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potheses, one can judge of the possibilities of this method by a glance at studies like Flinders-Petrie's "Africa in Egypt" (Ancient Egypt, 1916) or G. A. Wainwright's "Ancient Survivals in Modern Africa,"—*Bulletin de la Société de Geographie, Cairo, 1919-20.* Stated more popularly, but with the intuition of the artist, we have the gist of such important art clues in the statement of Guillaume Apollinaire to the effect that African sculptures "attest through their characteristic style an incontestable relationship to Egyptian art, and contrary to current opinion, it seems rather more true that instead of being a derivative of Egyptian art, they, (*or rather we would prefer to say, their prototypes) have on the contrary exerted on the artists of Egypt an influence which amply justifies the interest with which we today regard them."

But for the present all this is merest conjecture, though we do know that in many cases the tradition of style of these African sculptures is much older than the actual age of the exemplars we possess. Paul Guillaume, who has been the first to attempt period classification of this art, has conjecturally traced an Early Sudan art as far back as the Vth or VIth century, and has placed what seems to be its classic periods of expression as between the XIIth and the XIVth centuries for Gabon and Ivory Coast art, the XIth and XIIth for one phase of Sudan art, with another high period of the same between the XIVth and the XVth centuries. There are yet many problems to be worked out in this line—more definite period classification, more exact ethnic classification, especially with reference to the grouping of the arts of related tribes, and perhaps most important of all, the determination of their various *genres*.

A new movement in one of the arts in most cases communicates itself to the others, and after the influence in plastic art, the flare for things African began shortly to express itself in poetry and music. Roughly speaking, one may say that the French have been pioneers in the appreciation of the aesthetic values of African languages, their poetry, idiom and rhythm. Of course the bulk of the scientific and purely philological interpretation is to the credit of German and English scholarship. There were several decades of this, before scholars like Rene Basset and Maurice Delafosse began to point out in addition the subtlety of the expressive technique of these languages. Attracted finally by the appeal of Negro plastic art to the studies of these men, poets like Guillaume Apollinaire and Blaise Cendrars brought the creative mind to the artistic re-expression of African idiom in poetic symbols and verse forms. So that what is a recognized school of modern French poetry professes the inspiration of African sources,—Apollinaire, Reverdy, Salmon, Fargue and others. The bible of this school has been Cendrars' "Anthologie Negre," now in its sixth edition.

*Phrase inserted.

Modigliani—stone

The starting point of an aesthetic interest in Negro musical idiom seems to have been H. A. Junod's work,—"Les Chants et les Contes des Barongas" (1897). From the double source of African folk-song and the quite serious study of American Negro musical rhythms, many of the leading modernists of French music have derived much inspiration. Berard, Satie, Poulenc, Auric, Honegger, are all in diverse ways affected, but the

Note the striking influence of the conventionalization on the sculpture by Modigliani, one of the foremost of modern artists.

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most explicit influence is upon the work of Derius Milhaud, who is an avowed propagandist of the possibilities of Negro musical idiom. The importance of the absorption of this material by all of the major forms of art, some of them relatively independently of the others, is striking and ought really to be considered as a quite unanimous verdict of the creative mind upon the values, actual and potential, in this yet unexhausted reservoir of art material.

Since African art has had such a vitalizing influence in modern European painting, sculpture, poetry and music, it becomes finally a natural and important question as to what artistic and cultural effect it can or will have upon the life of the American Negro. It does not necessarily follow that it should have any such influence. Today even in its own homeland it is a stagnant and decadent tradition, almost a lost art, certainly as far as technical mastery goes. The sensitive artistic minds among us have just begun to be attracted toward it, but with an intimate and ardent concern. Because of our Europeanized conventions, the key to the proper understanding and appreciation

of it will in all probability first come from an appreciation of its influence upon contemporary French art, but we must believe that there still slumbers in the blood something which once stirred will react with peculiar emotional intensity toward it. If by nothing more mystical than the sense of being ethnically related, some of us will feel its influence at least as keenly as those who have already made it recognized and famous. Nothing is more galvanizing than the sense of a cultural past. This at least the intelligent presentation of African art will supply to us. Without other more direct influence even, a great cultural impetus would thus be given. But surely also in the struggle for a racial idiom of expression, there would come to some creative minds among us, from a closer knowledge of it, hints of a new technique, enlightening and interpretative revelations of the mysterious substrata of feeling under our characteristically intense emotionality, or at the very least, incentives toward fresher and bolder forms of artistic expression and a lessening of that timid imitativeness which at present hampers all but our very best artists.

## The Temple

By ALBERT C. BARNES

NEARLY all foreigners like Paris because nowhere else is life so untrammeled, so unrestricted, so freely expressive of the human qualities that every normal person loves because they are part of himself. For many years Paris has cast its charm upon me and seldom has a year passed without my having made one or more sojourns of several weeks within its walls. The Louvre, the streets, cafes, artists' studios, galleries of dealers, the people have weaved into the fabric of my life a strand which, if broken would leave me impoverished. I know of no material possession that can compare with it in yield of spiritual richness. Between visits I am reminded constantly of it by the many French paintings —Renoir, Cezanne, Manet, Matisse, Picasso, and the

younger artists—that have hung in my house for so many years. That experience has grown to be the means of enriching American life, through the thousands of people who have visited the collection.

Boule—14th Century

The life-giving resources of Paris were vividly recalled recently by a lament published in a current French revue that our age offers no intellectual, social, and spiritual nourishment of the kind that reached its summit in France in the eighteenth century, declined rapidly through the nineteenth century, and reached the vanishing point a long time ago. The salon of the eighteenth century, with its charm of free social intercourse, leavened by the activities of artists, thinkers, and men of affairs, is revealed through the writings that have come to us from that epoch. It was a fine flowering of all the human instincts and feelings without which life is comparatively drab, monotonous, and mechanical. The salon declined when its political and social intrigues, its intense egotistic rivalries, its

frivolities and extravagances afforded no nourishment to the men and women whose interests were in intellectual and spiritual things.

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Life is fundamentally and chiefly a matter of
feeling, and the great need of all normal human be-
ings is to share those feelings with their fellows.
Nearly all people are artists to some degree, even if
they cannot objectify their feelings by producing a
work of art. Those feelings *must* have an outlet and
it is their manifestation in the most diverse forms
which constitutes the greatest charm in the great-
est of all arts, life itself. To complain of our
age as one of poverty in spiritual contacts and
satisfactions is merely to confess an intellectual
torpor and a lack of adaptation to life itself. En-
vironments change and that means that people
change in the manifestations of their feelings;
but that does not imply a change in either the
quality or the intensity of the ever-present feelings
which have made art and life synonymous from the
dawn of history to our own day.

The charm of the past is nearly always due to
the fact that the big elements in it need the per-
spective of years to bury into insignificance the
lesser features which invariably accompany all
events. In our age with its needless hurry, its
scant leisure, its preoccupation with material things,
its intense individualism, the salons of the eight-
eenth century throw into strong relief the human
requirements which our age lacks; that is, leisure
indulged pleasantly and in company with congenial
spirits. But to compare the substance, the realities,
the positive goods of the salon as a human institu-
tion, with equal possibilities in several present-day
Paris institutions, is equivalent to comparing a
good Watteau with only a mediocre Cezanne. I
believe the intelligent, educated modern prefers
the Cezanne. Paris has always had the habit
of evolving these institutions to embody the art
spirit of the age, and in order to be truly rep-
resentative, they must grow naturally around the
men who constitute the movement. In the latter
part of the nineteenth century the characteristic
institution was the Cafe Nouvelles Athenes and
the men were Manet, Degas, Renoir, Monet,
Sisley, Pissarro, and their friends who made the
literary and musical history of that period. But
the intellectual and spiritual requirements of our
age can no longer be satisfied by discussions around
a cafe-table, because we need in front of us the
objective facts that embody the spiritual meanings
of our art experiences. In thought, we have pro-
gressed from the metaphysics of Kant and Hegel
to the creative evolution of Bergson and the
pragmatism of Dewey; in plastic art, we have gone
beyond Monet and Rodin to Matisse and Lipschitz;
in music, from Debussy and d'Indy to Strawinsky
and the Six. With its characteristic intelligence,
present-day Paris has developed the institution
where the people of every nationality who are
interested in the art expressions of our age go and
feel at home. I have named it "The Temple"
because in no other rendezvous have I witnessed
so much devotion by so many of the painters,
sculptors, composers, writers, connoisseurs, who
have made the art history of our epoch; and

they are there to worship works of art and to
commune with kindred spirits. The high priest
of the temple is Paul Guillaume, a creator in the
greatest of arts, life itself. He is known to the
art world as the man who rescued the obscure anc-
ient Negro art from its mere ethnological signifi-
cance and converted it into a well of unsuspected
spiritual richness from which the whole modern
movement in art has drunk deeply. He is honored
by nearly every artist, collector, connoisseur, and
writer on three continents as the Parisian who felt
the pulse-beat of the modern movement when its
creators were obscure and unknown. It was due to
his knowledge and discernment of art values that
made possible the fame of Apollinaire, Modigliani,
Utrillo, Soutine, and others. In his small gal-
lery, of about five meters square, he gave the first
performance of Jean Cocteau's "Parade" with its
music by Erik Satie. But Paul Guillaume has
long since been transcended by what his efforts
have stamped upon the whole world of art. His
little gallery and museum of ancient Negro sculp-
ture is now the mecca not only of the important
creators in France, but in America, Japan, Eng-
land, and every continental country. I have seen
six chiefs of African tribes there at the same time
with four principals of the Russian ballet. Like
a stream of worshippers all nationalities flow into
that temple because of what it offers in spiritual
nourishment and because they are sure to meet other
artists whom it is unlikely they would meet at any
other place. In a single week, I have met at Paul
Guillaume's, English, Japanese, Norwegian, Ger-
man, American, Italian artists—painters, sculptors,
composers, poets, critics—whom I had known
only by name. I have heard there criticism more
penetrating and more comprehensive than I had
ever heard or read elsewhere, for a glance of the
eye, a quality of voice add much to the transfer
of what we mean. Practically all important
French painters and sculptors visit the temple
with regularity. Strawinsky, Satie, Auric, Pou-
lenc, Milhaud, Honneger have long been worship-
pers there of the Negro art which has inspired so
much of their fine music. One summer afternoon
when the heat was intolerable outdoors, I called
at the temple and found Roger Fry and Paul
Guillaume discussing Negro art. I listened for
a while and then took possession of Roger Fry and
had a talk on Renoir and Cezanne which I shall
remember for the rest of my life. The atmosphere
of the place is imperturbably peaceful, for no mat-
ter how keen the discussion it is never desecrated
by a personal quarrel between artists of even widely
diverging opinions. One instinctively and always
respects a sanctuary.

The discussion habit is contagious in that
milieu and I soon fell a victim. How many dis-
cussions I have had with artists, connoisseurs,
directors of museums from all parts of the world,
I could not say because I have visited the temple
a hundred times and nearly always found inter-

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Soutine, for example, is to a certain extent, the work of the African emotion in a new setting. In the same way the sculpture of Archipenko, Lipschitz and of Epstein is impregnated with Africanism. The music of Berard, Satie, Poulene, Auric, Honegger—in short, all that which is interesting since Debussy, is African. One can say as much also of the poetry since Raimbaud up to Blaise Cendrars and Reverdy, including Apollinaire. Gobineau has aptly written that "The source from which the arts have sprung is concealed in the blood of the blacks": it is necessary to know this source. But the influence of Negro art on the imagination of the artist is far from having given its full content. We are in the presence of an art eminently suggestive and revealing; an art which touches miraculously

the extreme limits of perfection, an art which one can qualify *Sybaritique*, so exquisite is its refinement, but it is a divine art which never weakens, never disappoints. What a delight for the knowing eye of today; that personal quality is not found in the arts of the high epochs of Greece, of China, or even of Egypt where the perfect work seems the end of a dream which will never reawaken.

African art, the most modern of the arts, by this spirit is also the most ancient. In the dim, distant epochs, the men who were first active in the world after the silence of the centuries were the black men. These men were the first creators, the first warriors, the first poets; they invented art as they invented fire; it is later, probably, that we hear in the East of other men, the white barbarians whom they conquered. The conquest was not made without a large infusion of black

element. The consequence was that the whites, thus regenerated, conquered the blacks, who fled into their forest, from which they were never dislodged. They left, however, the white ethnic traces of their presence in the north and in the east of Africa. These are the Semites and Chameles, mysteriousl y submitting to the fatality of a somnabulistic tra-

dition, lethargic continuators of the spirit of a formidable civili zation. Having injected the artistic virus into the barbarian world, they took refuge in their secret religious and social practices and continued to materialize in wood their religious emotions. Grandiose and disconcerting, that took place several millenaires be fore our era. From the heart of Africa, hypothetical site of the fab ved Atlantide, those people, those empires, emigrated in consequence of frightful calamities or cataclysms. Instinctively they turned toward the sea—their pact with the forest was broken. Then they fixed the homesteads which we consider in our present ethnical classifications. The central stock divided into three branches, one went toward the northwest, the other to the southwest, the third remained on the equator but did

not reach to the coast of Guinea. In the northwest they are, therefore, the populations of the Nigers, the Bobos, the Baoules, the Agui, the Gouros, the Dan, and so many others which it is not possible to enumerate here. Below the equator and in the southwest they are especially the M'Fangs, the most beautiful of the Pahouins—at whose elegance Europeans marvel so much that they attribute it wrongly to Egyptian origin without dreaming that the contrary could be the truth. A disconcerted traveler writes: "The M'Fangs are the least negro of all the negroes." On the equator, but quite a distance from the coast, are the pastoral races of the Bushongos with their sub-tribes of names so poetic, the Bambalus, the Gwembis, the Bakele, the Yungu, the Bangongo, (in the dialect of the country the last name mentioned signifies "People of the Bells").

The collection of Negro art in the Barnes Foundation is rich in works coming from the races of these different sources. In this collection besides it will be noted that the epochs have been for the first time definitely fixed. In order to determine the epochs where these sculptures have been executed diverse elements of

Gabon—Before 10th Century

Bushongo—15th Century

Soudan—Niger—10th Century

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The Debut of the Younger School of Negro Writers

INTEREST among the literati of New York in the emerging group of younger Negro writers found an expression in a recent meeting of the Writers' Guild, an informal group whose membership includes Countee Cullen, Eric Walrond, Langston Hughes, Jessie Fauset, Gwendolyn Bennett, Harold Jackman, Regina Anderson, and a few others. The occasion was a "coming out party," at the Civic Club, on March 21—a date selected around the appearance of the novel "There Is Confusion" by Jessie Fauset. The responses to the invitations sent out were immediate and enthusiastic and the few regrets that came in were genuine.

Although there was no formal, prearranged program, the occasion provoked a surprising spontaneity of expression both from the members of the writers' group and from the distinguished visitors present.

A brief interpretation of the object of the Guild was given by Charles S. Johnson, Editor of *Opportunity*, who introduced Alain Locke, virtual dean of the movement, who had been selected to act as Master of Ceremonies and to interpret the new currents manifest in the literature of this younger school. Alain Locke has been one of the most resolute stimulators of this group, and although he has been writing longer than most of them, he is distinctly a part of the movement. One excerpt reflects the tenor of his remarks. He said: "They sense within their group—meaning the Negro group—a spiritual wealth which if they can properly expound will be ample for a new judgment and re-appraisal of the race."

Horace Liveright, publisher, told about the difficulties, even yet, of marketing books of admitted merit. The value of a book cannot be gauged by the sales. He regarded Jean Toomer's "Cane" as one of the most interesting that he had handled, and yet, less than 500 copies had been sold. In his exhortations to the younger group he warned against the danger of reflecting in one's writings the "inferiority complex" which is so insistently and frequently apparent in an overbalanced emphasis on "impossibly good" fiction types. He felt that to do the best writing it was necessary to give a rounded picture which included bad types as well as good ones since both of these go to make up life.

Dr. W. E. B. Du Bois made his first public appearance and address since his return to this country from Africa. He was introduced by the chairman with soft seriousness as a representative of the "older school." Dr. Du Bois explained that the Negro writers of a few years back were of necessity pioneers, and much of their style was forced upon them by the barriers against publication of literature about Negroes of any sort.

James Weldon Johnson was introduced as an anthologist of Negro verse and one who had given invaluable encouragement to the work of this younger group.

Carl Van Doren, Editor of the *Century*, spoke on the future of imaginative writing among Negroes. His remarks are given in full elsewhere in this issue.

Another young Negro writer, Walter F. White, whose novel "Fire in Flint" has been accepted for publication, also spoke and made reference to the passing of the stereotypes of the Negroes of fiction.

Professor Montgomery Gregory of Howard University, who came from Washington for the meeting, talked about the possibilities of Negroes in drama and told of the work of several talented Negro writers in this field, some of whose plays were just coming into recognition.

Another visitor from Philadelphia, Dr. Albert C. Barnes, art connoisseur and foremost authority in America on primitive Negro art, sketched the growing interest in this art which had had such tremendous influence on the entire modern art movement.

Miss Jessie Fauset was given a place of distinction on the program. She paid her respects to those friends who had contributed to her accomplishments, acknowledging a particular debt to her "best friend and severest critic," Dr. Du Bois.

The original poems read by Countee Cullen were received with a tremendous ovation. Miss Gwendolyn Bennett's poem, dedicated to the occasion, is reproduced. It is called

"To Usward"

Let us be still
As ginger jars are still
Upon a Chinese shelf,
And let us be contained
By entities of Self. . .

Not still with lethargy and sloth,
But quiet with the pushing of our growth;
Not self-contained with smug identity,
But conscious of the strength in entity.

If any have a song to sing that's different from
the rest,
Oh, let him sing before the urgency of Youth's
behest!

And some of us have songs to sing
Of jungle heat and fires;
And some of us are solemn grown
With pitiful desires;
And there are those who feel the pull
Of seas beneath the skies;

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their people are too close to them to be overlooked. But it happens that in this case the vulgar forms of propaganda are all unnecessary. The facts about Negroes in the United States are themselves propaganda—devastating and unanswerable. A Negro novelist who tells the simple story of any aspiring colored man or woman will call as with a bugle the minds of all just persons, white or black, to listen to him.

But if the reality of Negro life is itself dramatic, there are of course still other elements, particularly the emotional power with which Negroes live—or at least to me seem to live. What American literature decidedly needs at the moment is color, music, gusto, the free expression of gay or desperate moods. If the Negroes are not in a position to contribute these items, I do not know what Americans are.

## Max Rheinhardt Reads the Negro's Dramatic Horoscope

MAX RHEINHARDT has always been a prophet in the theatre,—and the things which he has foreseen and helped come to realization have matured so quickly and vigorously as to make his own work of ten or fifteen years back almost old-fashioned in comparison with the advanced contemporary art of drama which, we must always remember, his work has so largely made possible. Perhaps no one could have a more pronounced "sixth sense" with respect to drama or a more dependable knack of finding new veins of dramatic possibilities. When, therefore, we learned that Director Rheinhardt of "The Miracle" had expressed keen interest in the work of the Negro actors whom he had seen in his visit to New York last season, we were naturally most anxious to have a first hand opinion. Max Rheinhardt must be interviewed. The opportunity was missed at Salzburg; and again, by the accidents of travel, at Vienna; and the trail eventually led back to New York and the second season. From the beginning it was not the usual interview. Charles Johnson and I found our subject too willing to be in any sense the usual victim. It was not a tribute to us so much as to the subject in which we were interested that this rather busy and inaccessible man was anxious to talk with us. Indeed, our first engagement was excused on the ground that there wasn't sufficient time to talk over so important a subject adequately. A second visit found us very much in the predicament of the fisherman who catches other fish than he was fishing for: obviously we ourselves were about to be interviewed. And we were,—but that is not our story. Then the springy, inquisitive, experimental mind of the man came back at us,—with what he apologetically called "mere impressions," but what the reader will instantly recognize as penetrating and quite prophetic observations.

"Yes, I am very interested,—it is intriguing, very intriguing, these musical comedies of yours that I have seen. But, remember, not as achievements, not as things in themselves artistic, but in their possibilities, their tremendous artistic possibilities. They are most modern, most American, most expressionistic. They are highly original in spite of obvious triteness, and artistic in spite of superficial crudeness. To me they reveal new possibilities

of technique in drama, and if I should ever try to do anything American, I should build it on these things."

We didn't enthuse. What Negro who stands for culture with the hectic stress of a social problem weighing on the minds of an over-serious minority could enthuse? Liza, Shuffle Along, Running Wild! We had come to discuss the possibilities of serious Negro drama, of the art—drama, if you please. Surely Director Rheinhardt was a victim of that distortion of perspective to which anyone is liable in a foreign land. But then, the stage is not a foreign land to Max Rheinhardt. He has the instinct of the theatre,—the genius of the producer who knows, if anyone knows, what is vital there. So we didn't protest, but raised brows already too elevated perhaps and shrugged the shoulder that carries the proverbial racial chip. Herr Rheinhardt read the gestures swiftly.

"Ah yes, I see—you view these plays for what they are, and you are right; I view them for what they will become, and I am more than right. I see their future. Why? Well, the drama must turn at every fresh period of creative development to an aspect which has been previously subordinated or neglected, and in this day of ours we come back to the most primitive and the most basic aspect of drama for a new starting point, a fresh development and revival of the art,—and that aspect is pantomime,—the use of the body to portray emotion. And your people have that art—it is their forte—it is their special genius. At present it is prostituted to farce, to trite comedy,—but the technique is there, and I have never seen more wonderful possibilities. Yes, I should like to do something with this material. If I knew more about it I certainly would do something with it. Somebody must demonstrate its fresh artistic value. Now it is exploited, when will it be utilized?"

Now we understood. Baronial hotel arm-chairs moved as lightly and as instinctively as ouijaboards. Understanding made a circle, and the interview was ended though the conversation continued thrice as long.

"No, not the story, not the acting in the conventional sense, not the setting, not even the music, and certainly not the silly words; but the voices, the expressive control of the whole body,

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the spontaneity of motion, the rhythm, the bright emotional color. These are your treasures—no, not yours only,—these are American treasures.”

"But how, Mr. Rheinhardt, are we to develop these,—especially in the face of exploitation?"

"Only you can do it, you yourselves. You must not even try to link up to the drama of the past, to the European drama. That is why there is no American drama as yet. And if there is to be one, it will be yours. That is my advice, that is my feeling about this. I would gladly help. I would gladly do something just to show what can be technically developed out of such material. But I would have to saturate myself with the folk-spirit, and really this requires the Negro dramatist eventually."

"'Eventually,'—why, we have already many plays of Negro life, some promising Negro playwrights, several attempts at a Negro theatre, a college department of dramatics."

"That is interesting, most interesting—but I am afraid of that sort of a thing. It is too academic. I fear there is too much imitation in it. My last word is, be original—sense the folk-spirit, develop the folk-idiom,—artistically, of course, but faithfully; and above all, do not let that technique

of expression which is so original, so potential, get smothered out in the imitation of European acting, copied effects.

"With such control of body, such pantomime, I believe I could portray emotion as it has never been portrayed,—pure emotion, almost independently of words or setting. It is really marvelous. You are perhaps too near to see it."

We terminated the interview in deference to Mr. Rheinhardt's engagements,—he was still talking, still "intrigued," as he kept putting it. And to our "Thank you's," his reply was: "Not at all, gentlemen. On the contrary, I must thank you for an opportunity of expressing an opinion about the possibilities of Negroes and for an occasion to learn more of what is actually being done toward developing these fine resources of American art." So when it was reported by the N. A. A. C. P. Press Service that "Max Rheinhardt, one of the foremost theatrical producers of Germany, who recently stage a monster production of 'The Miracle' in New York, has recently praised the art of the American Negro, in an interview cabled to the *Chicago Daily News*," two amateur but ardent race journalists had the exhilaration of having been "back-stage" on that.
—Alain Locke

## Negro Women in South Carolina Industries

IN South Carolina more than half (56.4) of all persons at work are Negroes, although the white population at the 1920 census outnumbered the Negro. Forty-five and five-tenths per cent of all the Negro females of working age are at work. This is by a considerable margin the highest per cent of any state in the South. But the great majority of these Negro women are employed in domestic service. Concerning those who have sought to break away from the personal dependence and impoverishing wages of domestic service there has been little information. The Woman's Bureau has just completed a survey of women in the principal industries of this state and because of several outstanding divergencies from the standard as it relates to the white women workers, it has been necessary to give especial attention to Negro women workers as representing almost a special class. The survey covers 10,328 white and 843 Negro women. The number of Negroes is small both because this was not intended as a study of Negroes, and because relatively few Negro women are employed in industry. This is true in spite of the fact that there are over twice as many Negro women working as white.

South Carolina is a backward state in regard to hour legislation for women and white workers suffer in this respect as much as the Negroes. The significant differences are found in wages. The state has nothing approaching a minimum wage law, and in the words of the report: "The results of extensive underpayment of large groups of women with the lowering of the standard of

living below the level not only of comfort but of health itself and the elimination of all chance of saving or providing for the future, can not be too strongly emphasized."

The work in the mills is divided into "time" and "piece" work and while three-fourths of the white women are piece-workers, nearly three-fourths of the Negro workers are on time work. The median weekly wage for the white workers was $9.50; for the Negro workers, $5.80. The highest wage for white workers was $15.50; for Negro workers, $6.25. The lowest wage for white workers was $7.60; for Negro workers, $4.85.

The 843 Negro women included were found chiefly in three industries—35.8 per cent in cigar manufacturing, 28.8 per cent in cotton goods manufacturing, and 27 per cent in laundries. The importance of female Negro labor in these industries, however, differed exceedingly. In cotton goods manufacturing the Negro women who were employed as sweepers and cleaners constituted only 0.9 per cent of the total number of employees and only 2.6 per cent of the total number of women. In laundries, on the other hand, the Negro women predominated, since they formed 61.8 per cent of all the employees and 89.4 per cent of all the women. Cigar manufacturing occupied a middle ground between these extremes, the Negro women comprising 42.4 per cent of the total working force and 48.2 per cent of all the women. No Negro women were engaged in printing or publishing. In all the other industries with

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the exception of knit goods manufacturing, which
showed 8.1 per cent of the women to be Negroes,
the number and proportion of such workers was
so small as to indicate that they were employed only
in the capacity of cleaners or matrons in charge
of service rooms.

Usually where there is wage discrimination the
white and Negro workers are simply employed on
different grades of work and the difference is not
so flagrant. But in South Carolina Negro workers
are paid considerably lower wages while engaged
on the same processes and for the same hours. It

is assumed that their work will be of a lower grade
and they are given a lower wage scale. The re-
port shows that the median earnings of these Ne-
gro workers were not unduly lowered by a large
amount of lost time. In a number of cases the
yearly earnings of the two groups were computed.
In round numbers, the Negro workers received 47
per cent less than the white workers. Such
emphasis as is placed by the government report
on the inadequacy of wages for white workers
may with propriety be taken even more strongly
for the Negro workers with their smaller earnings
and discouragingly limited industrial opportunities.

