jeritza, Doyle, Bach, Schubert, Stevenson, or Napoleon? Dett, Dubois, Coleridge-Taylor, Toussaint L'Ouverture, Rene Maran, Roland Hayes, and Black Patty answer this question. These men are only the fragments which precede the great avalanche. Things may impede its speed, but it will eventually come.

Our contribution? Art.

INDIA DE LAINE AMOS.

## Negro Organizations

New York newspapers recently gave much publicity to the fact that the Coachmen's Union League of New York City, a Negro organization, was buying a piece of property on West 138th Street for their club-rooms. The public may be surprised that in these days of automobiles such an organization could continue to exist. It was organized by Negro coachmen back in 1864, when they were as plentiful as Negro chauffeurs are today.

There are, however, other Negro organizations in New York City just as prosperous, and similarly old. The Saloonmen's Protective Unions, Numbers 1 and 2, were organized in the days when there were many saloons and colored workers in them. These societies are still active and give to their members weekly aid when sick and help defray the funeral expenses when they die. They maintain a charity fund out of which many worthy causes are helped. This feature was started in the early days of Negro migration from the South. Many of these strangers when sick lay for days without aid or attention, died, and were buried in Potter's Field. This condition caused the organization on May 16, 1886, of the Southern Beneficial League, which to-day has a membership of about a thousand. Other organizations of colored men are: The Clubmen's Beneficial League, the United Banquet Benevolent Association, and the Hotel Bellmen's Benevolent Association, each of which has a Ladies' Auxiliary with a large membership.

BENJAMIN PARKER LADSON.

## Cynthia

I read in the November issue of *Opportunity* the story "Cynthia Goes to the Prom", and I couldn't resist dropping a line to say how I did sympathize with Cynthia.

You see, I went to a high school in Connecticut, where I was the only colored student. Unlike Cynthia, I was not popular, keeping rather to myself; but I did have a few friends. Well, commencement time came and I declared I would go to the reception, although it was a standing custom of the graduating class to send colored seniors requests not to be present. My dad escorted me and I invited two friends of mine—a girl and a fellow—to go along with us.

We went and spent a perfectly miserable evening for, although we met with no deliberate rudeness, we were stared at and commented on quite audibly during most of the time we were there. One would have thought we were curious animals of some sort brought there for the inspection of the guests. However, "We were silently composed", and stuck it out.

After that I decided—not like Cynthia, to go to such affairs at every opportunity—but that once was enough!

JEANNETTE D. RANDOLPH.

## Phelps-Stokes Fund, New York City

I have been intending for a long time to write you, expressing my appreciation of *Opportunity*. The November number seems especially good.

THOMAS JESSE JONES.

### New York City

I am sending my subscription to *Opportunity*. I want to express my delight in the way you are editing it. I read it from cover to cover, always feeling when finished, that there is nothing I touch that gives me more inspiration and hope for a better way of life than the message which it brings to me.

ELIZABETH WALTON.

### New York City

In *Opportunity* you seem to have a first rate organ for the liberal guidance and expression of a folk not virtual to magazines, and hence the more in need of a paper that will honestly direct their needs and movements, that will sift these through a cleansing intellect. I shall be glad to contribute whatever I can to such an organ.

JEAN TOOMER.

## Milledgeville, Ga.

Because *Opportunity* is the leading "Journal of Negro Life", I am sending in a gift subscription to be sent to the name and address given on the subscription blank. I have not yet purchased a more valuable gift.

CHARLES G. GOMILLION.

## Howard University, Washington, D. C.

Everyone speaks so well of *Opportunity* these days. I know you hear these things, but perhaps repetition from other angles does not hurt.

E. C. WILLIAMS.

## Journal of Social Forces
### Chapel Hill, N. C.

I find that we are exchanging the JOURNAL OF SOCIAL FORCES with *Opportunity*. We enjoy it, too.

HOWARD W. ODUM.

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MARCH, 1924

POT POURRI

A Propitious Visit

CYNICS will see in the visit of President Coolidge and his wife to a Negro employe of the White House, who is ill, only a "gallery play." For this suspicion, in all probability, there is no foundation, except the pleasure that comes to some from ascribing mean or low motives for acts done with good ones.

Instead of getting excited over this visit as some-
thing remarkable, the think to do is to ask, "Why
shouldn't the President show ordinary human kind-
ness like anybody else, and why should the showing
cause surprise?"

That the news of the visit to the humble home promptly reached the newspapers reveals something about the carefulness with which, very properly, the Washington reporters keep an eye on the President's comings and goings; but it discloses nothing at all in regard to Mr. Coolidge, except that in his big office he remains what he always has been—a quiet man of the New England type, with no illusions as to the obligations or privileges of the place to which he has attained. He will do now anything he has done in the past, will draw no unaccustomed lines between himself and others, and will remain indifferent to judgments not supported by his own sense and conscience.

The Negro on whom the President called has
reason to be proud—as much reason as anybody else
would have had, and no more. To view the visit
otherwise is the height of snobbishness.

New York TIMES.

“Dick” Green

A black "gentleman of Virginia" has passed to
that other shore where color of skin is not a barrier,
but where the measure is the purity and cleanliness
of life lived here, the good deeds done among human
beings, and faithfulness and loyalty of service to
those with whom we have come in contact.

The black man who was honorable and honored here was "Dick" Green, for fifty years confidential messenger to Secretaries of the Treasury. When Senator Glass, of Virginia, after retiring from the Treasury, honored "Dick" Green with the assertion that he was "a Virginia gentleman," he was not using a mere flower of speech or words of idle flattery. He was telling a truth that should live among those of the colored race and be remembered among black and white alike.

Where or how "Dick" Green became the true
gentleman that he was, we know not. We do not
have to make inquiries as to his ancestry or ask
whether he had a college education. Suffice it to
say that he had those qualities of gentleness, of po-
liteness, of obligingness, of manliness, that have
never been more fully possessed by any other man,
whatever his skin. Chesterfield is held up as the
acme of politeness, but this black man was his equal,
doubtless Chesterfield's superior in gentleness and

the things which make a real gentleman.

Born a slave in Virginia, having none of the edu-
cation which raised Booker T. Washington to fore-
most rank among men, "Dick" Green made himself.
He studied, he read, he imbibed, he gathered much
from his intimate association with the great men
he had served. Although he dusted the hats and
clothes of the great, assisted them in those little
things which put him in the class of the menial, his
soul, his bearing, his manliness, rose above it all and
gained for him widespread admiration and respect.
Incorruptible, faithful to every trust, he died hon-
ored by men and women of all races, all creeds.

Secretaries of the Treasury sent him to Europe,
to all parts of this country, with their wives, daugh-
ters or sons, and knew that they were safe in his
hands. He knew their family and official secrets.
They kept nothing from him. Never a word was
he ever known to utter.

His gentleness was not of that obsequious char-
acter often found among those doing service of the
kind he performed. The man or woman of any
walk of life who went to "Dick" Green for a help-
ing hand got it and with it that attractive smile, that
wonderful courtesy, which illuminated his career.
He did not truckle to official power, wealth or so-
cial position. He simply served in charming man-
ner. A lowly Treasury clerk would get the same
gentle treatment and reception from this black-
skinned man that a Cabinet officer or a Senator
would get. The confidences of no man were vio-
lated. Every trust was a sacred one to him. The
troubles of others were sympathetically catered to,
the helping-hand given, if possible.

"Dick" Green's exceptionally useful life was
worthy of emulation. The color of his skin alone
deprived him of the opportunities to rise to position
and power; but in spite of every handicap he rose
high in the esteem of mankind and died without a
dark spot to becloud his notable service to the Gov-
ernment of Uncle Sam.

Congress has erected many monuments in this
city to commemorate deeds of service to country.
Private money has erected others. A monument
marks the unusual in man, those super qualities that
made him stand out among his fellow citizens, his
greatness or glorious achievements, his sterling char-
acter, clean and worthy life.

"Dick" Green, black-skinned though he was, stood
out among men by his possession of those qualities
that endear, that are ennobling and worthy of per-
petuation. His aim was to live so that when the
dark shadows closed around him and the last call
came, no one could point to a blemish or remember
a hurt he was responsible for. He died as he had
lived—a true gentleman.

Isn't his life worthy of a monument by Congress
or by white and black citizens?

Washington, D. C., TIMES.

924

MARCH, 1924

OPPORTUNITY.

95

## In Detroit

The Negroes of Detroit (of whom there are about 60,000) are among the most thorough-going patriots in the American Republic. With their brawn and brain they have aided materially in the building of American institutions and ideals. They speak the mother tongue and are familiar with American customs and laws. Through long years of toil Negroes have been well prepared for the arduous labor of the future and from the practical experience thus gained, their race is likely to become eventually one of the most potent factors in American industrial life.

The Negro population of Detroit remained practically at a standstill for 30 to 40 years. In 1910 the total colored population was less than 5,000; today it is 12 times that.

Prior to 1910 the Negroes of Detroit were employed chiefly as porters, waiters and domestics. Today there are no less than 500 industries employing colored men. They can be found in every grade of work, from the crudest to the most highly skilled labor. The Ford Motor Car Company is the largest

employer of Negro labor; out of a total of 110,000 employes in the Ford industries in Detroit, approximately 5,000 are Negroes. The Dodge Brothers Motor Company is the second largest employer of Negro labor; out of 18,000 men, 1,400 are colored. The Packard Motor Company comes third, with 700 colored men in their employ.

John M. Ragland in the SOUTHERN WORKMAN.

## A Story

"He was asked his age one day and he replied, 'I do not know. You know I was born a slave.' And then he told how he saw his mother with her baby clasped in her arms, sold and carried away in a wagon—where, he did not know. He could not tell any more, for the tears were in his eyes. After a few minutes he went on and said that even after so many years, he had to try hard to keep it from his mind. He tried to find her once, years afterward, but could find no trace of her. So the years have passed and, sitting alone in his old age, he wonders where she went and how she fared."

Gloucester, Mass. TIMES.

## BULLETIN BOARD

THE colored branch of the Young Men's Christian Association in Chicago, Ill., reports that during the past ten years 1,382,823 persons participated in the activities of the organization; there were 595,279 meals served; 339,863 patrons of the billiard rooms, 202,813 at the baths, and 152,616 in the reading rooms. The dormitory attendance for last year was 54,805, an increase of 44,687 as compared with 1914. The director of this branch is Mr. George R. Arthur.

At the Grand Central Art Galleries, in New York City, there was recently held an exhibition of religious paintings by Henry O. Tanner. Mr. Tanner, a colored man, is a graduate of Harvard University; two of his works are in the Luxembourg Galleries, and he is a Chevalier of the Legion of Honor. He makes his home in Paris.

National Negro Health Week will be observed from March 30 to April 5. This annual event was inaugurated ten years ago by the late Booker T. Washington. Any persons interested in this movement, for the improvement of health conditions among Negroes, may obtain literature from Dr. R. R. Moton of Hampton Institute, Hampton, Va.

A colored man in Atlanta, Ga.,—Mr. Heman E. Perry—is the chairman of two bank corporations and the president of eleven other enterprises. The total assets of these businesses amount to $13,000,000. Mr. Perry is said to be worth $8,000,000, with $1,000,000 in life insurance; his income is $75,000. At one time he was an attendant in a Turkish bath-house.

The Phelps-Stokes Fund has sent a commission to East Africa, to study the school system. Dr. E. K. Aggrey, a native of Africa, and Dr. James H. Dillard, secretary of the Slater Fund, are members of the commission, which is under the direction of Dr. Thomas Jesse Jones.

There were 6,500 delegates in attendance at the ninth quadrennial convention of the Student Volunteer Movement of North America, in Indianapolis. Among the delegates were 500 from countries outside the United States;

the Negroes represented 30 states and 75 institutions, Africa, South America, and the West Indies. Questions under discussion included war, internationalism, the race question, and youth movements of the world. The delegates were seated by States, regardless of color or creed, and the key-note of the convention was world-wide brotherhood.

Carrying out the policy of getting rid of its war-time properties, the Government recently ordered the town of Truxton, Va., for sale. A syndicate of colored financiers made the highest bid—said to be $141,000—and purchased the town. Truxton is composed of 253 modern houses, 70 vacant lots, and a modern 10-room brick school building. Among the financiers who made the purchase are W. H. C. Brown, investment banker of Newport News, Va.; Dr. A. J. Strong, treasurer of the Metropolitan Bank of Norfolk, Va.; and Dr. Norman Lassiter, of Newport News, Va.

Five new school buildings, costing $1,200,000, are to be erected for colored children in Atlanta, Ga. These will include four grammar schools, each one to seat 800 to 1,000 children, and one high school, with a seating capacity for 1,500. This is a result of the united Negro vote against the city bond issue, whereby educational funds would have been appropriated solely for white children. The action was started in 1917, by a committee of colored men,—John Hope, Harry H. Pace, T. K. Gibson, William F. Penn, B. J. Davis, and W. S. Cannon.

Recognition has been given Atlanta University by the Board of Regents of the State of New York. College graduates from this southern colored school will be granted limited certificates, which entitle them to teach in the schools of New York State; in addition, medical graduates will be recognized by the American Medical Association and by the State of Georgia as having done "A" class work.

Recently when recognition was given policemen and firemen of Philadelphia, Pa., for heroic deeds, among the group was David Mullen, a colored fireman attached to Engine Company No. 11. He was given a gold medal.

96

OPPORTUNITY

MARCH, 1924

Urban League Community Center Building, Detroit, Michigan

During December, Mr. Mullen rescued a two-months old baby from a fire in a Bainbridge Street dwelling. The child was strapped in a rocking-chair, on the second floor. He caught the straps and brought the baby safely to the street. Mr. Mullen is 30 years old. He has been connected with the Fire Department about seven years.

## Urban League Community Center

This Center, which is a three story brick building on a lot 90 x 110 feet, was recently purchased by the Detroit Urban League, to put into practical operation some of the educational, health, and recreational features of the League. It is located in the heart of the Negro district, at the inter-section of Chestnut and Riopelle Streets. The bulk of Detroit's Negro population immediately surrounds it; there are about 14,000 colored people within a radius of fifteen blocks. It houses a baby clinic, which was visited by 4,000 babies during 1923, the total visits numbering 3,000; a music school with 50 students enrolled; sewing classes with an enrollment of 40 pupils; and a gymnasium and club room which provides play for 100 boys under the supervision of a city Recreational Director. There are twenty-one clubs—social, dramatic, musical, literary, and athletic—using its rooms.

The first meeting of the Negro Sanhedrin—all race conference—was held in Chicago, Ill., during the week of February 11. There were 54 persons listed to speak. The

subjects were "The Basic Importance of the Physical Stamina of the Race," "Our Educational Program," "The Function of the Negro Press," "The Afro-American's Relation to World Wide Race Movements," "The Function of Fraternal and Benevolent Organizations in Race Welfare," "The Religious Factor in Race Welfare," "The Effect of Religion on Race Relations," "Inter-racial Cooperation in Civic and Social Betterment," "The Function of Agitation in Race Betterment," "The Woman's Part in the Race Problem," "The Part of the Young College Bred Negro in Race Betterment," and "The Place of Business in Race Betterment." Sixty national organizations were represented, and there were 500 delegates. At the head of this Sanhedrin is Dr. Kelly Miller of Howard University.

Roland Hayes, the world renowned Negro tenor, has returned to Europe, where he will again appear in recitals. His last engagement in America was at Carnegie Hall, where over 3,000 white and colored people provided an appreciative audience. The New York Herald says: "Mr. Hayes, with his excellent accompanist, William Lawrence, held his many auditors enthralled as he sang operatic airs, standard songs of many lands and tongues, and Negro spirituals." These languages were Italian, French, German, and English, and Mr. Hayes is now studying Japanese. With Mr. Hayes is his accompanist, Mr. William Lawrence.

<table><tbody><tr><td>THE NEGRO IN CHICAGO</td><td>$4.00</td></tr><tr><td>Chicago Commission on Race Relations</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>THE BOOK OF AMERICAN NEGRO POETRY</td><td>1.75</td></tr><tr><td>James Weldon Johnson</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>HARLEM SHADOWS</td><td>1.35</td></tr><tr><td>Claude McKay</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>A SHORT HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN NEGRO</td><td>2.00</td></tr><tr><td>YOUR NEGRO NEIGHBOR</td><td>.75</td></tr><tr><td>A SOCIAL HISTORY OF THE NEGRO</td><td>4.00</td></tr><tr><td>Benj. Brawley</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>THE MODERN KU KLUX KLAN</td><td>2.00</td></tr><tr><td>H. P. Fry</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>THE VOICE OF THE NEGRO</td><td>2.50</td></tr><tr><td>Robt. T. Kerlin</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>NIGGER—A NOVEL</td><td>2.00</td></tr><tr><td>Clement Wood</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>THE NEGRO PRESS IN THE UNITED STATES</td><td>3.00</td></tr><tr><td>Frederick Detweiler</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>DEMOCRACY AND RACE FRICTION</td><td>2.00</td></tr><tr><td>J. M. Mecklin</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>THE NEGRO FACES AMERICA</td><td>1.75</td></tr><tr><td>Herbert J. Seligmann</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>THE MIND IN THE MAKING</td><td>2.50</td></tr><tr><td>James Harvey Robinson</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>HISTORY OF THE NEGRO CHURCH</td><td>2.00</td></tr><tr><td>Carter G. Woodson</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>DARKWATER</td><td>2.00</td></tr><tr><td>W. E. B. DuBois</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>IN THE VANGUARD OF A RACE</td><td>.75</td></tr><tr><td>L. H. Hammond</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>THE TREND OF THE RACES</td><td>.75</td></tr><tr><td>George E. Haynes</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>BURSTING BONDS</td><td>1.50</td></tr><tr><td>William Pickens</td><td></td></tr></tbody></table>

Address: "OPPORTUNITY"

PRINTED BY WINSON PRESS, INC., NEW YORK CITY

THE NATIONAL URBAN LEAGUE

127 EAST 23rd STREET

NEW YORK CITY

A. S. FRISSELL, Treasurer

Virginia Union University

RICHMOND, VIRGINIA

For full information address

W. J. CLARK, President

Atlanta University

Howard University

WASHINGTON, D. C.

REGISTRATION

Fall Quarter September 26 and 27, 1924

Winter Quarter January 3, 1925

Spring Quarter March 14, 1925

F. D. WILKINSON, Registrar

L. HOLLINGSWORTH WOOD
Chairman

EUGENE KINCKLE JONES
Executive Secretary

CHARLES S. JOHNSON, Editor

OPPORTUNITY

A JOURNAL OF NEGRO LIFE

Published Monthly by
The Department of Research and Investigations

NATIONAL URBAN LEAGUE

Telephone Gramercy 3978

WILLIAM H. BALDWIN
Secretary

A. S. FRISSELL
Treasurer

PAUL G. PRAYER, Bus. Mgr.

VOL. 2

APRIL, 1924

No. 16

Contents

COVER—"ANNUNCIATION"

My life is bruised, that it may be
more sweet—My richest cluster
hangs around the cross.
By C. M. Battey

EDITORIALS

THE NEGRO SANHEDRIN
THE LOGIC OF THE OLD ORDER
POST OFFICE WORKERS
A VARIANT

98

ARTICLES

DUSK. A POEM

By Angelina W. Grimke

99

THE RECENT NORTHWARD MIGRATION OF THE NEGRO

By Joseph A. Hill

100

THE TAMPA URBAN LEAGUE.
ILLUSTRATED

By Jesse O. Thomas

105

YOUTHS GET TOGETHER

By Andrew J. Allison

108

AS OTHERS SEE US

By Alain Locke

109

A STORY ABOUT NORTHERN
NEGROES

By Eunice Roberta Hunton

110

A STORY ABOUT SOUTHERN
NEGROES AND KING COTTON

By Eulalia Osby Proctor

111

"ALL GOD'S CHILLUN GOT WINGS"

Reviewed by E. A. Carter

112

ON PRODUCING O'NEILL'S PLAY

By James Light

113

NOTES

114

REPRESENTATIONS OF THE EMANCIPATION IN AMERICAN ART

By Freeman H. M. Murray

115

THE NEGRO OF PETER THE GREAT

Translated from the Original
Russian by Edna Worthley Underwood

By Alexis Sergiewitch Pushkin

118

MEHARRY MEDICAL COLLEGE.

ILLUSTRATED

122

NATIONAL URBAN LEAGUE'S
INDUSTRIAL PROGRAM

123

INTER-RACIAL FORUM

124

POT POURRI

125

BULLETIN BOARD

128

"OPPORTUNITY" desires the following contributions: drawings, paintings and photographs for covers; fiction, poetry, local news of interest with photographs; and authentic articles. These contributions should be accompanied by return postage.

Copyright 1923

OPPORTUNITY

VOL. 2

APRIL, 1924

No. 16

EDITORIALS

The Negro Sanhedrin

TWO previous expressions of growing self-consciousness lend added significance to the recent Sanhedrin of the Negroes held in Chicago at the call of Kelly Miller. The Garvey Movement, flambouyant, fantastic and emotionally militant, cherishing the illusion of a return of the race to Africa, was a dream-world escape for the "illiterati" from the eternal curse on their racial status in this country. The formal organization was grounded upon the rocks, but the popular mood which made the organization possible was not changed. The Pan-African Conference was in a measure the expression of the same seething self-consciousness and feeling of balked aspirations, but this was limited to a smaller and more highly cultured group-internationally minded, sophisticated, intellectually militant. Both have come into being at the prompting of some vague but impelling urge to action, but neither has succeeded far in directing this newly evident current into workable molds. Always there has persisted the feeling that somehow, in spite of the theoretical soundness of programs postulating sudden and complete escape from an intolerable situation, this generation must get the best out of an adjustment to the American environment.

The most recent expression of this self-consciousness takes shape in the Sanhedrin. Its leader is well known as a moderate intellectual. The program reflects this moderation while sternly attempting to whip into line the fatally discordant ends and aims of Negro leadership. It would introduce conscious planning and make possible an orderly advance of the race through the agency of an inner body politic which presents as little rough surface as possible to the revolutions of the world about it. Most important is the recognition that such problems as are faced must be worked out on home soil and by taking squarely into account the practical difficulties of American life. There were many platitudes and announcements of a new state of mind and a need for action such as has all along been pretty generally assumed, but certain definite and wise steps were taken in the rather belated assumption of a larger share of the responsibility for their own racial salvation. The interests of the group were sensible even though rather generally and uncertainly

expressed at times. They would safe-guard the health of the race and make Negro organizations create a new conscience in this respect; they would remove the traditional ban on the participation of women in civic welfare; they would have freedom of speech on all matters involving discriminations against Negroes; they would have Negro organizations contribute a fair share to the support of all social programs involving the whole community; they would deliberately train more leaders, urge a wider distribution of elementary and advanced training, give organized financial aid to Negro farmers, assist the Negro migrant into decent positions and encourage the extension of the system of inter-racial committees.

There is nothing startling or untried in any of their pronouncements, but there is in their serious self-interest the nucleus of something possible of aiding peacefully or perhaps even of compelling a recognition that has been long denied.

The Logic of the Old Order

IF THERE had occurred no incident to break tension on the relations, both economic and social, between the bulk of the Negro population residing in the South and their white overlords, what would have happened?

The cold record of mass activity provided by the census shows a startlingly unpromising climax barely avoided.

Before the first migration, less than ten years ago, these facts were evident:

The Negro population was moving southward and westward, toward Texas instead of northward, away from "social persecution."

The number of Negro farm owners was gradually decreasing while the number of tenants was increasing. This meant a growing dependency upon the plantation owners, lower pay because of greater competition for jobs, and harsher relations between the Negro workers and their landlords because the workers were more readily available.

The "poor whites" were being driven out of the richer areas to poorer areas through the growing capitalization of plantations and forced into a more intense competition with the independent Negro farmers. This was providing a fertile field for lynchings and the night riding of which we heard so much before the migration.

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It is probable that this growing occupational exclusion would have hardened into a caste system which by custom would limit, perhaps for all time, the chances of employment of Negroes in any other field. The death rate which serious economists are attributing to the effects of slow and distributed under-nourishment and improper food balance—an invariable contingent to their position—had been rising gradually, especially in the more congested rural districts where this struggle for existence has been most severe, in spite of increased medical knowledge and health education. In these areas a point soon would have been reached at which the death rate exceeded the birth rate.

The number of Negroes in the North would have been but slightly affected, the normal migration being not more than 10,000 a year. They would have been an inconsiderable labor item, numbering in their totality less than one year's supply of immigrant laborers.

The problems of education would have remained about the same while hostile sentiment would have increased through the unbroken menace in the numerical preponderance of Negroes in counties and states of the South.

The continual exhaustion of the soil through the one crop system, together with the depredations of the boll weevil, would have narrowed the cultivatable areas, thus increasing the pressure of this population upon the soil and decreasing the returns. This, in turn, would have affected the death rate as well as the social relations between the two groups.

The necessity for greater income would have continued to force women and children to work in the fields, hampering proper child-rearing, education, and the development of well-rounded manhood.

Whether the ultimate results of the migration will be good or bad, it is certain that they could scarcely be worse than the condition toward which the group was drifting helplessly before it occurred.

## Post Office Workers

A GOOD CASE for Negro workers might be found in the innocently obscure figures on their number in the United States Post Office Service. There are over 22,000 such Negro workers. These are, it will be remembered, in the main, Civil Service examination positions and opinions of employers merely as to fitness or unfitness cannot

so conveniently hold. There is further, in their prominence here, a provoking test of the theories about racial traits, differentiated intellectual equipment, and the like. For a test is a test; the unqualified are dropped and the capable ones, except in a few notorious cases of overt discrimination, are graded according to their capacity. The line simply does not divide according to race.

But the Post Office holds in the other hand a dreary tragedy. It catches good minds and capable hands shunted off from the closed doors of other lines of employment for which they are equipped but in which a dark face is anathema. It is a graveyard of the dead hopes of hundreds of Negroes who, like thousands of their white brothers, simply are not temperamentally constructed to harangue frowning walls with sustained patience and stolid philosophy; who do not spurn manual labor, but who can do something else; who do not respond to the allurements of domestic or the Pullman service, although these are perfectly good jobs.

There is evidence to warrant a belief that the very circumstance which throws and holds Negroes in this line of service operates to the advantage of the Post Office. It makes it possible for this service still to get for the salary it pays a brand of competence from Negroes, which, in the case of the large majority of white eligibles, has been lured to better paying and more attractive work.

## A Variant

THE FORTE of Negroes, we are informed, is music. The psychologists assure us that nothing remarkable need be anticipated as a result of their mental effort. The current method of science, of detailing individual cases as source material, gives a certain liberty in offering a slight variation from the usual, which should be interesting. At a recent graduation exercise in one of the New York high schools, two of the four colored graduates in the class of 91 were unusually prominent. It developed that one of these was the valedictorian and the other was fourteen one-hundredths of a point behind the white salutatorian. The first was presented a medal for the highest record in French by the Alliance Francais and another medal for excellence in Latin; while the second girl was nominated the girl athlete of the class. The prize in music was won by a white boy.

## Dusk

By ANGELINA W. GRIMKE

WIN STARS through my purpling pane,
The shriveling husk
Of a yellowing moon on the wane,
And the dusk.

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APRIL, 1924

# The Recent Northward Migration of the Negro

By JOSEPH A. HILL

IN 1880, a little more than forty years ago, the center of the Negro population of the United States as determined by the census was located in the northwestern corner of the state of Georgia. It had traveled far since the early days of the Republic, when as shown by the census of 1790, it was near the southern boundary of the state of Virginia. It was now, in 1880, 163.1 miles farther south than it was then and 413.5 miles farther west, and the total distance it had covered in a direct line was 443 miles, representing an average advance of about 50 miles per decade. It was following the general movement of population in the Southern States. Its rate of advance was slowing down towards the close of the century but was still southwestward. In 1890 it had gone 20 miles farther in that direction, in 1900 nearly 10 miles, in 1910 another 10 miles. It was then in northeastern Alabama. That proved to be the turning point—the end, at least for the time being, of the movement southwestward, for the next census, that of 1920, revealed a complete reversal of direction. The center of Negro population was found to have moved not westward but eastward, not southward but northward, being, in fact, 9.4 miles farther east and 19.4 miles farther north than it was in 1910. It had gone back to the northwestern corner of Georgia but was farther north than it had been in 1880, though not quite so far east.

This reversal in the movement of this sensitive index of changes in the distribution of population was by no means unexpected. It was well known before the census was taken that the Negroes had been going north in large numbers, and the movement of the center of Negro population simply registered that fact.

The immediate cause of the northward migration was the labor shortage in northern industries produced by conditions arising out of the World War. There are doubtless other contributory causes, but a discussion of them lies outside the scope of this paper, the purpose of which is simply to present some of the more significant census statistics regarding the volume and characteristics of this movement of the Negro population.

## Migration After the Civil War

For a time after the Civil War there were two diverging currents of Negro migration. One was northward from the more northern of the southern states—Maryland, Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, and North Carolina. The other was a migration southward and westward on the part of Negroes in the lower Atlantic and Gulf States.

The northward migration from Virginia after the war was notably large, and was a direct reversal of the current of migration that prevailed

under the regime of slavery, when Negroes were being taken south in large numbers. Set free, the Virginia Negro turned towards the North and has been facing in that direction ever since. This northward current of migration was mostly to the states of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and New York. The number of Negro natives of Virginia living in these states when the war closed must have been less than 10,000, for it was only 13,050 in 1870. But after the war it increased rapidly, as shown by each successive census, and in 1920 was 125,104. The southward migration practically ceased, as is shown by the fact that the number of Virginia Negroes living in the states of Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas decreased from 107,934 in 1870 to 10,844 in 1920. Thus the Virginia-born Negro in the cotton states of the South has almost disappeared, although no doubt his descendants there are numerous.

From the states far south there was no considerable northward migration in this period. The North seemed too far away, and the Negro showed no disposition to turn his back upon the cotton fields and seek new fortunes in strange lands. He lacked the knowledge, the means, and the initiative for such an unwise venture. Therefore the drift of the Negro population, following the development of cotton cultivation, continued to be towards the southwest as it had been before the war. There was no reversal of migration here such as there had been in the case of the Virginia Negro. The voluntary migration was in the same direction as the earlier compulsory migration had been.

## Mississippi As An Illustration

The effect of Negro migration upon the population of the southern states may, perhaps, be best indicated by featuring the figures of immigration to and emigration from a single southern state, selecting for this purpose the state of Mississippi, which apparently has been affected to a greater degree than most other states by the recent northward migration of the colored race.

In 1870 the Negro or colored population of Mississippi included 124,377 Negroes who were born in other states. They were immigrants, and they constituted more than one-fourth of the total Negro population of the state. It is practically certain as regards most of them that their migration had not been of their own free will. Of the total number, 27,713 were natives of Virginia, 13,284 were born in Tennessee, 16,604 in South Carolina, 14,511 in North Carolina, 12,713 in Georgia, and 22,192 in Alabama.

There had been also a certain amount of Negro emigration from Mississippi as evidenced by the fact that 73,802 Negroes born in that state were living in other states, a majority of them in

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Louisiana (17,831) and Texas (28,639). Thus when the census of 1870 was taken, the number of Negroes who were natives of other states and had come or been brought to Mississippi exceeded the number who had been born in that state and had gone to other states by 66,944. That represented the net gain to the population of the state through the interstate migration of Negroes. In 1880 this excess, surplus, or gain had increased slightly to 68,245. It fell off to 33,764 in 1890, to 7,228 in 1900, became converted into a deficit of 26,439 in 1910, which deficit increased to 139,178 in 1920. Starting with a surplus of 67,000 we end with a deficit of 139,000. Consider what this deficit means. It means that if all the Negroes who were born in Mississippi and have gone to other states were to return and at the same time all Negroes who have come into Mississippi from other states were to leave, the number returning would exceed the number departing by 139,178, and the result would be an increase of 15 per cent in the total Negro population of the state and an increase of nearly 8 per cent in the total population, white and Negro.

There is a similar history for nearly all southern states, in that the recent censuses show either a growing deficit or a diminishing surplus in the interstate exchange of native Negroes. For another illustration take the state of Texas, which for a time seems to have been the goal of Negro migration in the lower South. In 1870 the number of Negroes in Texas who were natives of other states was 118,114, which exceeded the small number of natives of Texas who had emigrated from the state by 112,348. At the last census, 1920, the excess of Negro immigrants to the state over Negro emigrants from the state was only 3,501. In Oklahoma and in Florida the excess in 1920 was less than it was in 1910 although greater than it was at earlier censuses. In Arkansas there has been little change in the situation since 1890, the excess remaining nearly constant at about 100,000. In West Virginia alone of the southern states has the gain through Negro migration steadily increased at each successive census.

## South Loses Population Through Negro Migration

The total number of southern-born Negroes in the North at the date of the last census was 727,423. There were also 43,371 in the West.* Against this total of 770,794 Negroes who, as shown by the census of 1920, had left the South and gone North or West, there was a small number of northern or western born Negroes who had gone South, the number being, in fact, 47,223, so that

*The designation "North," "South," and "West" as here used corresponds with the established usage in the census reports, according to which the North extends as far west as the western boundaries of North and South Dakota, Nebraska, and Kansas; and the South extends as far west as the western boundaries of Texas and Oklahoma. The country beyond the western boundaries of these states is the West.

the net direct loss to the South by Negro migration was 680,200, which is equivalent to 7.6 per cent of the total Negro population of the South, and to a little more than 2 per cent of the total population of the South, white and colored.

The loss to any state, section, or country resulting from emigration is, however, not adequately measured either by the number emigrating within a given period or by the number of living emigrants in other states or countries on a given date. For it includes also the descendants of emigrants living in other states or countries, that is, if we may assume that the emigrants, if they had remained in their native land, would have had as many children and descendants as they have had in the states or countries to which they have gone. In the case of the Negro emigrants who have gone North there is reason to believe that they would have had larger families and more descendants if they had remained in the South than they have had in the North. So probably it is not an exaggeration, but rather the contrary, to say that the entire increase in the Negro population of the North since 1870 represents a loss in population growth to the South. In the 50 years between 1870 and 1920 the number of Negroes in the North increased by a little more than 1,000,000, i.e., from 452,818 in 1870 to 1,472,309 in 1920. One million is equivalent to about 3 per cent of the total population of the South and to about 11 per cent of the Negro population.

## Percentage Negro Declining in the South

In 1870, the population of the South was more than one third Negro. Now it is not much more than one fourth Negro, the percentage Negro having declined from 36 in 1870 to 27 in 1920. It is safe to say that this decrease has not been wholly due to the emigration of Negroes. For had there been no emigration the growth of Negro population in the South would apparently not have kept pace with that of the white. But the difference would not have been as great as it is now. If there had been no emigration the Negro population of the South, as I have just pointed out, would probably be at least a million larger than it is at present, and the percentage Negro would in that case be about 30 instead of 27. The difference probably represents approximately the effect which emigration has had in reducing the proportion of Negroes in the population of the southern states.

If, therefore, there had been no northward migration of Negroes in the last 50 years the total population of the South would presumably be at least 3 per cent greater than it now is, the Negro population 11 per cent greater and the percentage Negro in the total would be about 30 instead of 27.

## Increase in the Northward Migration

While, as already noted, there has been a constant northward migration of Negroes since the close of the Civil War, the recent migration, that of the last census decade (1910 to 1920), differs

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from the previous migration in several important respects and first of all in volume or amount. Thus in the period of 40 years from 1870 to 1910 the number of southern-born Negroes in the North increased from 146,490 to 415,533, an average decennial increase of 54,000. But in the decade 1910 to 1920 there was an increase of 311,910, which was more than the aggregate increase of the preceding 40 years and six times the previous average decennial increase.

## Migration From the Far South

The northward migration of Negroes in the last decade has been to a much larger extent than ever before a migration from the far South. The earlier northward migration was, as already noted, mostly from the more northern states of the South. Even as recently as 1910, 56.2 per cent, more than half, of the southern born Negroes living in northern states came from two states—Virginia and Kentucky. The migration between 1910 and 1920 reduced the proportion who were born in these two states to 37 per cent. On the other hand the proportion of northern Negroes coming from the states farther south, or from what we may term the cotton belt states, including in this class, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas, Louisiana, and Texas, increased from 18.2 per cent of the total number of southern-born Negroes living in the North in 1910 to 40.2 per cent of the total in 1920. The absolute number of Negroes in the North who were natives of these states increased from 75,517 in 1910 to 298,739 in 1920, so there were nearly four times as many in 1920 as there were in 1910.

James Bryce, speculating in regard to the future of the American Negro in the revised edition of his "American Commonwealth," published in 1911, considered the possibility that the Negro might "more and more draw southwards into the lower and hotter regions along the coasts of the Atlantic and the Gulf of Mexico," and might thus become "a relatively smaller and probably much smaller element than at present in the whole population north of latitude 36° and a relatively larger one south of latitude 33° and east of longitude 99° W." (II, p. 536.) Bryce did not consider or suggest the possibility that the Negro might migrate northward in increasing numbers or that there might be a dispersion of the Negro race rather than a concentration of it. Yet this is precisely what has been taking place since his book was published. The region which he defines by geographic degrees as that in which the Negroes might concentrate includes the states of South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana, and the proportion which the Negroes living in those states form of the total Negro population of the United States is at present decreasing, being 50.2 per cent in 1910 and 47.2 per cent in 1920. Within these states the percentage Negro decreased from 47.3 in 1910 to 43.0 in 1920. It decreased also in the other southern states, or the

rest of the South, but the decrease was not so marked, being a decrease from 20.1 per cent Negro in 1910 to 18.4 in 1920. The North is the only section in which the percentage Negro has increased in recent years.

## Negroes in the North

In 1870 the total number of Negroes living in the North was 452,818, but of these 118,071 were in the state of Missouri, which had been a slave state. The northern state with the next largest number of Negroes was Pennsylvania with 65,294, next Ohio with 63,213; then New York with 52,081; New Jersey, 30,658; Illinois, 28,762; and Indiana, 24,560. No other northern state had as many as 15,000.

In 1920 there were 1,472,309 Negroes in the North as compared with 452,818 in 1870; and the northern state having the largest number of Negroes was Pennsylvania with 284,568. New York came next with 198,483, Ohio had 186,187, and Illinois 182,274. Then came Missouri with 178,241. Indiana had 80,810, Michigan 60,082, and Kansas 57,925. No other northern state had as many as 50,000. These 8 states account for four-fifths of the total Negro population in the North. They contain only about two-fifths of the total population of the North. With the exception of Michigan and New York they are states bordering the South.

## Migration to Northern Cities

In the North outside the large cities there is only a small though a rather widely distributed Negro population. Out of a total of 1,272 northern counties there are, in fact, only 83 in which there are no Negroes. But there are 671 other northern counties in which the number of Negroes is less than 100, making 754 counties—about 60 per cent of the total number—in which there are either no Negroes or less than 100 Negroes; and there are only 183 counties in which there are more than 1,000 Negroes. If for purposes of comparison we make a similar classification of counties for the preceding census, we obtain no indication that any dispersion of the Negroes in the North is in progress. They go to the large cities mostly and remain there.

Of the 182,274 Negroes in the state of Illinois 60 per cent are in the city of Chicago, which city includes only 42 per cent of the total population of the state.

Detroit, in which there are 40,858 Negroes, accounts for 66 per cent or two-thirds of the total Negro population of Michigan.

Of the 198,483 Negroes in New York state 152,467 or 75 per cent are in New York City.

Three cities in Ohio, Cleveland (34,451), Cincinnati (30,079), and Columbus (22,181) account for 46 per cent of the Negro population of that state although these cities comprise only about 22 per cent of the total population of the state.

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Philadelphia contains 47 per cent of the total number of Negroes in Pennsylvania as compared with 21 of the total population of the state. Add Pittsburgh and we have accounted for 60 per cent of the Negro population of that state and 28 per cent of the total population.

The above 10 cities contain 45.8 per cent of the total Negro population of the North. The same cities contain 22.5 per cent of the total population of the North. Three of these cities—New York, Chicago, and Philadelphia—contain 26.9 per cent of the total Negro, as compared with 15.9 per cent of the total population.

## Percentage Negro in the Population of the North

The total population of the North is now a little more than 2 per cent Negro, or to be more exact it was 2.3 per cent Negro in 1920. From 1870 to 1910 the percentage had been nearly constant, being either 1.8 or 1.9; but the last census, 1920, showed a slight but significant increase. The percentage, however, is still small, equivalent to about one-fiftieth of the total population. So only one person in fifty in the northern states is a Negro. If, therefore, the Negroes were evenly distributed over the northern states, to correspond with the distribution of the white population, their numbers would not be large enough to constitute a disturbing factor in the social organism or arouse racial antagonism or introduce a race problem. But as already pointed out they are concentrated largely in certain cities, where they form a considerable and an increasing proportion of the total population. Over 4 per cent of the population of Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit, New Bedford, and Newark is Negro; about 5 per cent of the population of Youngstown and of Cambridge, Mass.; over 6 per cent of the population of Pittsburgh; over 7 per cent of the population of Cincinnati and Philadelphia; not less than 9 per cent of the population of Columbus, St. Louis, and Kansas City, Mo.; 11 per cent of the population of Indianapolis; and 14.2 per cent of the population of Kansas City, Kan. These are all cities of over 100,000 population. Some of the smaller northern cities have still larger percentages of Negroes. Atlantic City is 21.6 per cent Negro.

Within each city there is usually a local segregation, or concentration of Negroes in certain sections or localities—a Negro quarter. In New York City 42.3 per cent of the total Negro population are located in two assembly districts and within these districts Negroes form, respectively, 35 per cent and 49 per cent of the total population. In Chicago there is one ward which contains 44 per cent of the total Negro population of the city and within which Negroes form 69 per cent of the total population. In Detroit the concentration is not so marked, although there is one ward in which Negroes constitute about 25 per cent of the total

population, and another in which the percentage is nearly 20.

## Per Cent Negro Decreasing in Southern Cities, Increasing in Northern

In almost every southern city the percentage Negro, as indicated by the last census, is decreasing. Thus in Atlanta it decreased from 33.5 in 1910 to 31.3 in 1920; in Savannah from 51.1 to 47.1; in Charleston from 52.8 to 47.6; in Columbia from 43.9 to 38.5; in Memphis from 40.0 to 37.7; in Nashville from 33.1 to 30.1; in Dallas from 19.6 to 15.1; in Fort Worth from 18.1 to 14.1; in Houston from 30.4 to 24.6; in San Antonio from 11.1 to 8.9; in Richmond from 36.6 to 31.5; in Washington from 28.5 to 25.1. There are, however, three important cities of the South in which the decrease is hardly appreciable, namely Birmingham (39.4 to 39.3), Baltimore (15.2 to 14.8), and New Orleans (26.3 to 26.1).

In northern cities, on the other hand, the percentage Negro is increasing. In Chicago it increased from 2.0 to 4.1; in Philadelphia from 5.5 to 7.4; in Pittsburgh from 4.8 to 6.4; in New York City from 1.9 to 2.7; in Cincinnati from 5.4 to 7.5; in Cleveland from 1.5 to 4.3; in Detroit from 1.2 to 4.1; in St. Louis from 6.4 to 9.0; and so in many other northern cities.

## Occupations of Negroes in the North

What are the Negroes doing in the North? In the South a majority of them—57.7 per cent of the total number of Negro male workers—are employed in growing cotton or other farm crops either as laborers or tenants or owners. In 1920 there were 628,029 Negro farm laborers in the southern states and 834,686 Negro farmers of whom probably about 200,000 were farm owners, the others being tenants or croppers. Leaving out West Virginia, in which only 5.1 per cent of the male Negro workers are engaged in agriculture, the percentage in the other southern states ranges from 29.9 in Maryland to 78.2 in Mississippi.

The fact that most of the Negroes in the North have gone to the cities indicates at once that not many of them are on farms. As a matter of fact less than 6 per cent (5.7) of Negro male workers in the North were reported in the census of 1920 as engaged in agricultural pursuits.

In Chicago Negroes are represented by larger or smaller numbers in nearly all the principal occupations or occupational groups. There is one notable exception. No Negroes are employed as motormen or as street car conductors. But these appear to be the only numerically important occupations from which they are entirely excluded.

In the professions they are represented by 215 clergymen, 95 lawyers, 254 musicians or music teachers, 195 physicians and there are at least a few Negroes in most of the other professions.

They are represented also in the skilled trades. There were in 1920, 126 brick and stone masons who were Negroes; 275 carpenters; 113 composi-

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tors and typesetters; 148 coopers, 431 machinists; 286 house painters; 105 plumbers; and 371 tailors.

But the great majority of Negro workers in the cities of the North are employed either in domestic or personal service or as unskilled or semi-skilled laborers. In the stockyards of Chicago, there were 5,300 Negro laborers in 1920 and in the iron and steel industries, 3,201. In the slaughter and packing houses 1,242 Negroes were returned as laborers and 1,490 as semi-skilled operatives. There were 1,835 Negroes returned as building or general laborers, 1,210 as laborers, porters, and helpers in stores, 2,139 as porters in domestic or personal service, besides 2,540 railway porters, which means doubtless Pullman porters. There were 1,822 Negro janitors, 2,315 Negro waiters and 1,942 Negro male servants. Then there were 1,659 Negro male clerks outside of clerks in stores. These occupations include 55 per cent of the total number of male Negro workers in the City of Chicago, as compared with less than 10 per cent of the white male breadwinners.

That the extensive employment of Negroes as laborers or semi-skilled operatives in the stockyards, slaughter houses, steel mills, and building trades, and as general laborers is a recent development, is shown by the fact that the percentage of Negroes in the total number of males employed in these occupations in Chicago increased from 3.5 in 1910 to 20.7 in 1920. Of the laborers in the automobile plants of Detroit, 13.5 per cent were Negroes in 1920, as compared with less than one-half of 1 per cent in 1910. The proportion of Negroes among building and general laborers in that city increased from 3.2 per cent in 1910 to 19.4 per cent in 1920, the number of Negroes so employed increasing from 149 to 1,261.

In New York the percentage of Negroes in the total number of longshoremen and stevedores increased from 6.4 in 1910 to 14.5 in 1920; and in Philadelphia it increased from 44.7 per cent in 1910 to 59.2 in 1920. It is of interest to note that while in each of these cities there was a large increase in the number of Negroes employed as chauffeurs, the increase no more than kept pace with the growth of the occupation, so that the percentage of Negroes was no larger in 1920 than it was in 1910. But the absolute number of Negro chauffeurs in New York increased from 490 to 2,373, and in Philadelphia from 312 to 2,195.

In contrast to the increasing extent to which Negroes are being employed as laborers in the manufacturing plants or industries of the North is the very slight increase in the employment of male Negroes in domestic and personal service. Of the total number of janitors, porters, male servants, and waiters in Chicago 33.9 per cent were Negroes in 1910, and in 1920 this percentage had increased only to 34.8.

All this goes to show that the male Negroes who have recently been migrating northward in such large numbers have most of them become industrial laborers, finding employment in mills, factories, and stockyards, rather than in hotels, restaurants, office buildings, and dwelling houses. I am sure that if we could distinguish in the census occupational statistics those who have emigrated recently from the earlier emigrants, this fact would be brought out very strikingly. It is another distinctive feature of the new immigration.

## Negro Women in Domestic Service

The statistics relating to male Negro workers indicate that new fields of employment have been opened to them in the North, which doubtless invite immigration by the lure of high money wages. This does not appear to be true to the same extent of the female Negro workers. Their field of employment in the North continues to be largely restricted to personal and domestic service.

In the case of the Negro male workers in Chicago, the percentage employed in personal and domestic service fell off from 52.5 per cent to 28.1, and in the case of female workers from 84.5 to 64.2.

Of the Negro women who have migrated to northern cities a large proportion are domestic servants. About 30 per cent of the Negro female breadwinners in Chicago were reported as servants and 47 per cent of those in New York. For Philadelphia the percentage is 54, for Detroit 35, and for Pittsburgh 50. In general from one-third to one-half of the total number of Negro women workers in northern cities are servants.

It may be noted in this connection that the total number of female servants of all classes, white and colored, as reported by the census decreased materially in the last decade, the number being 1,012,133 in 1920 as compared with 1,309,549 in 1910, a decrease of about 23 per cent or nearly one-fourth. In New York City the number of female servants fell off from 113,409 in 1910 to 84,615 in 1920; in Chicago the decrease was from 34,472 in 1910 to 26,184 in 1920; in Philadelphia it was nearly the same—from 37,050 to 28,290. Evidently people are learning to do without domestic servants. I shall not stop to inquire how. But doubtless the increasing resort to the simplified housekeeping of the apartment furnishes a partial explanation of this phenomenon. In the meantime, white female servants in northern cities are to a large extent being supplanted or replaced by Negroes. For while the number of white female servants, foreign born as well as native, has decreased, the number of Negro female servants has materially increased, so that they form an increasing proportion or percentage of the diminishing total. Thus in Chicago in 1920, 24 per cent or about one-fourth of the female servants were Negroes as compared with 10 per cent in 1910. In New York the percentage Negro in the total number of

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female servants increased from 12.4 in 1910 to 22.4 in 1920; in Detroit from 6.1 to 23.1; in Cleveland from 8.7 to 30.1; in Philadelphia from 38.5 to 53.8 per cent. And there are similar increases in the percentages for all the northern cities to which Negroes have migrated in considerable numbers.

Thus it becomes evident that in the North the southern Negro is to a certain extent supplying the places of the foreign-born immigrant as a source of labor supply for both industrial plants and domestic kitchens, but only to a limited extent. The falling off in the flow of foreign immigration caused by restrictive laws can never be offset or made good by immigration from the South. For consider: In the last 10 years of unrestricted immigration, by which I mean the years 1905 to 1914, inclusive, more than 10,000,000 foreign immigrants came to these shores. That exceeds the entire Negro population of the South by about 1,000,000. At present the restriction law limits the annual immigration to 357,000. So the maximum possible immigration of the foreign born in a decade is 3,570,000. The difference between this number and the 10,000,000 that came in when immigration was unrestricted would absorb 72 per cent of the entire Negro population of the southern states (8,912,231).

## Natural Increase of Negro Population in the North

Will the colored people in the North multiply by natural increase or are they dependent upon continuous immigration from the South? In other words, if immigration were to cease would the Negro race in the North gradually die out? This is a very fundamental question. If the race can not maintain itself in the North save by continuous recruiting from the South, then immigration acts as a drain upon the Negro population and if it were to continue in large volume it might in the distant future even prove to be the destruction of the Negro race. I do not suggest this, however, as a catastrophe that is likely to be realized. It may be a possibility, but if so it lies beyond the range of any predictable future.

Whether the Negro race can maintain itself in the North by natural increase remains to be seen. We can inquire only as to present tendencies. Professor Willcox in a recently published article on the "Increase and Distribution of Negroes in the United States" pointed out that in those states in the North for which statistics were available there had been within a period of five years 114 deaths of Negroes to 100 births. The

area included the New England states, New York, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Minnesota, and the period covered the years 1914 to 1919 inclusive. Conditions within that period could hardly be called normal. It was the period of the World War, of the influenza epidemic, and the period within which the first northward rush of Negroes took place.

The statistics of more recent years show a different relationship. For within these same states, the number of deaths of Negroes to 100 births in the three years, 1920 to 1922, inclusive, was 83. The birth rate for the Negro, however, remains lower in the North than it is in the South and the death rate continues to be higher in the North, and that means, of course, that the natural increase in the North is less than it is in the South; and it seems fairly evident that the northward migration of the Negroes has retarded the increase of the Negro population and constitutes one reason, and perhaps the main reason, why the increase recorded at the last census was smaller than ever before, being, in fact, only 6.5 per cent as compared with 11.2 per cent in the preceding decade and with 13.8 per cent (corrected figure) in the decade before that. But these conditions may be only temporary. The death rate in the North may decline with improvement in living conditions, sanitation, and personal hygiene—and with adaptation to climate. The birth rate might increase if conditions among Negroes in the North become more settled and family life better established. And the northward migration itself may be only temporary. These are questions the answer to which the future alone will reveal.

## Resumé

I am aware that the statistics presented within the brief limits of this paper can serve only as an introduction to the subject of Negro migration. They indicate the recent great increase of migration, the fact that this recent migration comes largely from the cotton states of the far South, that it is a migration to the cities of the North and to the industrial plants in these cities, that it is replacing to a limited extent the immigration from Europe, and that it is probably retarding the growth of the Negro population. But as to what the effects of this movement are going to be upon the Negro, or upon the North or upon the South—these are profoundly interesting and more or less speculative questions which I could not undertake to discuss within the limits of this paper, whatever my qualifications for that task might be.

# The Tampa Urban League

By JESSE O. THOMAS

TAMPA, Florida, is called "The City by the Sea." Like other southern cities which serve as semi-winter resorts, it shows the effect of

northern influence both in respect to capital invested in business and in industries and in the responsible civic positions held by northern men,

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It is not, therefore, a typical southern community. Of its 60,000 inhabitants, about 15,000 are Negroes, and the relations between the races are more cordial than in many cities of its size in the South. A clean city, with wide streets and thoroughfares, its civic pride has included the Negro communities, for the most part, in its municipal improvement schemes. The streets in the Negro areas, for example, are, with few exceptions, paved.

But in spite of this progressive aspect of Tampa's community life, not until a year ago did there appear to exist any effectual conscience on the matter of intelligent social work among the colored people. There was no Y.M.C.A. or Y.W.C.A. which they could use, and no official recognition of the colored population in any of the general welfare institutions like the United Charities, Anti-Tuberculosis Association, and such organizations manned by white persons. This situation was felt by some of the more forward-looking Negroes, but it was the District Manager of the North Carolina Insurance Company, Mr. Edward L. Snyder, who took the initiative in calling upon the Field Secretary of the National Urban League to make observations in Tampa and interest prominent white and Negro leaders with a view to establishing a social agency to meet the insistent needs of the Negro population. The organization of the Tampa Urban League resulted, and it was fortunate both for the League and for the city that a native daughter of unusual executive ability was available. Mrs. Blanche Armwood Beatty was invited to direct this agency.

The effectiveness of her work and personality is shown in some of the recent accomplishments of the organization.

During the past year 100 delinquent boys and girls were aided and more or less "oriented" by the organization; 75 relief cases were investigated and directed to appropriate agencies for aid. In the Public Health Clinic, under the direction of the Health Commission of the Urban League, 52 children received treatment for tuberculosis and 210 families were rehabilitated.

To encourage better health and more wholesome living among the school children, the Junior Health League was organized in all the Public Schools and the members of these leagues were given definite health chores to do each day. During National Health and Clean-up Week, 3,000 pieces of health literature were distributed in all parts of the city and an essay contest was conducted in the schools. A prize was awarded for the best essay written on "How to Keep Well." Sixty-one persons who applied for assistance secured work.

Through its Educational Committee the organization secured an Emergency School, relieving an overflow at one of the schools when double session was necessary and a congested condition almost beyond description. For the first time in Hillsboro County, through the influence of the

Urban League, the term of the colored school increased from six to eight months for the first year and a pledge from the Board of Education was received that in the future the term will be identical in length with that of the white schools.

To improve the sanitary conditions near one of the colored schools an appropriation of $2000 was secured from the city. There was organized the Booker T. Washington Branch of the Tampa Chapter of the American Red Cross, which has given courses in home hygiene, care of the sick, and other phases of emergency relief, to 105 colored women and girls.

One of the most outstanding accomplishments has been the crystallization of public sentiment in an appreciation of the Negro and his moral as well as economic value to the community. This is done through a weekly news article under the caption *Urban League Weekly Bulletin* that appears in each of the daily papers every Sunday. This has also offered a point of contact between the races on a working program that has proven most helpful and significant.

This group has also provided a special burying ground for Negro World War Veterans, where they may receive honors due them on stated occasions. This was done through the Booker T. Washington Branch of the Red Cross. A beautiful plot was purchased in Memorial Park Cemetery on a prominent thoroughfare and on May 30, National Decoration Day, it was dedicated with ceremony befitting the occasion. The bodies of seven ex-service men who had been buried miscuously in various cemeteries about the city were exhumed and re-interred.

During the month of December, the city sent its colored women prisoners to the city stockade where they were required to sweep the streets with a white officer as a guard over them. The Executive Secretary of the Urban League got in immediate touch with the Mayor and other prominent white and colored citizens and by two o'clock in the afternoon definite arrangements had been made to remove these women from the streets, and the colored citizens were assured that this embarrassing and humiliating measure of punishment would not be repeated.

Through the insistence of the Tampa Urban League a proposed bond issue was amended to include $35,000 for the Municipal Hospital for colored people. The Civic Commissioners of the City of Tampa in recognition of the work being done by the organization in that city, has put the League on a six months pay roll, which will extend beyond the time of the proposed Community Chest. The League has also been included in the local Community Chest budget.

The work presents wide variety. This is at the same time an explanation and a result of the almost total absence of programs for Negroes prior to its organization.

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Youths Get Together

By ANDREW J. ALLISON

REPRESENTATIVES of twenty-eight Youth Organizations, reflecting every shade of social and economic opinion, enjoyed twenty-four hours of fellowship, thus setting a precedent for the future youth activity cooperation, and establishing a standard which older people from the same movements would find difficult to emulate.

The Fellowship of Reconciliation sponsored the idea and Devere Allen, one of the editors of *The World Tomorrow*, was the guiding hand of the conference. The subject of "Youth's Standard of Living" was taken up in three sessions and the remaining time was turned into open discussions. "How America Lives" was described by George Soule, Jr., of the Labor Bureau, Inc. Mr. Soule cited a number of estimates of minimum subsistence budgets for families, among them that of $1200 put forward by the National Industrial Conference Board; that of $1400, the minimum for New York City set forth by Prof. Ogburn of Columbia University. The United States Bureau of Labor Statistics estimated that a budget of health and decency for a family in Washington, D. C., would approximate $2,262.47; considering recent reductions in prices for December 1923, this amount would need to be deducted to $2,072. This budget permits but one summer and one winter suit every three years, an overcoat every four years, two neckties a year, and one cleaning and pressing of a suit every year. It would not permit the purchase of silk dresses, stockings or furs for women, or clocks, waste paper baskets or similar pieces of furniture.

When we turn to incomes, he said, we find that more than 34,000,000 producers in the United States (or 86 per cent) received in 1919 less than $2,000 and only 5,500,000 (or 14 per cent) more than $2,000 per year. If we exclude farmers, the percentage would be 89 per cent and 11 per cent respectively.

It was further brought out, taking the cases of the highly paid skilled workers and considering seasonal occupation and the amount of unemployment in their industry, their yearly wage averages would come between $2,000 and $2,200. It was clearly shown that the vast majority of wage earners do not obtain enough to maintain a normal family in health and decency.

The changes in our economic order as a remedy for the lower standard of living was ably presented by Prof. Walton H. Hamilton of the Graduate School of Research of Washington University. He said: "The future of America depends upon honest, disinterested consideration of particular problems. We are in need of positive honesty. We should realize that we have no right to an opinion on a problem until we have done

more thinking on it. We ought to be willing to pay the price of our opinions.

"Too often," Prof. Hamilton declared, "the youth of the country set up as their ideal, on the one hand, a rich and vulgar life, and on the other hand, a Bohemian life." He urged youth to visualize their idea of society. He also emphasized the crying need for technicians in the tackling of many problems.

Most of the evening was given to a discussion from the floor. Dr. Gertrude Baer of the European Youth Movement and the Youth Section of the Women's International League for Peace, gave a tragic picture of present-day Germany and made a strong plea for a program of social change by means of persuasion rather than by force. She maintained that a class struggle for better conditions by force can achieve nothing except to arouse a dreadful reaction of force.

At the Sunday morning discussion Rev. A. Ray Petty, of the Judson Memorial Church, revealed the condition of children on the lower East Side of New York. He declared that of all the children recently examined in the Health Clinic of his church, not one had been marked as normal, and 90 per cent of those who had passed through the clinic for sick children, since January 1 of this year, were suffering from malnutrition and 50 per cent were suffering from rickets. He stressed the need for making legal the transmission of birth control information by physicians, in view of the existing tragic situation of the family caught between inadequate income and impossible housing conditions.

Frank Lorimer, of the Harlem Baptist Church, said that the luxurious personal standards are bound up with the present economic system and that a new cooperative social order would need a new cultural standard. A list of wasteful ideas in youth's own standard of living was called for and furnished by the conference. The items ranged from face powder and food unwisely chosen to high-priced automobiles and diamond rings.

In the afternoon the members of the conference broke up into three groups led, respectively, by George Soule, Andrew J. Allison, and Harry W. Ladler. These groups discussed informally the question of how members of the conference could carry out to best advantage the work of encouraging the growth of their ideas among Youth Organizations.

Allen Hunter, a student widely travelled among Youth Movements in other countries, led the final session on Sunday afternoon.

Among the organizations represented were the Fellowship of Reconciliation, Harlem Forum and the Urban League, National Student Forum,

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Young People's Socialist League, International Ladies Garment Workers' League, Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America, the Y. M. C. A., Young Workers' League, Inter-Collegiate Cos- mopolitan Club, Young People's League of United Synagogues of America, League for Industrial Democracy.

The following principles were unanimously adopted at the conference, but since the representatives had not the power to bind their organizations to any program, these principles merely register the belief of the conferees.

We favor a social order based primarily on production for use rather than for profit, to the end that all may be provided with an equal opportunity for the development of their physical, mental, aesthetic, and spiritual powers.

We deplore the attempt on the part of many of our so-called educators to set before the youth of our country the ideals of militarism and the pursuit of private profit, and we favor the development of educational work among the youth of the country which lays chief emphasis on the ideals of social mindedness and of service to the community.

We likewise deplore the assiduous cultivation of race and religious prejudices and suspicions by many of our citizens, and welcome every movement tending toward a more effective cooperation between races and religious groups, and to equal rights for all.

As immediate steps toward a better world, we favor restoration of civil liberties, the abolition of child labor, the principles of collective

bargaining, equal pay for equal work, insurance against sickness, unemployment, accident, and old age, and the socialization of mines, railroads, and superpower.

We urge the increase of world friendship through concerted agitation against war, militarism, and armaments, and through the establishment and strengthening of representative international organizations—political, economic, social, and scientific—not only on the part of governments but also on the parts of peoples.

We feel that the medical profession should be allowed by law to give such knowledge to parents as will make it possible for them to limit families to the number which, under the present organization of society, they can maintain in health and happiness.

As agencies tending to bring about needed economic changes, we favor the organization and the strengthening of labor unionism, of voluntary cooperation, of labor education, and of an independent political party of labor and of farmers.

We believe that in our work for social improvement we should individually strive to emphasize the values which tend toward the development of human personality rather than material values of wealth.

We favor the holding of further conferences of youth organizations and the cooperation of these organizations for specific purposes.

*Report of the Conference of Youth Organizations held at Bear Mountain Inn, Palisade Interstate Park, New York, Saturday and Sunday, March 1-2, 1924.*

## As Others See Us

By ALAIN LOCKE

“La Question des Noirs aux Etats-Unis,” by Franck L. Schoell, Payot, Paris, 1923.

W RITTEN for the enlightenment of French readers upon present-day aspects of the race question in America, Professor Schoell's book performs more than the service it expressly undertakes. The long distance view often approximates the clarifying perspective of history; we have here a book that can be read even more profitably by Americans than by Frenchmen, not for the mere idle curiosity of seeing ourselves as others see us, but for that clarifying and corrective vision which is the element most needed in considering the race problem. On social questions an ounce of French sanity is worth a pound of German reasoning or Anglo-Saxon argument. Indeed one here gets the impression that the chief handicap of the American mind on this question, affecting almost equally the judgment and attitudes of both race groups, is over-seriousness, sentimental distortion, lack of open-mindedness and poise.

The preface, itself a notable analysis of the problem, is the work of Maurice Delafosse, former colonial governor and administrator, now pro-

fessor at the Ecole Coloniale and the School of Oriental Languages, scholar and publicist of the most liberal and progressive tendencies. His plea is for the concrete and unbiased study of race relations as they pertain in definite given areas, without a carrying over of generalizations and large-scale hypotheses which in his judgment only compound popular prejudices and misconceptions with pseudo-scientific bias and generalities. His view is that the color question though now almost universal has practically no scientific common denominator, and that objective impartial analysis and research must be applied to it in any concrete studies and specific conclusions.