Walter von Ruckteschell

By LOUISE HERRICK WALL

NO one can study the series of drawings of African life by Walter von Ruckteschell, of which the frontispiece of this number of *Opportunity* is one, without the question forming itself in his mind, "By what evolution of art, or through what personal experience, did this deep understanding of the inner springs of African character come to a European painter?"

From his father, Baron von Ruckteschell, the
son inherited a vigorous type of idealism. The
father, a Protestant missionary to Russia, had
barely escaped exile to Siberia, through the inter-
cession of a Protestant princess at the court of the
Czar, because he persisted in administering the
communion of his faith, in spite of warnings from
the authorities. The sentence was finally com-
muted to banishment, and from Russia the pastor
took his family to Hamburg. Here he built up a
great church, which he conducted with fearless
eloquence. He died at fifty-seven, of cancer,
nursed untiringly by his son. The people of his
church, hundreds of them, came to him day by
day for advice and guidance, during the two years
when he "sat like a great prophet" and spoke to
them of the realities of life. For two years,
wrung with incessant pain, he lived for his work,
and then died.

The heritage that came to the son was the be-
lief that a man must seek for the truth that satis-
fies his conscience and express it to other men,
without fear or favor.

From Hamburg, and the *prestige* of his father's
connections there, the son had passed through the
harsh discipline of uncongenial military training
and from that into the Munich Art School. He
learned what the school could teach of technical
methods, but smooth conformity to a realistic imi-
tation of nature did not satisfy a growing desire
for a deeper and simpler means of expression. He
was distressed by meaningless detail, he desired
greater breadth, both of subject and of treatment.
In the wide horizons of the Alps he came to find
a subject that for a time satisfied his craving for

a great world of simple forms. He went to the
Engadine each year and drew and painted, living
austerely and engrossed in his work. On his re-
turn he held exhibitions of his large canvases,
selling many, so that he came to be widely known
as a painter of mountain landscape. In the mean-
time he had married a young Swiss artist, a friend
of his art-school days, who had become a sculptor
and potter of distinction. Together they painted
and modeled for exhibitions of their work, in gal-
leries where they were the only exhibitors.

In the poignantly simple English, which von
Ruckteschell has learned to speak, he told of one
of their early climbs in search of a wider sky-
line. At evening they reached St. Moritz, and
one of the hotels where the world, to which both
had been born, but which they had come to dread,
plays at pleasure. The place was full of over-
dressed, over-fed people. Up there, unabashed by
the great sweeps of cloud, and mountain stillness,
was all the sophistication of the cities. "The
clean air was thick with perfumes from ladies'
dressing-tables," he said. "We looked at each other.
We could not bear it. For one night we must
stay, but the next day we hurried on to the other
side of the mountain. I saw a great light sky,
yellow and white, strong, simple lines. It was the
widest horizon we had yet seen. Here, in soli-
tude, we painted."

As a result of von Ruckteschell's reputation as
an Alpine painter, the offer came to him to go to
East Africa, for one of the large steamship com-
panies, and paint for them the almost unexplored
heights of Kilimanjaro, the tallest mountain of
the African continent, that rises about 20,000 feet
above sea-level, its lower dome above the heads of
some of the famous peaks of the Alps. At that
time only three men had made the ascent. Von
Ruckteschell and his wife were the fourth and
fifth persons to climb the last peak, and enter the
vast blue-green, ice-bound crater. His paintings of
this mountain are curious, symbolistic canvases,
imaginative and turbulent, with rolling masses of

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mist and cloud, thunderous purples and deep blues,
with black cleavages of rock below. The painter
seemed to be groping with elemental chaos to bring
the terrific mass of the mountain into being.

This journey of hardship and peril, shared by a
native helper, was the beginning of his friendship
for the people he came to speak of as "our natives."
He later drew the frowning warriors, stepping out
with "the pride of war"; the porters; the "boys";
and the women, in all the simple occupations of
home-making. In speaking of the first weeks of his
dawning interest in the alien culture of Africa,
he said, "My wife would gather the women with
their babies around our hut of grass. There they
would sit, and their babies, sometimes of one or
two years, always drinking. My wife told me
to look."

"They are ugly," I said. "I see nothing to
paint."

"Wait," she said, "wait."

"Then I watched, and after a time my hand
began to move carelessly, in wide, loose lines. I
looked always at them, thinking of them, and noth-
ing of technique, and always I saw more deeply.
They are Mahometans and they have a family
love and a piety not like ours. The women are
more mothers than your women, or ours. When
a young wife has her child she gives herself to it.
She is no longer the wife of her husband. They
remain full of kindness for each other, but if he
has money he takes a second wife. She has not an
hour, or two, or three for her child—everything is
for the child, she belongs to him."

This curious and passionate concentration of the
mother on her motherhood is shown in the tragic
absorption of the faces that von Ruckteschell came
to carve and paint, recalling to him the *pietas* he
had painted for the churches of Westphalia, whose
altars he had decorated. Again and again he
painted the child "drinking," as he says, at the
mother's breast. As the prematurely saddened face
yearns down at the tropic-born softness of the
child, one is made to realize all the sacrifice and all
the fears of motherhood as they have rarely been
painted. Looking at the relaxed little body pressed
against hers, one is stabbed with the sense of the
terrors of motherhood in a tropical land where a
fly from the jungle may bring death, or a breath of
fever puff out the small flame.

It is not strange that from long brooding on this
half-sacramental devotion, the golden ring of a
slender halo has come to shine above some of the
heads in von Ruckteschell's drawings of child and
mother, or that, immersed in observation of a life
stripped to the simplest human relations, he re-
jected, as artificial, his technical adroitness for a
manner as naive as the thing he expressed. In
speaking of his search for the one line that should
tell all, he said, "I drew in many lines, and then
traced and retraced, putting aside what was not
necessary, until I left the line that speaks."

There is such an illustration of his in General
Lettow's book on the African campaign. It is a

line drawing, a mere strong outline of black on
white, of several stripped porters with burdens
on their heads. He has so rendered the steady
rhythm of a countless file of men, in these few
lean, naked bodies, that the monotonous swing
seems that of an endless company. All those
that went before, and all the long line behind, are
given in the extraordinary rhythm of these few that
pass across his page.

In the lithographs of African heads, the artist
returns to the more detailed technique of his ear-
lier manner. The many-patterned headdresses, the
wrought shell ear-ornaments, the polished surface of
the skin, or the little hairs of an eyebrow are in-
dicated, but always the inner truth of character
lies beneath the outer circumstance. It is how
his subjects feel and think that arrests the attention.
In the portfolio of lithographs the dreamy beauty
of *Penda-Penda*—whose name means "I love to
love"—so unlike our notion of beauty, is yet so
consistent with itself, so infused with a sense of
harmonious life, that it lightly transcends our tra-
ditional code of beauty and delights by the vital
force that flows so strongly in this young and
ardent woman. The loyal gentleness of *Kalambo*
or *Hassan Bilial* makes one say "What a lovely
person," for in depicting these faces the painter
has not thought of types, but of men. "What
comes from the heart goes to the heart," is his
phrase. Emotion has directed what he paints, a
reverent sense of the sublimity of nature in her
grave aspects, compassion for helplessness, delight
in the creature caught up in the sweep of life in
rich and simple harmony with itself, these stir the
emotions from which his creative impulse flows.

Before the African groups of man, woman and
child there comes a new sense of the instinctive
depth of the human bond. Saddened by a foretaste
of coming change, these close-knit, undemonstrat-
tive groups are held silently in a knot of elemental
nature. The oneness of mother and child or the
almost wordless talk of lovers, sitting together with
heads lifted and tense throats, is poetry at its sim-
plest. To study them is to be prepared for the
artist's protest against what Europe is doing to
Africa. "They have a culture of their own, and
we are destroying it. They lived in their grass
huts with few wants; they have their music, the
drama of their dance, their binding ties, and their
pious customs, and we are teaching them our many
wants, our harassing needs. We are destroying
their culture."

This is the background of the feeling that has
inspired the drawings of Walter von Ruckteschell.
Once in speaking of Africa to him I spoke of "the
mask of an unfamiliar physiognomy." He caught
up my phrase and tossed it angrily, "Mask!" he
cried. "You should see the natives bathing in
their great blue-green rivers, the blue-green trees
coming down around them, all in amber and brown,
and one white man bathing with them—blue-white,
sickly, ach! The ugly white mask, it is we who
wear it."

MAY, 1924

OPPORTUNITY

# Over-Age Negro Children

*A Brief Study Conducted in a New York School*

By WALTER R. CHIVERS and
MABEL E. BICKFORD

AT SOME time during the scholastic year of 1922-23 a group of students, under the direction of Dr. Pintner of Columbia University, subjected two hundred and forty children, who were over age for their grade placement, to educational group tests. The final analysis revealed that only twelve of this class registered normal I. Q.'s.

The Director of the Bureau of Children's Guidance decided that it would be a valuable study to subject a number of these students to individual examinations and also make personality studies of each child examined. The mental tests were conducted according to the formula of the Terman Standford Revision of the Binet-Simon Intelligence Scale and the personality studies were developed along lines outlined by a questionnaire that the Director has constructed from his exhaustive studies of children. The identical group was selected to ascertain what relation retardation bore to inadequate recreational facilities and general community disorganization. This study was assigned to two students of the New York School of Social Work —one from the Department of Community Organization and the other from the Department of Mental Hygiene. A review of one hundred of these cases revealed that only twenty-five were outstanding recreational problems and that eleven of this twenty-five were of inferior mental capacity. The most intensive efforts were, therefore, centered on this group.

These investigators appreciated their assignments because the majority of those studied were members of their own particular group of American citizens. It is their opinion that Negro mental examiners and social investigators understand the emotional reactions of their people, can establish a more satisfactory rapport with them, and interpret their lives more nearly accurate than any other group of Americans. This opinion is advanced because to some extent practically all Negroes have inherited identical traditions and have evolved through similar environmental settings in their strivings for intellectual attainment, culture, and even the more simple demands of life.

## Description

The neighborhood is composed, almost one hundred per cent, of American and West Indian Negroes. It is both a business and residential district, which makes for congested living condi-

tions. Within this area are about ten motion picture theaters, eleven major cabarets, at least three large dance halls, numerous billiard parlors, and near beer saloons—these comprise the commercial recreation. One park is in the vicinity of the school and seven play blocks. There are four organizations doing club work among boys, namely, the Y.M.C.A., Boy Scouts, New York City Missions, and Children's Aid Society. Only the Y.W.C.A. is doing energetic work among girls.

This school is primarily for boys, having only three grades to which girls are admitted. The constructive work that is being done in either school or community that points definitely towards fitting these young people to meet the essential requirements of law abiding society is limited but encouraging. The efforts towards this end that are being made by the school may be enumerated thus: (1) pupils are rewarded for good conduct and leadership by being made patrols and given badges that designate them as such; (2) the school nurse, a woman of long experience and conscientious about her duties, is getting good results from her work; (3) the earnest and sincere efforts of the vocational counsellor—an eminently well prepared person, who tries to make advice of the kind that will give each boy the most healthy vocational adjustment; (4) personal interest of some of the teachers, who although handicapped by large enrollments try to study each pupil and give special attention to his peculiar difficulties—they also work with the group by trying to instil in them the fundamental principles of pride in self, school, nation and race and stress the value of a most unique chart on the fundamentals of etiquette that has been prepared by the principal; (5) athletic contests.

The study was centered on the psychiatric issues probably involved in the general poor showing on Dr. Pintner's study. This made it necessary to analyze the physical conditions, mental attitudes, educational and vocational adjustments and capabilities, and social backgrounds. The general psychiatric impressions were gained from an analysis of intellectual traits, ideational, emotional, sexual trends and the like, paying particular attention to the reflection in the physiological structure of the stage of evolution of adjustment of instinctive traits.

## Physical

The general physical condition in this group is poor. It would consume entirely too much space to attempt to elaborate on this to its fullest extent. Mention will be made of just enough of

All names used are anonymous.

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the causes as are sufficient for demonstration. Nutrition on a whole is very poor. Parents do not have time to prepare breakfast before leaving home in the morning and the children are left to get their own meals or go to school hungry. In far too numerous cases they do the latter. They are given a few nickels with which to buy lunch and as a rule this is spent for cheap candies, pies, ice cream, hot dogs, et cetera. On certain days when their favorite "serial" is running at the movie palace this lunch money goes for the show. Defective vision and dentition are perceptible in many of these chaps. The parents do not have time to attend to these defects and the children cannot be depended upon to do so. Quite a few of these boys have been the victims of injuries in all parts of the body, reaching from head to foot, of a more or less serious nature and too often the only treatment has been some favorite "cure-all" family remedy vouched for by its "guarantee." As a result, it is found that many of these children are now complaining of headaches in cases where there has been a head injury and backaches in cases where there has been an injured back. In spite of expert medical advice and a pleading nurse, many parents refuse to give permission for the removal of their children's tonsils and adenoids because they are the "handiwork" of God and it is "sinful" to operate on them.

The pregnancy of one mother was upset by a fall. The pre-natal conditions of the others were evidently healthy and without event. Birth and labor in all cases were reported normal. The children were apparently conceived in good condition. Once or twice there were noted cases of nail biting or eneuresis developed either in infancy or within the first eight years. On the whole there were no outstanding problems of infancy or indicators of future personality difficulties.

## Mental

Under existing conditions it is extremely difficult, to say the least, to gain a fair estimate of the mental make-up of this group because of the disorganized home-life, malnutrition, non-cooperation of parents with school nurse and doctor (as, for instance, the refusal to have tonsils and adenoids removed), general lack of interest of the more fortunate members of the group, and a great deal of unmorality. Immorality is not encountered as frequently as might be thought but is often confused with unmorality. The above factors contribute to low I. Q.'s. The I. Q.'s. of the eleven boys range from .59 to .81,—which means that they stretch from the definitely feeble-minded to dull-minded types. Two other chaps were so neurotic until it was impracticable to test them. It is quite significant, however, to note that in spite of similar contributing causes the unfavorable reactions of the remaining eighty-seven to the educational group tests were not due to a lack

of native intelligence. But most probably to the following reasons: (1) that most of them have come from the southern part of the United States since the great world war ended—in a number of cases they had not previously attended school, or inferior ones; (2) there was a natural self-consciousness caused by the sudden change of environment; (3) for those who had had some scholastic contact, the readjustment to a superior system of grading has been most difficult.

They have made commendable intellectual strides and are credited with good conduct records. Just to cite some concrete examples of poor reactions to educational tests, late entrance and consequent adjustment the following instances are set forth:

John Jones, group L.Q. .66, chronological age 17 years; came to the U.S. from Bermuda; entered grade 4a in September, 1919; has now completed 8b.

Melville Jenkins, group I.Q. .55, chronological age 15 years; came to the U.S. from Panama; entered school January 3, 1922, in grade opp. 3b; is now in 6a; general average for the entire period is B plus in conduct and work.

Clifford Andrews, group I.Q. .45, age 16 years; entered school September 11, 1922, in grade opp. 2b; is now in 4a; general average for the entire period is B in conduct and work.

## Educational and Vocational

The over-age child in the grade is a misfit. He is physically and emotionally older than his classmates, which makes their company less desirable; he is educationally inferior to the normally placed child of his age, which makes their company less desirable. Consequently he is likely to withdraw himself from these irritating contacts, grow more and more self-conscious, and finally develop a deep-seated inferiority complex. He, too often, attempts to compensate for this deficiency by anti-social attacks upon his environment. One sees such children becoming nuisances to the classroom. Teachers often promote or demote them in order to be ridded of their upsetting influences. The average over-age chap soon becomes disinterested in educational efforts of a literary type. At present nothing is being done, in this particular district, to counteract this feeling, which grows until school is given up in disgust. For instance, if such a chap happens to be below the sixth grade not even pre-vocational opportunities are open to him. Such an opportunity would furnish some idea of organized work and tend to create a concrete interest in preparation for a livelihood.

The several teachers, with whom more or less intimate contact was established during the course of this study, seemed anxious about their unfortunate proteges and were trying hard to devise methods by which they might become interested and stimulated. With one exception these teachers have failed completely to recognize the un-

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natural and embarrassing position of these boys. They feel that these children should give normal intellectual response but that they are just lazy. Working on this premise their methods, in most instances, have only served to irritate the children and even caused occasional unnecessary explosion.

## Social

Our subjects hailed from various kinds of home settings. One boy's home bore all the mechanics of an ideal home life—it was tastily furnished, neat, well lighted, airy, and in a first class neighborhood. Another lived in a first floor apartment of five rooms, in an undesirable neighborhood. It was unkempt, poorly furnished, dark and stuffy; it was occupied by fourteen people—consisting of mother, father, eight children and four grandchildren. Still another lived in a home supervised by a religious fanatic. This chap would not play with other boys for fear that he might get into a fight and he has been taught that fighting is sinful.

Most of these boys are a more or less courageous and manly set, far more frank than would ordinarily be expected. They have been pitifully deprived of the companionship of their parents by the constant economic urge. They seem happy for an opportunity to talk out their problems with sympathetic persons. One boy has found a mother substitute in his teacher. The following observations were made in several cases and are probably typical, namely: (1) that the parents do not trust their children—one chap says, “When I tell my mother the truth she says that I am lying, and when I tell her a lie she says that I am lying, so I just lie to her”; (2) that parents do not care to be bothered with children's stories; (3) that the methods of punishment are so severe until the children are in constant fear of their parents and the consequences that might come from frank admissions of wrong-doing.

Being left for the most part to shape their own lives, our subjects have over developed the tendency to be amused and along lines that are bound to make them anti-social mature persons. They can

be seen in the questionable dance halls, pool rooms, cheap movies, loitering on the street corners. One hears of various unhealthy gang interests that are as thrilling as many of the "Art Acord" film dramas.

Our subjects are for the most part physically cheerful and active. They are intensely interested in athletics of various sorts and some of them have outstanding athletic records. Most of them are ambitious to become mechanics of some kind. It is highly probable that nearly all might achieve some success as mechanics (practical) if given the right brand of encouragement now.

## Conclusion

Most of the boys handled will soon leave school, either because they have expended their intellectual energy, general disinterestedness, or poor economic status. The ultimate adjustment of these future citizens of this thickly populated district is up to the school and community. The school must so arrange its curriculum as to meet the immediate needs of these unfortunate youth. It is almost impossible to conceive of even the most ambitious of them ever advancing further than graduation from public school. This is why it is felt that the school might serve them best by so altering its program as to fit them for outside responsibilities. The big need is pre-vocational classes.

The more intelligent members of the community must take these ignorant migrant families into their care and school them in the ways of adjusting themselves, economically, socially, and physically.

Let us conclude this article with two quotations from Mrs. Elise Johnson McDougald, Vocational Counsellor, Board of Education, New York City. "This tragic situation in the educational system of the South is reflected in the almost insurmountable handicap met by the migrant youth when he enters the northern public schools.—This forced neglect of the home during the day necessitates undue freedom for the children and lack of care as to feeding, recreation, and discipline."

## Down Mobile Way

By ANNA S. L. BROWN

DO WORDS fail? Yes, often! Words strong enough adequately to measure the influence of Tuskegee Institute, through its effects on the lives and in the work of those who have gone out from its doors, do fail to come even to an enthusiast. With unbounded faith in the successful development of character and efficiency in the students of that Institute, it is stimulating to discover, far from the "maddening crowd," in an out-of-the-way, lovely, quiet corner, almost unknown, unwritten of, but well appreciated lo-

cally, a group of devoted souls, one time Tuskegee Institute students, directly applying in principle and method to others of their people that which made life worth while to themselves; their joy and enthusiasm in service, in leading others into thinking, working, successful groups of efficient citizens is beyond words.

## Where They May be Found

And so, in Baldwin County, Alabama—on the very shores of Mobile Bay, near the quaint old

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Community Gathering

town of Daphne, ten miles from the single tax
colony of Fairhope, thirty miles from the near-
est railroad on that side of the bay, an hour and
a half by boat across the bay from Mobile, on
one of the best State roads in southern Ala-
bama,—you will find the Eastern Shore Indus-
trial School. High on the bluff, with a beauti-
ful gulf view, a gulf breeze tempering the warmer
days and the Gulf stream softening the cooler
ones, with a soil that produces crops twelve months
in the year, the blessing that location brings to
this little school makes it an ideal spot in which
to train boys and girls into useful citizenship.

From 1889 until a few years ago, ministers and
laymen of Baptist churches endeavored to found
and carry on a denominational school. In 1894
the Association purchased eighteen acres and
erected one small building. The work of financ-
ing the school was very irregular and never quite
successful. From the very beginning to the pres-
ent day, Rev. S. C. Bracy has been a devoted
member of the board. He has lived to see a
realization of his hopes fulfilled, even though
through a different channel from that first plan.
When "training schools" first began to function
in Alabama, the State Supervisor and the County
Superintendent of Baldwin County visited this
school. The efforts that had been put forth, the
needs of the community, the favorable location
and evident possibilities caused them to offer to
take over most of the financing of the school in the
name of the State. In appreciation of the ef-
forts of the colored people, the name of the
school was not changed but was made officially

the Eastern Shore Industrial School. In 1916
the site was deeded to the State, which has since
managed the school indirectly, in cooperation with
a strong local board of colored friends of the
school.

The school operates under a very unusual and
progressive environment. The State Normal
School (white) in Daphne, has a force that ad-
vises, cooperates, encourages, and helps in many
ways. President H. H. Holmes, of the State
Normal School, is one of the best friends the
Negroes of southern Alabama ever had. For
a half century the cry has been for better schools,
better living conditions, and a better religion.
Much has been accomplished. Kindly coopera-
tion, interest, and friendships are bringing a better
day to this community.

As From Tuskegee!

When one understands that of a faculty of
eight, seven obtained all or a part of their own
training and education at Tuskegee Institute, one
can appreciate the spirit at the Eastern Shore
Industrial School. Since 1916 Mr. Ligon A. Wil-
son has been the principal of the school. His wife
assists in the Intermediate Department. Mr. E.
H. Whiting, the Assistant Principal, teaches the
grammar grades. Mr. R. T. Thurston is the
(Smith-Hughes) Vocational Director of Agricul-
ture. Miss Bennie Ware is Boys' Matron and
Home-Making Instructor. Miss Virginia Tunstall
is Dean of Girls, and teaches the primary grades.
Mrs. Ida Taylor teaches the high school sub-

MAY, 1924

OPPORTUNITY

May Day

jects and is school pianist. Mrs. Mary Lawson is school secretary and bookkeeper. While the county officials and supervisors are attentive and interested, the keenly active and interested original board of local people is constantly on the alert to strengthen the school.

## Some Features, Physical and Otherwise

Since the property has been under State management, $15,000 has been spent on grounds and buildings. Since most of the labor is furnished by those at the school, the amount expended makes a good showing. Of the amount spent, $5,000 came from the General Education Fund; $4,000 from the County Board; $800 from the Rosenwald Fund; $500 from the Slater Fund; and $1,000 from the State. All other necessary funds have been raised by friends and the local board. The budget for 1922-23 was about $6,000.

An Administration Building houses the offices and academic class rooms. The upper floor can be opened up as an assembly room when so desired. The Domestic Science and Girls' Dormitory is a building similar but newer and somewhat better than the Administration Building. Back of the latter, the first building erected on the site, somewhat remodeled, serves as the Boys' Dormitory, with space devoted to other necessary work of the school. A model barn was recently erected with student labor supervised by the Vocational Director. It was to be the model barn in the community. Though handicapped by lack of funds to complete it they hoped to have

a sweet potato curing-room, corn storage, incubator room, tool room, harness room, and provisions for caring for one horse and one cow. The Manual Training Building, though small, serves splendidly. Appreciating their opportunities, making the most of the meagre equipment all through the plant, having faith in growing facilities, observing direct application in and about homes in the community of all they were trying to teach the young people, a more cheery, joyous faculty and student body than at the Eastern Shore Industrial School you would travel far and wide to find. Looking and lifting up. Cheero!

## What the School Does

The school aims to reach every boy and girl in and near Baldwin County, Ala. Those who come from far off places are boarded in the school at nominal cost. Most of the student body live in the community. The farm, now about twenty-five acres, is intensively worked to supply the school needs. All work about the farm and school is done in the line of industrial training. The Vocational Director is on duty twelve months in the year. Trade work follows progressive farming, as operating buildings, caring for implements, farm produce, tools, etc., offer many side lines of work. Girls above the fifth grade have the Home Making course. They are taught to prepare foods economically, to buy food and clothing economically and suitably, to remodel garments, and to make the best use of all that

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comes to their hands. Boys and girls are taught all that is involved in clean thinking, clean living, and better community life as well as to maintain clean, happy, healthy homes. As the course runs from primary grades through the twelfth year, when desired, it runs a two year teacher training course for those who are to go into the community and in places where educational advantages had not been possible. Very earnest effort goes into this phase of the work. All grades have physical exercises, songs, and games. A young man who served in France is on the staff and he adds some military tactics to the physical exercises.

## Some Special Joys

Every January a "Baldwin County School Fair and Farmers' Conference" is held at this school, the activities extending over several days. It is always a memorable, joyous, profitable occasion, and an event in school and community life. The most recent improvement at the Eastern Shore Industrial School is a Delco System, with all the work done by the school and everything in readiness for expansion when funds are found to carry on. The school has a well chosen library, mostly the gift of friends; a collection of reprints of many famous pictures and some current periodicals,

all of which are sent in by the "friendly" route. The school needs more books, playground equipment, more facilities to teach hand craft. But the greatest need is a water system. A water tower has been erected, for somehow these people know that their needs will sooner or later be met. Their lamps are trimmed and burning!

Administration Building

## Through Example

Across the road the principal has a very modern, cozy home of his very own. A fruit grove at the side, flowers in front, a garden, a neat yard, and by right living and correct home making, his place has been an inspiration to the whole community. Seeing is believing and desiring when the sight is good, and makes for comfort and happiness. The school buildings stand well back in a grove of pines. To the south a well drained open tract offers splendid possibilities for an orange grove and intensive gardening. The satsuma orange and grapefruit grow especially well in this locality. With funds to develop a citrus grove and extensive gardening, the school could develop an income to devote to the expansion of all its departments for boats daily to Mobile offer ready and cheap marketing of produce.

## And So!

Where faith in their future runs high; where enthusiasms run ahead; where work well done speaks on every side; where optimism is in the air; where the beauty of service is the supreme motive,—this potential "Tuskegee" is showing by example what a rightly directed education can accomplish in this or any similar community. A few

years show wonderful achievement. Great possibilities and dreams await fulfillment. Do words fail? Yes, often! But have I succeeded in projecting a view of the Eastern Shore Industrial School that is convincing of its promise? Here's hoping! Let's go to Daphne, down Mobile way, and see ahead at the Eastern Shore Industrial School.

## Who's Who

Dr. Alain Locke is a Professor of Social Philosophy at Howard University.

Paul Guillaume is the leading authority on Primitive African Art and a sponsor of the modern art movement. He lives in Paris.

Dr. Albert C. Barnes is an American art connoisseur, founder of the Barnes Foundation, and leading American authority on Negro art.

Carl Van Doren is the editor of the *Century* magazine.

Walter R. Chivers and Mabel Bickford are post-graduate students at the New York School of Social Work.

Louise Herrick Wall is a writer and secretary of the group interested in raising a fund for carving the "Altar of Good Will," designed by Walter von Ruckteschell.

MAY, 1924

OPPORTUNITY

155

INTER-RACIAL FORUM

Compiled by MADELINE G. ALLISON

HARRY T. BURLEIGH, in the *New York Times*: "I hope to make my greatest reputation as an arranger of Negro spirituals. In them my race has pure gold and they should be taken as the Negro's contribution to art."

In the Haverhill, Mass., *Gazette*, the Rev. Louis E. Ford says: "While the Negro has been emancipated from bondage, he is still seeking freedom,— freedom from those evils which prevent him from enjoying full citizenship. . . . There should not be one law for the white man and one for the Negro. The same things will elevate the Negro that will elevate any race."

The Fall River, Mass., *Globe*: "The leaders of this and other countries are recognizing today that the youths of their countries are in revolt against the old order of things. This is particularly true of war, industrial imperialism, race prejudice, and similar other practices. It does not make any difference whether older men like this revolt of youth or not, and no matter how much they may fight against it, this youth movement is increasing in numbers and power in America and all other countries."

Mayor Curley in the Boston, Mass., *Transcript*: "I have no fear as to the future of trial by jury in the South. Intelligent men of the South will be made to see that American citizens, irrespective of race or color, are entitled to equal rights through the industrial development of the North, with its ever-growing demand for labor, which offers a refuge and freedom from persecution to the black man of the South."

The Houston, Texas, *Informer*: "Character, not color nor family trees, should be and must be the determining factor in the development and perpetuity of any race or nation; and those who refuse to take this fact into consideration are simply building their house on the sand."

The Rev. S. David Turner in the Elizabeth, N. J., *Journal*: "It has been said that a people's genius is equipment for service. America is constituted of heterogeneous groups to be molded into a homogeneous unity, and as I see it, the Negro is in the melting-pot with all the rest and the product is to be an American. . . . Let us have the courage, heart, hope and faith of that Scotch poet who said, 'It is coming yet for a' that, that man to man the world o'er shall brothers be for a' that.'"

Clement Wood in the Cleveland, Ohio, *Times*: "When I say Chinaman you will probably think of a slinking, pig-tailed person. When I say Frenchman you think of a gesticulating little fellow with a small mustache. Thus, when I say Negro you immediately see in your mind a washerwoman or an elevator boy or some other menial. . . . We must alter the stereotyped forms so that when we consider the Negro we can at the moment think of some of the musicians, writers, and publicists who are Negroes."

In the Brooklyn, N. Y., *Times*, William H. Baldwin says: "The Negro is coming to our northern industrial centers not as a refugee but as a pioneer attracted by the opportunity to better himself. His introduction into our life is largely the same as that of the immigrant—through the factory and unskilled labor. He is needed by industry to fill the void created by our restrictive immigration problem; but if he is not understood and intelligently helped to adjust himself to our life, we shall soon be faced with a migrant problem every bit as serious as that developed by the immigrant. And failure to meet the Negro halfway will be all the more tragic because of his eagerness to do his part and become, as a loyal American, the best citizen possible."

Nannie Burroughs, speaking in Philadelphia, Pa., at the meeting of the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History: "Negroes are likely to be ashamed of slavery. Let me tell you that with all its vices and with all its crimes, we got more out of it than those who had us."

Abdu'l Baha: "When the racial elements of the American people unite in actual fellowship and accord, the lights of the oneness of humanity will shine, the day of eternal glory and bliss will dawn, the spirit of God encompass, and divine favors ascend."

The Kansas City, Mo., *Star*: "Negro migration, therefore, has not been a genuine detriment to the South, and has aided the Negro in that section. It has not led to racial violence in the cities to which the Negroes have gone in large numbers. On the other hand, it has directed to the whole question of race relations a degree of attention that has held considerable promise of future harmony and cooperation."

156

OPPORTUNITY

MAY, 1924

# POT POURRI

## Heroes

You can never tell who the heroes in this life
may be. They are discovered as occasions arise.
Woodfin of Kentucky and York of Tennessee
were all unknown to fame until circumstances
gave them the chance to show in what heroic
molds they were cast.

Woodfin and York are white; but a dispatch
from Aberdeen, Miss., tells of another story of
heroism, of brave and unselfish service wrapped
up in two black skins. The story goes that a man,
his wife, and 10-months' old baby were in an
automobile truck packed with their belongings,
which they were moving to a new home. When
they reached the James Street Canal, the driver
lost control of the car and it plunged into the
icy waters with all on board.

The day, it is said, was bitterly cold, with the
temperature far below the freezing point. It
seemed that the father, mother and child would all
drown and the waters close over them. Without
help there was no chance to survive. Two Negroes
—Ed Jones and William Drake—happened to be
walking down the road and witnessed the acci-
dent. Without a moment's hesitation these men
plunged into the stream and effected the rescue
of the three struggling forms in the water, who
were then brought to Aberdeen and given atten-
tion. That is all. The account ended there.
I do not know what, if anything, was done for the
Negroes, or if anybody praised them.

I am sure they have not been decorated for brav-
ery and were not met with brass bands and of-
fers of entertainment.

The names of these Negroes will probably never
be in the papers again.

They did not kill anybody—they saved some-
body.

No commander ordered them to do what they
did, and nobody was there to look on except the
helpless trio in the swirling waters.

But God looked down upon what these obscure
Negroes did, and Christ was near them when they
risked their own lives to save the lives of others.

It won't do, my friends, for us to hate or wrong
a race that can furnish heroes like this.

It won't do not to give it a chance—not to
help and encourage it.

Ed Jones and William Drake are black only
outside—they are all white within.

Their act was as fine as any that may be found
in any tale which has been told of heroic service.
Ed Jones and William Drake have hearts of
gold. They are gentlemen by right of what
they did.

Their titles are clear to respect and honor.

—Ex-Governor M. R. Patterson in the
Memphis, Tenn., COMMERCIAL APPEAL.

## At Columbia

Sooner or later it was inevitable that Colum-
bia University should be called upon to make such
a decision as seems to have been made through
Dean Hawkes with regard to the presence in a
school dormitory of an American Negro student.
It is remarkable that in what is perhaps the
largest university in America this issue has not
arisen sooner.

As it is, the more truly New England colleges,
such as Smith and Harvard, have had the op-
portunity to face this issue earlier and to make
precedents for fair and impartial dealing and even
they, in some cases, have suffered severe travail
in finding their decisions. Be it said, however,
to the credit of many of the smaller New England
colleges, that from the beginning the presence of
Negro students in all phases of school life has
been taken for granted. So in taking this action
Columbia will merely add itself to the number of
large American institutions that prefer to be fair
and just in a sense consistent with the philosophy
they teach rather than attempt to be consistent
with certain American traditions.

If Negroes come to Columbia, it is because
the exigencies of American life have caused them
to need the kind of training that Columbia of-
fers. The need of foreigners for this kind of
American university training is recognized by the
large funds available to the school for that pur-
pose. The need of Negroes, who have lived and
must continue to live under the increasingly com-
plex conditions of American life, is not so recog-
nized. Those who come make whatever sacrifices
are necessary, as do other Americans and many
foreign students. They ask no favors.

—W. A. Robinson in the
New York WORLD.

## Fair Play in Texas

Texas officers of the law deserve a lot of credit
for their temerity in stopping a lynching at Lufkin,
a little town in Angelina County, in the eastern
part of the big state. It was the same old story.
A Negro had been accused of the worst offense.
A mob had determined to break down the doors
of the county jail at Lufkin, drag out the victim
—yet untried—and string him up to a tree, hang
him, and then burn his body. The sheriff and
his deputies shot to kill when a mob attempted
to smash the doors of the jail and a force of
militia was promptly sent to quell the work of
the “best citizens,” so-called. All over the South
there has arisen a better conception of citizenship
and this conception is represented in the determina-
tion to enforce the law and to give even the poor-
est Negro a chance before the law, even at the
expense of hurting “good citizens” who seek to

MAY, 1924

OPPORTUNITY

157

place their own notion of justice before and above
the judgments of the courts.

The broader public opinion of the State of
Texas and of every other State in the Union
favors the protection of every accused person
from mob violence. It favors the severest repres-
sion of lynching attempts. The honor not only
of the people of Texas but of all America is in-
volved in the suppression of this hideous system.
Summary justice is awaited for this offender, if he
is guilty, and its prompt enforcement will be ap-
proved—but only after he is proved guilty before
the proper tribunal.

—Holyoke, Mass., TRANSCRIPT.

The Noon-day of Negro Labor

Despite sporadic unemployment here and there,
Negro labor has apparently become a solidified cer-
tainty in northern industry. In the language of
periods of time, this type of labor may be said to
be resting comfortably at noonday. The dawn
of the advent of Negro labor into an element of
America's production passed when the first ap-
preciable group of Negro workers advanced to a
skilled status in employment. The morning period,
full of doubts, fears, and misunderstandings, when
the question mark of "opportunity without sta-
bilized recognition" hung over the heads of Negro
laborers who by tens of thousands passed through
the employment gates, has finally yielded to an
opinion which admits, in fact affirms, that Negro
labor has made good.

Northern employers, slow to make a permanent
institution of the zealous, strong, intelligent col-
ored men who, at the call of demand, rapidly
grew into an efficient supply of ardent labor,
anxious to produce goods—American goods—
have placed the wreath of "Well Done" upon the
brow of these dusky workmen.

The experiment is over. The product is fin-
ished. The Negro craftsman is a reality. He is
a part of American industry. He is a spoke in
the wheel of American production. He must
not pass back to days of possibilities. Organiza-
tion claims to have issued him a card of welcome,
and his muscular form must be unequivocally ac-
cepted into every occupation in American industry.
That's the key to "One Hundred Per Cent
Americanism," and all American industrial insti-
tutions will recognize the key. Negro labor has
been an undeniable success.

—PRESTON NEWS SERVICE,
Pittsburgh, Pa.

SAM BELL

In the light of recent efforts to misrepresent the
attitude of the better class of southern whites
to the better class of southern blacks, we com-
mend to our readers everywhere a tribute paid
by James W. Austin, an Atlanta attorney, to Sam
Bell, a Negro—Uncle Sam, as he was known—
who had just died. Mr. Austin wrote:

A letter came to me today. It is from the
white-haired mistress of the old plantation home of
my boyhood, my mother. "Dear Son," she writes.
"Uncle Sam is dead—Sam Bell is dead and I want
you to write a tribute to him."

I sit in my office chair with the letter in my
hand and look out absently from the twelfth floor
of a skyscraper on the great city stretching out
before me. I hear the roar of the traffic in the
crowded streets below, but these sights and sounds
pass by unheeded. Memory is throwing on the
screen of my fancy a picture of the long ago.
I am a little freckled boy of seven, back again on
the old plantation, sitting on the kitchen steps un-
der the shade of the spreading mulberry in the
back yard, counting with nervous and eager fin-
gers a nest of partridge eggs, and glancing up
gratefully at "Uncle Sam" standing over me,
grinning with delight at my joy over the present
he has salvaged for me from the wheat field.
There are an even dozen of little eggs. Ranger,
my dog, is standing by, eyeing my booty wistfully
as I count my treasures.

Yes, there before me at the old South Carolina
home is "Uncle Sam," sturdy in build and frame
as a rock, with a heart as kind, as gentle, and as
steadfast as ever beat under any man's shirt,
whether that man be black or white.

And for more than fifty long years he was a
familiar figure around the "big house" on the farm,
as the great white oak in the front yard, and as
dependable and standing as straightup for right,
for truth, and in honesty as immovable.

South Carolina can boast of one ante-bellum crop
which never failed—gentlemen—gentlemen "to
the manner born." And a great host of them were
white and some were black; and black though his
skin, Sam Bell was "a South Carolina gentle-
man," instinctively refined, spontaneously courteous
and polite, in speech truthful, in conduct without
guile, in simplicity and humility a little child.

Can I write a tribute to Sam Bell? Can I
write a tribute to this faithful old servant and
friend of my father and mother, of their sons?
Yes; for I who knew this princely old Negro—
knew him as he was—can say of him that I have
known few men of nobler character, a character of
granite texture. I have known few men of finer
loyalty.

And his faith in the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the
Great Redeemer, never waned or wavered during
more than half a century of Christian life and
experience. Sam Bell's body goes back to mother
earth but his soul goes marching on, as I verily
believe, with the great company of the redeemed.
Baltimore, Md.,

MANUFACTURERS' RECORD.

158

OPPORTUNITY

MAY, 1924

BULLETIN BOARD

The performance of "Oedipus, King of Thebes," at Hampton Institute

AT HAMPTON INSTITUTE recently an audience of two thousand people witnessed a presentation of Gilbert Murray's translation of Sophocles' tragedy "Oedipus, King of Thebes," by students of the school. "Oedipus," supposed son of Polybus, king of Corinth, and elected king of Thebes, was played with deep insight and effectiveness by Andrew E. Jackson of Birmingham, Ala. "Jocasta," queen of Thebes, and widow of Laius, the late king, was played with feeling and intelligence by Emma B. Churchill of Baltimore, Md. The other principal characters were "Creon," Solomon H. Thompson, Jr., of Kansas City, Kan., "Tiresias," Olden L. Goode, Chattanooga, Tenn.; "Priest of Zeus," James D. Griffith, Uniontown, Pa.; "Stranger from Corinth," Henry L. Thurman, Cincinnati, Ohio; "Shepherd," James H. Jones, Boston, Mass.; "Messenger from the Palace," Herbert Hardwick, Savannah, Ga.; "Daughters of Oedipus," Hattie H. Winston, Hampton, Va., and Cornelia J. Reil, Portsmouth, Va.; "Leader of Chorus," Aubrey W. Pankey of Pittsburgh, Pa. Two thralls, Maurice L. Adams, Covington, Va., and Junius T. Langston, Whaleyville, Va., and two soldiers, David H. Jefferson, Bristol, Tenn., and C. Reynolds McNorton, Cambria, Va., gave vividness to the performance. The playing of John Knowles Paine's musical score "Oedipus Tyrannus" on the Frissell Memorial Organ, by Ernest H. Hays, of Hampton Institute, gave to the performance a deep spiritual quality. The officers of the Sophoclean Dramatic Club, which presented the play, are: Isaac O. White, Alexandria, Va., president; Henry L. Thurman, Cincinnati, Ohio, vice-president; James T. Massey, Summerville, S. C., recording secretary; Fate Davis, Laurens, S. C., corresponding secretary; LeRoy S. Smith, Orange, N. J., critic; James H. Jones, Boston, Mass., sergeant-at-arms. The committees follow: **Costume**—H. Lillian Calhoun, Greenville, S. C.; **Catherine V. Williams**, Ocala, Fla.; **Laura A. Jackson**, Columbia, S. C.; **Delma L. Holland**, Holland, Va. **Scenery**—Clarence R. Brooks, Baltimore, Md., William McK. King, **Cynthiana Ky.**; Maurice L. Adams, Covington, Va., **Asa C. Royston**, Eldorado, Ark. LeRoy S. Smith, Orange, N. J., served as publicity man-

ager, and D. Eugene Curry, Rehoboth Church, Va., as stage manager.

The article "The Recent Northward Migration of the Negro" by Dr. Joseph A. Hill, published in the April issue of *OPPORTUNITY*, was an address delivered at the conference of the American Sociological Society which met in Washington, D. C.

The Board of Trustees of Spelman Seminary in Atlanta, Ga., have changed the name of the institution to Spelman College, authorizing the equipment and curriculum for training its students in a full four-year college course and thus founding the first college for colored girls. The institution—a Baptist Home Mission school—was started 43 years ago by two New England teachers, Sophia B. Packard and Harriet E. Giles. Its first name was the Atlanta Baptist Female Seminary. In 1883 this was changed to Spelman Seminary, in memory of the parents of Mrs. John D. Rockefeller. Throughout her life Mrs. Rockefeller remained a friend of the institution, and this interest has been continued by her husband.

The 26th annual convention of the Negro National Educational Congress will meet in Philadelphia, Pa., June 16-21. Among the questions to be discussed is the provision of adequate employment for colored teachers.

The Utopia Neighborhood Club of New York City will hold its Tenth Annual Fashion Show at Madison Square Garden on Tuesday evening, May 6. A Fabrics' 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 this group of people is to establish in Harlem a child helping and recreation center. The general admission will be $1.00; reserved seats, $1.50. Tickets may be purchased through *Opportunity*.

John Baptist Ford at the age of 17 was a cotton picker in South Carolina and unable to read or write. Today he is porter-in-charge on the Winsted Express

MAY, 1924

OPPORTUNITY

159

of the New Haven Railroad and recently, on the in-
vitation of Prof. Malcolm Keir, he lectured before the
Amos Tuck School of Administration and Finance at
Dartmouth College. He is the father of three children,
one of whom—a 14 year old daughter—has won a gold
medal for scholarship in the public school.

On March 5, Frederick W. Wells entered Furnald Hall of Columbia University in New York City. His application had been made in the regular way, but these applications do not ask the race, color or religion of the applicant. When other resident students discovered that Mr. Wells was a colored men, a meeting of the Hall Committee was called by John B. Rucker and the committee voted to ask for his withdrawal. Marland Gale, Joseph Zavatt, and others protested; but it was not until after the burning of a cross on the campus that a majority of the students joined with them and the following resolution was drawn up:

We, the undersigned students of Furnald Hall, believe
that the recent action of the committee in passing a
resolution to request the removal of a Negro from the
dormitory was a movement contrary to the public
attitude of the majority of the resident body of Furnald
Hall; was contrary to the general sentiment, spirit, and
tradition of Columbia University, and should not have
been taken without previously consulting the interests
and wishes of the residents of the hall.

Therefore, we suggest that the committee retract the
resolution.

Mr. Wells is the only colored man in Furnald Hall; but a Hindu and two Chinese students have lived in the dormitory for some time without arousing comment. Mr. Wells, who is 25 years old, was educated in the public schools of Union City, Tenn.; after attending Wilberforce University in Xenia, Ohio, for two years, he matriculated at Ohio State University from which he was graduated; then he went to Yale University for a year and won the degree of Master of Arts. He is a member of the Charles Young Post of the American Legion. Dean Hawkes has taken the position that all objectors to Mr. Wells are at liberty to leave.

John Baptist Ford

Robert Shaw Wil-
kenson, a colored
senior at Dart-
mouth College, has
been elected to the
Phi Beta Kappa
Fraternity. He ex-
celled in scientific
subjects with the
exceptional general
average of 96.25
per cent.

An Intercollegiate Conference on "Negro-White Relationships" has been held at Woolman School in Swarthmore, Pa., under the auspices of the Bryn Mawr Liberal Club, Swarthmore Polity Club, and the University of Pennsylvania Forum. The subjects discussed

were "What Is the Negro Problem?" "Is Racial Dis-
crimination Warranted?" "What Is the Solution—
Amalgamation or Segregation?"

Mabel Bickford

In recognition of the wide and insistent demand for
leadership of character and ability, it is encouraging to
note the organization of The Inter-Collegiate Associa-
tion in New York. Assembled in November 1923, under
the inspiration of Miss Mabel Bickford, a graduate
of Howard and Chicago Universities, ten men and wo-
men met and formulated this preamble:

"To foster fellowship among students registered
in the schools of New York City, to form a nu-
cleus of acquaintanceship for students coming to
this city, and to bring back to New York students
some of the intimacies of campus life."

The Inter-Collegiate Association is making a very
definite contribution to the discussions now in progress
under the auspices of Student Volunteers where mixed
groups are holding numerous sessions extending over a
period of five weeks. The chief topics discussed in
these meetings are the student attitude on war, immi-
gration, industry, and inter-racial relationships. The
Inter-Collegiate Association has been holding special
group conferences with these topics for study in order
to attain results giving a consensus of opinion on at-
taining group thinking as well as gaining a wider
knowledge and fuller information on these subjects
and to enable its members to represent more certainly
their own group in these mixed meetings which are
of keen interest and real significance. Reports from the
mixed group discussions, as disclosed by students par-
ticipating, indicate a trend of liberal thinking that is
filled with hope for those who would see quickly the
day approach which brings true brotherhood to men.

In Columbus, Ohio, since 1900 the colored population
has increased from 5000 to 28,000 and the value of real
estate has grown from $1,000,000 to $10,000,000; personal
property is valued at $4,500,000. Fifty men are worth
$50,000 and over.

Among 20 physicians one is a woman; there are 11
dentists, 6 pharmacists, and 12 attorneys; 30 churches,
with a memership of 15,000 and property valued at
$1,500,000, and 100 business enterprises.

160

OPPORTUNITY

MAY, 1924

CORRESPONDENCE

Sir:

You might be interested in an incident, which I witnessed on the "W. B. & A." This rather well known electric railway, plying between Baltimore and Washington, with an inclusive short-line to Annapolis, has decidedly "Jim Crow" policies, curbed only by the law governing inter-state passengers. As a result there has been much friction, unpleasantness, and litigation; so much so that there are those for whom this particular means of transportation is taboo.

It was the time of the Shiners' convention in Washington, D. C., and very naturally, all the trains were crowded; therefore, upon returning home to Baltimore one evening I counted myself quite fortunate to secure a sole remaining seat beside another passenger. Directly across the aisle from me sat a well-dressed colored woman and beside her two small children.

My self-congratulatory feeling increased as at every stop made by the train on its way to the district line, the aisle filled more and more closely with men, women, and children. It was a tired but jolly crowd, eager to get home after a day's outing and cheerfully resigned to the conditions that made standing a necessity.

At the last stop within the district a colored couple boarded the train. The woman was very large, very dark, and very audibly disgusted with the crowded condition of the car and the consequent prospect of having to stand all the way from Washington to Baltimore. She pushed her grumbling way thru the aisle until she reached the middle of the car and then suddenly and unceremoniously plumped herself down on the arm of a seat occupied by two members of her sex, but *not* of her race.

Instantly there was indignant protest and a lively argument ensued with threats of appealing to the conductor and arrest on one hand, and vulgar vituperation and loud-voiced defiance on the other. Those within ear shot of the disturbance listened in interested silence, with expectant glances toward the door for the entrance of the conductor.

The young woman with the two children sat in the seat directly in front of the one whose arm was the subject of contention, and from the first I had noticed her concerned attention to the dispute behind her. Sudenly she turned around and said in a low tone,—

"That's not right; that's not fair. I wouldn't sit there if I were you."

"You mind yore own business. You ain't got no room to talk. Yore settin' down and yore two children what you ain't even paid for. Nobody with no sense would mind a lady settin' on the arm of their seat," was the heated retort.

An instant's hesitation—then the young woman quickly arose, stepped into the aisle and quietly said,—
"You may have my seat. I'll stand."

Altho plainly taken back, nevertheless the disputatious one slumped into the proffered seat and thereupon proceeded to inform the public at large how mean some folks are and how she would have had to stand had not the kind lady given her a seat. And cool, aloof, unnoticing, the "kind lady" stood to the end of the trip, apparently unmindful of the many curious glances directed toward her.

My own curiosity became so unmanageable, however, that upon arriving in Baltimore, I followed her at a discreet distance and took advantage of her pause upon a corner to await a trolley to accost her.

"Pray pardon this unwarrantable liberty," I said, "but I witnessed your action on the train and being an interested student of human nature, I am really eager to know just why you gave up your seat."

A pair of steady brown eyes gazed searchingly into mine for a moment, then a pleasant smile illumined her face as she answered.

"I think there are two reasons for that rather involuntary action of mine. In the first place, I didn't want that poor woman to get into trouble even tho it might be said she deserved it. You know, the same race that tries to keep us in ignorance, exacts a very stern penalty for the products of that same ignorance. And the 'W. B. & A.' has no great love for colored folk."

She paused a little and an amused tone crept into her voice.

"The second reason proceeded from my sense of fair play and good sportsmanship and the fun of it is, it reacted against my own self. As it was rather crudely brought home to me, I and my children were occupying the space for two persons when I had paid for but one—and that, too, while others, who had paid as much, were standing. In essence, that wasn't much fairer than that ignorant woman's action, of which I had the temerity to disapprove. And so, since I didn't want to hold both children on my lap, I had to square it with my conscience by standing myself. Living is interesting, isn't it?" With a smiling nod of farewell, she turned away.

As for me, I thoughtfully wended my way homeward, wondering once again why the popular notion still obtains that all colored people are alike.

L. A. L.

BRIDGEPORT, CONN.

Permit me to state that I thoroughly enjoy reading each issue of the magazine. I believe it fills a unique place in the field of social work and gives information one can get from no other source.

DOROTHY C. GUINN.

CHICAGO, ILL.

Could not do without OPPORTUNITY now. It keeps one abreast with the times and gives one an insight to the vital issues concerning the race.

ESTHER F. SCOTT.

ARKANSAS CITY, ARK.

Find enclosed draft for $1.50 to pay for OPPORTUNITY magazine. I am the mother of Edna Worthley Underwood. I want the February magazine so I can begin her article.

MRS. ALBERT WORTHLEY.

MONTREAL, CANADA

Our family is the only Negro family in this community, but that fact only seems to enhance our interest in what is going on among the dark races, particularly among those colored people to the South of us.

C. LIGHTFOOT ROMAN.

NEW YORK CITY

I consider your magazine a most dignified contribution to the problems with which it deals, and I am glad to increase my membership dues.

PAUL M. HERZOG.

CHICAGO, ILL.

If I have not paid for my subscription for 1924, this is to pay for it. If I have paid for it, then send it to someone else with my compliments for 1924.

EDGAR A. BANCROFT.

BROOKLYN, N. Y.

I have just received that five copies of OPPORTUNITY containing your article on "The Creative Art of the Negro." I am very much obliged to you. I shall send them abroad to various parts of Europe where I am sure they will be appreciated.

STEWART CULIN,
Curator, Brooklyn Museum.

FISK UNIVERSITY

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

*High School 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.

HAS NOW AN "A" COLLEGE RATED BY THE NORTH CAROLINA STATE DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION

Shaw University, which is co-educational, was founded in 1865 under the direction of the American Baptist Home Mission Society. It has always maintained the highest standards of scholarship and character. Thousands of young men and women graduates of the institution are filling responsible positions in almost every state in the union.

The departments are Academic (beginning second year), College, Business, Theological, and Missionary and Social Service.