Though Professor Schoell gives a brilliant historical resume, his chief concern is with the present alignments of the race groups in America and the problem in its present day phases. His most brilliant chapter is an objective analysis of prejudice. Its value lies in the almost naive directness with which the modern creed of white supremacy is presented, analyzed, and refuted. After an examination of it in all of its pre-

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If the author has not left her home in Wisconsin and lived among the outcasts in Chicago as one of them, as did Rod Roscoe, dreamer and friend, then in the hands of one of the initiated she has rambled among them as did Natalie Cartwright, heiress and aristocrat. One says this with assurance, for Miss Sanborn knows black Chicago at its best and at its worst. The scenes of the tale that are laid in Astor Cartwright's mansion on the Drive; in Sara McClellan's southland cottage, and even in the stifling town of Rod's birth lack the vividness, the depth, the intimate touch that characterizes the portrayal of life in Negro Chicago. This portrayal is, indeed, founded on the real contacts of one who has lifted the veil that a willfully blind nation has draped around our aristocrats, creations of their own desires.

The story has to do with the experiences of young Rod Roscoe, drawn into the world of "Veiled Aristocrats" by black Carr McClellan, genius, gentleman, and the first to feed Rod's beauty starved spirit. Tenderly watched over and cared for by Amber Blair, friend of Carr and descendant of a distinguished Southerner, Rod becomes absorbed in the life of black Chicago. He remains the same through a meteoric rise to fame, and his devotion to Carr knows no bounds. It

survives an acid test when Natalie Cartwright, with whom he falls in love immediately upon her arrival from France where she has been born and bred, succumbs to the charm of Carr and, in defiance of all the traditions of her father's race and caste, determines to marry the outcast. Rod, in spite of our admiration of him, inspires skepticism. He is too good to be true.

So simply and yet so skillfully told is the tale that the twist at the close to give it a happy ending, while hardly a surprise, is a distinct disappointment. One expects more, one demands more. The happy ending is anti-climatic. There is a dramatic situation, impossible in itself but pregnant with opportunities for significant solutions, and Miss Sanborn cheats. She chooses the easiest way out, either because she wants a so-called happy ending or because her characters have broken from her grasp and gone beyond her and she is taking the only means within her power to imprisonment again. We hope that the former case is true, because the latter supposition indicates a mediocrity which we trust is not Miss Sanborn's. In spite of this sacrifice to the gods of convention and convenience, we regard "Veiled Aristocrats" as a creditable addition to the now rapidly increasing store of books that deal with colored and white Americans as they are.

## A Story About Southern Negroes and King Cotton

By EULALIA OSBY PROCTOR

"In the Land of Cotton," by Dorothy Scarborough. Macmillan Company, New York. Price $2.00.

IN THE foreword to this story of King Cotton, one feels the author has exerted poetic license. Is her story of Texas cotton-fields, as outlined here, exaggerated? This is a pretty scene, peaceful—almost sublime—these Texas cotton-fields, freshly harrowed with the seeds just planted; then the green plant waiting to be “chopped”—the blossoms—the bursting white bolls in autumn—and the laborers! What a comic opera scene is this—the “Negroes’ carnival!” Delightfully light is this sketch—the “wild barbaric mirth” of the “children of the sun, lovers of light and heat.” All this is the foreword, and one shrugs an impatient shoulder. “She does not know the South,” or “She saw the South from a Pullman,” one murmurs. How gravely we misjudge Dorothy Scarborough. This is a gaily painted curtain behind which Tragedy and Pathos walk hand in hand with Love and Jest. Behind it the great Pageantry of King Cotton moves, holding our attention until the last figure recedes in the distance, and we find ourselves with tear-dimmed eyes, compassionate with those pawns for whom this young woman has given this labor of love—the tenant farmer, (“poor white” if you will), and the “children of the sun.”

In the bottom lands of the Brazos River, in Texas, stretch the fields of Greenacres, cotton

plantation of Jerry Llewellyn, and it is here that most of our actors enter the scene, serve their master, Cotton, and are borne off—scourged martyrs to his regime. Serena, the daughter, is our heroine, and in a blend of tears and laughter moves on, with Ben Wilson, “poor white,” and Roderick, debonair—Mr. Bob, family friend and patient lover—Phoebe, the coquette, “Skinny” the “nigger half wit,” Black Jake, whose laugh rivals Caruso’s warbling; “drunken Rosy,” who is married to a mongrel, and Leslie, a big sister who is an affliction that one bears more gracefully with the years. There is Rena’s father, Jerry, whose smile is like “a warm cloak, wrapping her around, that lit gold candles, kindled singing hearth fires in her heart.” She knew Dave Abernathy, who tried to break away from the tentacles of Cotton and whose little son, Billy, was crushed in the gin. She felt the blight of the chain-gang creeping up the road to Mr. Jim Reynolds’ plantation because he was too mean to pay real free laborers. She heard the bay of the bloodhounds and saw the guards as they brought a whip down on an escaped convict’s back, sore and welted from other beatings, when he had only stolen a ham because he was hungry. She and Ben went down to see the Governor and she cried on His Excellency’s shoulder as she described the

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horror of the "nigger boy's punishment." (And yet, so impersonally does Miss Scarborough use the words "nigger," "darky," and "coon," that even the most sensitive one of us does not quiver beneath the finger that touches old wounds. It is no probe, but is a careless seeking finger that lingers nowhere in particular, but would minister to any and all aches).

Serena has an eighth birthday party and knows the awakening of a secret love for Roderick, who will not choose her in the games even though she selects him three times while Ben stands mutely by and winces at his own disappointment. It is an illusive love that stays with her for years, guarded and fed, to die when he makes love to her, after years of devotion of Phoebe who has cast him aside for Philip, a crippled veteran of the World War. And now she knows she has loved Ben always, (steady, worshipping Ben who has worked his way through college, while Phil and Roderick played—who had stayed at home and fought with Cotton, because of a sick father and dependent mother instead of being "over there"), and before she may tell him, it is Ben who gives his life in the defense of the tyrant Cotton, and they find the bodies side by side—"poor white" Ben and "nigger" Skinny, martyrs to the cause of Cotton—Ben who had earned a college education to combat "Boll weevil" and "Skinny" whose back had been beaten by a convict guard, and in whose defense Serena had pleaded with a Governor.

There is the flood of the Brazos River—"easeful of motion as a mulatress," "good-natured, as kindly as a colored person," where the rescued residents of the devastated districts are jammed together in the old gin-mill. And always Pathos and Jest come to the centre of the stage to take the curtain together, for there are the two field-hands, Boll Weevil and Battle Axe, who shoot dice in a corner of the rescue station, while beside them an old black woman sings tremulously, "Lord I don't want to die in a storm!" And the three of them, Boll Weevil, Battle Axe, and Ben catch a pig out of the swirling debris, slaughter him,

cook him, and serve him to the hungry assembly, gladly cooperative while the Brazos beats against their temporary shelter.

War times in Texas! Cotton at sky-rocket prices. Ready cash! Extravagance! Negroes in cars, tenant farmers in cars, "airy" demands for more wages, unwonted prosperity! More acres of cotton, new and high hopes—the advent of the pink boll worm! Government inspection, a larva found! Condemned fields! More Negroes in the acres—but silent and grim. Sharp whirring blades cutting the stalks, gallons of kerosene, leaping flames, ashen wastes! "Work of destruction never so appeals to Negroes as work of construction." Despair!

Still profiteering! More crops! Drought! Despair! A philosophic resignation to the limitations of fate, in the song of the plowing Negro: "The white gal ride in the ottermobile, the fair brown do de same; the black gal ride in the tumble cyar, but she riding jes' the same!"

And finally a 'Rena with strangely sobered heart, who turns to the embracing love of Mr. Bob, while she remembers the love of a martyred Ben, and together they face a future of unselfish devotion to the plea of the slaves of Cotton. Cooperation for the farmers, federal supervision, government credit, general instruction—what a lot of things they see to better the cotton situation, a living monument to Ben and to Skinny!

If this is 'Rena who has written the book, as she promised to do, those years ago, she has succeeded ably in her dissemination. Richly descriptive, throbbing with the great pulse of the South as she lays her finger here and there to catch its heat, "In the Land of Cotton" is well written. There is fiction enough to satisfy the most superficial reader, and there is fact enough to be quoted by a student of science.

Texas is there—and we are there—and Cotton is there, behind that curtain which she calls the foreword. Life is there, Art is there, and Truth is there! "Yet Cotton is the master of them all."

## "All God's Chillun Got Wings"

A PLAY IN TWO ACTS

By EUGENE O'NEILL

Published in the February number of
*The American Mercury*

Reviewed by E. A. CARTER

IF Eugene O'Neill's career as a dramatist should end with this most recent offering, his place as the foremost American playwright of his time will be secure. For this tensely human tragedy, "All God's Chillun Got Wings" transcends "The Emperor Jones" and "Anne Christy" both as a fine piece of dramatic writing and in sheer artistic beauty.

Stripped of its racial integument, the play is a simple love story of a young man and his child-

hood sweetheart, who becomes the victim of another playmate without honor. But O'Neill has chosen the yet unscratched surface of the race problem and one of its many facets to enrich that story and to give it throbbing pathos and grim fascination.

A young white girl, betrayed by one of her own kind, turns to the love of an ambitious Negro youth rather than submit to continued dishonor, and the couple seek a haven in France. The

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drama unfolds in the terrific struggle of this young woman to return the honest love of the Negro whose wife she has become. To do this she must crush the spectre of her own innate contempt for the race to which her husband belongs. Unable to down the ghost of racial hatred which plagues them by fleeing from the physical evidences of it, they return to America only to be confronted by another unyielding force, the consuming ambition of the young man's sister to lift her brother above the level of his wife, and thus destroy the marriage.

Born on resistless waves of racial hatred and human love, Ella, the white girl heroine, verges on a mental collapse, which is only averted by her husband's crushing disappointment and failure to achieve the goal of his dreams. But when she sees the devastating effect of this crash of his dream world, for which she is primarily responsible, she rises above the racial inhibitions of her mind and in a tenderly beautiful scene summons the love of their childhood to find that happiness which has been denied them.

To heighten the effect of Ella's nerve wracking

struggle, O'Neill subtly evokes a somber symbolism in the form of a Congo mask, which to the unfortunate girl is the concrete expression of that racial concept which is her mental heritage.

The white characters in the play are not unfamiliar. It is in the delineation of the Negro characters that O'Neill evidences a real superiority in the use of dramatic sources. All of his Negro characters are clearly drawn and sharply contrasted —the Negro of the post-bellum period, the young Negro who admits his inferiority and is content with his status, the young Negro proud of his race and of its past,—courageous and hopeful of the future, and the Negro who is ambitious but awed and bewildered by the impact of the white world which scoffs at his efforts to achieve.

I venture to assert that this play will not be popular. Colored people will feel that it is "punk propaganda" and white America does not relish any such assaults on its "Credo" concerning the Negro, who, as Mr. Nathan so aptly puts it, "has white wool on his head and a misery in his back." But even if O'Neill's logic falters here and there, he has created a brilliant and a beautiful drama.

## On Producing O'Neill's Play

By JAMES LIGHT

THE PLAY "All God's Chillun Got Wings" presents a problem in production which in a way is similar to the problems encountered when producing a play like "Oedipus Rex." It is a tragedy ending on a note of exaltation. It is not simply a tragedy of the marriage of a Negro and a white, it is a tragedy of two human beings caught in the mesh of circumstance from which there is no escape. The marriage is one of the terms in which the tragedy is expressed. You see the love of these two people holding them together because of the very elements which society has made to put them apart. The problem of "Miscegenation" is in this tragedy the expression of Fate, just as in "Oedipus Rex," the successive calamities which overtake Oedipus are the expression of Fate. Just as Fate caused it to be that Oedipus' wife should be his mother, and that the tyrant he kills should be his father, so in "All God's Chillun Got Wings," fate has brought it about that the human being whom Ella Downey loves and with whom she struggles for the persistence of her personality is a Negro, and that the human being Jim Harris loves is a white woman with not enough strength to burn out of herself the prejudices of her white society.

Their love for each other and the social wall which their marriage has created leave them no escape from each other. They have chosen ostracism and loneliness as the environment of their love, and the terror of their spiritual struggle ends by harmonizing them.

Paul Robeson who will play the role of "Jim Harris"

The tragedy of this pair has been expressed through elements which are contemporary to the action. That is, the producer must express this play not only by the actors and their speeches but by scene and mood made out of the appearance of immediate life. He must give to street corners, curbstones, street noises, and popular songs the appearance of being comments of the tragic mood.

Crowds and sentimental tenors reinforce moments of drama. Lamp-posts and church doors have their way of adding finality to the action. The play is written so that this comment by external and inanimate things is in the first part of the play visible and actual, and in the second part a matter of mood and emotion. To express this in the usual way, the first part of the play is physically expressionistic; the second, psychologically expressionistic.

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## Notes

THERE IS an unexpected echo of the Chicago “Abyssinian” disorders of 1920 in the discovery of traces of an elusive and exotic African genius, Danko,—bizarre, violent, sensitive, but about whom very little otherwise is known. Such information as there is, queerly enough, is furnished by Giovanni Papini in his “Stroncature” in a critique on Danko. To Mitchell Dawson, a Chicago lawyer and a contributor to the *Double Dealer*, published in New Orleans (probably the most interesting literary journal emanating from the South) is due the credit of this association of Danko with the murders and fanaticism of this weird band of Negroes. Among the fezzes, kaf-tans, old bayonets, and blankets collected by the police investigators in the headquarters of the leaders after their outbreak, there were found queer companions: books of poems, poetry magazines, note books with original poems in English and in African dialect, and a copy book filled with jottings of amazingly clever observations on American literary characters. Several of the poems found appear in the issue of the *Double Dealer* for November. They are in the proof sheets of a volume, “Natural Songs,” which was being privately published in Philadelphia, where everything was destroyed when the publishing house was burned in 1915.

Papini says:

> "Danko, whom his compatriots bizarrely nicknamed 'The Quick Ear,' is a true and authentic Negro of Nigeria and was born in 1877 at Shibu on the banks of the Benue. No one knows exactly who was his father and he has never spoken of his mother. At the age of thirteen years we find him already on the coast, at Akassa, where he learned English and religion from a missionary. From his fifteenth to his twenty-third year we know nothing of his life: it is what supports our picturing him in the jungles of his own country hunting wild beasts. Others, more malicious, say that he was a cattle thief and seducer of girls. But the most probable hypothesis is that he lived in perfect solitude like a savage animal, listening to the voices of the great trees and of the waters."

But of Danko himself there is no trace. After the Chicago affair, if he ever was there, "He slipped through the white man's jungle or hides somewhere in its monstrous shadows."

* * * * *

THERE appeared in the *Mercure de France* for February a review of a volume by Kojo, nephew of an African king, on "Phonetic Involvement" which the New York *Times*, with incomparable satire, calls M. Kojo's "Revenge." It was he whom a group of Americans in Paris caused to be expelled from a Montmartre restaurant because of certain "home-grown" prejudices.

* * * * *

"UP TO eight or nine years ago," says George Jean Nathan in the *American Mercury* for February, "it is doubtful if in the entire range of the American drama there was to be found a single authentic Negro character. The

Negro of drama was then either of the white wool wig and kidney pain species, given to excessive hobbling, many a 'yas, yas, massa, I'se a-comin,' and a comic line on his every exit, or of the species that was essentially a mere blacked-up Caucasian minstrel end man, in a cutaway coat three sizes too large for him and a snowy toupee, who was rather dubiously transformed into a dramatic character by giving him one scene in which he taught little Frieda and Otto how to say their prayers and another in which he apologetically shuffled into his master's library when the mortgage on the latter's old southern estate was about to be foreclosed by the northern villain and, with tears in his eyes and a quaver in his voice, informed him that, come what might, he would stick to him until he was daid. It is further doubtful if up to eight or nine years ago there was on the American stage a single Negro character under fifty years of age. In the dramatic credo of the antecedent epoch it was an invariable doctrine that no Negro existed who did not have white hair and the misery in his back, and who had not been in the employ of the same family since boyhood. Those stage Ethiops were a peculiar lot, as far removed from the American Negro of actuality as the *raisonneurs* of Galsworthy are removed from the *raisonneurs* of Viennese musical comedy. Now and again a playwright would come along and try to break from the established tradition, but the best he seemed to be able to negotiate was, as in Edward Sheldon's case, a partly blacked-up Sardou or, in Thomas Dixon's, a melodramatic lay figure who served as the pursued animal in a fox hunt by the Ku Klux Klan. The effort to look under the old superficial burnt cork is a very recent one. Miss Stephens' is another such effort and one contrived with much accuracy and competence. Miss Mary H. Kirkpatrick is the *entrepreneur*. She and her associates in the production have managed with great success the difficult business of instructing white actors in the manners and idiosyncracies of the blacks."

* * * * *

IN *Voices*, a Journal of Verse, there is a poem inscribed to "A Negress on Sixth Avenue," by Elizabeth Coatsworth:

How curious along a street
To watch the come and go of feet,
And see a Negress, slabbed and lean,
Wearing such sandals as a queen
Might once have worn when she would pass
On pavements polished bright as glass,
Herself as alienly fair
As the gold serpent in her hair,
And fierce as the hawk wings that spread
Above the splendor of her head.

Yet if a slave who crouched and whined
Had been reborn time out of mind,
Just so might she walk down a street
With scarlet sandals on her feet,
Sullenly, magnificently,
Kindled by a memory.

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IN A volume, "Folk Songs of Many Peoples," published by the Women's Press, Florence Hudson Botsford has included selections from Negro folk songs among those of Hungary, the Balkans, Turkey, Arabia, Japan, and those of the Jews, Creoles, and French Canadians. This volume pays a tribute to "those who come bringing civilized and civilizing gifts."

Representations of the Emancipation in American Art

Article I.

By FREEMAN H. M. MURRAY

"The Freedman" by J. Q. A. Ward

IN order to understand and perhaps to appreciate the several representations to which attention will be called it may be well first to consider the fact that Emancipation—or *The Emancipation*—is not an objective occurrence which may be pictured like a balloon ascension or a ship launching or a foottrace. These may be more or less satisfactorily "recorded" by a camera snap-shot

or a series of them properly selected or timed. But an adequate representation, or perhaps suggestion, of such an intangible and comprehensive conception as the Emancipation demands, as a preliminary to any attempted portrayal, a thorough and sympathetic understanding of the subject to be represented—its history, meaning, purpose, manner of accomplishment, and sometimes its consequences or results. And to select and combine such objective representations as will serve to bring out or suggest these ideas adequately and artistically, requires thought, imagination, and skill.

One who has not considered the matter may not realize the difficulty of attempting to visualize, let us say, the Revolution, or the Redemption, or Creation, or some such intangible theme with the idea of putting his conceptions on canvas in the form of a picture. Unless he be a person extraordinarily gifted, he will probably find himself wondering how and where to begin and what to portray.

JEAN TOOMER'S "Cane" is being offered with a subscription to the *Double Dealer*, a southern literary magazine.

THE FOLLOWING books have been received and will be reviewed: "Negro Poets and Their Poems" by Robert T. Kerlin, "Child Labor and the Constitution" by Raymond G. Fuller, and "Autobiography of Sir Harry H. Johnston."

I do not assert that these conceptions may not be, and have not been, adequately represented objectively; but I do say that to do so, adequately and understandingly, requires talent and artistic skill possessed by only a few. The same may be said regarding the Emancipation, and although this event might at first seem less difficult of satisfactory portrayal than some of the others mentioned, yet, if we may judge by the results obtained by artists, it would appear to be no less so.

What has just been said about representing an abstract theme objectively has related more particularly to painting, or to picturing in any manner; and if one purposes to express his conception by means of sculpture or modeling, the difficulties seem to be even greater, and, indeed, I think they are. Nevertheless, the difficulties have not prevented artists from attempting such tasks both in painting and in sculpture (as well as in black and white drawing) and in not a few cases we have had representations that have been expressive, esthetically pleasing, and sometimes inspiring. And, strange as it may seem, so far as the theme under consideration is concerned, the subject has appeared to be more inviting to sculptors than to painters, as we shall see.

It would be, I think, interesting to inquire into the reasons why this is true, but such an inquiry would probably lead us too far for the present occasion; and moreover, no doubt such an inquiry should be undertaken by an abler pen than mine.

With these preliminary observations let us notice some of the more important attempts which have been made by American artists—sculptors and painters—to give objective representation to this great theme. In the brief discussions of the few works that we shall notice, some attempt will be made to indicate a few of the difficulties to be overcome and dangers to be avoided in the portrayal of this and similar abstract conceptions, the purpose being to suggest some of the criteria for

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forming judgments as to the correctness and the adequacy of the respective representations.¹

Shortly after the Emancipation Proclamation went into effect, J. Q. A. Ward, one of America's leading sculptors, brought out a statuette, which while it did not purport to represent the emancipation as a theme, yet was obviously inspired by that event and may be regarded as at least an artistic record of it. This modest little work, (it was only about twenty inches high) which he named "The Freedman," was received with great favor by the artistic world as well as by the general public. Dozens of copies² cast in bronze were sold, and artists, critics, and writers vied with each other in praise of the sculptor's frankness, skill, and imaginative power.

Jarves, the eminent art critic, said of it: "Completely original in itself, a genuine inspiration of American history, noble in thought and lofty in sentiment. . . . A naked slave has burst his shackles, and with uplifted face thanks God for freedom. We have seen nothing in our sculpture more soul-lifting or more comprehensively eloquent. It tells in one word the whole sad story of slavery and the bright story of emancipation."³

Tuckerman quotes an unnamed "intelligent writer" as saying of it: "Here is the simple figure of a semi-nude Negro, sitting it may be on the steps of the Capitol, a fugitive, resting his arms upon his knees, his head turned eagerly piercing into the distance for his ever vigilant enemy, his hand grasping his broken manacles with an energy that bodes no good to his pursuers. A simple story, simply and most plainly told."

So much for the story which this intelligent writer reads from the statuette. He also sees much that is admirable on the physical side. He continues: "There is no departure from the Negro type. It shows the black man as he runs today. It is no abstraction or bit of metaphysics that needs to be labelled or explained. It is a fact, not a fancy. He is all African. With a true and honest instinct, Mr. Ward has gone among the race and from the best specimens, with wonderful patience and perseverance, has selected and combined, and from this race alone erected a noble figure—a form that might challenge the admiration of the ancient Greek. It is a mighty expression of stalwart manhood, which now, thanks to the courage and genius of the artist, stands forth for the first time to assert in the face of the world's

prejudices, that with the best of them he has at least an equal physical conformation."⁴

One may ask, and at this day properly ask—what was remarkable about the making of a representation of the Negro that was "a mighty expression of stalwart manhood?" But it should be remembered that at that time the Negro was popularly regarded as a sort of intermediary or "link" between man (and, of course, only white men were regarded as the true *genus homo*) and some "lower animal," perhaps the ape—with leanings toward the physical form, and maybe, the mental traits of this animal. There was at that time babble, even in the purported "natural histories," about the Negro's alleged long heels, his flat "prehensile" feet, his long (ape-like) arms, his prognathous jaw, and even—for some "tribes," at least—there were hints of tails.

Hence, the portrayal of the Negro as having a form "equal in physical conformation with the best of them" was enough to cause in the popular mind wonder mixed with incredulity; while in those minds which were able to rise above popular misconceptions and prejudices such insight and such frankness excited admiration, not only for the artist's technical ability, but, as Tuckerman says, for his "courage."

Of course, we know now, from the testimony of anthropologists, based on ample measurements and comparisons, that these supposed simian physical characters are only in a slight degree, if at all, racial; and—most significant of all—in so far as they may be regarded as characteristic of race, they are, with possibly the exception of one, more common among white people than among Negroes. The one possible exception is the long arms. But even that variation from the average of mankind is fugitive, slight and evanescent, and so far as observed at all is chiefly confined to certain tribes or races of Africa, but is not true of Negroes generally. Hence, science has confirmed what the artist's eye observed, and, indeed, any well-trained eye could have perceived, if freed from the trammels of conventionality, pre-conception and prejudice.

All of this, of course, has nothing to do with the theme of the Emancipation directly, but indirectly it has bearing on it; for it was sought to defend and justify the Negro's degraded social status and his economic exploitation on the ground that he was "inferior" mentally and physically—the one answering to and confirming the other. The claim was not merely that the Negro was an inferior man, but that he was inferior *to* man and, therefore, like the rest of the "lower orders," was created for man's—that is, the white man's—use and benefit. It was, then, no mere use of idle words to say that "The Freedman"—this noble figure, finely proportioned, alert and dignified—was the product of Mr. Ward's courage and genius.

However, it may be that I am giving too much attention to the physical aspects of this statuette.

¹ A fuller treatment of this phase of the matter may be found in the author's book, "Emancipation and the Freed in American Sculpture," which was reviewed in the March issue of OPPORTUNITY.

² The word "copies" as used here, and as generally used in sculptural discussions, means reproductions made by casting from the same mold or by carving from the same model.

³ "Art Idea," 1864, page 284.

¹ Tuckerman, "Book of Artists," page 581.

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Perhaps I belong to that class of moderns to
which Lorado Taft refers in his comprehensive
“History of American Sculpture” (published in
1903) wherein, referring to certain comments on
this figure by Sturgis, he says:

"Mr. Sturgis calls attention, also, to the fact that the sculptor has interested himself in truly modern fashion in the physical peculiarities of his subject. The racial characteristics are certainly emphasized as they had not been previously in American sculpture. But while we of the present please ourselves in analysing the little figure, calmly dissecting its anatomy, it had quite a different appeal in the days of stress and struggle which gave it birth. We read Mr. Jarves' contemporary comments and wonder if we have grown callous: Are we missing all that is best in these things? . . . Little can we of a younger generation appreciate the emotion which was wrought into this souvenir of the great Rebel-lion."

But as greatly as I admire the physical aspects
of this stalwart figure, with its suggestion of
aroused intelligence, and as commendable and im-
portant as I believe the artist's portrayal to have
been, yet I try to persuade myself that I, for
one, am not without some understanding and ap-
preciation of the emotion—the mingled thankful-
ness, hope, pathos, and prophecy—which Mr.
Ward so sympathetically and skilfully wrought into
this modest, unostentatious little souvenir.

Not the least admirable feature of this repre-
sentation is that neither in attitude nor in ex-
pression does this freedman betray any suggestion
of stupidity, of cravenness, or of obsequiousness,
and there seems to be no lack on his part of ap-
preciative understanding of his new status. I wish
to emphasize this point; for, in this respect, Ward's
"Freedman" is in marked and gratifying contrast
to certain other representations of this event which
are far better known, and apparently more popu-
lar with the chief beneficiaries of Mr. Lincoln's
proclamation and of the war which finally and
forever ratified it.

This freedman appears not only to realize that
he is, but that he "of right ought to be" free;
and besides, he appears to be resolved and ready to
defend his freedom if need be. Moreover, and
historically more important, there is little doubt
but that the artist intended to indicate, as one
writer says,¹ that the "Freedman" has put forth
his (own) "strength," not only to bring about,
but to make secure his freedom, and has not been
—as some artists have indicated—merely the pas-
sive recipient of an unearned, and possibly unap-
preciated, boon.

Respecting this phase of the matter, perhaps I
may be permitted to repeat here what I have
elsewhere said:—We of this day who perfunctorily
think of and speak of the slaves as "set free by Mr.
Lincoln" may be inclined to stumble at the sculp-
tor's idea that the black man "put forth his

strength" and broke, or even assisted to break,
his fetters. But the "Freedman" was conceived
and modeled in a time of "stress and struggle,"
while the burial parties were gathering the dead
black soldiers from a half-dozen bloody battle
grounds, including Port Hudson and Fort Wag-
ner, and two hundred thousand more black men
were rallying beneath the Flag whose triumph they
hoped and believed would insure their freedom.
Mr. Ward and many others then living had
been witnesses of, and participants in, the agi-
tations and struggles, the sacrifices and martyr-
doms which had culminated in the war then rag-
ing, and which had prepared the way for the
Emancipation Proclamation. These men well
knew that in the struggles and even in the mar-
tyrdoms black men had borne conspicuous and
noble parts.

To John Quincy Adams Ward and the large-
hearted and appreciative men of that day it would
have seemed dissembling and mockery to have
spoken of merely "bestowing" freedom on the
quarter-million blacks who, at that very time, were
valiantly doing their share, willingly, even eagerly,
that a "government of the people, for the people,
and by the people should not perish from the
earth." It was not until a later time, as we shall
see, that men, including sculptors, could read into
Mr. Lincoln's Proclamation, or substitute in it,
such words as "charity" and "benevolence" where
Mr. Lincoln had said: "an act of justice and upon
military necessity."¹

But however we of this day may regard it, for
whatever reasons it may or may not appeal to us,
there is little doubt that in the heart-searching,
heart-rending time that it appeared, the general
public saw in this statuette chiefly what Jarves
saw: "A naked slave (who) has burst his shackles
and with uplifted face thanks God for freedom." It
is probable that the people of that day felt, as he
said, "It tells in one word the whole sad story
of slavery and the bright story of the Emanci-
pation."

To the people of that day to whom the sad
story of slavery and the fearful struggle for free-
dom were vivid, chastening experiences, this sin-
gle, simple statuette, almost wholly void of sug-
gestive accessories, may have sufficed to have
epitomized the story of emancipation so far as it
had unfolded itself. But we who have lived
through the fifty years that have passed since
that time, can now see that the emancipation that
was proclaimed in 1863 was but the beginning of
a long, wavering, and at times discouraging strug-
gle which is not yet ended.

But considering how admirable, suggestive, and
even prophetic Mr. Ward's "Freedman" was, we
may unreservedly admit its adequacy and suffici-
ency for its time. Yet, grateful as we are for
this noble and expressive work, in the light of
what has transpired since it was wrought, we have

¹Caffin, "American Masters of Sculpture," page 44.

¹Murray, "Emancipation and the Freed in American Sculpture," page 18.

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a right to ask and to expect that later and particularly present-day representations should be even more inclusive and expressive. It will be my endeavor to show, as well as I can, in the articles to follow, to what extent, if at all, this expectation has been realized.

I think we should not dismiss this eloquent statuette from consideration without recording the fact that for the artistic public, at least, it still has a strong appeal; and that, too, this appeal is

not due merely to technical excellences, but to its containment as well. A copy of it was on exhibition at the Panama-Pacific Exposition in 1915. Mr. J. Nilsen Laurvik, in his review (in the catalogue of the exposition) of the American sculpture there, makes note of it. With fine appreciation he says: "Few productions of contemporary art have been received as so fully expressing the fervor of a great national movement as the 'Freedman,' though it was never executed larger than a statuette."

NOTE: The last remaining copy of this statue in bronze was held by the Gorham Company of New York until a few months ago when it was disposed of in quite casually as "dead stock." Mr. Murray suggests that it could serve a more useful purpose if located and placed on public view in some such place as the Carnegie Library of Howard University in the National Capital.—The Editor.

By ALEXIS SERGIEWITCH PUSHKIN

By EDNA WORTHLEY UNDERWOOD

*(Continued from the March issue of OPPORTUNITY)*

AFTER about half an hour, the door opened again and Peter the Great came out. The three reverences to Royalty made by Prince Lykoff, by Tatiana Afanassjevna, and by Natascha he returned merely with some little nods of the head and walked vigorously across the room. The master of the house held out for him his red tulop and accompanied him as far as his sleigh, where again he thanked him for the great honor he had shown to him. Peter the Great drove away.

When Gavrilo Afanassjewitch came back into the room he seemed confused. In an irritable voice he commanded the servants to clear away the table just as speedily as possible, and then he commanded Natascha to go to her own chamber, and told, in haste, his sister and his father-in-law that he had an important subject which must be discussed with them in his sleeping-room, to which he was in the habit of retiring to rest a little after he had eaten.

The old Prince threw himself down upon the oak bed. Tatiana Afanassjevna sat down in her old easy chair, upholstered in worn silk, after first taking the precaution of procuring a little stool for her feet to rest upon.

Gavrilo Afanassjewitch closed the door. He took a seat upon the bed at the foot of Prince Lykoff. He began to speak in a low, restrained voice:

"Well, the Czar came to talk with me about something and about nothing. Try a guess at what it was all about."

"How do you expect us to know, brother?" replied Tatiana Afanassjevna.

"Is it possible that the Czar has made you a voyeovde?" questioned the father-in-law. "He should have done that long ago. Or has he perhaps made you an Ambassador? Now for that

position they do not use wholly secretaries of state, but they send men of noble birth to the courts of foreign kings."

"No," was the reply, frowning as he spoke. "You know I belong to the men of the old time. Men like us, today, rulers are not using. Although a genuine Russian nobleman is worth more than all the cheap upstarts put together. But this is another question."

"Well, what did he talk about?" begged Tatiana Afanassjevna. "Why did it please His Majesty to remain so long with you? God protect us from evil!"

"It is not what you might call evil, but I must confess that the affair makes me thoughtful."

"Well, what is it? What is it, brother?"

"It's about Natascha. The Czar came to make a proposal for her hand."

"God be praised!" exclaimed Tatiana Afanassjevna, crossing herself. "The girl is old enough to marry, and as the maid is so must the bridegroom be too. God grant us love and wisdom. A great honor! But for whom has the Czar asked her?"

"Hm!" grunted Gavrilo Afanassjewitch. "For whom? That's the question—for whom?"

"Who could it be?" repeated Prince Lykoff, who had begun to doze off a little.

"You just guess once," answered Gavrilo Afanassjewitch.

"My God! dear brother," broke in the old lady, "how could you expect us to guess? As if there were not a multitude of marriageable men at court! Any of them would jump at the chance to marry your Natascha. Tell me, is it Dolgoruki?"

"No, it is not Dolgoruki."

"Well, God be good to him. I call him too haughty! It is Schein? Or is it Troiekoorov?"

"It is neither the one nor the other."

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"Well, I do not like either one of them particularly well. They are too reckless; they have caught too much of the German spirit. Well, then, perhaps it is Milaslavski?"

"No, he is not the one."

"Cut him out then. He is stupid, but he is rich. Well, then, who is it? Yeletzki? Lvoof? Or maybe it is Ragusinski? If it isn't, I can't think of another soul. . . . Now you tell us who it is the Czar wants Natascha to marry."

"His adopted son, the Negro Ibrahim."

The old woman clapped her hands and screamed. Prince Lykoff, in astonishment, lifted his head from the cushion.

"He wants her for Ibrahim?"

"Dear brother," said the old woman, "I don't think it would be wise."

"Well, what do you expect me to do?" questioned Gavrilo Afanassjewitch. "I cannot refuse the Czar. In return, he promises me great favors for all my race."

"How?" interrupted the old Prince, who was quite awake by now.

"Ibrahim is not, as you know, a man of humble birth," explained Gavrilo Afanassjewitch. "He is the son of a Sultan. The heathens took him captive and sold him as a slave in Constantinople. There our Russian Ambassador bought him and sent him as a present to Peter the Great. His oldest brother then came to Russia with a great sum of gold to buy him back."

"We all know about that old fable."

"Dear Brother Gavrilo Afanassjewitch!" exclaimed the old lady, "instead of that, why did you not tell us what answer you gave the Czar?"

"I told him that we were in his power, and that we were his serfs, and that in all things we would obey his word."

Just at that moment a slight rustling was heard behind the door. Gavrilo Afanassjewitch made an attempt to open it, but found that something hindered him. He pushed against it; the door yielded at length and he saw Natascha on the floor behind the door.

Her heart had warned her about the nature of the message which the Czar had given to her father. When she heard her father's last words she fainted and fell, hitting her head as she did so.

The servants came running in. They lifted Natascha and bore her to her room. After a few minutes she opened her eyes but the injury to her head as she fell had been sufficient to keep her from recognizing her father or her aunt. Then a violent fever set in, and in her delirium she called continually: "Valerian! My dear Valerian! There they come!"

Tatiana Afanassjevna looked at her brother sadly. He was pale and left the room in silence. He went back to the old Prince who had remained below because he was unable to climb the stairs.

"What Valerian is she talking about?" asked the old man in a worried voice. "Could it possibly be that orphan, the son of our political enemy, whom you brought up in our house?"

"The very one . . . unfortunately," answered Gavrilo Afanassjewitch. "During the uprising his father saved my life, and it must have been the devil who inspired me to take that accursed little wolf of his into my home. When about two years ago, on his request, I put him into the army, Natascha wept and wept, and he too was deeply affected. It seemed to me suspicious at the time and I spoke of the occurrence with my sister, but since that day Natascha has not once mentioned his name. And we had never had a word from him. I supposed, of course, that she had forgotten him, but that does not seem to be the case. However, it is decided now that she marry Ibrahim."

Prince Lykoff did not contradict him because it would have been useless to do so. He got up and went home. Tatiana Afanassjevna remained in Natascha's room.

This sudden and unexpected decision was just as great a blow to Ibrahim as it had been to Gavrilo Afanassjewitch. He was informed in this way.

Peter the Great and Ibrahim were working together in their study, as usual, when the Czar turned to him abruptly:

"Sometimes, my son, it seems that you are sad and cast down. Tell me what it is that goes wrong with you."

Ibrahim hastened to assure him that he was perfectly satisfied with his lot in life.

"Good!" exclaimed the Czar. "If your head hangs like that when you haven't any cause, I know just what will make you merry."

When the work was finished, which they were doing, Peter the Great asked Ibrahim:

"Do you like that young girl with whom you danced the minuet the other night?"

"She is very charming, Majesty. She is modest and sweet."

"Would you like to marry her? If so, I will see to it that you meet her often."

"I, Majesty?"

"Listen to me, Ibrahim. You are all alone in the world. You have neither relatives nor native land. I am the only one here who is not a stranger to you. If I should die today, what would become of you, my poor fellow? You must find a home for yourself, and now, while the time is propitious for you to do it. You must form new family relation here and be married into the old Russian nobility so that you will have the support of strong family alliances."

"Majesty, I am happy under your protection and happy that I possess your protection. God grant that I should not be permitted to outlive you. That is really the only thing I wish. But if it were a question of marrying, would that

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young girl and her family like me? My external appearance—”

"Your external appearance? What madness! What is wrong with your external appearance, I should like to know? It is a young girl's business to do what she is told to, and as for her father, what can he say when he finds that I am the one who makes the proposal?"

The Czar ordered his sleigh. He went out and left Ibrahim to his thoughts.

"Marry!" thought the African. "Why should I not? Why should I be condemned to spend my life in loneliness? Why should it not be granted to me, the noblest joys and the holiest duties of humanity? Why should these pleasures be denied to me merely because I happen to be born in a tropical land? Of course, I cannot hope that anyone will love me, but that would be a childish reason. And then, can any reasonable person believe in love? Can love exist in the light and frivolous heart of a woman? Since I have renounced forever such intoxicating delusions I have devoted myself, with strength of will, to affairs of importance. The Czar is right. I must think of the future. If I marry this young girl I shall be united with the proud old Russian nobility and no longer be an alien in my adopted land. I shall not expect her to love me; I shall feel sufficiently repaid if she is faithful to me, and I shall be able to purchase her friendship at least through constant kindness, devotion, and honorable living."

Ibrahim felt it was now his duty to set at his work again, but his imagination was so aroused he could not do it. He left the papers lying where they were and went out to take a walk along the bank of the Neva. Soon he heard the voice of Peter the Great ring out. He turned around swiftly and saw the Czar, whose face looked very merry, get out of his sleigh and walk toward him.

"It is all settled, my dear son," declared Peter, grasping his hand. "I made the proposal for you myself. Tomorrow you will go to make a call on your prospective father-in-law. But you mustn't forget to flatter his old-fashioned Russian pride. Get out of your sleigh at the gate, then proceed across the courtyard on foot, talk to him about his merits, his celebrated name, and family. That will delight him. And now," twirling his cane, "go with me to see that wretch Danilowitch. I've got a bone to pick with him because of his last escapade."

Ibrahim thanked Peter for his fatherly goodness and care of him, accompanied him as far as the resplendent palace of Prince Menshikov, and then he turned around and went back home.

The flame flickered dimly in front of the shrine in which were the gold and silver decorating the icons. The trembling light illuminated dimly the bed with its curtained hangings and the little table beside it, upon which various medications were set out.

Near the stove a serving maid sat by a spinning-wheel, and a soft murmur was the only sound that disturbed the silence.

"Who is there?"

The maid got up, came over to the bed and lifted the hangings.

"How long before daylight?" inquired Natascha.

"It is past noon now," replied the maid.

"But, then, why is it so dark?"

"The window shutters are closed, gracious lady."

"Help me to dress quickly!"

"No, that's forbidden, gracious lady."

"How long have I been ill?"

"Fourteen days."

"Is that possible? I thought it was only since yesterday."

Natascha was silent. She was trying to assemble her scattered thoughts. Something had happened but she was unable to remember just what it was. The maid stood in front of the bed awaiting her command. Just then downstairs a low rumbling noise was heard.

"What is that?" asked Natascha.

"The gentlemen have just finished dining," replied the maid. "They are getting up from the table."

This piece of news made Natascha happy. She made a little gesture. The maid dropped the bed curtain and went back to the spinning wheel.

A few moments later a head covered with a huge white hood, decorated with long black ribbon, poked through the door and a loud whisper was heard.

"How's Natascha?"

"Good day to you, dear little aunt!" said Natascha, while Tatiana Afanassjevna was hurrying to the bed.

"The gracious lady is better," explained the maid, shoving the chair toward the bed as she spoke. The old lady kissed her niece and sat down. Thereupon a German doctor came in. He wore a long black coat and a powdered wig. First he felt Natascha's pulse and then he announced first in Latin and next in Russian, that she was on the road to health. He asked for paper and ink, wrote out a prescription and left.

The old lady kissed Natascha once more and hurried downstairs to tell the joyous news to Gavrilo Afanassjewitch.

In the drawing room downstairs the Negro of Peter the Great, in full uniform, his sword fastened to his side, but holding his hat in his hand, was conversing with Gavrilo Afanassjewitch. The young Frenchman, K—, was wiggling about upon the wide soft sofa and without seeming to was listening to the conversation and playing with an old hunting dog. When he got tired of this occupation he walked over toward a mirror, usually the last resort of a vain idler like himself. And in this mirror he saw reflected Tatiana Afanassjevna, as she peered in the door and made a little gesture to her brother, which her brother, however, did not understand.

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"Someone's calling you, Gavrilo Afanassjewitch," declared young K—, turning toward them and interrupting Ibrahim, who was speaking.

Gavrilo Afanassjewitch got up, went out to his sister and closed the door behind him.

"I admire your patience," said young K— to Ibrahim. "For hours you have been listening to the foolish chatter about the great age of the Lykoff family and the Rschevski family, and then you add to what has been said your learned observations. In your place j'aurais plante la that old wind bag—and the rest of the family with him. And I wouldn't have excepted Natascha Gavrilovna, who hasn't an atom of sense of how she ought to dress and who is playing that she is ill. Now tell me right out and be honest. Are you really in love with that little mijauree?"

"No," replied Ibrahim. "I am not marrying for love, but for certain considerations for my future, and because the girl doesn't seem to cherish any dislike for me."

"Now listen to me, Ibrahim," said the young Frenchman, "and take my advice this once. I really have a good deal more sense than anybody thinks I have. Give up all this foolishness. Do not marry. It seems to me that these future relatives have no particular liking for you. Now do you not think that very strange things happen in this world? Call to your mind that old Parisian friend of ours, Countess L—! With your fiery, melancholy, suspicious nature, and with the fact that you were born in a tropical country, why do you insist upon running into all the dangers of matrimony?"

"I am grateful to you for your kind and thoughtful advice," interrupted Ibrahim. "You've heard the proverb, haven't you? 'It is not your duty to rock other people's children to sleep.'"

"Be careful, Ibrahim," laughed the Frenchman, "that you do not do it."

In the next room a lively conversation was going on.

"I do not think it wise to take him into the room now," said the old lady.

"But consider," argued the determined brother, "in fourteen days the wedding will take place and he will not have seen his bride. What would the Czar say to that? The Czar has already sent his messengers here three times. Whatever happens, I cannot afford to offend him."

"Well, then, let me go to her room and prepare her for his coming."

Gavrilo Afanassjewitch was satisfied with this reply and went back to his two guests in the drawing room.

"God be thanked!" he remarked to Ibrahim, "all danger is over."

K— expressed to Gavrilo Afanassjewitch his hope for a speedy recovery. Then he begged to pay no more attention to him, that he must go away at once, and hastened to the outer hall without waiting for his host to accompany him.

In the meantime Tatiana Afanassjevna hurried upstairs to announce the approaching visit to her niece. She went into the room, sat down on the bed, breathing heavily from the effort of climbing the stairs, and took Natascha by the hand. Before, however, they could find time to speak the door opened.

"Who is there?" inquired Natascha.

The old lady was startled. Gavrilo Afanassjewitch pulled the curtain, looked down upon his daughter and asked her how she felt. Natascha tried to smile. Just at this moment it seemed to her that another person was standing at the end of the bed. She looked up and recognized Ibrahim, the adopted son of the Czar. But the next time she looked up she did not see anyone standing there, and she sent the waiting maid to bring her old nurse.

The form of a little old woman, who was as round as a cannon ball, rolled in and paused in front of the bed. Lastotschka, which was the name of the nurse, had followed Gavrilo Afanassjewitch and Ibrahim up the stairs as rapidly as it was possible for her short legs, and—impelled by curiosity—she had hidden behind the door. As soon as Natascha saw her she sent the maid away and beckoned the old woman to bring a stool and sit by her bed.

Never before was so much energy confined in one small body. She poked her nose into everything. She knew everything that was going on, and she always had advice to give. Through her sly and insinuating way she had succeeded in winning the love and the hatred of the entire household over which she ruled. Even Gavrilo Afanassjewitch listened to her advice, her complaints, and her requests. Tatiana Afanassjevna asked her advice every other minute and was guided by her opinion; and Natascha, who was endlessly devoted to her, confided to her all the secrets of her youthful heart.

"Lastotschka, did you know that my father has promised me to Ibrahim, the adopted son of the Czar?"

The old woman's wrinkled face became more wrinkled.

"Can my father, nurse, be forced to change his mind?"

The old woman shook her head.

"Will not my grandfather and my aunt save me from this distasteful marriage?"

"No, my gracious little lady. While you have been ill Ibrahim has bewitched them all. The barin has really lost his head. The Prince is crazy over him. I am sorry, of course, that he is a Negro, because a better man you could not find in the whole world. If it is your fate to marry him, then you will marry him. You know customs are not as they were in the old days; husbands can no longer shut their wives in the women's apartment in the terem. I hear that he is very rich; life for you will be like a full cup; you will be happy and live merrily."

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OPPORTUNITY

During the summer of 1923, through the General Education Board of the Rockefeller Foundation, an appropriation of $88,000 was made for the purpose of making extensive alterations and repairs on Hubbard Hospital and for the building of another story. This addition houses two operating rooms, a sterilizing room, two anesthetizing rooms, the Obstetrical Department, a delivery room, the Infant Department, and 16 semi-private rooms. An elevator and an electric signalling system have been installed.

Miss Hulda Lyttle, a graduate of Hubbard Hospital, who has also had extensive post-graduate work in other hospitals, has been appointed Superintendent, replacing Dr. Paul H. Dietrich. The Medical Director is Dr. William A. Beck, a graduate of Meharry. Other recent appointees are Mrs. Margaret Bright, a graduate of the John Andrew Memorial Hospital in Tuskegee, Ala., to

the Nurse Training Department. Dr. Sewall Freeman and Dr. D. F. Johnson, both graduates of Meharry, to the Dental Department, and Prof. George Clark and Dr. F. D. Inge, graduates of the University of Minnesota, to the Pharmacy Department.

Meharry Medical College represents the best in Negro education. There is a splendid spirit of cooperation between the members of the profession represented at Meharry in the city of Nashville, and between the members of the Dental Faculty of Vanderbilt University and Meharry Medical College, six of whom teach the same subjects in both institutions and are as vitally interested in the success of the teaching at one institution as at the other. Truly Meharry Medical College is a concrete example of what cooperation and good will between the races can do.

## National Urban League's Industrial Program

THE PLAN of the National Urban League to establish a National Industrial Program, as presented by Eugene Kinckle Jones, Executive Secretary, in the summary of the Report of the National Urban League for the year 1923, in the March issue of *OPPORTUNITY*, has been given decided encouragement by an offer of Mr. John D. Rockefeller, Jr., to furnish each year for three years one half of the total annual budget of $9,000 or $4,500, on condition that the balance of the budget is raised. Sixteen hundred dollars per year of the balance for three years has been pledged. This leaves $2,900 per year to be raised. When this is pledged, the League will immediately inaugurate its program which is given below to refresh our readers' minds:

1. To standardize and coordinate the local employment agencies of the League so that exchange of information and more regular correspondence between them can assure applicants for work more efficient and helpful service and employers of labor a more efficient group of employees;

2. To work directly with large industrial plants both in cities where the League is established

and the communities removed from such centers to procure larger opportunity for work and for advancement on the job for Negro workers and to stimulate Negro workers to a fresh determination to "make good" on the job so that their future in industry may be assured;

3. To help through available channels of information to ascertain points at which there is need of Negro labor and points at which there is an oversupply of Negro labor and to use existing agencies of publicity and placement to direct Negro labor, including migrants, to those points where they are most needed and where their families will most easily become adjusted.

The League will be pleased to acknowledge with grateful thanks further contributions towards this much needed activity. Now is the best time to start this work as the spring will see large numbers of migrants moving from the country to the city and from southern communities to northern cities in search of larger industrial opportunity and in answer to the demands of our growing industries.

ON TUESDAY evening, May 6, the Utopia Neighborhood Club of New York City will hold its Tenth Annual Fashion Show at Madison Square Garden. A Fabric's Revue, comprising 75 colored people, will be staged by Mrs. Daisy C. Reed, the president of the club, and there will be 50 mannikins. The aim of the club is to establish in Harlem a child-helping and recreation center for colored children whose mothers work away from home. The Harlem Child Welfare Committee has voted to turn over to the organization all the money in its treasury, $10,434.75, for this purpose. A contract has been signed for the purchase of a house, costing $15,500, at 170 West 130th Street. The sum of $25,000 is needed for renovation, equipment, and the maintenance of this work, and it is hoped that a large part of this fund will be raised through the Fashion Show. The general admission will be $1.00; reserved seats, $1.50. Tickets may be purchased through OPPORTUNITY.

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INTER-RACIAL FORUM

Compiled by MADELINE G. ALLISON

FROM the Memphis, Tenn., Commercial Appeal: "When the people of a commonwealth bring themselves into conformity with the law and lend their efforts to the full and impartial enforcement of all laws, they take the all-important step toward securing for themselves the benefits which civilized government seeks to bestow."

The New York Post: "There is no Negro problem today because the progress of the Negro in education, business, and religion has shown possibilities. If treated as others, he will be an asset as a useful, law abiding citizen."

In the Duluth, Minn., Herald: "Let there be a rebirth of justice. Consider that movements of masses of people always have a profound significance; that there is always a reason."

James Weldon Johnson in the New York World: "Hardly any human being but will respond with enthusiasm to an opportunity to give of his best. But tell him what he must and must not be, and you produce social and individual death. The very program the 'Anglo-Saxon Clubs' are urging already is in force in one section of our country and that section—the South— is the most backward section, culturally, of the Nation."

The Holyoke, Mass., Transcript: "I recognize only the supremacy of the law, and the equality of every man before the bar of justice."

Heywood Broun in the Buffalo, N. Y. Courier: "Roland Hayes sang of Jesus, and it seemed to me that this was what religion ought to be. It was a mood instead of a creed, an emotion rather than a doctrine. There was nothing to define and nothing to argue about. Each person took what he liked and felt whatever he had to feel, and so there was no heresy. And as for miracles, music itself is a miracle."

"For that matter, I saw a miracle in Town Hall. Half of the people who heard Hayes were black and half were white and while the mood of the song held they were all the same. They shared together the close silence. One motion wrapped them. And at the end it was a single sob."

From the Pittsburgh, Pa., Chronicle Telegram: "A citizenship such as ours does well to take thought of its varied make-up and to realize the immensity of the task of coordinating its various elements into a harmonious whole."

In the Tacoma, Wash., News Tribune: "It is not so certain that they always benefit themselves by their migration. 'Jim Crow' cars may be left behind, but not racial prejudice. When opportunities of one sort are gained, others are lost. But the Negroes have succeeded in arousing more interest in their problem and more intelligent study of it, which should ultimately be fruitful of good results."

Emmett J. Scott in an address in New York: "A tribute to the Negro to which I always like to refer with great satisfaction is the fact that of all the groups represented in our American citizenry, it was from the Negro group that selection was made of a military guard for the nation's capital when war was declared by the Congress of the United States in 1917."

A French girl in the Boston, Mass., Telegram: "I see that a number of the readers of your paper attach unusual importance to a play because a white girl is required to kiss a colored fellow in her role. . . . I am quite sure that Sara Bernhardt or any of our great living actresses would not hesitate to kiss a colored man in a role requiring it. The theatre is a place of art, and should portray that which is the truth."

In "Nature and Human Nature," by Alexander: "In a true democracy all the citizens are, as it were, naturalized through the discovery of the ideal citizen."

The Journal of Applied Sociology: "The decrease in the number of lynchings in the United States from 53 in 1922 to 28 in 1923 is a hopeful sign that racial attitudes are becoming saner."

Thomas H. Rossbottom in Forbes: "Whenever, in speechifying, I touched on the Negro question, the burden of my argument was: 'Nothing is ever settled until it is settled right.'"

Professor Kelly Miller in the Elizabeth, N. J., Journal; "It is a most unfortunate situation that any man who is doing his best as a neighbor, worker, and citizen should be handicapped by his color. . . . It is unfortunate, in other words, that race prejudices should prevent any American citizen looking deeper than the skin color of his fellow citizen. The manhood that is below the skin, after all, is the thing that counts in any man, black or white."

APRIL, 1924

OPPORTUNITY

125

# POT POURRI

## A COMMENDATION

PREJUDICE against the colored man has recently had a considerable stiffening in many localities, the effect being worth comment. The colored man has some reason for believing that the world dominated by the white race is against him. He could react in one of two ways against this conviction, one being to "lay down" and quit, concluding that the odds were too great against him and it was not worth while. The other is to brace himself, concluding that there is nothing for it but to make headway on his own, to make better use of all his opportunities and win out by sheer determination and effort.

There are responsible reports that the colored race is taking the second course. Here in Topeka we have some evidence of it which agrees with what is reported in other parts of the country. Recently the superintendent of schools made a report of school records and grades, and from this report it seems that what is known as the "median line" is not greatly different among our colored pupils than in the rest of the schools. This means that colored people on the whole are taking their work seriously and, as a matter of fact, this is what the teachers report.

Similar reports come from other schools. Recently it would appear that colored grades are better than they had been. Moreover, teachers in some places say that the difference is marked in the last 18 months or so, indicating a more serious intention and purpose on the part of pupils in the schools, and that they find a quick response also from parents.

This is all to the credit of the colored race. It is a proof of its ability to stand up against disadvantages and against unfair prejudice, or even against a desire to see it go down instead of up. The more the colored race falls back upon its own powers and resources, the greater the development of all its qualities. All that is heard of it in this respect in the last year and more is worthy of commendation, and a rebuke to propagandists of race hatred.

Topeka, Kan., CAPITAL.

## "WHY SHOULDN'T ALL MEN BE FREE?"

Out in Warren County, New Jersey, the wooded hills rise high above the surrounding country. Their long lines look down on winding brooks and widespread fields. There is a sense a spaciousness and freedom that does the soul good. Not far away the Delaware Water Gap lifts its impossible heights towards the sky. Many a morning, Benjamin Lundy, the Quaker boy, looked off at the woods and hills of Warren County, and unconsciously drank in their influence. He was nineteen when he went to the flat country of Ohio and settled down to earn his living by working in leather. This was in 1808.

"Not much like Warren County," said Benjamin Lundy to himself, as he looked at a group of Negroes whom he saw herded together like cattle in the possession of a slave-trader who was passing through the town where he lived. The more the New Jersey Quaker looked at the slaves, the more there stirred in him a desire to give freedom to every human being. "They ought to be treated decently!" he said at first. Then after a time, "Why shouldn't all men be free?"

As the years went on, Benjamin Lundy talked more and more about the slave traffic. He was so very much in earnest that he interested many of his friends.

Out of his hard work in leather he had saved a small sum of money. He began to spend this money in the furthering of organizations to help the Negroes. Then he began to go farther from home to see what he could do to give all people, black and white, the same breath of freedom. "Say, Ben," urged a friend, "what's going to become of your business? You'll lose all your customers. Drop this 'nigger' business." "No," said Lundy, as he shut his lips tightly, "this is a bigger business than leather; this is human hide we are dealing in—and I am going to do what I can to end this business, even if it ends my business." It did end his business and he became practically a poor man again. It nearly ended his life, for a man one day sprang upon him and beat him down because of his views. He kept on, restlessly going up and down the land, preaching freedom and trying to do something to make the condition of the Negroes happier. He went down to the West Indies, to see if he could find an island where all the Negroes might go; he went up into the forests of Canada, to see if there he could find a refuge for the slaves; he travelled in the deserts of Mexico on the same errand. He did an immense amount of good and died in 1839 at the age of 50. His dream was not realized, but surely Benjamin Lundy, if anyone, heard the words, "As ye have done it unto the least of these."

Knoxville, Tenn., SENTINEL.

## THE SANHEDRIN

Taking their name from the Sanhedrin called by Napoleon to eliminate the friction between Jew and Gentile in his domains, this "Negro Sanhedrin" is seeking to solve some of the problems confronting their race in the United States.

In so doing, the conferees will find themselves confronted by the ineradicable question of race consciousness. The social segregation of which so many Negroes complain finds a similar biological expression among the whites in the waves of nationalities which sweep past the relatively fixed social settlements of a great city.

One year the neighborhood will be Irish; a few years later it may be German or Slovakian. Then come, say, the Italians, and the earlier element be-

126

OPPORTUNITY

APRIL, 1924

takes itself to another district. Later another racial strain may take possession. The shift is without expressed consciousness of the friction in habits and customs of the two groups, but the feeling is there nevertheless. It is one of those factors which make for a weakened civic structure and, however regrettable, is familiar to every social worker in any American city with a mixed population.

Because the racial differences are greater, the line of demarcation is the more sharply drawn in the case of the Negro. That it has resulted in many injustices, no man will deny. That most of these injustices can be righted by a sane cooperation between the groups is equally apparent.

And it was in this spirit that the 1924 Sanhedrin met. To quote from the call sent out by Prof. Kelly Miller of Howard University, Washington:

"The spirit of the conference must be sane, temperate, and determined. It must avoid the fatuous extremes of idle boasting and cowardly surrender. . . . All our policies must be patriotic and considerate of the whole equation of which we constitute but a minor factor. We can surrender no rights, inalienable or conferred. But we must measure our power against the task imposed. We must know where the task exceeds our strength. We must avoid the folly of defying the facts of the universe and of shaking the fist of defiance at forces we cannot combat."

Conferences in this nature and in this spirit will do much towards the successful solution of a situation which has been with us from the early colonial days.

Chicago, Ill., POST.

## INTER-RACIAL COOPERATION

"To displace apathy and bias with a sincere and sympathetic interest between the different races" is the ideal prominent teachers and professors of sociology in Texas colleges hold up to the people of this state, in a set of resolutions adopted recently at a meeting in Austin, under the auspices of the Texas Commission on Racial Cooperation.

It is a worthy ideal, and the colleges can do much to bring about its realization through the encouragement of study by college students of the race question. Here in Texas we need to give intelligent and sympathetic consideration to the problem, because there are residing in this state permanently a number of races other than the Caucasian, and our social, cultural, and commercial life, and our political institutions will prosper in the degree that there is cooperation rather than strife between the members of the several groups.

The study proposed by the sociologists of Texas has a direct bearing on the maintenance and development of our democracy. It is vital that we avoid the strife that marks the life of many European States inhabited by two or more racial groups. A fundamental trouble with Europe today is that

so many of her people have not accepted the principle that all men are born free and equal, and that equal rights to all and special privilege to none is the only enduring foundation for enlightened government.

Between some of the races represented in the state there is neither necessity nor desire for social amalgamation or assimilation by the dominant race. Social equality between the white people and the Negro people, for instance, is not one of the goals of the movement for cooperation. It is not desired by the better element in both races. Each are served by maintaining their racial purity.

But a concurrent development of each of these races, and representatives of other non-Caucasian or mixed races, is possible, if the proper spirit toward each other be exhibited. To inculcate that spirit in individuals, it is essential that they understand races other than their own. Education along that line will enlarge sympathetic interest and soften prejudices.

There is room enough and resources enough here for the people of all races to prosper materially and to enjoy the blessings of their own homes, and there are facilities for giving each group the cultural and spiritual advantages that make for happiness and advancement. In obedience to the laws of nature, it is imperative that some of these races move in separate spheres, as regards some phases of their life, but all are concerned with the general welfare, and there should be established points of contact which will enable all groups to cooperate in all those larger affairs that affect the whole people of the state and nation.

With a unity of purpose and a broad sympathy characterizing each of the groups, the danger of inter-racial friction is minimized, and peace and progress extend their benefits to all.

In the days when Rome's sway was far-flung, men of many colors and many customs boasted of their Roman citizenship. Our great goal in this country is to implant in the breasts of all inhabitants a pride in American citizenship and mutual respect for all Americans, regardless of racial origins or characteristics.

Houston, Tex., POST.

## IN THE SOUTH

"Experience is a dear school," said Franklin, "but fools will learn in no other." It would appear from the statistics on lynchings in the South that southern Negroes do not approve of the custom. Offered an economic opportunity to get away from the danger zone, they accepted it with alacrity. The year 1923 marked two social phenomena: the northerly migration of the Negro and the cutting in half of the number of lynchings.

When the colored man left the South in great numbers, the Southerner awakened to the economic asset he was driving away. It is an old axiom, that one may catch more flies with sugar than with vinegar. The South cannot have the immensely valuable cooperation of the Negro and

APRIL, 1924

OPPORTUNITY

127

lynch him. If it is true that many of the mi-
grants are drifting back to their old homes and
haunts, the new appreciation of the economic
value of the Negro to the South has something to
do with it.

In contrast to the 57 lynchings of 1922, the 28 of 1923 looks encouraging. Whether this improvement is to be permanent remains to be seen. It is also encouraging to learn that various southern communities brought to trial 52 persons charged with being members of lynching parties. There were also 46 instances in which lynching parties were balked in their designs. This shows a changed attitude on the part of public officials.

Public opinion has apparently shifted suffici-
ently in southern states to give the Negro ac-
cused of crime a better chance before the law than
he has had in many a year. A good bit of credit
for this change should be given to Tuskegee
Institute from which have regularly come detailed
statistics on this social evil, carefully analyzed and
presented to the press of the country without
bitterness.

If the decrease in lynchings for 1924 should
prove as large as the decrease of 1923, the whole
hideous business will have been wiped out. This
is not too much to hope for.

Bridgeport, Conn., POST.

ON A PULLMAN SMOKER

Diva Nicotine began singing her siren evening
song, and responding, as is my custom, I filled my
pipe with a view to seeking the smoker. As I ap-
proached the racial sixth sense, that in these degen-
erated days of race problems has grown in acuteness,
told me that the bed-time subject was the ubiquit-
ous Negro. The porter emerged from the smoking
section with a satisfied smile on his face, that
indicated an unusual tip or something its equivalent
in pleasure-rendering attributes. Surely the porter
had heard something pleasant, for he was humming
the "Banana" classic like no wave of trouble
crossed his peaceful breast.

In the smoker, a typical group of travelers gathered under the tobacco cloud—a minister, two lawyers and two commercial business men. One of them, evidently a prosperous trade scout, was taking his turn at the skein of the discussion.

"You are right," he was saying, addressing him-
self to the minister, "if heaven is to be populated
entirely by white people, the housing situation will
not be as perplexing as it is in Detroit; and I
imagine if it is otherwise, segregation will hardly
comply with the brotherhood of man.

"But there is another slant that I have been brought to observe in a costly manner. The Negro is beginning to assert himself in a financial and a commercial way until he demands consideration. I have just returned from Brazil. My company sent me down to dicker with some parties in Rio de Janeiro, who are in the market for 100,000 tons of cement. I met the engineers and managers, gave them $10,000 worth of entertainment in banquets, theatre parties and other favors, and was getting along swimmingly.

"One night after I had permitted the chief engi-
neer to show me three deuces after he had appar-
ently bluffed my three tens, and saw him rake in
about $900 of the company's money in one pot, I
took him to my hotel and he whispered to me that
my bid F. O. B. at Philadelphia would be accepted
if I reduced it $50,000, which would bring my firm
just below the lowest London offer. I cabled my
sales chief and he shot back the terse answer: 'Take
him.'