Degrees given: B.A., B.S., and Th.B.
Terms reasonable. Send for catalogue.

Address

SHAW UNIVERSITY,

Raleigh, N. C.

## 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.

A Good School at Reasonable Rates

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

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

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
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

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

Fall Quarter September 26 and 27, 1924

Winter Quarter January 3, 1925

Spring Quarter March 14, 1925

For Catalogue and Information Write

F. D. WILKINSON, Registrar

Howard University Washington, D. C.

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

127 EAST 23rd STREET, NEW YORK, N. Y.

Telephone Gramercy 3978

WILLIAM H. BALDWIN
Secretary

A. S. FRISSELL
Treasurer

LESTER TAYLOR, Bus. Mgr.

VOL. 2

JUNE, 1924

No. 18

Contents

COVER.

REPRODUCTION FROM A PAINTING.

By William Edouard Scott

FRONTISPIECE. PAUL LAURENCE

DUNBAR

By William E. Braxton

THE RIGHT TO DIE. A Poem

By Paul Laurence Dunbar

EDITORIALS

163

THE SOUTH STUDIES THE MIGRANT IN
THE NORTH

A RACE PURITY LAW

THE NORTH CAROLINA MUTUAL

RESEARCH FOR PRIMITIVE AFRICAN ART

THE BUSINESS MEN'S TOUR OF THE
SOUTH

ARTICLES

THE RACIAL HYSTERIA

By Melville J. Herskovits

166

THE NEGRO IN ANGLO-SAXON LITERATURE

By J. Milton Sampson

168

THE PROGRAM OF THE YOUNG COLLEGE-BRED NEGRO

By Norman L. McGhee

172

HEALTH EDUCATION IN THE CANAL
ZONE

By Anna B. Towse
Illustrated

174

A CHOLO ROMANCE

By Eric D. Walrond

177

THE SPIRIT OF PHYLLIS WHEATLEY

By Montgomery Gregory

181

A NOTE ON NEGRO INDUSTRIAL PROBLEMS

By Gordon H. Simpson

182

THE MIGRATION: A SOUTHERN VIEW

By George J. Baldwin

183

THE MIGRATION: A NORTHERN VIEW

By Emmett J. Scott

184

SOME HAPPY RESULTS OF RACE CONTACTS

By L. Hollingsworth Wood

185

NOTES ON A TRIP WITH THE
BUSINESS MEN'S PARTY

186

INTER-RACIAL FORUM

189

POT POURRI

189

BULLETIN BOARD

192

"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.

(June 27, 1872—February 9, 1906)

The Right to Die

I HAVE no fancy for that ancient cant
That makes us masters of our destinies,
And not our lives, to hold or give them up
As will directs; I cannot, will not think
That men, the subtle worms, who plot and plan
And scheme and calculate with such shrewd wit,
Are such great blund'ring fools as not to know
When they have lived enough.

Men court not death

When there are sweets still left in life to taste.

Nor will a brave man choose to live when he,
Full deeply drunk of life, has reached the dregs,
And knows that now but bitterness remains.

He is the coward who, outfaced in this,
Fears the false goblins of another life.

I honor him who being much harassed
Drinks of sweet courage until drunk of it,—
Then seizing Death, reluctant, by the hand,
Leaps with him, fearless, to eternal peace.

OPPORTUNITY

VOL. 2

JUNE, 1924

No. 18

EDITORIALS

*The South Studies the Migrant in the North*

THE *Manufacturers' Record*, published in Baltimore, Maryland, carries in its issue of April 17 a summary of results obtained from a questionnaire about Negro migrants in the North sent out by the President of the Georgia Real Estate Association to the Chambers of Commerce of about fifty Northern cities. The situation was an ideal one for provoking replies untempered by charity. These results are remarkable for several instances of consistency on vital questions concerning the Negro's new tenure in the North. For example: on the question "As a laborer does the Negro give the same efficiency and consistent work as the whites?" fifteen out of twenty-seven who responded gave an unqualified "yes," six said "no," three were uncertain, two thought they gave the same efficiency if "supervised," while one qualified his assent by adding "to a certain extent." On the matter of buying homes the answers are guesses but it was stated from every city that they were, and those who were buying were referred to as the "better class." The highest percentage given for Negroes buying homes was 12. This was taken by the *Record* to mean that 88 per cent or thereabouts were floaters—clearly a non-sequitur. The percentage of all homes owned in New York City is only 12.7. This does not mean that 87.3 per cent of the population is floating, but that property values are largely beyond their reach. Only 27.0 per cent of all homes in Chicago are owned and these residents have, in general, lived there much longer than the Negro migrants.

Much has been made of the frequent assertions that property values decrease in the sections in which Negroes move. The fluctuations do not seem to follow any set rule. The circumstance of poor and undesirable location is given along with the fact that these values increased in Akron and decreased in Albany, N. Y.; increased in Detroit and decreased in Chicago; increased in Cleveland and decreased in Boston, Mass.

But most significant in these replies was the unsolicited information about the fundamental issues of the migration, which classes the higher wages of the North of less importance than the inferior working, living, and political conditions of the South. "Fundamentally," reads one report, "health

and sanitary conditions, housing conditions, educational facilities, business opportunities, and political conditions must be improved. When they are, the Negro is not going to be enticed away from a section of the country in which he prefers to live, by higher wages."

*A Race Purity Law*

BE IT ENACTED by the General Assembly of Virginia, That the State registrar of vital statistics may as soon as practicable after the taking effect of this act, prepare a form wherein the racial composition of any individual, as Caucasian, Negro, Mongolian, American Indian, Malay, or any mixture thereof, or any other non-Caucasian strains, and if there be any mixture, then the racial composition of the parents and other ancestors, in so far as ascertainable, so as to show in what generation such mixture occurred, may be certified by such individual, which form shall be known as a registration certificate . . .

It shall be a felony for any person wilfully or knowingly to make a registration certificate false as to color or race. The wilful making of a false registration or birth certificate shall be punishment by confinement in the penitentiary for one year . . .

It shall hereafter be unlawful for any white person in this state to marry any save a white person, or a person with no other admixture of blood than white and American Indian. For the purpose of this act the term "white person" shall apply only to a person who has no trace whatsoever of any blood other than Caucasian; but persons who have one sixteenth or less of blood of the American Indian and have no other non-Caucasic blood shall be deemed white persons . . .

Virginia's new law to preserve racial integrity is clearly a desperate measure,—a sort of frenzied closing of the proverbial barn door. Legislation, if it is right and proper now in the sight of God, was right and proper a hundred years ago, before the Virginians instituted their slave breeding farms, turned loose their lusts, and begat the images of themselves which now rise up to torment them. These ghosts of the past are real ones—shadowy and eerie, fearful, elusive and ubiquitous. Their statesmen, led on this ethnological crusade by John Powell, the musician and self-confessed Anglo-Saxon Messiah, will tell you that they "are faced now with a condition, not a theory." The theory is, of course, that Negro qualities will assert themselves in characteristic and distinctive ways; that any Southerner instinctively knows a person of Negro blood whatever the degree; that the races will not mix because of some mysterious instinct of repugnance. This is not working at present. The condition is that there are several

OPPORTUNITY

JUNE, 1924

thousand persons who are suspected of possessing an admixture of Negro blood, and who are receiving all the privileges of Anglo-Saxons. This should never be in Virginia. Further, there are children in the "white" schools who are suspected of being "colored." This is a colossal mistake. What is more, there are children of one father of many shades blending off through imperceptible graduations into the most unobjectionable white. Something must be done! And so a law is passed. This is the easiest and quickest manner of correcting a social condition. In thus removing the problem from gossip to law Virginia creates for herself a rather interesting situation.

At one stroke she determines that the "whites" of the State are a pure race, thus settling a problem that has troubled the students of race for centuries. Further, it is settled that they are Anglo-Saxons—pure mongrels so to speak, (this may be amended later to read "Nordics"); that one sixteenth Indian blood is white, one "nth" Negro blood is Negro. The subtle Virginians will look at the mulattoes and quadroons, the Terceroon Saltratas, and the quinteroons, castisses, postisses, the mestizes and tresalies, zambos and zambo-prietos, and the morisques, and put them in their place—no simple job. For if they are merely suspected now they will be merely suspected later and these "suspects" will doubtless be more careful when a bounty is placed on their heads.

The law forbids inter-marriage. This, of course, is nothing more than another hysterical assertion of the racial orthodoxy of the South. For the indeterminate children have, as a rule, little relation to this civil ceremony, and the law cannot touch a single one of those thousands of indistinguishable persons who are neither known nor suspected. The trick is to be done by birth certificates. This will probably trap a few who decide late in life to become "white," and then it can only be useful if the State creates a genealogical bureau. This, indeed, seems improbable, for the law provides no funds for this gigantic undertaking. By their plan, the persons who wish to keep their identity a secret are asked to pay a sum to have their family tree recorded. Should this bureau be established it will doubtless prove most useful to the pigmented and tanned Anglo-Saxons who will quite innocently fall under suspicion. The operation of this law will be watched with genuine interest.

## The North Carolina Mutual

ON THE first of April, 1924, the North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company celebrated its twenty-fifth anniversary. This was in itself a triumph. For the caprices of chance are never so persistently merciful to unsound ventures and mere trusting incompetence. The steady growth of the company to the status of an uncontestably sound financial institution is another and distinct triumph attributable to the business genius of a few honest and capable men.

The development of insurance is recapitulated in the life of this company—one of the oldest and the largest such Negro institution in the world. They started with little capital, and no experience in the perilous game of "out-figuring" the grim reaper. They took their risks from a population from which many of the large companies were shy-ing away in a panic of fright—a population that needed it most for its own sake, but one with an excessive mortality thrust upon it by the destructive play of their surroundings. Somewhere in their papers is the guiding motto of the first venture: "Merciful to All"—the founders had a philanthropic motive. A lawyer drew up their charter and their rates were borrowed. "We plodded along," said President C. C. Spaulding, "until the schools turned out folks suitable for business and we employed them." One look at the administrative personnel is convincing. They are young men—brisk, serious minded, and with ideas. Even the white hair and bare fifty years of President Spaulding are in a riot of disharmony with the boyishness of his face and the bounding enthusiasms of his youthful spirit. Said a young man to him, "You make me feel young again." J. M. Avery, once a ploughboy and now the Vice President and Secretary of this institution, is a builder and a dreamer. His face has the comfortable, reassuring set of honesty and strength. Less than twenty-five years ago his resources were something like seven cents.

There has been a many sided struggle in progress since the beginning of this company. It had to reestablish confidence among the Negroes themselves that had been tortured and almost ruined by the wily schemes of get-rich-quick adventures; it had to train a working force from the beginning in selecting risks and in conducting an insurance business; it had to protect itself against the inevitable hazards in the abnormal death-rate in the Southern Negro population; it had to begin a program of education for providence as well as health preservation. What they did for their business they were conscious of doing for the social welfare of the entire Negro population reached by them, and for other businesses operated by Negroes and supplying employment for their children. More than that, their capital has been used to protect the disadvantaged Negro businesses, churches and even individuals caught up in some sudden but harassing embarrassment. It has helped them buy homes and farms and to gain for themselves an economic foothold where it is needed both for protection and comfort.

This company is in position to accomplish even greater benefits for the health of Negroes and for their economic status, and what is most encouraging, they have sensed this possibility, constructed an ideal and are moving toward it. As evidence of this the company is establishing a Health Extension Institute. Such an agency adapted to the Negro population of the South can have but one effect—the further reduction of mortality.

JUNE, 1924

OPPORTUNITY

165

Research for Primitive African Art

THE ARTICLE on primitive African Art presented in the last issue approached this newly discovered field with appropriate caution. There is about this Art an inescapable power and impressiveness,—a vast promise of rich yields. But it is recognized that the values which sustain it at this stage of knowledge about it are purely emotional ones. It is being appreciated before it can be understood. And for this reason it is most in danger of being unwisely exploited before it flowers. Springing up as it did with such sudden magnificence out of a network of ethnological contradiction it calls for a violent remaking of carefully set concepts about Negro capacity before it can be intelligently treated. The sophomoric attempts of amateurs to give it significance according to their own meagre light have as often been damaging as helpful. What is most needed, as has been pointed out by Dr. A. C. Barnes, who probably knows it best, is deliberate research by students, preferably Negroes, who can do for this Art what the older scholars accomplished for Italian Art. If this is folk art there is a wealth of new material to be brought to light about Negro traits and capabilities. If there were old masters of this Art it ought to be possible to trace them, to mark with certainty the periods, and even to identify the stamp of the master's hand as Leonardo De Vinci's or Rembrandt's is known. The importance of such study is uncompromisingly expressed by Dr. Barnes in a note on these values in relation to Negro life:

> "Negro art is so big, so loaded with possibilities for a transfer of its value to other spheres where Negro life must be raised to higher levels, that it should be handled with the utmost care by everybody.... It involves intellectual, ethical, social, psychological, aesthetic values, of inseparable interactions. It requires direct attacks on some of the best known men who have, without adequate equipment, promulgated sophistries that obstruct the reach of the goal. Among these obstructors are "scientists," "intellectuals," "critics," writers of international reputation. Chiefly they are exploiters, some deliberate, some unconscious. But any organized effort for a scientific study of the whole question will be successful only in proportion as these obstructors are analyzed into their ultimate values and eliminated from the field."

The Business Men's Tour of the South

THERE was a certain vision back of the visit of a party of Northern Negroes to the Negro business establishments and educational institutions of the South. The trip was the inspiration of J. R. E. Lee, Extension Secretary of the National Urban League,—a sort of sublimated business man, restlessly active in the spiritual game of integrating the financial resources of Negroes to make them serve their own social interests. This is a long time process. There is more significance in what he was not able to do to the smug sufficiency of Northern Negro business men than what he actually did. With few exceptions they knew nothing about the South aside from the horrible high-lights which they have schooled themselves to abhor; they knew nothing about the amazing scope of Negro business activities and command of actual capital below the "line" and were content to regard their own business development as a sufficient example to itself. Few of them went. For those who did go there was a rich compensation in the discovery of mature Negro institutions sound and well used, types of success unknown to the North, specialized businesses flourishing in the face of philosophy, and with all of this, a becoming modesty about it, and willingness to learn from the visitors. They learned how one strong business could lend its aid to save another threatened unit; how Negro money was being quietly directed into a cycle from which the Negro himself for the first time could extract some benefits; how this success was operating to increase respect for the race in the South and get for them gradually more and more of their long denied civil privileges. Most important perhaps was the discovery of the basis of inter-racial tolerance,—the probable explanation of the large remaining bulk of Negroes in certain cities and sections.

They talked to students in the schools,—hungry for hope and encouragement, they made friends, had their false illusions smashed, joined hands with the leaders of thought and action in the South, and returned to their homes wiser men.

WE should like to acknowledge again the very valuable assistance rendered by Dr. Alain Locke on the preparation of the issue on Primitive African Art. He joins in the interest expressed by others that deliberate and purposeful steps be taken to stimulate study in this field by Negroes.

OPPORTUNITY

JUNE, 1924

The Racial Hysteria

By MELVILLE J. HERSKOVITS

THE CONSIDERATION of problems involving the question of race, are, obviously, liable to the admission of a great deal of emotionalism. Even among scientists, it seems to be extremely difficult to throttle the conditioned prejudices and the personal element, and we have, in consequence, perhaps more bias in the approach to this problem that is looming so important these days than is the case in the study of any other which is of so strictly scientific a character. And the curious part of it all is that on every hand, we are urged to impartiality. "Detachment," "coldly analytic approach," "the scientific attitude," "intellectual objectivity",—all these terms, which constitute, in the accepted fashion, almost the absolute minimum of scientific procedure in research on any subject, are repeated, quite correctly, time after time and urged as the standard which alone may be acceptable in the study of race.

As one looks about him at the work which has been done, one is impressed by the vastness of the problem to be considered and the puny means of attacking it at the disposal of the scientist. Man, like the other higher vertebrates, is a bewilderingly complex animal, and to ferret out the processes of heredity, the effects of environment, and the interrelations between the two which are involved in producing what we call societies and peoples, is as involved a proceeding as may be encountered anywhere in the entire sweep of scientific endeavor. We may, therefore, address ourselves to the problem which first attracts one's attention when he considers race and racial differences: What are the snares to be watched in the study? Or, to phrase it somewhat differently: What are the methods which must be best employed in research into the problem of race and racial differences?

As a first proposition, we may state that there are no human groups which are without that social environment we call culture. The term, unfortunately, is one which one hesitates to employ, for it is somewhat misleading. But one cannot use "civilization," as that word has a meaning which has become specialized by its application to our own culture, and one does not wish to use the term "environment," as this means the natural portion of our surroundings, unaffected by what mankind does, such as the altitude, or the rainfall, or the kind of soil that is found in a given place. A short definition which should make the term clear is that which names culture as the man-made part of the environment. It is true that the term is often used to mean such things as poetry, symphony orchestras, or literature, but in the sense of the term as it is employed here it as much denotes a locomotive, a language, or the

custom of tipping one's hat to a female acquaintance whom one meets on the street as any of the first-mentioned parts of civilization. We are so much a part of the culture in which we live, and it is so engrained in us, that it is difficult in the extreme to get away from it and view it in an objective fashion. It is only after long training and the extended study of cultures vastly different from our own that this can be accomplished, and, when one does do it, a new concept of its importance and what it means in our lives comes before the student.

And it is of the greatest importance that this significance should be understood by those who study race and racial traits, as they are loosely termed. Thus, it is often claimed that laziness is a trait of the Negro, or that he manifests peculiarly the love of display in the matter of personal ornamentation, or an inability to absorb education or become acculturated to the civilization in which we live. And yet, when we consider the cultural element, it becomes plain why certain of these characteristics, to the extent to which they may be true, have persisted. It is quite unnecessary to call upon any hypothesis of racial inclination; the culture, and the pattern according to which it is shaped, are quite sufficient. Thus, the inherent laziness argument is usually accompanied by an appeal to the experiences of those who have traveled in Africa, and have encountered and written of the difficulty in inducing Negro porters to hurry to a given place at a given time. But it is a commonplace that time, in the pattern of behavior of the primitive man, plays a very minor rôle, and he is far from interested in or concerned with the troubles of the White explorer or traveller. But if one should consider him at work on a bow, or an iron knife, or a bit of wood carving, and realize the infinite patience and the long application he will give to produce the beautiful object it turns out to be, the charge of laziness is seen at once to result from an application of the standards of our cultural patterns to the actions of one who lives in a society where the behavior is quite different. The love of display, again, is something of an indication that the Negro is responding to the pattern of the culture in which he lives in America, for in a society which is constituted such as ours on the basis of competitive display, the persons who react most strongly are the ones who are, perhaps, the most completely acculturated. This is not to admit that display is any more universal among Negroes than among any of the other constituent elements which go to make up our population, however, only to point to the fact that even if it were true, it would not be peculiarly true of Negroes alone. Again, the inability to

JUNE, 1924

OPPORTUNITY

absorb education, claimed so often by the psycho-
logical testers, is certainly as logically a function
of the social environment and lack of opportunity
which our culture usually affords the Negro, par-
ticularly in the South, as it is an expression of
innate inability.

Indeed, it may be claimed, on the contrary, that
the pattern is so strong in its influence that that
of the prevailing American culture has quite cap-
tured the American Negro, and in dress, habits
and speech, he is quite like his fellow White
American, whenever he has the opportunity. Go
into any large Negro community, and you will
find there a Chamber of Commerce, composed of
the business men. You will find a Medical Asso-
ciation, and probably an association of lawyers.
You will find Social Service organizations, which
work along the same lines as White agencies, and
are organized in the same manner. You will see
that the church groups have their Young Men's
Clubs and their Ladies' Aid Societies such as are
found as adjuncts to any White church, and, if they
are sufficiently large and wealthy, they will have
their social centers, where there are sewing classes
for prospective mothers, gymnasium classes for
boys, dances, lectures and amateur theatricals.
The political organizations are those known to
the general public, and such radicals as you will
find are in about the same proportion as in the
White community. The newspapers follow the
same make-up as their White neighbors, and the
stories of the latest and goriest murders usually
attract the attention they receive in the general
run of the press. The pattern is followed so
closely that Negro college students band themselves
into Greek letter fraternities and sororities, such
as may be found on the campus of almost every
American University, with diamond-shaped pins
edged with small pearls as marks of identifica-
tion, while the similarity of lodges, secret societies,
and the like, to the corresponding White organiza-
tions need but be mentioned to be recognized.
Clothing, manners, speech, economic exploitation,
and all the rest are much the same as among the
Whites. And yet, when one contrasts a community
of Negroes such as the one outlined above with a
typical African group, who, indeed, can then main-
tain that this thing, culture, is connected with
race, or that the attitudes and ideas of the Negro
are other than a consequence of the pattern of the
society which his historical background has
made him a part of, just as the pattern of any
group is a result of its historical fortunes. Of
course, it has never been demonstrated that there
are not such things as racial predispositions in a
very broad and general sense, but to ascribe certain
reactions to certain peoples, or certain abilities
to certain racial groups, without taking into con-
sideration the element of culture, is to allow an
error to creep into one's work which is bound
to render it well-nigh worthless. The fact that
there are in this country Whites, Mongols and
Negroes all apparently well adjusted to our

civilization and making good in it would indi-
cate that the claim of racial aptitude for a stated
culture is not based on fact.

But when we discuss race, there is the physical
basis that underlies all the other considerations.
That the three main divisions of mankind do
differ in such traits as hair-form, skin color, pe-
cularities of build and certain anatomical differ-
ences is apparent to the casual observer. But
where these begin and where they stop is far from
a settled question; indeed, the outstanding fact
is that any human is infinitely more like any other
human than any human is like any gorilla, let us
say, while the further fact that there are always
persons in all races who have identical character-
istics gives us further pause. This fact of
overlapping, as it is called, is often lost sight of
in the discussion of the physical make-up of groups
of different individuals. But a cursory study, for
example, of skin color, will show that from the
north of Europe to the tip of South Africa there is
no abrupt change, but a very gentle shading, while
there are many south Europeans who are darker
than many full-blooded Africans. Two averages
may well be different by several units, but until
we see the total spread of the two groups which
are being compared, the averages by themselves are
worthless. It is only through the detailed and
persistent study of many characteristics of numer-
ous individuals of any given group that that group
can be described, and even then the process is
such a tedious one that most persons shrink from
the labor involved. The task of merely collect-
ing the measurements calls for much patience
and often a large amount of tact, while the sta-
tistical treatment of the data which have been
obtained means many hours of the most painstaking
and arduous kind of work. It is so much
easier to measure only one trait, and then to make
the classification on the basis of this one. But
what is gained in expediency is sacrificed to ac-
curacy of description and comprehensiveness of
one's study, and it is only by thrusting one's in-
quiries into the darkness of unexplored territory
that chance results may be found which will yield
significant comment.

When we come to popular discussions of the
subject we find a lack of scientific attitude on
the part of many persons who, tho perhaps they
might be most excused for displaying an emo-
tionalism in connection with a discussion of the
topic, would from their remarks be expected to
assume a different position. In Negro audiences, it
is customary for one person after another to in-
sist on the "scientific" attitude in the considera-
tion of the Negro problem, as it is called, and
then, after having done lip-service to the proper
attitude, to launch into a violently emotional dis-
cussion of the subject. Indeed, to listen to speeches
such as this, which one who frequents discussions
on racial matters will hear time after time, gives
a strong impression that, to those who are per-
sonally interested, the matter of scientific detach-

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ment consists in agreeing with such statements as
favor the racial group to which the speaker be-
longs, while disagreement with that position, no
matter how honestly the disagreeing position may
be taken, is castigated as "unscientific," or even
dishonest. It is far from being urged that there
are not many theories of race and methods which
have been employed in uncovering data regarding
it which merit this criticism, but such statements ill
become persons who themselves have not learned the
proper discipline. For, if one read the writings which
have been produced on all aspects of the problem of
race, racial traits, racial desirability, or undesir-
ability, and the like, one finds as much with which
to object as with which one can agree; far more,
as a matter of fact. And it is time that the fact
that a real impartiality on the subject is not to
be attained by mere profession of such impartiality and lip-service to it be recognized by all
persons who are interested in the progress of the
scientific uncovering of the truth in this highly
involved and deeply personal matter of race.

The description of the pitfalls in the way of racial analysis might be carried on for pages; the volumes which have been devoted to the subject are without end, whatever their character. At the same time, there are being carried on many unassailable investigations which are sure to shed light on the physical aspect of the problem, at least, in time. Work on the Hawaiians, on the

various groups in this country, such as Armenians,
Negroes, Italians, Jews, and others, of both native
and foreign birth, on children and adults, and on
skeletal material as well, is being persistently and
painstakingly prosecuted. But, as has been said,
this is the essence of the matter, for work done
in this field hastily is better not done at all. And
so, when one considers the hysteria with which the
problem is approached by most people, one is
aghast at the statements, as of fact, which are
thrown out by all shades of opinion. The immi-
gration problem, the Negro problem, the Japanese
problem, and others of this type, are all approached
by persons who have bias which is based on state-
ments which are anything but grounded in fact.
And the more one studies the situation, the more
one becomes impressed with the feeling that the
most important adjunct to the study of race and
its solution is a detached point of view, and a will-
ingness to suspend judgment pending definite in-
formation. And this must not be the attitude that
is content with merely voicing a demand for this,
and then immediately proceeds to forget it in
speaking of the problem, but which honestly and
sincerely is able to lift the person who holds it
above the hysteria with which the majority think
of it, and determines him to base his judgment
only on such material as has been established by
means of the most approved and irreproachable
method of attack.

The Negro in Anglo-Saxon Literature

By J. MILTON SAMPSON

IN THE last few decades many books on the so-called Negro problem have been written by representatives of both the white and the colored groups. Most have purported to be rather of a scientific, economic or sociological than of a literary nature. This article is intended as a suggestive study of Negroes as they have figured in the *literary* life of the Anglo-Saxon. In that literature they have played many parts, and many sad ones.

That Negroes were felt as inferiors not only in
our own country and that color discrimination
was not unknown in much earlier times is shown
by Shakespeare's treatment of Moorish characters.
For our purposes it is immaterial whether a Moor
is a Negro or not, but it is significant that even
in Elizabethan England a black skin was looked at
askance.

In "The Merchant of Venice" the Prince of
Morocco asked Portia not to dislike him for his
complexion,—

"The shadowed livery of the burnished sun."

Portia again, after the Prince has chosen the
wrong casket, says,—

"A gentle riddance—draw the curtains; go!

Let all of his complexion choose me so."

Another Moor, Othello, is called a *black ram*,
his thick lips are sneered at, and Brabantio, in ac-

cusing him of enchanting and abducting his daugh-
ter, says:

"I'll refer me to all things of sense,

Whether a maid so tender, fair and happy,

Would ever have, to incur the general mock,

Run from her guardage to the sooty bosom

Of such a thing as thou, to fear not to delight."

Coleridge, in commenting upon the same play,
wrote: "It would be something monstrous to con-
ceive this beautiful Venetian girl falling in love
with a veritable Negro."

There are three general types, as they may be called, which emerge from the mass of written matter. Often times, however, it is the attitude behind the creation of the character rather than the resulting character upon which emphasis will be laid. These are the slave, the ante-bellum Negro, the Negro in manhood stature.

Doubtless the desultory reader knows more about
the slave type than about the others. Nearly every-
body has read or heard about "Uncle Tom's
Cabin," the poems of Longfellow and Whittier,
and the polemic writings of William Lloyd Garri-
son. In the writings of these distinguished per-
sons our attention is directed not so much to what
the Negro *is* as to what he *suffers*. Among prose

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169

works "Uncle Tom's Cabin" is the standard. The venerable white-headed old man, obedient alike to the good St. Clare and Little Eva and to the cruel Legree, is well known. His obedience and his humility are his outstanding characteristics. The other characters are not more or less human than Uncle Tom. Some are resentful, openly or covertly, of bad treatment, and some are stubborn even under the lash; others yield themselves to gain the good graces of the master, but only do so that their chances of escape may be the greater because of the master's confidence in them. The mother is characterized by a very strong and altogether natural love for her child. In a word, they are all people; but Uncle Tom is a somewhat idealized type of a patient and pious and long-suffering unfortunate.

The author has striven to be fair, for she has painted the good master as well as the bad, the bad slave as well as the good. But she wished to arouse sympathy and her book, therefore, emphasizes the sufferings of the unfortunates rather than their capabilities, their humility rather than their humanity.

Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain) prefers to treat Jim, the runaway slave in Huckleberry Finn, for his humorous possibilities, but not without enlisting sympathy on his side. Mark Twain says that he was reared to believe slavery a divine institution. However, in this story one of the strongest scenes is that in which Huck tries to decide whether to write to Jim's owner, apprising her of his whereabouts. Being a son of the South, Huck knew that helping a slave to escape was an offense unpardonable on earth or in the beyond. So he wrote the letter to save his soul; but to save his own self-respect he decided not to send it. Again in this scene probably the strongest argument presented to Huck's mind is Jim's pathetic plaint, "Massa Huck, youse de on'y white man dat has treated me fyar." Jim is also a superstitious, faithful, kind-hearted victim of circumstances.

Lowell, in "The Biglow Papers," also treats the question humorously. Lowell is opposed to slavery but satirizes those in favor of it and their arguments, instead of condemning the institution. A few instances will suffice to show his peculiar treatment:

> "Liberty's a kind of thing
> Thet don't agree with Neggers."

> "Slavery's a thing thet depends on complexion,
> It's God's law thet fetters on black skins don't
> chafe."

In the more serious poetry, of course, there is not the same chance for development of character as in prose, but by the treatment of incidents and individuals one can very readily arrive at a comprehension of the different views on the subject. Cowper, Longfellow, and Whittier were writers more or less on slave topics. Cowper's contribution was small but one of his poems is often quoted, especially the lines—

> "Fleecy locks and black complexion
> Cannot forfeit Nature's claim;
> Skins may differ, but affection
> Dwells in white and black the same."

These words the poet puts in the mouth of the Negro, and he ends with the reproach directed against the whites that they are slaves of gold, and that they should find a better reason than color for regarding Negroes as brutes. In that poem the Negro is represented as intelligent, with power to present a logical argument. Cowper expresses his feelings in his own person in the following way in "The Task":

> "He finds his fellow guilty of a skin
> Not colored like his own; and having pow'r
> T' enforce the wrong for such a worthy cause,
> Dooms and devotes him as his lawful prey."

And later, in the same poem,—

> "I had much rather be myself the slave,
> And wear the bonds, than fasten them on him."

This is only mildly interesting. It is abstract, academic, formal—it shows a recognition that suffering existed to his own knowledge and that, consequently, his gentle, merciful disposition was disturbed.

Just as gentle was Longfellow. To the recognition of the physical suffering he added a glimpse of the mental state of the slave, as in the "Slave's Dream":

> "Again, in the mist and shadow of sleep,—
> He saw his Native Land."

Or in "The Psalm of David," exultantly sung. But there is nothing in Cowper or Longfellow to compare in depth of passion with the fiery lyrics of Whittier.

Whittier covered the whole field of slavery, from the slave ship to death. Brutality speaks through one character and is rebuked through another, and it is a question which is more effective.

> "Gloomily stood the captain,
> With his arms upon his breast,
> With his cold brow sternly knotted,
> And his iron lip compressed.
> 'Are all the dead ones over?
> Growled through that matted lip,—
> 'The blind ones are no better,
> Let's lighten the good ship!"

> "Hark, from the ship's dark bosom,
> The very sounds of hell!
> The ringing clank of iron,—
> The maniac's short, sharp yell.
> The hoarse, low curse, throat-stifled,—
> The starving infant's moan,—
> The horror of a breaking heart
> Poured through a mother's groan."

Again he describes the farewell of a Virginia slave mother to her daughters sold into bondage further south:

> "Gone, gone,—sold and gone,
> To the rice-swamp dank and lone,—
> Toiling through the weary day,
> And at night the spoiler's prev.

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O that they had earlier died,
Sleeping calmly, side by side,
Where the tyrant's power is o'er,
And the fetter galls no more.

Gone, gone—sold and gone,
To the rice-swamp dank and lone,
From Virginia's hills and waters,—
Woe is me, my stolen daughters."

With Whittier likewise there is uppermost in emphasis the suffering of the unfortunate, though wrath at the work of the oppressor and indignation at the apathy of the North may be close seconds. Thus the writers so far examined have emphasized oppression and its effects upon its victims, and some have added condemnation.

But slaves have been treated on the whole very differently by southern writers, and as soon as the word ante-bellum Negro is used, you have the same slave before you but an extremely contrasted picture of him. As Uncle Tom was the outstanding character from the northern point of view, so is Uncle Remus from the southern. One critic has said,—"In him Harris has created not a burlesque or a sentimental impossibility, but an imperishable type, the type of the true plantation Negro." The statement is more or less true if one has in mind only the animal stories. But if the critically inclined should read the stories *about* Remus as well as the stories *of* Remus he will see more clearly the accepted type of the plantation Negro of southern literature. In the animal stories he is the pleased and keen observer, the fanciful interpreter of the life of the crafty fox, the sassy Br'er Rabbit. But one should not overlook the literary treatment he gets when for the first time he hears a phonograph, talks over a telephone, or conjures one of his enemies,—the burlesque element being most apparent.

In these stories we have no doubt touched the qualities which many ante-belum Negroes possessed, but we have also the characteristics which make up the average Southerner's idealized opinion of the good Negro—he is lazy, superstitious, voluble to no purpose, exaggeratedly polite, simple, ignorant, but quaint, and quick-witted. The type is repeated without much variation in the work of Thomas Nelson Page, where again he is often the unconscious hero as in the case of Marse Chan and Meh Lady. So much for the ante-bellum Negro. From the North he was the victim of an infamous and disgraceful institution; from the South, the happy child of a benevolent "Marster."

When the Negro ceased to be a slave in literature, he also ceased for the most part to be a hero. He became a servant simply. The writers did not get away from the type which was pleasing to them. They incorporated the same old characteristics, but added as a recognition of the changed order of things a little self-assertiveness or, as they called it, "perversity." There is no single differentiating trait to characterize the servant.

Enough has been said now to prepare for the dictum that the Negro, like other subjects in literature, is not an objective but a subjective creation. In other words, he is not the result of observation merely, but of observation plus the particular observer in question. The attitude of the author toward the Negro is as important in arriving at a just estimate of his work as the printed words of the picture. Here again the angle of vision is significant. The Northerners have been sympathetic of suffering; the Southerners have found joy in the ingeniousness of the slave. The North has been benevolent; the South, patronizing. For the most part, a real democratic attitude has been present in neither.

For that latter attitude, which regards a Negro as first a man, Whitman is probably the most able exponent. To him the Negro is not grudgingly conceded to be a man nor exploited as a freak in life's sideshow. It is unfortunate that the peculiar form of his poetry has interfered with the wide appreciation of his poems by those who are its special subjects.

From the "Salut au Monde" comes the following:

"You dim-descended, black, divine-soul'd African,
large, fine-headed, nobly-form'd, superbly des-
tin'd, on equal terms with me."

Again in an original way he apostrophizes body, soul, and mind in the poem, "I Sing the Body Electric." A slave is on the block for sale, and he assumes the part of the auctioneer as follows:

"Gentlemen, look on this wonder.

Whatever the bids of the bidders, they cannot
be high enough for it;

For it the globe lay preparing quintillions of
years without one animal or plant,

For it the revolving cycles truly and steadily
roll'd.

"In this head the all-baffling brain,
In it and below it the makings of heroes.

Within there runs blood,

The same old blood! The same red-running
blood!

There swells and jets a heart; there all passions,
desires, reachings, aspirations.

(Do you think they are not there because they are
not express'd in parlours and lecture rooms?)

"This is not only one man, this is the father of
those who shall be fathers in their turns;

In him the start of populous states and rich
republics,

Of him countless immortal lives and countless
embodiments and enjoyments.

How do you know who shall come from the off-
spring of his offspring through the centuries?

(Who might you find you have come from your-
self, if you could trace back through centuries?)

Whitman's temporal salvation did not require
him to go to such lengths in the application of

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his theory of democracy. Besides he was no mere
poseur, for the record of his life shows that he
lived according to his profession. The key to it
all lies in the following, from "By Blue On-
tario's Shore":

"Dismiss'd whatever insulted my own soul or
defil'd my body,

Claim'd nothing to myself which I have not
carefully claim'd for others on the same
terms."

Negroes ask no more of their white countrymen;
they are due no less. In these times of intelligent
effort toward cooperation between the races, it will
be interesting to note any changing tendencies ex-
pressed in recent literature. A number of modern
writers of the North and South tend to follow the
lines above marked out. A few are at least at-
tempting to leave the beaten tracks. A good ex-
ample of these latter is T. B. Stribling, the author
of "Birthright."

In "Birthright" there is an illustration of a
character treated at one and the same time as an
individual and as a medium for the expression
of the author's feelings,—themselves for the most
part in subconscious alliance with the usual tra-
ditional picture. In the first place, this novel
is unusual because the author makes a mulatto
graduate of Harvard University the hero. It is
one of the few literary works which gives anything
approaching sympathy to the educated Negro.
Indeed, it might aptly be called the Uncle Tom's
Cabin of the educated Negro. The author very
conspicuously tried to be fair. Consciously or
unconsciously, he is almost a propagandist for the
educated Negro. The hero is made to ponder
over the tragedies of his race,—"their sufferings
at the hand of mob violence, the casualness, even
the levity, with which the black men were treated,
the chronic dishonesty with which negroes were
treated, the constant enactment of adverse legis-
lation against them, the cynical use of negro wo-
men." The hero, called Peter Siner in the book,
and Cissie Dildine, the heroine, who also has the
advantage of education beyond the average in the
little town, Hooker's Bend, are contrasted and set
sharply over against the rank and file of the in-
habitants of the "nigger town" of the village.
In describing these two persons the author is more
than sympathetic; in characterizing the rank and
file he might well be compared with any average
southern white author.

For example, the author devotes much space here
and there trying to demonstrate that the ac-
complishments of mulattoes were due to their white
blood. "It was the white blood in his own veins that
had sent him struggling up North, that had brought
him back with this flame in his heart for his own
people. It was the white blood in Cissie that kept
her struggling to stand up, to speak an unbroken
tongue, to gather around her the delicate at-
mosphere and charm of a gentlewoman." The
same general principle finds illustration in certain
characteristics of the Negro according to the south-

ern credo. "It was a pretty bit of old gold that
complimented the creamy skin. Peter began ad-
miring it at once, and, negro fashion, rather
overstepped the limits white beaux set to their
praise, as he leaned close to her:" "Thanks to
the swiftness with which gossip spreads among
black folk." "She swung out a thick arm, and
looked at Peter out of the corner of her eyes, her
head tilted to one side, as negresses do when they
become dramatically serious." "The air was close
and foul with the bad ventilation of all negro
sleeping-rooms." "In fact, during Peter's reac-
tion to his shock there began to assert itself in
him that capacity for profound indolence inherent
in his negro blood. To a white man time is a
cumulative excitant. Continuous and absolute
idleness is impossible; he must work, hunt, fish,
play, gamble, or dissipate,—do something to burn
up the accumulating sugar in his muscles. But
to a negro idleness is an increasing balm; it is a
stretching of his legs in the sunshine, a cat-like
purring of his nerves; while his thoughts spread
here and there in inconsequences, like water with-
out a channel, making little humorous eddies,
windings this way and that into oddities and fan-
tasies without ever feeling that constraint of se-
quence which continually operates in a white brain."

Putting these and other similar passages together
and comparing them, it seems that everything good
in Peter Siner is the result of his white blood ex-
cept a certain tendency to be gay and jovial, and,
on the other hand, everything unsatisfactory in
him is explained not directly but indirectly as a
result of his black blood. Only in a few instances
does Mr. Stribling recall that Siner's education
would explain his better characteristics as plausibly
as would his white blood. Or possibly that the
demon of discontent is the thing which continually
urges him on, or that it is the tragedy of the
déclassé enacted within him. Peter Siner in
Hooker's Bend indeed is the Negro prototype of
Carol Kennicutt of "Main Street," only with a
different objective. Both are out of harmony
with their environment, each has a passion for im-
proving conditions, each is unsuccessful, and each
in the end is resigned to the inevitable conse-
quences of working with poor materials.

The greatest value of "Birthright" is in the fact
of its introduction into white consciousness of the
concept of "educated Negro."

In review then: earlier literature emphasized the
suffering of the slave or either burlesqued him or
seriously treated him for his sunny disposition;
then Walt Whitman introduced what might be
called an anomaly in American literature by ad-
mitting him into the fellowship of humanity for
his own sake; and, finally, a tendency expressive
of a slightly more intelligent, though still not en-
tirely satisfactory, treatment on an individual basis.
Many works have been considered, but the author
believes that the writers discussed are fairly rep-
resentative, and has not felt it necessary to catalogue
those who have written on the subject.

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JUNE, 1924

# The Program of the Young College-Bred Negro

By NORMAN L. MCGHEE

National Secretary, Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Howard University, Washington, D. C.

A Sa challenge to the young college-bred Negro, some months ago Dean Kelly Miller, of Howard University, sponsor of the Negro Sanhedrin, said, in speaking of certain statistics which disclosed that there are some twenty thousand or more Negro collegians in the United States, that "a body of ten thousand Negro college men and women scattered throughout the country as centers of light and learning ought to furnish guiding light for the whole race."

In further reference to this matter Dean Miller said: "It is but fair to say that these college men and women are not functioning as it was hoped they would in the general equation of our racial life. The entire burden of ten million souls and bodies would soon fall upon their shoulders. We sadly await the manifestation of courage, initiative, energy, and enterprise on the part of the young Negro collegian. They are too differential, timid and constrained. They must develop the fire and force and fearlessness to organize the mass of life of the race and give it efficient power and expression. The great racial estates are to be managed. The church calls with Macedonian earnestness for the college-bred Negro to come over and help us. The schools are crying for educational leadership. Business enterprises must be developed. The people flounder for want of right political leadership. Social reclamation makes a crying appeal. There is no other group of ten thousand young men and women in the world upon whose shoulders devolve heavier responsibilities."

Rightly admonished, say many thoughtful college-bred Negroes. With few exceptions, it would seem that nothing constructive has been done by the college-bred Negro to indicate that he is definitely interested in the welfare of his race. Practically no expression of opinion on present-day problems comes from this younger group. True, there are critics of the ways of the older generation whose numbers are legion, but for downright, hard, straight thinking on the multitudinous problems of race which entwine and keep the group in social, political and economic bondage, only here and there have faint voices been heard.

But to recur to the admonition of Dean Miller, it is worth while to remember that there is something to be said regarding the deferential attitude of the young college-bred Negro. A group of young Negro college men and women have for a long time, out of reverence and respect for their elders, kept in the background their ideas and opinions as to certain means for bettering conditions of Negro Race life in America. The feeling that Youth and Inexperience must await instruc-

tion from Age is not unusual, and it is this which has held The Negro Youth's courage, initiative, energy and enterprise "champing at the bit."

When Dean Miller, in January 1923, issued a call for an All-Race Conference to work out a program for united action on all problems commonly experienced by Negroes in the United States, among the first groups to offer their aid in connection with such a conference were the college men and women of the younger generation. The Young College-bred Negro was not only willing to aid such a movement, but simply awaited Age to point the way. Wholehearted support by the younger element of college-bred Negroes was given the Negro Sanhedrin Conference.

Prior to the initial meeting of the Negro Sanhedrin in Chicago, February 11 to 15, 1924, Dean Miller showed his appreciation of the part the young college-bred Negro should play in the great program he was outlining by having a representative of this younger group appointed a member of the General Committee on Arrangements which had charge of the whole matter of assisting in inaugurating the movement. He also saw to it that all of the national college fraternities and sororities among Negroes were invited to participate in the launching of the movement.

At the Chicago meeting a session of the Conference was set aside for the discussion of "The Part of the Young College-Bred Negro in Race Betterment." Raymond W. Cannon, President of the Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, presided over the session and addresses were delivered by Mrs. Osceola M. Adams, Delta Sigma Theta Sorority; Benjamin W. Clayton, Omega Psi Phi Fraternity; Mrs. L. R. Greene, Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority; Dr. Julian Lewis, Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity; and W. Ellis Stewart, President, Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity. The Commission named to make report on this subject were: Raymond W. Cannon, Chairman; Lorraine R. Greene, Secretary; W. Ellis Stewart, Osceola M. Adams, Benjamin W. Clayton, Murray B. Atkins, Gordon H. Simpson, Sophia B. Boaz, Floyd W. Crawford, Bertha M. Lewis, J. Ernest Wilkins, Mildred G. Dobson, Carl Washington, Blanche G. Dix, J. Madison Nabrit, Bella T. Taylor, Dr. Julian Lewis, F. D. Jordan, and Norman L. McGhee.

Already the recognition of the younger group in the councils of the Negro Sanhedrin gives hope of being one of the most important factors in the development of this great movement. The program worked out by the Commission headed by this younger element in race life is most comprehensive and the national college fraternities and sororities are a unit in the matter of developing

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the program in its minutest details. It is to be
noted with especial pride that the report of the
Commission on "The Part of the Young College-
Bred Negro in Race Betterment" was accepted
by the Conference in its entirety, the vote being:
"The Negro Sanhedrin commends especially the
participation of the organizations representing the
Negro College Youth of our Country and recog-
nizes as of utmost importance to the movement
the value of their continued participation and the
development of the program of this commis-
sion's report which is attached hereto and is made
a part thereof."

A study of the program outlined by the Young
College-Bred Negro group reveals that this group
has done some very definite thinking in directions
where action should be taken at this time. The
development of the Negro youth by encouragement
and guidance in higher education is the first item
on this program. This is not to be taken to mean
that the young college-bred Negro feels that higher
education is the panacea for all racial ills. He
appreciates the fact that there are many persons
who are in the colleges of the country who have
not the aptitude nor fitness to take a college
course. On the other hand, there are many de-
serving students who should be encouraged and
under this program he would seek to aid such
students by awarding scholarships and establishing
loan funds.

Another problem of the Negro student with
which this group of young Negro college men and
women would concern itself is the matter of dor-
mitory accommodations in the larger colleges and
universities. It is a matter of common knowledge
that Negroes for the most part have to undergo
great sacrifices in connection with accommoda-
tions for lodging and board at the big universities
of the country. Not long ago the authorities at
one of our greatest American educational insti-
tutions sought to refuse admission of colored stu-
dents to its dormitories in the face of its positive
ruling that all freshmen of the college must live
in the freshman dormitories. Quite a number of
these larger educational institutions through vari-
ous subterfuges keep the benefits of dormitory
accommodations from their Negro students. In
the opinion of the young college-bred Negro,
this practice is a grave injustice to the Negro stu-
dent, and while they shall continue to appeal to
an enlightened public opinion to discontinue it,
he appreciates the need for immediate remedy. It
is here that the Negro college fraternities have
rendered great aid by throwing open the doors
of their chapter houses and welcoming non-members
to the privilege of lodging and board.

Perhaps a most fruitful feature of the program
to be put underway is the plan to collect and dis-
seminate data regarding student life in the vari-
ous colleges and universities. This will concern
the matter of the number of Negro students in
the various colleges and universities in the United
States, the relations existing between Faculty and

colored student body in a given institution, rela-
tion between colored and white students, oppor-
tunities of Negro students for completing courses
in such schools, and other data which would aid
the Negro student in the pursuance of a course
in one of the larger universities of America.

The concrete and resultful community programs
conducted yearly by the various Negro college fra-
ternities and sororities were not only approved
by the Commission on "The Part of the Young
College-Bred Negro in Race Betterment" but it
was agreed that there would be cooperation among
the various organizations to see that these move-
ments were made even more effective. Nearly every
Negro student in the United States above the
graded school knows something, and has been
influenced by the "Go to High School, Go to
College" movement fostered by the Alpha Phi
Alpha Fraternity. The "Guide Right" movement
by the Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, the movement
by the Omega Psi Phi Fraternity to induce the
Negro youth to know himself by reading and
studying the works of Negro authors, and the
educational movements promoted by the Negro
college sororities have all been of incalculable value
in arousing a right appreciation by the Negro
youth of himself and as an aid in causing increased
respect for him by other groups.

For an heightened respect for the Negro in
America and throughout the world, there must
be more Paul Lawrence Dunbars, more Ernest
Everett Justs, more Roland Hayeses, more George
W. Carvers, more Booker T. Washingtons, and
more Harry Burleighs. The young college-bred
Negro appreciates this. His program asks for the
encouragement of Negro scholars whose achieve-
ments shall be distinct contributions to human
knowledge; he asks also that research be made
by Negro students into subjects that have a dis-
tinct bearing upon the Negro's welfare. The lit-
erature regarding the Negro, he feels, should be
the product of Negro authors since the Negro,
himself, is in better position to know himself. This
is true in the expression of the yearnings of his
soul in music, and it must be equally true in the
production of his literature and his art.

The young Negro college men and women feel
that they should seriously concern themselves with
the responsibility of citizenship. To this end,
there must be education in respect to and use of the
franchise. Much of the failure to more actively
participate in political affairs in the various cities
and States in which they reside is due to lack
of information as to the use of the ballot. It is
highly to be desired in the various cities of our
country that the young Negro college men and
women join, or seek to organize, political clubs
and inform themselves as to what are their re-
sponsibilities under the State and city govern-
ments under which they live. This is the task
which the young college-bred Negro sets for
himself under his program for race betterment.

There is something of genuine earnestness in

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the expression used by the Commission on "The Part of the Young College-Bred Negro in Race Betterment" in its recommendations which were accepted by the Negro Sanhedrin: "We pledge ourselves to accept with profound seriousness our responsibility as future leaders of our group, to hold the faith of our fathers, and to insist vigorously upon a high moral, mental, physical, and spiritual life. We feel that in any permanent program for the Negro Sanhedrin provision should be made for adequate representation of the Negro

youth so that those who are to be the leaders of tomorrow may be trained for the responsibilities which may be theirs."

Such is the program of the Young College-Bred Negro. It offers, he believes, the way to fuller development, larger recognition, and more permanent results, and will enable the race to take its rightful place as an integral factor in the development and progress of America, our common country.

Primitive Methods of Travel Four Days from New York

Courtesy of S. C. Russell

# Health Education in the Canal Zone

By ANNA B. TOWSE

Interview with Sally Lucas Jean, Health Education Director, American Child Health Association

CHILDREN are children the wide world over. They make a common demand upon civilization. It may come from the happy, carefree children basking in the tropical sun in front of the government houses of the West Indian laborer in the Canal Zone. It may come from the little folks pillowed in the velvet upholstery of the millionaire's motor spinning along the boulevard of the nation's metropolis. The place has little significance. But as we face the different stages of civilization we realize that we must dovetail our child health projects into the existing plans of their everyday living.

As we sat in the sunny school room that January morning in the Canal Zone we felt we were witnessing the unrolling panorama of several civilizations. We had driven in a government car to the small frame building, one of the seven grade schools for colored children in the Zone. Earnest, eager, alert boys and girls greeted us

with their radiant smiles. Their teacher, a fine intelligent type of man, a West Indian; had been trained in his own country according to English methods. Gradually he was lifting these children to a new plane of thought and living,—a plane far removed from that of their parents, who were the West Indian laborers brought to the Canal during its construction.

In their faces you read their story of desire and zeal to push ahead and take their places in the progress of all races. Here in this classroom was the symbol of childhood to be taught and to be given the best that civilization has evolved. Outside was a symbol of war and a protection that comes from force. Through the open windows came the whirr of aeroplanes circling over the small frame structure. They were a part of the naval manoeuvres. As we listened to the whirr of the giant machines overhead and looked into the bright, young faces we found a new

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175

Courtesy of S. C. Russell
Tropical Fruits Sold on the Street Corners in Panama

interpretation of the old maxim that the pen is
mightier than the sword. "What greater protec-
tion for the future can be given these children
than training them mentally and equipping them
with the best that modern education offers?"
flashed through one's mind.

And we had been invited to Panama to take
part in the education of these children. We were
to have the opportunity of bringing them knowl-
edge of joyous health and happiness.

That group of children was representative of
the 3,000 school children of the Zone. Never
have I seen such cleanliness. It was marked.
Clean, well-scrubbed bodies that are refreshed and
cooled in the tropical waters. On the Zone the
traditional weekly bath is unheard of, for the
pools dotting the Zone invite the children every
day to splash about in their delightful waters.
The single garment, which is all that is necessary
for them to wear in the tropics, was spotless. We
could easily understand this for that morning as
we drove along the Zone to the schoolhouse
we caught glimpses of the industrious mothers
and older sisters bending over the tubs rubbing
away on the white garments of the younger

members of the family. Under the house of
every family of the colored employes are sanitary laundry tubs supplied with plenty of hot and cold water. The homes of these children are better equipped for cleanliness than many houses in our great cities.

In fact, the children of the Zone live in an
environment of ideal sanitation. Their homes are
perfectly screened. The water they drink is as
pure as the purest water found anywhere. They
live in a world of sunshine and blue sky. Yet,
we found that the gay, black-eyed boys and girls,
despite the splendid sanitary conditions, present
the same health problems as our children in the
congested tenement districts. Apparently they
are strong and vigorous, but the practised eye soon
discovers the tell-tales of undernourished bodies.
This malnutrition among the children of the Zone
is due somewhat to lack of a well-balanced diet.
True, everywhere we went we saw groups of children enjoying the bananas, and fruits typical of the
tropics. But the other green fruits and leafy vegetables and milk so necessary for the building of
strong, healthy bodies are very scarce on the Zone.