"Well, sir, from that minute business picked up. I took the engineer and his friends on a fishing excursion—gone two days—servants—liquor and everything. One trip cost me (consulting his expense account) $1,268.53. The engineer told me that it only remained for the president of his company to return from Europe to okay the specifications and I would get the contract. Consequently I was walking on the clouds.

"Finally the president came and the engineer made an engagement for me. I went up to the offices in a modern building and after waiting a while was ushered into the private room of the president of the construction company. I saw a portly looking colored man seated at a large mahogany table. My first and fatal impression was that he was a servant. He was so dark, so very dark that a 1000-candle power incandescent would not light his features. I had learned in my zeal for the contract to be polite to everybody, so, I was polite to him in a genial American way.

"'Good morning, George,' I said in accosting him, 'nice day, ain't it? Take this five dollars and be careful, George, you black rascal! Don't you buy no automobile! Is Senor Jonneli, the president, in?'

"The black man rose gracefully and before I
knew it, he was caressing my neck with hands far
from gentle and I found myself in the ante-room
with an aching point where my trousers join."

"Did you get the contract?" asked the minister.

"No, doctor, I got hell! That Negro was the president of the company."

LINCOLN SERVICE, Washington, D. C.

Who's Who

Joseph A. Hill is Assistant to the Director of the
Census.

Alain Locke is a Professor of Social Philosophy at
Howard University.

Freeman H. M. Murray is the author of "Emanci-
pation and the Freed in American Sculpture."

Eulalia Osby Proctor is City Editor of the Indianapolis
Freeman.

Eunice Roberta Hunton is a Smith College graduate
and a teacher in the New York public schools.

Angelina W. Grimke is a poet and short story writer.

James Light is Stage Director of the Provincetown
Players.

E. A. Carter is Executive Secretary of the St. Paul
Urban League.

128

OPPORTUNITY

APRIL, 1924

BULLETIN BOARD

Harry T. Burleigh, the widely known colored com-
poser of Negro spirituals and other works, has been a
member of the choir of St. George's Church, in New
York City, for thirty years. At a Special Musical Service
on Sunday, March 30, at 4 o'clock, the choir will sing
some of his compositions in recognition of this event.

Eugene O'Neill's play, "All God's Chillun Got Wings,"
is rehearsing at the Provincetown Playhouse, in New
York City, and will be presented as the fourth bill of the
subscription season, with a cast which includes: Paul L.
Robeson, Dora Cole Norman, Hattie Green, Francis
Wilson, Mary Blair, Charles Ellis, and James Martin.
Mr. Robeson, who will play opposite the white heroine
as her husband, is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of
Rutgers College, a graduate of the Law School of Co-
lumbia University, and a member of one of Walter
Camp's all-American football teams. Originally destined
for the third bill, the play will rehearse longer, in or-
der to secure the best possible production, and will open
the latter part of April or early in May.

After successive rejections the Senate has confirmed,
by a 39-38 vote, the appointment of Walter L. Cohen,
Republican Negro leader of New Orleans, La., as
Comptroller of Customs at New Orleans.

A School of Community Recreation will be held in
Chicago, Ill., July 7-26. The faculty will include spe-
cialists in music, dramatics, athletics, playground man-
agement, and social recreation. The school is planned
to meet the needs of the experienced workers who de-
sire to know the latest developments in the community
recreation field; the younger workers who want to pre-
pare themselves for larger responsibilities; and those
who wish to enter the recreation field. Registrations
should be made in writing to Mr. Ernest T. Attwell,
Keystone Building, 501 South Sixteenth Street, Phila-
delphia, Pa.

On April 3 and 4, in Philadelphia, Pa., the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History will hold its Spring Conference. Among the subjects to be discussed are the Negro in Africa, the Latin-American of Color, the Migration in Its Historical Setting, Racial Crossings or Interbreeding, Labor Before the Civil War and During Reconstruction, the Free Negro Prior to Emancipation, Folk-lore, and the Development of the Church. The speakers will be L. Hollingsworth Wood, Charles S. Johnson, Dr. Melville J. Herskovits, Dr. Alain Locke, Prof. Charles H. Wesley, Dr. Robert T. Kerlin, A. A. Taylor, the Hon. Thomas E. Miller, Dr. R. C. Woods, and Miss Nannie H. Burroughs.

The World recently held a "Biggest News of the
Week" competition, in which Thelma E. Berlack, a col-
ored girl, won double honors. In the first place, out of
over 1800 entries Miss Berlack's article was chosen for
the monthly bonus of $50—"solely on merit"; and her
school, the Roosevelt High, won the weekly prize, 100
points, in the contest for the trophy.

The Foreign Study Committee of the Omega Psi Phi
Fraternity plans a $1000 scholarship, -"The Young
Scholarship for Foreign Study." The recipient must be
a graduate from an accredited college and one who has
shown extraordinary ability in some particular field of
study. The aim of this scholarship is to encourage ad-
vanced study and research; also to create a breadth of
vision in the recipient, and to better acquaint the
European with the American man of color.

Dr. J. R. Crossland, the colored appointee to the of-
ficial staff of the U. S. Veterans' Hospital in Tuskegee,
Ala., has resigned, it is stated, at the request of the

Director of the Bureau and on the ground that his ser-
ices "were no longer needed." Since the arrival of
Dr. Joseph H. Ward, a colored man of Indianapolis, as
Chief of the Surgical Department, the Veterans' Bu-
reau has ordered the white personnel to vacate their
quarters and move to the town of Tuskegee. This ac-
tion gives to the colored staff the quarters formerly occu-
pied by the white personnel.

President Coolidge has directed the War Department
to re-investigate the Houston riot of 1917, to see whether
clemency should be extended to the 54 colored soldiers
who are serving prison terms for participation in the
disorder. Recently a delegation representing the Na-
tional Association for the Advancement of Colored
People called upon the President and presented a pe-
tition with 120,000 signatures asking for pardon.

The New York Urban League has purchased two build-
ings, at 202-204 West 136th Street, as its permanent head-
quarters. This is a definite step in the League's program
of coordinating the various welfare agencies working in
the Harlem district, where there is a population of about
150,000 Negroes. Housed in these buildings, also, are
the New York Tuberculosis Association with three work-
ers, and the Henry Street Visiting Nurses' Association
with a staff of 21. Other agencies are to be invited to
establish offices.

During the month of December, a special financial cam-
paign was conducted and over $30,000 was raised for
the purchase of this property. Colored contributors
shared largely in this amount. In addition to this spe-
cial building fund the New York League exceeded its
budget, completing last year with a balance of about
$3,000.

The Universal Negro Improvement Association in
New York City recently held a mass-meeting at Madison
Square Garden, and 5,000 people were present. Marcus
Garvey, president of the organization, William Sher-
rill, vice-president, and John P. O'Brien, Surrogate
of New York County, were among the speakers. The
meeting opened with a parade led by officials of the
organization, followed by various units known as the
Legion, Royal Guards, Motor Corps, Black Cross
Nurses, Royal Engineers, and Juveniles. Mr. Garvey
said, in part: "All men should be free to work out
their own salvation, free to create their own des-
tinies, free to nationally build by themselves for the
upbringing and rearing of a culture and civilization
of their own."

STATEMENT OF THE OWNERSHIP, MANAGEMENT,
CIRCULATION, ETC., REQUIRED BY THE ACT OF
CONGRESS OF AUGUST 24, 1912

Of Opportunity, published monthly at New York, N. Y., for
April 1, 1924.

State of New York, County of New York, ss.

Before me, a Notary in and for the State and county afore-
said, personally appeared Paul G. Prayer, who, having been
duly sworn according to law, deposes and says that he is the
Business Manager of the Publication Opportunity and that the
following is, to the best of his knowledge and belief, a true
statement of the ownership, management, etc., of the aforesaid
publication for the date shown in the above caption, required by
the Act of August 24, 1912, embodied in section 443 Postal
Laws and Regulations, printed on the reverse of this form,
to wit:

1. That the names and addresses of the publisher, editor,
managing editor, and business managers are: Publisher, Dept.
of Research and Investigations of National Urban League;
Editor, Charles S. Johnson: Managing Editor, Charles S.
Johnson: Business Manager, Paul G. Prayer; 127 East 23rd
Street, New York City, N. Y.

2. That the owner is: not a stock corporation, The Official
Organ of a Social Service Organization, National Urban
League.
3. Exec. Sec., E. K. Jones.

3. That the known bondholders, mortgagees, and other se-
curity holders owning or holding 1 per cent or more of total
amount of bonds, mortgages, or other securities are: None.

Paul G. Prayer, Business Manager.

<table>
  <tbody>
    <tr>
      <td>THE NEGRO IN CHICAGO</td>
      <td>$4.00</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>Chicago Commission on Race Relations</td>
      <td></td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>THE BOOK OF AMERICAN NEGRO POETRY</td>
      <td>1.75</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>James Weldon Johnson</td>
      <td></td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>HARLEM SHADOWS</td>
      <td>1.35</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>Claude McKay</td>
      <td></td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>A SHORT HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN NEGRO</td>
      <td>2.00</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>YOUR NEGRO NEIGHBOR</td>
      <td>.75</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>A SOCIAL HISTORY OF THE NEGRO</td>
      <td>4.00</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>Benjamin Brawley</td>
      <td></td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>NEGRO POETS AND THEIR POEMS</td>
      <td>1.50</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>THE VOICE OF THE NEGRO</td>
      <td>2.50</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>Robert T. Kerlin</td>
      <td></td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>NIGGER-A NOVEL</td>
      <td>2.00</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>Clement Wood</td>
      <td></td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>THE NEGRO PRESS IN THE UNITED STATES</td>
      <td>3.00</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>Frederick Detweiler</td>
      <td></td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>DEMOCRACY AND RACE FRICTION</td>
      <td>2.00</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>J. M. Mecklin</td>
      <td></td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>THE NEGRO FACES AMERICA</td>
      <td>1.75</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>Herbert J. Seligmann</td>
      <td></td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>THE MIND IN THE MAKING</td>
      <td>2.50</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>James Harvey Robinson</td>
      <td></td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>HISTORY OF THE NEGRO CHURCH</td>
      <td>2.00</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>Carter G. Woodson</td>
      <td></td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>DARKWATER</td>
      <td>2.00</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>W. E. B. DuBois</td>
      <td></td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>DARKER PHASES OF THE SOUTH</td>
      <td>2.00</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>Frank Tannenbaum</td>
      <td></td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>VEILED ARISTOCRATS</td>
      <td>1.50</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>Gertrude Sanborn</td>
      <td></td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>AMERICAN CIVILIZATION AND THE NEGRO</td>
      <td>3.00</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>C. V. Roman</td>
      <td></td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>BURSTING BONDS</td>
      <td>1.50</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>William Pickens</td>
      <td></td>
    </tr>
  </tbody>
</table>

Take advantage of the exceptional
VACATION OPPORTUNITY
offered by the
SUMMER SESSION
of

HOWARD UNIVERSITY

Spend part of the summer enjoying both
the facilities of this unique institution
and a visit to

THE NATION'S CAPITAL

For full information address the
Registrar, Howard University
Washington, D. C.

"Books of this sort are fundamentally necessary for the understanding of the social questions of our day, and Mr. Tannenbaum is to be congratulated upon a fine achievement in the investigation of problems which have rarely been viewed before except through the mists of prejudice."—The Book Editor of the NEW YORK EVENING POST.

DARKER PHASES OF THE SOUTH
By Frank Tannenbaum

(FOR SALE AT ALL BOOKSELLERS)

"Darker Phases of the South" analyses im-
partially yet sympathetically various problems
centered about the South. Mr. Tannenbaum
is a skilled interpreter of group disorders.
His analysis, based upon personal investiga-
tion and observation, neither vilifies nor
justifies.

Already "Darker Phases of the South" has
met a reception among critics seldom rivaled
by any book of the past quarter century. It
is published by

G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS
2 West 45th Street New York City

THE NATIONAL URBAN LEAGUE

127 EAST 23rd STREET

NEW YORK CITY

A. S. FRISSELL, Treasurer

### Virginia Union University

RICHMOND, VIRGINIA

For full information address

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### Atlanta University

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### Howard University

WASHINGTON, D. C.

### Collegiate and Professional Schools

### REGISTRATION

Fall Quarter ...September 26 and 27, 1924

Winter Quarter ...January 3, 1925

Spring Quarter ...March 14, 1925

F. D. WILKINSON, Registrar

Howard University

Washington, D. C.

CHARLES S. JOHNSON, Editor

OPPORTUNITY

A JOURNAL OF NEGRO LIFE

NATIONAL URBAN LEAGUE

Telephone Gramercy 3978

WILLIAM H. BALDWIN
Secretary

A. S. FRISSELL
Treasurer

PAUL G. PRAYER, Bus. Mgr.

VOL. 2

MAY, 1924

No. 17

Contents

COVER. Ceremonial Mask—Ivory Coast
From the Barnes Foundation Collection.

FRONTISPIECE. "Fatuma."
By Walter von Ruckteschell

EDITORIALS

131

JUDGMENT AND EVIDENCE

CAPS, GOWNS AND FIERY CROSSES

RACIAL THEORY AND NEGRO
MORTALITY

DR. BARNES

ARTICLES

A NOTE ON AFRICAN ART
By Alain Locke
Illustrated

134

THE TEMPLE
By Albert C. Barnes
Illustrated

138

AFRICAN ART AT THE BARNES
FOUNDATION
By Paul Guillaume
Illustrated

140

AFRICA. A POEM
By Claude McKay

142

AFRICA. A POEM
By Lewis G. Alexander

142

OUR LAND. A POEM
By Langston Hughes

142

THE DEBUT OF THE YOUNGER
SCHOOL OF NEGRO WRITERS

143

THE YOUNGER GENERATION OF
NEGRO WRITERS
By Carl Van Doren

144

MAX RHEINHARDT READS THE
NEGRO'S DRAMATIC HOROSCOPE
By Alain Locke

145

NEGRO WOMEN IN SOUTH
CAROLINA INDUSTRIES

146

WALTER VON RUCKTESCHELL
By Louise Herrick Wall

147

OVER-AGE NEGRO CHILDREN
By Walter R. Chivers and
Mabel E. Bickford

149

DOWN MOBILE WAY
By Anna S. L. Brown
Illustrated.

151

INTER-RACIAL FORUM

155

POT POURRI

156

BULLETIN BOARD

158

CORRESPONDENCE

160

Single Copies, FIFTEEN CENTS—Yearly Subscription, ONE DOLLAR AND A HALF
Copyright 1923

OPPORTUNITY

VOL. 2

MAY, 1924

No. 17

EDITORIALS

*Judgment and Evidence*

The practice of building up a philosophy from one incident is dangerous, but it is a species of thinking commonly applied to that very acute question of the value of Negro labor to northern industries. The sentiment created or perpetuated, thus depends almost entirely upon the predisposition of the narrator. And by the very nature of that thing we call "news," the narrator with something uncomplimentary to say is the one who most frequently gets into print. Normality is not exciting. There have appeared in a Cleveland trade paper two articles discussing the question of this labor in such close succession that it is possible to check the observations of investigators against each other. They are discussing the same race of Negroes in the same city. The first, Mr. George T. Odell, says this:

> "... the negro temperament is extremely exasperating to the industrial superintendent who prides himself on the efficiency of his department."

The second, Mr. John B. Abell, says this:

> "Twelve foundries, or plants primarily engaged in foundry work, report that from 10 to 60 per cent of their plant employees are colored. . . . An equal number of important machinery factories report but a slightly smaller average of all employees as being colored migrants. In all but one of the foundries, it was found that the negroes have advanced from labor to semi-skilled work, and finally to skilled positions. These employers hold that the southern boys are doing their work fully as satisfactory as did their predecessors, and often more so."

The first said of them:

> "Apparently they are utterly incapable of appreciating the virtue of sustained labor, and also they have a tremendous penchant for funerals. An employer once told me that he had ten colored men working for him, all belonging to the same "Lodge," and every time a member of that lodge died the whole crew laid off to attend the funeral. . . . A superintendent of an open hearth rolling mill in Youngstown, Ohio, told me not long ago that for the 150 negro laborers he employs,

he has an annual turnover of about 1,250."

The second said:

> "Several employers, who have used colored labor for as long as ten years and who have taken the trouble to make thorough investigations, have found by actual check that the lay off was actually less prevalent among the family negro from the South than with white immigrants assigned to like work. . . . The experience of fifteen firms (typical of the industries investigated) shows an average factory employment among them for the negroes to be 32 1-3 per cent of the total, while the average per cent of turnover among them is 36 2-3. Thus, in spite of the fact that the negro in industry is a comparatively new factor in this territory, he is but slightly more responsible for the shifting of jobs than is the native of the district or the foreign born who, on the whole, has had a longer time to adapt himself to local conditions."

The comparisons might be carried further. But there is a lesson sufficient in the excerpts quoted. Generalizations about the Negro race in industry, or any other of the common divisions of interest, cannot be safely made from mere examples, altho they are listened to and seriously acted upon daily by persons of ordinary intelligence who, for example, would never think of labeling the white race as incompetent and dishonest because of the recent unpleasant disclosures in Washington.

*Caps, Gowns and Fiery Crosses*

The spectacle of a group of white-sheeted adolescents scurrying about a university campus with an eight foot symbol of the crucifixion, trying to frighten a Negro law student out of one of the dormitories, is something bordering on the pathetic. Here we have a confirmation of a dictum of group psychology, that under the influence of mob hysteria the whole group is reduced in mental quality to the level of the lowest. The whole Klan movement is scarcely more than a formalized mob. Just as when under the stimulation of the crowd mind, whether spontaneously or with the aid of ritualistic catch words, men can dispense with reason and lash their raw natures to a murderous hatred—as in the recent Klan murders in Lilly,

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MAY, 1924

Pennsylvania,—so too can they under this stimulation dispense with reason and commit acts of unbelievable stupidity. The last place one expects to encounter mummery, bluff, mob coercion, and even race prejudice is in an institution of learning. The presumption is that habits of open-mindedness are encouraged, if not formed, there. What need the hundred per cent white Protestants fear in a university that the Board of Directors or its officials cannot adjust? And if they object to things tolerated by an indifferent Board, why do they stay there? Or if they are not students, on what authority do they meddle? And so on. The decisiveness of Dean Hawkes in urging upon the disgruntled the privilege of leaving if they disliked the University's conduct of affairs is a most refreshing precedent for other authorities in situations similar. It very probably forestalls an epidemic of intolerance which could later be excused on the usual grounds of being beyond control. It is conceivably a good example for State and Federal authorities. The most paradoxical fact about these defenders of the sacred Constitution is that they are not the least bit interested in it. It may be an irritating repetition, but it is nevertheless true that while their most dramatic loyalties swirl around the eighteenth amendment, their whole ritual and policy are dead set against the fourteenth and the fifteenth. But this is not all.

Masked coercion, it will be noted, is resorted to in those cases of intolerance for which there can be urged no rational justification. There is, for example, no decent reason why a student who happens to be colored may not live in a room by himself in a dormitory when he has fulfilled all the scholastic requirements of the institution and attends the same classrooms. Except in a like-prejudiced court, any such contention would be forthwith ruled out. There is inherent here a fear and something queerly suggestive of an inferiority complex. Probably next in order of prohibition is the knowing of the same things. The dolichocephalics have an opportunity to limit contact with their "inferiors" in the university by rendering the intellectual standards so high that their theory of mental difference will work effectively. This cannot be done, of course, and the sophomoric Klansmen know it. And this perhaps, more than anything else, accounts for the fiery crosses.

## Racial Theory and Negro Mortality

Whether Negroes are increasing too rapidly or dying out is becoming as much a question of political theory as of science. This is dangerous to science and most confusing to the layman. Stoddard, Grant, Josey, and others of a particular school, whose philosophy demands a hysterical closing of the ranks of the white races of the world, sense a peril in the too rapid multiplication of the darker races. They have their figures and their arguments.

Another of the most familiar arguments taking the exact opposite appears in the Charleston, S.C., *Sun and Courier*:

"The unfavorable death rate among the Negroes in the State is believed to be due to inferior resisting powers of their race for certain diseases that are prevalent in this country. Tuberculosis, for instance, kills 260 Negroes per 100,000 every year in North Carolina, while only 99 white people die from that cause. The contention that living conditions among the blacks are unfavorable in the treatment of tuberculosis is apparently answered in the experiments that have placed whites and blacks under the same institutional care with the result that the ratio of death is maintained."

Colonel C. E. Bushnell in his study of the "Epidemiology of Tuberculosis" reaches the conclusion that the Negro race through close contact with the Whites during many generations has become thoroughly tubercularized and suffers a high death rate from tuberculosis only when subjected to unfavorable conditions of living! The immunity acquired by the wide-spread distribution of tuberculosis throughout a people, he thinks, is distinguishable from resistance attributable to inherent characters of the race which might be designated natural immunity. There is no evidence that the resistance acquired by the wide-spread presence of the disease is transmitted from parent to offspring as an inherited immunity, all the evidence suggesting that this resistance is not transmitted since the reaction of children of European stock to tuberculosis is similar to that of primitive races. There is, further, some evidence that individuals of European extraction who have escaped tuberculosis in childhood may suffer with an usually acute type in adult life.

Dr. Wilcox of Cornell University, formerly a Director of the Census, is positive that the urbanization of Negroes as a result of the migration is lowering the birth rate and slowly but certainly wiping out the race.

Frank Tannenbaum in his book, "Darker Phases Of The South", just published by G. P. Putman & Sons, has this to say: "The whites are in fear of being outbred. They could not look with favor upon a large-scale program of child care and child saving. The fecundity of the colored race is so great in comparison to the whites that there would immediately arise an underground pressure of public sentiment against any program of basic health activity in the community, which would, as it must inevitably do, cut down the death rate of the negro also. Anyone acquainted with the hearings before committees in southern legislatures upon problems of social legislation will recognize the truth of this statement. I am not, of course, accusing the whites in the South of anything that the whites in the North, or in the West, or anywhere else, would not do under the same conditions —especially if they had the same background of experience and emotion. I believe in facing a fact

MAY, 1924

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133

as such and not slurring over it. The fact is that the whites will promote no health program in the South, the end of which would be the probable rapid increase of the colored population to the proportionate decrease of the whites and their inevitable loss of control. That is all."

If the Negro is dying out, he does not menace Stoddard and Grant. If he is not increasing rapidly, the prophets of ultimate extinction are again off track. He cannot well do both at the same time. In such a direct conflict of scientific authority the suspicion cannot be avoided that theories "necessary" to a satisfactory racial philosophy are making the facts more and more inaccessible.

## Dr. Barnes

Those who know Dr. Albert C. Barnes treat him as a valuable secret. In the heart of Philadelphia he has in successful operation one of the most astounding experiments in human relations in industry yet tried; in his home at Merion, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, he has the most complete and valuable collection of modern art in this country, and one of the best in the world. He was the first and is distinctly the last word in Primitive African Art and his pieces, the rarest of their kind—exquisite, exotic, distinctive,—once casually valued at fifty thousand dollars, are becoming invaluable. This is primitive art, and there are limits to discovery. And there are yet Philadelphians who ask "Who is Dr. Barnes?" And there are "sophisticates" who sense the forcible entry of the primitive African motif into modern art, who take their wisdom from Clive Bell's clever vagaries and de Zayas' outlandish speculations. It is perhaps pardonable if this ritual of silence is broken, if only for a moment, on one who has known the native art of Negroes longer and who still knows it better than any one in the United States, and who ranks close to Paul Guillaume as one of the foremost authorities on it in the world.

Primitive Negro art is a new note—firm, refreshing, and irresistibly stimulating. It was the force behind the radical departures of Picasso, Modigliani, and Soutine in painting, Lipschitz in sculpture, Berard, Satie, and Honegger in music. Paul Guillaume says it could not be otherwise; that it is to this force that France is indebted for its position of ascendency in art, for, since impressionism "no primordial manifestations could be shown not African in essence." It was a prophetic vision, uncanny in its sureness, that prompted this connoisseur to encourage these modern painters by buying their pictures long

before they felt the glimmer of a promise of prominence and recognition. In his collection are over a hundred Renoirs, over twenty Picassos, fifty Cezannes—it is related that he not only discovered but saved Soutine. It was this same uncanny foresight that drew into his possession many of the best pieces of this African art—the inspiration of these modern artists. The whole modern art movement thus owes an immense debt to him, and it is not improbable that his foresight was in some measure trained by an interest of longer standing in certain native qualities of the Negro which held for him a fascination, and which lend color and the tone of genuine sincerity to his amazing industrial experiment.

He recognizes in the Negro a natural rhythm—a self-propelling thing, capable of insinuating into business the unoppressive, competent strides that come from a spiritual "pulling together". He has gone further. With the individuals included in his community plan—whites and Negroes, this rhythm has been intellectualized. A practical application has been made of the principles of William James and John Dewey in psychology and Santayana in aesthetics. The workers, none of whom have university degrees, in their daily seminars to which an hour and a half a day is given, have by assimilable bits mastered the teachings of many of the world's best minds. A Negro, scarcely literate a few years ago, is leading the seminar in discussions of Well's "Outline of History". Such is the practical application of a theory developed from the start twenty-two years ago with much the same community and with little capital. Incidentally, only six of the Negro workers have been lost since the beginning of the experiment.

With the same resoluteness which characterizes the application of a conviction to business—but one of his interests, he has recorded with finality his instinctive appreciation of merit in new art. A bas-relief by Lipschitz is set in the imported French stone of the $600,000 Barnes Foundation Building now in course of erection, and a design in primitive African art taken from a native Temple door is being set into the entrances to the building. Behind each conviction is a long, tireless, searching interest.

Soon primitive Negro art will invade this country as it has invaded Europe. It is inevitable. And there will come with it a new valuation of the contribution of Negroes, past and yet possible, to American life and culture. It is on this certainty that Dr. Barnes has quietly combed Europe for the choicest of the specimens brought from Africa, and is even now urging serious study and exclusive research into the field, still uncharted, by competent and interested Negro students.

OPPORTUNITY

MAY, 1924

# A Note on African Art

By ALAIN LOCKE

THE significance of African art is incontestable; at this stage it needs no apologia. Indeed no genuine art ever does, except when it has become incumbered with false interpretations. Having passed, however, through a period of neglect and disesteem during which it was regarded as crude, bizarre, and primitive, African art is now in danger of another sort of misconstruction, that of being taken up as an exotic fad and a fashionable amateurish interest. Its chief need is to be allowed to speak for itself, to be studied and interpreted rather than to be praised or exploited. It is high time that it was understood, and not taken as a matter of oddness and curiosity, or of quaint primitiveness and fantastic charm.

This so-called "primitive" Negro art in the judgment of those who know it best is really a classic expression of its kind, entitled to be considered on a par with all other classic expressions of plastic art. It must be remembered that African art has two aspects which, for the present at least, must be kept rigidly apart. It has an aesthetic meaning and a cultural significance. What it is as a thing of beauty ranges it with the absolute standards of art and makes it a pure art form capable of universal appreciation and comparison; what it is as an expression of African life and thought makes it an equally precious cultural document, perhaps the ultimate key for the interpretation of the African mind. But no confusing of these values as is so prevalent in current discussions will contribute to a finally accurate or correct understanding of either of these. As Guillaume Apollinaire aptly says in *Apropos de l'Arts des Noirs (Paris 1917)*, "In the present condition of anthropology one cannot without unwarranted temerity advance definite and final assertions, either from the point of view of archeology or that of aesthetics, concerning these African images that have aroused enthusiastic appreciation from their admirers in spite of a lack of definite information as to their origin and use and as to their definite authorship."

It follows that this art must first be evaluated as a pure form of art and in terms of the marked influences upon modern art which it has already exerted, and then that it must be finally interpreted historically to explain its cultural meaning and derivation. What the cubists and post-expressionists have seen in it intuitively must be reinterpreted in scientific terms, for we realize now that the study of exotic art holds for us a serious and important message in aesthetics. Many problems, not only of the origin of art but of the function of art, wait for their final solution on the broad comparative study of the arts of diverse cultures. Comparative aesthetics is in its infancy, but the interpretation of exotic art is its scientific

beginning. And we now realize at last that, scientifically speaking, European art can no more be self-explanatory than one organic species intensively known and studied could have evolved in the field of biology the doctrine of evolution.

The most influential exotic art of our era has been the African. The article of M. Paul Guillaume, its ardent pioneer and champion, is in itself sufficient witness and acknowledgment of this. But apart from its stimulating influence on the technique of many acknowledged modern masters, there is another service which it has yet to perform. It is one of the purposes and definite projects of the Barnes Foundation, which contains by far the most selected art-collection of Negro art in the world, to study this art organically, and to correlate it with the general body of human art. Thus African art will serve not merely the purpose of a strange new artistic ferment, but will also have its share in the construction of a new broadly comparative and scientific aesthetics.

Thus the African art object, a half a generation ago the most neglected of curios, has now become the corner-stone of a new and more universal aesthetic that has all but revolutionized the theory of art and considerably modified its practice. The movement has a history. Our museums were full of inferior and relatively late native copies of this material before we began to realize its art significance. Dumb, dusty trophies of imperialism, they had been assembled from the colonially exploited corners of Africa, first as curios then as prizes of comparative ethnology. Then suddenly there came to a few sensitive artistic minds realization that here was an art object, intrinsically interesting and fine. The pioneer of this art interest was Paul Guillaume, and there radiated from him into the circles of post-impressionist art in Paris that serious interest which subsequently became an important movement and in the success of which the art of African peoples has taken on fresh significance. This interest was first technical, then substantative, and finally, theoretical. "What formerly appeared meaningless took on meaning in the latest experimental strivings of plastic art. One came to realize that hardly anywhere else had certain problems of form and a certain manner of their technical solution presented itself in greater clarity than in the art of the Negro. It then became apparent that prior judgments about the Negro and his arts characterized the critic more than the object of criticism. The new appreciation developed instantly a new passion, we began to collect Negro art as art, became passionately interested in corrective re-appraisal of it, and made out of the old material a newly evaluated thing."

There is a curious reason why this meeting of the primitive with the most sophisticated has been so

MAY, 1924

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stimulating and productive. The discovery of Afri-
can art happened to come at a time when there was
a marked sterility in certain forms of expression
in European plastic art, due to generations of the
inbreeding of idiom and style. Restless experimen-
tation was dominant. African images had been
previously dismissed as crude attempts at realistic
representation. Then out of the desperate exhaus-
tion of the exploiting of all the technical possi-
bilities of color by the Impressionists, the problem
of form and decorative design became emphasized
in one of those natural reactions which occur so
repeatedly in art. And suddenly with the sub-
stitution in European art of a new emphasis and
technical interest, the African representation of form,
previously regarded as ridiculously crude, suddenly
appeared cunningly sophisticated. Strong stylistic
associations had stood between us and its correct
interpretation, and their breaking down had the
effect of a great discovery, a fresh revelation.
Negro art was instantly seen as a "notable instance
of plastic representation." "For western art
the problem of representation of form had become
a secondary and even mishandled problem, sacrificed
to the effect of movement. The three-dimensional
interpretation of space, the ground basis of all
plastic art, was itself a lost art, and when, with
considerable pains, artists began to explore afresh
the elements of form perception, fortunately at that
time African plastic art was discovered and it was
recognized that it had successfully cultivated and
mastered the expression of pure plastic form."

It was by such a series of discoveries and
revaluations that African art came into its pres-
ent prominence and significance. Other articles
in this issue trace more authoritatively than the
present writer can the attested influence of Negro
art upon the work of Matisse, Picasso, Modigliani,
and Soutine among the French painters, upon Max
Pechstein, Elaine Stern among German painters,
upon Modigliani, Archipenko, Epstein, Lipschitz
and Lembruch among sculptors. This much may be
regarded, on the best authority, as incontestable.
The less direct influence in music and poetry must
be considered separately, for it rests upon a dif-
ferent line both of influence and of evidence. But
in plastic art the influence is evident upon direct
comparison of the work of these artists with the
African sculptures, though in almost everyone of
the above mentioned cases there is additionally
available information as to a direct contact with
Negro art and the acknowledgement of its in-
spiration.

The verdict of criticism was bound to follow
the verdict of the creative artists. A whole litera-
ture of comment and interpretation of "exotic art"
in general, and Negro art in particular has sprung
up, especially in Germany. Most diverse interpreta-
tions, from both the ethnographic and the aes-
thetic points of view, have been given. On good
authority much of this is considered premature and

fantastic, but this much at least has definitely de-
veloped as a result,—that the problems raised by
African art are now recognized as at the very core
of art theory and art history. Ethnographically the
most promising lines of interpretation are those
laid down in Joyce and Torday's treatise on the
Bushongo and by A. A. Goldenweiser in the chap-
ter on Art in his book entitled "Early Civilization."
Aesthetically, the most authentic interpretations are
those of Paul Guillaume, who from his long fa-
miliarity with this art is selecting the classical ex-
amples and working out a tentative stylistic and
period classification, and that of the accomplished
critic, Roger E. Fry, from whose chapter on Negro
Sculpture, (Vision and Design, 1920) the follow-
ing is quoted: "We have the habit of thinking that
the power to create expressive plastic form is one
of the greatest of human achievements, and the
names of great sculptors are handed down from
generation to generation, so that it seems unfair
to be forced to admit that certain nameless savages
have possessed this power not only in a higher
degree than we at this moment, but than we as a
nation have ever possessed it. And yet that is
where I find myself. I have to admit that some
of these things are great sculpture,—greater, I
think, than anything we produced even in the
Middle Ages. Certainly they have the special
qualities of sculpture in a higher degree. They
have indeed complete plastic freedom, that is to say,
these African artists really can see form in three
dimensions. Now this is rare in sculpture. All
archaic European sculpture, Greek and Roman-
esque, for instance—approaches plasticity from the
point of view of bas-relief. The statue bears traces
of having been conceived as the combination of
back, front, and side bas-reliefs. And this continues
to make itself felt almost until the final develop-
ment of the tradition. Complete plastic freedom
with us seems only to have come at the end of a
long period, when the art has attained a high
degree of representational skill and when it is
generally already decadent from the point of view
of imaginative significance. Now the strange
thing about these African sculptures is that they
bear, as far as I can see, no trace of this process.
. . . So,—far from clinging to two dimensions, as
we tend to do, he (the Negro artist) actually
underlines, as it were, the three-dimensionalness
of his forms. It is in some such way that he man-
ages to give to his forms their disconcerting vitality,
the suggestion that they make of being not mere
echoes of actual figures, but of possessing an inner
life of their own. . . . Besides the logical com-
prehension of plastic form which the Negro shows,
he has also an exquisite taste in his handling of
material."

Equally important with this newer aesthetic
appreciation is the newer archeological revaluation.
Negro art is no longer taken as the expression of
a uniformly primitive and prematurely arrested
stage of culture. It is now seen as having passed

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MAY, 1924

Zouenouia—13th Century

through many diverse phases, as having undergone
several classical developments, and as illustrating
several divergent types of art evolution. The
theory of evolution has put art into a scientific
straight-jacket, and African art has had to fit in
with its rigid preconceptions. It is most encour-
aging therefore to see an emancipated type of sci-
entific treatment appearing, with Torday and
Joyce's historical interpretation of art in terms of
its corresponding culture values, and in Golden-
weiser's rejection of the evolutionary formula
which would make all African art originate from
crude representationalism, that is to say, naive

and non-aesthetic realism. For Goldenweiser,
primitive art has in it both the decorative and the
realistic motives, and often as not it is the abstract
principles of design and aesthetic form which are
the determinants of its stylistic technique and con-
ventions. Of course this is only another way of
saying that art is after all art, but such scientific
vindication of the efficacy of pure art motives in
primitive art is welcome, especially as it frees the
interpretation of African art from the prevailing
scientific formulae. Thus both the latest aesthetic
and scientific interpretations agree on a new value
and complexity in the art we are considering.

Perhaps the most important effect of interpre-
tations like these is to break down the invidious
distinction between art with a capital A for
European forms of expression and "exotic" and
"primitive" art for the art expressions of other
peoples. Technically speaking an art is primitive
in any phase before it has mastered its idiom of
expression, and classic when it has arrived at ma-
turity and before it has begun to decline. Simi-
larly art is exotic with relation only to its rela-
tive incommensurability with other cultures, in
influencing them at all vitally it ceases to be exotic.
From this we can see what misnomers these terms
really are when applied to all phases of African
art. Eventually we will come to realize that art
is universally organic, and then for the first time
scientifically absolute principles of art appreciation
will have been achieved.

Meanwhile as a product of African civilization,
Negro art is a peculiarly precious thing, not only
for the foregoing reasons, but for the additional
reason that it is one of the few common elements
between such highly divergent types of culture as
the African and the European, and offers a rare
medium for their fair comparison. Culture and
civilization are regarded too synonymously: a high-
grade civilization may have a low-grade culture,
and a relatively feeble civilization may have dis-
proportionately high culture elements. We should
not judge art too rigidly by civilization, or vice
versa. Certainly African peoples have had the
serious disadvantage of an environment in which
the results of civilization do not accumulatively
survive, so that their non-material culture elements
are in many instances very much more mature and
advanced than the material civilization which sur-
rounds them. It follows then that the evidence
of such elements ought to be seriously taken as
factors for fair and proper interpretation.

Indeed the comparative study of such culture
elements as art, folk-lore and language will eventu-
ally supply the most reliable clues and tests for
African values. And also, we may warrantably
claim, for the tracing of historical contacts and
influences, since the archeological accuracy of art
is admitted. Comparative art and design have
much to add therefore in clearing up the riddles
of African periods and movements. Although there
are at present no reliable conclusions or even hy-

*See Goldenweiser: Early Civilization, pp. 25, 172-173,
180-183.*

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AUGUST, 1924

The burden of correction has been repeatedly placed upon Negroes. We are constantly being shown the gruesome situation and admonished to use our untiring efforts to correct this evil. The utter helplessness of Negroes in the South to change the moral status is frequently overlooked

Negroes in many sections of the South are re-
garded as the legitimate prey of other race groups.

Who knows from what source disease germs
spring, whether from palace or from hovel, under
existing conditions?

Little attention is given to Negro health in
many sections of the South. Indeed, in many com-
munities, largely the rural ones, there is an entire
lack of health help.

Insurance companies do not employ Negro reg-
istered nurses nor do white insurance companies

employ Negro physicians to make examinations and
report cases. There are few clinics, and I make
bold to say that very little attention is given
Negroes in these clinics to better their condi-
tion substantially. In the majority of towns there
are no clinics.

As to migration, history shows that all races
seek countries or sections of countries where
problems economic, educational, spiritual and moral
can be worked out to greatest advantage.

The boll weevil in the South is a large con-
tributory factor in the migration situation, but the
great thought and hope of the Negroes who are
leaving the South is that conditions might be
made better for them.

REBECCA HULL WALTON,

Columbia, S. C.

Negro Workers in Buffalo

By C. L. PEAKE

UNTIL quite recently most of us considered
that business had for its sole object the
making of profits. Within the last year or two,
however, we have increasingly heard of business for
service. "He profits most who serves best" is the
motto of the Great Luncheon Club which met in
Toronto, Canada, a week or two ago. Sinclair
Lewis and a few of our weekly periodicals may
be inclined to be amused at this constant preach-
ing of service, yet I wonder if it is not in some
measure an indication of a real change which is
gradually taking place in business.

The fact must remain that no business enter-
prise can long exist which does not show a profit.
Just as surely, those who come to be a part of
any business enterprise or industry must be in-
dividually profitable. That is, they must stand
the test of efficiency. Sooner or later, therefore,
we must ask and receive a direct answer from the
Negro. Is he an efficient worker in industry?

Few concerns have seen fit to conduct a com-
plete and scientific investigation of the efficiency
of the Negro as compared with the efficiency of
the white man. In certain plants, however,
where the majority of the workmen have long
been Negroes they have stood well towards the
top when ranked according to profitable per-
formance. This and certain other facts have led
us to believe that there is no considerable differ-
ence between the efficiency of the Negro and the
white man taken man for man.

Nevertheless there are several pretty definite
problems which the Negro still has to meet in
industry. One of these problems is the question
of attendance. In certain plants, where an in-
vestigation has been made, it has been found that
the absenteeism among Negroes runs 25% or 30%
higher than absenteeism among white men. In
one southern plant it has long been necessary to
maintain a gang of 40 or 50 extra men to supply
the places of those Negro workmen who are will-

ing to work only four or five days a week. The
Negro cannot expect to hold his proper place in
the industrial world until this situation has been
corrected.

"A Negro is only a good worker when he is
broke" is a saying which has long been preva-
lent among a good many employers of Negro
labor. I have even heard of a certain concern
which makes it a practice to introduce an expert
crashshooter or two into Negro camps on Saturday
night to make sure that the Negro worker would
be broke and on the job again Monday morning.
The most of our enlightened employers can now
well understand that such practice is only en-
couraging the very instability which they are
trying to stamp out among the Negro employees,
but I wonder if there is not a fundamental prin-
ciple there to which it would be well to give
attention.

Mr. Whiting Williams points out that in certain
southern mining camps where it was desirable that
the men work their full six days a week it seemed
impossible to persuade them to work more than
half that time. At length it began to dawn upon
some of those in touch with the situation that the
miner was making more in the three days he
worked than he could spend in the full seven days
of the week. His grocery bill was small, he had
no reason for more than one suit of clothes, and
his house rent was almost negligible. Beyond these
three items there was no inducement for him to
spend money and certainly there was no reason
for his saving it. Why then should he earn more
than three days' pay?

It has further been pointed out that when the
Negro first started to come into our northern
cities he had been accustomed to earn thirteen or
fourteen dollars a week. In the North he earned
eighteen or twenty dollars in three or four days.
Why then should he earn more? It was not long,
however, before he saw that the other Negroes

AUGUST, 1924

OPPORTUNITY

241

in his community were not willing to wear the
same suit of clothes on the job as well as off the
job. When he went into his neighbors' homes
he found there that many of them were better
furnished than were the homes of the white people
in the South, a good many of them with their mu-
sical instruments and piano. It was not long before
the Negro immigrant became interested in raising
his own living standards to the standards of his
fellows and he began to work several days more
in the week than formerly.

If then we can provide a place for our Negro
immigrant to spend money, preferably in some
place where it will net him something in the way
of increased living standards, we have taken a
step towards getting him to work a longer week.

When an investigation was recently made of
the Negroes working in one plant it was found
that not a single one of the men working in
that plant owned his own home, largely perhaps
because he could not acquire a house at anything
but an exorbitant price. This brings us to the
second problem,—that of Negro housing. I am
free to confess that as I have sometimes gone
into the places where Negroes have to live I
have concluded that if I were compelled to go
home at night to such a hovel or to such a dark
room which I had to call home, I would prob-
ably go out and get drunk as frequently as pos-
sible myself and as a consequence would not be at
work the next day.

But the more specific problem with regard to
housing is that of where we would locate the
Negro community if it were possible to finance a
housing plan. A decided objection goes up from
every real estate man who is interested in prop-
erty near a proposed site for Negro homes. Not
only that but every home owner in that com-
munity is most concerned lest a group of houses
for Negroes be placed in his vicinity. We may
or may not agree with such an attitude but it is
a problem to be dealt with just the same.

The first problem which we have to meet in
almost any group going into industry is the prob-
lem of SELECTION. Just the other day an em-
ployment man with a wide experience with Ne-
groes observed, "Yes, the Negro is a good worker:
but why do we have to have so many of them on
the job before we find one who will stay and
become a good workman?" We don't say, "A
Pole is a Pole when we are hiring Polish labor."
We know there are certain types of Polish work-

men who will make good workmen and others who
will not, just as there are certain types of Negroes
who will make good workmen, if we can make
sure of the type.

We have already found meager physical stan-
dards which are sometimes of value. We rarely
find it profitable to hire a big burly Negro of the
waiter type. We rather incline towards hiring
the Negro with broad shoulders and thin hips. If
we know about the man's home condition, that
frequently helps. The church worker or a lodge
member are usually pretty good industrial types.
With care and study the standards can be worked
out materially to reduce labor turnover among
Negroes.

A final problem which permeates every part of
industry today, as well as that pertaining to the
Negro alone, is the problem of supervision. Not
long ago while going through a plant I casually
inquired of the manager, "Well, how are you
getting along with that night gang?" For all
of you who have experience with foundries know
the night gang is usually the most acute of foun-
dry labor problems. "Got a bunch of Negroes
and they are working fine," was the reply. "I
thought you swore by that bunch of Poles you
had." "No, I got rid of them several months
ago—they would not work steady,—got a lot of
Negroes instead."

That was a man who a year ago would
scarcely have a Negro in his plant but because he
had given it his attention and conscientiously
studied the problem of the Negro in his particular
industry and worked it out with the foreman of
that particular gang, he had found the solution
of absenteeism on his night force. If we as so-
cial workers and industrial employers can find a
way to get the man who handles the Negro to
make an intelligent and conscientious study of the
problem, the Negro will soon be the peer of any
workman of the land.

My understanding is that this is to be a round
table discussion. I, therefore, want to leave with
you these four problems—

First—How can we set up a standard of selec-
tion for Negroes?

Second—How can we cut down his absenteeism?

Third—How can we arrange for proper loca-
tion of Negro housing projects?

Fourth—How can we best educate the super-
visor as to proper methods of handling the
members of the Negro race?

OPPORTUNITY

AUGUST, 1924

Negro Women in Industry

By HELEN B. SAYRE

THE Negro woman's sudden entrance into industry is a new adventure and a dramatic innovation. In the urgent quest for workers to "carry on" during the World War, she saw her longed-for opportunity, saw—as she visioned it—the end of the rainbow, and she came seeking it by thousands from her sunny, quiet southern home and plantation and placid housework and was at once swallowed up in the industrial centers in northern cities. Plucked so abruptly from the narrow spheres of such service as field hands, domestics and children's nurses, it is amazing to observe the transition and transformation of this same gentle, leisurely southern woman into the high-tension industrial worker in a large factory. Labor turnover, time clocks, piece work, output, maximum and minimum production, these words were unknown in her vocabulary a few years back. But today there are thousands of these girls and women, working tirelessly and patiently and steadily in our large industrial plants,—and *making good*.

At the close of the War and during the general depression in business which followed, many Negro girls were released and replaced with white help. It was a tragedy to the Negro girl, as she had not had time to lay aside anything for the rainy day, to gain needed experience and skill, and to overcome the impatience of the average employer and an antagonistic foreman. She was hired in a period of crisis, to fill the gap at the bottom of the scale,—the most undesirable and unskilled jobs in the factory were assigned to her. The idea seemed very general that she could not be trusted to do the skilled work in any event—usually she was not given an opportunity if white help could be secured. Wet and sloppy work, heavy and tedious, with little chance for advancement, and if she did succeed, it was by sheer grit and determination, as many have told me. She had to be able to outdo her white competitor; sometimes she failed through lack of experience, and this would cause employers to say she was not capable, when in most cases it was simply due to poor selective instinct on his part or lack of intelligence or adaptability in her particular case.

Left to the mercy of ignorant, prejudiced, intolerant foremen, what could be expected? However, the whole story is not so dark. Though her progress was retarded by the turn in events, still we know that she did retain some very worthwhile places and she has progressed in them wherever possible to semi-skilled and skilled jobs. It is worthy of note, that wherever an employer was humane and appreciative and gave his Negro help a chance to advance and a square deal in wages and working conditions, he had steady,

cheerful workers—which refutes a charge so prone to be made about their being undependable. Employers have found her amiable in disposition, intelligent and more adaptable than the unskilled foreign worker for whom white social agencies are engaged in season and out to aid them to adjust themselves, develop technique and become capable, highly skilled workers. For the Negro girl there are no such agencies outside of a small work being done by the Y.W.C.A. in the City of Chicago. In my experience with both white and Negro girls, I have found no difference between them in capacity for work.

Negro women are working today in the stockyards, nut factories, hat factories, lamp shade and mantel light industries, leather products, tobacco factories, paper box factories, mattress industry, as beaders and embroiderers, and workers in the insulated wire factories; as power machine operators of all kinds, including cap, apron, bathrobe and dress-makers. Some of the best core-makers in the great McCormick harvester plant are Negro women. But it is unquestionably in the sewing field that the Negro girl finds her greatest opportunity. She has a natural aptitude for this work and has become a factor with which the trades union will have to consider. During the Garment Makers' strike in Chicago this spring, Negro women operators were employed in the strikers' places in large numbers. Many had had but little experience, and I heard of one firm that had employed three different sets of ninety operators in less than three months. Efforts were made to induce these girls to join the Union. I have been informed by a young Negro woman who belonged to the Union and who had organized the shop in which she worked, that the Union has always had an open door for Negro women.

The Garment Makers are mostly recruited from the Jews and the Poles and as such they are designated on the books, but the Negro members are always classed as Americans. This is rather interesting, I think—however, it is hard to get Negro girls into the Union. One reason is that they cannot join unless experienced. They argue that this is their chance to gain experience; joining the Union can come later. The value of collective bargaining is a matter of education, and industrial education is what is greatly needed to help the Negro girl stabilize her position in the labor world.

The story of the Negro women employed at the Nachman Springfilled Cushion Company of Chicago, Illinois, may be of some value in understanding the whole situation. It will also show the splendid growth of a business whose enviable record for superior quality and excellence in manufactured products is the output of these same

AUGUST, 1924

OPPORTUNITY

243

women power machine operators, who make the durable covers for the softly resilient springs.

In the beginning this company employed less than fifty persons. It was a simple matter for the heads of the firm to know each individual worker. Today there are between six and seven hundred on the pay-roll. The employment of such large numbers has tended to destroy any personal relation between employer and employees, and there is practically no contact with the workers. The making of these cushion covers was also a simple process in the beginning; they were used mostly for chair seats and a perfectly "green" girl who had never seen a power machine before could learn in a very few days to sew them. Today this firm manufactures cushions for all kinds of upholstered furniture, day-beds, mattresses, and automobile seats. Each unit-spring is enclosed in a separate pocket and these covers are made in two operations.

When I tell you we have girls who can sew from five to seven thousand pockets in a day, you will realize that they have become "peppy" and mastered the speeding-up in industry. They are put on piece work in about three weeks and we have many girls making from twenty to thirty dollars per week. An average girl can make eighteen dollars per week. This is good pay for a year round job.

There came a time when this large group of girls, with no previous factory experience and no one to encourage and reprove them or give them any personal attention whatever, were doing about as they pleased. They were very irregular in attendance,—a very serious matter to the firm, in trying to give prompt service and keep up production.

The cushion is an unfinished product and is delivered in large quantities to factories to be upholstered. The girls would say, "If we stay out we are the only losers, being on piece work." So the week would go something like this: Monday—bad; Tuesday—a little better; Wednesday—very good, being pay day; Thursday—very poor; Friday—somewhat better; Saturday—a half-day and the worst day of the week. The company was about three months behind in delivery of orders due to the fact that girls were given a chance to learn to operate the machines with pay, and many stayed just long enough to learn. Continually employing new help, of course, was responsible for poor quality of work as well as a large labor turnover and financial loss. The girls were disposed to be late for work and quit anywhere from a half-hour to fifteen minutes before closing time. There was considerable lack of respect for authority when it came to the forelady and inspector, as there was more or less a division of authority; so the firm had almost decided to release all the colored help, which meant a terrible blow to future opportunities. It was at this juncture that the Chicago Urban League was

appealed to and they advised putting a Negro woman as Personnel Director in charge to save the situation if possible for these hundreds of girls. The work of this Director has been very interesting and to some considerable degree satisfactory to the firm. It must be acknowledged to the credit of the firm that they have done everything possible for the Director to carry out her plans.

Her first task was to establish confidence and good-will in the hearts of the workers for herself. This was done by bringing about some very needed improvements for the physical welfare of the workers, such as individual towels, rest-room, installing a wholesome lunch service, ice-water coolers on each floor during the summer months, having the space between the rows of machines widened seventeen inches so that the girls could swing the large work more easily in sewing, installation of ventilators. There was a need to develop a spirit of respect for those in authority and this has been brought about gradually by the careful handling of individual cases needing adjustment. It was necessary to educate those in authority as to their duty and responsibility as well as to require respect from the girls toward them.

The girls soon realized that if they had just cause for complaint, they were upheld; if they were in the wrong, their Director gave them a warning the first time that a second offense would mean dismissal, and it did mean just that. Misfits were gradually released; careless and poor operators were discharged; certain factory rules were established, such as for punctuality, attendance, general conduct. This was done after heart to heart talks with the girls and they were made to realize the necessity for these adjustments.

We have without doubt today, we believe, the best disciplined group of factory employees to be found. We have an average of 97% on time; 95%-98% on the job! Our production has increased steadily from about 250,000 pockets to an average of 400,000 per day and on special occasions when we have needed an increased production they have easily speeded up to 500,000. This is the output of about 170 operators. If, of course, we add to this the workers on both operations we could approximately sew about 1,000,000 pockets in one day with 300 operators. This would give us about 17,000 cushions per day. Eighteen months ago we were three months behind in filling orders; today we guarantee a twenty-four hour delivery. Posting an hourly production scale on the bulletin board stimulates interest and it is great sport to watch the figures mount. We issue from time to time a printed bulletin or news sheet containing instructions and matters of general interest and information for the workers. We encourage the girls to larger earning effort by giving each girl a new dollar bill

244

OPPORTUNITY

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for every five dollars increase in her pay check; we also issue stars to the girls to wear on their caps, showing their rating,—one star for fifteen dollars; two stars for twenty dollars.

The necessary practice of computing wages on a piece work basis has often been the cause of much dissatisfaction. It is not an easy thing to do with so many different rates and in a week this amounts to quite a task. Some of the girls can figure and some cannot; in some cases they do not try but just take whatever is given them. It they suspected they were short they would often quit, but seldom contended for satisfaction. Mistakes are made sometimes by the bookkeeper, but when you realize that all the process of manufacturing is on a piece work basis, such as cutting, loading, sewing, tying and baling, you can have sympathy. However, I have never had the least cause to complain. The girls were gladly given all that was due them if a mistake was discovered. Of course, if the girl was not short, then the Director would help her find out her mistake. This has established a great deal of confidence in the good faith of the company.

We have frequent meetings of the staff of foreladies and inspectors, and instructions are passed to the girls about the work through them to develop respect for their positions as supervisors. Mass-meetings are held and subjects such as business methods, personal responsibility, cooperation, loyalty, punctuality, attendance, factory ethics, health and morals, conduct in the factory as well as when going to and from work are discussed.

The girls wear a neat uniform and cap of blue and white striped gingham made by the Angelica Uniform Factory in St. Louis. It makes a wonderful improvement in the general appearance and they like it. Many of our patrons come to visit the factory. These men are always surprised and agreeably impressed when they see these hundreds of neatly apparelled girls working so quietly and industriously and making such a high quality product. I wish to say right here, that this work requires skill and a good average of intelligence, as we daily receive orders requiring exclusive and special particulars. There are in the employ of our factory Jews, Italians, Slavokians, Poles, Bohemians and Americans, and when you realize that Negro men, women, boys and girls are employed in every department

with absolutely no race friction, you must admit that it is a striking example of inter-racial industrial adjustment.

A word of appreciation now for the girls in this story. It has been wonderful to see the gratitude of these workers as well as the great response we have had to our plans. The majority of the girls appreciate just what it means for them to make good and they are anxious to cooperate, now that they do understand and the whole process of costs and values has been explained. They realize that they are pioneers and to them is entrusted the future possibilities for greater opportunities for Negro girls in industry if they make good. They feel satisfied that the Director will take care of their complaints and give them a square deal. All this has raised the morale of Negro help at Nachman Springfilled Cushion Company and today these workers are assured of steady work and advancement when merited in this company.

It may be interesting to you to hear of the experience of a young white college girl student of sociology and economics who worked in our factory as a power machine operator last summer for seven weeks. Unknown to all but the Director, she was under the guardianship of the Y.W.C.A. Students of Industry Group. In the report of her experiences she made this statement: "I expected to find a low moral status existing among these factory girls. On the contrary, it was just the reverse and I never felt the least bit out of place. I found them cheerful and helpful to each other, and I felt no different than I would in any other strange social group. There is absolutely no profanity or vulgarity in their conversation, as I expected to find." The Y.W.C.A. has again requested a placement for a student this summer! This speaks for itself.

Until the Negro woman in industry has had a longer factory experience, until she has acquired the modern industry complex, where they are employed in large numbers, they must be guided. In a few years they will have established themselves without question as to their ability and capacity for routine factory work. Then they may be counted upon to make their contribution and become an integral part of the great industrial systems of America. Give her time, give her guidance—most of all, give her opportunity.

## A Successful Library Experiment

By THOMAS F. BLUE

THE Colored Department of the Louisville Free Public Library consists of two branch libraries housed in Carnegie buildings, seventeen stations and fifty-nine classroom collections in twenty-six school buildings in Louisville and Jefferson County. It has a staff of nine workers and an annual circulation of over 100,000 volumes.

The first branch, known as the Western Colored Branch, was opened in temporary quarters, September 23, 1905. Although this was a new experiment, it immediately became popular and was regarded by the library authorities as a success from the beginning.

AUGUST, 1924

OPPORTUNITY

245

The new building located at Tenth and Chestnut Streets, the gift of Andrew Carnegie, was opened October 28, 1908. On that occasion, W. O. Head, the mayor of Louisville and president of the Board of Trustees, presided. The opening of its doors was a noteworthy event, for it was the first colored branch library to be housed in a Carnegie building. This building is 77 x 45 feet, with a main floor, the library room, and a

The opening of the Eastern Colored Branch gave Louisville the distinction of being the only city having two colored branch libraries.

Since the opening of the first branch, the total number of books borrowed for home use from both branch libraries is 918,983. This does not include the books borrowed from stations and classroom collections. The total circulation from the Colored Department, branches, stations and schools amounts to more than one million volumes.

The question is often asked: What books are liked and mostly used by our readers? The records show that with the exception of fiction, which percentage is comparatively low, the classes of books most in demand are the same as those of any ordinary group of readers. The annual report for the year ending August 31, 1923, gives the four leading classes of adult books read in the order of their popularity: history, sociology, useful arts, and literature.

Naturally, there is a wholesome desire to read books by Negro writers. Among such books most in demand are Dunbar's poems, Washington's "Up From Slavery," Du Bois' "Souls of Black Folk," Brawley's "Short History of the American Negro," Woodson's "Negro in Our History," and Chestnutt's "House Behind the Cedars."

Western Colored Branch Library

basement containing two classrooms and an auditorium. It is built of brick, concrete and stone, with a tile roof.

The Western Branch Library contains 16,839 volumes and receives ninety-two periodicals and newspapers. In the collection of books and newspapers there are more than two hundred books by Negro writers and twenty-two representative Negro newspapers.

The first year, with 3000 volumes, the circulation was 17,838; the second year, 30,419; and the tenth year the circulation, including stations and classroom collections, was 78,791.

The Library Board was so pleased with the success of the first branch that it opened a second colored branch in the eastern part of the city. This is known as the Eastern Colored Branch, and was opened in a Carnegie building with appropriate exercises, January 28, 1914. John H. Buschemeyer, mayor of Louisville and president of the Board of Trustees, presided. The Eastern Colored Branch building is 60 x 80 feet, with a library room and an auditorium on the main floor, and three classrooms and a large playroom in the basement.

The Eastern Branch Library contains 6,989 volumes and receives sixty-five periodicals and newspapers.

Eastern Colored Branch Library

Another question frequently asked is: What books have you in the library by Negro authors? To meet this inquiry, the library has prepared a book list,—Some Books and Pamphlets, Music, Magazines and Newspapers by Negro Writers, Composers and Editors, in the Colored Department of the Louisville Free Public Library. This was recently followed by a supplementary list including the latest publications by Negro writers.

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OPPORTUNITY

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Through the adequate reference collection, the libraries furnish the teachers and pupils of the public schools and other educational institutions in the city information and supplementary matter on all kinds of subjects. When material for an essay or information on some topic is wanted, the slogan is "Go to the library." The records show that 96,267 persons have been assisted in reference work, with no account of those who find the information they desire for themselves.

As a means of creating in the children an interest in books and reading, a story hour is held weekly at each library and the children are encouraged to retell the stories told by the storyteller.

An outstanding feature of this work is the children's annual Story Telling Contest between the Western and Eastern branch libraries, which, by request, is held annually before the Kentucky Negro Educational Association. The names of the winners of the primary and intermediate departments are placed on a silver loving-cup. This cup was given to the Colored Department by the Louisville Free Public Library, and named the Cotter Story Telling Contest Cup in honor of Joseph S. Cotter, one of our public school principals, who first suggested the contest. The names of sixteen children appear on the cup.

Another special feature of the work is an apprentice class for the training of those who desire to enter library service. As the work grew, trained assistants were needed. As they were not available, it was necessary to train them. An annual apprentice class is conducted and instruction given in library methods. All apprentices are scheduled for required practical work. This training has been taken by thirty-seven persons. Of this number, sixteen have served as assistants and substitutes in the Louisville colored branches, and thirteen as branch librarians and assistants in other cities. Of the latter number, eleven were

sent to Louisville to prepare for library work in Atlanta, Birmingham, Memphis, Nashville, Knoxville, Chattanooga, Houston, and Evansville.

When the Colored Branch of the Roanoke Public Library was established in 1921, at the urgent request of the librarian of that city, Mrs. Rachel D. Harris, our senior assistant, was loaned to the library to help organize and open the branch.

The Staff of the Colored Department

This was repeated in 1923 when the Dunbar Branch of the Lynchburg Public Library was established. We are always called upon for suggested lists for purchase when colored branches are opened in other cities.

With their auditoriums and classrooms, the colored branch buildings are especially adapted to library and social center uses and are the common meeting-places for gatherings of educational and social uplift. The two branch buildings are real social centers. Of the large number of meetings held in the libraries from time to time, it is interesting to note the variety, as the following list will show: Louisville Ministerial Alliance, Louisville High School Alumni, Jefferson County Teachers' Institute, Louisville Federation of Colored Women's Clubs, Kentucky Negro Medical Society, Negro Business Men's League, Nineteenth Annual Conference of the Colored Men's Department of the Y. M. C. A., Boy Scouts, Urban League, Kentucky Negro Educational Association, Inter-Racial Committee, Annual Meeting of the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History.

Since their establishment, the colored branches have been in charge of Thomas F. Blue, Head of the Colored Department. Mrs. Rachel D. Harris, Mrs. Elnora McIntyre, Mrs. Lillie S. Price, Mrs. Minnie McAfee, and Miss Vivian Glass are assistants at the Western Colored Branch, and Miss Elizabeth I. Finney, Mrs. Lizzie B. Pierce, and Mrs. Laura Brooks are assistants at the Eastern Colored Branch. The success of the colored branches is, in a large measure, due to the encouragement of the Library Board and the generous cooperation of the librarian, Mr. George T. Settle.

The Louisville Leader says:

"Our libraries — Western Branch and Eastern Branch. Excellent, in truth. In having them we are blessed beyond many another city. Books, books! Papers and magazines without stint. Attractive and comfortable rooms. An obliging staff.

"Whatever else we get — and we are getting many good things — our libraries remain our pride."

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A Sound Negro Business Institution

A STATISTICAL story of the growth of an important financial organization is provided in the summary of the North Carolina Mutual Life Company following its examination by the joint Board of Auditors of the Insurance Departments of three states: North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia. This examination marks the 25th anniversary of the company.

The work of the examination included a test check of the income and disbursements of the company from the original vouchers to the Journal Cash Book, which contains the entire financial transactions of the company. The assets and liabilities were carefully checked. The claim records were investigated as was the manner of settlement with policyholders.

For the protection of the policyholders, on whose lives this insurance is placed, it maintains a reserve fund of over one million and a half dollars ($1,835,119.54). Its premium income during 1923 was nearly two million dollars ($1,710,091.11). It paid to policyholders during 1923 over a half million dollars in death and sick claims ($565,380.97). Its total admitted assets are close to two million dollars ($1,945,521.95), lacking two million dollars by only ($54,478.97).

The growth of insurance in force since 1909 tells the life and strength of the institution.

Report of the Examination of the North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company as of December 31, 1923, by the Insurance Departments of North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia.

Insurance in Force

<table><tr><td>1909</td><td>$1,545,479</td><td>1916</td><td>8,259,549</td></tr><tr><td>1910</td><td>1,510,492</td><td>1917</td><td>11,156,972</td></tr><tr><td>1911</td><td>2,556,200</td><td>1918</td><td>16,096,722</td></tr><tr><td>1912</td><td>3,239,244</td><td>1919</td><td>26,534,549</td></tr><tr><td>1913</td><td>4,272,955</td><td>1920</td><td>33,444,396</td></tr><tr><td>1914</td><td>4,986,344</td><td>1921</td><td>33,763,816</td></tr><tr><td>1915</td><td>3,524,509</td><td>1922</td><td>38,399,996</td></tr><tr><td></td><td></td><td>1923</td><td>41,148,747</td></tr></table>

Referring to the Company's stocks and bonds, the examiners said they "were verified by actual inspection of the bonds and stocks in the possession of the company and by certificates from the States of North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia Departments, and found to consist of Government, State and Municipal Bonds and Bank and Utilities stocks. There are no bonds in default and interest is collected promptly."

In reference to the mortgage loans on real estate amounting to $665,804.90, the examiners comment: "This item was verified by actual inspection of the loan notes

and found to be as reported. All papers in connection with these loans were inspected and it was found that this item represents first mortgage loans on real estate."

North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Building

This is a summary of their estimate of the company: "A company efficiently managed whose books and records are very accurately kept, which is the only mutual life organization in North Carolina of any size that is owned and managed for its policyholders."

Who's Who

Dr. Louis I. Dublin is statistician for the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, New York City.

Dr. Algernon B. Jackson is the Director of the Public Health Department, Howard University, Washington, D. C.

Dr. C. V. Roman is located at Meharry Medical College, Nashville, Tenn.

Mrs. Helen Sayre is Personnel Director of Colored Women Employees of the Nachman Springfilled Company, Chicago, Ill.

C. L. Peake is connected with the Department of Industrial Relations, American Radiator Company, Buffalo, N. Y.

William Pickens is Field Secretary of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, New York City.

Thomas F. Blue is at the head of the Colored Department of the Louisville Free Public Library.

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CORRESPONDENCE

AN INCIDENT

I HAD been reading OPPORTUNITY and was sitting down—just thinking. My mind was far off with "The Negro of Peter the Great." I had forgotten everything about me when the sharp ring of the door bell brought me back to earth, as it were.

"Is your father home?" asked the white man who stood, dressed not too cleanly, at my door.

"Yes," I answered, "but he is ill and I do not think you may see him."

"That doesn't make any difference. I've got a little business I want to talk over with him."

"Though he does not wish to see anyone, I will ask him if he will see you."

My father said that I might show him in since he was so persistent. So I had to bring him to my father, even though he never removed his hat.

After a short conference he went away, saying to me, "I see, he really *was* sick." I was furious. He seemed to think that I had lied to him about my father.

I came back to my father and said, "Oh! I could have slapped that man's face. He was positively insulting."

And he answered, "Child, you can't change the order of things."

I was bewildered. One moment I was happy over our progress; the next I was told not to attempt to resist the old order.

On the one side we have the younger generation pushing on, taking an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth; on the other, the older folk who accept the situation and only nod their heads at the way of things.

Which way will the balance swing? Must the old order give place to the new, or must there never be a new order? I wonder.

INDIA DELAINE AMOS.

PHILADELPHIA, PA.

I received the copies of OPPORTUNITY, which I am reading with much interest and profit. Thank you for the opportunity to see the good work your journal is doing.

A. C. BARNES.

HACKENSACK, N. J.

I commend OPPORTUNITY for what I have learned from the comprehensive articles that have been an education to me.

WILLIAM WHITNEY WRIGHT.

LINCOLN, NEB.

Your magazine is the development of an idea: the giving to our group of a periodical that is devoted to art and filling a niche in our group life that has been vacant heretofore.

J. B. SMITH.

NEW YORK CITY

May I add that OPPORTUNITY seems to me to be taking great strides and is a source of pleasure to me?

COUNTEE P. CULLEN.

BOSTON, MASS.

I would like two copies a month of your splendid magazine for a year. I want to do what I can to let my friends know about it.

JOHN ORTH.

SPRINGFIELD, OHIO

Please send me your latest journal. I have an old one that I found, and I like it very much.

MRS. F. O. MORGAN.

FLINT, MICH.

Of the many magazines and papers among our people, OPPORTUNITY appeals to me as the most informing and best edited. You are to be commended for giving us a high class, worth while monthly that really gets its message over.

NORMAN A. HOLMES.

WILLIAMETTE UNIVERSITY
SALEM, OREGON

I am enclosing $1.50 for OPPORTUNITY. It is certainly an able magazine. I think that I can put it in our library next fall. I hope I may be able to help in breaking down some of the racial and religious prejudice that exists in Oregon.

S. B. LAUGHLIN.

MOREHOUSE COLLEGE
ATLANTA, GA.

I have enjoyed every number of OPPORTUNITY and hope its subscription list is growing as it deserves. Mr. Battey's wonderful pictures add immensely.

HELEN B. PENDLETON.

WASHINGTON, D. C.

The magazine has come and I have read it through. It is a splendid issue and I see that it strikes many choice people as being splendid. There is a continuity throughout the number—from editorial on—and the effect of the magazine is inspiring, heartening, and uplifting.

GEORGIA DOUGLAS JOHNSON.

WILKES BARRE, PA.

I more than appreciate my copy of OPPORTUNITY and would have you send a subscription for one year to my friend.

E. ANNIE AMISON.

WICHITA, KAN.

From time to time I have had the privilege of scanning the pages of your most interesting journal, and while I always found it very interesting I always felt that in the light of the large number of technical and semi-professional journals that I take, I could do without OPPORTUNITY. I used fifty copies in connection with my Race Relations Conference, and again tried to forget it. But the little posters that you have continued to send in, to be posted on our Bulletin Board, have been so very suggestive that I am forced to mail my check for a subscription, beginning with the April number. Personally, I feel that your magazine has a distinct place in the field of social work.

WALTER L. HUTCHINSON.

BROOKLYN, N. Y.

I have read your valuable journal with lively interest and wish to express to you my compliments and thanks.

STEWART CULIN,
Curator, Brooklyn Institute Museum.

CHICAGO, ILL.

I have never seen anything like the African Art issue—of course—because there has never been anything like it. It is authentic and dynamic—comparable (not in size but surely in significance) to the Giant Power number of the Survey Graphic. These foreshadowings take one's breath away with their revelation of the untapped sources of creative energy all around us. I was glad to find this copy in the periodical room at the University of Chicago—where a year ago it had not appeared. Enclosed please find check for my subscription.

AUGUST, 1924

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INTER-RACIAL FORUM

*Compiled by MADELINE G. ALLISON*

DR. David G. Downey in the Nashville, Tenn., BANNER: "A story is told of Charles Lamb, how that one day while walking with a friend he saw a certain man and exclaimed, 'I hate that man!' Whereupon his friend asked, 'Do you know that man?' 'No,' replied Lamb. 'I do not know him, and I do not want to know him,—for if I knew him, I might like him.'"

H. G. Wells in the Toronto, Canada, STAR WEEKLY: "The general rule for peace between two races seems to be to mix or get away; the darkest tragedy comes when, as in the southern United States, they can neither mix nor disentangle. In the great, elaborately educated state of the future, to which human affairs are moving, every one, every community, will be most sedulously educated and trained in inter-racial good manners."

Gerald W. Johnson in the JOURNAL OF SOCIAL FORCES: "In the South, the Negroes are a dominated race; how can we release them? The Southerner is, quite honestly, unable to see in that any problem whatever. The Negro problem, as he understands it, is more on this order: In the South, the dominated race are Negroes; how dare we release them?"

Dr. Josiah H. Penniman in the Philadelphia, Pa., RECORD: "In practically every field of human endeavor, whether critical or creative, representatives of the colored people have attained distinction not only for themselves as individuals but also for the race of which they are members. In the arts, in science, in business, in the professions, colored men and women have demonstrated their ability by actual performance and present to the world the results of their endeavors, asking only that they be judged on their intrinsic merits."

President Coolidge, in a message to the convention of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, in the Philadelphia, Pa., EVENING PUBLIC LEDGER: "But for the strange and long inscrutable purpose which in the ordering of human affairs subjected a part of the black race to the ordeal of slavery, that race

might have been assigned to the tragic fate which has befallen many aboriginal peoples when brought into conflict with more advanced communities. Instead, we are able now to be confident that this race is to be preserved for a great and useful work."

William R. Hopkins in the Cleveland, Ohio, PLAIN DEALER: "America should begin to understand that there is no basis for distinction between men, except manhood."

The Philadelphia, Pa., NORTH AMERICAN: "This question of race conflict is not to be settled by heated talk or prejudiced action. It must be worked out calmly and sanely along reasonable lines."

Judge Jayne in the Philadelphia, Pa., PUBLIC LEDGER: "The Negro is a man. He is a workman, respected and respectable. I hope the Negro stays until he learns all there is to know of this industrial system which is at once our salvation and our despair. I hope the Negro leavens its sordid dullness with that inextinguishable joy and rhythm which have brought him unscarred through the crucible of slavery and degradation. I hope the Negro leavens selfish greed with the innate loyalty and faithfulness which have always been his, even in his reputation among his enemies."

Robert E. Speer in the FEDERAL COUNCIL BULLETIN: "I am part of all that I have met" is more true of a race even than of a person. All generations and the races which preceded us and the races which surround us have helped to make and endow us. To any race conscious of its privilege, St. Paul puts his ancient question, 'What hast thou that thou didst not receive?'"

The Rev. Mr. Ernest Tremont Tittle in the Indianapolis, Ind., STAR: "We men and women of the white race have treated the Negro badly enough, God knows. . . . Has not the time come for us to judge the Negro by his soul—his demonstrated capacity for cultural achievement—and give him a chance to reveal what his true 'place' is in the future of civilization?"

POT POURRI

Publicity

IT HAPPENS unfortunately that the Negro comes in for publicity of an unpleasant description too often to please friends of his race. When there is an opportunity to show the better side of his activities, it ought not to be slighted. Who has thought of the colored man in the field of

inventive genius, yet we are told on good authority that 5,000 patents are registered to his credit at Washington.

Further, we learn that Granville Wood, a Negro, improved the telephone, and Dr. Williams, another Negro, performed the first successful operation on the human heart. A chemist, George W. Carver, is internationally famous. In mu-

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sic, the former slave has been especially distinguished, giving America some of its finest melody. In sculpture, painting and literature he has also done his race credit.

As a fitting postscript to the foregoing, let us finish with what Dr. Nicholas Murray Butler, president of Columbia University, said to the Negro National Educational Congress in Philadelphia: "Those who persist in manifesting intolerance toward men and women of another race or color, or toward a creed in which they themselves do not believe, are essentially uncivilized. Those who would advance civilization must labor in season and out of season to resist and check that persecuting tendency which is a mark of barbarism."

Trenton, N. J., TIMES.

### A Sign of Progress

It has dawned at length upon the inhabitants of the southern part of the United States that while the South needs the Negro, the Negro does not need the South. ...

The march of progress has not wholly swept by the southern Negro. He has learned much about the North from his friends who have gone there to work and have not returned to their old homes, and he is beginning to be affected much like the Easterners in the days following the discovery of gold in California. The North has become the new Eldorado to the black man of the South, and just as in the days of the California gold fever, much that the southern Negro hears is untrue and he is certain to be disappointed about many things when he goes into new regions, enough of what he has learned about working conditions and education for his race is true to hold him as a permanent resident of the northern part of the country once he gets there.

But the South is more in need of the Negro's labor than the North, and if the hegira should continue at too rapid rate it might work to the serious disadvantage not only of the Southern States but also of the entire country. When the South becomes unable to put out and harvest its great cotton crops, if such a thing should happen, it would throw the entire country out of balance.

But badly as the South may need colored laborers, it cannot complain. If they are leaving for places where living conditions are better for them it is a sign of their progress.

Muncie, Ind., PRESS.

### The Negro Migrant

A survey of approximate accuracy, made under the direction of the St. Louis Election Board, discloses that the registration of men and women voters of the Negro race has increased from 30,378 in 1920 to 64,264 at the present time. From these figures a new estimate as to city population gains, in something less than four years, may be made. As this is a factor in population growth

that is not reflected in housing gains, like divers other factors, its influence has been indefinite hereunto. The number of unregistered Negro adults and the children represented by those registered must also be considerable.

Would these additional 33,786 Negro voters represent a total increase of 60,000 in the St. Louis Negro population, or even of 50,000? Either figure, and a count might show that they are exceeded, conveys an idea as to the new problems created by the coming of so many of this race to the community. Almost nothing has been done to understand the terms of those problems, even less to solve them. Investment capital has accomplished wonders in providing quarters for other newcomers, but virtually nothing for these newcomers. They are crowded in decaying, ill-appointed habitations, as human beings ought not to be crowded. One city ward alone has 11,104 new Negro voters. What changes in living conditions must have been caused in that ward? Four other wards have additions in excess of 3,000 each; one, in fact, of more than 5,000. On one street 160 families are said to reside in a single block. In a dozen small rooms, in the rear of business property, 67 Negroes are accommodated.

These persons have become a permanent part of the life of St. Louis, a permanent influence in the community. What is being done to make that part a beneficial one, and that influence wholesome? On the one side is the effect on the census showing and on the labor market; on the other side are many urgent new needs. Presumably something is being done to prevent these swarming quarters from becoming sources from which disease may spread, but there are perils in that direction to be removed only by abating the congestion. The expansion over new streets of the districts assigned by common consent to the race is something to which realty interests seem keenly sensitive, but such expansion is inevitable unless areas in the districts now inhabited are utilized more intensively and with more home-like results. Here is not merely a duty. It is an investment opportunity promising reasonable returns.

Merely material needs are subordinated by the needs of another and higher kind. These increases are attributed to the Negro migration from rural areas of the South. Is their voting to be selective, individual voting, or indiscriminate, controlled, massed voting? What do they know about the issues of a large center? How many of them have even voted before? Are they to become mere interlocked, obedient, machine agents at the polls? Alien newcomers are the recipients of solicitous attention. "Americanization" activities reach among them in all directions. What is being done to Americanize these newcomers who are not aliens?

St. Louis, Mo., GLOBE DEMOCRAT.

AUGUST, 1924

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Fair Play

Whatever conduces to the prosperity and contentment of the Negro is to the advantage of the whole community. As the Union could not exist half slave and half free, so we cannot have an ideal condition while any part of our population is politically oppressed and industrially submerged. The South must treat the Negro with consideration, or it will lose many more of its indispensable artisans. With a lure not merely of better wages but of fairer living conditions, the North will draw increasing numbers of those who, thoughtfully distributed and guided, are an asset, not a liability—an element of strength, not of weakness or peril—in our industrial establishments and in the community at large. But even in the North there is a great deal to be done in the way of opening new fields to Negro initiative and labor. Some doors that should stand ajar are closed for no better cause than unreasoning prejudice.

To give fair play to the Negro is to recognize and develop his best qualities and to secure for their exercise a proper recompense. He possesses attributes of good humor, of patience and fidelity, of creative and mimetic instinct, which should be utilized. Since the Civil War he has come up from slavery and progressed mentally, morally and materially at a rate which has confuted the pessimists. It is the universal office of civilization to give all men and women the satisfaction of fairly compensated labor as free agents in an environment, domestic and industrial, that conduces to health and happiness.

Philadelphia, Pa., PUBLIC LEDGER.

The Humble Philosopher

"Why that fellow's our Assistant Superintendent of Service now," said a middle-aged gentleman to his traveling companion, as he unbottoned a handsome frock coat and drew forth a cigar of tremendously large proportions. "He made a job for himself and openings for his associates, so that our factory now has a fine group of colored mechanics."

"Well, how came you to take him on?" asked the other gent, as he discarded his cigarette and sat up to take notice, while I decided to "listen in" and gather some real live information about such a seemingly impossible subject as a colored Assistant Superintendent of Service.

"'Twas almost a joke," replied the genial manufacturer, "and I guess if I'd thought Bob was dead in earnest, I wouldn't have made him the offer. I'm glad he was serious, though, as it helped him, gave some fine workmen a chance, and helped to put my company really on the map.

"Here's the way it all happened," continued the manufacturer, as he lighted his huge perfecto: "Bob Hodges was the porter I always rode with

out of Cleveland every Saturday night. And he was a porter, too—one of the most careful fellows I've ever traveled with. One Saturday night, Bob complained about having to make the run, with his mother sick at home. I asked him why he didn't get a job in town, and as quick as a wink Bob asked me for one at the factory. Little thinking that he was in earnest, I told him to stop in the office the next time he was in Cleveland, and I'd try to fix him up. You can hardly imagine my surprise when on the first of the month Bob showed up, told me he had quit the road, and asked for a job. 'All I can give you at present is a janitor's job, Bob,' I told him, 'and $60.00 a month is all it pays.' 'Good!' he said, 'I'm ready to hit.'

"So Bob went on as janitor, and pretty soon, as the business grew, he had risen to be Chief Janitor, and had the privilege of hiring his own men. In less than a year after we had put up our new buildings Bob had six assistants, all fine chaps, who worked hard and conscientiously.

"One day, one of our best patternmakers was taken ill, and we were pushed for men and time with which to complete some contract work. We telephoned around town for patternmakers, but couldn't locate a single one. I was feeling mighty blue when Bob entered, with a quizzical smile on his face.

"'Understand you need an expert patternmaker,' he said quietly. 'I have a good one downstairs, if you'd like to try him.'

"'Where is the man? Send him up to the Superintendent at once!' I exclaimed, scarcely able to believe Bob.

"Well, sir, Bob brought up one of his colored janitors, and don't you know that fellow could make patterns as skillfully as any man whom I have ever seen?

"After that, we were short of mechanics two or three times, and don't you know that Bob had a man on his force for practically every job in our plant? That sure did teach me a lesson, and when the department managers had a meeting, I ordered them to take on colored men whenever they came prepared to deliver the goods. Bob Hodges had created jobs for his people out of nothing. Every time he hired a man, he hired a man with a trade, and when the opportunity came, Bob was able to fill the gap, and fill it right. We've got about twenty-five colored mechanics out there now, and we don't have to worry about emergencies, for we've made Bob the Assistant Superintendent of Service, and, believe me, he's got a man, should we need one, for every job at the plant. I guess he could fill my place, if necessary," the genial employer concluded, with a hearty laugh.

Lincoln News Service, Washington, D. C.

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BULLETIN BOARD

Roland W. Hayes

THE ninth Spingarn Medal has been awarded to Roland W. Hayes, the internationally known tenor, for his achievements in the field of music. This medal is awarded by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People for the highest achievement of an American Negro during the year. Mr. Hayes appeared recently as soloist with the Philadelphia and the Boston Symphony Orchestra; he has given recitals in the States and in Europe, and sung before the King and Queen of England. His programs include works in French, Italian and German. In Mr. Hayes' absence from the States on a concert tour in Europe, the Medal was accepted for him by Harry T. Burleigh.

Other recipients of the Spingarn Medal are: E. E. Just, for researches in biology; the late Major Charles Young, for services in organizing the Liberian constabulary and developing roads of the Republic of Liberia; Harry T. Burleigh, for excellence in the field of creative music; William Stanley Braithwaite, for distinguished achievement in literature; Archibald H. Grimke, for seventy years of distinguished service to his country and his race; W. E. B. Du Bois, for the founding and calling together of the Pan-African Congress; Charles S. Gilpin, for his achievement in the title role of Eugene O'Neill's play, "Emperor Jones"; the late Mrs. Mary B. Talbert, for service to the women of her race and for the restoration of the home of Frederick Douglass.

Melville Charlton, upon whom Howard University has conferred the degree of Doctor of Music, has been for ten years the musical director and organist of a Jewish congregation, the Temple of Covenant, in New

York City, and for fifteen years the organist of Union Theological Seminary. During his musical education Mr. Charlton won a scholarship at the National Conservatory of Music of America, where he studied musical history, organ, and composition.

According to statistics compiled by the Department of Records and Research of Tuskegee Institute, there were five Negroes lynched in the United States during the first six months of this year,—in Florida, 2; Georgia, 2; South Carolina, 1; the offenses charged were: rape, 3; attempted rape, 1; killing officer of the law, 1. A comparison of records shows for the first six months of 1924, 5 lynchings; 1923, 15; 1922, 30; 1921, 36. The present record is the lowest during the past forty years.

De Hart Hubbard, from the University of Michigan, won the broad jump at the Olympic contest in Paris, France. He made a leap of 24 feet, 6 inches.

The Garrett Settlement in Wilmington, Del., has reached its fifteenth year of successful operation and become a permanent social agency. According to the annual report of Mrs. Blanche W. Stubbs, the Director, the program of the Settlement included 28 various activities and groups, with an attendance of 25,000. Mrs. Stubbs says: "There is much of good being accomplished through the instrumentality of the Settlement and it is contributing, in at least a small degree, to the solution of some of the problems confronting the colored people of Wilmington. It is filling a unique place in the life of the community, and there must be no standing still."

In 1922 there were 80,000 Negroes gainfully employed in Missouri; this number has increased to 125,000—a gain of 45,000 in two years. According to Mr. Robert S. Cobb, executive secretary of the Missouri Negro Industrial Commission: "The migration of Negroes to Missouri is not a menace but a blessing. The majority of the newcomers are thrifty and industrious and are proving to be an asset to Missouri. In southeast Missouri, where cotton is the chief industry, the Negro migrant is an important factor and will doubtless be instrumental in helping Missouri to rank high in cotton production." Figures show that in agricultural pursuits there are 9,654 colored men and 739 colored women; manufacturing and mechanical industries, 24,519 men and 2,506 women; transportation, brakesmen and chauffeurs, 9,671 men and 96 women; trades, offices, real estate, 4,789 men and 325

De Hart Hubbard

AUGUST, 1924

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women; public service, laborers, detectives, 744 men and 15 women; professions, 1,406 men and 1,094 women; domestic and personal service, 13,508 men and 25,684 women; clerical occupations, 29,713 men and 252 women.

Connected with the Frederick Douglass Community Center in Toledo, Ohio, there are the following activities,—Girl Reserves Corps, Junior and Senior Glee Clubs, Friendship Club, Dramatic Arts Club, Hi-School Club, Basketball Squads, Boys' Band, Scout Troop. Since October there has been an aggregate attendance of 6,800 people at the Sunday meetings; 62 persons, 48 colored and 14 white, and 19 organizations joined in giving programs for these meetings. Work in connection with juvenile delinquency has become an important phase of the organization's efforts, not because of an increase in the number of delinquents but through an increasing confidence in, and dependency upon, this agency by the courts in solving the problems connected with colored delinquents. In the past four months 31 cases, involving 44 boys, were handled and only one of

these boys has been returned for a second offense. The activities of this center are carried on by two full time and three part time employees and fifteen volunteer workers.

The American Tennis Association, which has made rapid progress during the few years of its existence, will hold its Annual Tournament in Baltimore, Md., August 18-23. Men's singles and doubles, women's singles and doubles, mixed doubles and junior singles, will comprise the program. The finals of these events will be held on Saturday, August 23. The officers of the Association are: Harry S. McCard, M.D., President; James T. Howard, D.D.S., and O. B. Williams, M.D., Vice-Presidents; Gerald F. Norman, Secretary; Eugene Kinckle Jones, Treasurer.

The present champions are: Edgar G. Brown, men's singles; Dr. J. L. McGriff and Dr. E. D. Downing, men's doubles; Miss I. Channels, ladies' singles; Mrs. Wade and Mrs. E. Leonard, ladies' doubles. The official referee will be Dr. D. I. Hoage, and the Chief-of-Umpires, Dr. W. H. Wright.

SURVEY GRAPHIC announces a Prize of Fifty Dollars for the best original interpretation in painting, sculpture, etching, or black and white drawing submitted on or before

NOVEMBER 1st, 1924

by a Negro artist, interpreting NEGRO LIFE in HARLEM.

The prize award will be reproduced as an art feature of the special HARLEM NUMBER of SURVEY GRAPHIC, now in preparation, which will express the progressive spirit of contemporary

Negro life in its new aspects and setting, using Harlem as its stage.

Entries of merit other than the prize-winner may be accepted for publication in the special issue.

All competing work should be sent to SURVEY GRAPHIC, 112 East 19th Street, New York City, marked HARLEM SURVEY ART CONTEST.

Work submitted may be claimed by the artists after January 1, 1925.

The Jury of Award are: Winold Reiss, Mrs. Victor David Brenner, Charles S. Johnson, Editor of OPPORTUNITY, W. E. Burghardt Du Bois, Editor of *The Crisis*, and Albert C. Barnes.

ASBURY PARK

50 miles from New York

LAKE CITY BY THE SEA

90 miles from Philadelphia

A RESORT of recreation, rest, and enjoyment. Come down this summer where the elite, the wealth, and the beauty of the race meet and while away the languorous summer days. Hotel and cottage accommodation at rates to suit any vacationist's pocket-book.

SEND FOR BOOKLET. *Address*

ASBURY PARK COLORED BOARD OF TRADE

1106 Springwood Avenue, Asbury Park, N. J.

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AUGUST, 1924

HAMPTON INSTITUTE

JAMES E. GREGG GEORGE P. PHENIX FRANK K. ROGERS WILLIAM H. SCOVILLE

Principal

Vice Principal

Treasurer

Secretary

HAMPTON, VIRGINIA

Founded in 1868 by General Armstrong to train selected colored youths who should go out to teach and lead their people.

Hampton stands for "a sound body, a trained capacity, and an unselfish outlook on life."

Hampton is an industrial village: 1,000 acres; 149 buildings; 901 boarding students, including 75 college students; 385 day pupils in practice-school; 854 summer-school students; 250 teachers and workers.

Hampton has over 2512 graduates and over 8800 former students; also numerous outgrowths, including Tuskegee, founded by Booker T. Washington.

COLLEGIATE DIVISION

I THE TEACHERS' COLLEGE

1. School of Agriculture—offering a four-year course leading to the degree of Bachelor of Science; aims to develop teachers of agriculture, farm-demonstration agents, and farmers.

New chemical and biological laboratories have recently been fitted with modern equipment. The Whipple Farm of 70 acres is located at the Institute and is equipped with a modern dairy barn, creamery, three greenhouses, horse barn, poultry plant, and poultry-breeding station. The Shellbanks Farm of 850 acres is located four miles from the Institute and is easily accessible for agricultural classes. The four-year course offers liberal-arts studies, courses in professional teacher-training work, and intensive work in science and agriculture.—Warren K. Blodgett, Director.

2. School of Education—offering a four-year high-school teachers' course leading to the degree of Bachelor of Science and two two-year courses leading to appropriate diplomas; aims to train teachers for high schools, for grammar grades, and for primary grades.

In the four-year course for high-school teachers, two majors must be taken by each student. These majors may be selected from the following fields of work: English, French, Industrial Arts, Latin, Mathematics, Music, Physical Education, Science, and Social Studies. Two majors, however, may be taken in industrial arts, or music, or in physical education. The four-year course includes 16 liberal-arts units and professional work in teacher-training.—Wm. Anthony Aery, Director.

3. School of Home Economics—offering a two-year course leading to a diploma; aims to train young women to be home makers and teachers of home economics.

The equipment is excellent. The home-economics library consists of well-selected books and much illustrative material. A lecture room is so arranged that exhibits and demonstrations can be given. The Practice House, recently given to Hampton by Mrs. Henry A. Strong of Rochester, N. Y., is a simple house of two and a half stories. It has a living-room, dining-room, kitchen, and utility room on the first floor; bedrooms, bath and sleeping-porch on the second; and a store-room in the half story. It is simply and artistically furnished. It is intended to furnish an ideal home-making experience for the young women.—Mrs. Blanche W. Purcell, Director.

4. Summer School for Teachers—aims to meet the needs of teachers in service—principals, supervisors, high school teachers, elementary teachers, teachers of home economics, and teachers of physical education.

It is conducted under the joint auspices of the Virginia State Board of Education and Hampton Institute. It is organized with special reference to the needs of teachers in service—principals, supervisors, high-school teachers, elementary teachers, teachers of home economics, and teachers of physical education.—George P. Phenix, Director.

II THE SCHOOL OF BUSINESS

—offering a two-year course leading to a diploma; aims to give young men and young women such training in business principles and practice as to prepare them for business positions or to teach business subjects.

It offers two two-year collegiate courses—General Business Course and Secretarial Course. Practical work is so planned as to give students the widest possible knowledge of modern business procedure. This school conducts evening classes for the benefit of high-school graduates who are in the Trade School and who wish to secure a knowledge of the fundamental principles of business. These classes are also open to students in the work-year class who are graduates of high schools.—Miss Ethel C. Buckman, Assistant Director.

III THE TRADE SCHOOL

—offering a two-year contractors' and builders' course leading to a diploma and a four-year course leading to the degree of Bachelor of Science; aims to train skilled builders by thorough instruction in business methods, field management, building materials, trade practice, structural design, and principles of architecture.

A recent and extensive field study made clear the demand for well-trained colored builders. Hampton offers for the first time a four-year builders' course, open to graduates of standard high schools for which the degree of Bachelor of Science will be given. Students without trade experience may enter this course, provided they take extra work in a building trade during the first and second years and work at this trade for three summers. Hampton alumni have agreed to see that every graduate of the builders' courses receives adequate financial backing when he starts out in business. The B.S. course of standard grade will train teachers for high schools and colleges.—Harry J. DeYarmett, Director; H. Whittemore Brown, in charge of Builders' Courses.

256

OPPORTUNITY

AUGUST, 1924

NEW JERSEY
MANUAL TRAINING AND
INDUSTRIAL SCHOOL

*A boarding school for boys and girls over fourteen years of age desiring trades*

CARPENTRY AUTO MECHANICS
DRESSMAKING AGRICULTURE
PRINTING PLUMBING

HOME ECONOMICS

JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL ACADEMIC
WORK

Summer School and Camp for Boys
and Girls—July 7, 1924, to
August 15, 1924

Annual Chautauqua, August 7

Opening of Fall Term, September 15

Address

W. R. VALENTINE, PRINCIPAL
BORDENTOWN, N. J.

MORGAN COLLEGE
AND BRANCHES

JOHN O. SPENCER, President

SUMMER SCHOOL—June 23—August 1, 1924

COLLEGE:—Lee M. McCoy, A.D., Litt.D., Dean

LOCATION:—Great college town between North and South

COURSES:—Four years on Credit System; Degrees; Pre-Medical; Advanced Education; Certificates for high school teaching

FACULTY:—University trained. Specialists in Departments

SITE:—Eighty-five acres, beautiful scenery, stream, hill, forest, athletic fields, Fraternity House

DORMITORIES:—Equipped and supervised. Can care for 100 boarders and 100 day students

ACADEMY:—(On the grounds) John W. Haywood, A.M., S.T.D., Principal

COURSES:—College Preparatory and general

INFORMATION:—Address Edward N. Wilson, Registrar, Morgan College, Baltimore, Md.

PRINCESS ANNE ACADEMY

Junior College Grade

(Eastern Branch of University of Maryland)

COURSES:—Preparatory, Normal, Agricultural, Industrial, Domestic, Music

INFORMATION:—Address the Principal, Thomas H. Kiah, Ped.D., Princess Anne, Md.

DORMITORIES OPEN—September 20

ALL SCHOOLS OPEN—September 22, 1924

With a year's subscription to
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Edited by Monroe N. Work

Price 50c. With OPPORTUNITY $1.60

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A LIMITED NUMBER OF PUPILS

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René Maran

Author of
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in the September issue

of OPPORTUNITY

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A. S. FRISSELL, Treasurer

Watch for Announcement of
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Established 1920

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Incorporated 1924

Gives training in the technic of Social Case Work and prepares its students for professional social and health work.

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*For Further Information Address the Director*

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Provides a Superior Insurance policy to our group. Gives employment to 500 Race men and women. Furnishes modern office facilities to our professional and business groups.

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## Virginia Union University is now a Class A College

Excellent courses are offered in College as well as in Theology and in High School work.

The summer session is for college students only.

For full information address the President at RICHMOND, VIRGINIA

## Atlanta University

## Morehouse College
ATLANTA, GA.

### College, Academy, Divinity School

A N institution famous within recent years for its emphasis on all sides of manly development—the only institution in the far South devoted solely to the education of Negro young men.

Graduates given high ranking by greatest northern universities. Debating, Y.M.C.A., athletics, all live features.

For information address

JOHN HOPE, PRESIDENT

## KNOXVILLE COLLEGE

Knoxville, Tenn.

Earnest student body. Reasonable expense.

Wholesome intellectual and moral atmosphere.

Healthful location and surroundings.

Strong Departments of Science and Education.

Well trained and efficient faculty.

Recognized as standard college by State Board of Education.

Active in athletics, debate, Christian Association work, etc.

Students enter the first ten days of each term.

Fall term opens Wednesday, September 17, 1924.

Courses: college, academy, sub-academy, music, home economics, and nurse training.

For complete information address

The President, Knoxville College, Knoxville, Tenn.

## Howard University

WASHINGTON, D. C.

### REGISTRATION

Spring Quarter March 14, 1925

F. D. WILKINSON, Registrar

Howard University

Washington, D. C.

CHARLES S. JOHNSON, Editor

OPPORTUNITY

A JOURNAL OF NEGRO LIFE

NATIONAL URBAN LEAGUE

Telephone Gramercy 3978

WILLIAM H. BALDWIN
Secretary

A. S. FRISSELL
Treasurer

VOL. 2.

SEPTEMBER, 1924

No. 21

Contents

COVER

Roland Hayes

EDITORIALS

258

AN OPPORTUNITY FOR
NEGRO WRITERS

RACIAL DEITIES
NEGRO DIALECT

DO TITLES MEAN ANYTHING?
PRINCE KOJO TOVALOU HOUENOU

ARTICLES

FRENCH COLONIAL POLICY—
Open Letters

By René Maran to Alain Locke

By Alain Locke to René Maran 261

THE NEGRO AND THE JEW
By Bertha Wallerstein 263

LIGHTS AND SHADOWS IN
CINCINNATI. Illustrated
By Bleeker Marquette 267

NEGRO MIGRATION

By George E. Haynes

271

ON "KNOWING" THE NEGRO
By Anne Biddle Stirling 275

A SONG IN PRAISE. A Poem
By Countee P. Cullen 275

REPLICA

By Eunice Roberta Hunton 276

BROWN BOY TO BROWN GIRL
A Poem
By Countee P. Cullen 276

OPPORTUNITY'S LITERARY
PRIZE CONTEST 277

OUR BOOK SHELF 278

INTER-RACIAL FORUM 280

POT POURRI 280

BULLETIN BOARD
Illustrated 281

Copyright 1923

OPPORTUNITY

VOL. 2

SEPTEMBER, 1924

No. 21

EDITORIALS

*An Opportunity*
*for Negro Writers*

A NEW period in creative expression among Negroes is fore-
shadowed in the notable, even if fugitive and
disconnected successes of certain of the generation
of Negro writers now emerging. The body of
experience and public opinion seem ripe for the
development of some new and perhaps distinctive
contribution to art, literature, and life. But these
contributions demand incentives. The random and
obviously inadequate methods of casual inquiry have
already disclosed an unexpected amount and degree
of writing ability among Negroes which gives
promise of further development on a large scale.
The ability of these scattered writers has become
known largely by the accident of locality. There are
undoubtedly others to be discovered. The question
of markets has been an agent of inertia in
this regard. Even for those of acknowledged competence
an almost insuperable discouragement has
been the unpopularity of those themes with which
Negro writers have been most familiar. This is
changing now. The judgment of some of the
foremost students of American literature offers
encouragement for the future of imaginative writing
by Negroes.

There is an extreme usefulness for the cause of
inter-racial good-will as well as racial culture and
American literature in interpreting the life and
longings and emotional experiences of the Negro
people to their shrinking and spiritually alien
neighbors; of flushing old festers of hate and disgruntlement by becoming triumphantly articulate; of forcing the interest and kindred feeling
of the rest of the world by sheer force of the humanness and beauty of one's own story. The old romantic Negro characters of fiction are admittedly *passe*. Negroes have been swept along, even if at the rear of the procession, with the
forward movement of the rest of the world.
There is an opportunity now for Negroes themselves to replace their out-worn representations in
fiction faithfully and incidentally to make themselves better understood.

The purpose, then, of OPPORTUNITY's literary
contest can thus be stated in brief: It hopes to stim-
ulate and encourage creative literary effort among
Negroes; to locate and orient Negro writers of
ability; to stimulate and encourage interest in
the serious development of a body of literature
about Negro life, drawing deeply upon these tre-

mendously rich sources; to encourage the reading
of literature both by Negro authors and about
Negro life, not merely because they are Negro
authors but because what they write is literature
and because the literature is interesting; to foster
a market for Negro writers and for literature by
and about Negroes; to bring these writers into
contact with the general world of letters to which
they have been for the most part timid and inar-
ticulate strangers; to stimulate and foster a type
of writing by Negroes which shakes itself free of
deliberate propaganda and protest.

Racial Deities

Racial Deities
I IS perhaps the kindness of Providence which permits balked lives to escape from reality by the simple expedient of fabricating a new world of dreams. Not the least of the penalties of being a subject race is the danger of this warped perspective toward life. This common malady recognized in the "nervousness" of the Jew, the greater incidence of neurotic constitutions, morbidness, religiousness, and in extreme cases, insanity, is overlooked in the case of the Negro, even more openly exposed to an oppressive environment and, by usual concession, more highly emotional.

What is more natural than that with the emerg-
ence of the black peasantry they should swing
free from the long carnival of restraints to pre-
cise extremes? When the Royalists were over-
thrown in the French Revolution every institu-
tion which co-existed with oppressive aristocracy
was condemned as infamous by the association.
There was a feast of Reason in the Cathedral of
Notre Dame to abolish God, a new calendar was
devised, the week given ten days and the guillo-
tine invented. When the Russian peasant and
soldier came into power among their first acts was
the passing of laws abolishing officers' titles using
only Mr. General and Mr. Colonel. They burnt
up records of police, destroyed all coats of arms,
freed prisoners, burnt jails, abolished religion and
persecuted its priests.

We have this well precedented tendency to
over-compensation and abnormal behavior in the
present proposal of the followers of Mr. Marcus
Garvey to substitute a black God for the "white"
Deity against whom may be laid, conceivably, the
infelicities of their status. The logic is unassail-
able: there is a Red Cross of the white race; the
companion order of the Negroes must be the

SEPTEMBER, 1924

OPPORTUNITY

259

Black Cross. There is a White Star Line with white owners and their regulations. Its counterpart is the Black Star Line. The Madonna and Christ must be black to conform to the reversed hierarchy of color. Man was made in the image of God. The Negro is a black man. Therefore, God, to have projected His likeness in him, must likewise have been black.

Not many years ago when the very humanity of Negroes was questioned, Charles Carroll conceived a syllogism similar in many respects. "Man," he said, "was made in the image of God. But since God, as every one knows is not a Negro, it follows that the Negro is not a man."

No one may object to the Negroes' proclaiming a black God. It is merely a projection of those anthropological and political problems which have vexed them into high heaven,—another channel of escape from a stern and unrelenting reality which has goaded them to this harmless sort of desperation. It is an escape no less illusory than the return to Africa, the grandiose titles and glittering regalia. These give their moments of exaltation entirely divorced from the drudging monotony of an under-dog's life. But with all the honest fervor and desire to fabricate a basis for race pride, this feature of the movement, like many of the others, is a symptom of a warped perspective and a tragic distortion of values for which common attitudes toward the disadvantaged Negroes and their color and the fashion of racial bigotry are, as much as anything else, responsible.

## Negro Dialect

IT IS expected that those who with such abundant confidence feel that they know the Negro, his ways, his thoughts and his speech, should passionately defend their representations of him for the great untouched and unsuspecting public. But even at the risk of disturbing an old and sacred arrogance and of challenging the sweet serenity with which they pocket the checks for their Negro stories now in vogue, it ought to be pointed out that the creatures of their pen, aside from being quite gratuitously insulting to Negroes, are as impossible as they are ridiculous. The caricatures of words and ideas which are now paraded as Negro dialect do not pretend to be the simple speech of illiterate Negroes,—dialect with a natural and reasonable growth, but the incongruous effect of education on rather hopeless subjects. And as dialect may represent the character of the folk employing it, so pseudo-dialect misrepresents the folk it is alleged to depict. There are legitimate uses for Negro dialect. Its haunting mellowness opens into the very heart of the romantic old South. It is rich with the broken pathos and gentle humor of a race and a social order passing slowly but inevitably into the chambers of memory. It has a place in southern literature and it deserves to be rescued from the hands of both the ignorant and the wanton exploiters. Mr. Edgar

P. Billups of North Carolina, a student of this dialect, writing in *The Texas Review*, laments the exploitation with a fervor which could scarcely have been excelled by one of the members of the offended race.

"There has been such a popular demand for Negro stories that pseudo-dialect writers, taking advantage of the demand and usurping the field, have sent forth impressions of Negro character which are utterly false, and the always unsuspecting public has accepted the false for the genuine; since the false have had such a wide-spread circulation, the public has been wrongly educated. . . . This incorrect education unless soon checked will become both universal and permanent."

As a matter of fact it has perhaps never been realized that there is no such thing as a general Negro dialect. The first and most widely accepted forms preserved in writing are Joel Chandler Harris' Uncle Remus stories. But South Carolinians, whose dialect is of different growth, assert that Uncle Remus is so stupid that they cannot read it. Virginia Negro dialect is distinct from that of Georgia and confined to a relatively small portion of the state. There was a time when every large plantation in Louisiana had its individual dialect. Harris in his introduction to Uncle Remus admits that the dialect of the rice plantations is different from his. There is a Creole dialect more French than English and there is an Island dialect which pretty successfully defies any sort of classification.

The basis of the real Negro dialect, as pointed out by Professor George Philip Krapp in the June issue of the *American Mercury* and over twenty years earlier, by Annie Weston Whitney, is almost entirely classic. Language is primarily a test of social contact, while pronunciation and usage depend entirely upon social intimacy. The Negro has been the conservator of those very forms of English from which present usages have grown. Forming his speech from the language of the Colonists who brought with them to this country a wealth of classic literature, he has simply retained it and passed it on phonetically in his social isolation until it has taken on a distinction which is called his own. This is borne out strangely enough by the classic literature. The Duke of Somerset in Henry VI used *mought* for *might*, and in the same drama the Duke of Clarence declares: "I will not *ruinate* his daughter" . . . In Merry Wives of Windsor there is 'oman for *woman*, and Prospero in the Tempest declares he was "blessedly *holp* hither" just as the illiterate Negro asks for *holp* when he wants *help*. *Handkercher* is found in all of Shakespeare's plays except (strangely enough) Othello. Iago would *yerk* Brabantio under the ribs, and calls Roderigo and Beanco "poor trash." The double comparative and double superlative are almost exclusively classic. "The most unkindest cut of all." "More

260

OPPORTUNITY

SEPTEMBER, 1924

sharper than your words." "Most heaviest." *Moe* for *more* belongs to the 16th Century. *Hit* for *it* is Anglo-Saxon. Chaucer uses *axe* for *ask* and "obleeged," we are informed, was perfectly correct fifty years ago.

In Professor Krapp's interesting contribution to this subject there are included several most pertinent examples. The Negro's *watermillion* for *watermelon* was common English usage everywhere in America as late as the first quarter of the 19th Century. *Drap* for *drop* was good Yankee usage a hundred years ago. *I is, you is, they is* are on record in the northern dialect of English of the 13th Century. Even the Negro's *gwine* for *going* is good archaic American English of the same class of the old pronunciation *Burgwayne* for the family name *Burgoyne*.

Compare these forms which are undeniably Negro dialect with Mr. Cohen's "you is excruciating' me with your disabilities" or "elucidate to me you ain't dead"; his "funnygraph," "eatments," "cornsider," "spluferous" and the trick is evident. They are exclusively his own notion of humor. The objection repeatedly made that Negroes do not speak this vapid nonsense can only be given point by the evident fact that they have neither need nor reason to speak it.

It is well to remember that the dialect of the Negro with all of its peculiarities is nothing more than the lingo of the classes lowest down without education and with little contact with the usages of polite society. The same degree of backwardness may be found among the poor mountain whites between whom and the Negroes there has never been any association, and similar peculiarities, though not in the same degree, may be found among the cultured whites of the same locality. This disparity is being bridged by education, but the slow processes of this method cannot compete with the merry spread of these false characterizations.

*Do Titles Mean Anything?*

MR. BOLTON SMITH,

one of the most sagacious and respected leaders of the

new white South, in a discussion of "Neglected Aspects of the Race Problem" makes one observation and a plea on a point which seems small but which, nevertheless, is a thread worth considering in the fabric of the South's racial program. "A Negro leader of standing and character," he says, "is entitled to be addressed as Mr. and his wife as Mrs., for in our own tongue we have no other title of respect. . . . This will be difficult to many of us, but I can see no other course if we hope to

maintain relations of genuine sympathy with these leaders. . . . During the war I was impressed by the absurdity of white speakers calling Negro ministers of standing and education by their first name or as "Rev. Jones," leaving out the Mr. which would have been added had he been white, and I noticed that this did not help us to get our message over to their people."

The practice here very sensibly criticized is but another evidence of the terrible conflict between the surviving traditions of the South and the new inspiration to inter-racial adjustment. But to an outsider it is not only a throttling taboo, but a symptom much stronger than its casual implication, of a deep-rooted indisposition to meet the issues of the question squarely and honestly. Undoubtedly it does retard inter-racial progress, and it is the occasion for constant apology on the part of the intelligent Negro leaders of the South who feel it and pretend in each case that the careful omission of the title of respect was an oversight which meant no lack of respect. One Negro who writes "Notes Among the Colored People" for the Augusta, Ga., *Daily Chronicle* has found that he may retain his titles where Rev. and Dr. are not appropriate if for Mr. he substitutes Monsieur and for Miss or Mrs. he writes Mademoiselle or Madame. Reading the recent scholarly volume on the Negro by a prominent Southerner, it is evident throughout its 487 pages that the titles for the large assorted group of Negroes who come in for reference have either through habit of studied effort or most uncommon accident been avoided. Side by side with their names are those of whites with the Mr. and Mrs. where appropriate. This indeed seems an attachment to tradition too petty for a scholar who in his purely intellectual moods has of necessity broken with this tradition.

Matters of this sort, for which there is only a sentimental background; are not often discussed or justified because no argument that will stand can be adduced. A good statement of the objection, however, is afforded in a letter from an Alabama official who protested to a northern social worker against the use of titles.

"I declined to answer your first letter and felt much displeased with the last on account of the manner in which you addressed and referred to the negro . . . and his wife. It is very grating to the people of the South to allude to a negro as Mr. and Mrs. And in future, should occasion require any communication from you to me, I will thank you very much to omit such titles of respect.

"I have talked with Will, etc. . . ."

SEPTEMBER, 1924

OPPORTUNITY

261

# French Colonial Policy
*Open Letters*

The article "The Black Watch on the Rhine," by Prof. Alain LeRoy Locke, which appeared in OPPORTUNITY for January, 1924, was a record of personal observations in the occupied territory of Germany. In this article Prof. Locke noted that nearly two-thirds of the occupied area, with the notable exception of the industrial section of the Riohrgebelt, was honeycombed with Colonial troops, ranging in color from black to a fair skin indistinguishable from their white companions; that the Anglo-Saxon order was reversed, in that the color factor seemed not important in the distribution of privates and officers; that morale and behavior among the French Colonials were better than that attainable from other soldiers of the occupation; and that these Colonials were enthusiastically loyal to the French. He referred to French policy thus: "Prejudice must go at a sweep and not bit by bit; it is futile to try to eliminate one kind of prejudice and meanwhile keep and even cherish another. The instinctive social logicality of the French mind has made a clean sweep of the whole field and in spite of its handicaps of militarism and colonial imperialism, France has here worked out a practical technique of human relationships which may very possibly earn for her world-mastery as over against her apparently more experienced and better equipped competitors."

René Maran's Open Letter to Prof. Locke
appeared in *Les Continents* of June 15, 1924.

TO PROFESSOR ALAIN LEROY LOCKE,
Howard University, Washington, D. C.

Dear Mr. Locke:

It is not without considerable travail of spirit
that I write you these lines. Indeed it grieves
me to shatter your illusions. But whatever pub-
licity this letter can obtain among our brethren in
America, among whom I know my name is known,
let it carry its message of truth, for truth is su-
preme always. Each time truth is misrepresented
by a counterfeit it is necessary to cry out and
proclaim that it is not the truth. I have good rea-
son to know that one usually has only jeers and
abuse for recompense in fulfilling this bounden
duty, but nevertheless I undertake it once more,
well knowing from past experience what is likely
to come of it.

Lately I have been sent a copy of your article
recently published in OPPORTUNITY.* It is well
done, that article, so moving that I read it with
tears. But unfortunately for us who know what

is really beneath it all, what you recount, though
doubtless true enough in itself, does not in any
way appear to us worthy of praise. And that is
because prolonged experience has ripened our vision.
We are no longer tricked by appearances. You,
on the contrary, have been the victim of a con-
jurer's mirage. They have deceived you, and in
this fashion.

First of all, learn, my dear Mr. Locke, that
France has two countenances. The one, official,—
governmental, if you please—is all smiles and fine
pretenses, especially to distinguished visitors. But
the smiles turn to mocking chuckles as the stranger
turns his back. It is not until many a disillusion-
ing sham has been pierced that one can penetrate
the thick and clever and guarded hypocrisy that
masks a malevolent system.

The other face of France is only beauty and
human kindness. Serious, compassionate, fair, she
turns that only to the children of her bosom, her
citizens, her humble and unsuspecting masses.
This true France, whom all who come to see and
know love, and love eternally, is not the France
of foreign view and foreign policies. Whether
intentionally or not, until the proof is clear, offi-
cial France has become like all the other domi-
nant countries markedly imperialistic, although her
people are themselves resolutely republican. The
misfortune is that the people speak their will only
every four years, and that once they have given
their mandate, their elected deputies, manipulated
by high finance, proceed to their special interests.
And having the support and sanction of the great
press, they believe or feign that they serve and fol-
low the public interests.

With this in view, you will be able to under-
stand quite easily that the benevolence of France
toward subject races is a matter of theory and
official pretense. It is little more than a subter-
fuge. You may take my word as witness and
spread it wherever you may choose to repeat it.
We are tolerated here, it is true, as one can es-
pecially realize who considers how on account of
the decline of French man-power, they have in-
creasing need of us. We are tolerated perhaps
because, submerged in the mass, we pass almost
negligibly. But that has not hindered France up
to the very present from using every method to
block our way to posts of prime importance.

Words and official protestations,—chaff and
ribbons of paper, cannot conceal these common-
places of fact and daily experience. Moreover
there are some documents that will be enlightening
the instant you see and read them. They are the
masterpieces of the work of the Colonial Office:
the most notorious the Native Code—(Code de

*The Black Watch on the Rhine.* OPPORTUNITY, January, 1924.

262

OPPORTUNITY

SEPTEMBER, 1924

l'Indigénat) that might be called the charter of the modern slave-traders,—for there official France, which is believed to be so liberal, has as a matter of fact codified slavery.

Where you are right is when you say that the method of France differs from that of other nations, and that instead of imposing civilization as they, France superimposes hers.

Take pains to read, my dear Mr. Locke, *Des Inconnus chez moi* by Madame Lucie Cousturier,* Hién le Maboul* by Captain Détanger, Captain of Colonial Infantry, written under the pen-name of Emile Nolly, *La Randonnée de Samba Diouf* of the brothers Tharaud, certain passages of Thibaut, and some of the African impressions of Jean Richard Bloch. If they are not already translated into English, have them translated as soon as possible, especially the first mentioned. Reading them will make clear our position and creed, and that of our associates. You will then understand that the black, brown and yellow soldiers did not come to the French colors as the little children came to Jesus. Far from it. On the contrary, either by express order, or at least with the tacit approval of the Colonial Administration, in certain of the colonies government officials under one pretext or other of recruiting actually engaged in seizure and man-hunting.

Thus, summarily, do the official representatives of France superimpose civilization. France well understands that job. So well, dear Mr. Locke, that she denies her own history and forbids the teachers whom she sends out to Equatorial Africa to instruct their black pupils about the French Revolution. In spite of the fact that M. Camille Jullian insists in his book, *Vercingetorix*, that the Gauls were originally Celts, one quite understands that French civilization must be superior to German culture,—wherefore France has found it expedient in the Cameroons to send out only five European physicians to combat the sleeping-sickness whereas the barbarous Germans employed sixty-five ...

Europeans, Asiatics, Negroes, we must work assiduously in the same cause. We must gather, bit by bit, the evidence of these things in irrefutable fact. And one by one they will be exposed in the French parliament, by French deputies who have espoused our cause. You notice, I have written, French deputies,—themselves white. It is upon them indeed that we must rely since their Negro colleagues, either proud of their mixed blood, proclaim themselves Aryan and deny their race and patrimony, or else, as one in particular, in high position, misuse their intelligence and influence to discredit their kinsmen and comrades. But that,

as Kipling would say, is another story, which, my dear friend, I will one day tell you.

René Maran.

To Monsieur René Maran,
Assistant Editor, *Les Continents*,
Paris, France.

Dear Friend and Kinsman:

I THANK YOU for the frank sincerity and obvious racial concern of your recent open letter. My reply bears the pass-word of a common cause. Enlisted in this service of race, and consecrated to it, our pens can never cross in controversy, and so—I salute you.

Our battle is on several fronts, my dear M. Maran. We have perforce different immediate objectives, there are some nasty salients yet to be straightened out that at times bring us almost back to back when we should be standing shoulder to shoulder, occasionally we get caught in our own barrage and cut up with our own shrapnel, but as day by day the alignment of our problem becomes more and more world-encircling, we will learn to consolidate our positions and heed one general command. The need for international coordination among us is imperative; that is why, no matter what you might say, the very sound of your voice is welcome. That is why I am so happy to tell you that within a few days of writing this I anticipate being able to sit down and talk with you about our common cause and interests and, too, that is my reason for urging you to come, as I understand you may, to visit us in America. But the essential thing, my dear Maran, is not that we should have common tactics, but common counsel. We cannot all wear the uniform of the same national loyalty, or carry the weapons of the same social philosophy. But we can and must coordinate our efforts, and share our burdens as we hope also to share our victories.

Construed in this spirit, your letter really amounts to so much additional and appreciated information. I am sure our reading public will accept it as gratefully and interestedly as I. Pressure of academic work has kept me as yet from reviewing and translating some passages of Mme. Cousturier's remarkable book, *Des Inconnus chez moi*. But I thank you for calling my attention to several sources of which I was ignorant, and which I shall read at the earliest opportunity.

As for my article, my firing-range was set from our own trenches and for a very special purpose. I was not discussing French policy in Africa, but merely the French treatment of her Negro soldiers in Europe. At the time I was primarily concerned with contrasting this treatment of the man of color in the armies of France with that of our own American army, and with reporting through personal observation and experience facts that would help to vindicate black sol-

*Two of these works, *La Randonée de Samba Diouf* and *Madame Cousturier's work on Nigeria*, have already been reviewed by Mr. Locke, in *OPPORTUNITY* for November, 1923.

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diers in Europe from libelous reports as to their
conduct.

These very specific things surely were far from
being a discussion and endorsement of French
colonial policy, about which you are far more com-
petent to speak than I. Indeed to have you real-
ize that I quite appreciate how serious and com-
plicated a question the new colonial policy of
France really is, both from the point of view of
world politics and the race problem, I must tell
you that I have kept the editors of *OPPORTUNITY*
and the *New Republic* waiting for a half year for
articles long since promised on this subject. From
what I have read and heard, and from what I
observed in France and in Syria, I had quite con-
cluded not to write until I could visit more of the
colonies and see conditions first-hand.* So, you
see, I am not to be counted as yet as one of the
apologists for the system which you have so seri-
ously and bravely indicted before the world.

Nothing I may say, I hope, will ever embarrass
the common cause of complete justice and free-

*Ed. NOTE—Later information from Paris brings news that Professor Locke has been recently elected Foreign Corresponding Member of the French Colonial Academy, and will undertake under their auspices within a year or so a visit to the French African colonies and possessions.

dom for the race anywhere, but that should not
imply that France must not be praised for some
things because she must, with equal right, be cen-
sured for others. Further, if you knew our posi-
tion in America by contrast of actual experience,
you would understand why we praise in certain
ways, as we, when you know your position, can
quite comprehend why you must censure. Some
things are possible for the black man in France
which are not yet possible for him in America;
some advantages and gains that we have in Amer-
ica have not as yet been achieved under France.
In each instance we must appeal to the example
of the other, and in each case, also appeal from
Caesar drunk to Caesar sober. Which but means
that we fight one another's battle even in fighting
our own, especially if there be amongst us, as there
will and must be, that union of purpose and coun-
sel of which I have spoken and on which, I am
sure, we both agree. Toward which achievement,
since it is itself on the very verge of realization,
it is no presumption to pledge you the growing sen-
timents and efforts of our enlightened circles in
America.

With assurances of cordial esteem and regard, I
have the honor to be

Sincerely yours,
Alain Locke.

The Negro and the Jew

*A Comparison of Their Individual Problem*

By BERTHA WALLERSTEIN

TWO years ago I was working for a few
weeks in the heart of a Negro quarter of
Washington. At lunch time on the first day I
went into a neighborhood restaurant, kept by
Negroes, and patronized by Negroes. As I was
scanning the menu card, I became aware of a whis-
pered consultation behind the counter as to wheth-
er or not I should be served. When at last I
was served, I was embarrassed by the stares of
the other guests in the restaurant. The whole ex-
perience was so uncomfortable that I never re-
peated it, but spent my half hour at noon in the
remaining weeks of my work in that district in
nibbling a bar of chocolate as I walked forlornly
through the streets. And as I walked, I thought
over this strange situation.

It was strange first because a member of the
white race, accustomed to enter any restaurant that
she chose, was suddenly excluded by a race which
most of her fellow white men considered inferior.
The fact that she herself did not share the popu-
lar delusion could not save her. It was strange
even more because I was probably repeating the
experience of my Jewish ancestors in European
ghettoes, excluded from the outer world even as
Negroes are excluded in America today, or, for
that matter, as Jews are still excluded in Poland

and Bavaria. And I was excluded, not by a mas-
ter race, as my ancestors had been, but by another
"oppressed" race. Yet suppose that I had said to
the Negroes in that restaurant: "Look here,
friends, this is not fair. We are both in the same
boat, you know." Surely they would have replied
that Jews had been quite as ready as Nordics to
discriminate against Negroes. Perhaps some of
them have even taken a certain pleasure in aveng-
ing their own wrongs on an innocent race. If
you yourself have been despised and discriminated
against, you feel that you can somehow restore
your self-respect by despising and discriminating
against someone else in turn—it matters little
whom.

All these paradoxical phases of the situation
only illustrate what nonsense race prejudice really
is, or rather what nonsense it would be if it were
not something far more serious and disastrous.
But it is hardly necessary to dwell on this point.
Moreover, I realized fully that I was unwelcome
in that restaurant, not because I was a Jewess—
indeed the people there probably did not know that
I was—but merely because I was white.

My first impulse was to appreciate the jus-
tice of this instance of discrimination. I had
only once seen a Negro enter a public restau-

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rant patronized by white people. This was in Philadelphia where it was written that "all men are created equal." The Negro, who wore the uniform of an American soldier, was informed that he could not be served. I could imagine the horrible consequences if that scene had taken place in Richmond or Savannah. Clearly it was only just that the Negroes too should have the right to exclude an alien race.

On second thoughts it occurred to me that it was more than just: it was both inevitable and salutary. Here at last was balm for the sore Negro pride, wounded a thousand times in a week by the gibes of the "superior" race. I positively rejoiced that the Negroes had some refuge where prejudice and discrimination could not enter, from which they could exclude the intruder, even as they themselves were excluded. I was actually glad that the incident had taken place, and that the Negro's pride was salvaged.

But as I turned the thing over in my mind yet a third time, I regretted what had happened. For I saw the analogy between the Negro and the Jew. I have always regretted that Jews, barred to some extent from mingling with Gentiles, have set up bars of their own. The anti-Semitic bars which exclude Jews are scarcely more formidable than the bars which their own minds have set up to exclude the outside world. Indeed, anti-Semitism has done nothing worse to the Jew (in America) than to poison his mind against his neighbor, to narrow his horizon, and keep him huddled by his own sunless fireside, nursing his pride in despising Gentiles. Were the Negroes in that restaurant gratifying theirs by despising white men, and excluding them in turn? In that case it was sheer sentimentality on my part to rejoice that they could nurse their wounded pride by staring me into embarrassment. How many things we miss if we spend our lives in nursing our wounded pride! If I see this reaction as a tragic mistake in the case of the Jew, must I not see it as an equally tragic mistake in the case of the Negro?

Yet one must go cautiously in drawing such comparisons. It is true that both Negroes and Jews meet prejudice, individually and collectively. It is true that this prejudice has made the Jew supersensitive, "touchy." It seems reasonable to me to believe that it has had the same effect on the Negro. It is true that many Jews try to salvage their wounded pride by asserting their own superiority to Gentiles, or, if it be not superiority, at least by concluding that Gentiles are so different from themselves, and have such different standards, that they (Jews) do not care to associate with them. Perhaps the Negroes act in the same way: It is true that Jews like to lighten the weight of the chip on their own shoulders by making Gentiles uncomfortable at times. Perhaps the Negroes like to take a similar harmless shot at white men once in a while.

All these comparisons one may draw—tentatively. I am plunging in the dark when I venture these guesses about Negroes because I have had the opportunity of knowing only a few Negroes individually. The bars that have excluded me from knowing more of them are as familiar to you as to me. They are not of your making nor of mine.

Further, let me make it clear that when I say "Negro"—I am referring only to the northern Negro. Granting for the moment that all the above comparisons hold true, there is still a difference. I was searching for a definite formulation of the difference when I came across it by chance in reading Gilbert Cannan's "Sembal." The book is a psychological study of an English Jew who has just this "touchiness" of which I have spoken. At one point Sembal construes a remark made to him as damaging to his character. His companion hastens to correct the impression. But Sembal is not sure of the more flattering construction. "Ever on the lookout for slights and injuries," writes Cannon of Sembal, "he half detected here the hilarious thump on the back given by success to failure."

That, it seems to me, sums up the reaction of the "touchy" Jew, a reaction which is not so much out-and-out resentment as it is suspicion. And therein, I believe, lies the difference between Jewish "touchiness" and Negro "touchiness." The Negro knows just how narrow and definite his limits are. The Jew is never *sure*. Perhaps he will be admitted to this club, and perhaps he will not. Perhaps they will accommodate him at this hotel, and perhaps they will not. Perhaps his son can be entered at this school, and perhaps he cannot. When the Jew makes application for any of these privileges—or rights—he may be refused. The blow is then direct and *personal*. It breeds a very personal resentment. A moment's thought will tell him that the blow is aimed, not at his individual entity, but at his *race*. But the moment when he has felt its impact upon himself leaves its mark upon his personality, upon his own estimate of himself.

The Negro, on the other hand, takes it for granted that the white man's club or private school is closed to him and his. (There are exceptions, such as the Civic Club of New York, or the Ethical Culture School, where the Negro is sure to be admitted). Humiliating as the knowledge must be, it is a fact which he immediately identifies with his race. There is no moment when he hears the words: *You keep out*, instead of *Your race must keep out*. In short, he is saved the intensely personal rebuff which he would meet if he applied and were rejected. No doubt he loses more than he gains, as compared with the Jew. Yet he is more likely, it seems to me, to identify such discrimination entirely with his race, rather than with himself.

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Further, a Jew is far more likely to meet a Jew-hater on a basis of social equality than is a Negro likely to meet a Negro-hater. (Again there are exceptions, but I am speaking here of the typical Negro experience, and the typical Jewish experience). And such a Jew-hater, whether or not he knows that his new acquaintance is a Jew, is unlikely to conceal his prejudice. Here again, the rebuff is of an intensely personal nature, in contrast to the experience of the Negro, who merely knows that he will never be introduced to a Negro-hater. (Not that he wishes to be!).

Of course, I realize that the Negro meets certain rebuffs from strangers, on the street, or in a public conveyance, which the Jew as a rule escapes. These no doubt cut very personally and brutally. Indeed, the Negro suffers a brutal cruelty, where the Jew suffers refined cruelty. It would be idle to speculate which is crueler. But I think that the two forms of cruelty breed two rather different types of rebellion. Brutality, I should think, must leave its victims rebellious toward the whole race which inflicts it. Refined cruelty, on the other hand, is more closely identified with the individual who inflicts it. This is all the more true, because the Negro does not know the white man who insults him in public. The Jew has been introduced to the Gentile who insults him as an individual. In the one case, the white race insults the black. In the other, Mr. Smith insults Mr. Cohen.

Perhaps no fact emphasizes the personal nature of the Jew's resentment more than the possibility that he will not be taken for a Jew. This, of course, happens to some Jews more than to others. It means that he hears unsavory comments on his race oftener than does the Negro—or, at any rate, hears it oftener from those who accept him as an equal. It means, too, that he is frequently admitted half way, on the assumption that he is not a Jew, and then is suddenly thrust out again when the fact of his race is discovered. This, again, you will grant, is a more personal blow than that dealt to the Negro, who is never admitted because the fact of his race is recognized at once, and who probably does not care to be admitted.