It is not easy for us who have graded milk left

Courtesy of S. C. Russell
*A Native of Panama*

JUNE, 1924

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177

ing to the rules they must go to bed earlier and
rest during the day, they will grow stronger and
healthier.

There as in all parts of the world we found
the people ready and eager for assistance to im-
prove the health of their children. In the Zone,
which is manned by people of the United States,
many things have already been accomplished for
the children's welfare. A thorough physical ex-
amination, compulsory once a year for school chil-
dren, is given in the dispensaries. These health
agencies are adequate, well equipped and have
staffs of capable physicians whose services are
free. They have provided excellent hospital ser-
vice at a rate within the income of all families.
In every town is a community club house, the
recreation center for the colored families where
they gather for tennis matches, polo, billiards and
motion pictures.

Yet with the introduction of these modern
health and social projects there is still much that
can be done for the Zone boys and girls. Physi-
cal examinations of children are of little value
if the records are pigeon-holed where they are not
available for the teacher. Not until the close
of the school term are the records of the children's
physical examination sent to the school, so the
teachers have no guide to help them in their in-
dividual work with the underweight pupils and
those with physical defects, that should be cor-
rected during these months.

When at the request of Colonel Fisher, Chief Health Officer, and Mr. Andrews, Superintendent of Schools, we began our health education work in the schools and outlined a course of study corre-lating health with the daily school program, we realized how alert the teachers are for new ideas. They reflect the enthusiasm and earnestness of their leaders who want to give the children of the Zone the best that education and science offer. How the black eyes of those imaginative boys and girls in the school rooms danced when they heard the story of Judge Scales, the trip to Health-land via the Healthland Flyer with stop-offs at East Toothbrush, Orange Valley, Long Sleepy Mountain, Rice Fields, Play Meadows and a dozen other places in this happy land where only healthy children are allowed to linger.

When Health is interpreted to the older pupils
in terms of energy for their play and work, the
secrets of beauty for the girls and of physical
prowess for the boys, new health habits will eventu-
ally be set up in the homes. The health rhymes
about clean teeth, round cheeks, rest and spark-
ling eyes, fruits, vegetables and milk brought home
by the younger brothers and sisters will fall upon
listening ears. The magic powers of the right
foods, plenty of rest and exercise will be respected
by the entire household.

By interesting the children themselves in joy-
ous health, we prophesy that a new standard of
healthful living will replace the old habits in the
homes of the people of the Canal Zone.

A Cholo Romance

By ERIC D. WALROND

“ENRIQUE!” exclaimed Maria. “Enrique,
look!”

Before I could get away from her she had
grabbed me by the arm, a winsome smile on her
half-Indian, half-African face.

"Vex with Maria?" she pouted, her face close
to mine. "No—no—like me no more?"

There was something wistful about this Cholo
girl. Her face was round, moon-like if you wish,
with dainty black freckles all over it. Her hair
was done up in a slip-shod fashion—plaited in
two and coiled in a lump on her head. Around
her oily neck she wore a bright silk bandanna.
The calico skirt she wore resembled very much
the festival costumes of the dark beauties of
Martinique.

"Come, Enrique. Come see Chineeman."
I hesitated.

"Enrique!" The nostrils of her straight Ro-
man nose dilated—dilated furiously. There was
an unutterable command in the way she threw
back her head, arms akimbo, her eyes, like bits of
amethyst, flashing at me. I followed her down
the stairs. About midway she stopped and leaned
over the bannister.

"Look, Enrique!" she cried.

Below, wrapt in a veil of smoke, we could see
into the kitchen of a Chinese ghetto restaurant.
"Melican," or Li Fung, the proprietor, was stir-
ring a row of pots on the fireplace of his dark,
ill-smelling kitchen. One contained the remnants
of yesterday's lima beans, the other of a white,
soul-less thing that went for rice, and the third
of what was served to the starving Asiatic coolies
as beef stew.

"Iguana-soup!" Maria whispered.

The Chinaman, instead of washing the pots,
poured fresh peas over the stale peas, fresh rice
on top of the stale rice, and scraps of meat on the
rotting stew. After that he poured into each
pot about a pint of boiling water, stirred it, and
added coals to his fire. This was done every
day in the year, and the only time they got a wash-
ing was when he took them to the tin-smiths to
be re-soldered.

"You!" yelled Maria.

The Chinaman looked up.

"Diablo! Sung fy-ee-ah, dlyam lascal too.
Slut up!" And he ran for a fire poker. With
leaps and bounds we ran up the steps, Maria dy-
ing with laughter in one breath, and in another
exhausting her already limited vocabulary of pid-

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gin English on a sermon that would have done
justice to the Medicine-Man of Pasadena.

Suddenly, from around the corner, we heard
the dragging of slippers, of the chug-chug of Mme.
Chili's fat self, coming in our direction. Mme.
Chili, a fat, Basque woman with a flabby, vermi-
celli face, seamed and canaled with a map of
prairie-like lines, was formerly the wife of a local
wine merchant. Originally from Barcelona, she
had tried, in her painful way, to introduce in her
social set all the charms and graces of Castillian
society. Not that she was in any sense a mem-
ber of Aspinwall's Four Hundred. Far from it.
Be it said, however, that it was her desire to be
linked up with the Ariases and the Arosemenas,
the Galindos and the Arcias—the first families of
the Republic. She cultivated tastes that amounted
to prejudices. Around her three room flat she
erected a fence—a very physical fence. It was
unheard of for anyone living in the house, lodger
or otherwise, to enter unasked that part of it.
Five years ago, so the story ran, she had adopted
a little moon-faced Indian girl whom a Mache
trader had left with her. The girl, she figured,
was to grow up as brilliant as any of the *senoritas*
of the land, and Maria, with an inherent dignity
of carriage, fitted right into her mistress' plans.
At times, however, she would break away from the
conventions of her rigorous bringing up and stray
into the company of one whom Mme. Chili had
told her she must despise as a *Chumbito*.

"Maria!" cried Mme. Chili, staring through
her pince nez. "Maria!"

“Senora!”

Swinging around the corner with a paroquet
perched on her forefinger, she swept past me like
a whirlwind. As she passed, Mme. Chili, staring
at me down the end of the hall, palavered so
rapidly in the Mache dialect that I was forced
to turn away my face. It hurt me to think that
I had been the cause of the girl's castigation. So
many times had I heard her utter the word
*Chumbito*.

After getting as much fun as it is possible to
get out of watching a wet canary dry itself in
the sun, I stuck my head between the leaves of a
Dick Turpin yarn. Black Bess had just jumped
off one of London's tallest skyscrapers, and Dick,
eluding his captors, was Johnny-on-the-spot as
the shining steed landed on its feet. With his
usual dash he leaped into the saddle and in a
jiffy was lost from view!

In a moment she returned, a flower-painted vase
of orchids in her hands. She went to the cess-
pool, filled the vase with fresh water and started
to go back, humming a barbaric native *plena*.
Half-way she stopped. "Oh!" Turning, she
came and sat beside me, gazing at the lurid
picture on the back of a London Tid-Bit.

"Enrique," she whispered, "me no vex-y por
you. Me like por you berry, berry much. But
Mme. Chili, she tell por me no likee you. You
no good, she tell por me. You *Chumbito*, she

say; but me no like Mme. Chili. She too big, too
much-ee de lady por me, me no like. . . . You
no vex por me, Enrique? No?"

"Why should I, Maria?"

"Next week me go marry por you, Enrique,
and then we go tell Mme. Chili—"

"Maria!"

"Senora!"

She was gone.

II.

One day a wooden-legged man by the name
of Baxter called and sat at the top of the stairs
talking in soft, earnest tones to Maria. He was
a tall, bearded man, as black as the ebony lignum
vitae he carried, and a more ragged creature I
had never seen before. There was something fa-
miliar about that man. As I looked at him I
was sure I had seen him somewhere before.
Vainly I ransacked my brain trying to "place"
him. Finally, a few days later, as soon as he
had left her, I asked Maria who he was.

"My father," she promptly told me. Her
father? That black, rare-lipt creature? I was
inclined to think not. Moreover, the man spoke
English—perfect English. There wasn't the slight-
est trace of either Spanish or Indian in him.
Black as tar, there was no question as to his
ethnic oneness. As I sat and thought it over I
mentally concluded that it was one of the mul-
tiple mysteries to do with this gay Cholo girl.

The next day, while strolling down the water-
front, I ran into an old gold-digger from Berbice.
Here was a man who had spent the greater part
of his life ore-hunting, a man known at half a
dozen sea-ports on the Caribbean. In him was
personified the very spirit of wanderlust. This
time, he confided, he had just come up from the
Valley of the Cauca in the interest of an ar-
chaeologic expedition.

"But I am anxious to go to Darien. I had
a long talk with an engineer who has been up
there and he tells me there is an army of pros-
pectors bound for the interior. Then, there is
this here Pearl Island. I have got to get a peek
at that. Between these two surely I ought to
find enough to interest me until the *Husaco* comes
along."

"Perhaps," I said, "but you can't lay too much
stress on these crazy rumors. There is a great
deal of gold in Panama, but as long as I have
been here I haven't heard of anyone who has
found any of it."

"Well, that is true, but you never can tell,
my boy."

"Yes, they say—"

"Say," he interrupted, looking down the street.
"Well, if that isn't Br'r Goat."

"Who?"

"Br'r Goat. Don't you remember him? That
is he, all right. Well, well, to think that that
old son-of-a-gun is down here. I wonder how
he got here."

In the white hot sun at the entrance to the

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179

Royal Mail wharf there was Br'r Goat, the man who Maria told me was her father. Far back in my boyhood days I recalled a sordid picture of this freak of nature. On the banks of the Essequibo. I had heard a lot about him and his relations with the East Indians who infested the East Coast. Once he was implicated in the disappearance of a "coolie" princess, but that was neither here nor there. From that time the pseudonym by which he had become known stuck to him. But many a Rod Street school boy had his "mud-head" broken if his legs did not carry him fast enough from the scene of jumping Br'r Goat.

"Let's go down and talk to him," suggested Sanford. "I'd like to hear what the old beggar has to say for himself."

Before I could raise a finger in protest he had started and the only thing to do, I suppose, was to trot along. At the gate Br'r Goat had stopped, ostensibly to light his pipe. That he had seen us I had not the slightest shadow of a doubt, and as I looked into the smouldering depths of his lurking black eyes I am certain I was right. I don't think I ever saw such terrible, cat-like eyes in all my life. They ate into one's soul, saw beyond every act, interpreted every gesture. Eyes that tore the veil from one's inmost thoughts, eyes that saw in terms of motives, not actions. Of everything else I was oblivious. The color of his skin, the shape of his nose, his eyelids, his mouth, his chin, all these I saw and saw not. Only one thing stuck in my brain and that was the way those eyes bored into me, how they actually mesmerized me. I dared not look away. During all the talk that followed he never once took his eyes off mine. ... Yes, he had shipped out on a schooner at Trinidad, stopping at Santa Cruz and Curacao. He had come to the isthmus bent on getting a job with the Commission at Gatun or as a railroad hand in Cristobal. Yes, he liked the place all right, although the rain brought back his old backaches. Those awful rheumatic pains laid him up for days some times. No, he hadn't been there very long, and he was getting to like the place pretty well. Very few friends from Majica he had met during his stay on the isthmus, and these didn't interest him. Where did the old folks he knew back home hang out?

III.

"Enrique," said Maria to me the next morning, "Enrique, me—me—me—want-y por spikkoty you."

I was taken back at the look I saw in the girl's flushed face. Eyes red, lips swollen, Maria had been crying—crying her heart out. Alarmed, I jumped out of my hammock, knocked the ashes out of my pipe, and prepared for something desperately out of the ordinary. She sat on the goat-upholstered bench beside me, clasped her knee in her beaded hands, and looked up into my face.

"Tell me, Maria," I said, "tell me, what is the trouble?"

"Me no want-ee por go back to the mountains. San Blas too far from Colon. In Colon jew have nice dress, nice music in de park, el teatro, el carnival, and," she added slyly, "Enrique. Mme. Chili, she no know 'bout this. Suppose she know," and she shrugged her shoulders feebly, "suppose she know she go fret, maybe she go beat me."

"But who is taking you back to the mountains, Maria?"

"My padre, he go take me back, manana."

"Manana?"

"A las siete por la manana."

That white-slaver of a father of hers, I suspected, was up to some of his old dirty tricks!

"Listen, Maria, how is it that this man, Br'r—Baxter, I mean—how is it that he is your father—and he is so different, so unlike you?"

"Me no know, me no know." She shrugged her slender shoulders indifferently. "Mme. Chili, she tell me he fuh my papa, but what do I know?"

"But surely you must have some recollection of your past, Maria. Don't you know where you were born, and who your parents were?"

"Me no know," she used the first thing that came to her mouth, "me no know."

"Try, try and go back a bit. Tell me, where did you first come to know this Baxter—your father?"

"Oh, not berry, berry long. Let me see, me think—"

"I think, Maria."

"Yes, I—I—think it was a little before you came por live here. One day I went to the market por buy *pescow* por Mme. Chili, and as I go 'cross Bolivar Street dis man come to me and say 'Maria, Maria!' Me look, and him say, 'You no know fuh you papa, Maria?' and started por cry. I no notice him and 'im follow me home. Him come and spikkoty Mme. Chili, then Mme. Chili call por me and say 'Maria, dis por yuh papa.' Me no know no more."

"I am going straight to Mme. Chili and ask her," I decided impulsively. "I am sure there is a misunderstanding somewhere."

"Please, Enrique," Maria entreated, "please, no go to Mme. Chili, she go beat me."

Right. Moreover, very little was to be gained by taking the bull by the horns at this early stage of the game.

"Never mind, Maria," I assured her. "Never mind, Enrique go fix por you."

A wave of hope swept over her brown, primitive face. Impulsively she caught my hand, and sloth that I was, had fastened a kiss on it before I could prevent her.

As I started to go down the steps I saw Mme. Chili, clad in utmost black, hurrying down in front of me. Ever since I had been a lodger in the house I had not once seen her in street attire, and the mere fact of her going out was in itself an

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event. But clad in black, and acting as nervously and as mysteriously as she did, made the matter all the more important. Should I follow her? So far I had no definite plan as regards the predicament in which Maria was placed, and, curiosity-bound, I decided to trail her just for the fun of it. The good *senora*, heavily veiled, kept close to the side of the buildings as she sped along. At Eighth Street she turned in the direction of the Cosmopolitan Hotel. As it so happened, Sanford was stopping there and I had a pretty good reason, I felt, in entering it. The Cosmopolitan Hotel is one of those places in Latin America which boast of being built under the "European plan"—whatever that is. Its rooms are separated by walls so thin that it was possible to sit in one room and hear all that went on in the next. At any rate, I was just in time to see Mme. Chili enter one facing Front Street. Now if my friend from Berbice had had his right next to it, I could have entered, and by reason of its "European construction" listened to all that was said in it. But, alas, no such fortune was in store for me, and all I had to do was to trot up and down the porch for a full half hour, practically helpless. One thing I found out, though, and that was that the room Mme. Chili had entered was occupied by a wooden-legged man by the name of Baxter!

## IV.

Desperate, I ran down the street. Two things I was firmly convinced of. Baxter was not Maria's father, and Mme. Chili knew it!

It was a busy day for the merchants. Scores of American tourists and horn-eyed "scientists," en route to New Zealand, had brought a harvest to the city. The bazaars and jewelry stores and places where curios and canal stones and sharks' teeth were bought drew the largest crowds. Out of the conglomeration of Duque ticket vendors and tourists and inquisitive bystanders, I recognized a man I wanted to see more than anyone else in the world—Julio Jiminez.

"Hello, Julio," I cried, "what are you doing for yourself these days?"

"For cry sake, Sr. Martin! I wanted to see you very badly the other day. Where are you living now? I was up at the Arjona Club the other night and I proposed you for membership, just as I told you I was going to. Dr. Arjona is bound to loom big in the coming election, as the people are sick and tired of the vacillating policies of Pobras and Lefevre. We want a man who is going to interpret the will of the people and not be afraid to express it, a man to tell the gringoes they must live up to the provisions of the treaty and not overrun our cities with hostile marines."

The same old Julio. A violent patriot, he was ever yelping about the Imperialism of the United States, of the child-like leadership of the Republic's statesmen, dreaming of the time when the young radicals would overthrow the "capitalist traitors"

and send him to Paris or Rome with the rank of Ambassador. Extraordinary. As I looked at his diminutive figure, his mulatto face, his immaculate duck and spotless shoes, I wondered whether he had become so bigoted, so pig-headed, as to be beyond the reaches of my plan.

"Yes, we missed you badly," he continued. "We wanted you to be on that *Junta* that went to the capital a few days ago to wait on His Excellency. This is going to be a big year for the Liberals, I tell you, and we want you to come around. The other night he had a *baile* and we missed you very much. Those Burgo girls were there and they were asking about you."

"I tell you, frankly, Julio, I have been so doggone busy these days I haven't been able to go anywhere."

"Yes, I imagine so. For cry sake, man, I saw in *La Estrella* where you had taken over Ban- ton's cocoanut interests around the coast, and I suppose that is enough to keep anybody busy."

"Say, Julio," I cried at last, "I want you to do me a favor—a pretty big favor."

"Well, that is what I've been willing to do for a long time. I shall never forget that you once got me out of a serious hole, and I always insisted I owe you a debt of gratitude. As I told you once before, I am at your command—always."

I looked at him, noted the firmness of his mouth, the steady glitter of his eyes, the sin- cerity with which he said it.

"But this," I frowned, "is a pretty big thing to ask of any man, and I wish you'd see your way to do it. Julio, I am up a tree. I know a little Cholo girl who is about to be sold into slavery by a man posing as her father. The lady she is living with is in a measure implicated in it, and the only way out as far as I can see is to marry the girl. Marry her off to some responsible man who will protect her. Julio—will you do it?"

The boy's eyes flew open. I hated to think I was making capital out of a debt he felt he owed me, but what else could I do? *I myself was out of the running!*

"But I've got to have time to think it over. For cry sake, man, you must not forget that I and Helena have been going together for some time. Give me about a day or so."

"No, I am sorry, Julio, but I've got to have your decision within the hour."

"For cry sake."

"I know it's tough, Julio. It is a pretty serious thing to ask of any man, but that girl is practically friendless, and that white-slaver is going to take her away tomorrow at sunrise. Let us go and take her to the *alcalde* and get a license. I don't think you will like the girl, but for pity sake help me to shield her a while until this skunk is convinced she is in safe hands. Then, of course, we will see if we can't get you out of it."

"From anybody else this would be preposterous," he snapped, "but I am with you. Let's go."

OPPORTUNITY

JUNE, 1924

# The Migration: A Northern View

By EMMETT J. SCOTT

THE EFFECT of the migration has been to bring to the North new and difficult problems. In some sections there has been much exploitation. At the same time many of these untutored people have found themselves suddenly intoxicated with the freedom of northern, eastern and western centers and in some instances have seemed to mistake liberty and freedom for license. It is well to state, however, that general observation bears out the statement that, in the main, these migrants have proved law-abiding, industrious citizens who are anxious to improve their general social condition.

In undertaking to fill the places in northern industry formerly occupied by skilled and unskilled European labor, it was to be expected that the Negro would meet with difficulties. These difficulties were experienced not only in his work but in connection with his social position as well.

Discussing this subject recently Mr. E. V. Wilcox, one of the editors of *The Country Gentleman*, in a broadcast message, said:

"The mecca of this great Negro pilgrimage is found in the industrial cities, especially in Pittsburgh, Akron, Detroit, Chicago, Cincinnati, St. Louis, Indianapolis, Philadelphia, Buffalo, Bridgeport, etc. These people are going mostly into mining, packing, steel and rubber industries, the building trades, and highway construction. What happens to the Negro when he comes North? Within two months he is apparently just as much at home in the steel mill as he previously had been in the cotton field. Perhaps the first thing the newcomer learns is thrift. He realizes that it costs more to live in Detroit than down in the Yazoo Delta. He at once begins to save money. About 80 per cent of the colored people in Detroit have bank accounts, and 50 per cent of them carry life insurance. In many northern cities Negroes are rapidly buying homes. More than 50 per cent of the colored homes in Boston have been bought since 1918. How does the Negro fit into northern cities? Big employers say that they like him better than alien laborers. The Negro is tractable, adaptable, sometimes shiftless, but becoming more thrifty, and is always in good honour. The fact that he speaks English is a big point in his favor."

Following the close of the great World War, agitation was made for national legislation to restrict alien immigration. This was said to have been a reaction growing out of the experiences of this country during the war when it found that there was such a large alien population which could not be counted upon as substantial defenders of our country in time of war. The legislation enacted by the Congress of the United

States, according to Honorable Elbert H. Gary, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the U. S. Steel Corporation, closed up the avenues of labor supply for American industries. A statement to this effect was issued by Mr. Gary early in 1923, following his return from Europe, when he said that the operation of the new regulations regarding immigration were bringing about a serious labor shortage in American industries. In a telegram at that time, I called Mr. Gary's attention to the fact that there are in this country twelve million colored people; that eight million of these twelve million are in the South; that they are citizens of the Republic; that they are tied to a one crop system and oppressed by economic conditions that hinder and prevent their fullest development and the enjoyment of the guaranteed privilege of American citizenship. I also pointed out that they possess strong bodies and have a genuine patriotic attachment to American institutions; that they are in a position to supply the labor shortage to which he referred if plans be undertaken, on a large and important scale, to transfer them to centers where their services are needed. I also added that it seems unnecessary to look to foreign shores to supply any labor shortage that may exist in American industries when there is this large and sympathetic group so easily within reach. These colored Americans are not aliens; they have never sought to disrupt the Government nor do they harbor bolshevistic or anarchistic ideals. They are ready and willing to help develop the resources of their country.

This telegram was broadcast by the Associated Press and evoked both favorable and unfavorable criticism on the part of northern and southern editors and hundreds of others. One of the criticisms came from a Mr. John M. Gibbs, Secretary-Treasurer of the North Carolina Pine Association, Norfolk, Virginia, in which he objected to the suggestion that southern Negro labor be used in northern industries, on the ground that the Negro is needed in the South.

It is not necessary for me to quote in detail the answer sent to Mr. Gibbs aside from calling his attention to the fact that I advised him that the Negro is no longer content to accept the intolerable conditions to which he has been subjected in the past and a lowered wage at the same time. I also called his attention to the vagrancy laws of the South which are invoked to intimidate Negro laborers and force them to work under oppressive conditions. I felt compelled to say to him that if unwillingness to work under these restrictive and dehumanizing conditions is to be interpreted as a shortage of labor, then, if there is not a shortage of labor in the lumber camps and

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the other industries of the South, there should be
such a shortage. Finally, I felt compelled to add
that it is the duty of colored people, wherever op-
portunity offers, to leave those sections where
lynchings and peonage are practiced upon them
with impunity.

The bulk of the colored people of the South
will not be transferred to the North. The prob-

lem of the races in America will not be wholly
settled by the present migration movement. Un-
doubtedly, however, barriers are being broken
down, the race is being liberated industrially, and
the Negro has given evidence of his willingness
as a patriotic American to serve the nation in-
dustrially as he has served it upon so many other
occasions during its periods of stress and storm.

*From an address delivered before the Annual Conference of the National Urban League*

Some Happy Results of Race Contacts

By L. HOLLINGSWORTH WOOD

ENTIRELY aside from the beautiful personal
friendships which have come to me from my
contacts with the Negro race and which have come
to me also among whites on account of my inter-
est in the question of race and the patriotic effort
to find a solution there are, I feel, great and happy
results which have come from race contacts.

(I hope no one will feel that I have forgotten
or failed to note the many grievous sins against
the Negro and against their own souls of which
white people have been guilty and are today still
guilty).

For the Negro the situation between the races
stimulates to a most fundamental honesty. I do
not mean merely the honesty which is negative,
desisting from pilfering or larger theft, honesty
in the legal sense, but honesty of thought, of
intellectual endeavor and of purpose. The willing-
ness on the part of the Negroes to be tried by
the regular standards, not standards developed
for Negroes; the sacrifices they make for a stan-
dard education, not an education good enough for
Negroes; the exasperation which we feel with
people who make excuses for Negroes because
they are Negroes—all these point to a funda-
mental honesty and an appreciation of things
honest which is, I think, a happy result.

The achievement of Negroes in any field must
be on a basis of complete honesty, or the preju-
diced and the traducer of the race will be quick
to point out the defects. In Kipling's clever
phrase, Negroes who achieve today must "fill the
unforgiving minute full of sixty seconds worth of
distance run."

This same situation compels the Negro to an
extraordinary resourcefulness. He feels that he
must achieve on the best standards and to do so
from the meager background from which he so
often starts is to require extraordinary exertion
on the boot-straps in default of any pull from
above.

May I illustrate with the story of the woman
from Georgia who with six children decided to
go to Detroit? Arriving there the problems of
housing confronted her, complicated not only by
the color of her skin but with the unescapable
fact of six growing children. After two days of
unsuccessful effort, always meeting the question:

"Have you any children?" as the final obstacle to
get a satisfactory home, she left the children one
morning in the churchyard, playing among the
graves, and went to the nearest real estate office.
Satisfactory rooms were discovered. On meeting
the inevitable question, a choked voice replied:
"I done left ma six children in the churchyard."
Negotiations satisfactory completed. Mother re-
turns to graveyard and unparks her temporary
dead and lives happily ever afterward in this
newly rented home.

No matter what allowances one makes for the
spiritual and material progress of the Negro in
Africa, or what value we put on the different
standards by which progress is judged it still re-
mains true that no race has ever made the prog-
ress that the Negro in the United States has made
since 1861, and which he had commenced to make,
of course, long before that period. The way in
which he has examined and appraised the white
man's civilization about him and discovered the
good as inevitably as some of his racial brothers
have practiced the bad must be put down in
part at least in the happy results of race contact.

Change of environment may have had a lot to
do with it. But the stimulus of competition and
example has, it seems to me, been the prepondering
cause. Facing the hypocrisy all too prevalent
in the white man's Christian church, the Negro
has appropriated the beautiful flame which keeps
the church alive despite its unreal trappings and
has achieved a beautiful conception of the Chris-
tian religion. He has in spite of the denials of
its privileges sensed a great central truth in
American democracy and has achieved a great
faith in the possibility of a man rising from the
bottom to the top and in spite of evidence mul-
tipled on all sides to the contrary, young America,
no matter what the color of his skin, feels within
him the conviction that he may be President of
the United States.

Story: The son of a very dear colored friend of mine said to his little sister the other day at the breakfast table:—the boy is twelve years old—"I think I will be President of the United States some day." And she laughed and said: "No, you won't; no Negro is ever President of the United States." And he answered: "Well, I was only born a few years ago."