Finally, and perhaps most significant of all, the Jew has a chance of marrying out of his race. While many Jews may not choose to do so, I believe that the majority of Americanized Jews of the younger generation would not hesitate to marry the mates of their choice even if those mates were not Jewish. Some would actually prefer to marry Gentiles, although I believe that few of those would refrain from marrying the women they love because they are Jews. And it happens not infrequently that a Gentile refuses to marry a Jew simply because of the barrier—or supposed barrier—of race. Such an experience is without question a more bitter personal blow than enters the common Negro experience. (I assume that a Negro meets so few white women socially that he

is not so likely to fall in love with one as with a Negro woman). Even if the Jew does not go so far as to propose marriage to a Gentile, the mere fact that he considers it and its racial complications brings the race problem home to him as it is seldom brought home to the Negro, to whom the situation is a general fact, rather than a personal dilemma.

But suppose that the Jewish-Gentile marriage does take place. The inevitable differences that arise in married life may be heightened by the fact that one partner is a Jew. It may be thrown up against him—or her—although the quarrel has arisen from entirely different reasons. Or, more frequently, the Jew may suspect that his race is somehow a factor in his wife's resentment, even if she really holds nothing against him except that he brought home guests for dinner on wash day, when the larder was low. Here again the race problem cuts deep into the personality in the case of the Jew. Intermarriage between Negroes and white people is far less frequent, and this particular personal problem is excluded for the most part. I suppose that I may assume that such an instance as that presented in O'Neill's play "All God's Chillun Got Wings" is very exceptional.

In another way, too, the Jew's outlook is affected by the possibility of intermarriage. Jews in general offer two alternative solutions of the Jewish problems. One is Zionism, or sometimes territorialism, the belief that the Jews should found a State of their own, where they may maintain their identity and enjoy all the privileges of free citizens and dignified human beings. (Jews who wish to build this state in Palestine, where it already has many colonies, are Zionists. Those who wish to build it in some other territory than Palestine, which would be large enough to shelter all the persecuted Jews of Europe, are territorialists. Palestine, by the way, is too small to shelter more than a fraction of the persecuted European Jews who need a refuge). The other solution is assimilation. Still other Jews hope that the time may come when Jews can live on a basis of equality among Gentiles, but this hope can hardly be called a solution, since it is a policy of watchful waiting rather than of action. Of the two solutions, Zionism and Assimilation, the first is an organized movement of like-minded individuals, but the second is a process which will be carried on strictly by the individual, with an object quite different from that of Assimilation of the race, although that will ultimately be the result.

In contrast, the Negro race cannot solve its problem by assimilation through intermarriage, at least for many generations to come. For the children of a white-Negro marriage are regarded as Negroes. The children of a Jewish-Gentile marriage are usually regarded as Gentiles if the father is Gentile, and even if he is Jewish they are likely to associate with a good many Gentiles through their mother's family, and are quite as likely to marry Gentiles as to marry Jews. Thus

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the individual may actually work out this solution of the racial problem, half unconsciously, although such a solution of the Negro racial problem by individuals at present looks very improbable.

We see, then, that not only the Jew's suffering, but also his means of escape, intensify the personal nature of his situation, in contrast to the Negro. This is true, not only of escape for the race, but of escape for the individual as well. We may take it as proven that every Jew and every Negro is confronted with a personal problem, merely because he is born a Jew or a Negro. Barring the racial problem, let us consider the situation of the individual. Whether Negro or Jew, he finds himself barred from certain professions, and certain social contacts. Whether Negro or Jew, he is subject to many hurts which breed resentment. He finds compensation as best he can. Jews frequently find it in a form of Jewish chauvinism, a doctrine that all Jews are better than all Gentiles, a worship of things Jewish because they are Jewish, a distrust of things non-Jewish because they are non-Jewish, regardless of the intrinsic values of either. This of course is a warped view of life, and as I said before, I doubt if anti-Semitism has done anything worse to the Jew (in America) than to warp his vision, and poison his health of mind and personality. On the other hand, many Jews seek compensation in regarding themselves as exceptions to the general prejudice, in cultivating Gentile friends, in taking pride in being the only Jewish member of a certain Gentile club. These Jews accept Gentile society and Gentile institutions just because they are Gentile, also without considering its intrinsic values. This is obviously an equally warped view, and an equally diseased state of the mind and personality. It will be readily seen that whereas the chauvinist Jew accepts the Jewish situation, and tries to deal with it, however inadequately, the social climber tries to make his personal escape. The Jew whose nose and manners do not betray him, whose income and education throw him with Gentiles, can sometimes make such an escape. Even when his Gentile friends know that he is Jewish, the lack of evidence of the fact in his appearance and manners destroys the prejudice which they might otherwise have felt. Such a Jew may marry into Gentile society, and then his deliverance is sealed. Indeed, many a Jew who is not a social climber, and has no object in marriage except love, finds himself thus delivered, and often finds herself delivered. Thus the possibility of escape for the individual intensifies the personal attitude of the Jew towards the Jewish situation.

The Jew, unconsciously if not consciously, is accepting for himself the blows aimed at his race, and is sometimes hoping for himself an escape denied to his race. Thus he becomes excessively "touchy," supersensitive, huffy and bristling. Thus his outlook becomes warped, and his personality

damaged. I believe that it is difficult for the Jew who lives the typical Jewish experience to escape this most serious blow which anti-Semitism deals him. But if he is intelligent and sane, he can set about repairing the damage. He can develop a belated normal attitude toward the accident of birth that made him a Jew. He can recognize that prejudice exists, yet determine that it will not inflict upon him that greatest of hurts —the corruption and distortion of his understanding of reality, of his sense of values. He will make an extra effort to weigh people and ideas according to their intrinsic values, not according to whether they are Jewish or Gentile. He will work out a scientific explanation of anti-Semitism, and whether his explanation be correct or incorrect, the scientific attitude toward the thing that touches him so personally will rescue him from the category of "touchy Jews." He will develop that impersonal and objective view of his own race and its effect upon himself which the intelligent man, no matter what his race, holds in regard to his own personality. He will, in short, emerge a healthy, normal fellow. Where he was once sensitive and self-pitying, he will be tough and sturdy, as all really useful people must be in this world. He will accept and understand his situation without exaggerating it, and then will go about the more important work of this world, and heaven knows that there is plenty of it to do. For him that work may be the betterment of his race, but he goes about the job facing facts squarely. He is concerned with facts and achievement, not with self-pity or self-concealment. And having thus made himself into the sort of man he wishes to be, he will look back upon his experience and find it tremendously worth the living. There is no joy in life like that of creation, and to create one's self according to one's ideal, or near it, is perhaps the greatest joy of all. To be sure, one need not be a Jew or a Negro to know this joy, but the man who has found it through his race will hardly regret the fact that he is a Jew or a Negro.

It seems reasonable to me to believe that Negroes are achieving a similar personal solution. Although their racial problem is infinitely more difficult than that of the Jews, I think that their personal problem of fighting the evil effects of prejudice on their own character may be rather easier, because their reactions to prejudice are likely to be somewhat less personal. I do not mean that life itself is easier for the individual Negro. It is unquestionably harder. But, at the risk of wearying the reader, I repeat that the forms of prejudice which the Negro meets are less likely to poison his health of mind, his mental integrity. I may be wrong in my whole hypothesis; if so, I should be glad to be enlightened. But even if the Negro's personal problem is as difficult as the Jew's or more difficult, he is likely, I should think, to solve it by the same method by which I have found certain Jews solving theirs. But I should

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rather put this as a question: Has he tried to solve it in this way, and what success has he met?

I wish that I might have told the Negroes in that little restaurant in Washington what I have told you here. We might have spent an interesting and profitable hour in comparing notes about our respective racial experience. I could then have written this article with a better knowledge of the Negro side of the comparison. And as we talked, in that little restaurant, in view of the towers of Howard University, embarrassment

would have vanished on both sides. We would have found ourselves united, not in spite of our different races, nor yet because of them, but merely because each had a story to tell the other. It would be difficult to say whether such a talk would have gained more by our likenesses or by our differences. But this I know—an exchange of experience and point of view in this spirit would have helped us both to a healthier view of ourselves and of our individual problems as Negroes or as Jews.

## Lights and Shadows in Cincinnati

By BLEEKER MARQUETTE

A BOLD step was taken by the Cincinnati Better Housing League early this year in an effort to arouse the public to the serious housing plight of the poor. A public meeting was called in one of Cincinnati's large auditoriums. Announcement was sent out broadcast that we would present a graphic picture of the conditions under which our under-privileged families are compelled to live. We promised to submit a definite plan of action for public approval.

The meeting was held on April 21. Contrary to the expectations of even the enthusiastic supporters of the League and despite a violent storm, 1000 people gathered in the auditorium and there learned at first hand from slides and motion pictures something about how the other half lives. We called it "Lights and Shadows" because it presented not only the dark side of the picture but also the brighter view of what was being done and attempted at least to show the way out.

### The Story in Brief

Here is the story that the public was told:

People in the lower income groups, families of unskilled wage earners and particularly our colored people, are suffering acutely. The situation for them has not improved, it has become worse.

Rents are 75 per cent higher in our tenements.

In 1918 the average tenement room rented for $3.35 a month. Today the same room is costing the white tenant $6.06 and the colored tenant $7.77.

In 1918, 10 per cent of the tenement flats were vacant. Today no flats are vacant longer than necessary for one tenant to move out while the other moves in.

In 1918 and the years preceding we were closing from 50 to 60 unfit tenements a year. Today the Building Department vacates no dwelling, no matter how bad, unless it is literally falling on the heads of the tenants.

Even in 1918 room congestion was bad enough. One-fourth of the tenement homes were overcrowded, with an average of more than two people to the room. Today the situation is infinitely worse. Then we were able to relieve cases of overcrowding by moving families to larger flats. Now we are helpless. We have actual cases of 12 people in 2 rooms, 17 people in 2 rooms, 8 people in one room, 12 people in one single room, and 96 people in one 12 room house. Colored families are suffering most from the overcrowding. Our office is daily besieged by despondent tenants seeking our aid in finding homes within their means.

Three years ago the Housing Bureau of the Building Department had a chief and four inspectors to enforce the law requiring reasonably

Condemned House, Before View

After View of Condemned House Remodeled

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decent structural conditions in tenements. Now, with the situation more distressing, they have but two inspectors—a squad hopelessly inadequate to enforce our laws.

The conditions under which colored families have to live are disgraceful. Year by year since the war the situation has grown worse. The 3000 colored migrants who have located here since 1920 have been forced into the same limited number of houses, crowded together, two families where one was before, often in attics, cellars and condemned houses which in normal times we would not think of allowing to be occupied.

This same story might well be told of almost any of our larger cities. The families of meager income have been hard hit indeed.

## How the Better Housing League Works

Before outlining the plan for relief that we presented to the public, let us first explain what the Better Housing League is and what it does.

The League is a private agency governed by a board of twenty directors and financed by the Community Chest. Its aim has been to provide better homes for both white and colored families.

Housing is different from many social problems. It deals with conditions which we inherit from the neglect of the past—conditions which in their very nature cannot be radically and fundamentally changed except over a long period of time. No matter how desirable it may seem, it is impossible to wipe out at one fell swoop all the houses unfit for people to live in. We are forced to compromise with what is and to make our big fight on safeguarding the future.

Our existing housing problem in Cincinnati is this. We have 6500 tenements housing 30,000 families—most of the buildings are unsatisfactory and many of them are distinctly bad. We are trying to eliminate the worst conditions and to make these tenements as liveable as possible. We have a tenement house law administered by the Housing Bureau of the Building Department. The law is reasonably satisfactory as such laws go, requiring tenements to be kept in good state of repair, requiring the elimination of unsanitary conditions, making compulsory modern toilet conveniences if not within the flats at least reasonably available, providing fire escapes, letting light into dark rooms, —in general, requiring such things as can reasonably be expected of owners without completely confiscating their investment. Obviously this is not a satisfactory way of handling the situation; but considering the fact that in every one of these 6500 tenements someone has a vested interest, it is all we can do in most communities.

We have constantly fought for the adequate enforcement of this housing law and have met with a fair degree of success, although it has never been fully enforced. The League has been largely responsible for the continuance of the Housing Bureau. Had it not been for the vigilance of the

League the Bureau most certainly would have been eliminated during the past two years when the city of Cincinnati has been so short of funds that it has been forced to cut down or eliminate one service after another.

The existing housing problem is not one of building alone but it is also a problem of tenants. Families accustomed for years to low standards, living in one or two miserable tenement rooms, not infrequently lose any ideals they may have had. They become indifferent, careless, dirty. They have no desire to keep their rooms in decent condition, no respect for the owners' property, often no control over their children. It is obviously hopeless and unfair to insist upon owners renovating and improving houses in which they have tenants of this type, unless we do something to improve the tenants.

Facing this fact squarely, the League has for the past six years used the visiting housekeeper plan in an effort to cope with this problem. Starting with one colored worker back in 1918, we have gradually increased our force until it now consists of seven visiting housekeepers, three colored and four white, one white worker working partly in a colored district and partly in a white district. Each worker is a mature woman whom we instruct in the fundamentals of housing and the technique of teaching good housekeeping. Each is assigned a special section of the congested district in which the houses and tenants are her charge. She goes about day by day from house to house and flat to flat, inquiring about conditions, becoming the friend of the tenants, and gaining the confidence of owners. It is her mission to learn to know the tenants and to inspire them to better housekeeping methods, and then to go to the owners of property needing improvements and urge them to repair the toilets, drain the water out of the cellar, paint or paper the walls, fix the roof, or do such other things as may be necessary. Experience has shown that 75 per cent of the owners are willing to follow the advice of the visiting housekeeper and make such changes and repairs as she may urge. Recalcitrant owners are referred to city authorities for compulsory action. On the whole, both tenants and owners are friendly with the visiting housekeepers who rarely have difficulty in gaining entrance into a home or getting the ear of the owner. Such tenants as are antagonistic or completely uncooperative are, we usually find, victims of some mental defect or nervous disorder.

What can be accomplished in this way by purely voluntary cooperation is indicated by this report which shows the work done by three colored visiting housekeepers during the year 1923.

### Families

<table><tr><td>Family visits</td><td>4,567</td></tr><tr><td>Housekeeping improved</td><td>519</td></tr><tr><td>Families moved to better rooms</td><td>93</td></tr><tr><td>Overcrowding eliminated</td><td>46</td></tr></table>

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Houses

<table><tr><td>Visits of inspection</td><td>361</td></tr><tr><td>Visits of supervision</td><td>1,071</td></tr><tr><td>Interviews with owners</td><td>798</td></tr><tr><td>Houses remodeled</td><td>88</td></tr><tr><td>Conveniences installed</td><td>1,235</td></tr><tr><td>Health and fire risks removed</td><td>375</td></tr><tr><td>Vacated and torn down</td><td>145</td></tr><tr><td>Repairs</td><td>1,798</td></tr><tr><td>Parts of houses cleaned and painted</td><td>3,791</td></tr></table>

Knowing the value of teaching by example, the League maintains a housekeeping center in the heart of the most densely populated district of the city, known as the West End. This center consists of a three-room flat just like any other tenement flat in the district. The rooms have been furnished with refinished second-hand furniture, at a cost of less than $50 a room, and the rooms are arranged in such a way as to make the best of their small size. The neighbors are invited to see the flat and learn from it how to make their homes more cozy and attractive. Classes in home hygiene, sewing, housekeeping and nursing are given at the center. Normally more than 1000 persons visit the flat during the year.

The League is constantly on the lookout to find houses that can be turned over to colored families, to bring about a friendly and understanding attitude on the part of each new owner toward the colored tenants, and to select and supervise his tenants for him in order that he may not find his experience adverse. Last year the League was responsible for having a public-spirited citizen purchase a building, housing fifteen families, and re-model it by putting toilets and running water in each flat, installing electric lights, renovating all rooms, putting in a laundry and shower on the attic floor, and renting the flats to colored tenants. The owner has not increased the rents, and yet he is realizing a fair return.

The Negro Civic Welfare Association, headed by Mr. J. H. Robinson, cooperates closely with the League in its work with colored families. Mr. Robinson's organization has been responsible at least in part for having had turned over to colored families one of the largest and most modern apartment houses in the West End section, containing fifty flats. The Better Housing League will assist the owner to secure a satisfactory janitor and to find tenants of the right type.

So much for our effort to make the best of existing conditions. The housing situation in none of our large cities will be adequately taken care of until we can guarantee that homes built in the future will be built right. It is not very effective to drain water out of a flooded cellar if the plumbing continues to leak, and it is scarcely more effective to improve existing housing while builders go on erecting potential slums faster than we can improve them.

An ordinance went into effect on May 4 of this year which will do more in that direction than any other step that has been taken here in years. It safeguards residence districts by preventing their invasion by business or industry.

It guarantees light and air by requiring adequate open spaces—front yards, side yards, rear yards and courts—around all homes hereafter constructed. It prevents the development of excessive congestion by limiting the size of multiple family houses and the number of families to the acre. This legislation which the League has urged for six years will make for a better future city both for colored and for white families.

## The Cincinnati Model Homes Corporation

The story of what has been done for colored families in Cincinnati would be incomplete without an account of the Cincinnati Model Homes Company. Organized in 1912 by the late Mr. J. G. Schmidlapp, a banker interested in improving conditions among the colored population, the Model Homes Company has built homes housing 225 Negro families and 175 white families of the low income groups.

The Model Homes have been one of the marked successes in low cost housing developments in America. In the first place, they have housed people of the class for which they were built. In 1922 the wage earners among the colored tenants were unskilled in 62 per cent of the families, skilled in 9 per cent, domestic workers in 16 per cent, professional in 10 per cent, and clerical in 3 per cent. In the second place, the company has consistently paid 5 per cent to its stockholders.

Today they have fourteen groups of houses located in various sections of the city. The houses are of the group or row type, most of the flats having three or four rooms, with bath and toilet. The houses are well built, all rooms are light and airy, the grounds are well cared for, and the maintenance is excellent. Altogether there are 395 flats housing approximately 1400 people.

The rents in these buildings have been based upon the necessity of earning a gross return of 12½ per cent on the money invested, distributed as follows: 2 per cent for taxes, 2 per cent for depreciation, 3½ per cent for maintenance, and 5 per cent for dividends to investors. Since the war they have had to increase their rents. In 1919 the rent for a four-room flat varied from $11 to $16 a month. In 1921 it was $17.25; in 1923 it was $19. It is probable that their rents will now have to be increased to $24 for the four-room flat. Even if this increase is necessary, the rentals in the Model Homes will average $6 a room per month for high grade accommodations as against $7 a room per month elsewhere for the poorest type of tenements.

The citizenship as well as the health record of the colored tenants in the Model Homes has been striking. During the twelve years experience of the company there has been on the average only one arrest per 150 persons in their flats, as against one per seven persons of the Negro population as a whole, and one to fifteen persons of the white population. The total death rate has been about twelve per thousand for their colored tenants,

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which is not one-half of the rate for the colored population generally, and three points less than the general death rate for the city.

## The League Presents a Program

With this as a background, let us return to the program presented by the Better Housing League at its public meeting in April.

The plan consisted of two parts: first, an effort to increase our activities in improving existing bad conditions, and, second, an effort to encourage the construction of more homes.

To improve existing conditions the League urged that its staff be increased from six to fifteen

visiting housekeepers through an additional appropriation from the Community Chest to which we urged the public to contribute generously. This increase the Community Chest had approved, on condition that the drive conducted in May should raise more than the minimum needed.

We urged eight inspectors for the Housing Bureau instead of two.

In order to increase the supply of houses we advocated, first, that employers of labor provide $500,000 additional capital for the Model Homes Company in order that they might build more low cost homes for people in the unskilled wage-earner groups.

In order to assist people in the higher wage earning class, who could afford to buy a $5000 or $6000 house, the League announced that it would award a prize of $500 for the best house selling for $5500 or less, constructed in the city of Cincinnati before the end of 1925.

We asked stronger public support for the Building and Loan Associations in order that more funds might be made available for prospective home owners.

Finally, we pleaded with the public to stand firmly behind the new zoning ordinance in order that the city might be protected against the development of slum conditions in the future.

## Outlook for the Program

Contrary to our aspirations, we already know that we cannot deliver 100 per cent on our program.

Completely Remodeled House, with Toilet, Sink and Electricity in Each Apartment; Laundry and Shower in Attic.

The Community Chest failed to exceed its quota and with it went our hopes for additional visiting housekeepers. In spite of this fact, however, ways have been found to employ one additional visiting housekeeper and there is a fair prospect that we may get another before the end of the present year.

Our plea for an increase in housing inspectors cannot be met until the city government gets more money. There has been issued, just as this paper is written, a report of a special committee which has been conducting an exhaustive investigation to find new sources of revenue. It is hoped that the findings of this committee will provide

for the city's financial dilemma, in which event we may well succeed in securing more inspectors. Meanwhile, within the past month one additional inspector has been added to the Housing Bureau —which is some gain at least.

That part of the program providing for additional capital for the Model Homes Company, so that they might build more low cost homes, has received a set back. They have just completed a new unit of group houses in which they hoped to rent four rooms for $35 per month. They find that in order to make ends meet they will have to charge $37.50 for such a flat. This, they consider, is too high for the average tenant of the class that they want to serve. Five years ago the cost to build one of their four-room flats in the row house was less than $1400. Today it costs over $3000 to reproduce the same unit. The Better Housing League had already interviewed several heads of industries and had found that it would have been possible to raise some additional capital for this purpose. However, at least for the present, we cannot look for relief in this direction.

The announcement of the $500 prize for the best house selling for $5500 or less has been made and every effort is being used to stimulate competition in the hope that local builders may succeed in producing a lower cost house than is being built.

These are the "Lights and Shadows" in the housing situation in Cincinnati. In some directions we have gained ground, in others we have fallen miserably short of our goal.

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# Negro Migration

*Its Effect on Family and Community Life in the North*

By GEORGE E. HAYNES

IN discussing the question of Negro migration to the North, four general facts should be mentioned as a background. First, the movement of the Negro population is only one phase of the migrations of populations from one section of America to another, and from Europe to America. These population movements have been great during the past seventy-five years, increasing with more rapid transportation and communication and with tremendous changes in agriculture and industry. The migration of Negroes northward since 1870 has ebbed and flowed decade by decade with the changes in industrial conditions and the tides of immigration from Europe.

There has been a white migration from the South to the North as well as a Negro migration. According to the Census, the number of whites born in the South but living in other states increased 780,576 between 1910 and 1920. During the same decade there was an increase of 340,260 Negroes in the entire North and West. In 1920 there were about two and a half times as many whites as Negroes who had been born in the South but were living in other States.¹

The second general fact is that the migration of Negroes northward during and since the World War is only the latest act in our great drama of democracy. These two great, diverse races are leading characters in this drama which is laid in our land of growing, congested cities and increasingly depleted rural districts. There have been at least two great acts preceding the present. The first act introduced and settled Negroes as slave workers into our labor system from the days of the colonies until the Civil War. Then free white labor and human conscience awakened and by great sacrifice of blood and treasure made the first correction of the economic and social blunders of the preceding generations. The second act opened with the emancipation of 4,000,000 slaves and continued until the World War. During that time these millions of emancipated, landless serfs more than doubled in numbers and thousands of them slowly shifted from landless tenants and farm laborers to independent farmers and to city dwellers. In the late seventies we had a great migration of Negroes from the agricultural regions of Mississippi, Alabama and Louisiana to Kansas and the Middle West, and fluctuating tides to the North in every decade since that time.

The World War raised the curtain upon the third act which is now before our eyes. The sudden call to arms in Europe, when the World War broke out, drew away thousands of unskilled and semi-skilled workers and created a labor vacuum in

northern industries and mines and on northern railroads. The Negro population furnished the one great source of surplus labor to northern industrial captains. Dissatisfaction with their surroundings, boll weevil and "hunger wages" in the South made Negroes eager to leave. We are beginning to perceive that the resulting migration is just a part of the family, industrial and community adjustments of two great racial groups that have lived side by side through three centuries of colonial and national development, affected by the coming and going of national groups from Europe.

The third general fact about this migration is that the adjustment of relations of these two races can no longer be regarded by anyone as a Southerner's question. It is national in its distribution, factors and influence. In 1920, 16 states had from one to five per cent of their total population Negro; 7 states had from five to twenty-five per cent of their total population Negro; 8 states had from twenty-five to fifty per cent of their population Negro; and two states had fifty per cent or over Negro. Thirty-three states now have a considerable percentage of the total population Negro. Whatever is done in Detroit, Cleveland or New York affects race relations in the South. The happenings in Mississippi and Louisiana are of moment to Michigan and Pennsylvania.

The fourth general fact is that the Negro people are an aspiring American group that has made progress and contributed substantial values to American life. They justify the belief in their greater future contributions. In the face of unusual and unwarranted barriers and discriminations, Negro poets, musicians, painters, educators, orators, scientists, inventors and others of talent have made substantial achievements. The rank and file of the group advanced to such an extent that the late Viscount Bryce said that the Negro in America made greater progress in the first thirty years of his freedom than did the Anglo-Saxon in any similar period of its history.

## Important Questions on the Migration

With these general facts in mind the effects of Negro migration upon family and community life in the North assume national importance. Among the many questions which naturally arise are the following: Is this movement temporary or is there to be a large permanent Negro population in northern communities? From what types of communities have these people come and to what types of communities are they going? What types of individuals and families have migrated to northern communities? What are some of the effects upon these Negro families and communities in the North? What are some of the effects upon the white fam-

¹ V. D. Johnston, *Opportunity*, Aug. 1923, p. 236.

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ilies and communities among whom they have settled?

*Is the Movement Temporary or Permanent?*

To the first question, about the temporary or permanent character of this new population, we may get an answer by summarizing some of the causes of the migration movement and some of the basic facts relating to it. The causes are economic, social, and personal. Economic causes involve the breaking down of southern agriculture in the last ten years, through the increasing spread and de-predations of the boll weevil on the cotton crop; the floods and drought in sections of the Alabama and Georgia, the changes in the crop system, and the decline of cotton prices in the early period of the World War and during the depression of 1920-21. All of these forces served to uproot the Negro farm hand and tenant from the plantations and agricul-tural districts and depress wages even lower than usual in the towns and cities of such states as Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Georgia, North and South Carolina.

At the time the Negro was leaving the farms, in 1915-1918, there came the sudden expansion of war industries and a great demand for coal and for rail-road transportation in war production for Europe and later for our own Army. The nations of Europe were calling their sons home and immigration from Europe to America was cut off. Northern em-ployers turned to the South, offering attractions of high wages and, in the earlier years, free transpor-tation. Negroes and whites came by the thousands. After the World War, the Immigration Law of 1921 admitted, as is well known, only 3 per cent of the national groups in the United States as shown by the census of 1910. The new quota law, which became effective July 1 changes, as we all know, the annual quota to 2 per cent of the national groups in this country in 1890, thus greatly reduc-ing European immigration with its supply of for-eign workers for an indefinite period.

With the expansion of industry taking place in our country, there will doubtless be for some years an increasing demand for semi-skilled and un-skilled labor in northern and western factories, coal mines and on railroads. The source of that labor supply is the Negro population in the cities, towns and rural districts of the South. There will probably come large numbers of Mexicans, who have been exempted from the quota law; but there are drawbacks to their coming into the northern districts. They speak a foreign language; Negroes speak English; Mexicans have foreign customs; Negroes know American ways; Mexicans will not show the patience and cheerfulness of the Negro. Negroes then will be the main source for labor recruits.

The large majority of Negro families are still making a terrific struggle to keep above the poverty line. One of the strongest aspirations of Negro mi-grants to the North has been to find economic sup-port and security for their families. During the

World War period thousands of Negro men for the first time found it possible to secure sufficient wages to provide for their families so that their wives were enabled to remain at home, free from the necessity of helping to win the daily bread in addition to performing the duties of housekeeper, wife, and mother.

The social causes involve principally the evils and injustices endured by the Negro and his fears and feelings from such evils as lynching, "Jim Crow" cars, unsatisfactory crop settlements, and lack of justice in the courts. For years an increas-ing feeling of restlessness and insecurity has been general. The lack of educational fa-cilities has been felt by Negro parents who increasingly are anxious about the edu-cation of their children. In 1923 Negroes in mass meetings in Mississippi and in Georgia passed reso-lutions stating that thousands were leaving these states because of low wages, lack of educational and other public facilities, lack of safety to life, and gen-eral despair of obtaining their rights as citizens. One of the statements declared that their State "sent more Negro soldiers to the World War than white; that the Negroes on their return home found themselves with no more voice in the state and government which they fought to defend than the German enemies whom they helped to stay from the American soil." The third group of causes, namely, the personal, has to do with many coming to the North to join relatives and friends, others having the restlessness to move from fa-miliar surroundings to see the world and the great cities and to enjoy the excitement of strange lands.

The probable permanence of this Negro popula-tion in northern industrial centers may also be seen in the figures of its growth. In each decade from 1880 to 1920 the increase of the Negro popu-lation in northern cities has been from two to five times as great as the increase of the Negro popu-lation in the continental United States. Further-more, it seems that the annual rate of migration has been accelerated. This is certainly true since 1910. From 1870 to 1910 the annual net increase of Negro population in the North and West was about 10,000 per year. Between 1910 and 1920 the average annual net increase was about 34,000 per year. As near as we can guess, in 1922 and 1923 there was a net increase between 100,000 and 150,- 000 a year of those who moved North.

To sum up the point,—since the causes of Negro migration are fundamentally economic, social and personal, and have operated for a long time; and since they will probably continue to operate for a considerable period of years with European immi-gration reduced probably to less than 20 per cent of its pre-war numbers, we may conclude that Ne-gro migration will continue for an indefinite period and that a large permanent Negro population will settle both in the northern industrial cities to which thousands have already come, in many other smaller industrial centers not now attracting them, and probably in some of the farming districts.

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To the propagandists like those of last year, who claimed that Negroes were returning in large numbers to the South, it may be said that careful observation for successive years of more than a decade shows that probably about ten per cent have returned as each wave of population has moved North. Of these, however, indeterminate numbers are returning to visit relatives, to wind up personal affairs preparatory to permanent residence in the North, and many of them are workers and servants who move back and forth with the tourist seasons.

## Types of Communities From Which Negroes Go

The types of communities from which Negro migrants are coming show the community experience they bring to the North. In the southern rural districts there are neighborhoods where independent Negro farmers are in the large majority and own much of the land they till. So far only small numbers of such migrants have come north. In other rural areas the large plantations and tenant farms with Negro tenants and farm hands prevail. Three out of every four Negro farmers in 1920 were either croppers, share tenants or cash tenants. In districts of such tenant farmers, the families are usually scattered over the plantations and farms and live in small cabins usually of one room, or sometimes two rooms, and a lean-to kitchen. These plantation workers either about make ends meet or they are in debt from year to year, according to the success of the cotton crop, the fairness of the landlord and the thrift of the tenant or farm laborer. The average annual returns to the Negro tenant farmer in one county in Georgia in 1923 was estimated at less than $225. The wages of farm hands before the heavy migration of recent years ranged from 50 cents to $1.00 per day. In two black belt counties of Alabama in 1916-1918 such laborers were receiving 50 cents to 60 cents per day. The public schools in the majority of such districts, usually ungraded, run from three to six months and are taught by poorly prepared, poorly paid teachers in ramshackle buildings or churches with practically no teaching equipment.

The most influential institution for reaching the Negro community is the Negro church. The Protestant Negro churches have grown rapidly during the past sixty years. With their bishops, their presidents of conventions, moderators, district superintendents, and other general officers and their local ministers they have made great headway in organizing and serving the people in many ways. The Negro minister may have been lacking often in knowledge and worldly wisdom, but he soothed the sorrows, fired the hopes and guided the minds of the masses. Shut off from most of the other intellectual, political, commercial and emotional channels of community expression, Negroes have found an untrammeled outlet in their churches. They built up its form, made its rules and traditions, handled its finances and picked its leaders unhindered by the surrounding world. They awoke in turn

to find it the greatest of their instruments for group service and group expression.

In each rural district there is usually at least a small Baptist and a small Methodist church. Meetings are held at such churches once or twice a month, when the roads allow travel. There the exchanges of gossip and experience of all kinds are made and social contact and community stimulation through fellowship are found. The minister usually lives in a nearby town and serves several churches on successive Sundays. Agencies and activities for wholesale recreation, intellectual or other culture are conspicuous by their absence. Monotony of life is occasionally relieved for the young people miles around by a hunt, a picnic or a dance.

Community life in the small towns and cities under 10,000 inhabitants does not differ greatly from that of the rural districts, except that there is usually a better school building, a longer school term and teachers with a little better pay and a little better training. A majority of these colored residents have somewhat better houses than those on the farms. There are usually some Negro families with homes that compare favorably with the best white families.

The churches in these urban centers usually have resident ministers and play a large part in the life of such communities. Here, too, secret societies make their influence felt upon the men more than in the rural districts and colored women's clubs exercise influence for social and moral advancement. Frequently a moving picture exhibition, a stereopticon lecture, a musical or some other entertainment comes to town and holds forth at the church. The church and Sunday School often furnish some outlet such as an occasional sociable picnic or outing.

In the large cities, like Memphis, Nashville, Birmingham, Atlanta and New Orleans, the Negro community life takes on larger aspects. Time does not permit a complete description of this life. Some of its features center about the rank and file of the Negro wage earners who live in small, two, three, and four-room frame houses where paved streets, sanitation and sewerage provision, police and fire protection are absent or meagre, but where close proximity and numbers offer advantages of group life and association. Such larger numbers of the Negro population in segregated neighborhoods furnish a foundation for Negro business enterprises and professional classes who in turn set higher standards of living and have leisure and education for intellectual, social and spiritual development.

Health hazards because of numbers, housing congestion and living conditions are greater than in rural districts; but increasing realization by white people of the connection between the health of the Negro neighborhood and that of the whole community and increasing numbers of Negro doctors and nurses have secured better attention to Negro health needs. Negro doctors and dentists have multiplied until in 1920 there were about 4500 of them located mainly in the town and city centers of the South. Hospitals, public sanitation and health in-

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struction have increasingly received attention. Public schools in these larger cities are usually better than those of the rural districts and small towns. Buildings and equipment have been rising in quality; the pay of Negro teachers, while below that for white teachers of similar grades, is sufficient to attract good ability.

Negro churches are larger, many having brick structures of imposing architecture, with resident ministers of training and character. These are the most influential centers. Fraternal societies, women's clubs and other voluntary organizations give expression to group life. Blocks and neighborhoods of Negro homes are among the best.

In the rural districts as well as in the towns and cities the several Negro neighborhoods usually become knit together in an autonomous Negro community and are almost entirely segregated from the white neighborhoods. There has been little political and civic organization and life in these southern communities because of disfranchisement and exclusion from county, town or city law-making, law-interpreting or law-executing machinery. Separate schools for Negro children and youth, separate accommodation on street cars and railroad trains, separate churches and even separate cemeteries have brought almost a complete isolation of large sections of the Negro world. Such segregation has been partly the cause and partly the effects of legal disfranchisement which excluded participation in political and civic life of the community. Through segregation the white world knew little of the achievements of Negroes and Negro communities during the past sixty years. The Negro leaders of these communities, educated very largely in the 500 mission and philanthropic schools scattered in over 200 communities, have furnished types of able professional and business men and women who have been the guides of the people.

## Types of Communities Into Which Negro Migrants Come

Let us contrast these situations with the kinds of communities in which the migrants are settling in the North. These may be indicated, first, by the fact that in 1920 there were seventeen industrial cities in the North which then contained ten thousand or more Negroes. There were sixteen small industrial cities or suburban residential cities in which there were between five and ten thousand Negroes. Judging from Census estimates and first-hand local surveys, we may estimate that probably four of these smaller cities in 1924 have a Negro population of about ten thousand each. This makes a probable total of twenty-one northern cities now, in each of which the Negro population equals or exceeds ten thousand. In 1920 nearly three-fourths of the Negro population in the North was living in ten industrial districts named by Prof. M. N. Work as follows:

<table><tr><td>Indianapolis District</td><td>47,550</td></tr><tr><td>Detroit-Toledo</td><td>55,918</td></tr><tr><td>Cleveland-Youngstown</td><td>58,850</td></tr><tr><td>Kansas City District</td><td>65,393</td></tr><tr><td>Pittsburgh District</td><td>88,273</td></tr></table>

<table><tr><td>Columbus-Cincinnati</td><td>89,651</td></tr><tr><td>St. Louis District</td><td>102,607</td></tr><tr><td>Chicago District</td><td>131,580</td></tr><tr><td>Philadelphia District</td><td>248,343</td></tr><tr><td>New York District</td><td>251,340</td></tr></table>

These industrial districts include a number of the smaller industrial cities and suburban industrial and residential centers such as Evanston, Ill., Gary, Ind., Toledo, Ohio, and Chester, Pa. Because of their previous hard and hum-drum experience on farms and plantations, the Negro migrant has a prejudice against rural life. Because, also, of the apparent better wage and other attractions of town life, the farming districts of the North, even the rich farming areas of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and New Jersey, have not attracted these migrants. The Connecticut Valley tobacco district, with here and there a few truck farms, has apparently been the only rural area that has drawn Negroes in any numbers to agricultural work. With a few exceptions, such as the large increase in some of the smaller steel centers like Youngstown, Ohio, and Gary, Ind., the tendency of the Negro population seems to be to move more rapidly toward the larger centers such as New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, Cleveland and Detroit.

The industrial attraction of these cities for Negro migrants partly explains the trend and arises from about seven basic industries: iron and steel mills, automobile manufactures, chemical and allied factories, foundries and hardware factories, slaughtering and meat packing, stone, tile and glass industry, and the clothing trades. The centers of the textile industries have not attracted Negroes. The building trades in some cities have held restrictions through some of their unions. The mining towns of Pennsylvania attracted thousands during the coal shortage of the war period, and types of railroad work called for considerable numbers. The more technical phase of manufacturing industries, especially those where union labor holds sway and that require highly trained labor, attract only limited numbers of Negro migrants. The communities of the basic industries named above, that require much unskilled and semi-skilled labor, are those to which the large majority of migrants are moving. Much of the domestic and personal service in many of these communities performed by European immigrants heretofore is now done by Negro workers, especially women.

One other factor in these communities has been the presence of a considerable number of Negro residents in the larger centers like Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Cleveland and Detroit before the heavy migration of the last ten years. They enjoyed a large measure of freedom in the life of these communities. The public schools were open to their children without much tendency toward segregation. Many of these residents were in mixed church congregations and some of them held positions of importance and responsibility in business or the local government. Some were in business for themselves. They were fairly well integrated into the community life.

*(To be concluded in October)*

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# On "Knowing" the Negro

By ANNE BIDDLE STIRLING

AT the annual meeting of the Commission for Inter-Racial Cooperation, held in July at Asheville, N. C., a white man from Mississippi was asked if he'd like to speak. Warming to his subject, and waving his arms over his head, he shouted: "Yes, I Know Negroes! Through and through, and down to the ground I know 'em. Better than any other one thing in all this world —unless it's a mule! They want a chance," he shrieked. "Well, I'm for 'em! Let 'em have a chance, and let's see what's in 'em!"

Glancing around at the Negro faces near me— some as white as is my own—I sensed the difficult toleration these finely educated men and women were feeling toward this well intentioned camp meeting ranter of the "dominant race."

Men who had carried off honors from Yale and Harvard, Columbia and Penn, and had since headed colleges for their own youth, looked carefully down their noses while sympathetic white Mississippi claimed intimacy with them and a mule and willingness to give them a chance to show "what's in 'em!"

It was one scintillating glimpse of what the educated pioneer of the brown race puts up with

daily, with more or less patience, in both the South and the North. For this problem of how the two races shall live side by side, with happiness and advantage to both, has now become a national one since thousands of colored folk have left the South for the North and West.

I comforted myself thinking that, stupid as the situation was, Mississippi might receive additional gleams of light for this man's presence in the conference. And the economic welfare of Mississippi is greatly in want of some such in-shining of new ideas. It will be remembered that after a delegation of Negroes was heard by the Mississippi Legislature on the needs of the Mississippi Negro to make his life tolerable, a paper was largely signed by members of that Legislature, stating that if he kept in his place all would be well, but as soon as the Negro of Mississippi forgot his time honored place, "it would be moving day for him." It has been "moving day" for so many Negroes of the South that heavy loss of money and much hardship have ensued. In the long run, however, the Migration, under God, is the most useful and far reaching movement, both for the white man and the Negro, since Emancipation.

# A Song in Praise

(To One Who Praised His Lady's Being Fair)

By COUNTEE P. CULLEN

YOU have not heard my love's dark throat,
Slow-fluting like a reed,
Release the perfect golden note
She caged there for my need.

Her walk is like the replica
Of some barbaric dance
Wherein the soul of Africa
Is winged with arrogance.

And yet so light she steps across
The ways her sure feet pass,
She does not dent the smoothest moss
Or bend the thinnest grass.

My love is dark as yours is fair,
Yet lovelier I hold her,
Than listless maids with pallid hair
And blood that's thin and colder.

You proud-and-to-be-pitied one,
Gaze on her and despair,
Then seal your lips until the sun
Discovers one as fair.

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Replica

By EUNICE ROBERTA HUNTON

NOONDAY sun scorched a treeless ribbon of brick red road; a breeze hot and languid stirred fitfully; angry red dust rose in great puffs only to settle back heavily on all who dared the road, and then—impasse. For the way ended quite suddenly in a cordon of vehicles. There was a wheelbarrow of anti-bellum origin wedged in between a fifth hand Packard and a delivery wagon of doubtful age. A Ford, shining and new, rubbed shoulders with a road mender's pitch cart. They were all there, these and dozens of others barring the entrance to a grove of Georgia oaks.

In the cool shadow of the mammoth trees the heat of the road was forgotten. Life was a pleasant bustle—shouts of merriment from youths in holiday attire, shrill cries from romping children, mellow peals of laughter from slim brown girls, whose comely bodies stood silhouetted as streaks of light pierced thin and clinging garments; the punent fumes of charcoal fires mingling with savory odors of barbecue; tables groaning beneath their weight of food, the food of the great Negro South —ham, pink and juicy, platters of rich brown chicken, pans of golden rolls, steaming pigs' feet, deep, flaky pies, yellow corn bread with fish fried crisp and brown, cake in profusion, and everywhere pails of lemonade beside ice cream freezers oozing streams of brackish water. But suddenly, from the heart of the grove, there came a throbbing, a pulsing that dominated the whole, that stilled laughter, that quenched appetites, that pulled and drew until presently the whole assembly stood ringed in a circle at the feet of the three on the little raised platform. And they who stood above were in truth exalted. With eyes closed and an

expression of mysticism about their faces they beat their drums, a large bass drum and two smaller ones throbbing in the irregular beats of a monotonous syncopation,—the same measure over and over again. They wove a spell and took possession of one, yet all the while one was conscious of a certain familiarity. Those drumbeats seemed but the echo of some well known theme.

But the train of reflection and self searching was broken, for into the center of the circle had leaped a wierd figure, an old woman, burnt black with the suns of many summers and worn thin with the burdens of years; but her turbaned figure was as straight as an arrow and the eyes which she now closed in ecstacy were clear and bright. Her apron flapped grotesquely in the breeze as she began a dance of astounding agility and abandon. In a moment or two she was joined by a girl barely out of her teens. The girl was barefooted and her short gingham dress was cut low at the throat. Her bare skin gleamed like burnished copper in the sunlight. As she began to dance the dusky mane of her hair tumbled down, her full red lips drooped slightly apart, the swell of her ripe young breasts rose and fell with drumbeat after drumbeat, and the youths in the circle watched spellbound. Soon woman after woman, throwing away restraint, joined the dancers and the dance itself increased in abandon and barbarity as the minutes slipped away.

And then memory came flooding back. It was the memory of jungle nights, of stagnant heat, of prowling beasts, of glowing fires, of the tom tom's pulsing beat, of naked bodies gleaming in the firelight, dancing, dancing, dancing, and the strong black arms of a belted chief.

Brown Boy to Brown Girl

(Remembrance on a Hill)

By COUNTEE P. CULLEN

“AS SURELY as I hold your hand in mine,
As surely as your crinkled hair belies
The enamoured sun, pretending that he dies
While still he loiters in its glossy shine,
As surely as I break the slender line
That spider linked us with, in no least wise
Am I uncertain that these alien skies
Do not our whole life measure and confine.

“No less, once in a land of scarlet suns
And brooding winds, before the hurricane
Bore down upon us, long before this pain,
We found a place where quiet water runs;
I held your hand this way upon a hill,
And felt my heart forebear, my pulse grow still.”

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Opportunity's Literary Prize Contest Awards

THE CONTEST will include first, second, and third prizes for the following types of writing:

<table><tr><td>Short Story—First Prize</td><td>$100.00</td></tr><tr><td>Second Prize</td><td>40.00</td></tr><tr><td>Third Prize</td><td>15.00</td></tr></table>

<table><tr><td>Poetry—First Prize</td><td>$40.00</td></tr><tr><td>Second Prize</td><td>15.00</td></tr><tr><td>Third Prize</td><td>5.00</td></tr></table>

<table><tr><td>Play—First Prize</td><td>$60.00</td></tr><tr><td>Second Prize</td><td>35.00</td></tr><tr><td>Third Prize</td><td>15.00</td></tr></table>

<table><tr><td>Essay—First Prize</td><td>$50.00</td></tr><tr><td>Second Prize</td><td>30.00</td></tr><tr><td>Third Prize</td><td>10.00</td></tr></table>

Personal Experience Sketch—

<table><tr><td>First Prize</td><td>$30.00</td></tr><tr><td>Second Prize</td><td>20.00</td></tr><tr><td>Third Prize</td><td>5.00</td></tr></table>

For the next ten best stories, poems, plays, and essays there will be free criticism by competent authorities in each field of letters.

The winning stories will be published.

Prize winners will be formally announced at a special meeting in New York.

## RULES OF THE CONTEST

This contest is designed to stimulate creative effort among Negroes and quite without any notion of discrimination is confined to Negro contestants.

## SHORT STORIES

The stories must deal with some phase of Negro life, either directly or indirectly; otherwise there are no restrictions. They may be romantic, realistic, humorous, and will be judged upon their quality as a good short story.

These stories must not exceed 5000 words.

## POETRY

No restrictions are placed upon the themes of the poems.

## PLAYS

The plays must deal with some phase of Negro life, either directly or indirectly; otherwise there are no restrictions. They may be romantic, realistic, humorous, and will be judged upon their quality as a good play.

## ESSAYS

The object here is simply to bid for a much abused type of literary expression, in the hope of finding some examples of recognizable literary merit. The contestant will strive for clarity of diction, forcefulness, and originality of ideas, logical structure, deft and effective employment of language, accuracy of data, and economy of words. The subject may be of the contestant's selection but must relate directly or indirectly to Negro life and contacts, or situations in which Negroes have a conspicuous interest.

These essays are limited to 3000 words.

## PERSONAL EXPERIENCE SKETCHES

These sketches must be an actual experience and relate to some incident or situation or circumstance of personal life which makes it possible to understand how one feels and acts in the presence of a particular life problem. The contestant will strive for complete frankness and self-scrutiny, truthfulness, and clarity of expression.

These will be limited to 2000 words.

Any story, poem, play, essay, or personal experience sketch that has already been published is ineligible for this contest.

The contest will close December 31, 1924.

This contest reserves the right to reject all manuscripts in any division if the contributions are deemed below a reasonable standard of quality or insufficient in number.

A complete list of the judges will be published in a later issue. Some of the acceptances are quoted for their expressed interest in the future of creative expression among Negroes. They include the sentiments of leaders of American letters.

John Farrar, Editor, THE BOOKMAN, says:

> "I shall be very happy to act as judge in the poetry contest and am honored that you want me to do so. As you know, I am much interested in work of all young writers, and perhaps even more in that of the Negro race."

Carl Van Doren, Editor, CENTURY MAGAZINE, author, writes:

> "I shall be glad to serve as one of the judges of your prize contest for short stories by Negro writers if you want me to. Though I have lately declined every other such invitation, on the score of overwork, this one has not caused me a moment's hesitation."

Clement Wood, author, contributor of poems, articles and short stories to magazines, replies:

> "I am delighted to serve as one of the judges of OPPORTUNITY's poetry contest for the younger Negro writers."

John Macy, author and editor, says:

> "I shall be very glad to act as one of the judges in your contest and to help your work in any way that I can."

Montgomery Gregory, Director, Department of Dramatics, Howard University, states:

> "I want to congratulate you upon having taken a step that should do more than anything in the past toward the development of the younger Negro writers. It has been my dream: it is your splendid realization.

> "I shall be delighted to serve as one of the judges for plays and I shall, therefore, await further instructions from you. I note that you have made an unusually happy choice of persons to serve as judges."

Robert Hobart Davis, dramatist, Editor, MUNSEY'S, responds as follows:

> "I am interested in . . . the work of the Negro writers in this country. I would like to do whatever I can to encourage them in their development."

Dorothy Scarborough, author, book reviewer and short story critic, contributor of short stories, articles and verse to newspapers and magazines, writes:

> "I am very much interested in the development of

*(Continued on page 279)*

OPPORTUNITY

SEPTEMBER, 1924

# OUR BOOK SHELF

## Authentic History of the Ku Klux Klan
1865 - 1877

By S. L. DAVIS

American Library Service, New York. Price $3.50

THE jacket of this book, like the fifth chapter of Genesis and the first chapter of Matthews, gives us a genealogy of the author, without using, of course, that sacred old English word "begat," but throws very little light upon the source of her prejudices. We are promised also the amazing revelations that a Catholic priest, a Jew, and a prominent mason were klansmen, just as if it were apparently impossible for such men to belong to the band of outlaws which this book seeks to glorify. Although the book pretends to be an authentic history, there are scarcely any references to confirm the many quotations from men and books.

The author assigns the most puerile causes for events. Every member of the klan, according to the author, was an angelic soul, going on "a mission of mercy." Mrs. Stowe is an arch-fiend who wrote a book which Lincoln read and, not knowing any better, began war on the noble South.

If a klansman does anything wrong, it was not a real klansman. Of course, murderous assaults upon white and colored people are not wrongs, if they are stamping out social equality, and establishing white supremacy. White women who came South to educate Negroes, according to the author, were really there to establish social equality. The Grandfather Clause is one of the noble pieces of legislation catalogued in this book. The author still entertains the silly conception of the Negro, as a servant made for white people. people.

Running throughout the book are many inconsequential and irrelevent episodes. Rather than an authentic history, it is the expression of a bitter old woman, expressing all of the old hatred and childish images, developed in a period of social upheaval.

E. Franklin Frazier.

## Darker Phases of the South

By FRANK TANNENBAUM

G. P. Putnam's Sons, New York City. Price $2.00

AN unbiased and dispassionate discussion of the Ku Klux Klan, its social origin and moral effect, a presentation of the problems arising from the mill and single crop systems of the South, a pitiless exposure of the southern prison conditions, together with a chapter on southern problems and possible solutions, takes one through a brief volume of gripping interest. One feels instantly that Mr. Tannenbaum approaches the subject with the cool but keen perceptions of a student and an earnest desire to get at the truth of things in so far as is humanly possible. Whether or not one were in sympathy with his point of view, one would be bound to respect the tone of conviction which dominates the work.

The opening chapter which, in truth, serves as a background for the rest of the discussion, contains a summary of the new economic and social status of the Negro and on the heels of that makes a very clever and rather unusual attempt at a psychological analysis of the renewed activities of the Ku Klux Klan. This, like all the other present day evil monsters, is shown to us to be indirectly the result of the recent World War and more directly the response to an inordinate craving for excitement, plus a desire to combat the growing power of the Negro in the South. Against this background of a stagnant, sullen and brooding yet quivering, restless South, the author has flung his vivid pictures of the social and economic life of its masses. A large proportion of these masses "are," to

quote Mr. Tannenbaum—who in his turn is quoting a southern gentleman, "the people who made this country,—good, sturdy Anglo-Saxon stock, much better than the rich loafers who spend their time playing billiards and pool." These are the people who are living, or rather existing, and working in the mill towns of the South, existing there under a system of paternalism that breaks down initiative, snuffs out individuality, and entombs them within the walls of the mill town. These people feel that they are set apart and count themselves outcasts on the lowest rung of the social ladder. Though their children are better educated and they themselves are better cared for, they hold themselves beneath the miserable cropper because their independence is gone and with it their self-respect. The croppers and the tenant farmers, those victims of the single crop system, live in a kind of feudalism for they owe a creditor their very crops and the creditor is in his turn a vassal of king cotton. To this system, which keeps all noses to the plow at a minimum profit, the author attributes a great number of the social and economic solution problems of the South on the ground that "it seems to industrialize the farming community and make the farm an out of door factory." For a solution, he merely refers us to the cooperative activities of the farmers of the Middle West. It is a little difficult to see how the South, with its point of view, can readily grasp and put into execution the program of the farmers of the North and Middle West. There is one other picture, that of the all too familiar filth, brutality, and impropriety of southern prison and chain gang life. We are spared none of the sordid details and the chapter reads like a tale of Dickens or even of one of his predecessors of the unenlightened days of England or the continent.

But somehow not one of these pictures is black or despairing,—there is a note of assurance of better days. Throughout the whole there is a coherent lightness of touch that prevents the work from being merely a series of pedantic monographs. And in the end, as throughout, there is a feeling that the author knows a great deal more than he tells, that his reservations are just as important as his revelations and perhaps more sordid and tragic. One respects him for this because it is only the true scholar and seeker after truth and a just solution who can refrain from wallowing in emotional descriptions that blur the sight and clog the brain. This author scorns emotionalism and attributes the South's greatest problem, the so-called Negro problem, to "an-emotional fixation upon the Negro." And the problem, he maintains, has no solution. Yet he offers what some would call a solution. His does not require much of a conscious program inasmuch as the trend of the times is taking care that it be tried out and faint signs of success are already appearing upon the horizon.

Eunice Roberta Hunton.

## Mister Fish Kelly

By ROBERT McBLAIR

D. Appleton and Company, New York. Price $2.00

THE delineation of the traditional joke book Negro in American literature seems to have been regarded as the signal for the perennial representation of his race in that, or a coarser, guise. And so, with something akin to unanimity, writers have passed on, like racial heirlooms, descriptions that scorn the truthful picture. A part, grotesquely caricatured, has been accepted for the whole. "Mister Fish Kelly" is not an exception to this well-nigh invariable practice. The situations holding the "irresistible humor" of the Negro characters can be summarized as follows:

Mister Fish Kelly is represented as a dark-complexioned man, too weak to resist the dominance of another Negro, "Lawyer" Little, a unique combination

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of garrulity, ignorance and egotism. With unnatural rapidity, Fish successively sought in matrimony Miss Ella, Anna Henry, and Macedonia Clinton. Miss Ella's prodigious capacity for hard work qualified her as a good provider; Anna Henry's eligibility for receiving six hundred dollars on the policy of her husband, mourned dead, accentuated her desirability as a wife; Macedonia Clinton, cultured daughter of the aristocratic CTontons, had irresistible charm—and money. It was she who urged Fish to sever relations with "Lawyer"; it was she who became Mrs. Fish Kelly. For Fish marriage meant the finding of another per-secutor—his father-in-law. Life became unbearable, so unbearable that Fish welcomed with joy, but with a joy mingled with remorse, the death which he was most certain would attend his blood-transfusion for Fish Kelly, Junior.

But Fish did not die. Neither did Fish Kelly, Junior.

Then came vengeance. It was a queer trick of Fate, but it brought Fish and Fish Kelly, Junior, independence.

"Mister Fish Kelly" is intended merely to be funny, yet much that may be intended for humor is not humor at all but a crude slap-stick imitation of it. This is entirely harmless, of course, if the reader can sufficiently divorce himself from habit to laugh at the exaggerated characters of fiction, rather than at the race they represent.

The setting of the novel is unquestionably Norfolk, Va. The dialect, if not entirely faithful, is intelligible. Macedonia Clinton, described as a gifted young woman, also speaks Mr. McBlair's dialect. Delusions of the Negro's gluttony, superstition, cunning, etc., apparently are not too stale—or too false—for this humorist's adoption.

If "Mister Fish Kelly" were the frank, non-racial enjoyment of the imperfect, the impossible, or the improbable, its funny incidents would be entertaining. But it is beyond the infancy of Negro delineation. One cannot but feel that the Negro race deserves a better fate than to be recorded in literature, even in pseudo-literature, as the improbable creatures of the caricaturist's imagination.
Carrie Ora Daniel.

## The Negro Faces America

By HERBERT J. SELIGMANN

Press of Clarence S. Nathan, Inc., New York. Price $1.00

Mr. SELIGMANN has reissued in a cheaper edition this book which was originally published by Harper's in the spring of 1920. A new foreword has been added to summarize the changes which have occurred since the main text of the book was written; the recital of these changes is largely confined to achievements "in the republic of arts and letters," although he also refers to the Negro's new political emancipation from traditional party allegiance. "So far as the presentation in this book is concerned," writes Mr. Seligmann in his new foreword, "the picture has not changed considerably."

Formerly a writer on the staffs of the New York Evening Post and the New Republic and for the last several years Director of Publicity for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Mr. Seligmann drew that picture well. It is because he etched so deeply into his subject that his drawing needs so little realignment; for one cannot reasonably expect profound changes in mass thinking within the period of less than half a decade. For those who are just beginning to explore the field of interracial understanding and adjustment, the exposition is in the main clear and at times incisive; for the older students certain strokes stand out powerfully and with assured appreciation.

The author's past and present experience explains his approach to the subject. The artillery of publicity, at times concentrated on some special citadel of injustice and continuously pounding at the earthworks of prejudice and exploitation, is what he knows and be-

lieves in. The achievements of the poor devils in the front-line trenches, living the problem in the rough and gradually winning ground as skirmishers and in mass formations—the aggregate of these successes as a factor in past advances and in promise for the future is, I believe, undervalued. For this reason the less spectacular work of the late Booker T. Washington as drill-master for the ranks is made to appear spineless in the face of exploitation and injustice, whereas it has been the backbone of the whole advance.

Mr. Seligmann, for instance, refers to the Atlanta incident, when colored voters held up for three years a school bond issue until provision was made in it for the development of their own educational facilities. The incident was significant in itself, but it is interesting to look behind it. How did a sufficient number of Negroes get on the voters' list to hold this balance of power? Was it because they demanded their constitutional right to vote, or because they had won it on their individual merit from a suspicious and exacting South? There is surely a place for agitation for rights in any democracy; there is just as surely, however, a place for emphasis on fitting one's self for the responsibilities which go with those rights. And the Negro is facing America with an ever-growing body of "self-made" citizens, thanks to Dr. Washington's life.

Again, if Mr. Seligmann is correct in his thesis that "a tolerable future for the relations between white and colored people in the United States depends for the most part upon white labor," the Negro must equip himself to win respect from white labor. Tolerable relations depend on cooperation, and that in turn is based on understanding and respect. These are won by the individual on the job of life (whether in work or in play) and any recital of rights is stimulative but not an honest substitute.

Lacking the machinery of a large publishing firm, Mr. Seligmann cannot expect a wide distribution of his book (even at the moderate price of this new edition) unless he has the cooperation of those who appreciate its merit. It is an important study of the Negro *per se* and of the inter-racial situation in the early stages of the post-war development, and it will continue important until a more detailed study is made possible to be encompassed within one volume. "The Negro Faces America" can be read to good advantage by all with any degree of interest in race relations.

C. S. J.

## Opportunity's Literary Prize Contest

*(Continued from page 277)*

the talents, artistic and otherwise, of the Negroes, and I shall be happy to serve as a judge in the short story contest. I think the plan excellent for arousing interest."

Zona Gale, author, contributor to magazines, says:

"I am very much honored by your invitation to act as one of the judges in the Negro writers' contest. Thank you for thinking of me, and I accept with pleasure."

Edna Worthley Undersood, writer, linguist, author of "The Passion Flower," "The Penitent," writes:

"I am just in receipt of your favor relative to OPPORTUNITY's $500 prize contest. I think it is a splendid plan which you outline to me in your letter and I shall be most happy to serve as one of the judges."

Blanche Colton Williams, editor, author, instructor, Columbia University, accepts as follows:

"Your request honors me and I take pleasure in saying I will gladly serve as judge in connection with the $500 offer of OPPORTUNITY . . .

"The award that OPPORTUNITY will make in this contest seems to me a happy idea and one that cannot but be helpful to more than one young man and woman."

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## INTER-RACIAL FORUM

FROM the Oakland, Cal., *Voice*: "Ridiculous part of the whole thing is that the same man who claims that he cannot bear to have a Negro on his street in many instances will have no others as servants in his home, and they sleep under the same roof. Inconsistency, thou art a jewel!"

The Natchez, Miss., *Democrat*: "Schools, whether for whites or for blacks, help us to bring our citizenship up to higher levels. The hope of the black race, like the hope of the white race, is largely in the children of the race and we must keep that in mind when we deal with school policies."

In the Boston, Mass., *Christian Science Monitor*: "One who looks about today and observes the visible signs of the progress made in the last half-century by the American Negroes will, if unbiased and just in his estimates of that progress, agree that they have made a propitious beginning in the age-long task of emancipating themselves from the slavery of ignorance and superstition, a heritage from their long years of physical servitude to their white masters, and of a longer period of moral and intellectual darkness in the wilds of Africa. . . . Their problem has not yet been solved. Some day it will be solved, and it is this bright promise that encourages those who learn and those who teach."

From the candidates for President of the United States: Calvin Coolidge, Republican, in the New York *Times*, replying to a letter of protest against the candidacy of Dr. Charles H. Roberts, a Negro Alderman, of New York, for Congress: "You have suggested that in some fashion I should bring influence to bear to prevent the possibility of a colored man being nominated for Congress. In reply I quote my great predecessor, Theodore Roosevelt—'I cannot consent to take the position that the door of hope—the door of opportunity—is to be shut upon any man, no matter how worthy, purely upon the ground of race or color.'"

John W. Davis, Democrat, in the New York *Daily News*: "No disaster that the mind can picture equals in its hideous possibilities the coming in this country of a separation of its citizenship into discordant groups along racial or religious lines. I shall set up no standard of religious faith or racial origin as a qualification for any office."

Robert M. La Follette, on a Third Party ticket, in the New York *World*: "I am unilaterally opposed to the evident purposes of the secret organization known as the Ku Klux Klan, as disclosed by its public acts. It cannot long survive. Relying upon the sound judgment and good sense of our people, it is my opinion that such a movement is doomed. It has within its own body the seeds of its death."

## POT POURRI

### *French Lessons in Tolerance*

THERE is a great deal of flub-dub uttered by our public men and repeated in our newspapers about this country being a "great moral force" in the affairs of the world. But a country which proscribes a Roman Catholic from holding the Presidency, which discriminates against its colored citizens and submits to the terrorism of the Anti-Saloon League and the Ku Klux Klan, has no right to regard itself as a "great moral force." Anyway, it is not so considered by Japan, Haiti, Mexico or, in fact, any foreign country.

The greatest "moral force" in the world among nations is the Republic of France. Since the days of Louis the Fourteenth, France has claimed to march at the head of civilization and Victor Hugo acclaimed Paris as the "City of Light."

The France of Gaston Doumergue has a right to this claim. M. Doumergue, a follower of John Calvin, was recently elected President of the French Republic and no one asked whether he was a Protestant, a Roman Catholic, a Jew, a Mussalman or an Atheist. M. Clemenceau, who does

not believe in God, has been several times Prime Minister of France.

Another lesson in tolerance was given the world and more particularly this country by France yesterday when a monument erected by the Government was dedicated to the Negro troops in the great war. General Achinard in his dedicatory address praised their courage and the part they took in final victory.

"Our black sharpshooters," he said, "conducted themselves like good Frenchmen, showing themselves worthy of fighting by our sides.

"The Negro troops engaged before Rheims from May to July 1918 comprised about a dozen battalions, or scarcely a tenth of all the troops on this front. They were terrible to the Germans because they regarded the Germans as savages, fighting with disloyal arms and devastating everything from love of evil. Our sharpshooters fought well for France because she treats them with humanity and justice."

Edouard Daladier, Minister of the Colonies, said that 800,000 black troops fought for France and 30,000 were killed on battlefields.

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This is the France of Voltaire and Rousseau, of the great Revolution which proclaimed the rights of man. It is because of these things that France has become the second Fatherland of every Liberal in the world.

Brooklyn, N. Y., CITIZEN.

## Blood First; Education Last

THOSE particles of the red blood corpuscles of the children of Thomas W. Perrie (White?) of Baden, Maryland, which impart a darksome hue, invisible and, perhaps, imaginary, asserted themselves long enough to induce the County Board of Education to bar Mr. Perrie's children from the Baden Agricultural High School, on the ground that the kiddies are of Negro blood and that despite their baby blue eyes and Nordic ways their blood content is saturated with a drop or two of purest African life fluid which, forever and anon, in Maryland, my Maryland, quarantines them from the institution of learning into which they sought entrance.

The two children, it is said, entered the school several months ago and later became the subjects of a protest which was filed with the Board of Education by some public-spirited (?) citizens who locked education outside the back gate and hitched a blood test to the front door. The amiable principal, who was more interested in public sentiment that he was in public education, promptly barred the blue-eyed babies from an opportunity of studying Shaplace's Nebular Hypothesis, and their case was carried to the august Board of Education, which has decided that "in view of the pronounced sentiment in the community, an order directing their admission would result in the closing of the school."

Gracious, how inconvenient! And what matters it whether a kiddie is given an opportunity to acquire an education when the mental welfare of a white community is at stake? How terribly inconvenient! Taxes, patriotism, wealth—they all matter not in Maryland. Blood, first; education, last. Coming along just after the enforcement of Virginia's new "Integrity Act," which traces blood back to the Mayflower, and attempts to separate

the sheep from the goats, it's a fine reminder of the one hundred per cent type of education. If these tests are carried back to a fare-thee-well decision, the Negro population in the United States will increase nearly thirty per cent. We'll bet a lot of "Nordics" are shaking in their boots right now. Education. Moses—Solomon—Saint Paul. They had only a mere sprinkling from the spring of learning. But now! Oh well, it's different now. High blood pressure has made it so very different!

St. Louis, Mo., ARGUS.

## The Persian Affair

THE United States has made demands upon Persia to "protect American citizens in her territory" and pay all the expenses of bringing the body of Major Imbrie home; also indemnify his widow, as well as punish those responsible for his death.

The Persian native has a strong superstitious aversion to being photographed, especially the women. Major Imbrie by his reckless disregard of the native custom virtually committed suicide when he attempted to photograph that crowd of natives, who were then at a high pitch over Ba haism. This "incident" is not sufficient for an international affair between this country and Persia.

How can the United States make strenuous demands upon Persia for protection of American citizens and restitution for the loss of one, when this same United States will not protect its citi- zens in the United States, nor make restitution, when one is mobbed here? When a native-born citizen is murdered or burned by a mob, why does not the State Department make demands on the Governor of the State for restitution and punish- ment of the persons guilty of the crime? Why is the mobbing of a citizen by a foreign mob more important to the State Department than the mob- bing of a citizen in Texas or Alabama? . . .

The United States should first enforce the law against mobs in this country before she demands the punishment of mobs in other countries.

Washington, D. C., TRIBUNE.

# BULLETIN BOARD

## Recreation Congress

THE Playground and Recreation Association of America will hold its Eleventh National Recreation Congress in Atlantic City, N. J., October 16-21. The meeting will be under the direction of Ernest T. Atwell, Field Director of the Bureau of Colored Work, and among the speakers will be Theodore Roosevelt, Jr., Assistant Secretary of the U. S. Navy.

Mr. Roosevelt's father helped to found this organi- zation, in 1906, and was its first honorary president.

Among topics to be discussed, all of which will have value for organizers of community recreation among colored people, are physical efficiency, family recrea- tion, camping, objectives in community recreation, and real estate and playgrounds.

In 1923 this movement included 230 playgrounds and recreation centers for colored people.

Our photograph shows a Community Recreation School with its faculty,—front row seated, from right to left—Miss Ada Crogman, Organizer of Dramatics; Ernest T. Atwell, Director; James Edward Rogers, Dean; Peter W. Dykema, Organizer of Music; Mrs. Ada McKinley and Mrs. Blount Jones, local executives of the South Side Community House, in Chicago.

## Hampton Institute

IN 1868 General Armstrong founded Hampton Insti- tute in Hampton, Va., to train selected colored youths who should go out to teach and lead their peo- ple. Since then there have been over 2512 graduates

282

OPPORTUNITY

SEPTEMBER, 1924

Community Recreation School

Left to Right: Simon Zebrack, Thomas W. Myles, Jr., Samuel Rothman

and 8800 former students, with Tuskegee Institute as an important outgrowth.

At the recent summer school there were 700 teachers and students, and a pageant "Education in Early Days" was presented.

Young Armstrong was shown at work for his education before the printing press, while a chorus sang "Go Down, Moses." An old couple listened to a white child read, while they and others joined in singing "I Know I Would Like to Read." Colored soldiers, returning home, were greeted by their friends, who sang "Warrior, Stay in the Field." Women brought in the refugees to the Freedmen's Bureau, while the chorus sang "Oh, My Brother, Did You Come for to Help Me?" The first school for "Contrabands" was shown in action, while softly many voices sang "Steal Away, I Ain't Got Long to Stay Here." Hampton Institute in 1868, with two teachers and fifteen students, did not dampen the ardor of those who sang "We Are Climbin' Higher and Higher."

The lure of umbrellas for young people in the early Hampton days was emphasized by the song, "There's a Little Wheel a-Turning in My Heart." Hampton "Jubilee Singers" at work in the North, under the leadership of General Armstrong, joined in singing, "Oh, Rise and Shine." Booker T. Washington, as teacher of the "Plucky Class," was thrown against a background of "Little Liza Jane." In the closing scene

there was shown Hampton's "Girdle Around the World"—twelve nationalities sent out from Hampton. The chorus sang, "From All That Dwell Beneath the Skies."

The summer school aims to meet the needs of teachers in service—principals, supervisors, high school teachers, elementary teachers, teachers of home economics, and teachers of physical education. It is conducted under the joint auspices of the Virginia State Board of Education and Hampton Institute. The Director is George P. Phenix. The principal of Hampton Institute is Dr. James E. Gregg, a product of Hartford, Conn., and a graduate of Harvard and Yale.

## International Federation of Boys' Leagues

DURING the month of August there was held in Paris, France, the biennial conference of the International Federation of Boys' Leagues, an organization of young men of all countries which fosters a brotherly international spirit among the younger generation. From Los Angeles, Cal., went the president of the League, Thomas W. Myles, Jr., and his secretary, Samuel Rothman, and Simon Zebrack. Mr. Myles was furnished with letters from the Mayor and the Chamber of Commerce, inviting the convention to meet in Los Angeles in 1925. Our photograph shows the boys visiting City

In the Paaeant at Hampton

SEPTEMBER, 1924

OPPORTUNITY

Major R. R. Wright, Sr.

Hall, in New York City, where they were welcomed by Mayor Hylan.

In Los Angeles, all the colleges and many schools are said to be organizing Cosmopolitan Clubs. Noah D. Thompson, colored member of the editorial staff of the *Evening Express*, was recently an honored guest at a banquet given by the Cosmopolitan Clubs at which more than 500 college students and 7 consuls of foreign countries were present.

### Citizens' and Southern Banking Company

THREE years ago Major R. R. Wright, Sr., started the Citizens' and Southern Banking Company in Philadelphia, Pa. He had been known as the president of the Georgia State College and as president of the Citizens' and Southern Banking Company he has seen the resources of this business rise to $301,809, with $51,800 in U. S. Liberty Bonds and Treasury Certificates—more than $100,000 a year. Connected with the bank are the Citizens' and Southern Bank and Trust Company and the Citizens' and Southern Building and Loan Association. The books of the firm are examined regularly by the State Banking Examiners. Recently the enterprise was incorporated and moved into its new $50,000 building at 19th and South Streets. Major Wright's motto is, "No matter how little you make, save something."

In 1922 there were 74 Negro banks in the United States located as follows: Virginia, 13; Georgia 9; North Carolina, 8; Texas, Pennsylvania, Ohio, 5 each; South Carolina and Tennessee, 4 each; Maryland and the District of Columbia, 3 each; Kentucky, Florida, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Illinois and Oklahoma, 2 each; Michigan, Alabama and West Virginia, 1 each. They had a total capital of $6,250,000, with resources of $20,000,000 and an annual business of $100,000,000.

### Veterans' Hospital in Tuskegee

ACCORDING to newspaper reports of May 22, 1923, the United States Civil Service Commission, by direction of President Harding, announced a list of positions for Negroes at the colored Veterans' Hospital in Tuskegee, Ala. Protests were made by Tuskegee white people, who insisted that the key positions at this institution,—one of the finest of its kind—should be held by white persons. Colored people contended for an all-Negro personnel. Then the Ku Klux Klan injected itself into the dispute and the first Negro to report for clerical duty, John Calhoun, had to leave the town. Colonel Robert H. Stanley, the first white commandant, was succeeded by Dr. Charles B. Griffith, also white. Negroes were given places as ward doctors; but a white officer remained in charge, with several white assistants.

However, as Cleveland G. Allen writes: The controversy has finally been settled and when I left there, a few days ago, an entire colored staff had assumed full charge, with Major Joseph H. Ward, of Indianapolis, as Commandant. He brings to his post a fine background of service gained in the United States Army and in private life. A man of keen intelligence and fine approach, he is thoroughly in sympathy with the welfare of the colored patients at the hospital. The assistant directors are Drs. J. A. Starke and J. D. Nelson. The personnel consists of 278 persons among whom are 40 nurses, 12 physicians, 2 dentists, and a clerical staff of 22. There are 25 buildings devoted to the use of the hospital, which has 329 patients, and the Red Cross and the Knights of Columbus provide for the recreation and social welfare of the patients.

Major Joseph H. Ward

One of the prominent features of the hospital is the library which Mrs. Sadie M. Peterson has organized. Mrs. Peterson was formerly a member of the staff of the West 135th Street Branch of the New York Public Library. From a beginning without equipment the library now has over 3000 books classified. She

Just Before a Story on the Porch

The Staff, U.S. Veterans' Hospital

In the Library

284

OPPORTUNITY

SEPTEMBER, 1924

The late Mme. C. J. Walker
Villa Lewaro, Irvington-on-the-Hudson, New York

has made a specialty of books on the Negro. Some of the activities are weekly programs with talks by prominent men and women, book talks by well known authors, and a story hour. The library is used by the members of the staff as well as the patients. Books are reviewed, and this is proving to be one of the interesting features of the Book Lover's Club.

The Govern-
ment School at
the hospital,
which is helping
men to continue
their education,
is under the di-

rection of Prof. Thomas Lykes of Greenville, S. C. He was transferred from the government hospital at Camp Sevier.

The New York World says:

"Establishment of an all-colored personnel at this time may be a political stroke of consequence. The loss of Tuskegee was the beginning of Negro agitation for a bolt from the Republican Party. It led to anti-Republican comment in the Negro press, an organized effort to use the Negro voters as the balance of power in twenty doubtful Northern States, and the eventual indorsement of Senator La Folette by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

"Whether transfer of the hospital to Negro physicians at this time can stay the trend away from President Coolidge to La Folette remains to be seen."

General Hines says that he has received no recent protests from Tuskegee white people against putting a Negro officer in charge.

Prince Kojo Tovalou Houenou

Prince Houenou

Prince Kojo Tovalou Houenou will arrive in America from France, in company with Roland W. Hayes, the internationally known Negro tenor, during the month of August. Prince Houenou is president and founder of the Universal League for the Defense of the Negro Race and director of the publication *Les Continents*. He will be remembered by readers of *OPPORTUNITY* by his article "The Problem of Negroes in French Colonial Africa" which appeared in the July, 1924, issue. While in the States, he plans to lecture.

C. J. Walker Agents

FROM humble birth—that of a cabin on a farm in Delta, La.,—to high estate—the owner of a mansion and a prosperous business—was the career of the late Mme. C. J. Walker who, in 1905, made a discovery for the culture of the hair.

When 7 years of age she became an orphan; at 14 she married, to get a home; at 20 she was a widow, with a little girl. Her first business adventure was in Denver; she traveled for a year and a half; a factory was opened, in Indianapolis, and in 1911 the business was incorporated. Then she read and studied to overcome her lack of training in youth.

The eighth annual convention of Mme. C. J. Walker Agents met in New York City, August 13-17, with delegates from as far away as the West Indies. To intersperse the business session, there were a moonlight boat ride, sight seeing trips, shopping tours, and a pilgrimage to the grave of the late Mme. Walker, in Woodlawn Cemetery.

By her will, two-thirds of the vast net income from the business, for all time to come, is to be given to charity.

Mme. Walker is survived by her daughter, Lelia Walker Wilson of New York, and granddaughter, Mrs. Gordon H. Jackson of Chicago.

Garvey

IN the opening parade of the fourth annual convention of the Universal Negro Improvement Association, held in New York City during the month of August, paintings of a black Madonna and child, an Ethiopian Jesus, Antonio Maceo and Frederick Douglass were carried. Marcus Garvey, Chief Potentate of the Royal Order of the Nile, Grand Sachem of the African Legion, and originator of the U. N. I. A., explained: "We've got to teach the American Negro blackness. Give 'em black ideals, black industry, black United States (of Africa) and black religion."

The cabin in which the late Mme. Walker was born,
in Delta, La. (Courtesy of The Messenger)

SEPTEMBER, 1924

OPPORTUNITY

285

In the Garvey Parade

Charles S. Johnson in the August, 1923, issue of OPPORTUNITY, wrote:
"Garvey is a symbol—a symptom. The 'Garvey

Movement' is just another name for the new psychology of the American Negro peasantry—for the surge of race consciousness felt by Negroes throughout the world, the intelligent as well as the ignorant. It is a black version of that same 100 per cent mania that now afflicts white America, that emboldens the prophets of a 'Nordic blood renaissance,' that picked up and carried the cry of 'self-determination for all people,' 'India for the Indians,' 'A Free Ireland.' The sources of this discontent must be reme-

died effectively and now, or this accumulating energy and unrest, blocked off from its dreams, will take another direction. Perhaps this also will be harmless. But who knows?"

Marcus Garvey

René Maran

Alain Locke

Eunice R. Hunton

George E. Haynes

Countee P. Cullen

## Who's Who

René Maran is the author of "Batouala," which was awarded one of the most coveted literary prizes in France,—the Prix Concourt, for 1921. Competing for it in the year of Maran's success were nine other French writers, each of whom had produced notable works of fiction during the year preceding the award. In the eighteen years of its history, the Prix Goncourt had never been conferred upon a writer so little known as Maran.

Alain Locke is Professor of Philosophy at Howard University, Washington, D. C. He received his early education in Philadelphia; during 1904-07 he was a student at Harvard College, where he won the Rhodes Scholarship from Pennsylvania, and in 1918 was graduated with the degree of Doctor of Philosophy; he has also studied at Oxford University and the University of Berlin. His travels have taken him to Europe, the Near East, Egypt, and the Sudan.

George Edmund Haynes was one of the founders and formerly Executive Director of the National Urban League; he is now Secretary of the Commission on the Church and Race Relations of the Federal Council of Churches, with headquarters in New York City. He is a graduate of Fisk University, A.B., 1903; Yale, A.M., 1904; New York School of Philanthropy, 1910; Columbia University, Ph.D., 1912. He has served as Secretary of the Colored Men's Department, International Committee of the Y.M.C.A.; Professor of Sociology and Economics at Fisk University; Director of the Division of Negro Economics, U. S. Department of Labor. He is the author of "The Negro at Work in New York City"; "Negro New-comers in Detroit, Michigan"; and "Trend of the Races," which reached a circulation of over 70,000.

In a contest held by the Poetry Society of America, Countee P. Cullen won the second prize. There were 700 competitors from 63 colleges. During his training at the De Witt High School, he was awarded the first prize in a contest conducted by the Federation of Women's Clubs. His offering was "I Have a Rendezvous with Life," which was published in OPPORTUNITY, January, 1924. In the Undergraduate Poetry Contest for 1923, he won the second prize. His poem, "The Ballad of the Brown Girl," contained 200 lines, and Mr. Cullen writes that this "is evidence enough that my career is all to be made."

Eunice Roberta Hunton was educated in the public schools of Brooklyn, N. Y. She is a graduate of Smith College, where she received the degrees of A.B., and A.M. in Political Science. She is a public school teacher, a social worker, and a writer.

Bleeker Marquette is the Executive Secretary of the Public Health Federation and of the Better Housing League in Cincinnati, Ohio. After a preliminary education in the public schools of Schenectady, N. Y., he entered Cornell University, in 1910, on a State Scholarship; then he won the University Scholarship; and later, the Carson French Prize. At one time he was head of the French Department at the Schenectady High School, and during his last year at Cornell he was assistant in English Constitutional History. Previous to his present position, he was Secretary of the New York Tenement House Committee. Under Mr. Marquette's Chairmanship for the observance of Negro Health Week this spring, Cincinnati was awarded the prize. He is an incorporator and director of the company in charge of the building of Mariemont, the great Garden City of 1,000 homes now being built near Cincinnati by Mrs. Mary Emery—a Cincinnati philanthropist.

286

OPPORTUNITY

SEPTEMBER, 1924

HAMPTON INSTITUTE

HAMPTON, VIRGINIA

COLLEGIATE DIVISION

I THE TEACHERS' COLLEGE

New chemical and biological laboratories have recently been fitted with modern equipment. The Whipple Farm of 70 acres is located at the Institute and is equipped with a modern dairy barn, creamery, three greenhouses, horse barn, poultry plant, and poultry-breeding station. The Shellbanks Farm of 850 acres is located four miles from the institute and is easily accessible for agricultural classes. The four-year course offers liberal-arts studies, courses in professional teacher-training work, and intensive work in science and agriculture.—Warren K. Blodgett, Director.

II THE SCHOOL OF BUSINESS

III THE TRADE SCHOOL

288

OPPORTUNITY

SEPTEMBER, 1924

HOME ECONOMICS

Annual Chautauqua, August 7

Address

MORGAN COLLEGE
AND BRANCHES

JOHN O. SPENCER, President

PRINCESS ANNE ACADEMY
Junior College Grade

DORMITORIES OPEN—September 20

$1.50

You may procure
"THE NEGRO YEAR BOOK"

Edited by Monroe N. Work

TEL.: MORNINGSIDE 4346

T. A. FRENCH, Prop.

Emergency Employment Agency

2295 SEVENTH AVENUE

NEW YORK CITY

PHONE AUDUBON 2368

Mail Orders Filled

IRIS BEAUTY SHOPPE

MISS IRIS HALL, Prop.

KEEP BEAUTIFUL

2288 SEVENTH AVENUE NEW YORK

PHONE MORNINGSIDE 5825

ORATORIOS

ETHYL OUGHTON-CLARKE

Some Aspects of Negro Business, by E. Franklin Frazier; The Soul of Africa, by Montgomery Gregory; Negro Health, by Charles Garvin; The Negro in Steel, by John T. Clark; The Rural Negro Child, by Blanche A. Beatty; reviews of "Gone Native" and "God's Stepchildren," English publications, by Eric D. Waldon; and other features,—

in the October issue of
Opportunity

415 1/2 Malvern Avenue
Hot Springs Nat. Park
Arkansas

Hot Radio-Active Water Furnished by the Government
For All Baths.

Hotel has 56 Rooms; Telephone, Hot and Cold Running
Water in Every Room.

Bath Rates:

## Students - Teachers

### ATTENTION !!

Everybody Interested in
the Intellectual Better-
ment of the Masses,

### ATTENTION !!

Why not become a sub-
scription agent for OPPOR-
TUNITY?

Make extra money while at
the same time performing a
racial service.

Liberal commissions paid.

We want agents through-
out the country.

For further particulars apply

### OPPORTUNITY

127 East 23rd Street
New York City

## SHAW UNIVERSITY

RALEIGH, N. C.

HAS NOW AN "A" COLLEGE RATED
BY THE NORTH CAROLINA STATE
DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION

Degrees given: B.A., B.S., and Th.B.
Terms reasonable. Send for catalogue.

Address

## PAINE COLLEGE

AUGUSTA, GA.

STANDARD COLLEGE COURSES
APPROVED TWO-YEAR NORMAL
ACCREDITED SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL
UP TO DATE JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL

"To develop leaders you must have the best possible material for literary training and that is what we are striving for at Paine College!" said one of the leaders of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. This church contributes largely to the support of Paine College.

For further information address

RAY S. TOMLIN, President.

## MEHARRY MEDICAL COLLEGE

A Class "A" College

With Departments of Medicine, Dentistry &
Pharmacy, and a Nurse Training School

## The Daytona-Cookman Collegiate Institute
(Formerly Daytona N. & I. Institute)

DAYTONA, FLORIDA

A School of Character and Personality
In the Heart of Sunnyland

Begins its second year as a Co-educational Institution September 9, 1924, with the strongest faculty in its history. Offers to ambitious young men and women, prepared to take them, courses in
JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL

SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL
NORMAL TRAINING SCHOOL FOR TEACHERS
COLLEGE OF LIBERAL ARTS

For information and catalog, address
MARY MCLEOD BETHUNE, President, or
JOHN C. WRIGHT, Vice-President.

THE NATIONAL URBAN LEAGUE

127 EAST 23rd STREET

NEW YORK CITY

A. S. FRISSELL, Treasurer

Five Hundred Dollars in Awards

SEE PAGE 277

ATLANTA SCHOOL OF SOCIAL WORK

Established 1920

ATLANTA, GA.

Incorporated 1924

One of
Home Office
Buildings

527 N. 2nd St.
Richmond, Va.

## Atlanta University

## Morehouse College

ATLANTA, GA.
College, Academy, Divinity
School

AN institution famous within recent years for its emphasis on all sides of manly development—the only institution in the far South devoted solely to the education of Negro young men.

## KNOXVILLE COLLEGE

Knoxville, Tenn.

The President, Knoxville Coll-ge, Knoxville, Tenn.

## Howard University

WASHINGTON, D. C.

### REGISTRATION

Spring Quarter March 14, 1925

F. D. WILKINSON, Registrar

CHARLES S. JOHNSON, Editor

OPPORTUNITY
A JOURNAL OF NEGRO LIFE

NATIONAL URBAN LEAGUE

127 EAST 23rd STREET, NEW YORK, N. Y.
Telephone Gramercy 3978

WILLIAM H. BALDWIN
Secretary

A. S. FRISSELL
Treasurer

VOL. 2.

OCTOBER, 1924

No. 22

Contents

COVER

By M. Gandal

EDITORIALS

290

INTER-RACIAL HOMICIDES

NEW TRENDS IN NEGRO MORTALITY

OPPORTUNITY'S PRIZE CONTEST

ON BEING BLACK

THE STORY OF ONE ASSAULT

ARTICLES

SOME ASPECTS OF NEGRO BUSINESS

By E. Franklin Frazier

293

RESTRICTED WEST INDIAN IMMIGRATION AND THE AMERICAN NEGRO

By W. A. Domingo

298

THE NEGRO IN STEEL

By John T. Clark

299

THE NEGRO CHILD IN THE RURAL COMMUNITY

By Blanche A. Beatty

301

NEGRO MIGRATION

(Continued from September)

By George E. Haynes

303

BLACK LAUGHTER. A Review.

By Montgomery Gregory

306

OUR BOOK SHELF

308

INTER-RACIAL FORUM

311

POT POURRI

311

BULLETIN BOARD
*Illustrated*

314

CORRESPONDENCE

318

OPPORTUNITY

VOL. 2

OCTOBER, 1924

No. 22

EDITORIALS

Inter-racial Homicides

HOW frequently
do the personal

differences between whites and Negroes in the
South reach the point of fatal violence? The
Department of Health of Memphis, Tennessee, has
just completed a study of violent deaths in four
fairly representative cities: Memphis, Birmingham,
New Orleans, and Atlanta. The results disclose
among other interesting facts a sidelight on race
relations of no little significance. In addition there
is evidence which offers some explanation of the
enormous homicide rate which the insurance statis-
ticians, crime prevention agencies, and more ad-
vanced communities have long viewed with alarm.

The population of these four cities is about
950,000, of which number about one-third are
Negroes. For the two year period, 1921 and
1922, a total of 741 homicides is recorded, 219
white and 522 colored. The report makes the
mistake common to most commentators on the
Negro crime rate, of regarding the Negroes killed
as the murderer. This is probably due to the
pattern set by the insurance statisticians of look-
ing upon the number of deaths as an index merely
to life expectancy in a certain group. An example
is at hand. Of the 522 Negro homicides only
292, or 55 per cent, were known to have been
killed by Negroes; seventy-seven, or fifteen per
cent, of these Negroes are known to have been
killed by whites; and in the remaining 153 cases
it is known merely that a Negro was killed with
the chances about equal on the race of the mur-
derer. This materially alters the estimate of vio-
lent crimes by Negroes even though it neither af-
fects the insurance estimate of a Negro's chances of
death nor the fact that the homicide rate among
Negroes is higher than it should be.

Of the 219 white homicides, 122 were committed
by whites and thirty-one by Negroes, while the
race of sixty-six murderer is not known. No
white women were killed by Negroes; no Negro
women killed any whites at all; and no white wo-
men killed any Negroes.

It is in the causes of homicides that the angles
of pressure should be most pronounced. Of the
seventy-seven Negro homicides attributed to whites,
thirty-nine were committed by officers of the law.
This is greatly out of proportion it seems, since only
three whites were killed by these guardians of the
peace. Two were killed in difficulties involving

sex, three in fights, one in a quarrel, nine as
robbers, one as the victim of a robber, five in a
strike, one in promiscuous shooting.

Of the thirty-one white persons killed by Ne-
groes, two deaths resulted from a difficulty involv-
ing sex, three were officers killed on duty, (four
others were killed by whites), fourteen were
whites killed by Negro robbers, one white robber
was killed by a Negro, two were killed in fights,
two were white bootleggers, and one white was
killed by a Negro in a strike.

The common occasions for violent contact do
not show up conspicuously. The questions of sex
and individual clashes in fights are of small im-
portance in the registered cases. The difficulties
might as easily be regarded as economic as senti-
mental for if the ridiculous nervousness and bull-
dozing of the police are excluded the greatest
numbers of inter-racial deaths were occasioned by
robberies and strikes. This does not seem serious
but points rather to a singular degree of self-
containment under situations which are known to
be difficult. There is little trace of the wantonly
vicious element of Negroes about whom so much
has been written and it is conceivable that these
figures might serve as an index to improving rela-
tions even though they contribute unwittingly to
the destruction of one of the old myths about the
Negro criminal.

New Trends in
Negro Mortality

SINCE the announcement
last year that the life
span of Negroes had in-


creased and the death rate materially decreased
something akin to complacency seems to have crept
in. Health improvement follows a stern law which
tolerates no relaxation of vigilance. It must come
with a shock, therefore, that during the first half
of 1924, with no epidemics or serious disturbances,
the unusual gains in Negro health have suffered a
loss in important respects. According to the
Metropolitan Life Insurance Company's record of
nearly two million Negro policyholders, the male
group shows a loss of 1.11 years in life span since
1922 while the females show a loss of .59 years.
Deaths from tuberculosis, against which the greatest
health efforts have been directed, show a slight de-
crease. On the other hand, there have been sharp in-
creases in deaths from diseases incidental to preg-
nancy and childbirth, from cancer, a disease which
ordinarily took small toll among Negroes, and from

OCTOBER, 1924

OPPORTUNITY

pneumonia. In all of these there has been a steady decline among the whites. Automobile accidents, accidental drownings, and homicides have registered a noticeably higher rate among Negroes while showing a decline in most cases among the whites. The diseases which show pronounced increases are those which have been unwatched. These in turn are the diseases which are regarded the very special weakness of advanced groups: cerebral hemorrhage, organic diseases of the heart, and cancer. The increase in automobile accidents is obviously involved with a developing economic status. More Negroes own and operate motor cars now than formerly. Moreover, the increases noted are definitely in diseases which affect city dwellers,—those who live and work under the strain of modern life. It suggests the emergence of Negroes into new situations which are more or less familiar to the white population and which this population is in a measure learning to control. The campaign to check the ravages of cancer is comparatively recent and the Negro population has not been considered a problem. It is becoming apparent that a new organization of health work for Negroes is needed, or communities will be guilty of an inexcusable waste in lives in permitting this element of the population to stumble blindly through new problems even after an adequate technique for handling them has been developed.

### Opportunity's Prize Contest

NINETEEN judges, all of whom are crowded with their own literary duties, have

consented promptly and eagerly to pass upon the merits of the contributions by Negroes to OPPORTUNITY's contest. Their consent is both a gesture of friendliness toward a long submerged and virtually inarticulate group, and a recognition of the rich stores of material in Negro life to be exploited in the interest of American literature generally. Since the last issue acceptances have come in from Fannie Hurst, one of America's foremost short story writers; Robert C. Benchley, dramatic critic and editor of *Life*; Witter Bynner, poet and anthologist; Alexander Woollcott, dramatic critic of the New York *Sun*; Henry Goddard Leach, editor of the *Forum*; Van Wyck Brooks, an essayist of distinction and formerly editor of the *Freeman*; Dorothy Canfield Fisher, novelist; and James Weldon Johnson, one of the best known of the Negro writers and anthologists.

With the attention and real interest of those whose judgments and advice can contribute so materially to the orientation of new writers and old ones to the world of letters, it would be inexcusable if an adequate response failed to develop from this opportunity,—worse we fear: it would be disillusioning. The numerous inquiries, however, which followed the first announcement offer abundant hope, and the quality of some of the manuscripts already submitted gives promise of

revealing an altogether admirable group of new writers.

These facts should be remembered: The stories, plays, and essays must deal directly or indirectly with some phase of Negro life; the poetry is unrestricted; the personal experience sketches must be true stories. No limit is placed upon the number of manuscripts which any person may submit, or upon the kinds of writing contributed. The contest opened September 1 and closes December 31. It would facilitate the handling of manuscripts if they are sent in before the very end of the contest.

Since this journal is our surest medium for communicating information concerning the progress of this contest, it is advisable that those interested arrange to secure issues regularly.

### On Being Black

THE use of "whitening creams" by some Negroes for imparting to the complexion a shade (or lack of it) which approximates the fair skin of their white neighbors, the "color line" between full-blooded Negroes and mulattoes, quadroons and the interminable shadings within the Negro group, the one time proudly boasted "blue veined" societies of Charleston, South Carolina, and even Washington, D. C., have long been the occasion for contemptuous humor and flattering function to the souls of white folk. Students of the race problem who have regarded seriously these foibles of conduct have pointed out repeatedly that the affected Negroes were impelled by some underlying, perhaps unconscious, purpose more serious than that of mere unreflecting imitation. Now comes the psychoanalysts with a scientific explanation, and strangely enough it is a scientist from the Ranchi European Mental Hospital of India who first speaks out. In a paper read before the Indian Psychoanalytical Society and reproduced in part in the *Psychoanalytical Review*, Dr. Owen A. R. Berkeley-Hill makes the first direct application of research in the field of psychoanalysis to race and color. Whenever we encounter an idea which is overcharged with emotion, he asserts, it is possible to discover the source of this emotion somewhere in the Unconscious. Usually this surcharge is from an unconscious idea or set of ideas between which and the conscious idea there need not be any direct connection. It is not only the "white" races who insist strongly on the recognition of the divisions of mankind into groups according to color. The yellow man distinguishes himself from the brown, the brown from the black, no one among these wants to be black. One suggested explanation of the idea is the relation between "blackness" and "evil,"—among all races of whatever color "blackness" has this connotation. It has been and is associated with "witchcraft," "devils," "sin," "bad luck," and "all the other distressing and horrible aspects of human experience." The associa-

292

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OCTOBER, 1924

tion is as common among brown or black people
as among yellow or white.

This assertion is supported by examples adduced
out of a wealth of material:

"... The Ba-ila, an entirely black people of
Northern Rhodesia, always associate 'good luck'
with cleanness and whiteness."

"The old Sanskrit writers grounded all social
distinction upon 'Varna,' 'color,' and proclaimed
the black pre-Aryan people of Southern India to
be Rakshas, 'devils.' In the popular belief of
India today, 'blackness' is bound up with sorcery."

"In Vedic times it was a custom in seasons of drought to set a black horse with his face to the west and rub him with a black cloth until he neighed. The Garos of Assam sacrifice a black goat on a mountain top in order to induce rain to fall. The Indians of Peru sacrifice a black sheep in similar circumstances. Again, from the point of view of sympathetic magic, 'blackness' can be made use of to ward off evil spirits. Both in India and in Turkey the races of children are frequently 'blackened' for this purpose. On the same principle, to be kissed by a Negro is regarded in Syria as a certain cure for dribbling in a child. Similarly, the woolly hair of a Negro is employed in some parts of Northern America as a remedy for earache. Failing the hair of a Negro, the wool from a totally black sheep may be used instead, provided it has been cut off the left side of the sheep. In Cumberland the same belief exists as regards the efficacy of black wool in the treatment of earache."

"When we turn to the so-called 'white' races of Europe and America, we find 'blackness' playing an immense part in association with devils, witch-craft, and the like. One need only turn to the book by Miss Margaret Murray, 'The Witch Cult in Western Europe,' to find a mass of evidence in support of this contention."

The subtle handicap of tradition is, it seems,
a formidable one,—a sort of conspiracy of the
ages. Naturally enough, in the first flush of free-
dom and self-assertion those Negroes schooled
deeply in the surrounding culture of their white
neighbors reflect it. The adaptation is not always
perfect. It is this anomaly which makes exceed-
ingly difficult the development of a distinctive cul-
ture among Negroes while in contact with com-
petitive and even dominating cultures. It makes
almost ridiculous in its futility the deliberate ef-
forts of well meaning Negroes to invert the con-
notation of blackness. It is, however, possible to
break this association between the race and the
sinister implication of blackness by accomplishing
every distinction possible to people of any other
color. That the actual breaking of this associa-
tion is possible in itself is evidenced in the
tender memories which survive that passing black
character of southern history—"the black mammy"
in respect to whom blackness meant tenderness
and loyalty even though these qualities were asso-

ciated with a relationship of master and slave now
justly intolerable to the new generations of Ne-
groes. It is, indeed, possible that race color will
eventually mean no more in inspiring the prejudice
of whites or the unconscious apology of Negroes
than the blackness of one man's hair or his eyes.

The Story of
One Assault

FROM the Cincinnati *Post*—
July 16, 1924.

POLICE HUNT CRIMINAL

Negro Flees in Direction of East-end After New-
port Couple is Assailed—Victim Knifed During
Struggle, Companion Tells Police

Paul Price, 23, of 618 Brighton St., Newport, was stabbed in the left side, near the heart, and his wife, Mrs. Della Price, 22, was attacked by a Negro man in Eden Park at noon Wednesday. The Negro fled to Kemper-lane in the direction of the East-end.

Price sought to prevent the attack on his wife and
fell exhausted.

The couple was sitting on a slope in the park eating
lunch when Price heard a noise behind them. He saw
the Negro approaching. As he rose to question the
intruder the Negro stabbed him.

Price fell but struggled to his feet and grappled with
the Negro. As Price fell exhausted the Negro seized
Mrs. Price and dragged her to a clump of bushes.

Cries of the couple attracted an autoist who found
Price and his wife lying on the ground near the Gal-
braith monument overlooking the Ohio River.

The autoist rushed the couple to General Hospital
where their condition was pronounced serious.

A squad of police surrounded the park and started
in pursuit of the fugitive. A Negro settlement in the
East-end was searched by police in an effort to find the
man. At the hospital it was found Mrs. Price is
suffering of shock and scratches. Most of the clothing
was torn from her body in the struggle.

Police were given this description of the attacker:
About 24 years old; five feet six or eight inches in
height; wore a white shirt, blue trousers and dark cap.

From the Cincinnati *Enquirer*—July 17, 1924.

ASSAULT BY NEGRO IS MYTH

Woman Admits She Stabbed Man When in Park
Runaway Wife from West Virginia says
Companion Threatened to Kill Her

While police and detectives were combing the suburbs for a supposed Negro assailant of Paul Price, 23 years old, Williamson, West Virginia, and Mrs. Della Cobs, 22 years old, wife of Walter Cobs, Montgomery, West Virginia, coal miner, Mrs. Cobs broke down and confessed to Detective Chief Emmett D. Kirgan that the story of the Negro was a myth and that she had stabbed Price during a quarrel when in Eden Park.

The Cincinnati *Enquirer* in this instance de-
serves credit for its full and equally prominent
correction of the story reported in the Cincinnati
*Post*. The incident itself belongs to that family
of crimes which derives life from public opinion
and the myths about the "usual crime." The story
has its uses. It can be made to cover a multitude
of sins. It is significant that it was useful. It is
significant that it was believed so readily. It is
painful to reflect, however, that many communities
have lacked the even temper of Cincinnati. The
story might serve as the proverbial grain of salt
for the statistics on lynching.

OCTOBER, 1924

OPPORTUNITY

By E. FRANKLIN FRAZIER

A different periods of his social development the Negro in America has regarded different phases of culture of superior importance to his advancement. At the present time there is much talk afloat about the importance of business. So important does this particular aspect of civilization appear now to some colored people that they declare unqualifiedly, that the solution of the so-called race problem lies in the participation of a large number of Negroes in business. This new emphasis is finding concrete expression in the number, variety and compass of Negro enterprises, which have been undertaken in recent years. From current reports, however, of the much vaunted progress in business activities among colored people, there is much confusion as to the meaning of business. For instance, sometimes the reports apparently mean that Negroes are employed in industrial and business enterprises. Although it is not the primary object of this essay to attempt a clarification of this confusion, it may contribute to such an undertaking.

More important, perhaps, than such a clarification are certain general considerations. First, it appears to the writer that any conscious or systematic attempt on the part of our leaders to direct the energies of the race into business channels should be done with a clear understanding of our present economic system. The ramifications of capitalistic enterprise scarcely leave any phase of our economic life untouched. The launching of even small enterprises in relatively isolated economic areas should often involve calculations of the effects of distant corporations. Besides a comprehension of the economic structure of our society, there is need, certainly, of a clear understanding of the particular business undertaken. Then the selection of a particular business from a number of possible undertakings should take into account competing economic forces, the availability of capital, our business experience, and our command of expert services. As a group we have even another factor to reckon with. In most business undertakings we must have an eye to our cultural isolation, which makes us the prey of economic forces over which we have no control.

From the apparently high—apparently high, since no systematic study has been undertaken—mortality rate among Negro businesses, many are convinced that Negroes have entered business without any regard for the above considerations. In this article the writer has endeavored, after a brief sketch of the historical background of Negro business, first, to set forth the economic principles which affect the operation of the types of enterprises in which Negroes are chiefly engaged. Secondly, he has tried to indicate certain sociological aspects of Negro business. Finally, he has

appraised a neglected form of enterprise as an outlet for Negro business initiative.

For the antecedents of our present business activities we must go back to the period of slavery. The slave himself was, of course, simply a part of the master's capital. The free Negro on his part was restricted as to what trades he might practice and what businesses he might conduct. An important form of accumulated wealth during this period was in societies for the "care of the sick and to bury the dead." The churches, however, represented the chief form of accumulated wealth. Among the free mulatto class especially there were some who invested in the institution of slavery. Significant progress in accumulating wealth was only possible after Negroes could dispose of their own labor. With the coming of freedom, we find many acquiring money through barbershops, catering and undertaking establishments. We find them establishing in Baltimore at the close of the Civil War a corporation for ship caulking when the white carpenters refused to work with them. Newspapers have always been a popular field for economic cooperation. In short, when we look back upon the beginnings of Negro business, we note their lack of opportunity to command large enough capital for sizable enterprises; and the absence of opportunities for education in business methods. The recent impulse given to the founding of Negro enterprises is due to the surplus wealth which we are now able to muster. It is also the result of increasing race consciousness which segregation has fostered. In our attempt to build a self-sufficient culture, we have attempted to secure economic self-sufficiency as far as possible. Our zeal has often outrun our knowledge and experience. The failures along the road attest this disharmony.

Most of our large business failures have been due to our failure to recognize certain elemental economic facts. The first fact of importance to those who handle economic goods is the two main categories into which such goods are divided. The wealth of the world is divided into consumption goods and production goods. In the first class we put all those goods which are in a process of destruction and afford no return for their destruction. A man's house which he occupies is as much consumption goods as the saucer of ice cream he eats. If he sells the ice cream and rents out his house, they both become productive goods or capital. It is important that Negroes recognize this fundamental difference; for much of their accumulated wealth is in the form of consumption goods. Even much of their money represented in capital investments has been placed in consumption goods, only to vanish. Negroes have much of their wealth in churches and continue to pour their savings into this form of unproductive wealth.

OPPORTUNITY

OCTOBER, 1924

To those who say that churches produce incal-
culable spiritual values, the writer can simply re-
ply that he is discussing economics and not ethics.
In this same class belong homes, pleasure cars,
clothes, and money spent in parties.

With this understanding of the fundamental
difference between the two kinds of economic
goods, we are prepared to find out what we mean
by business. This inquiry leads us to the spirit
of our modern economic life. Strictly speaking,
everyone who buys and sells goods and offers ser-
vices for sale is engaged in business. Yet there
is an important difference between the man who
conducts a tobacco shop for a livelihood and the
man who draws dividends from the tobacco trust.
In the first case the owner occupies in society the
position, to a large extent, of the man who worked
up raw materials for a livelihood before the advent
of modern capitalism. Capitalistic enterprise repre-
sents a definite type of business endeavor. It
means the utilization of such quantities of capital
in the form of machinery and raw materials as will
require the employment of labor, as well as the
use of credit reserves, for the sake of profit. Any
estimate of the development of business among Ne-
groes should take cognizance of this difference.
It is important to know to what extent Negroes are
getting a command of raw materials and the
means of trade and production. On the other
hand, it would be interesting to estimate the
growth of the spirit to find an independent liveli-
hood in small enterprises. Likewise it would
be interesting to study agriculture from the
standpoint of business; for it is in agriculture that
the Negro has the largest control over raw
materials. But since for the majority of Negro
farmers farming affords a living and the return on
the land is wages rather than profits on the in-
vestment of capital, this article will not concern
itself with agriculture. One of the best examples
of the play of the capitalistic spirit among us is
our real estate operations. Many Negroes through
the manipulation of the mechanism of credit are
buying and selling real estate for profit. This
form of enterprise is becoming very widespread.
Many colored lawyers devote most of their time
to such activities. Another form of purely capital-
istic enterprise is found in those establishments
which are working up raw materials into cos-
metics. Here the Negro comes closest to using
raw materials in the capitalistic fashion. The
Madam C. J. Walker Company, the Nile Queen
Company, and the Poro Company are outstand-
ing examples in this class. The Black Star Line,
which was the projection of the fancy of a fanatic
rather than the utilization of the means of modern
business, was a conspicuous failure in this class.

We come now to the consideration of a number
of enterprises that illustrate the problems and
progress of Negro business. The first type of
business which we shall examine is insurance. It
has been in insurance that the Negro has achieved
the greatest success. We have as monuments to

this success the Standard Life, of Atlanta; the
North Carolina Mutual, of Durham; and lately
the Liberty Life, of Chicago, and the Atlanta Life,
of Atlanta, not to mention others. His success
in insurance has been rather conspicuous when
compared with the failures in other fields. The
cause of this success is not difficult to ascertain.
The business of insurance is run almost according
to a formula. It does not require the prevision
of conflicting economic forces, the estimation of fu-
ture demands, and the economical procuring of raw
materials. The chief problem involving the exer-
cise of business judgment is the investment of the
surplus. Under state regulations this matter is
relatively guarded. Thus insurance companies have
thrived and promise to continue a fruitful field for
Negro enterprise.

Another form of business which Negroes have
undertaken is banking. The failures of Negro
banks have been the cause of much ridicule and
condemnation. The successes have not been sig-
nalized. Banking has many difficulties connected
with its operation by Negroes. The operation of
a bank by Negroes means almost exclusively a Ne-
gro clientele. Once it was a problem to mobilize
sufficient capital to start a bank, but this is no
longer a serious problem. The chief problem now
is the use of the credit resources. A bank is
concerned primarily with the creation of credit.
To this end savings are mobilized. The rapid
turnover of capital makes it possible to pay an in-
terest on savings, support the overhead expense, and
pay dividends on the original investment. For a
bank operated strictly among Negroes it is difficult
to find sufficient opportunities for the use of its
credit in productive enterprises. The writer is not
ignorant of the reciprocal relationship between
banks and business. While it is true that banks
foster business, the fact still holds that the suc-
cessful operation of Negro banks is handicapped by
the absence of Negro businesses requiring the pro-
ductive use of capital. Another difficulty faced by
Negro banks is the inaccessibility of bond issues.
Without a safe field for their accumulated credit,
Negro banks have placed their money in long term
loans on churches and other real estate, which
have depreciated in value, and wild cat business
schemes. In many cases their credit is extended
to salaried persons in small loans over long periods
of time. It is true, though hardly credible, that
some Negro banks have acted in the capacity of
pawn shops. Denied the general opportunities for
investment, Negro banks might have put their
money into government securities and relied upon
the loyalty of the race to accept a small interest
rate. This would have offered security. Another
precaution was necessary. Overhead expense in
Negro banking operations has been out of pro-
portion often to the volume of business. Over-
head expense has in many cases eaten up the capi-
tal and even encroached upon the savings. These
considerations on Negro banks have not been
purely theoretical. For example, the writer has in

OCTOBER, 1924

OPPORTUNITY

295

mind one gigantic bank failure which was due to
not knowing what to do with the vast savings
that poured into the bank. Overhead expense
was increased, interest on savings was paid out of
savings, and credit was extended to every kind of
enterprise and even individuals offering no security.
Ignorance, perhaps culpable, rather than deliberate
thieving, it appears, has been the chief cause of
our bank failures.

In insurance we are really encouraging saving
among Negroes; while in banking we are mobil-
izing savings for business. Although in both cases
we are making, through concentration, our small
savings of greater economic consequence, the busi-
nesses themselves do not represent a command of
natural resources or the working up of raw ma-
terials for consumption, or the control of the
means of transportation. Nor do they represent
the extensive participation of Negroes in independ-
ent business. It is in the case of grocery stores
and butcher shops that we find an indication of
extensive independent economic effort on the part
of Negroes. Again, drug stores represent the ad-
vance in the control of retail stores. We may take
as typical of the increasing importance of Negroes
in the distributive process, stores for supplying wear-
ing apparel. In these three examples we have
Negroes receiving the contributions which colored
consumers have been forced heretofore to pay to
white merchants. While only a small amount of
capital is needed for such stores, from an economic
point of view there are several difficulties which
stand in the way of their success. In the case of
grocery stores there is the competition of chain
stores. This is not an insurmountable obstacle,
for there are still in every neighborhood independ-
ent white stores competing successfully. Small
stores can even overcome the advantages enjoyed
by chain stores by banding themselves together and
buying from producers in large quantities. Such
methods of cooperative buying will be dealt with
more fully in another part of this essay. The
same problem faces drug stores in their competi-
tion with cut rate drug stores. There is still an-
other difficulty that confronts our stores retailing
wearing apparel. The limited available capital and
the little experienced management at our dis-
posal as well as the option given certain stores by
manufacturers make it impossible for us to fur-
nish the variety of patterns and standard goods
that one finds in white establishments. This last
difficulty can only be overcome when we are able
to combine the concentration of capital with busi-
ness experience in this particular field. It does
not preclude the establishment of small, well man-
aged, and attractive stores supplying these goods,
that can furnish the education for the future.

In addition to the economic considerations which
we have noted above concerning the failure of
Negro banks, there are certain general economic
factors which should be considered in the failures
of Negro business. The first of these consid-
erations has to do with stock. In the first part

of this section we spoke of the familiar categories
of wealth. Yet the failure to recognize this ele-
mental fact has been the cause of many—if not
most—failures of Negro enterprises. This igno-
rance is well illustrated in the case of a large
stock company supplying groceries, whose man-
ager, seeing that he was running short of money
to pay salaries, went out to sell stock to supply the
deficiency. If such a man were not an outright
rascal, he was ignorant of primary economic prin-
ciples. In this particular case, expenses soon out-
ran the "selling of stock." The writer recalls
similar ignorance of business principles expressed
by the manager of a large enterprise, saying, when
asked how his business was progressing, that every-
thing was doing so well that he was going to
sell some more stock. The writer has known of
colored enterprises without a shadow of a pros-
pect for increased production staying the day of
reckoning by borrowing from a colored bank to
pay salaries. Such examples, which could be mul-
tipled, easily show that the picture in our heads,
as Lippmann says, does not correspond to the
stern realities outside. In all the history of boun-
ties granted by governments to foster domestic en-
terprises there is no parallel to the bounties which
colored investors have paid to enjoy the spectacle
of seeing their people go through the motions of
business activities. All of such failures caused by
ignorance and the employment of inefficient stock-
holders and their relatives instead of efficient help
might be excused. But when the savings of col-
ored people are taken by their leaders to pay ex-
oritant salaries and used to build palatial homes
out of proportion to the wealth of the owners in-
stead of being placed into productive goods, the
perpetrators cannot plead ignorance but write
themselves down as common thieves.

So much for the economic considerations perti-
nent to Negro business. Let us pass on to the so-
ciological aspects of our business activities in Amer-
ica. It requires but little reflection for us to
realize that our increasing business activities are
liberating us from degrading personal services.
Liberation from personal services means growing
self-respect on the part of colored people and a
change in outlook upon their environment. It
means, in addition, that they can demand respect
from white people through their concentrated eco-
nomic power and independence. For those who
must still engage in personal services it enhances
their bargaining power by lessening the supply
and by offering alternative employment.

As long as Negroes must engage in personal ser-
vices and give their earnings to white shop-keepers
or even to the white owners of building materials
for churches, they are in economic bondage with
no prospect of liberation through the accumula-
tion of the products of their labor. The beginning
of this liberation must come through conducting
small stores to supply the daily necessities of peo-
ple. The segregated Negro districts in every city
are honeycombed with small white shops. This

296

OPPORTUNITY

OCTOBER, 1924

sad fact has been the subject of comment by every-
one who has reflected on Negro culture. Since
Jews have been the chief benefactors of the Ne-
gro's inability to provide even the small channels
of our distributive system, we have assigned as
the cause of this situation certain instincts of the
Jew. The writer would be more inclined to
charge this social inefficiency to cultural influences.
As he pointed out in a previous article, the Ne-
gro's education and, we might add here, his re-
ligion and other influences have disinclined him
to venture upon rather unsentimental enterprises.
We are assured that some actually prefer the se-
curity they feel in the certainty of income while
serving as chauffeurs to the independence and the
concomitant uncertainty in the venture of a gro-
cery store. Yet we are persuaded that the habits
acquired during slavery and since can account for
the general absence of a spirit of enterprise rather
than any racial temperament which we might in-
voke. Aside from finding social reasons for the
Negro's dependence upon white shop-keepers, we
are interested in some of the results of the par-
ticipation of the Negro in business. It means not
only a gain in self-esteem but an education in self-
reliance, in habits of industry, saving and steady
application to self imposed tasks. It means a men-
tal attitude that is in harmony with our economic
system.

With the advent of business there is naturally
a division of Negro society into employers and
employees. Except for the natural cohesion of
the small professional class, there has been little
cause for class antagonism in Negro society. Ex-
ternal pressure and common suffering have caused
barriers to be swept away to fight the common foe.
The question that Negro business progress raises
is whether economic interests are going to divide
Negro society into warring classes. At present
there are two factors operating to prevent this.
The one is the fact that employees in most of
the enterprises are in clerical and professional po-
sitions and have shares in the concerns. Another
factor is that they generally belong to the same
social class and feel that they have common inter-
est with their employers. Another situation will
most likely arise when Negroes begin employing
large groups of workers far below them in the
social scale and with whom they have no contact.

The most far-reaching effect of the economic
development of our group is the fact that the so-
called higher levels of culture will have adequate
support. While the members of the medical and
legal professions as well as the ministry are fairly
well supported by the colored group, teachers, ar-
tists, and welfare workers are not entirely sup-
ported by colored people. Even many churches rep-
resent large gifts from white people. The schools
of higher learning have grown up on the early
efforts of missionaries and philanthropists. No
matter what is the ultimate source of this wealth,
it flows directly from white sources to us to sup-
port our leaders of thought. Likewise with the

welfare organizations. They are supported pri-
marily from white funds. Unless such channels
are widened to maintain the bearers of culture we
shall soon reach the point of maximum saturation.
If accumulating Negro wealth is directed into
such reservoirs as will support this highest cul-
tural stratum, then we need not fear any retarda-
tion in our development. The need for the sup-
port of our education is most keenly felt. Some
people see reason for alarm. The most serious
aspect of the situation is not so much that the
present channels will be closed as the unfortunate
influence they may have in the development of our
thought life. For instance, college professors will
have to be acceptable to those who supply the
money rather than to their group. On our side
there is gross blindness as to what direction our
accumulating wealth should take. Imagine an
influential minister in a city of 65,000 Negroes
with nearly two hundred colored churches exhort-
ing his people to build more churches. There are
rich colored men who have wasted enough money
in foolish display to endow richly chairs for re-
search in several of our colleges. This brings us
to our final observation on Negro wealth.

While realizing that individualistic motives will
perhaps play the chief role in stimulating Negroes
to economic efforts, certain social ends determine
the form our accumulating wealth will take.
Those who are urging the Negro to cultivate the
spirit of modern capitalism are certainly not seek-
ing to have him adopt the undesirable social by-
products. Modern capitalism has meant the con-
centration of wealth into the hands of a leisure
class with its canons of behavior. We should not
seek the placing of mammoth fortunes into the
hands of a few men who can ape the manners and
wasteful consumption of the leisure class in its
days of unrestraint. Yet this seems to be the ideal
of some of our rich men who receive our applause.
Reckless expenditure and foolish display of wealth
as was common in the last century among white
people is being condemned today. While a ma-
majority of people do not look with favor upon com-
munism, they do admit the large disparity of
wealth among us is an obstacle to real democracy.
So they look upon the legal owners of corporate
wealth as trustees for society. They do not re-
gard capitalists free to do as they please with their
"private" property. For rich Negroes to inaugu-
rate an era of competitive consumption and con-
spicuous waste is an anachronism. When they as
well as any other people become the legal owners
of large fortunes they are responsible to society.
An era of business should mean the employment of
wealth productively. The fruits of such use of
wealth should be applied to cultural and other
socially approved ends. Many of the means which
cannot be classified as economic that some Negro
leaders have used to lead a life of leisure are not
ethically above the predatory assaults of mediaeval
barons upon peasants to get money for personal

OCTOBER, 1924

OPPORTUNITY

consumption. The new emphasis upon business activities should mean raising the general economic level of our group rather than the eruption of peaks of affluence to dazzle the mob.

At this point it may be well to make some observations on our education for business. On the one hand, we have those preparing themselves for clerical positions. Those receiving such education have easily been absorbed by Negro business enterprises. The demand for such services has caused a large number of schools for business education to spring up everywhere. It is to be regretted that these schools are requiring in most cases scarcely any academic background and are therefore turning out stenographers who cannot spell and have no language background. In some cities it is well nigh impossible to find a secretary with the requisite educational background. They have taken "business courses" as a thing apart. On the other hand, we find a large number of young colored men who want a business career preparing themselves for the managerial positions in large enterprises. We are not decrying this kind of education, but we are forced to ask ourselves the question, if, as a group, we should begin at the top in our business education. It may be necessary for us to begin with formal business training as there are few opportunities for apprenticeship under successful business men using modern methods. This question suggests itself also. Should not most of our business education begin in the building up of businesses? No attempt will be made to answer these questions. They should be faced by those who are considering a business career.

The remainder of this essay will be devoted to the consideration of a form of business that has been neglected by Negroes; namely, what is known technically as Cooperative Enterprise. This form of economic organization recommends itself to the colored group especially because of certain reasons which I shall proceed to set forth.

Cooperatives offer themselves to our group, first, because they offer safe investment opportunities for small quantities of capital. Many complain that our businesses are handicapped because few have the requisite capital. Cooperatives are chiefly supported by aggregations of small amounts of capital. Since they are established chiefly to save the consumer the contributions paid the middleman, we should be doubly interested in them. We are the most preyed upon of the economically dependent classes. Besides sustaining the contributions paid the producer and wholesaler, we must pay tribute to the retailer. Cooperatives even on a small scale would save this last contribution to ourselves. There is a general complaint on our part that we do not patronize our enterprises. If this be true—the writer is inclined to charge it to our inefficiency—then cooperatives would obviate this difficulty, since they make it profitable

for the consumer to patronize the cooperative stores.

Another aspect of the cooperative movement that makes it of especial value in our business development is its relative simplicity. In this respect it resembles insurance. The writer will not attempt an extended description of cooperative enterprise. Those interested may consult his articles in the *Southern Workman* or get the literature of the league in New York City engaged in giving publicity to cooperative principles. It may be well, however, to mention briefly the salient points. There are two principles that govern the operation of cooperatives. First, goods are to be sold at the current price of commodities; and, second, dividends are paid in proportion to amount of goods bought by the members of the cooperatives, and not in proportion to the number of shares held. This does not mean, of course, that interest is not paid on loans. The utility of the first principle has been shown by experience. If there is an attempt to undersell the competing individualistic enterprises, then there is a race downward that generally ends in a truce in which both parties sell at the same price. Thus at the end of the year there is scarcely no surplus to be divided among the members of the cooperatives. Seeing no advantage in membership in these societies, the members disband. The second provision affords the consumer the advantage he is seeking. Otherwise the cooperative would become simply a stock-holding concern.

The third advantage of cooperatives is that they fit in well with our present economic development. Our business development except in a few cases must begin at the bottom. We cannot expect to launch large corporations controlling vast natural resources. And as it has been shown, credit institutions can develop only as the more fundamental enterprises develop. We must first capture the small retail stores upon which we depend daily. Then we can gradually get control of the wholesale means of distribution. We can take a step in this direction in our present economic development. It would be very easy for a group of retail stores to buy their supplies collectively and thereby get them at cheaper rate. This might be the initial step in introducing cooperative methods to a large number of our group.

Besides the advantages of cooperative enterprise given above, we should add that such a form of economic cooperation would be in harmony with the present tendency towards the democratization of wealth. It is needless for us to go through the cruder stages of individualistic enterprise before we reach a social conception of the nature of wealth. Cooperatives would give the colored population as a whole an education in business. It would make each one cognizant of, and a benefit of, the productive and distributive processes of our present economic system. This then, it seems to the writer, is the mission of the new business era among Negroes.

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Restricted West Indian Immigration and the American Negro

By W. A. DOMINGO

THE Immigration Act of 1924, "to limit the immigration of aliens into the United States, and for other purposes," which came into force July 1, has achieved the object of its framers and sponsors who were mainly concerned about excluding undesirable racial strains. Not only was this accomplished by securing a reduction of non-Nordic Europeans in favor of Nordics, but what is of vital importance to American Negroes, by a palpable discrimination which singled out for quota restriction only those sections of the New World from which any appreciable number of Negroes had come and was likely to come in the future. That this latter achievement is among the "other purposes" of the Act seems of little doubt when the facts are studied and a comparison is made between the present Act and its predecessor of 1921.

The Act of 1921, entitled "An Act to limit the immigration of aliens into the United States," made a perpendicular distinction between immigrants who were eligible to enter the country without special treaty regulations. Those from the Old World were restricted to 3 per cent of their number in the United States in 1910, while those from the New World were admitted on a non-quota basis. In neither case were the immigrants affected by the political status of the country or colony from which they came.

Section 2 of the 1921 Act, dealing with "excepted classes" or non-quota immigrants, included aliens from "the Dominion of Canada, Newfoundland, the Republic of Cuba, the Republic of Mexico, countries of Central and South America, or adjacent islands." Under this provision immigrants from all parts of the Americas were on an equal non-quota basis.

The Act of 1924, section 4 (c), defines the term "non-quota immigrant" as "an immigrant who was born in the Dominion of Canada, Newfoundland, the Republic of Haiti, the Republic of Mexico, the Republic of Cuba, the Dominican Republic, the Canal Zone, or an independent country of Central and South America." By specifically naming Canada and Newfoundland for exemption from quota, placing the word "independent" before countries, and omitting the words "adjacent islands," the framers of the Act very adroitly excluded from the non-quota classes those European colonies in the Caribbean Sea from which American Negroes had been receiving any numerical increase. Conclusive proof that the Act, which was passed by the present Republican Administration, was intended to erect a barrier against the comparatively slight immigration of people of African descent from the West Indies is found in President Coolidge's Proclamation of June 30. Subdivision 6 of the Proclamation states: "In contrast

with the law of 1921 the Immigration Act of 1924 provides that persons born in the colonies or dependencies of European countries situated in Central America and South America or the islands adjacent to the American continents * * * will be charged to the quota of the country to which such colony or dependency belongs." The language is clear and unmistakable. It makes a horizontal distinction between British North America and other European colonial possessions in the New World. The distinction is significant in view of the reason that inspired the Act and the racial stock of immigrants from both groups of colonies.

The law to limit immigration into the United States was agitated for and defended on two main grounds: race and culture of recent immigrants and inability of the country to absorb the huge number seeking admission from Europe. The grounds were qualitative and quantitative. To achieve both ends the Census of 1890 was used as the basis to determine the 2 per cent to be admitted yearly until 1927, after which the maximum will be 150,000 annually. Whether or not a colony is self-governing does not affect the issue. In Europe, England, the Mother Country, the Irish Free State, whose status is similar to that of Canada, Malta, having a form of government like that of Jamaica or Barbados, and Gibraltar, a Crown Colony like Antigua and St. Kitts, are subject to a 2 per cent quota, regardless of their varying degrees of autonomy. The same equality of quota exists between truly independent and powerful countries like England and France and vassal states like Hungary and Poland. In the Western World the law makes no distinction between independent countries like Brazil and Argentina and nominally independent countries like Cuba and Costa Rica. It is only when colonial possessions are dealt with that a distinction is made. All British North American possessions are on a non-quota basis, while other European possessions are subject to restriction. In practice this means that only those places in the Western World from which any noticeable number of Negro immigrants had been coming are singled out for quota restrictions! With the uniform treatment accorded to British subjects in Europe it cannot be successfully contended that "self-government" inspired the inequality of treatment given to British subjects in the New World. Nor can it be seriously claimed that the number of immigrants coming from the restricted colonies, compared with the number from Canada and Newfoundland, justified restricting the former and not the latter. The contrary is the truth.

According to the *World Almanac* (1924) the principal sources of immigrants from the New World in 1923 were British North America,

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117,011; Mexico, 63,768; and the West Indies, 13,181 (mostly Negroes). If number constitutes a reason for restriction then Canada, rather than the West Indies, furnished the justification. Stat- ing it differently, of the 199,972 immigrants from the American continents who entered the United States in 1923, only 13,181 or less than 7 per cent were from countries with Negro majorities. And as not an inconsiderable portion of the 13,181 were Caucasians, it is clear that the proportion of Negro immigrants who remain in America is less than the proportion that American Negroes bear to the total population. More white immigrants came from Canada and Newfoundland in 1923 than the total number of foreign-born Negroes in the United States that year! Despite this fact and the further fact that while 4,183 West In- dians left the United States that year only 2,775 British North Americans and 2,660 Mexicans de- parted, the former are restricted while the latter are not.

It is nowhere claimed that language or culture constituted the reason for exempting all other American peoples while restricting West Indians. With the exception of English-speaking Canadians, there are no people in the Western World more culturally and linguistically akin to Americans than British West Indians. The great difference be- tween the West Indies and the favored British possessions of North America is that a majority of the inhabitants of the former colonies are of Afri- can descent. And this difference explains why the comparatively slight stream of immigration from these islands called for restriction.

Allied by blood to the 12,000,000 Negroes of this country, who have a deep interest in keeping the door of Negro immigration open in these days of discussion of the population question; when everything is being done to make America ap-

proximate the Ku Klux ideal of a white man's country by keeping Negroes in a hopeless minority, West Indians can only look to their brothers of the mainland to emulate the late Booker T. Wash- ington who, in 1914, succeeded with the cooperation of other far-sighted leaders in defeating the attempt made at the time to exclude from entry people of African descent. The present law, less frank than the one of ten years ago, has neverthe- less achieved the same end, for it means in effect that while the number of immigrants coming from countries that formerly sent a few Negroes will be limited to a couple of hundred yearly, white im- migrants will come from Europe to the extent of half a million annually until 1927, and 150,000 after then, while those from Canada and other parts of the American continent will be unlim- ited. In such a situation, if Negroes are not by their silence to acquiesce in racial discrimination by the Federal government, they will use their influence to see that all immigrants in the Western World are placed upon a quota or none; that the principle of equality among colonies in Europe be applied to colonies in the Americas.