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handle a weekly business of $1700. The pro-
prietor, one learns, is also the Principal of a
school. Harry O. Wilson's Bank is another sur-
vivor of two other sad failures in banking. But
this institution, called the Mutual Benefit So-
ciety, dominated by a family, is strong and healthy.
Rattle of typewriters and adding machines, pol-
ished wood and gleaming steel cages, the soft hur-
ried tread of busy girls with serious faces, give
a comfortable feeling of security. The president
welcomes the visitors without rising and without
emotion and turns back to the signing of checks.

Darting about solicitously with the party is a
stalwart, angular man who might have been a
farmer. "That's Burton, the clothing store
man," someone volunteers. We go to his store,
—the first evidence that Negroes will buy clothes
from other Negroes, and learn that he does a
yearly business of $100,000. They can get credit
if they need it—there are other things besides
clothes. "Yes, we sell furniture," shouts a sign.
He goes out after business—four men on the
road, three trucks, seven employees in the store.
Burton makes a living. Tom Smith joins the
party. He owns the Smith Hotel and knows
enough voters to keep the Governor polite to
him. A queer personality is Smith.—modest,
feared, worldly wise, and almost maudlin in his
generosity. The Royal Palace Hotel makes trou-
ble for itself with its name. It is too neat a hos-
telry to garnish itself with such verbal regalia.
It is one of the few surviving hotels for Negroes
in the country. We pass a huge half finished
stone structure spread over a full block—the new
colored High School. "We've been working for
this six years," announces our guide. "The old
building has 1500 students and a capacity of only
500." Sharp Street M E. Church Community
House is a stately new stone building planted
against the Church. The rooms still echo when
they should be filled. "The problem of the
Community House," says the director, profession-
ally, "is how to attract the people of the com-
munity."

There are only four hours for Baltimore. Then
Washington.

In the snug comfort of the smoking-room, C.
C. Spaulding, of the North Carolina Mutual, is
tempted to philosophize about financial success
and race relations. "When you men get to Dur-
ham you will find something that will surprise
you—you'll find the white people polite, and
why? It's because colored people there have
something they want, and they are not dependent
and can hold their heads up. You'll be surprised
when I tell you that we have no trouble getting
Pullman accommodations around in the South
from Durham. Why, the white people are
ashamed to have respectable looking Negroes ride
in 'Jim Crow' cars. . . .

"You will find Negroes in Durham living
in some of the select residential areas and nobody
making any fuss about it. . . . Over in Balti-

more they have been throwing bombs. I be-
lieve sometimes that Negroes have segregated
themselves to get their property together. . . .
Where you have a community of self-respecting
Negroes doing business with the rest of the town
on equal terms with them and able to back up
their economic demands, you'll get the respect
of the white people—we get it in Durham."

***

Every fourth person in Washington is a
Negro. They are deeper shadows in the shadow
of the Capitol. Decrepit framework homes of
Negroes sprout about the severe immaculacy of
government buildings like unsightly waste. The
real homes, we are told, are North West.

The reception committee is a representative
group. "There's the man who controls the Red
Cab Company—he has 49 cars. And that's Mr.
Mitchell, head of the Masons," someone is say-
ing. "Over there is Dudley, who owns the
Howard Theater. That tall, slim, youngish fel-
low coming up is Mortimer Harris—yes, he's
colored—a real estate man who can think in big
figures."

A man points toward the round top of the
Capitol as the cars swing by and snickers some-
thing about its "teapot dome." There is a mild
stir in the town because a delegation of colored
women had just waited on President Coolidge pro-
testing against the rumored possibility of the ap-
pointment of an Inter-racial Commission. We
stop at Mortimer Harris' office on F Street—
that's downtown. He tells you he is collecting
rents on properties valued at $700,000. Out on
the skirts of the district he is building 15 modern
homes—eight-room houses to sell as homes. He
points at them with an awful carelessness and
remarks: "That's a $200,000 operation of ours."
A Negro architect designed them after an Eng-
lish village pattern. The family of the "better
class" who moves in will pay out from $14,000
to $17,000. "Where'll they get it? Oh, they'll
get it—the terms are reasonable."

The National Benefit Life Insurance Company
has outgrown its habiliments. One moves through
a maze of desks and files, wire caging, stacks of
records and supplies at an oblique angle. Girls
are busy—there is a dominant tone of brown,—
the old ones feign indifference to the visitors but
their extravagant gestures of application betray
a heavy consciousness, perhaps a bored one; the
younger ones giggle and steal glances and do any
job in the path of their retreat. There are 160
of them in a small building. They are working
on two shifts until they get more space. Here
at least is justification for the business colleges.
S. W. Rutherford, the president, talks excitedly
and his walk is like something charging. He points
to the most recent addition to the equipment—
"We have $25,000 worth of adding machines in
this room," and he is off again talking about the
accuracy of his records.

A booklet points out that the company has

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150,000 policyholders and 22 million dollars of insurance in force.

The Washington homes seldom break their rigid regimentation. They seem to have been built in units. Behind this interminable sameness is an interminable variety of delightfully individual tastes. Their homes inside express them.

"Our people are buying homes here and businesses, too."

There is a block solid with new businesses—tall, gray slab fronts, shining new paint, intersticed with rejuvenated dwellings. One of the guides addresses the group with a Ciceronian tremolo: "All around you now, gentlemen, are Negro owned businesses in Negro owned buildings. Yes, sir, this whole block—both sides of the street." Then an enthusiastic mumble about defeating the segregation laws by wedging out the white blood suckers.

Murray Brothers' remarkable printing establishment, covering the ground floor of the no less remarkable Murray Building, ought to turn out good work—they have the equipment.

One distinctive claim that the Whitelaw Hotel can make is that it was built to be a hotel—it is not a remodeled anything. One can get comfortable lodging and a good meal there. The art decorations strike the more sensitive visitors rather violently. If the paintings can be judged by the discussion they get—these are remarkable.

There is a quiet grace about Howard University. "Reared against the Eastern sky," as the Alma Mater song runs, it stands like the Acropolis,—meditatively on a hill top.

It is Saturday and only a few students are moving about, but where do these get their posture of smug enlightenment? The institution holds some well known personalities who "give off" without limit live radium. Dr. E. E. Just might be mistaken for one of the students. His degree was earned in a research laboratory—a genuine scientist. We pass the Kraal of Kelly Miller of the Sanhedrin; of the suave and competent Dr. Emmett J. Scott, Secretary and Treasurer of the institution; of Alain Locke, a leader of the young intellectuals; of Gregory, Woodward, Holmes, Fischer and E. C. Williams. Howard is nursing the sprout of a good idea.

C. W. Banton, the cashier of the Prudential Bank, explains that they began business because there was no institution in Washington for handling Negroes' money. "We're young yet," he said, waving proudly at his vault, "but this is our building and we've got an authorized capital of $200,000."

Dinner and much speaking at the Whitelaw Hotel and off again for Richmond, Virginia.

This once militant old seat of the Confederacy, with its State Capitol facing the South, has some 54,000 or more Negroes.

It is Sunday, but the enthusiastic home town business men will open up their places.

The gray towers of Virginia University are the introduction to the town. The somberly solid New England granite from the distance melts into the gray morning. Charles T. Russell, one of the professors, superintendent of grounds, and an architect with a million dollars worth of buildings in the State to his credit, is leading the party. "Since the war," he explains, "the students have developed a new psychology. They are not so easily regimented." He is not sure that he can get a representative assembly of students to meet the visitors. . . . About the campus, these students move as if in abstraction. Perhaps it is the gray walls. . . . One notes age contrasts.

There is a college, an academic and a theological department. A law department is being established. Professor Barco laments the slump in recruits for the ministry. . . . The school has just been granted a Grade "A" rating, we are told.

We pass the Hartshorn College for girls,—an oblong, vine covered building, once serenely aloof, now shadowed and fumed by an enormous tobacco factory.

Around Second and Leigh Streets Negro business pivots, only three blocks from Broad Street, and in the line of the town's spread. Time is multiplying values. Just off the corner is the Southern Aid Society, an organization over 30 years old with assets of $662,000. They have just completed a new building. On another corner is the St. Luke's Bank. It has lived in quite good health through several disasters to local banking institutions and to community confidence. The party halts a moment while the leader explains to an excited old lady that nothing is happening to the bank but a friendly inspection by visitors. So much for the force of precedent.

The home building of the St. Luke's Benefit Society has the personality of Maggie L. Walker, its founder. It is a woman's building,—new, cleverly designed, and solid. Here is evidence for the skeptics that a woman can be a successful administrator of enormous interests without becoming a hysterical man. There is an undeniable personal solicitude in the services of her company. Volume of business? To date they have paid out $1,123,455 in "death claims."

There are other businesses. Ten cars line up to spin around the city. They pass row on row of red, brick front Negro homes—the residence area is spreading towards the center of town—most unusual. They cross the viaduct into the muddy, weatherbeaten unsightliness of "poor white folks'" homes. There's food for thought and comparison. The bottoms of Jackson Ward, where the poorest Negroes live, yield nothing worse. The cars clear into a park on a promontory overlooking the James. A white girl nudges her mate and in amazement shouts: "Great day in the morning!"

(These notes will be continued in the July issue.)

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# INTER-RACIAL FORUM

HARRY T. BURLEIGH in the Brooklyn, N. Y., *Eagle*: "Think of a garden where flowers of all colors flourish side by side. Each added color is an added beauty to the garden. Why cannot this be so with people?"

In the New York *World* Paul Barish says: "Breeding race hatred in a country like the grand U. S. A. is a disgrace and a dishonor to the founders and lovers of liberty. Liberty is meant for all, without regard to race, color or creed."

Robert W. Bagnall in the Minneapolis, Minn., *Journal*: "America never can be a real democracy until justice and fair play are granted Negroes."

From a story told by Prof. J. P. King in the Salina, Kan., *Journal*: "A Negro and a white man had gone hunting. They scared up a buffalo which immediately gave chase. The white man mounted the first available tree. The Negro rushed into a cave. Out he came, to be chased back by the buffalo. The performance was repeated until finally the white man cried: 'Nigger, don't you know as long as you come out that buffalo will chase you back?' 'White man, don't you know there's a bear in that cave?' answered the unfortunate black. That is much the present status of the Negro,—there's a buffalo in front, a bear behind, and a white man up in the tree talking down."

The Kansas City, Mo., *Star*: "That there should be so large a shift of population in a single year with a minimum of friction and mal-adjustment is a reliable indication of the growth of racial harmony in the United States."

Harry E. Barnes in the *American Mercury*: "As a matter of truth, it can scarcely be shown that, even as between the three major races, there is any proof of comprehensive superiority. Racial superiority or inferiority is as yet as undemonstrable as hellfire or the immortality of the soul. The Chinese had a genial and urban civilization of respectable antiquity when our Nordic ancestors were drinking the blood of their enemies out of human skulls, and the Negro exhibits a marked superiority over the white race in meeting the requirements of the environment in which he was differentiated and to which he is adjusted."

Monroe N. Work in *The Southern Workman*: "As long as there is a Negro problem in America the South is in political slavery, unable to vote her mind about matters of national and international importance. When the time comes that the Negro problem is no longer a sectional problem but, in so far as it is a problem at all, a national problem, then, indeed, will the Southern country be free."

# POT POURRI

## As To Racial Superiority

THEORIES of racial superiority as among the white peoples were lightly brushed aside by the anthropologists who threshed out the subject at one of the sessions of the American Philosophical Society in Philadelphia last week. On the question of the innate superiority of the white races over the black races there was a much sharper division of opinion.

The case against the colored race was most forcibly presented by H. U. Hall, curator of ethnology in the museum of the University of Pennsylvania. He stressed the point that the Negro tribes of Africa are constitutionally defective in will power and in the sense of individual responsibility. This is shown by their universal submission to the autocratic rule of tribal chieftains and medicine men. Part of Mr. Hall's argument deserves to be quoted verbatim:

> In the region of the Upper Nile, among such tribes as the Bari, the Lakuta and others, the magicians, whose principal function is that of rain-making, are the chiefs. Rain is the one thing which matters to the people in those districts; for if it does not come down

> at the right time, this means that their animals and their crops, their only resources, are destroyed. These chiefs, the rain-makers, have various ways of producing rain. One may have a collection of rain-stones such as rock crystals and amethysts. These he plunges into water and, taking a cane, beckons with it to the clouds, accompanying his gesture with an incantation.

This evidence would seem to be convincing. But in all fairness it should be compared with the discoveries made by a recent scientific expedition of Bari and Lakuta natives in another continent. The report of this expedition reads in part:

> In the region of the Upper Mississippi and its major tributaries, among such tribes as the Wisconsians, the Illinoisans, the Indianians and the Non-Partisan tribes of Minnesota and the Dakotas, the custom is to select every four years a chieftain, resident at the national kraal called Washington, whose chief function is to make rain, develop a high production of sun-light, ward off cyclones, and in every other way promote the growth of the crops and the hogs upon which these tribes depend for their subsistence. If climatic conditions have been unfavorable under a chieftain of one great clan, known as the Republicans, the tribesmen replace him with a chieftain from another clan, known as the Democrats, and vice versa. The Republicans have amassed a large collection of magic rain-stones, such as Home Markets, American Standards of Living, Foreign Pau-

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per Labor, etc. When the kettle begins to boil, once every four years, they plunge these magic stones into the hot water and, taking up a magician's wand, known as the Tariff, they perform incantations with it, and immediately the rain begins to fall, the crops begin to burgeon, and the hogs begin to fatten like anything.

Racial dissimilarities should not be allowed to blind us to certain like-mindedness which characterizes the human race everywhere.

New York TIMES.

## Harry T. Burleigh

It has been brilliant personality as much as musical ability that has won for Harry T. Burleigh, a Negro, both the coveted position of bariitone soloist at St. George's Protestant Episcopal Church, Manhattan, and the sincere esteem with which he is regarded by all members of both the congregation and the choir.

The high arches of the church are wrapped in shadows, the stained glass windows show dully in the sunless late afternoon. A few dark forms shift in the dark recesses of the pews. Suddenly a distant chorus of singing voices is heard. It comes nearer. A procession of white-frocked boys appears, their little faces lifted as their tender voices quaver on the still air. They are followed by a group of maidens, white-frocked, too, with black caps surmounting their waxen faces. They take their places in the choir seats, now illumined by unseen light. Little girls in blue vestments with white Puritan hoods upon their heads follow in the procession. Then tall men, white-garmented, and singing with strong, melodious voices. The procession is ended with a single striking figure whose mellow voice is heard above the rest. The figure of Harry T. Burleigh, Burleigh, the mulatto.

It is not long before the full, rich tones of the mulatto's voice are heard through the still majesty of the church:

"Could ye not watch with Me one brief hour?

Could ye not pity My sorest need?

Ah, if ye sleep while the tempests lower,

Surely, My friends, I am lone indeed."

His voice swells and recedes, tenderly, reverently. Soon the chorus of the choir sings, seventy voices in rising and falling cadences. But dominant through the vesper singing is the full voice of Burleigh.

After the service you go to speak with him. He meets you graciously; his dusky face lights with kindly wrinkles.

"I'm glad you like my singing," he says, but his conversation is broken off by a group of admirers who have come to shake hands with him. The one group is displaced by another, eager for a word from the musician. He greets them with equal enthusiasm and friendliness.

"Carrie, I haven't seen you for years. It is good of you to come and hear me," he says to one.

"I held Carrie in my arms when she was a baby," he explains.

An old friend brings up some strangers to in-

troduce to the musician, that they might understand and appreciate the personality of the man. The pastor comes up.

"That was fine, Burleigh. You are a great man."

You are struck with a sense of unreality, of fantasy. Pale white faces smiling, white hands shaking the strong dark one, white personalities encompassed by the greatness of the colored man.

You are anxious to find the reason, to know the secret of his popularity. Finally, the last stragglers of the host of admirers have shaken his hand and departed. Only a mulatto girl lingers in the shadows. He takes you to a pew next to that of J. Pierpont Morgan. At last you may talk uninterruptedly.

"If my work will do anything to bridge over the chasm that exists between the white and the colored race," he begins, "it will not have been in vain. We are all brothers, why do we not live together as brothers?"

"The whites have strange misconceptions about the Negroes," he continued. "Take music, for instance. They accept the Negro jazz, and think that it is all there is to their music. The colored race is nothing more than a group of wandering minstrels, according to the opinions of many whites." His face lights suddenly. "But they are beginning to wake up. They begin to see that they are neglecting a musical gold-mine in not recognizing more of the Negro music."

On March 30, a full program of Negro Spirituals arranged by Mr. Burleigh was given at St. George's to celebrate his thirty years' membership of the choir. It was at this service that people were turned away from the doors because of the astonishing numbers attending.

"I hope I have been able in some measure to help the public to understand that spiritual songs are not minstrels, but are serious anthems in which the spiritual feeling of a race finds expression. It is too bad that the prejudice of the white race has caused them to neglect this music for so long. It has been their loss. But if they accept it and assimilate it, it will give new vigor to American music."

Marion T. Byrnes in the
Brooklyn, N. Y., EAGLE.

## In the South

The migrations have brought the race question to the fore. In most of this discussion free admission has been made that Negroes in southern communities have labored under handicaps which are unnecessary and unjust, and which justice-loving men must join in removing. Southern colleges are tackling this work as a part of their regular tasks, and about seventy southern colleges are now giving courses in some phase of race relations. Students are keenly interested and ready to face the question with open-mindedness and sympathy. In two of the States there is

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a definite effort to introduce into the grade and high schools some course that will give to white children in their early years a proper attitude to their colored fellow citizens. The migrations will make it very much easier to get school authorities to consider such projects. Economic leaders are alert and the outcome will undoubtedly be improved economic conditions for Negroes. Federal farm loans will hereafter be much more easily available to Negroes struggling to acquire lands. The improvement of Negro schools has been greater this year than in any other. The lynching record for the nation is about half what it was in 1922. A movement for justice in the petty courts is led by an ex-governor. Savannah had been dominated by a ring which gave a wet and inefficient government. An independent candidate was put out by indignant citizens. Members of the Commission on Inter-racial Cooperation discovered that twenty-two hundred Negroes were registered and qualified to vote. In spite of some efforts to intimidate the timid and to corrupt the unscrupulous, almost a solid block of Negro votes was cast for the good-government candidate. He was elected by a majority of 2,500. The most brilliant editor in one of the blackest Southern States recently said to a group of his associates:

"You know that the present political status of the Negro cannot continue if we continue our policy of education. We must see to it that the transition is made so as to arouse the minimum of race prejudice and bring the greatest good to all concerned."

These are remarkable statements. They mean a growing recognition of both the human and the economic value of the Negro in the South, and a southern willingness to work at the perpetual problem of race adjustment in the best spirit and with a realization of how profoundly the readjustment will have to be made. The North can profitably consider some things the South is doing to promote inter-racial appreciation and justice.

Will W. Alexander in THE CHRISTIAN ADVOCATE, New York City.

### K. K. K.

Suppressed instincts, so the current psychologists tell us, have a way of bulging to the surface, no matter how tightly the inhibitory lids are screwed down.

The elaborate ritualism and nomenclature and strange regalia of the Ku Klux Klan illustrate the theory.

The Klan is essentially a Puritan organization in the narrowest sense of the word Puritan. But there is in every man's nature, even in the Puritan's nature, a desire for something romantic and adventurous and unconventional.

The Klansmen could have come out in the open with their anti-Semitism, their anti-Catholicism, their anti-Negroism; they might have organized, frankly and candidly, a political party based upon these racial and religious prejudices and hatreds.

But they preferred secrecy; the cover of darkness, mystery; the burning of fiery crosses—the craving for something picturesque through their puritanism. They wear masks and talk of Wizards; they are satisfying an ancient instinct for the romantic, consciously or unconsciously, along with their prejudices and hatreds.

But the Ku Klux Klan derives immediately from Puritanism, and back of that, very anciently, from the Gothic; the hatred of the Oriental, the Latin, the Latinized Celt, and the African is an affair of the blood and nerves. Very ancient enmities, older than the Roman empire, are trying to express themselves again in this happy and favored republic of ours, which enjoys the inestimable benefits of such a wonderful Constitution. It has always been a mistake to regard America as a land populated by new people; we are all Old World peoples, working out in a new country, in slightly different ways, the things we brought here with us. It would be one of the major triumphs of all time if we only could work them out calmly, sensibly, peacefully, tolerantly, cooperatively.

New York HERALD.

## Who's Who

Dr. Melville J. Herskovits is a Doctor of Philosophy of Columbia University, Fellow of the National Research Council, and is engaged at present in an anthropological study dealing with race crossings.

J. Milton Sampson was formerly a professor of English literature at Virginia Union University in Richmond.

Anna B. Tosee is one of the editors of the "American Child Health" magazine.

Montgomery Gregory is a professor of English at Howard University.

Eric D. Walrond is a fiction writer and essayist and contributor to several important literary and sociological publications.

Gordon H. Simpson is the Industrial Secretary of the St. Louis Urban League.

George J. Baldwin was formerly the President of the Savannah, Ga., Chamber of Commerce.

Emmett J. Scott is Secretary-Treasurer of Howard University.

L. Hollingsworth Wood is the Chairman of the National Urban League Board.

192

OPPORTUNITY

JUNE, 1924

BULLETIN BOARD

Charles West

The HONOR of being elected an alternate-at-large for the National Republican State Convention, in New York City, is Mrs. Louise M. Fayerweather's. Mrs. Fayerweather is a citizen of the 18th Assembly District, Kings County, Brooklyn, N. Y.

Charles West, of Washington and Jefferson University, has again captured the Collegiate Pentathlon. He is shown in the broad jump event, leaping 22 feet, one and one-eighth inches, and making the score of 13 points.

The first colored member of the National Board of the Y.W.C.A., in New York City, has been elected in the person of Mrs. George E. Haynes. Mrs. Haynes is a Baptist, and a member of the Colored Branch of the New York City Y.W.C.A., and the Council on Colored Work.

Eighteen men and two women formed the Business Men's Party, which recently toured the South and Middle West. The trip consumed two weeks and the following cities were visited: Baltimore, Md.; Washington, D. C.; Richmond, Va.; Durham and Raleigh, N. C.; Columbia, S. C.; Savannah and Atlanta, Ga.; Tuskegee, Montgomery and Birmingham, Ala.; Memphis and Nashville, Tenn.; Louisville, Ky.; Indianapolis, Ind.; Chicago, Ill.; Pittsburgh, Pa. The party was made up of Mrs. Maude Lawrence, Nahum D. Brascher, Claude A. Barnett, Frank Gillespie and M. Davis Carey of Chicago, Ill.; Mrs. W. R. Valentine of Bordentown, N. J.; Dr. William H. Smith of Boston, Mass.; Thomas R. Smith, Howard Venable, Truly Hatchett and William L. Fitzgerald of Baltimore, Md.; Floyd J. Snelson, Jr., of Louisville, Ky.; Payton S. Rose and Dr. S. O. Cherry of Pittsburgh, Pa.; C. C. Spaulding and J. M. Avery of Durham, N. C.; A. B. Pilkington, James H. Hubert, Charles S. Johnson and J. R. E. Lee of New York City. Mr. Lee, who is Field Secretary of the National Urban League, was the promoter of the tour.

At a recent meeting of the Council on Colored Work of the National Board of the Y. W. C. A. the following action was taken: "While a growing interpretation of brotherhood has reduced the toll of life through lynching during the last year some 50 per cent, there is still imperative need for a nation-wide campaign in education which will result not only in the enactment of laws but the enforcement of such laws.

"As law enforcement depends upon right attitudes of mind, we, the Council on Colored Work of the National Board of the Young Women's Christian Association, would urge upon our entire Association body a new and earnest effort to create right public opinion toward the complete eradication of mob violence and lynching in this country." The chairman of the Council is Mary L. Westbrook; the secretary, Eva D. Bowles.

Among the accomplishments of the New Jersey Urban League, in Newark, during the past year were 1248 industrial placements and the opening of six industrial plants to Negro workers; the handling of 111 cases, including juvenile, family, school, hospital and institutional; attendance upon 585 babies in the Well Baby Clinic; the cleaning up of 486 back-yards during the National Health Week Campaign. The staff for the League includes an executive secretary, William M. Ashby; case worker, Miss Anna L. Holbrook; matron, Miss Sally J. Adams; stenographer, Miss Estelle C. Ridley; employment secretary, Miss Emelia Vaughn.

The State Y.M.C.A. of Kentucky recently held its annual Older Colored Boys' Conference in Ashland. The purpose of these conferences is to develop the spirit of comradeship and inter-racial good will and to encourage the boys in securing the best preparation for life work. Mr. P. C. Dix and Dr. James Bond are in charge of this branch of the Y.M.C.A.

Mrs. George S. Williams, a colored woman of Savannah, Ga., has the distinction of being appointed a member of the National Committee of the Republican Party.

In Sumter, S. C., the Atlantic Coast Line Company has awarded a medal to Richard Singleton, who has completed fifty years of service. Mr. Singleton entered the employ of the company in 1870 and was retired on a pension in 1923, with a record of 53 years. He was employed as a crossing watchman.

Mary Eliza-
beth West is a
colored student
in the 1924 class
at Wellesley Col-
lege. She has
won the Durand
Scholarship, —
the highest that
Wellesley gives
—and the Phi
Beta Kappa key.

Mrs. I. M. Faverweather

["## Pythian Bath House and Sanitarium", "Knights of Pythias of N. A., S. A., E., A., A. and A.", "(Operating Under Supervision of U. S. Government)", "415 1/2 Malvern Avenue\nHot Springs Nat. Park\nArkansas", "Hot Radio-Active Water Furnished by the Government\nFor All Baths.", "Sanitarium has 10 Rooms, Diet and Operating Rooms", "Hotel has 56 Rooms; Telephone, Hot and Cold Running\nWater in Every Room.", "Bath Rates:", "21 Baths . . . $13.00 10 Baths . . . $6.50", "21 Baths to Pythians and Calantheans, $8.50", "## Students - Teachers", "### ATTENTION !!", "Everybody Interested in\nthe Intellectual Better-\nment of the Masses,", "### ATTENTION !!", "Why not become a sub-\nscription agent for OPPOR-\NTUNITY?", "Make extra money while at\nthe same time performing a\nracial service.", "Liberal commissions paid.", "We want agents through-\nout the country.", "For further particulars apply", "Business Manager", "### OPPORTUNITY", "127 East 23rd Street\nNew York City", "## SHAW UNIVERSITY", "RALEIGH, N. C.", "HAS NOW AN \"A\" COLLEGE RATED\nBY THE NORTH CAROLINA STATE\nDEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION", "Shaw University, which is co-educational, was founded in 1865 under the direction of the American Baptist Home Mission Society. It has always maintained the highest standards of scholarship and character. Thousands of young men and women graduates of the institution are filling responsible positions in almost every state in the union.", "The departments are Academic (beginning second year), College, Business, Theological, and Missionary and Social Service.", "Degrees given: B.A., B.S., and Th.B.\nTerms reasonable. Send for catalogue.", "Address", "SHAW UNIVERSITY, Raleigh, N. C.", "## MEHARRY MEDICAL COLLEGE", "A Class \"A\" College", "With Departments of Medicine, Dentistry &\nPharmacy, and a Nurse Training School", "ALL DEPARTMENTS RECENTLY\nREORGANIZED", "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\nMeharry Medical College, Nashville, Tenn.", "## 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.", "A Good School at Reasonable Rates", "For further information address\nRAY S. TOMLIN, President.", "The Daytona Normal and Industrial Institute", "at Daytona, Florida", "Under the Auspices of the", "BOARD OF EDUCATION FOR NEGROES of the\nMETHODIST 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\nFOR NURSES (Registered)", "Physical Education and Athletics Emphasized\nFor further information write", "MARY McLEOD BETHUNE - - President"]

THE NATIONAL URBAN LEAGUE

127 EAST 23rd STREET

NEW YORK CITY

A. S. FRISSELL, Treasurer

## Atlanta University

## Howard University

WASHINGTON, D. C.