Regardless of explanations and apologies, the bald fact stands out that the present Immigration Act, which is designed to be selective racially, by deliberate discrimination against those countries in the New World from which Negroes had been coming to any extent, while exempting those from which Caucasians are still coming without limit, places Negro blood in despite and serves notice upon American Negroes that they cannot hope to in- crease their number by immigration. In so many words, they are told that against their natural in- crease will be pitted not only the natural increase of white America but a constant entry of European immigrants. Such an outlook should engage the serious consideration of the best minds of the Negro race in America.

The Negro In Steel

By JOHN T. CLARK

THE steel industry supplies labor to all the other great American industries and has been forced to rely principally upon the raw immi- grant to replace these losses. Consequently, the industry has primarily been in the hands of for- eign-born residents from its beginning. This is now threatened by restrictive immigration legis- lation. Under these conditions, the law of supply and demand, operating more freely, has made it easy for the Negro to receive his first big chance in the steel industry.

In 1890, according to the United States Census, about one-half of Pennsylvania's foreign-born pop- ulation were Irish and Welsh. They were largely located in western Pennsylvania and employed in the steel and allied industries. By these "Direct

Action" was employed with a vengeance in keep- ing Negroes out of the crowds of job seekers at steel mill gates. By 1910 immigration figures had mounted, but the majorities showed a complete change in race stocks from northern to southern and southeastern Europe.

During the twenty years foreign-born Slavs in the United States increased 700 per cent; Italians, 800 per cent; Russians, 540 per cent; Hungarians, 650 per cent. A large part of these stocks also went to western Pennsylvania, where in 1890 there were one-eighth of all Italians, one-sixth of all the Hungarians, and one-sixth of all the Slavs then in the entire United States.

The Irish and Welsh suffered an absolute loss of about 27 per cent in their population during this

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20 year period, consequently losing their dominance in the steel industry to the South European. The attitude of the Slavs toward the Negro was not personally hostile but the struggles of each of these new, natural groups to monopolize for their own as many parts of steel mill work as their numbers and ability could make possible was a more effective barrier in keeping Negroes out of the industry than the brutal treatment used earlier by the Irish. For it was during the Irish dominance that Negroes gained a foothold in four of the smaller mills when a series of strikes took place in the nineties. Their work was so successful that large numbers of Negroes were employed to break the great Homestead strike which followed shortly afterward.

The unusual exigency of the World War was the first real test of the possibilities of an adequate supply and adaptability of the crude rural southern Negro to steel work, for the Negroes who gained entrance to mill work during strikes prior to this time were largely experienced men from the Alabama steel district.

So when the steel strike of 1919 came, the Negro in the Pittsburgh district did not know what the issues were between the white steel worker and the employer because no effort was made by strike leaders to acquaint him with the issues. My personal contact with hundreds of Negro steel workers makes me believe that the results would have been the same even if they had made such an effort, for up to that time (excluding the war period) the experiences of the Negro seeking work in steel had forced him to believe that there was as much sacredness about the principles involved in his rights to earn a living as were involved in the principles for which white steel workers were striking.

The following peak in employment during the war found 8500 Negroes in the steel industry in our entire district—about 13 per cent of the total force.

In September, 1923, there were 16,900 Negroes employed in 23 of the principal steel plants—about 21 per cent of the entire working force. Prior to 1918 no Negroes at all were employed in 18 of the 23 steel mills referred to. Reports from 9 of these 23 steel plants two months ago, when production was under 50 per cent, indicate that 32 per cent of the working force is now Negro. This is significant because during such periods of depression only a very few of the large number of white overhead officials and clerks are laid off.

The work at first at which Negroes seemed to find their best opportunities was usually on "hot jobs" when there has been the greatest difficulty experienced in keeping steady white steel workers. Consequently, they are now found dominating the work in the power houses, blast furnaces, cupaloo, open hearths. Their quick adaptability has had its effect in extending their employment in the mills which fabricate the red hot billets such as shearers,

ruffers, squeezers, rollers, straighteners. In many mills, especially those of the largest corporations, the Carnegie Steel, Jones and Laughlin, Negroes are generally employed.

All of this work is hot and exhaustive and requires qualities which the previous industrial experience of Negroes seems to well satisfy.

Handling molten and white hot metal affords the kind of intensive work and alternating rest periods which steel officials seem to think Negroes are peculiarly adapted to. A study of the adaptability of race groups for different steel processes has been made by the Pittsburgh Committee of the National Association of Corporations Training. The report gives the Negro the highest rating in hot and wet work, as helpers to skilled workers, and especially recommends Negroes for work requiring speed.

The methods of giving rest periods vary in different plants. In one plant while 42 men are continuously at work on a mill handling 16-inch plates, 84 men are employed, each working one-half hour and resting one-half hour during the entire eight hours. In another, "spell" men are employed to relieve a worker whenever he feels exhausted. Since all men employed on a mill generally share a per diem bonus for production, unless compelled to men do not call for relief as soon or as often as they should. This work usually pays from $5.50 to $7.50 per day which amount is increased by a bonus of about $1.00 depending upon the output of that "turn." Negroes seem to stand the strain better, work faster than their white fellowmen, are eager to make the time they work count, and never have not been entirely sympathetic towards the eight-hour day. Officials state without reservation that the Negro is an exceptional worker when he works.

Negroes are now gaining headway in such auxiliary steel work as gas-makers, chippers, crane-men, brick masons, and are generally employed as helpers to blacksmiths, carpenters, painters, electricians. While the common labor in practically all of the mills is in Negro hands, Slavs and Hungarians are usually found in every gang, often working under Negro foremen.

Further intrenchment of the Negro is indicated by the appearance of Negro straw-bosses and foremen. One plant last fall, employing around 3000 Negroes, had 32 Negro straw-bosses and foremen directing the work of 862 men, 240 of whom were foreign-born white workmen.

Much of this advancement in the steel industry is due to employment by nine mills of one or more intelligent, well trained Negroes as officials in their Welfare, Safety, and Employment Departments. These men, with several other exceptional Negroes employed as chemists, foremen, draftsmen, engineers, mechanics and welders, are serving to demonstrate to employers the latent possibilities in many of their Negro workers as well as to serve

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301

as an inspiration to many ambitious Negroes who
are going into this industry in large numbers.

The abnormal labor turnover of Negro workmen is yet one of the greatest obstacles to his advancement. Employers seem hard to be persuaded that crude, congregate housing and unfamiliar steel town environments play a significant part in maintaining a high turnover among Negro workmen. Nevertheless, the average length of Negro employment increased from one month during the war to three and one-half months last September.

The employment of Negroes places another handicap upon industry in being directly or indirectly responsible for many community problems created by their presence. Steel officials are meeting still another problem in being threatened with a boycott of their goods by southern concerns if they continue draining off their Negro labor.

On the other hand, the employment of Negroes is a distinctive advantage in several important ways: (1) The opportunity to have orders, communications, danger signals, etc., more generally given in English; (2) the newness of Negroes in the industry, their good pay and broad opportunities given by employers, make these laborers extremely grateful and as yet they refuse to be influenced by any propaganda to organize. Their ability to do almost any part of the work and their employment throughout the plants make it difficult for any strike movement to successfully interrupt production. The facts stated show clearly that Negroes are more or less permanently intrenching themselves in the steel industry and it is reasonable to suppose that their continued success will force white labor to eventually accept them as a vital element in the ranks of American labor.

*The Negro Child in the Rural Community*

By BLANCHE A. BEATTY

A DISCUSSION of the problems of Negro child life in rural communities must deal largely with an account of conditions as they exist in the southern section of the United States, since the Negroes who form a part of the population in other sections live for the most part in the large industrial centers; or, if driven to smaller communities because of lack of housing facilities and superior industrial conditions, find such opportunities for social development as are common in the cities. When we think of the Negro child in the rural community, our minds invariably dwell upon that child born and reared in the great agricultural section of the Southland, where for centuries the thought uppermost in the mind of the stronger race which profitted by the labor of the Negro has been to give him barely sufficient opportunity to live and grow to the point where he would be of economic benefit to his owner or landlord.

To those who have had the pleasure of travel through the Southern States of the United States, it is not hard to recall to their minds the picture of the little, dark, dingy huts which dotted the roadside, out of whose heavy wooden shutters peered half-clad black boys and girls, their faces wreathed in smiles that showed their beautiful pearly teeth as they enjoyed the only real sport of their little lives,—the opportunity to wave at the passing trains which rolled swiftly by, leaving them again to their lonely isolation. That these children live and develop strong, powerful bodies with such home life as they experience is only another of the evidences of God's care for those of His creatures who know not how to care for themselves.

Denied the advantage of contact with the refining influences of life, thousands of Negro children are ushered each year into a world where they have not

half a chance to measure up to the standards of a normal life. The mother and father, direct sufferers from the ills of human slavery, know little of what a true family life consists of, and so cannot be censured for the incorrect standards of living in their ofttimes dirty, unattractive, but happy, homes. With no knowledge of food elements and the part each plays in the development of the human body, the children soon show signs of such ailments as come from need of a balanced ration, while facilities are everywhere to be seen for the production of such food stuffs as would guarantee them perfect physical development.

The country school, almost invariably of the one-teacher type and operated either in the village church or some deserted shanty as little fitted for school purposes as the huts in which they live are suitable for homes, has a term of from two to six months, according to the attitude of the county school officer toward Negro education, or to the convenience of the well-to-do farmers or landlords who may desire to avail themselves of the opportunity for cheap labor in the production and harvesting of their crops. In many instances the term of the Negro rural school in Georgia, Florida, Alabama, or other Southern States, extends from June 15 to September 1, when the heat is so intense that concentration is impossible, this arrangement being made to meet the demands of the planters. Indifferent as to the quality of work done in these schools, little care is exercised in the selection of teachers, the chief aim being that of providing barely enough school opportunity for the Negro child to report something done each year in that direction.

Aside from the privilege of donning his "Sunday" clothes and going many miles away perhaps to hear the parson preach, there are no recreational advan-

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tages whatever for the
average Negro child in the
southern rural community
center. The church is
the community center and
the weekly meeting of
friends at that point is the
one social event to which
the families look forward
with fond anticipation.
These children marry
young, settle on the same
plantation or nearby, and
on and on goes the end-
less throng of underprivi-
leged Negro children,

whose very souls cry out to our American civiliza-
tion for a *chance*!

But the cloud is turning itself about so that one
gets a peep at the silver lining. The South, already
bowed low beneath the heritage of its long in-
dulgence in human slavery, is awakening more and
more to the fact that as the whole nation could not
endure half slave and half free, the South cannot en-
dure with one part of its population enlightened and
one part ignorant, with one part healthy and one
part diseased, with one part contented and happy
and another restless and ill at ease. Nothing has
done more to help the Negro child in the South
than the migration of nearly a million Negroes
northward during the past eight or ten years. For
while the opportunity to market his labor at a better
price in the big northern centers has been a strong
stimulant to the migration, the Negro's yearning
to rear his child in an environment where he might
breathe free air and have the advantages necessary
to make him a useful citizen has been by far the
stronger motive impelling so many to leave the
warm, congenial southern clime and brave the hard-
ships of life in the new, untried, chilly North. Told
that he would die of pneumonia and tuberculosis in
Ohio or Pennsylvania or Michigan, the Negro has
in the spirit of Patrick Henry rebelled against
southern tyranny and re-proclaimed, "Give me liberty
or give me death"—death rather than ignominious
life. The cotton fields deserted for want of labor, the
sugar mills silent because of the scarcity of sugar-cane
production, it has been made easy for the Negro lead-
er of the South to get an audience with even the
hitherto unapproachable landlord and to have him
lend an interested if not sympathetic ear to the story
of the Negro's yearning, "To know, to know!" As
the result of such conferences, more money is being
provided for public taxation for Negro education

struction Agents who are raising the standards of
home life, on the one hand, and encouraging farm
ownership on the other. The dirty hut by the road-
side is being replaced in many cases by the neat little
painted cottage around which flowers bloom and on
whose grounds play well-dressed, intelligent boys and
girls. Through the assistance of the Demonstration
Agents the mothers have learned to "take what they
have and make what they want"; the fathers have
learned to have a good, pure-bred cow to furnish
milk for his children and aside from his staple crop
of cotton or corn to have a garden that furnishes the
variety of vegetable foods for the family table, while
his storehouse smells of savory meats grown and
cured by the family.

The Anna T. Jeanes Fund is supplementing local
funds for the employment of Jeanes Fund Super-
visors who teach vocational work in the schools and
"tie up" the school work with the home life of the
rural people.

The Rosenwald schools, made possible by the gen-
erosity of Julius Rosenwald, are making it possible
for Negro children in many rural sections to enjoy
the benefits of a modern, well-equipped school build-
ing, a community center school. Parents contribute
personally to the fund for the erection of these
Rosenwald schools, the county appropriates a cer-
tain amount, and the Rosenwald Fund makes up the
balance necessary to insure a model school. The les-
son of self-help taught the patrons of these schools
is a distinct contribution to the development of the
race.

In the Rosenwald school auditorium the young
people of the community have their concerts and
entertainments, the women's clubs have their meet-
ings, and the community problems are worked out,
while the well-kept grounds supply the playground
for the children.

throughout the South;
good schoolhouses are be-
ing built, capable teachers
are being trained in nor-
mal schools provided from
State funds, school terms
are being lengthened, and
the Negro child in the ru-
ral district sees over the
hill-top far away the dawn
of a new day.

The Extension Division
of the Department of Ag-
riculture is employing hun-
dreds of skilled Negro
Farm and Home Demon-

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Negro Migration

By GEORGE E. HAYNES

(Continued from September)

TYPES OF MIGRANTS

THE types of Negro migrants are interesting. In 1916 and 1917, the earlier years of the present migration, the majority of the newcomers were men—particularly detached men—either men without families or men who would not venture to bring their families with them into an unknown country. Included among them were a great many younger men, with the “floaters” and ne’er do wells, who had been easily attracted away from southern towns and cities by the stories of easy work at high wages and by free transportation offered promiscuously by labor agents and railroad companies. A second class was made up of a large number of single women, detached from their families, who came because of the large opportunities for remunerative work, particularly in domestic service.

These gradually were accompanied and followed by the third type, the substantial laboring man of unskilled or semi-skilled abilities. For the most part these men either brought their families, soon married, or sent for their families as soon as they could find remunerative employment. Fourth, with parts of such families as fathers and sons had left behind came a great many broken families—widows with children, attracted by the opportunities for an education for the children in public schools and wages in domestic service. There came also the aged relatives of the wage earning men and women of families. As those in the larger southern cities and towns moved on to the North, others moved in from the hamlets and rural districts to fill their places and to swell the proportions. Thus much of the movement was by successive stages.

Beginning about 1919 those who had come in the two or three years preceding had gained a substantial economic footing and knowledge of being able to stand the climate and other living conditions. Consequently a general assurance spread throughout cities, towns and rural districts of the South. Frequently whole families or neighborhoods, sometimes with previous arrangements for employment in some of the industrial communities, migrated in a group. A few cases have been recorded of whole church congregations bringing their pastors with them.

As the types described above settled, they furnished a field for the small tradesmen and the professional class who either came along with the crowd or followed closely after. In many cases, of course, the more enterprising wage earners, finding themselves in the midst of a large Negro population with considerable wages to spend, ventured into business. Along with this host of mixed humanity, there came a vicious and criminal element. It is the testimony, however, of social workers, railroad officials,

law officers and other observers, that to an unusual degree these people are law-abiding, unoffending folk who are seeking larger opportunities in a new environment.

Effects of Migration on Negroes

The foregoing facts lead the way to our consideration of effects on families and communities in the North.

Some of the outstanding effects of migration on the average Negro family are better standards of food and clothing due to higher wages. The children have better school buildings with teaching equipment and higher paid, better trained teachers. The permanent effects on health and mortality can only be surmised. Statistics of the births and deaths are as yet meager but they seem to indicate a trend toward improvement. A survey made by Forrester B. Washington, under the auspices of the International Committee of Toledo, Ohio, showed a Negro death rate for 1922 of 15.2 per cent as compared with the general death rate of 11.7 per cent—a difference of 3.5 per cent; but in 1912, before the 200 per cent increase of Negro population due to migration, the Negro death rate was 20.5 per cent while the general death rate was 13.8 per cent—a difference of 6.7 per cent. In Cincinnati, the Negro death rate was 34.9 per cent for the decade 1902-1912 and declined to 27.4 per cent for the decade 1913-1923. Dr. Dublin, of the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company,¹ states that in nearly two million Negro industrial policyholders, including men, women and children, the “mortality rate was 17.5 per 1000” in 1911 and 14.5 in 1923, a decrease of more than one-sixth; death from tuberculosis, “the outstanding cause of death among colored people,” was 41 per cent less in 1923 than in 1911. . . . “Nothing indicates so well the general health condition of a race as the incidence of tuberculosis and nothing reflects so well an improvement in its mode of life as does a big drop in the tuberculosis death rate. . . . The improvement in typhoid fever is especially noteworthy,” declining 77.5 per cent between 1911 and 1923. There has been a “marked increase in the number of colored policyholders” in Illinois and Michigan, mainly concentrated in Chicago and Detroit.

In most northern cities the housing condition shows a majority of the Negro families coming North are grievously overcrowded and in practically all of the cities the rents for them have been far in excess of those for residents who are residing at the same time in similar localities. A survey made by the Federation of Churches of Buffalo in 1922 disclosed the fact that about 75 per cent of the

¹ Address before the National Conference of Social Work, Toronto, July 2, 1924.

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OCTOBER, 1924

colored families occupied a section of that city which contained the poorest houses, some of which had formerly been condemned as not habitable. A similar survey made by the Federated Churches of Cleveland showed that while a substantial part of the colored people have secured good houses, inadequate and unsanitary conditions still exist in one of the principal Negro communities of the city.

In Philadelphia, the Philadelphia Housing Association found in a recent survey that only 10.5 per cent of the houses occupied by Negro families were equipped for sanitation, convenience and comfort, while 28.6 of the houses occupied by whites were so equipped. There was no room overcrowding, however. In New York, Pittsburgh, Chicago and other cities, while there are many good houses, the majority of the people are overcrowded in houses lacking in facilities for sanitation, convenience and comfort. A striking development of their settlement has been their effort to improve their housing condition. This is evinced in their increased striving to purchase the homes they occupy. In the survey of Toledo, previously referred to, about 27.6 per cent of the families investigated owned or were purchasing their homes, nearly half of these having their homes free and clear. In 1910, in thirteen northern cities and two boroughs of New York City, from ten to over twenty-five per cent of Negro families owned or were buying the houses they occupied, and in seven additional cities and two boroughs of New York, from four to ten per cent owned or were buying the houses they occupied. During the past ten years there has been a great eagerness of Negro migrants to buy houses and in some cities real estate manipulators have forced many to buy or move. We may conclude then that in northern cities from ten to twenty-five per cent of the Negro families own or are buying their homes.

Negroes believe that the Negro community in the North, although considerably segregated, has advantages over their former homes in the South, such as theatres, public libraries, parks, playgrounds, museums and non-"Jim Crow" railroad and street cars. Negroes are taking part more and more in the civic and political affairs of the community. Newspapers and magazines, especially Negro newspapers and magazines, are being read as never before. Negro newspapers and magazines with the largest circulation are published in Chicago and New York. The headquarters of nearly every one of the Negro betterment organizations are now in northern cities and many of the general officers of the Negro churches have moved North. Small Negro business enterprises are increasing rapidly. A study of "The Negro at Work in New York," in 1910, before the present migration, listed about 475 enterprises in Manhattan; in 1921, a similar survey showed at least 584 such business enterprises in the Harlem district alone—a larger number than in the three Negro neighborhoods of Manhattan in 1910. General observations in Philadelphia, Chicago, Detroit and Cleveland give a similar impression of increase.

## Effects on Negro Church

What has been the effect of migration on the Negro church, which we saw was the most influential institution in Negro life in the South? In the northern cities it has increased greatly in membership, although many small mushroom store-front churches have sprung up and often become a hindrance to progress. There have developed some strong organizations in every one of these cities. Their great need is better trained leadership. In a few cities Negro congregations have bought or built institutional plants and are employing trained social workers. Abyssinia Baptist Church, St. Philip's P. E. Church, Williams Institutional C. M. E. Church, and Mother Zion A. M. E. Church in New York City; St. John's Congregational Church in Springfield, Mass.; Mount Zion Congregational Church and St. John's A. M. E. Church in Cleveland; Olivet Baptist Church and two community churches in Chicago; and Sharpe Street M. E. Church in Baltimore, are prophecies of great community service and show the possibilities.

I realize the serious shortcomings of the church in community service and I respect the opinion of many social workers who think that the church is not able to function with technical efficiency in case work. Yet I am moved to maintain that the Negro church is by far the most substantial institution we have for reaching the Negro rank and file with our social programs. Trying to look at the matter without bias, it seems to me that many of our efforts have not carried over to the masses of the Negro people because we have not sold our social programs through the Negro churches which have already a hold upon the thousands who had developed the churches for more than a hundred years and now find them their social agency. If we get our plans accepted in the programs of those churches, much of our efforts would not need to go into building social service programs and trying to force Negroes into them. It is true that there are great obstacles in the way of getting scientific technique in this field. There are other dangers involved. There are baffling difficulties of leadership and restricted vision. These Negro church organizations, however, have a willingness and zeal for service which has brought results wherever skilled social workers have been able to link them up to the scientific methods and directions needed. In Wichita, Kansas; in Kansas City, Mo.; St. Louis, Chicago, Toledo, Cincinnati, Brooklyn and other cities, the white and Negro social workers and the white and Negro church leaders have begun inter-racial committees through Urban Leagues and Y. M. and Y. W. C. A. cooperative community planning which has already achieved results and promises larger things for the future. Perhaps the most fully worked out and best piece of social engineering in race relations in a northern community has been developed during the past six years in Cincinnati, Ohio, in the inter-racial work of the Council of Social Agencies, with James H. Robinson as executive secretary. They have co-

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ordinated the Negro churches, fraternal bodies, wo-
men's clubs, Y. M. C. A. and Y. W. C. A. with
the white social agencies and organizations. The
Negro population increased from about 20,000 to
35,000 in ten years, largely during the 1916-18 mi-
gration. These people have been integrated into the
city's life through their leaders and organizations to
an extent which hardly seemed workable ten years
ago. In Philadelphia the Armstrong Association,
with Forrester B. Washington as secretary, has suc-
cessfully started somewhat similar plans and policies.
Other cities, with the cooperation of Urban Leagues,
are beginning such policies.

Effects on Northern White Community

This leads us logically to the effect of Negro mi-
gration on the white community in northern cities.
In such communities the reaction of public opinion
seems to have become one of our foremost problems.
For instance, anyone would have been considered an
alarmist twenty years ago had he predicted that
public opinion would allow 58 Negro homes in
Chicago to be bombed with impunity as increasing
numbers forced Negro residents to spread beyond the
areas where they had formerly lived. Race riots and
outrages in East St. Louis, Omaha, Chicago and
Washington paralyzed these cities for days and
shocked the Nation. In public schools in more than
a dozen northern cities Negro children are being di-
rectly or indirectly segregated. In one small city
recently a company of leading white citizens spent
a whole evening deliberating how they might con-
trol the adjustment of Negroes in the community
with some fairness and yet not make it favorable
enough to attract additional numbers. In some
cities the former Negro residents have felt an un-
friendly reaction toward their former free participa-
tion in community life.

This reaction of white public opinion has shown
itself decidedly in the housing situation. These new-
comers meet tremendous racial friction which grows
out of their efforts to improve their housing condi-
tions. It is very important that northern public
opinion should not regard Negroes as things, nor as
serfs, nor as half-men and half-women. Many of
them are handicapped by ignorance, previous condi-
tions and poverty, yet they possess all the rights and
needs of whole men and women and are seeking the
opportunities of free citizens.

The newspapers, the pulpits and other community
channels of information may influence public opinion
toward friendly racial attitudes. The Inter-racial
Committee of Youngstown, Ohio, recently had an
educational campaign which included a pageant pro-
duced by five hundred of the Negro people of the
community on two nights at the leading theatre in
the city. It received the praise of the leading news-
papers and over two thousand white citizens who
packed the theatre. The music and dramatic ability
were a revelation to the performers as well as to
the community. During the Sunday that preceded
the performance, the ministers of the leading

churches gave strong addresses or sermons on the
problems of inter-racial adjustment and on two days
following in the elementary and high schools through
songs and addresses information was given to the
pupils about the achievements of Negroes along lines
of art, literature, science, and invention. The news-
papers gave liberal space to reports of these events.

The effect upon political life in northern com-
munities when large numbers of Negro voters come
in is too extensive a subject to be considered here.

The dramatic and musical contributions of Ne-
groes have greatly changed the comedy, the song and
the dance of the North where opportunity the past
fifteen years has brought ragtime, jazz, comic acting
and art songs of high quality which have influenced
the whole community.

The effects of increasing thousands of Negro
workers in northern industries is of great import-
ance, for in this field the masses meet face to face.
In the past Negroes often got chances to work when
white workers went on strike. They were then
taunted as scabs by white workmen who had previ-
ously objected to their being on the job and had
excluded them from their unions. Gradually, how-
ever, Negro workers are winning their way into the
ranks of labor. The Negro worker is not militant-
minded. He is drawn more to persons than to prop-
erty. He often considers the interest of the other
group as a part of his own. Is not this spirit of
conciliation the ethical value that must more and
more control both white capitalist and white worker
before we shall have democracy in industry or indus-
trial peace? The Negro worker needs help that
his preference for persons above property may not
make him a tool in the hands of employers who may
wish to use him to fight the unions. As the Negro
worker gets into labor ranks he may bring a spirit
of cooperation that the new day in industry requires.

There is a special call to social workers for types
of service in addition to the usual case work for de-
pendents, defectives, and delinquents. What is
needed by the large majority of the Negro migrants
is friendly integration fully into the economic, edu-
cational, civic, and religious life of the community.
These people by their brain and brawn are seeking
to pay their way by their labor in the expanding in-
dustries of northern communities. They are not a
group of economic dependents or social delinquents.
Many are ignorant and unused to the complex life
about them, but they are very teachable and most
adaptable. They need help, for instance, against
the exploitation of real estate sharks, white and
Negro, who exploit them for the houses and shacks
they buy or rent; from the shameless profiteers
who sell them goods on the installment plan; from
commercialized vice which flourishes unmolested by
public authorities in their tenements and neighbor-
hoods. They need the liberal interest of white citi-
zens such as prompted the Americanization efforts
for the foreign-born. The Negro, however, only
needs help in securing the opportunity to embrace
American advantages. He does not have to forget

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OCTOBER, 1924

foreign customs and foreign loyalties for he is not a naturalized but a natural-born American citizen.

These Negro migrants are a part of a great body of American citizens who are permeated with a deep community and group consciousness and who have shown their ability for team work with other racial and national groups in America by unselfish cooperation on their part in communities, North and South. They have demonstrated their undying loyalty to American ideals of democracy by offering their life blood upon every battlefield of Liberty, from Bunker Hill to the Fields of Flanders. What greater loyalty has any people shown than the Negroes who, during the Civil War, remained behind on the plantations and took care of the helpless wives and children of the very masters who were away fighting

to keep them in slavery, and later remained to provide support for many of those same families when the masters did not return from the battlefield? Thousands of them during the World War fought and died to make America safe for democracy, although fully conscious that they and theirs would not be allowed to enjoy the full measure of the very blessings of liberty for which they were pouring out their life's blood. These people, seeking opportunity for self-development and self-determination, have moved by thousands to the North. If we help them to integrate their lives into the community and to make their contribution to the common life as the years come and go, there will grow increasingly in America, our America, a realization of that democracy which is to be in "the land of the free and the home of the brave."

## Black Laughter

### A REVIEW
By MONTGOMERY GREGORY

"BLACK LAUGHTER" is a revelation of the soul of Africa. Other books on the "dark continent," written mostly by the ruthless builders of empire, by the callous explorers, or by the casual traveler who seldom leaves the coastal highways, are usually like the writers themselves —soulless: they describe the material, the visible, the known Africa. Llewellyn Powys is above all an artist, a man of aesthetic and human sensibilities, whose life in Africa was spent in intimate contact with the unknown Africa, the Africa of the inner jungle. I doubt if any other European or American writer has caught so truly the underlying spirit of this mystifying continent as has the author of this book, and he has been honest and ingenious enough simply to record his impressions without any attempt at humbuggery. There is a quality in "Black Laughter" strangely akin to Jean Toomer's "Cane": there is the same translucent beauty of expression and the same sensitive feeling for the spiritual values of an unappreciated and misunderstood people.

There is, perhaps, less actual knowledge of the Africa of today than of any other sector of the world. The excavations of the tombs of the ancient kings are but the Africa of the remote past. Egypt, Liberia, and the other coastal squatting-places are only a hybridization of European and African life, but a counterfeit of what lies beyond. This real Africa has not changed; it is in truth the "dark continent." Here the handiwork of the Creator is to be found undesecrated by the craven hand of civilized man. As Powys expresses it, "I came to realize what it was to live in a place where Nature is in the ascendancy." Or yet again. "I would never be able to forget that

I had once stood looking out upon a portion of the earth's surface that still retained evidence of God's tremendous genius."

Practically alone, except for sporadic visits from his brother, his only companions the strange natives, Powys for several years was able to contemplate the magnificent if treacherous glory of the virtual jungle, or Mount Kenya, that giant peak which ironically rears its snow-capped head under the very band of the Equator, or the amethystine waters of lake Elementeita, or the myriad other wonders of this phantasmagoria. In the day Africa lies in profound somnolence. But at night "when the flat equatorial moon would blandly illuminate this unregenerate section of the earth's surface, the soul of Africa would become articulate. . . . We could hardly speak, so audible had the great continent become which all day long lies in a dull sleep under the hypnotic rays of an evil sun, only to grow in the high noon of midnight so wild, so merciless, so alarmingly voluble." Then every form of bird or beast began their nightly carnival of death. "Hyenas would moan as they slunk along the dark banks of the forest streams nosing for death with heavy obtuse jowls. Leopards would cause the pale trunks of the forest trees to echo and to reecho with the sound of their calling. Jackals in an ecstasy of crafty expectation would go yelping across the veldt." Lions would be engaged in a herculean death-grapple at the very doors of his shack; he would be forced to scale the nearest tree to escape a terrible death from a herd of crashing, trumpeting elephants, and a mob of baboons would cunningly invade a cornfield,— all the ferocious animals of one's wildest imagination would be stalking the country-side for food or prey.

And the spirit of it all was sinister, cruel, malignant. Here the law of the survival of the

"Black Laughter," by Llewellyn Powys. Published by Harcourt, Brace and Company, New York, 1920. Price $2.50.

OCTOBER, 1924

OPPORTUNITY

307

fittest is given its most relentless demonstration. "In all directions a crafty and a merciless war is being waged. . . . Kill! Kill! Kill! That is the mandate of Africa and the more assiduously it is obeyed the more in harmony one becomes with that equatorial environment where the motive principles of nature lie stark and undisguised. I was not slow to learn this single law. To stay one's hand would mean death: 'twere best to strike with a free heart." What an appalling, yet what a fascinating land!

One is constantly given the impression by the perusal of this extraordinary book that the malig- nity of Africa is largely reserved for the white man who is an unwelcomed trespasser upon an inhospitable strand. The animals and even nature herself cast their evil eyes upon the white skin. In the disingenuous confession of the author him- self, "What was I doing in this country, a white skin among so many black?" Numerous instances of the debasing influence of Africa upon the Euro- pean are given. Men on the frontiers of civiliza- tion without the humanizing influences of organized society become brutal and devilish. They regard the natives as "black cats," hardly worthy of a decent burial. Take the man, Fenton, who marked the pathway to his fantastic shack with luminous human skulls and who used the stiff dead body of a native as bait for a lion's trap! Apparently the only way for a handful of whites to maintain their prestige and authority is by striking terror into the hearts of the natives through every diabolical agency at their disposal.

Of the natives themselves we get the same vivid impressions as of the jungle. In most cases they are a primitive people who have never heard of any God, with childish minds, and on the whole a happy, gay, thoughtless race. Yet the Masai are represented as an "arrogant and ancient race who with their supple limbs and haughty, aristocratic features suggest in each graceful movement of their bodies a troop of God-like Spartans who long ago had strayed into Africa to become bronzed by the tropical sun. Deep in his heart every Masai feels nothing but contempt for Europeans." Although unconscious of any moral code or religi- ous creed these simple people have high standards of conduct drawn from their close association with nature and numerous examples are given where qualities of courage, fidelity, decency, and humanity are displayed.

A reflection of the breadth of the author as well as of the chastening effect of the solitary life of the whites in Africa is shown by Powys' adven- ture with a Kibuyu maiden of sixteen summers. This adventure will also give some idea of the personal attractiveness and character of the Afri- can woman. An accidental meeting quickly rip- ened into a mutual interest and friendship. Wam- boy was, however, "proud and evasive and in every way inaccessible. The sound of her laugh-

ter was the prettiest thing I had ever heard in my life. . . . The more I saw of her the more impossible it seemed that I should ever be able to rid myself of the spell she cast over me. I be- gan contemplating marriage with her. Why not? After all we have only one life and surely, I thought, I could spend mine in many worse ways than living with this lovely forest creature." Fa- vorable overtures were made to the cupidious father but Wamboy grew frightened. "She had been willing to laugh and play but when she understood that I was really serious a new, scared look came into her eyes." Powys was gentleman enough not to press his suit of this "rare hama- dryad of the African forest."

But the "Black Laughter." What of it? The chapter so headed is by far the most intensely in- teresting and dramatically written of all. This story, wierd and terrifying, in truth symbolizes the spirit of the book—reveals the naked soul of Africa to the white world. Powys was informed by a frightened native that a mysterious man had invaded the settlement. Enraged, he started out to drive the intruder from the place. Arrived at the designated spot, Powys suddenly realized that a man was standing by his side. "He was a mid- dle-aged Kibuyu. . . . He had an extremely cul- tured face, a face oddly reminding one of a certain portrait of Benjamin Disraeli. It had the same magpie look, the same black forelock. . . . I drove him before me down the narrow path. He limped as he went and I noticed that one of his feet was deformed. . . . I turned my pony and rode after him, lashing him with my whip." But this strange apparition successfully dodging his pursuer, perched himself on the edge of a high rock. The writer testifies that he soon "became more and more con- scious of the concentrated gaze of this African priest, standing silent and alone upon his pulpit rock. . . . I felt that he was computing the power of my unstable white soul, was focusing upon it a thousand maledictions." Suddenly this "man of God" disappeared. A spirit of desolation seemed to have been set loose over the parched and vexed land. That night, terrified, Powys went to bed after having barricaded the doors. Towards morning he became conscious of a combined laugh and shriek, "long and loud, whining and wailing up from the forest, up from the gully." Was it an hyena? "That criminal human outcry could issue from no animal throat! It had in it, or so it seemed to my disordered fancy, all the tortured anguish, all the lunatic misery of the debased, out- raged soul of the African Negro. It was as if some insane inhabitant of this frightful continent had suddenly become articulate under the swinging, frantic moon and had found himself impelled to give appalling utterance to all that his doomed race had suffered. Somewhere out there, where the hispid branches swayed, I knew there was a man with white canine teeth bared giving vent to Black Laughter."

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Ill-omened were the days following this weird
experience. Every possible calamity and plague fell
upon the land and upon the fortunes of Powys in
particular. The curse of Muungu, uttered by
this witch doctor, was evidently wreaking its malev-
olent vengeance upon the white man. Shortly
afterwards the author of this book, leaving his
brother to "carry on" in that inhospitable land,
turned his back upon the soil of the black man
and returned to the land of the whites. One
imagines that Kareba, the "man of God," is still

perched on his pulpit rock hurling the anathemas
of his outraged race upon the despoilers of his
home-land.

What of the future? What has Fate in hiding
for Africa? Let Llewellyn Powys give the answer.

"O Africa! Africa! How eagerly, how savagely
you avenge even so much as the cutting of a
branch, or the artificial manipulation of a single
one of your stones! And yet the hour is fast
approaching when even your hard mouth will
wince under a double-bit, when your thick, stiff
neck will be bowed in ignoble subjection."

OUR BOOK SHELF

Negro Poets and Their Poems

By Robert Thomas Kerlin, Associated Publishers,
Washington, D. C. Price $1.50

FOR some time attention has been focused on the Negro and his environment as a source of literary material. More recently there has been the attempt to measure or prove his creative ability in artistic literary expression through collections of Negro poetry. Such is the aim in part of the Anthology, "American Negro in Poetry," published by James Weldon Johnson in 1922; such is the purpose of "Poetry by American Negroes," compiled by N. I. White, Professor of English in Trinity College (North Carolina) and W. C. Jackson, Vice-President and Professor of History in the North Carolina College for Women, and issued by Trinity College Press in 1924; and to a greater degree does it seem true of "Negro Poets and Their Poems" by Robert Thomas Kerlin, now teaching English in the State Normal School in West Chester, Pennsylvania.

This book is a critical study of the poetry of the Negro from 1760, not neglecting the old religious songs of the plantation, or "Spirituals," and the dance, play, and nursery rhymes, or "Seculars," up to the present time, with emphasis on the latter. It is divided into eight chapters. The first deals with "Untaught Melodies or Folk Song and the Earlier Poetry of Art" and is used as an historical background of the poetry of the present.

Particularly pleasing is his discussion in this pre-
liminary section of the "Seculars," rich in the rhythmic
humor and gayety of the race. It is this section of the
book that first gives the truth to the criticism that "this
book . . . reveals to Negroes themselves a whole unex-
plored region of spiritual treasure of which we know
altogether too little." Phyllis Wheatley has been either
a "heavenly muse" or "beneath contempt" for years;
Frances Harper's poems are a part of one's racial con-
sciousness; Paul Lawrence Dunbar, a household fa-
vorite; but what of Jupiter Hammon, George Horton,
J. Madison Bell, or Alberry Whitman? Has the aver-
age high school student heard of Charles Reason or
J. Mord Allen? Even though their accomplishment be
slight, their effort should be known. If Dr. Kerlin
seems too fervent in his praise of all save Dunbar,
it must be remembered that he is using as his measure
other writers of the same period or school, and not
absolute standards of poetry.

In the preface of his "American Poetry Since 1900,"
Louis Untermeyer states that the modern poet has
been set free to look candidly at the world he lives in and
to study the welter and struggle and beauty of modern
life. His is the distinction of facing rather than escap-
ing life. In directing the attention of his readers to
the expression of those poets who sing:

"We have fashioned laughter
Out of tears and pain,
But the moment after—
Pain and tears again"—

the author is aware of the undercurrents of Negro
life and of the poet's urge to make them the burden of
his song, since he cannot escape (in fact, he has given
a subsequent chapter to "The Poetry of Protest"); but
he is also conscious of the old adage of solitary weep-
ing. Hence, while acknowledging the dominant note of
Negro poetry to be that of protest, he adds, "The harp
of Ethiopia has many strings and the brothers of
Memnon are many."

Leaving the notes of individualistic racial themes, he
shows the capacity of the poet to lose himself "In the
bosom of this rose," or "dream of violets, and my soul's
forgotten gleam;" or watch "Gay hollyhocks with flam-
ing bells and waving plumes" and muse on "dear blue
hills, that lie apart, and wait so patiently down there,"
while watching "A hint of gold where the moon will
be." The lure of sunsets, the music of rain, "the lilt-
ing witchery, the unrest of winged dreams," the pathos
or ecstasy of love, patriotic fervor, the charm of old
friendships, the mystic lure of far-off lands, and "joy in
autumn sadness,"—all these imaginings of no race nor
hue are found in the chapter titled "The Present Renais-
sance."

Other chapters, "The Heart of Negro Womanhood,"
*"Ad Astra per Aspera," "Dialect Verse," "The Poetry
of Protest," and "Miscellaneous Poems," add new names
but few new notes. The appearance of their work in
magazines or elsewhere has already made the reader
more or less familiar with the names of James D. Cor-
rothers, Leslie Pinckney Hill, James Weldon Johnson,
W. E. B. DuBois, Claude McKay, William Stanley
Braithwaite, Alice Dunbar-Nelson, Georgia Douglas
Johnson, Jessie Fauset, Lucian Watkins, and Langston
Hughes. Kelly Miller and R. Nathaniel Dett appear
in the new guise of *vers libristats*, and Angelina W.
Grimke, the author of "Rachel," a play, is represented
by seven poems. There are many other names almost
unknown to the general reader. The Cotters, father
and son, stir memories of a few; Edward Smythe Jones
is remembered for his "Ode to Lincoln"; but there are
others whose songs have been either too recent or too
infrequent to win for the singers wide range. One
wonders why in his discussion of dialect he omitted the
name of Holloway who, some believe, exhibits more of
the charm and rhythmic qualities of Dunbar in his use
of that medium than any other poet. The Negro's
ability in the field of new verse forms is justly meas-
ured by the author. Here the poems of Jean Toomer
and Countee Cullen would find place. In a book deal-
ing with silhouettes on a literary horizon, they ought
to be numbered.

OCTOBER, 1924

OPPORTUNITY

The appeal of the book adheres not only in the content but in its attractive jacket and general appearance. The index of authors, with biographical and bibliographical notes, and the index of titles add to the usefulness of the book. Numerous illustrations enhance its value.

In spite of some repetition and incomplete quotations, this volume of running biographical notes and interpretative comment upon sixty-odd writers and almost one hundred and sixty poems remains the most comprehensive collection of Negro poetry on the market. Here not dispassionately but certainly sincerely, Dr. Kerlin has brought facts and passages which must lead to "a new vision of the Negro and a new appreciation of his spiritual qualities, his human character," and at the same time a prophetic certainty of his creative artistry.

B. C. McN.

## Gone Native

By "Asterisk." Constable & Co., Ltd., London.

Of THE more or less modern interpretations by whites of life that is native to the "submerged tenth" there have been schools innumerable. Aside from the effusions of the "explorers" and the melodramatists, it is amazing to behold the multiple reactions of a more or less serious artistic nature to colored native life. Heading them all, of course, are the rugged tales of Mr. Joseph Conrad, apostle of psychology and mysticism. Jostling him is Lafcadio Hearn, the word wizard, whose two novels, "Youma" and "Chita," are pictures of folk life on the Spanish Main of exhaustless beauty. And then there is Somerset Maugham, of "The Moon and Sixpence" and those brilliant short stories of South Sea life which are published in the volume called "The Trembling of a Leaf."

In all these stories the manner is either alluringly pictorial or broodingly psychological. In "Gone Native," however, neither of these is prevalent. In the face of this one is not tempted, however, to put it down as a trail blazer. It isn't exactly that. It is just a dry, empty, juiceless book,—no deft play of feeling, no moving psychological moment comes off. One simply gets the impression that it is the work of a tired, exhausted soul—a missionary, in all probability, English, besides, whose sex is unimportant, who after a siege of life on the sweltering isles of Oceania conceives the very brilliant idea of sitting down and painting a picture of its eternal splendor, of its death defying exoticism, of its absorbing lassitude—and of the effect of all this on a gelded Nordic soul. Alas! It is pathetic. Ouela Kohkon, the native heroine, Anglicized into Topsy, is the creation, if I may so dignify her, of a mentality burdened with the concepts of a Puritan morality. George, the pale face who drunkenly "goes native," is a little too theatrical, perhaps, about it. When a man decides, in a community unoppressed by the fetishes of restraint, to "take a woman unto himself" he doesn't, unless he is an alarmist of a dabbler in anthropology, or a victim of the legend relating to the vices and reproductive failings of mixed bloods—he doesn't argue with the village priest or scribble faint, heartsick letters to the folks back home about it. He just goes ahead and does it. Intellectuality plays, if any, a pretty feeble part. And this squeamishness to us is the chief fault to be found with this otherwise not uninteresting tale.

Eric D. Walrond.

## That Obnoxious White Character

There are few institutions more dangerous to the public peace than the white character in the Negro comic story. This character struts about exhibiting and asserting his superiority over the docile colored folk, he is praised by the author as all that is powerful and high, and he creates much of the humor of the story by the manner in which he keeps the Negroes in their place. Now, if it is true, as is frequently held, that it is dangerous to tell an ignorant Negro that he is the equal of

any white man, it must be still more dangerous to tell an ignorant white man that he is superior to any Negro, for said ignorant man always considers it his duty to perpetuate this superiority and to see that all Negroes who do not act toward him as those in the book act toward the white character are brought down from their high horses. Then, when this defender of the faith happens upon a Negro who is not so docile as those in the story, one thing will likely lead on to another and the first thing we know we have an ugly race riot, which is investigated and laid upon bad housing, labor trouble, and the arrogance of the Negroes.

Irvin Shrewsbury Cobb is one of the writers of Negro stories who is especially offensive in his liking for this obnoxious character. His collection of anecdotes called "A Laugh a Day Keeps the Doctor Away" is, however, quite an advancement over "J. Poindexter, Colored," possibly because Mr. Cobb did not write the anecdotes himself, but merely collected them and told them in as interesting a manner as he knew. The white character whom Negroes call "boss," and who calls colored women by their first names, is still of frequent occurrence in those anecdotes dealing with our people, but there is none of the deliberate studied preaching on race relations which made Jeff Poindexter so odious. In selecting his jokes about executions, Mr. Cobb showed poor judgment in allowing the person executed always to be of African descent for by so doing he causes one to suspect him of partiality; and his jokes on lynching, though only two or three in number, reflect rather badly on the texture of his moral sensibilities. However, only a little over fifty of the three hundred sixty-six jokes in the volume are about Negroes, and if one has a sense of humor, he might derive some enjoyment from the three hundred odd jokes remaining, plus a few about Negroes, including one of Bert Williams's own, that are entirely undeserving of censure.

As Mr. Cobb is especially offensive in always introducing the obnoxious white character, so Octavus Roy Cohen is especially inoffensive in avoiding this character. He is totally absent from that group of Negro stories bound collectively under the title of "Come Seven," and he is likewise not to be found in any of Mr. Cohen's other volumes of Negro stories. When Cohen deems it best for a Negro to cower, he makes him cower before another Negro; when he finds it necessary to browbeat a Negro, he has another Negro to do the browbeating; when he thinks that humor can be evolved by a Negro being knocked down, thrown from a room, or run out of town, he calls other Negroes to perform the unpleasant duty. He frequently favors his reader with touches of rare humor, especially in his clever titles (such as "Without Benefit of Virgie," and "The Quicker the Dead"); in his sparkling descriptions of events and emotions; and in the way he has of getting his characters in and out of trouble. His Negroes, including even the doctor, the dentist, and the lawyer, are all more or less unlettered, of course, but he does not seek to convey the impression that these Negroes are the best Negroes, or that any other Negroes are the worst. He neither steps out of his story to talk on race relations and racial characteristics himself, nor does he have any of his characters do it for him. His sole purpose apparently is to have some fun—at our expense, perhaps,—but we have been in freedom for sixty years, and we should be getting old enough to take a joke. Besides, to tell the truth, Mr. Cohen's characters are only more or less exaggerated examples of types that we ourselves have laughed up our sleeves at at some time or other.

Stories of the type found in "Come Seven" are perhaps a little overworked. Probably it would be better if there were not so many of them and more of the more serious and sympathetic types. However, in view of the frequency with which the American white man has tried and failed to produce a true subjective study of his "burden" in story form, it is perhaps better for Mr.

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Cohen to stick to the type he knows than to worry us with any more such mistaken ideas as are found in Stribling's "Birthright" and Alice French's "By Inheritance."

Edwin Drummond Sheen.

## The Negro and the Stage

OF GOING to the theater everyone knows something; but so many of us have so many different reasons for going, or for not going there. Of those people who have reasons for not going to the theater we will not speak, since they are not interesting to us, and since these paragraphs about the theater will surely be uninteresting to them. Of those who go to the theater and give reasons for going, the most often quoted is the tired business man who goes there to laugh, to rest his mind, to be amused. Of course, laughing, and resting one's mind, and being amused are things to be desired, but when the theater is placed in the category where it really belongs, and intelligently considered as an educational institution along with the school, we can easily see that there should be some more important reason than the business man offers for visiting such a place.

That the theater should always, and seriously, be considered as an educational institution side by side with the school is evident for one reason if for no other, and that is that the theater has the ear of more reasoning people, more adults, than any other institution, not excepting the church.

Besides the business man's reason which, by the way, is the reason of many others in different walks of life, we may recall those people who go to the theater because others go, the people who go to talk about something foreign to the play (although they never acknowledge it) and see only about one-fourth of the action, the people who go there to sleep (they never acknowledge it!), and the intelligent few who go for the reason that all people ought to go to the theater, to be interested. And what greater pleasure can a person wish than to watch and hear an interesting play moving logically from episode to episode to a reasonable end?

But what has all this to do with the Negro and the Stage? It has neither more nor less to do with the Negro and the Stage than it has to do with the Caucasian and the Stage. Whatever is true of the one is true of the other. Where we have Negroes who go to the theater to follow the crowd, to talk or sleep through the play, and who laugh out at the most serious parts of the action, we have people of other races who do the same things. One difference between the Negro and other races as far as the theater is concerned is that other races and nationalities foster their own theaters better than the Negro. In New York we may find a theater of almost every race or nationality save the Negro. Of course, we have theaters owned by Negroes who employ Negro actors, but we have no theater where Negro actors play in plays whose themes are particularly Negro, like the Irish, the Chinese, the Jews, and numerous others. I hope those who read this will not confound Negro theater with "Jim Crow" theater. A Negro theater will be a theater where Negro actors will play in plays the majority of which will be written by Negro playwrights.

For the past twenty-five years the Negro has made his mark on the stage by playing the fool. From the days of the Georgia Minstrels through the balmy days of Williams and Walker and Cole and Johnson up to the present time of S. H. Dudley and Billy King to see the average Negro on the stage has been to laugh. Certainly there have been many commendable amateur attempts, but we are now considering the regular stage.

One of the things that has hindered the Negro actor in the past has been a lack of opportunity. I do not know, but I am very sure that with real training in the dramatic art, Bert Williams could have made his mark on the stage in the serious drama. A few years ago the people who went to the theater never cared to see the Negro actor in a serious part; they thought it an impossibility. But now we see that they were mistaken. Barring geniuses, the Negro actor with the same training can depict characters as well as the Caucasian actor. The company of Lafayette Players is a case in point. These players whose acting in most instances is naturally bad on account of careless training, or no training at all, do as well as many white companies which have been similarly trained. I have often wondered if the excellent support which Negro audiences give these players and the bad plays they offer (Broadway cast-offs) is the reason for the lack of training and the careless choice of plays. I also wonder if, when the Negro audiences obtain some better standard of criticism, their natural demand for better things in their theaters will be met with better dramas and more trained acting. The indiscriminate praise and support of bad acting and worthless plays surely cannot last forever.

The future of Negro men and women as interpreters of character is very hopeful, and these hopes will be more fully and more quickly attained when they are enabled by a sufficient number of Negro plays to interpret the Negro character. Not only will the Negro character be easy and suitable for them, but all those characters the interpretation of which is enhanced by mellow tones of voice. Not only is the Negro's dialect more sweet-toned, but his use of the perfect English is warmer and more soothing than the Caucasian's. As an illustration of the difference between the Negro dialect and the pure English let us change a familiar passage of Shakespeare, one of Iago's hypocritical speeches to Othello, from the original to the Negro dialect.

"Good name in man and woman, dear my lord,
Is the immediate jewel of their souls:
Who steals my purse steals trash; 'tis something,

nothing;

'Twas mine, 'tis his, and has been slave to thousands;
But he that filches from me my good name
Robs me of that which not enriches him,
And makes me poor indeed."

"Good name in man an' woman, deah ma lawd,
Is th' immediate jewel of thei' souls:
Who steals ma purse steals trush; 'tis somethin',
nothin';

'Twas mine, 'tis his, an' has been slave to thousand's;
But he that filches f'om me ma good name
Robs me of that which not enriches him,
An' makes me po' 'ndeed."

It will be noticed that the Negro dialect allows for no harsh-sounding consonants; even the liquid "r" which adds so much to tone-color in the pure English is eliminated as far as possible.

As in the past there has been an over abundance of humor about the Negro actor which has made him as good a comedian as any other, so beneath the surface there is a seriousness in him which should make him as good an actor in the legitimate drama as any other.

Willis Richardson.

The review of Herbert J. Seligmann's "The Negro Faces America," which was published in the September issue of OPPORTUNITY, was by William H. Baldwin, Jr.

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## INTER-RACIAL FORUM

FROM the Trenton, N. J. *Times*: "Little or no anxiety need be felt about the solution of the so-called racial problems if everybody will be sensible and play fair."

The Philadelphia, Pa., *Inquirer*: "Alice Paul's personally conducted organization, the National Woman's Party, refused to permit a negress to speak at the grave of Inez Milholland Boissevain because it would have been 'bad politics.' Miss Paul further explains, 'This was a demonstration of women, and it was no place for colored people to speak.' It is evidently Alice's determination not to permit the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments to qualify the Nineteenth."

In the New York *News*, New York City: "When the fiends who now infest and govern Dixie, and their children, shall long since have passed away; when their children's children shall have forgotten the Civil War; when these shall be ashamed that their forebears ever held human beings as chattel slaves,—then colored Americans will stay South and the South will again blossom as the rose."

Dr. D. M. Baxter in the Hoboken, N. J. *Observer*: "Never has the Negro race asked for social equality. It is the right of every human being to pick and select his own company. The Negroes as a race, however, have a firm and un-

shaken right to justice and things that are great and beautiful should not be denied them because of their race."

Commissioner A. Harry Moore of Jersey City, in the Hoboken, N. J. *Observer*: "The truth of that old adage 'You can't keep a good man down' should be constantly in the mind of all young men and women, regardless of race, color, or creed."

The Marietta, Ohio, *Times*: "'Whiteness' or 'blackness' would limit God, who is limitless, just as would any attempt to portray Him. Civilized men nowadays do not draw pictures of God, or tell how tall He is, attribute color to Him, or represent Him in any physical manner whatever."

C. C. Spaulding in the Chicago, Ill., *Defender*: "Service to others is the rent we pay for the space we occupy on earth."

Nahum Daniel Brascher in "Sun-Kissed America":

"'I'm so glad, troubl' don' las' always.'

No people in the world, other than Sun-Kissed America, can find anything to be glad about in the midst of trouble. That one line, quaint though it may be, carries the sum total of the present day philosophy of colored America. We have the soul, and the will to do and be, if we are not crushed by the mad hand of hatred."

## POT POURRI

### A Ray of Light

WHAT shall be done with the Negro has been a burning question in this country, especially in the South, ever since the adoption of the fourteenth and fifteenth amendments to the constitution. Nearly sixty years have passed since the Negro was given freedom and the franchise, and the problem is still unsettled.

Coming out from under the cloud of slavery, the Negro was not a fit subject for the franchise is now the universal verdict, and it is generally believed now, that if years had been permitted to pass and the Negro had been gradually prepared for citizenship, much of the misunderstanding, prejudice, and turmoil of the last sixty years in this country could have been avoided.

There is now coming a singular sidelight to late political activities that may point the way to a better understanding between the races and the gradual breaking up of the old-time Negro affiliations.

The present day phenomenon is the migration of the Republican Negro vote to the Democratic party in the North. The colored man and woman have become discouraged over the prospect of ob-

taining real political relief from the Republican party to which they have been sentimentally attached ever since freedom was granted them.

As an illustration of the change in the attitude of colored people, it is pointed out that in the nineteenth and twenty-first assembly districts in the City of New York, both of them until recently rock-ribbed Republican strongholds, the Democratic Negro vote threw both of them into the Democratic column. The white Democrats assisted in electing a Negro to the assembly, while the Negro Democratic vote assisted in sending a white Democrat as his colleague. In a contest for alderman in the same city, a white Democrat won the election for alderman over a colored Republican by the votes of Negroes.

A clear-cut, honest division among the colored people on party lines would go far toward establishing two parties in the Southern States, something that all intelligent southern people believe is absolutely necessary in solving the Negro problem. There will be less objection to Negro participation in politics if the leading men among

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them divide and the white people are divided
on political issues.
Miami, Fla., HERALD.

### Automobiles and the Jim-Crow Law

THE automobile has revolutionized industry. This is no less true in the railway passenger service where the leading railroad companies in the country have resorted to car advertisement as a means of counterbalancing the financial loss attributed to the automobile industry. The motor car is regarded as a necessity rather than a luxury and this is the rule even among small families with moderate means. The Negro has long since had the same standard of living of other well regulated American citizens and, consequently, it is common experience to see a Negro or a member of his family driving a high-power automobile.

In the South the Negro must ride on "Jim Crow" cars. He has rightly regarded it as a violation of his constitutional rights. The automobile enables him to enjoy personal liberty and to go from one city or state to another unrestrained. He is making use of the opportunity afforded. During the Masons' and Elks' conventions in Pittsburgh, Negroes drove their Cadillacs, Pierce-Arrows, MacFarlans and Buicks from every state east of the Rocky Mountains. In the South, this mode of travel is becoming general. The result is a wholesale loss of patronage to the southern railroad companies.

At one time, the Negro lost,—today the railroad companies are losing. Within the near future, we expect the railroads of the South to make concessions to regain their lost trade, even if it should mean open support to anti "Jim Crow" legislation. Republican and Democratic administrations have ignored the Negro's demand for abolition of the "Jim Crow" laws. There is absolutely no excuse for the present administration to condone this un-American southern policy. This is especially true in interstate travel. Here is an opportunity for the American Government and the southern railroad capitalists to retrieve one of their unlawful and prejudicial practices.

Pittsburgh, Pa., AMERICAN.

### "Saint" John The Powell Harangues Court Clerks on Racial Laws

THE Court Clerks' Association of Virginia, in the 17th Annual Session in Norfolk this week, has a time in the interpretation of the State's new laws brought forth in varied experiences. The attitude of the attorneys in the various localities has thrown doubt and confusion into the deliberations.

But there is one ever-present racial purifier who is mightier than all the lawyers. This hero, this "Saint" John the Powell, this once WORLD-FAMOUS PIANIST, was there to inform the Court Clerks of Virginia of their responsibility in keeping the white race pure.

According to the news clippings, Mister "Saint" John the Powell told the clerks that they, of all the officers of the State, were especially charged with the enforcement of the law. When an application is made for a marriage license it is up to the person making the application to satisfy the clerks ABSOLUTELY of the fact as to whether they were of the UNADULTERATED CAUCASIAN RACE or of MIXED BLOOD. Now you have it in a nut-shell. This Johnny-on-the-spot has told all the mongrels of America and the WHOLE WORLD just where to get off.

Think of the abase asininity of this publicity seeker! How on earth can clerks unravel a tangle of blood mixture that has gone on for three hundred years? It is a pity that there are still some sincere people who believe in this sort of knavery.

This is none other than a belated effort to put up the bars after the horse is out of the stable. And the thing that arouses the Negroes' indignation to white heat is the fatal blow to their dignity. After mixing up our people so that we can scarcely know them from other people, then they have the cheek to prate about UNADULTERATED CAUCASIANS when a third of this so-called UNADULTERATED CAUCASIAN'S BLOOD FLOWS IN NEGRO VEINS.

St. Luke HERALD, Richmond, Va.

### Negro Exodus Unnecessary

THE essential reason why Marcus Garvey is having so little success with his project of colonizing American Negroes in Africa and setting up in the Negro homeland a black man's republic is that the Negroes of America as a race are content to remain in America.

The overwhelming majority of Negroes are not in agreement with Garvey, that the United States is not capable of retaining the white and black races simultaneously, and that one must get out. That majority is not convinced, as Garvey professes to be, that the Negro is without hope in America, and must go elsewhere for opportunity.

And the Negroes who prefer America have the history of their race in America to support them in their position. At the close of the War Between the States 90 per cent of the Negroes were illiterate. Today less than 20 per cent of them fall into that class. Sixty years ago when they were emancipated, they were a homeless race. Today there are nearly 1,000,000 Negro home owners, the majority in the South. Five hundred colleges and more than 50,000 churches are today sustained by the Negro people.

In the development of educational, religious, fraternal and community institutions, and in the acquirement of material wealth, the Negro race in America has made more rapid progress than has any other race in the history of the world. The American Negro has much to be proud of in his record of advancement.

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The Negro has accomplished his improvement, both individually and racially, through co-operation with the white people. His contact with the white race has as a general thing tended to elevate him. Thus far, the Negro shows that he fares better while working out his salvation in conjunction with the white race than by himself. A comparison of the condition of the Negro in America with the Negro in Africa and in the predominantly Negro countries in the West Indies proves this beyond a doubt.

Having made this progress in the last half a century, there is every reason to believe that the Negro's moral, educational, and economic progress will continue on an even greater scale in the future. He has more resources. He has greater capability. He is a greater asset as a citizen. Why should he not go forward?

Marcus Garvey is a native of Jamaica, and resides among the Negroes of the North. It is quite evident that he does not understand the position of the southern Negro. Were he to apply his talents to assisting the Negroes in this country in their racial development, instead of attempting to breed dissatisfaction among them and to encourage them to flee the country, he would be rendering his race brethren a greater service.

Houston, Tex., POST.

## Race Amalgamation

AT the recent session of the British Association for the Advancement of Science the possibility of a retrogression in civilization because of a deterioration of man was intelligently stressed. Concern lest intellectual and moral man through race mixture might sink to mediocre or lower levels was expressed. Professor J. W. Gregory instanced the "fall of Portugal from its former political, scientific, and intellectual pre-eminence" as being attributed to its dilution by Negro blood, which dilution is the result of Portugal's depopulation, in the sixteenth century, of its own people to take care of its colonial interests. Without prejudice, Professor Gregory instanced this among other examples as illustrating the modern eugenic theory that "the interbreeding of widely different types produces weak, inferior offspring with a chaotic constitution."

That Europe during the last fifty years has taken on tasks of colonization and expansion which have drawn upon its man-power and have required the substituting of laborers of other races and the consequent inter-mixture of other bloods, he deemed a menace of results similar to those reached in Portugal.

Regarding the color problem in North America, Professor Gregory said: "The strong intellectual aversion to such unions among the Teutonic people will doubtless prevent the adoption of race amalgamation between the Negro and the whites"; but he prophesied an amalgamation of Latin and Negro blood in the Southern States of the Union,

producing a hybrid race which would demand full suffrage rights and perhaps a colored free state well within a century.

Such considerations may, by the average citizen, be looked upon as the visionary theories of scientists; but thoughtful people will weigh them with solicitude. They point to the possibility that the white man who always has been a minority in numbers might become a minority in his influence, and that through intellectual deterioration the world might once again enter a dark age. The shadows in the picture are not softened by the realization that should that possibility eventuate in fact the fault will be on the white man himself, because his ambition, his greed, or his benevolence has dispersed his man power and has left him at the mercy of the tides of immigration and racial intermixtures.

It was ever thus in the ebb and flow of civilizations and may be in the future. Meanwhile, it is comforting to learn from Dr. F. C. Schrubsall, speaking at the same convention, that man physically is not deteriorating, and it may be that before the white man begins to lose out in the intellectual arena, the colored man, brown, yellow or black, with a splendid physique may have developed an intellectuality equally as fine. That this will be a way out which will keep the world of humanity from permanent retrogression is the faith that will win new victories.

Newark, N. J., CALL.

## Human Nature

A FEW mornings ago, in front of a movie theatre, two small boys were engaged in a friendly wrestle,—one boy was white, the other colored. A crowd, mostly white with a scattering of colored men, was enjoying the struggle for supremacy. The sun was hot, each of the boys was being punished, each showed gameness. Busy men stopped to look on, probably the bout would develop into a fight,—the savage instinct still lingers in the grown-ups. We like to see human beings maul each other. The little tots had their partisans on strictly racial lines of cleavage. Race supremacy was the issue in the minds of the crowd. The white boy finally got the colored boy down and held him with the "Nelson." The whites applauded; the colored people looked discomfitted. The colored boy made a desperate effort to rise. The white boy was coached how to hold his advantage. Each boy began to give way his self-control, anger was plainly seen. The colored boy finally gets a hold on the ear of his opponent who winces with pain. Several cry out "Break the nigger's neck!" The colored people present evidently were saying the same thing in their hearts as to the white boy. The colored boy had remained under the bottom all the while,—the man under the bottom is not necessarily the more punished. Blood is seen on the face of the white boy. Passion is aroused in the boys, and in the spec-

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Clarence Cameron White

August in Chicago. From 20,000 business enterprises, 25 years ago, the figure has increased to 70,000; from $3,100,000 in personal realty holdings to $1,700,000; there are 20,000 women engaged in business; in the professions there are 2000 theatrical performers; 50 architects, 2 women; 259 artists, sculptors and teachers of art, 108 women; 315 authors, editors and reporters, 44 women; 19,671 clergymen, 228 women; 207 chemists, 8 women; 1,063 college presidents and professors, 496 women; 1109 dentists, 35 women; 145 designers and draftsmen, 35 women; 946 lawyers, judges and justices; 3752 musicians and teachers of music; 507 photographers; 3430 physicians and surgeons; 184 technical engineers; 3341 trained nurses, 3199 women; 31,352 barbers, hairdressers and manicurists, 12,660 women.

The National Negro Business League was founded by the late Booker T. Washington. Robert R. Moton of Tuskegee, Ala., is its president.

The New York World also has a colored Assistant Cashier,—in the person of John D. Hadwin, who has been employed by the company 41 years.

Clarence Cameron White has attained distinction as a violinist and composer. For five years he studied at the Oberlin, Ohio, Conservatory of Music; then he taught in the Washington, D. C., Conservatory and in the public schools. In 1908 he went abroad and became a pupil of the Russian violinist, M. Zacharewitsch, and studied composition under the late Coleridge-Taylor. He has had published over twenty-one compositions for violin and piano, among the latest being "Twilight," "Caprice," "Serenade," "Valse Coquette." His publishers are the Carl Fischer Company, New York, and Charles W. Thompson Company, Boston. For seven years he was the conductor of the Victorian Concert Orchestra of Boston, and for two years he served as president of the National Association of Negro Musicians, which has a membership of 900. Recently he joined the staff of the West Virginia Collegiate Institute, at Institute, W. Va. He was born in Clarksville, Tennessee. The Portland, Ore., Advocate says: "It is beyond the writer's

power of expression to paint in word pictures the beautiful tones produced on the violin by Mr. White. It is not necessary either to attempt it, for those who have heard Mr. White know that he is master of the violin. His bowing, his tone production, his pianissimo, trills, scales, and all, are well nigh perfect. By violinists of the first rank his playing is pronounced exquisite."

In Huntington, W. Va., Negroes own 60 per cent of the homes occupied by them and this property is valued at $1,400,000. The 1920 census gave the population as 2883. Most of the houses have front and back yards and in many cases there are flowers, well kept lawns, and vegetable gardens. These homeowners not only have better houses, with more wholesome and sanitary surroundings, but they save an average rental of more than $30.00 per month each, aggregating approximately $70,000 per year. More than fifty renters are contemplating the purchase of homes during the present year.

For forty-two years Warren Logan served as treasurer of Tuskegee Institute, during which time he signed checks for expenditures aggregating $20,000,000. He was recently retired, although he remains a member of the Board of Trustees. In 1882 he went to Tuskegee at the solicitation of Booker T. Washington, and they were the only teachers. Tuskegee Institute, in embryo, consisted of two buildings—a dilapidated church edifice and an enlarged chicken house. For a while Mr. Logan was a teacher in bookkeeping, choral director, and band leader. On one occasion he pawned his watch to help replenish the treasury. The school now requires an annual budget of $500,000; it has 288 teachers and 2000 students.

In recognition of his valuable service as treasurer and vice principal of Tuskegee Institute, a purse of more than $2100 has been presented to Mr. Logan to enable him to take a trip abroad for a much needed rest. It was given by Julius Rosenwald, a trustee of the school, teachers, and white friends living in the town of Tuskegee.

In Huntington, W. Va.

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At the tournament of the American Tennis Association

York City, Philadelphia, and Washington, and the championships have been increased to include Men's Singles, Ladies' Singles, Men's Doubles, Ladies' Doubles, Mixed Doubles, and Junior Singles.

Seventy-nine clubs now hold membership in the Association and this year's entries were as follows: Men's Singles, 138; Ladies' Singles, 36; Men's Doubles, 53 teams; Mixed Doubles, 35 teams. The present champions are Tally Holmes, Washington, Men's Singles; Isadora Channels, Chicago, Ladies' Singles; Tally Holmes and Ted Thompson, Washington, Men's

Doubles; Dr. B. M. Rhetta and Nellie Nicholson, Baltimore, Mixed Doubles; Isadora Channels, Chicago, and Emma Leonard, New York City, Ladies' Doubles; Russell Smith, Chicago, Western Junior Championship. Among guests of the Association from the United States Lawn Tennis Association have been the Hon. Dwight Davis and Paul B. Williams. The president of the American Tennis Association is Dr. Harry S. McCard of Baltimore, Md.; the secretary, Gerald F. Norman of Flushing, N. Y.

## Who's Who

Willis Richardson is the author of "The Chip Woman's Fortune," which was produced by the Ethiopian Art Players during the season 1922-23, and "Mortgaged," which was presented by the Howard Players, 1923-24. He was born in Wilmington, N. C., November 5, 1889, and received his education in Washington, D. C.

In 1912, E. Franklin Frazier was graduated from the Baltimore, Md., High School with a scholarship to Howard University, in 1916 he was awarded the degree of A.B., cum laude; then he went to Clark University with a scholarship in sociology; in 1920 he was awarded the degree of A. M. He won Fellowships given by the New York School of Social Work, 1920-1921, and the American Scandinavian Foundation for study in Denmark, 1921-1922. He is now Professor of Social Science at Morehouse College and Director of the Atlanta School of Social Work.

The Director of Dramatic Art and Professor of Public Speaking at Howard University has been Montgomery Gregory, and in this capacity he developed the work of the Howard Players and of the experimental theatre

Tally Holmes

(Left) Isadora Channels

E. Franklin
Frazier

Montgomery
Gregory

Blanche A.
Beatty

Edwin Drummond
Sheen

Willis
Richardson

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until they received national recognition. Based some-
what upon the 47 Workshop at Harvard, the Howard Uni-
versity Players designed and made their own costumes
and scenery and wrote a number of the plays which they
produced. Their idea is the development of Negro Drama
and the National Negro Theatre. As chairman of the
National Student Committee, he led the successful fight
for the Fort Des Moines Officers Training Camp. He
was Commissioned First Lieutenant at Des Moines and
was stationed as battery commander of the 349th Field
Artillery at Camp Dix, New Jersey. Later he was as-
signed as Adjutant to Major J. E. Spingarn in the Mili-
tary Intelligence Bureau of the War Department. He
was transferred to Howard University S. A. T. C. and
ended his military career at Camp Dodge.

Mr. Gregory received his academic training at Willis-
ton Academy, Easthampton, Mass., and at Harvard Uni-
versity. At Harvard he was a member of the Varsity
Football, Track and Debating Teams; he was also elected
a member of the Delta Sigma Rho honorary debating fra-
ternity. His graduate studies have continued at Columbia

University. In 1918 he married and is the father of a
daughter and three sons. Recently he resigned his posi-
tion at Howard to become Supervisor of Schools in
Atlantic City, N. J., at the Indiana Avenue School.

Edwin Drummond Sheen is starting his second year
as a member of the editorial staff of the weekly college
paper published at James Millikin University in Decatur,
Ill., and he has been named as literary editor of the Year
Book. He is among the honor students in the School of
Liberal Arts. His English professor writes. "It seems to
us here at the University that he is a young man of un-
usual mental endowment and of real literary gift. . . He
has one constant factor as a writer which seems to me of
inestimable value—he almost never fails to grasp the in-
voluntary attention of the reader."

Blanche A. Beatty is Executive Secretary of the Tampa,
Fla., Urban League. She is active in women's club work,
both with the National Federation of Colored Women's
Club and with the Florida State Federation, in which
organizations she holds high office. She is also a lec-
turer for the Republican National Committee.

CORRESPONDENCE

I WILL gladly serve as a judge in the play contest referred to in your letter.—Robert Benchley.

I will be very happy to serve upon the jury in connec-
tion with your contest.—Henry Goddard Leach.

I am refusing every such offer, from other people, and
am trying hard to cut down on outside activities. But
I cannot refuse this request, and shall be glad to serve,
if it will be useful to you, on the jury to award prizes.
—Dorothy Canfield Fisher.

Indeed I am interested in the work of the younger
Negro writers and I shall be glad to serve as one of the
judges in awarding the OPPORTUNITY prize.
—Witter Bynner.

Yes, if I am not too late, I shall be very happy to
serve as one of the judges in the essay contest.
—Van Wyck Brooks.

I shall be glad to serve on the committee you mention.
—Fannie Hurst.

I shall be glad to serve on the play committee.
—Alexander Woollcott.

I have your letter asking if I will serve as a member of
the Committee of Judges for the award of the prizes of-
fered by OPPORTUNITY to the younger Negro writers. I
shall be very glad to serve.—James Weldon Johnson.

None could be more in sympathy with the aims
of the younger Negro writers than I am but, un-
fortunately . . . my plans, unless there be some
unforeseen obstacle, are to go abroad early in the
fall and travel about for four to six months. So I
couldn't be much use to you. But if anything should
come up to change my schedule, I will be only too
glad to let you know and serve then if you still
have any use for me.—Eugene O'Neill.

Of Opportunity, published monthly at New York, N. Y., for
October 1, 1924.
State of New York, County of New York, ss.

Before me, a notary in and for the State and county afore-
said, personally appeared Charles S. Johnson, who, having been
duly sworn according to law, deposes and says that he is the
Editor of the Publication Opportunity and that the follow-
ing is, to the best of his knowledge and belief, a true
statement of the ownership, management, etc., of the aforesaid
publication for the date shown in the above caption, required by
the Act of August 24, 1912, embodied in section 44 Postal
Laws and Regulations, printed on the reverse of this form,
to wit:

1. That the names and addresses of the publisher, editor, man-
aging editor, are: Publisher, Dept. of Research and Investigations
of National Urban League; Editor, Charles S. Johnson; Manag-
Editor, Charles S. Johnson; Business Manager, none; 127 East
23rd Street, New York City, N. Y.

2. That the owner is: not a stock corporation, the official organ
of a social service organization,—National Urban League. Exec.
Sec., E. K. Jones.

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holders owning or holding 1 per cent or more of total amount
of bonds, mortgages, or other securities are: None.

Charles S. Johnson, Editor.

OCTOBER, 1924

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["L. HOLLINGSWORTH WOOD\nChairman", "EUGENE KINCKLE JONES\nExecutive Secretary", "CHARLES S. JOHNSON, Editor", "OPPORTUNITY", "A JOURNAL OF NEGRO LIFE", "Published Monthly by\nThe Department of Research and Investigations", "NATIONAL URBAN LEAGUE", "127 EAST 23rd STREET, NEW YORK, N. Y.", "Telephone Gramercy 3978", "WILLIAM H. BALDWIN\nSecretary", "A. S. FRISSELL\nTreasurer", "VOL. 2.", "NOVEMBER, 1924", "No. 23", "Contents", "COVER", "\"NOURHALMA\"—EGYPTIAN WATER\nGIRL\nBy C. M. Battey", "EDITORIALS", "ATTACKING THE FOURTEENTH\nAMENDMENT", "OUR ANTILLEAN NEIGHBORS", "DR. CRANE MAKES A TEST", "THE POLICE AND RIOTS", "PAUPERS", "OPPORTUNITY'S $500 LITER-\nARY PRIZE CONTEST", "ARTICLES", "THE POPULATION PROBLEM AND\nTHE NEGRO\nBy Arthur E. King", "NEGRO DIALECT IN AMERICAN\nLITERATURE\nBy Daisy Miller", "THANKSGIVING. A Poem\nBy Marion Grace Conover", "BLACK VERSE\nBy Frank S. Horne\nIllustrated by Francis C. Holbrook", "SLACKENED CAPRICE. A Story.\nBy Ottie B. Graham", "WIND. A Poem.\nBy Gwendolyn B. Bennett", "NEGRO VOTERS AND THE PRESI-\NDENTIAL CAMPAIGN", "POLITICS IN DELAWARE\nBy Alice Dunbar Nelson", "FAITH. A Poem.\nBy William Lester Brown", "NEGRO HEALTH\nBy Charles H. Garvin", "THE MIGRATION\nBy Eugene Kinckle Jones", "THE MIND OF PRIMITIVE MAN IN\nWEST AFRICA\nBy E. P. Cotton", "OUR BOOK SHELF 344", "INTER-RACIAL FORUM 347", "POT POURRI 347", "BULLETIN BOARD 349\nIllustrated", "\"OPPORTUNITY\" desires the following contributions: drawings, paintings and photographs for covers; fiction, poetry, local news of interest with photographs; and authentic articles. These contributions should be accompanied by return postage.", "Single Copies, FIFTEEN CENTS—Yearly Subscription, ONE DOLLAR AND A HALF", "Copyright 1923", "Entered as second-class matter October 30, 1923, at the Post Office at New York, New York, under the act of March 3, 1879."]

OPPORTUNITY

VOL. 2

NOVEMBER, 1924

No. 23

EDITORIALS

Attacking the
Fourteenth Amendment

To prevent Walter L. Cohen, Negro Comptroller of Customs for the Port of New Orleans, from exercising the duties of his office, an unusual suit has been brought in the Federal Court of that city by H. Edwin Bolte, which charges that Cohen is not a citizen because he is a Negro, and that Negroes are not citizens because the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States was never properly ratified. The suit, with all its theatric quality and ruthlessness, is not interesting because of any large probability of its success, for the Fourteenth Amendment has been accepted in the Courts without question or qualification since its adoption in 1868, but because it is the pathetically futile trump card which supports the arrogance and mischief of that disgruntled brotherhood who in the years of Our Lord 1924 still insist that Lincoln made a mistake in freeing the slaves, and that the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments violated the will of God.

The Fourteenth Amendment was adopted by Congress on June 16, 1866. Two years later Congress adopted it and formally transmitted to the Secretary of State a resolution to the effect that the required three-fourths and more of the States of the Union had ratified the Amendment duly proposed by two-thirds of each house of the Thirty-Ninth Congress. The Secretary of State then, specifically, on July 28, 1868, issued a proclamation declaring the Amendment ratified by thirty of the thirty-six States. Those States rejecting the Amendment entirely and finally were Kentucky, Delaware, and Maryland. Three States: Georgia, Texas, and Virginia, first rejected, then ratified the Amendment. On the other hand, Connecticut and Ohio, after ratifying it, reconsidered their action; but it was held that ratification once reported must stand.

The questions now raised against the validity of the Amendment allege that the Legislatures of the States of the South which had voted for adoption were not qualified to express the popular will, that in some instances not all of the prescribed forms of ratification were observed and that Legislatures had exceeded their rights in reconsidering prior rejections.

At some point during the long history of the

Fourteenth Amendment since its adoption, all of these charges have been advanced in the Supreme Court and have been rejected. Similar charges have been advanced against the Thirteenth and Fifteenth Amendments. The futility of these assaults upon the Constitution to vent resentment against its protection of Negro citizens is apparent in the fact that the Fourteenth Amendment while giving suffrage to the Negro has a much wider and deeper significance. It is a guarantee of the security of all citizens against exploitations and discriminations unimagined at the time of its enactment, and has so been employed. A compilation made a short time ago by Charles Wallace Colkins, member of the Alabama Bar, of the cases involving the Fourteenth Amendment on which the United States Supreme Court has delivered opinions since 1868 revealed that of 604 only twenty-eight, or less than 5 per cent, dealt with questions involving the Negro race. These twenty-eight cases were, for the most part, of purely local significance, and twenty-six of them were decided adversely to the party aggrieved.

The *New York World* has taken occasion to project several discomforting speculations concerning this challenge of the Amendment:

> "If it could now be invalidated, a good deal besides Negro citizenship would go by the board. For one thing, the solid South would be entitled in Congressional apportionment to one Representative for a certain quota of 'free persons' plus three-fifths of 'all other persons', meaning Negro slaves. There would be no such slaves, but there would be a muddle.

> "A whole category of law cases based upon the rule that 'privileges or immunities' of citizens shall not be abridged by the States, 'nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty or property without due process of law', would have to be thrown out of court. The validity of pensions and bounties might be questioned; and it would be arguable that Congress might saddle the Confederate debt upon the National Treasury, along with payment for the emancipated slaves, with interest."

Mr. Cohen is not disturbed by these infuriated gestures nor are Negroes generally, for to invalidate these Amendments would mean a debacle in our government.

NOVEMBER, 1924

OPPORTUNITY

## Our Antillean
Neighbors

THE recent change in com-
plexion of our immigra-
tion law effected when British

subjects from the West Indies were placed on the
quota of Great Britain seems destined to react seri-
ously upon the natives of these Islands, and comes
to them at a singularly unpropitious time. Central
America at the very moment is engaged in an anti-
West Indian demonstration. The sugar business
by which the life of the Island is in large part
sustained is at a low point. Following just such
general depression, the largest emigration to the
United States has occurred. What this restriction
means can be understood from a practical illustra-
tion cited by the West India Committee working
in London in the interest of these Colonies of
the Empire. In filling the British quota, it is un-
derstood that preference will be given to persons
skilled in agriculture and relatives of American
citizens. West Indian emigration has not in the
past included many of this agricultural group.
The American Consulate-General in London, which
is the controlling office on these matters, has allotted
as an annual quota for Trinidad sixty persons, of
whom thirty must be in the preferential class.
But last year something like three thousand per-
sons left Trinidad for the United States. With
what is complained of as the indifference of the
English in the mother-country, "commensurate
only with their ignorance of West Indian affairs
in general," a lack of capital for exploiting the
resources of Guiana, Jamaica and Trinidad, import
taxes both in the West Indies and in Canada, their
best market, these Negroes are crowded into a
most uncomfortable predicament. Our country
has received an exceptionally energetic class of
immigrants from these Islands. Coming as they
do from a different social setting, they have lacked
the acute consciousness of American Negroes on
the great American race problem, and their naiv-
ete and aggressiveness about situations unexploited
by American Negroes have contributed an unde-
niably stimulating influence. Their restriction
in such gross proportions, while working hardship
upon them at home, will be felt as well by Ameri-
can Negroes.

## Dr. Crane
Makes a Test

THERE is evidence in the
alleged tests of volition in
Negroes recently made by Dr.

Albert Loyal Crane and published with official
sanction, that standards at Columbia University
for post graduate degrees and for the *Archives of
Psychology* are being carelessly guarded.

Dr. Crane decided to study the Negro and, ac-
cordingly, began his researches with the following
question: "What is the psychological explanation
of the impulsiveness, improvidence, and immorality
which the Negro *everywhere* manifests?" (The
italics are ours). To sustain his thesis he needed
Negro subjects for his tests. How they were se-
lected he tells in a highly humorous account ad-

dressed to fellow scientists. Says Dr. Crane: "Only the fellow scientist who has attempted to induce a hundred southern darkies to offer themselves as subjects to an experiment of this sort can have any conception of the difficulties involved in actually getting the subjects into the laboratory. Threats, cajolery, flattery, bribery, and every other conceivable ruse within the bounds of reason and the law were resorted to in order to bring the number of subjects up to the desired hundred." The investigator finally resorted to a flat fee of fifty cents and transportation. "To that old Ford," he goes on, "and an outlay of a few dollars in fees" the writer attributes his success in getting ultimately one hundred Negro subjects.

The fact that Dr. Crane is from Gainesville,
Georgia, a somewhat backward community, is no
excuse for any institution's accepting and pub-
lishing a thesis which in its premise and methods is
both unscientific and insulting. Whatever his re-
sults were, they can mean little to science. But he
got his degree.

His best test of "volition" might have been his
experience in recruiting Negro subjects. It seems
from his witty account that most of the Negroes
approached by him completely resisted his advances,
showing a rather well developed will power and
resistance to suggestion, threats, and coercive in-
nuendo. As they stand, all that his tests could
possibly have revealed, assuming that the tests were
sound, was the "volition" of one hundred Negroes
who at the moment needed fifty cents. But his
findings were compared with white persons se-
lected from acquaintances, students, attaches of the
office building in which his tests were made, and
professional men.

Dr. Crane is an exaggerated example of the po-
litically minded, race obsessed scientist; but he
represents a long list of others more guarded about
explaining their methods. There has as yet been
no representative study of Negroes which succeeded
in freeing itself from more or less completely viti-
tating circumstances. This assertion can be easily
sustained. A careful study conducted by both
white and Negro students working together and
safeguarded against the subtle influence of senti-
ment and bias should be made to get a sound basis
for judgments and, not least among the good
purposes, to expose the folly of half-baked conclu-
sions arrived at by men whose minds are and ever
will be slaves of their wishes.

## The Police
and Riots

A STUPIDITY of which the
police in some of our cities
refuse to purge themselves is the

supine notion that the way to prevent a riot is by
moving the police force into the Negro residence
areas. A few days ago, after a mob of Jewish
loafers from a sacramental wineshop in Chicago's
"Ghetto" murdered an unoffending Negro, these
guardians of the law, fearing trouble, moved en
masse to the Second Ward, where the Negroes

324

OPPORTUNITY

NOVEMBER, 1924

live. Queer reasoning this is, and demonstrably dangerous policy. The same tactics were employed during the Chicago Riot of 1919, in which thirty-eight persons were killed and seven hundred thirty-seven injured. It is incredible that the lesson could have been forgotten so soon. The then Chief of Police, John J. Garrity, testified that at the beginning of the outbreak he "placed practically every policeman in the city of Chicago down in the 'Black Belt'." And what happened? Over two-thirds of all the reported injuries occurred outside of the so-called "Black Belt." In the Stock Yards district alone where forty-one per cent of the injuries and several deaths occurred no police were around, and in the entire downtown business section where two Negroes were killed and many severely wounded only four officers were on duty. A force of 2800 was kept employed in the "Black Belt" closing pool rooms, searching and seizing Negroes suspected of having weapons, "marking off dead lines" and "preserving the peace", whatever that meant. For three Negroes were killed by the officers themselves.

Now again, in 1924, what is to prevent the same "Ghetto" mob from killing other Negroes who chance their way, and by what preposterous illogic do they expect the Negroes, out of retaliation, to rise up and riot in their neighborhood among themselves? These police could not tell five years ago and they cannot tell now.

Paupers BOLD figures have a way of dismantling some of our most sacred assumptions, especially when they come with the finality of Government authority. One of these assumptions, familiar and old, concerns the very special liability of Negroes to the status of dependency. But if we are to believe the census figures on paupers in almshouses, just released, these Negroes contribute relatively less actual dependency than any group of the population save the Indians, who are wards of the Nation and have no need to contribute any. An enumeration of persons admitted to almshouses during 1923 showed 7.1 per cent of the inmates Negroes, although their per cent in population is 9.9. There are actually 7.2 per cent more native whites and 121.1 per cent more foreign born whites per hundred thousand who have sought a haven in "poorhouses" than Negroes. More significant still, the Negro group alone showed a decrease in this dependency over the year before. If the bleak northern weathers, the industrial depression, the glutted labor markets, and outrageous rents of the cities have harassed the migrants from the South; if their much discussed improvidence and irregular habits of work still hold a grain of truth, it is yet to be found where their resigned and prideless derelicts go.

## Opportunity's $500 Literary Prize Contest

(Closes December 31, 1924)

THIS CONTEST, as first announced in the August issue, includes first, second, and third prizes for the following types of writing:

<table><tbody><tr><td><strong>Short Story</strong></td><td>First Prize</td><td>$100.00</td></tr><tr><td></td><td>Second Prize</td><td>35.00</td></tr><tr><td></td><td>Third Prize</td><td>15.00</td></tr><tr><td><strong>Poetry</strong></td><td>First Prize</td><td>$40.00</td></tr><tr><td></td><td>Second Prize</td><td>15.00</td></tr><tr><td></td><td>Third Prize</td><td>5.00</td></tr><tr><td><strong>Play</strong></td><td>First Prize</td><td>$60.00</td></tr><tr><td></td><td>Second Prize</td><td>35.00</td></tr></tbody></table>

<table><tbody><tr><td>Third Prize</td><td>15.00</td></tr><tr><td><strong>Essay</strong>—First Prize</td><td>$50.00</td></tr><tr><td>Second Prize</td><td>30.00</td></tr><tr><td>Third Prize</td><td>10.00</td></tr><tr><td><strong>Personal Experience Sketch</strong></td><td></td></tr><tr><td>First Prize</td><td>$30.00</td></tr><tr><td>Second Prize</td><td>20.00</td></tr><tr><td>Third Prize</td><td>5.00</td></tr></tbody></table>

The short stories are limited to 5000 words, the essays to 3000 words, and the personal experience sketches to 2000 words.

The contest reserves the right to reject all manuscripts in any division if the contributions are deemed below a reasonable standard of quality or insufficient in number.

The judges are: John Farrar, Carl Van Doren, Clement Wood, John Macy, Montgomery Gregory, Robert Hobart Davis, Dorothy Scarborough, Zona Gale, Edna Worthley Underwood, Blanche Colton Williams, Robert Benchley, Henry Goddard Leach, Dorothy Canfield Fisher, Witter Bynner, Van Wyck Brooks, Fannie Hurst, Alexander Woollcott, James Weldon Johnson, Eugene O'Neill, Alain Locke.

NOVEMBER, 1924

OPPORTUNITY

# The Population Problem and the Negro

By ARTHUR E. KING

IT WAS Keynes who, in a very lucid analysis of Western European Society, pointed out how artificial and unstable were the economic conditions which allowed Western Europe to support such an immense population, and insisted that the apparently buried doctrine of Malthus would some day arise to haunt the minds of men.¹ Since then a good many books have appeared (except Thompson's, which was published in 1915) on the subject from the pens of journalists,² psychologists,³ economists,⁴ biologists,⁵ and sociologists,⁶ and an equally large number of magazine articles.⁷ It is not our purpose to review these books *en bloc*, as they have been reviewed separately in various places, and the books of Mr. Stoddard have been reviewed extensively in the Negro press. The purpose here is to give a review-article on the Problem of Population, especially the references made to the Negro in the discussion.

We find Keynes later on referring to this problem in rather serious words: "Indeed, the problem of population is going to be not merely an economists' problem, but in the near future the greatest of all political questions. It will be a question which will arouse some of the deepest instincts and emotions of men and feeling may run as passionately as in the earlier struggles between religions. The issue is not yet joined. But when the instability of modern society forces the issue a great transition in human history will have begun, with the endeavor by civilized man to assume conscious control in his own hands away from the blind instinct of mere predominant survival."⁸

So the world, after an era of unprecedented increase in numbers and prosperity, finds that Malthus was right a century and a quarter ago when he stated that "Population *tends* to increase by geometric progression, means of subsistence by arithmetic progression." But men, having made tremendous advances in science since this formula was enunciated, and having explored the world, they are loath (that is, the white men) to submit to the law of diminishing returns or a reduction in their standard of living without a tremendous struggle. They are, therefore, withholding by force the occupancy of lands by the non-white world and plan to increase their numbers to the point where they will have a numerical superiority. But the general problem is sufficiently serious without the added complication of who shall inherit the earth.

According to East, it has taken the human race half a million years to reach a population of 850 millions and a hundred years to reach 1700 millions. This phenomenal increase has been mainly by the white race, although India, Japan and Java made substantial additions to their populations in the same period; while, on the other hand, parts of Africa have been depopulated to provide for

European needs. The estimate of the world's population made by East in 1916 was as follows: whites, 710 millions; yellows, 510; browns, 420; and blacks, 110 millions.⁹ He claims that "This study has led to the conclusion that a reasonable maximum for the world's future population is one person for each 2.5 acres on 40 per cent of the land area of the globe. This gives a figure of 5200 millions, a population which at the present rate of increase would be reached in just over a century."¹⁰ "Either there must be a peaceful solution of the population question by the adoption of wise measures, or a continuation of the policies of Alexander, Napoleon, and Bernhardi."¹¹ For the white race he proposes to promote birth control at the lower end of the social scale.¹²

There are several other proposals from other writers regarding this problem. Some have outlined a program to ensure their racial survival, others are cock-sure that the whites will continue to dominate the world, while others realize that the matter is not so simple after all. Professor Josey has formulated a program of his own. The white group of nations must make a more equitable distribution of wealth within their group, near-socialism, one may say, and practice more intensive exploitation of the non-white groups. "We have the power," he screams. "We must transfer the burdens of our civilization from the backs of labor groups within our culture to the backs of labor groups without", and in this "we are concerned with the possibility of increasing the productivity of the non-European group sufficiently to meet our needs and yet maintain our preponderant power."

For the purposes of this newer, more intensified imperialism, regulations governing the export of capital must be enacted, engineers must be sent abroad so that non-whites will be kept ignorant of production methods, and severe penalties instituted for the infringement of patent and copyright laws. Discoveries and inventions shall be the exclusive possession of the whites, and they will thus control the industrial life of the world. And to prevent an undue expansion of the colored population, measures must be taken to prevent child labor; children must be made a luxury or expense rather than a source of income, and birth control propaganda must be employed on a large scale. If his advice is taken, Prof. Josey hopes that in the course of a few centuries the whites will dominate the world numerically as well as culturally. No false idealism should prevent them from exploiting to the fullest the non-white races."

Prof. East believes that "At the end of the century the white race will probably number between a billion and a quarter and a billion and a

326

OPPORTUNITY

NOVEMBER, 1924

half. It will fill the temperate regions and the better parts of the sub-tropics, and the combined colored races of the world will not equal them in numbers. *And there will be no international migration.*<sup>156</sup>

Griffith Taylor of the University of Sydney, Australia, estimates that the white population when it reaches the density of Western Europe (100 to the square mile) will cluster around the five world centers of Chicago, London, Sydney, Beunos Aires, and Durban as follows:

<table><tr><td>North American Regions</td><td>702 millions</td><td>52.0%</td></tr><tr><td>European Regions</td><td>386 millions</td><td>29.0%</td></tr><tr><td>South American Regions</td><td>115 millions</td><td>8.5%</td></tr><tr><td>South African Regions</td><td>82 millions</td><td>6.0%</td></tr><tr><td>Australian Regions</td><td>62 millions</td><td>4.5%</td></tr><tr><td>Total</td><td>1,347 millions</td><td>100%</td></tr></table>

Distributed according to political control, we have 377,000,000 (28%) in the British Empire; 513,000,000 (38%) in the United States; and 457,000,000 (34%) in other countries. Taylor concludes: "I have shown what I deduce to be the distribution of the white peoples during the next two centuries. According to it, we may expect an increase of 600 millions gradually to occupy North America, 100 millions in South America, and over 50 millions in southeastern Australia and also in South Africa. The future of the Indian and colored races I have not attempted to discuss in this paper. Already they amount to over 1000 millions, and one can hardly estimate their increase in numbers in two centuries; for with the spread of sanitation and of law and order the natural increase of population throughout Africa and Asia is not likely to diminish. Yet a general decline in the birth rate would seem to be the only answer to the statistical argument which I have quoted. It is difficult to imagine a crop (at present unknown) more valuable than wheat, and covering every acre of land surface. *A vast world struggle between higher civilizations with a low birth rate and lower civilizations with a high birth rate seems to be foreshadowed. This would seem to be inevitable within the next two centuries if the white race is to maintain its dominant position.*<sup>157</sup> (Italics ours.)

A more cautious point of view is that of Prof. Von Engeln. "There is, however, little doubt but that, despite the various difficulties, preventive checks on the birth rate will come to be generally applied in the near future in all the temperate lands and among all European peoples. The real danger zone is in the tropical and sub-tropical lands inhabited and occupied by the yellow and black races. These areas are the potentially great food reservoirs of the future and the naturally complementary trade areas for the temperate lands. In exchange for their raw products we can furnish their peoples with our own industrial products. But it seems to be quite well demonstrated that the white race cannot work, flourish, and procreate in such latitudes. Hence development of the tropics must depend on the labor of tropical native peoples."

But these peoples, Blacks, Chinese, East Indians, when protected by European supervision from the positive checks of war, pestilence and famine, tend immediately to fill up their countries to the absolute level of subsistence. In India, owing to irrigation extension and public sanitation introduced by the British, the population increased from an already crowded 287,000,000 in 1891 to 315,000,000 in 1911 (319,000,000 in 1921) without in the least improving the economic conditions of the coolie. Governor Yager (of Porto Rico) has made very clear the similar effect in an American tropical possession, and a recent publication of the Department of Commerce supplies like facts with reference to Barbados and Jamaica. In fact, of all the West Indies, only in Cuba, where a white South European population predominates, are the standards of living reasonably high according to our measure.

The only alternative available to combat these conditions, to prevent the tropical peoples from so completely occupying their lands (once positive checks to population growth are removed) that only a meagre existence will be afforded the indigenous population and no room be available for plantation culture and export production in exchange for temperate land manufactures, and, at the same time, to secure the toil of the natives are: either forced labor under European supervision—virtual slavery, against which all enlightened thought rebels—or the raising of the standard of living among the black and yellow races.

But this last and only solution is not an easy one to apply. The tropics are and must always be the land of tomorrow. What can be done one day can just as easily be done the next, for it will be just the same as that just passed; no necessity for seasonal provision of the future or old age is imposed by climate or the conditions of natural produce. Industrial and agricultural education, a living wage, and extraordinary incentives to purchase and use the comforts and recreations afforded by temperate land devices, improvement of agriculture by better practices and introduction of labor saving machinery, substitution of diversified production for the one-crop method that is now typical of each of the different districts, will all help toward such an end. But such problems remain to be solved. Some of the tropical areas are over-populated, others almost altogether lack inhabitants. The people of the over-congested regions cannot well be moved to those which are thinly peopled. Waters recognized this difficulty on his visit to the Philippines to investigate agricultural conditions; Bowman likewise has called attention to the home-loving instinct which prevents the plateau dwellers of South America from forsaking their barren habitats for the plainly visible luxuriant slopes and lower levels. Nevertheless, some such migration is already occurring in the spread of Chinese coolie labor and West Indian black labor to various tropical shores."<sup>158</sup>

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seem, the average Southerner, long associated with the Negro, can imitate the speech of the Negro for only a few sentences. Few can assume the character and sustain it for any length of time. It is human emotion and habits of thought that determine the placing of the voice, the inflections and sentence construction, all so much a part of any so-called dialect, and to give an acceptable representation of any dialect requires a sympathetic study of the human being employing the dialect, not just a "poll parrot" imitation of the speech itself.

But however much of difficulty one may experience in speaking a dialect, it is small compared to the trouble of reproducing it in cold type. It is something like trying to represent certain French sounds to English speaking ears by the use of the English alphabet. So it is not, after all, very surprising that the first American stories with Negro characters in them were dismal failures in so far as the dialect was concerned.

Some of the reasons for this may be surmised when one realizes the number of dialects spoken. The speech in the eastern part of Virginia was almost entirely different from that used in the western section. In Georgia, it is said, there were two distinct dialects, one for Negroes and one for addressing white people. In Louisiana, the speech was complicated by French and Arcadian influence. The sea islands of South Carolina were naturally communities unto themselves.

Studying the causes for these various pronunciations, vocabularies, and speech peculiarities, it is almost startling to find that certain words, usually considered clumsy attempts to speak English, are in reality the purest of English.

The most of the "dark" continent, four times the area of Europe, was even fifty years ago a great unknown expanse. For thousands of years the black man lived in its forests and jungles untouched by the outside world.

The Mountains of the Moon form rather a distinct separation of the country. To the north, a variety of dialects were spoken. To the south, two-thirds or possibly three-fourths of the entire population appear to have had essentially one language.

Some of the tribes were Mandingo, Grebo, Fanti, Efik, Avekwan. On the western coast many words were borrowed from the Portuguese, English, and French. Take the English word "tobacco." The Grebo has it "tama"; the Mpongwe, "taka"; the Mandingo, "taba"; the Ibu, "etabba"; the Jalof, "tamaka".

The Mandingo country was between the Gamba and Senegal rivers. The people had a copious language, easy enunciation, and because they were Mohammedan, they used many Arabic words. A Georgia Negro, a Mandingo, wrote a version of the gospels in which many Arabic characters appeared, to the astonishment of his master, who sent it to some New England scholars. The Mandingos were tall, strong, and well proportioned. On

the contrary, the Grebos, on the Ivory coast, were physically opposite. Their speech was nasal, and their religion pagan. The Mpongwes had many poetic expressions. They called thunder the "sky's gun", and when it lightninged they said, "the sky, he winks his eye". Then there were the Banabaga, Panwe, Congo, Embomma, Swabere, etc. Ba-kara, Bakra finally became "bucra", Africa for white man.

A comparison of the glossaries of the African languages and dialects compiled by the early missionaries, however, throws little light on the American Negro's pronunciation of the English language. A theory which might account for it, and yet shock some professors of English, is that the Negro is by nature a musician. Read Stanley or Livingston, or the work of any explorer or missionary to Africa, and you will find somewhere in any report of any tribe, that the people were musical.

In fact, an elemental people, brought forcibly to our shores, have expressed in music the elemental things of nature, the sounds of tropical forests and waterfalls, the sighing of night winds, the falling of the stars, the singing of the birds. "Listen to the Mocking Bird" was written by a Negro.

This great musical gift can both explain and excuse their dropping of the harsher sounds from the English language. We call French the most perfect language in the world, yet the Frenchman drops his final "t's" and puts in and leaves out letters with the greatest freedom—for the sake of euphony. Take the salutation "Good Morning, Madam," and compare it with "Bon Jour, Madame," or "Good Mornin', Ma'am".

Is it too much to agree that possibly the Negro omitted letters also for the sake of euphony?

In 1832 John Pendleton Kennedy brought out "Swallow River". He showed a superficial insight into the Negro character and did not even make an attempt at the dialect. Edgar Allen Poe, in 1843, in "Gold Bug" used a subsidiary and solitary figure, a Negro called "Jupiter". He made a pathetic attempt at the dialect.

The first American writer to put real Negro characters, speaking real Negro dialect, into a story was Sherwood Bonner, who became Mrs. Sherwood Bonner McDowell. In her story "Gran' mammy", published in 1876, Mrs. McDowell anticipated the southern local color school of literature, and it is a pity that so talented an author should have been slighted by readers and critics. She deserves greater honor than has yet been paid her. Born in Holly Springs, Mississippi, February 26, 1849, and dying July 22, 1883, when only thirty-four years of age, she managed to crowd into her short life accomplishments that deserve wide recognition. It is interesting to note that although she was born in Mississippi, Mrs. McDowell spent her busiest years in Boston, where she had the intimate acquaintanceship of Emerson,

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Oliver Wendell Holmes, David Lloyd Garrison, Wendell Phillips, and Robert Louis Stevenson. She even acted as secretary to Longfellow, and Longfellow wrote the introduction to her first book.

Not only "Gran'mammy" but "Suwanee River
Tales" and "Dialect Tales" are well worth read-
ing. The characterizations are excellent; the dia-
lect perfect.

Mrs. Louise Clark Pynell's "Diddie, Dump and
Tot", written in 1882, was intended as a sort of
answer to "Uncle Tom's Cabin", a book which
any Southerner disclaims as a picture of Negro
life in the South. Certainly it is unsound as to
dialect.

Joel Chandler Harris, in 1880, presented "Uncle
Remus" to the world, and to him we owe an im-
measurable debt for his painstaking collections of
plantation folk-lore. But again, this is the Negro's
own contribution. Mr. Harris simply wrote down
what any child born in the South at that time
heard over and over again. At any rate, Mr.
Harris did for folk-lore what Mr. Christy did for
plantation songs. Anyone who has read of "Br'er
Rabbit" in authentic dialect will find little charm
in the stories others have tried to weave about the
same characters.

Thomas Nelson Page's "Mars Chan", "Meh
Lady", "Drinkwater Tom", and other stories, are
charming. About the same time, or in 1879 to
be exact, George W. Cable wrote his "Creole
Days"—more Creole, of course, than Negro.

Harry Stillwell Edwards wrote the "Two Run-
aways" in 1889 and "His Defense" a little later.

James Lane Alen, in "Two Gentlemen of Ken-
tucky," introduced "Peter Cotton", body servant
to Colonel Romulus Fields, "Aunt Charlotte",
and "King Solomon". Like everything else by
the author, they are well worth while.

Francis Hopkinson Smith wrote "Colonel Carter of Carterville", a work interesting to lovers of Negro stories.

There is a story in Gullah dialect by Sarah
Barnwell Elliott. Mrs. Virginia Fraser Boyle of
Memphis, Tennessee, has written some charming
stories in "Devil's Tales" and "A Kingdom for

Micajah". One of her stories, which appeared in
*Good Housekeeping* three or four years ago, called
the "Old Hair Trunk", gives a fine picture of the
old time Negro woman once so much beloved in
the South.

The stories of Roy Octavius Cohen, appearing
also in the *Post*, are interesting as stories; but his
dialect is questionable, and his characterizations are
supercilious.

O. Henry, the master story teller, gave us a
well nigh perfect Negro story in "Uncle Bushrod."

Marie Conway Oemler has just completed a
volume, "Purple Heights", and we may hope to
hear more from her.

Paul Lawrence Dunbar, incomparably first
among the poets of the Negro race, also wrote
some well worthwhile stories. "Old Plantation
Days", "A Judgment of Paris", and "Mauma"
are among the best. He called his dialect stories
"Jingles in a Broken Tongue", but his poems in
classic English, "Ere Sleep Comes Down to Soothe
the Weary Eyes", "The Poet and His Song",
"Promise and Fulfillment", and "Ships that Pass
in the Night", rank with the best in American
poetry and I doubt if any poet ever wrote a more
beautiful thing than his quatrain:

The rain streams down like harpstrings from
the sky,

The Wind, that world-old harpist, sitteth by;

And ever as he sings his low refrain,

He plays upon the harpstrings of the rain.

Most poets have an undercurrent of sadness
running through their songs, but in Dunbar's
there is a peculiar inspiration and uplift. Read his
"Just Whistle a Bit", "Accountability", and "How
Lucy Backslid".

Ruth McEnery Stuart's stories are charming
and delightful. She shows a most kindly humor,
and wrote always with force and naturalness. Her
characters are real people. Read any story she
ever wrote. They are all good. As a painter
puts in high lights, so she, with master art, put
in a touch of pathos, or human-heartedness never
overdone, but humanizing the character for which
there have been only laughs.

Thanksgiving

By MARION GRACE CONOVER

FOR the inner light that makes me see
In the rose thy perfect artistry—
I thank Thee.

For the inner ear Thou gavest me
To catch each passing harmony—
I thank Thee.

For the Vision that sustaineth me
To calmly greet eternity—
I thank Thee.

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NOVEMBER, 1924

Black Verse

By FRANK S. HORNE

"... And do not ask the poor man not to sing,
For song is all he has." —ROBERT NATHAN.

FROM the Trinity College Press, Durham, North Carolina, comes an "Anthology of Verse by American Negroes," edited by Newman Ivey White, Ph.D., Professor of English at Trinity College, and Walter Clinton Jackson, Vice President of the North Carolina College of Women, with an introduction by James Hardy Dillard, Ph.D., L.L.D., President of the Jeanes Foundation and the John F. Slater Fund.

We have here something more than just another
anthology. It distinguishes itself, on the one side,
by coming from the heart of the Southland, by
its utter impartiality, and its scholarly complete-
ness; on the other, by its lack of direction in de-
velopment, absence of personality, and faultiness of
viewpoint.

The professors have been most diligent. There
is evidence of concentrated application and pro-
found probing into obscure poetical sources. The
book is redolent of the South, the schoolroom,
and the professorial dictum. The work is scholarly,
and the treatment is both critical and sympathetic
to some degree. It at least demonstrates that
these two southern scholars have looked upon
this definite body of literary production, and
deemed it worthy of their recognition. But for
all that, the anthology is sluggish; it lacks dis-
tinction and verve. It possesses neither the vigor
and raciness of Professor Talley's folk lore col-
lection, nor the poetical finesse and judgment of
James Weldon Johnson's "Book of American
Negro Poetry." The book lacks, in a sense, per-
sonality. To a student of the subject, the work
is undeniably a worthy contribution; but to the
reader of verse, it is a volume he can as well get
along without.

In an effort to achieve completeness, the authors
have included several worthy features. There is
a more or less critical and historical general
"Introduction"; brief biographies of the authors
accompanying the selections; and a mass of "Bibli-
ographical and Critical Notes" at the end. We
shall consider them each in turn. The general
"Introduction" is truly more historical than criti-
cal. The professors, not being poets, lack the
poetical judgment and the insight that is so evi-
dent in James Weldon Johnson's "Essay on the
Negro's Creative Genius" which serves so aptly
as an introduction to his own admirable collection.
In essence the two viewpoints stand sharply con-
trasted when it comes to the question of the ulti-
mate contribution of the Negro to American

poetry. The professors, after correctly stating that
the constant themes of religion and race in Negro
poetry contribute nothing new, go on to say:
"There is, however, a kind of Negro humor that
deals in a distinctively racial manner with the
Negro's love of music, talk, animals, meetings,
dancing, loafing and fishing, and is best exemplified
in the poems of Dunbar, Allen, and Davis. In
this direction, the Negro is perhaps likely to make
a purely racial contribution to American poetry.
Otherwise, his contribution is apt to be indi-
vidual and not racial in character." And there
you have it! The compilers of this volume ap-
pear to believe that the "loud guffaw and the
wide grin" are the paramount expressions of Negro
aesthetics. At this point, I join the company of
Johnson, Braithwaite, and DuBois, and vehemently
dissent. The Negro poet has long since forsaken
the jester's tatterdemalion. His contribution is
more subtle and pregnant; more sensitive to the
adventures of his own harassed soul. And in
support might be offered such examples as "Self-
Determination", by Leslie Pinckney Hill; "When
I Die", by Fenton Johnson; "Fifty Years", by
James Weldon Johnson; "And What Shall You
Say", by Joseph Cotter, Jr.,—I offer you William
Stanley Braithwaite, Jessie Redmond Fauset, and
Claude McKay—and I offer you the youngest

James Weldon Johnson

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331

Countee P. Cullen

voices, Countee P. Cullen, Gwendolyn B. Bennett, and Langston Hughes. With the work of such as these already significant, the dictum of the professors need not be taken too seriously.

The brief biographies of the authors accompanying the selections are adequate and interesting. The critical and bibliographical notes at the end of the volume are indispensable to the student, and add much to the value and completeness of the volume.

As for the body of the poetry included, there is little new or distinctive. The verse up to the time of Dunbar is below any real critical standard. It is to be marveled at, that in this period of sordid darkness, even voice was found to essay song. Its essence is a whimpering prayer for the Balm of Gilead to ease these mortal wounds. From Dunbar on, slowly but surely, the expression takes on form and virility, growing sophistication, and an enlivened interest in the life to be lived here and now. There comes the realization that the life of the Negro is a many sided adventure, worthy of recording.

The authors note that it was lack of education that impoverished earlier Negro poetry. They go on to say that this same lack of education perhaps accounts for the almost total absence of free verse from the mass of Negro poetry. This statement is open to considerable doubt. In the first place, the Negro is essentially lyrical. And the subtle rhythm of the best free verse, it might be

urged, is not sufficient for the fullness of his song. From the mass of so-called free verse floating about that has been my lot to read, one might be inclined to express little regret if the Negro never gets educated in that direction. A decided and unmistakable progress in Negro verse, however, is graciously admitted as the compilers conclude that the quality of the poetry has depended generally upon the cultural opportunities of the poets. England took three centuries after the Norman Conquest to produce her first great poet; the Negro has been hardly that long out of Africa! Period for period, we have developed as fully and as rapidly. They see no reason, nor do we, why Negro poets will not reach as ultimate a peak of expression as has ever been or will ever be attained.

After much has been said on either side, we can conclude that the book justifies its existence for us, if only because it includes a selection by Countee P. Cullen. This man, though still very, very young, pens lyrics that already sing. Twice, successively in the last two years, his work has gained second place in the Undergraduate Poetry Contest of the Poetry Society of America; most all of the better magazines have included him in their pages; his sonnets have often topped F. P. A.'s "Conning Tower" in the New York World; the American Mercury will soon carry something

Leslie Pinckney Hill

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NOVEMBER, 1924

like a hundred and ninety of his lines. He steps
with a sure tread, and we expect him to go far.

So set to, makers of black verse. We have al-
ready shown that we can write their music, give
them their dance, make their money, and play
their games. Your task is definite, grand, and
fine. You are to sing the attributes of a soul.
Be superbly conscious of the many tributaries to
our pulsing stream of life. You must articulate
what the hidden sting of the slaver's lash leaves re-

verberating in its train,—the subtle hates, the
burnt desires, sudden hopes, and dark despairs;
you must show that the sigh is mother of the
laugh they know so well. Sing, so that they
might know the eyes of black babes—eyes that
so sadly laugh; that they might know that we, too,
like Shylock, cry when we are hurt, but with a
cry distinctive, and subtly pregnant with over-
tones, and fraught with hidden associations. Sing,
O black poets, for song is all we have!

Slackened Caprice

By OTTIE B. GRAHAM

COMING home from a long journey, I stop-
ped with Carlotta at a southern city to visit
an old friend of her mother's. The trip had been
wearisome and we were glad of the few hours to
stretch our limbs and rest. The place we wanted
was easily reached, and when we arrived there it
was so beautiful and still that a feeling of rest
came over us in spite of our fatigue.

On the porch was a man standing before a
bird cage. He was quiet, with his hands behind
him, and he saw only the bird. We walked up the
steps and spoke to him before he turned to notice
us. He was too old to be young and too young
to be even middle-aged. His eyes were soft, very
kind and soft, and his smile was slow. He started
to speak, but a woman came hurriedly out of the
house, interrupting with a laugh and a greeting.
She was his mother and the friend Carlotta had
come to see. She welcomed us and led us to a
sitting-room; then she asked us to excuse her for
a few minutes. Her girl was burning something.

As she left the room by one door, her son en-
tered by another. He had us make ourselves com-
fortable and brought us a cool drink of fruit
juice. He sat and talked with us, saying himself
very little but making us say much. I believe
we were talking about a relative of his or about
somebody's new position when he asked very
abruptly, "How do you find people as you travel?
Are they at all care-free?" His question was di-
rected to Carlotta, but she had chance only for
a philosophical, "Well," before he had apparently
forgotten that the question was ever in his mind.

"Do you like music?" he asked quite as sud-
denly as he had made the first query. We said
yes, of course.

"Then I shall play for you," he announced very
quietly, and without more ado went to the piano.
Once seated, he thought no more about us, and his
long, bony fingers lifted and sped across the key-
board. For a moment they reminded me of slen-
der, swiftly driven horses. I remember smiling
inwardly as I thought that, because the idea
seemed far-fetched; but there was something about
him that made me draw far-fetched figures. He

trilled and lilted through passages as light and
airy as flying fairy down. There was something
of Grieg wonder in them, but they were not Grieg.
Glad, laughing measures repeated themselves,
splashing in patches of sharp brilliancy through-
out the ascending movement. Then, with what
seemed something of reluctance in the long, bony
fingers, the allegro stopped its prancing and quieted
to a soberer swing. It did not cease descending;
it came down, down, losing its gay fire, until only
a sweet, crying melody remained. This melody
was not at all akin to the start of the composi-
tion. Sweet and soft, even yearning, as though it
would dance but could not, it merely sang. Here
was something of Taylor plaintiveness, but it was
not Taylor. And the slender fingers, stopped in
their fleet gallop, caressed now tenderly the keys
over which they had just sped.

This change of tone and tempo, though beauti-
ful, was to me unusual and I wondered about it
as I listened. So engrossed in his rendition was
the man, he seemed actually to suffer from his
tenseness. His brows raised in despairing frowns
which wavered and settled again. He began to
sway so that I looked at Carlotta and she at me,
both afraid that he would fall from his seat. Just
then his mother called to him, cheerily and as
though she would check his sad song. Somehow
I had imagined he would not leave the instrument
even if he stopped playing to answer, but he did.
He whirled from the piano, stood a moment, and
passed through the door with what seemed a single
stride. He said nothing to us—nothing what-
ever; but before we got over the shock of his
leaving he had returned by the other door. He
appeared to be annoyed—exceedingly annoyed,
and he made a slight glance in our direction as
he took his seat again.

The bony, long fingers rested once more upon
the keys, impatient to be driven; and the light,
dashing measures arose once more—arose and
danced away. Then again came the gradual down-
toning, and the slackening of pace, down, down,
until a mere song remained. A mere song, but
a sad one, which sang since it could not dance. The

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333

man, as he played on, suffered again, losing him-
self in the strains that went floating away. This
time his mother came into the room, cheerily in-
terrupting him at the place where she had called
before. He turned, slowly this time, excusing
himself, and quietly left our presence.

The woman made some passing mention of her
son's absorbing fondness for the piano, and with
an apology for her delay, set upon other conversa-
tion. We had well launched upon some interest-
ing thing when the son returned again. He sat
close by, listening but saying little, and smiling
here and there his slow smile. A woman was
mentioned, a master of some instrument, and we
turned to talking of music. This made for our
hostess' son a livening interest. In a short while
he had taken the discussion into details of execu-
tion, and arrested the whole with his offer to play
again. As though he had not touched the piano
for us before, he said very simply, "I will play
for you."

His mother seemed a bit nervous as he arose and
approached the piano; but he was seated, we were
forgotten, and the slender steeds were ready
again to obey the will of their master. So splen-
did a musician was the man, we found ourselves too
firmly held by his skill to become amused. A third
time he set out upon the same thing—the thing
which started in swift beauty and descended, down,
down, to a simple, plaintive song.

His mother wanted to stop him again. It was
easy to see that she wanted to, but a third time
would be too significant of the strange uneasiness
which lay behind her son's playing this thing be-
yond a certain point. Here again I wondered, as
I listened, about the gradual, depressing change
in the composition, and I wondered whether it
pleased me. It was beautiful, to be sure, but I
decided that I did not like it. There came then
the end of the number. Quite suddenly it ended,
and with a crash! A crash in high treble, like a
quick, shrill scream. It did something to me that
I could never explain; I will never forget that
crash.

The son staggered from the piano and out to
the porch. He murmured as he went, clutching at
his breast and at his head. When his mother
reached him, he had stopped at the bird's cage.
He was standing still, very still, as though he had
never been unsteady. To the bird he talked con-
fidingly, saying low things we could not under-
stand. But when he saw Carlotta and me, he
lifted the cage down, quietly excused himself and
walked away, down the veranda steps and out to
the back of the lawn. All the way he talked to
the bird.

"He's been this way now for sometime," his
mother said resignedly, looking after him. "He
went with the army—volunteered. He came back
to me a wreck from gas. His nerves were almost
gone, and sometimes his head was wrong; but he
began to get back to normal after a while. His

music helped a lot—dear boy. He started on his
composing again and became wrapped up in a
Caprice. That was what he just played. Oh, he
was doing so well and I was so proud of him, and
one little incident ruined everything. It's strange
how it affected him." She stopped a minute as it
all came back to her, and when she started again
her southern drawl seemed sweeter and sad.

"He went walking one day with me down
through the grove. We were just a'laughing and
talking, and he kept singing snatches of his Caprice.
We stopped to watch a group of children playing
in a pretty little park. My boy said that he would
work better on his Caprice now that he had seen
them. Oh, they were happy little mites. They
ran and skipped about, and fell over one another,
and laughed and sang as though nothing was any-
thing but their little game. I picked out one who
reminded me of the way my boy used to look—
brown face and brown curls—brown eyes full of
sparkle. Oh, my!" she said, and she sighed.

"Then just as we started to move away, we no-
ticed a sudden hush come over them. There stood
a big, burly white man, a watchman or keeper or
something, snarling at them and telling them they
couldn't stay there. 'No niggers in there.' Well,
the poor little things just sauntered away. Noth-
ing else to do. It was mean. Children are such
lovely things—who could hurt them? As they
moved away down the grove, one tried to start the
others skipping again. They tried it, but it didn't
do. They went along their way, several trying
to stop the youngest little fellow from crying.
He wanted to play in the park.

"Well, my boy didn't talk any more all the
way home. He was like something hit in the face.
I found him looking at his khaki next day, and
later saying something to the bird about his song.
He said the cage took something from the bird's
song. Then he worked on his Caprice, but it
wouldn't go. The first part kept up, but it
would just change, it seemed, of itself. My poor
boy, he couldn't do a thing with it. It stopped
on him every time. Then he got so his head was
wrong again. The doctors didn't do much good.
They still come, but what's the use? I'm afraid
it's all over with him. He can't play anything
else. Nothing else but that half Caprice. Funny
how one little thing can do so much harm."

Soon we left, as best we could, trying to smile
again. Carlotta said later that always within her
she could hear that woman saying, "Children are
such lovely things—who could hurt them?" And
I could hear, and can hear now, the scream in
that final crash!

Last year I returned to that city for a longer
visit, this time alone. Soon after my arrival there
I inquired about the Jaimesons. The mother
had died of grief sometime back, upon the son's
failure to return home. He had wandered away
five years ago without saying anything at all. His
mother had stood talking to visitors, bidding them

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NOVEMBER, 1924

good-bye. The son, bearing a bird in a cage, had gone off through the back garden gate and had not been seen since. This, of course, was like the firing of a cannon to me. I was completely stunned to know that I had figured unknowingly in so grave a tragedy. Had Carlotta and I not been there to take the good woman's time, she might have kept better watch over her demented son.

I asked about their home. It had been sold at auction and torn down, and a theatre now stood in its place. I expressed a desire to see the structure—to attend the theatre, and I was surprised to learn that it was actually possible for me to be admitted. This was the South, and no place in America was any too kind. Always they said the Negro had little or no culture; yet they closed to him, as a rule, all roads to culture. Soon there was to be a concert at this theatre, held through the efforts to a certain music club. Anybody could go. A brown face could not appear on the main floor, to be sure, but a brown face could *appear*. I would go.

I sat, on the night of the concert, awaiting the beginning of the program. To a friend I talked of the Jaimesons. The theatre was pretty—just pretty. It seemed a great shame that so beautiful a home as that of the Jaimeson's should have been destroyed. Oh, well. My friend seemed not to mind. Soon she opened her program and I remembered that I had not looked at mine. The artist of the evening was a well known pianist. He would give a group of his own arrangements of rare and unfinished compositions. In a footnote the name Jaimeson caught my eye. Then I could not believe what I read. An unfinished Caprice by a little known Negro composer had furnished the theme of a number which was very dear to the artist. This thing was next to the last number, and I could scarcely enjoy what went before it. I tried to feel ashamed of not becoming sufficiently absorbed in what at some other time would have taken me from the earth. But I wanted now only to hear this Caprice—to see it executed—and I was not at all ashamed. It was only natural that the rest of the numbers were minor to Jaimeson's.

Finally the Caprice was played and encored. I almost choked to keep from screaming. The old picture came before me, and all that this thing had meant and had failed to mean to its composer whirled round and round in my brain, and I could hear the crash before it came. I waited for the crash. This man did not make it. Then it had not been written in the manuscript. Why should I have thought it had?

The last rendition was a tremendous thing. I tried to concentrate upon it, but instead I sat and wondered about what had gone before it. I supposed that the manuscript of the Caprice had fallen into the hands of the music club during the moving and auctioning of the household goods of the Jaimeson home. Through them it had come

into the hands of this artist, no doubt. Thus I pondered and listened at intervals until the music ceased. The artist refused an encore, so the audience started filing out. Now I was wondering why monsieur would not play again. We had reached the lower floor, when there broke upon the air that Caprice.

It was not the artist of the evening. One knew that immediately. I heard three men half whisper, "My God!" I may have said it too. Everyone turned back into the auditorium—also we, even we. Downstairs. Jaimeson sat at the piano. Jaimeson himself. I knew him as soon as I looked. He was like a ghost, long kept from some material thing which he had needed. He was taller, it seemed, and gaunt. His hair had grown long and his profile keener. Like a rail he looked as he leaned forward, driving once more the thin, fiery steeds, his fingers. Nobody stopped him—nobody dared. He played with the frenzy of madness—played as though he were trying to atone for an ill-given rendition of this thing which was his.

The pianist of the concert stood midway the stage, staring and bewildered. Almost the entire audience had returned. They stood staring and astounded. Nobody stopped the player. Midway its dashing course, as five years before it had done, the Caprice checked its wild capering. It changed to something slower, softer, yearning—then came the crash! Like a great mark of exclamation in the midst of a sad, smoothly flowing voice it came. It smote the dazed listeners and I could feel them start—a shortened breath, quickly drawn, *en masse*.

Jaimeson had obeyed his urge; it had taken all his strength; now he collapsed. No one had noticed the bird cage on the floor beside him until he reached for it at the end of his playing. He must have intended to leave as suddenly as he had come, but he missed the cage (it was empty now), and crumpled to the floor.

There was great and immediate excitement, of course. It was not until special appeals were made to the curious crowd by both the manager and the artist that peace and quiet were secured. Then the curtains were drawn and the onlookers cut off from the little scene. But I held a feeling of intimacy for this poor, crazed soul, hurt forever beyond cure, and I ran, almost unconsciously, to him. Somehow I found my way backstage where they had taken him. The friend who was with me had thought me daring, but I had dismissed her, not caring what she thought. This man was alone and I would help him.

Someone I took to be a doctor asked who I was. "His sister," I answered.

"This fellow was an only child. I knew the family." Here was a tangle. The person speaking was sure of what he said. I knew that certainly.

"Wife, huh?" from someone else, and the words meant more than they asked.

NOVEMBER, 1924

OPPORTUNITY

335

They ignored the glance of defiance I had flashed and accepted my silence for affirmative response. I made no answer, but went to the couch where Jaimeson lay. No one forbade me to touch him, so I sat beside him and rested his head on my breast. He stirred and looked at me, and tears stole down my face. He reached up and fingered a loose ringlet of my hair. I found myself gazing at a man who stood beside me. I was hardly aware of his presence, yet I was speaking to him. "Children are such lovely things —who could hurt them?"

"Was he injured when he was a child?" the man inquired.

"No," I said, "but such a little thing caused it. Not a little thing either."

"What was it?" the man asked quickly, and I knew that I had better cease talking while I could.

"Please don't ask me now," I whispered. "It will upset him again." Then, laying Jaimeson's head back upon the couch, I stood up.

"How did he get here tonight? Why wasn't he more closely watched?" the man continued. I had known this question was coming, though I had not prepared an answer.

"I don't know how he came," I said. "I thought he was safe in bed." I felt my face burn, and dropped down upon the couch again beside my strange charge. "I think I can move him now," I ventured, "if you will get me a cab." Heaven knows where I would have taken him. I had not the faintest idea.

"Better wait until the doctor gets here. We've sent for him." Just slightly I trembled.

"Where has he been all these years? In a sanitarium?" the man asked. He seemed wound up to ask questions forever.

"Yes," I whispered again. Anything which sounded plausible would do.

Just then Jaimeson sat up and stared across the room. A piano stood in the corner. Again he was like a ghost. I moved that he might arise. He wanted to. And I motioned to the others not to interfere. I must show some authority, and it

would satisfy him to play, even if the result were adverse. So he moved to the instrument, two of the men and I keeping close behind him. He did not notice us. Once seated, he leaned forward to play. He started the Caprice and stopped. Started again and stopped. Something was wrong. Something wrong. The steeds would not obey their master. First time. First time? I wondered. They started on their dash; then stopped. Started; then stopped. The man looked at me. There was something he knew, yet something he could not understand. He smiled his slow smile and shook his head. Then he played. But it was not the first part he played. That part he could not do. Instead he brought forth the sad, low-singing melody which seemed not at all a part of the Caprice.

Over and over this thing he played, his head sometimes dropped low and forward—sometimes pitched back and high. I stood behind him, and a little to the side. His mouth was partly open. His mouth watered. With a soft, silk kerchief I wiped his watering mouth. Over and over he played the softly wailing measures, his head sometimes dropped low and forward—sometimes pitched back and high.

The others stood watching—simply watching. No one spoke. Finally an arrival was announced. "Here's the doctor," someone called.

Jaimeson stopped short. I imagined he wanted the bird cage, for he looked around for something. However, he turned and clung to me. He knew that I was someone who cared.

The doctor came toward us. Jaimeson's hold on me relaxed. The doctor spoke lightly. "What seems to be the trouble?"

Jaimeson slipped down and crumpled again to the floor. I answered the doctor. "Nothing now."

I knew without the doctor's word, that the man was dead. I just knew somehow. Just knew. And I was glad for him. It was better that he escape. The others straightway looked to me. I had seen it this far, I would finish. I sold my rings and paid for the burial.

## Wind

By GWENDOLYN B. BENNETT

THE WIND was a care-free soul
That broke the chains of earth,
And strode for a moment across the land
With the wild halloo of his mirth.

He little cared that he ripped up trees,
That houses fell at his hand,
That his step broke calm on the breast of seas,
That his feet stirred clouds of sand.

But when he had had his little joke,
Had shouted and laughed and sung,
When the trees were scarred, their branches broke,
And their foliage aching hung,
He crept to his cave with a stealthy tread,
With rain-filled eyes and low-bowed head.