### Collegiate and Professional Schools

### REGISTRATION

Spring Quarter March 14, 1925

F. D. WILKINSON, Registrar

CHARLES S. JOHNSON, Editor

Published Monthly by

NATIONAL URBAN LEAGUE

Telephone Gramercy 3978

WILLIAM H. BALDWIN
Secretary

A. S. FRISSELL
Treasurer

LESTER TAYLOR, Bus. Mgr.

VOL. 2

JULY, 1924

No. 19

Contents

COVER. Amri Masai.
*From the Drawing by*
*Walter von Ruckteschell*

EDITORIALS 194

ANOTHER VEXATION FOR THE
PSYCHOLOGISTS

THE DRAMATIST TURNS BIOLOGIST

PRESIDENT COOLIDGE AT HOWARD

TURNING THE TABLES

SUPERSTITION AND RACE

ARTICLES
I WEEP. *A Poem*
*By Angelina W. Grimke* 196

WHAT THE ARMY "INTELLIGENCE"
TESTS MEASURED
*By Horace M. Bond* 197

THE PROBLEM OF NEGROES IN
FRENCH COLONIAL AFRICA
*By Prince Kojo Tovalou*
*Houenou* 203

THE NEGRO IN THE FIELD OF
DENTISTRY. Illustrated
*By Stephen J. Lewis, D.D.S.* 207

THE SMILE OF AFRICA
*By Ernest Psichari*
*Translated from the French by*
*Edna Worthley Underwood* 212

INTER-RACIAL FORUM 216

POT POURRI 217

OUR BOOK SHELF 219

NOTES ON A TRIP WITH THE
BUSINESS MEN'S PARTY 221

BULLETIN BOARD 222

Copyright 1923

OPPORTUNITY

VOL. 2

JULY 1924

No. 19

EDITORIALS

*Another Vexation for the Psychologists*

FOR those who demand that their faiths and prejudices be supported by the plausibilities of science, there is presented a recent research which, by the most phenomenal oversight, tends to establish an unique status for Negroes. In the *Archives of Psychology*, edited by Dr. R. S. Woodworth, there is a Columbia University contribution to Philosophy and Psychology by Sante Naccarati, M.D., Sc.D., Ph.D., which discusses the "Morphologic Aspects of Intelligence."

This research lends its weight to the remarkable theory that there is a definite correlation between bodily and mental traits, and that the long limbed persons tend to be more intelligent. In view of the otherwise established fact that Negroes are longer limbed than any other group, the deductions of this study are unusually interesting. Dr. Naccarati did not set out to prove this and it is difficult to understand how he overlooked the very explicit data of the Army anthropological reports. An elaboration of this document in the light of our Nordic scientific point of view is necessary speedily or this unorthodox scientist will find himself in danger of the customary tar and feathers.

Briefly, the substance of his disquisition is this: From the observations of other students that boys in public schools are taller than boys in truant schools, that "bright individuals during the period of growth in length tend to maintain the vertical diameters of the body and of the components of the body, trunk and extremities relatively in excess over the respective horizontal diameters, when compared with less bright or dull individuals" he proceeds to further inquiry. It is found that the internal organs in long and short limbed individuals do not develop proportionately and that the former develops faster in the "animal" system (mainly organs of locomotion) while the latter develops faster in the "vegetative" system (the trunk, containing organs of nutrition). The body weight (viscera, fat and cutaneous annexes) of short limbed individuals exceeds the normal 40 per cent at the expense of the other systems. Having shorter muscles, and, as would follow, a smaller attachment on the bone, it is deduced that their muscular system is primarily deficient.

Again, all the characteristics of the adult are found in long limbed individuals, while those of the infant are found in the short limbed. This suggests a higher evolutionary value for the former. The long limbs also disperse more heat, and since 9-10ths of the total energy of an organism is dispersed under form of heat, it is concluded that the long limbed have an advantage which the short limbed lack in a super-supply of energy. Thyroid hormones have some relation to intelligence. Certain forms of sub-normality result from deficiency of thyroid secretions. Goitre is an excess, and in regions where goitre is endemic it has been found that the bodily and mental development of the children is in advance of their years. In long limbed persons there is greater activity of these hormones. They are the "hyperthyroids." Because of limited muscular expansion they do not indulge so often in athletic exercises, but conversely acquire a great transport for aesthetics, loving music, poetry, the arts in general, and scientific research. On the other hand, the short limbed on account of their greater hyperactive vegetative functions are more given to instinctive reactions, eating, sleeping, and sexual impulse "which satisfy the somatic self."

The intelligence tests made it possible to correlate intelligence with the physical traits such as were described, and, truly, a high positive correlation was found between intelligence and limb length.

What Dr. Naccarati will probably have to explain to the Ku Klux Klan is the discrepancy between his high positive correlations and the Army anthropological data which show that "the mean span of the Negro troops . . . exceeds that of the white by 2 inches," that "the mean leg length of Negroes is 2.69 centimeters greater than the white," and that "the Nordic races are characterized by greatest chest index."

The Dramatist
Turns Biologist

AS a dramatic critic Mr. John Corbin of the *New York Times* has held an unchallenged high rank. But he injures more than he aids his standing by his inapt and amateurish excursions in the biology and ethnology of Eugene O'Neill's play, "All God's Chillun Got"

JULY, 1924

OPPORTUNITY

195

Wings." Neither science nor the arts can be par-
ticularly benefitted by Mr. Corbin's febrile declara-
tions that he does not believe in mixed mar-
riages, or his citation of biologists from Darwin
and Spencer down in confirmation of his com-
mon observation that "the average Negro is in-
ferior to the average white;" or that the army
intelligence tests prove the same thing, or that
"wide outbreeding tends to develop the less de-
sirable traits of both stocks," or that "Livingstone
said that a Negro is a man and a white man
is a man, but a half-breed is an incarnate devil,"
or that "the mental tests show that the intelli-
gence of the Negro rises in proportion to his
mingling of white blood." All of this labored sci-
entific posturing is about as appropriate to his
task of criticizing a play as would be trying to
govern appreciation of Morris Gests' produc-
tion, "The Miracle," by discussing the relation of
miracles to natural laws.

President Coolidge
at Howard

HOWARD University
has the unique dis-
tinction this year of bring-

ing before its students during Commencement the
nation's most exalted citizen, the President of the
United States. On the eve of the Republican
convention and the period when he would become
the center of the country's attention he showed,
to say the least, a courage alien to most of our
chief executives, in committing himself to any
expression whatever on the Negro question.
The virtue of his address was its general attitude
of good-will.

His statistics on the progress of the race were,
doubtless, interesting to him and through him
reached many thousands of readers who would
heed the President when they would not read the
"Negro Year Book." Such occasions are rare,
and it is perhaps unfortunate that in addition to
a record of the past, there could not have been
some of the President's characteristic compre-
hension and directness in dealing with current
problems, which in this instance would involve the
changing status of the race and race relations which
the migration is affecting, political limitations,
legal segregation in Washington, the two forgotten
amendments, direct inter-racial work, and some
other items. As far as the President went in his
discussion he was effective, and to the familiar ideas
about slavery, leadership and education, he has
given a new and vivid content.

Turning the
Tables

IT HAS been a practice, to the
discomfort of many Negroes,
for American guides of visiting

Englishmen to exhibit the wretched externalities
of Negro "ghettos" as prima facia evidence of the
country's great burden of insoluable backwardness.
No one, for example, saw fit to explain to Sir

Francis Galton that his data concerning the stu-
pidity of American Negroes which crept into his
dignified volume on Eugenics were the generaliza-
tions of steered visitors. On the contrary, his
comments are accepted by Americans as proof of
this stupidity. When Negroes protest to the
press that it is unfair to parade merely the pic-
turesque as representative of Negro life, it is
likely to be regarded as unwarranted sensitive-
ness. Thus it becomes most ludicrous to find
this same press smarting under the precise mode
of treatment against which Negroes have com-
plained long and earnestly. The pained protest
of the *New York Evening Post* might have been
any of the thousands of such from the Negro
press:

A British novelist, Rebecca West, bound to show
how sprightly and piquant she can be, has been dis-
covering America again for the columns of a London
newspaper. She chortles because a judge danced the
tango with her, gave her a drink and the next day
fined an aged negro woman for possessing a bottle of
moonshine whiskey. This is Exhibit A to prove that
America has no respect for law and that prohibition
is a failure.

The flask-toting judge who punished others for doing
what he allowed himself to do was a brazen exception
that made good copy for the writer. It would have
been no picturesque adventure to visit and describe any
of the vast majority of courts or private homes or pub-
lic entertainments that offer no such spectacle.

Observers such as Rebecca West or Clare Sheridan
or Margot Asquith are selective and perceive as a rule
what supports a preconceived thesis. Many a foreign
visitor comes hitherto to find our streets flushed with
red rivers of wine, as immigrants hope to find them
paved with gold, and such a delusion pays better than
the simple fact concerning the demeanor of most
people most of the time.

There is no story in those who neither concoct hooch
in the cellar nor run the gauntlet through wild seas.
Sobriety provides no spectacle and no sensation. Those
whose first interest is to adorn a tale are not the ones
best fitted to point a moral to America or to any other
country.

The logic of the *Post* is faultless. But it is
the Press itself that objects to the stories about
Negroes which lack glamour and luridness as
having no news value. The philosopher Kant pro-
pounds a dictum which finds peculiar application
here. He says: "Do nothing which you could not
wish to become an universal law."

Superstition
and Race

IN A MANNER difficult to
explain, superstition is linked
with primitive status and this lat-

ter, almost invariably and exclusively associated
with the Negro race. The theory in common ac-
ceptance, that this overwhelming fear of the super-
natural is an essential characteristic of uncivi-
lized peoples, is in entire accord with this attitude,
but it does not explain the tremendous influence
of supernatural forces over civilized peoples if,
of course, we are to assume that Americans and
Europeans are civilized. Two recent examples
of this tendency to limit these evidences of back-

196

OPPORTUNITY

JULY, 1924

wardness to Negroes are at hand: In a learned
paper before the American Medical Association
which was later published in the *American Journal of Psychiatry*, Dr. W. M. Bevis makes this
observation:

"All Negroes have a fear of darkness and seldom venture out alone at night unless on mischief bent. Even when two or more are together there is always fear and much caution. This noctiphobia is closely associated with the su-perstitions of the race, is akin to actual cowardice so easily demonstrated and emphasized by the constant reiteration of stories of the ante-bellum system of patrol of the plantations, of ghosts and the impressive nocturnal performances of the Ku Klux Klan."

Aside from Dr. Bevis' ridiculous assumption of
omniscience about all Negroes and the fact that
a reputable scientific journal allows itself to carry
this joke book variety of "data" about the race, it
will be noted that he classifies superstition as a crass
form of cowardice, and is under the illusion that
the nocturnal performances of the Ku Klux Klan
are actually impressive.

A few days ago Dr. H. U. Hall of the Uni-
versity of Pennsylvania presented another dis-
sertation on the superstitions of the Negro before
the American Philosophical Society. Dr. Hall
deduced from his collection of Negro superstitions
a constitutional defect in their will power. The
evidence is useful as far as it goes, but it is
grossly misleading to continue insisting that su-per-
stition in itself proves something discreditable
about the Negro race, or that this race has a
monopoly on such a "Primitive" weakness. Be-
lief in "ghosts" and "spirits" about which the
Negro comedians and joke books have provoked
such hilarity does unquestionably exist among some
Negroes. But so does it exist among some whites.

One is reminded of this by the grip of terror
which Friday the 13th held on the American
public, by the common and serious practice of read-
ing omens at the Republican and Democratic
conventions.

The blood-curdling stories about the Antigonish
Ghost which excited the credulity of college pro-
fessors and consumed many columns of the news-
papers, and the elaborate rationalizations of this
belief as expressed in Spiritualism and the Society
for Psychical Research are much the same thing.
A foreigner writing about the Americans would
be rated as unfair if he spoke of them as believ-
ing in communication with the dead. The popu-
larity of mediums, dream books, love prescriptions,
charm rings, and such is not sustained so much
by the interest of the Negro population as that of
the general public.

The New York Times in December carries as
a front page article the announcement of a book
by Camille Flammarion which lists 5,600 "haunted
houses," in which he tells of "heavy blows re-
sounding on the windows and doors which opened
and shut despite the locks amidst peals of sar-
donic laughter; of police on guard clubbed by
invisible fists; of children torn from their cradles
and miraculously transported through closed doors."
Surely the Negro imagination never exceeded this.

Many hotels have abolished room number 13
—guests are afraid to stay in it. George Nox
McCain in the Philadelphia Ledger cites a few
instances which, without the distinguished names,
would read like the regular Negro "fears." He
says:

"The late United States Senator Edmunds re-
garded it as unlucky if the first person he met on
emerging from his house was a woman.

"Representative Allen of Mississippi, the wit of the House some years ago, was never without the traditional rabbit's foot in his pocket.

"There are superstitions among mechanics con-
cerning, principally, the tools or implements with
which they performed their daily tasks.

"Senator John Sherman, of Ohio, would never
extend his left hand in greeting or accept one ex-
tended to him—it was bad luck he thought."

There may be found superstitions among all
peoples equally absurd. About the only thing they
prove is that they are human.

I Weep

By ANGELINA W. GRIMKE

NOT as the young, pleasurably,
Not as the aged, mistily,
But quietly,—
Drop by drop
The great tears splash upon my hands,
And save you saw their shine,
You would not know I wept.

JULY, 1924

OPPORTUNITY

# What The Army "Intelligence" Tests Measured

By HORACE M. BOND

ONE OF the most interesting phenomena of the last century was the attempt made by certain thinkers to establish race differences upon the unquestioned basis of biological and psychological fact. It was an epoch in the history of thought by no means peculiar to its times; for, wherever man in his diverse racial types has cause to congregate, there will be found the proponents of a self assumed superior group dogmatizing and belittling the accomplishments, the abilities, and the very humanity itself, of the race whose peculiar cast of form or feature may have aroused the unreasoning prejudices of the masses.

It is not too far fetched to see in the designation of the Hebrew tribes as the "Chosen people" an example of this self perpetuating propaganda; and it is certain that the ironič words of Moliere, when mouthed by the ecclesiastical supporters of slavery in this country, represent a rather primitive desire to justify the iniquitous custom of enslaving Africans on the ground that they, after all, were not wholly human; "It is impossible to pity them; their skin is so black and their features are so irregular!" And, when Biblical justification for inhuman practices began to lose its authority, it was but natural that the proponents of racial superiority should shift their ground to the rapidly rising natural sciences.

Gobineau and Galton and Spencer, with the assistance of faulty anthropometric measurements, meaningless criteria of judgment, and absolutely gratuitous conclusions, for a time were successful in bolstering up this man of straw, and presenting him to the public as an authenticated and scientific reality. Better instruments, closer attention to accuracy of observation and interpretation, and a new realization of the significance of the culture of the so-called "inferior" races, all served to reduce the assumed differences to a significant nonentity, and Woodworth summarizes the status of investigations into racial differences up to 1910 with the conclusion that, if any such differences really existed, the anthropologist nor the psychologist had devised any methods for their accurate and authoritative estimation.

The result of the widely accepted teachings of Spencer and his co-workers, however, was to create a widespread sentiment which religiously depended upon the belief in racial differences, even after the scientific nature of any such differences had been discredited. Such men as Ripley, Grant, and Stoddard represent this "hang-over" from the hectic days of the birth of the "Super-Man" idea, and their influence has been such as to amount to a co-terie of devout and implicit followers, seeking eagerly in the obscure muck of unfounded assumption for the food with which to sustain a boundless Ego.

Such was the status of racial differences during the first decade of the Twentieth Century. This decade, however, was to witness the birth of a new instrument of psycho-physical research; and the next was to see the almost amazing spread of the underlying idea and its unquestioned acceptance on the part of many reputable psychologists and educators. Working in a Paris Laboratory devoted to the treatment of sub-normal cases, Alfred Binet had for a long time seen that the treatment afforded the mentally incompetent in the Parisian schools was neither equable nor efficient. He saw the desirability for the evolution of some criteria by which the hopelessly under-average cases might be separated from the normal cases, and given the special care and supervision which their unfortunate condition warranted. The ability to compete successfully with one's fellows in the world of affairs he called Intelligence; and though he had no means for estimating the extent nor the underlying nature of this ability, yet, for the practical purposes of the psychiatrist, and in a narrower sense the demands of the schoolman in need of a coarse yard-stick for classification immediate and tentative, the work of Binet is valuable and noteworthy.

Binet, unfortunately, died in 1911, before he could fully impress upon his disciples the need and the necessity for caution in the use of his method, which might well, as he himself pointed out in a letter to one of his confreres, become a double-edged sword in the hands of the extremist or biased observer. The Binet system was transported to America, and immediately met with the widest possible success in its diffusion and acceptance as a valuable contribution to the methodology of modern Pedagogy.

Professor Terman, of Stanford University, California, was responsible for the next step in the extension of the new scale in America, and the Stanford Revision is now the standard for all comparative endeavors in this field. It is almost amusing to note that Professor Terman, while recognizing the influence of social status upon the results of his tests, yet is one of the strongest in assuming the mental inferiority of certain racial types which are manifestly handicapped in their range of social impressions.

At the time of America's entry into the war, heroic measures were determined upon to whip the great mass of unprepared and undisciplined men into shape, preparatory to use on the Western Front. With this end in view, certain psychologists were called to Washington to devise tests which could be used in the grading of ability in the performance of certain rudimentary tasks in the limits of a small time allotment, believing that such tests would afford the quickest, if not perhaps the most efficient, means for the separation of the

198

OPPORTUNITY

JULY, 1924

feeble-minded from the great mass of normal draftees, and the selection of the non-commissioned officers who were needed to officer the vast army in process of preparation.

The result of the work of this group of Psychologists is embodied in the since famous Alpha and Beta tests; Alpha, a test for literates, and Beta, a test for illiterates and foreign speaking draftees. The makers of this scale were under no illusions as to what they were testing, or at least their initial utterances gave no indication of any such intimations, even if they possessed them. They were at all times willing to accept the words of Stern; who said: "It must be remembered that no series of tests, however skillfully selected it may be, does reach the innate intellectual endowment, stripped of all complications, but rather this endowment in conjunction with all of the influences to which the examinee has been subjected up to the moment of the testing."

The Alpha Army Tests were given to large numbers of men, and data was accumulated and tabulated which shows the scores of 103,500 white recruits and 19,000 Negroes. It is on the basis of these results, particularly, that many extreme and misleading conclusions have been made, leading to grave and dangerous misunderstandings on the part of the public. It was on the basis of these tests that the army investigators concluded that the average mental age of the white draft was 13.1 years; and that the average mentality of the Negro soldier, and consequently the average Negro, granting that the army cross section was typical, to be that of a child of 10.4! It is on the basis of these tests that the Nordic races have been granted the heaven sent mental superiority over South Europeans which entitles them to entry into this country; that a prominent College president and pulpit orator of the East justifies the policy of segregation in the public schools; and that one observer bewails the fact that "There seems to be no immediate possibility of convincing the public of the necessity for preventing the reproduction of these groups."

All of these conclusions would be amusing were they not positively dangerous. They have given to the professional race-hatred agitator a semblance of scientific justification for his mouthings, and, in the writings of popular and ill-informed publicists, they are rapidly moulding a public opinion in support of the most reactionary and inequable measures of general policy and welfare.

Let us re-examine the reasonableness of the stand taken by these discoverers of native and inherent intelligence, by means of a number of tests which admittedly cannot be divorced from environmental influences. In the beginning, we have seen that no one dares define Intelligence; and besides this, no one even boasts of having an objective evidence as to its presence or absence. Our tests are also faulty, for, while the intention is the measurement of Intelligence, we are measuring environment, and assuming that by this secondary

method we are attaining the original end. Such an assumption is valid only when the experiences of the group under consideration are the experiences of all; when the environment of the most lowly is the mutual background of the number made the subject of investigation; and when the test has been so devised that it minimizes the effect of environment and renders such effect void and unimportant.

The proponents of the Alpha Army Tests, as well as those other adaptations of the original Binet scale utilized in the measurement of intellectual capacity, assume that the typical resident of the United States possessed the background sufficient to enable the tests to be applied to him with fairness and efficiency of comparison of the results. They assume that the minimum of experience possessed by a Negro from the horribly inefficient schools of the far South places him on a plane of equality, for purposes of comparison, with the graduate of the highly standardized grammar school systems of California or the District of Columbia. They assume that the experience gained by a Negro living in the slums of Memphis is sufficient to warrant comparison with the product of the proudest scions of Malden or of Beverly Hills.

Manifestly, if the assumption outlined above is correct and scientific, an arrangement of the scores of the whites should show no deviation which might correspond to societal conditions from which the respective representatives of the given group were drawn. Evidently, if instruments for psycho-physical research are to justify themselves as simon pure calipers of native and inherent mental ability, the white youth, scion of the Anglo-Saxon stock of Georgia, should score just as highly as the white youth, the scion of the Anglo-Saxon stock of Oregon; and the Negro youth of Mississippi should score just as highly as the Negro youth from the District of Columbia or from Illinois.

Let us examine the results of the Alpha Army Tests in their relation to environmental and geographical conditions, and see in what light they stand; for, if racial differences and norms are to be deduced from these tests, they must be free from the influence of a superior or an inferior environment.

Perhaps the most outstanding evidence of civic consciousness and advancement is to be found in the development of a representative and efficient school system; and it is certain that the school life of the children of this nation is a fundamental index to their environmental surroundings at their most impressive and formative periods. It is impossible for the layman to estimate the worth of respective school systems, because his criteria are uncertain and his methods at best but lacking the scientific method. Fortunately, we are not forced, for the purposes of this comparison, to rely upon the views of an untrained and uninformed observer; for there is a reliable index as

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<table><thead><tr><th>State</th><th>Rank</th><th>Score</th><th>Rank</th><th></th><th></th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>Tennessee</td><td>38</td><td>47.25</td><td>39</td><td>1</td><td>1</td></tr><tr><td>Virginia</td><td>39</td><td>56.45</td><td>32</td><td>7</td><td>49</td></tr><tr><td>Louisiana</td><td>40</td><td>45.03</td><td>41</td><td>1</td><td>1</td></tr><tr><td>Georgia</td><td>41</td><td>42.12</td><td>43</td><td>2</td><td>4</td></tr><tr><td>Arkansas</td><td>42</td><td>41.55</td><td>44</td><td>2</td><td>4</td></tr><tr><td>Mississippi</td><td>43</td><td>41.22</td><td>46</td><td>3</td><td>9</td></tr><tr><td>South Carolina</td><td>44</td><td>47.35</td><td>38</td><td>6</td><td>36</td></tr><tr><td>Alabama</td><td>45</td><td>45.20</td><td>40</td><td>5</td><td>25</td></tr><tr><td>North Carolina</td><td>46</td><td>43.10</td><td>42</td><td>4</td><td>16</td></tr></tbody><tfoot><tr><td colspan="6">r (Coefficient of Correlation) equals r=.7403=Sigma D²=4326</td></tr></tfoot></table>

For 1900 the correlation of the states, in the relative efficiency of their school systems, with the rank of the white draftee in Alpha, was .7403; a striking correlation, which cannot be explained as due to chance. It is interesting to note that of the eleven Southern States, which occupied the eleven bottom positions in the educational standing, Florida possessed a median score of 59, just 20 less than the median score of the district of Columbia; in other words, the whites of Florida made the median score equivalent to the mentality of a 13 year old child, while the whites from the District of Columbia made scores equivalent to the mentality of a 15 year old child; an increment of two years! Are we to conclude from this result that the whites of Florida are inferior in intelligence to the whites of the District of Columbia?

Let us examine an even more startling implication of this standing. The median score of the white soldiers from the states of Mississippi, Kentucky, Arkansas, and Georgia, averaged within .9 of 41. This, according to the Stanford scale upon which Negro intellect has been damned and discounted, would give the mental age of the soldiers from these states as being that of a twelve and a half year old child. This, when compared to the median mental age of the white soldiers from the states of Washington, California, Oregon, and the District of Columbia, would mean that the average mentality of the white inhabitants of the first named groups was 3 years less than that of the last named group. Again, are the exponents of intelligence tests as discriminators of racial differences prepared to assert that the white population of Arkansas is inherently and racially the inferior of the whites of another section of the United States? With the vagaries of the Helena atrocities way fresh in mind, one is almost prepared to grant the claim of the Intelligence testers if it will imply the natural inference is to the intellect of the typical participant in that massacre.

We have confined the above comparison to the white draftees in order to investigate the claims for racial differences. Certainly, if Lothrop Stoddard, Madison Grant, and McDougall are correct in their hypothesis that the Nordic, or North European stock, which comprised our early immigration, is superior to the Southern European, or more recent immigration, the representatives of such communities as Georgia and South Carolina, with the purest racial stock of the so-called

Nordic branch now existent in America, would be superior to any other section showing the infiltration of Foreign and South European Stock. Yet a comparison of these states with states showing a large infiltration of races from Southern Europe shows that the Southern States, as in other classifications, are low in intelligence rankings.

It is thus an evident fact that either one of two factors may explain the low rank of the Southern States in intelligence rankings of their white citizenry; either the racial stock of these states is distinctly inferior to the whites of other sections of the country, or the rank in the Alpha Army Tests is dependent upon environmental conditions as reflected in the efficiency of school systems and other criteria of cultural advancement. For there exist other standards of comparison which give the same results: A recent investigator, commenting on the correlation existing between Alpha standing and literacy, says: "Using literacy, a basic index to the distribution of cultural opportunity, and correlating with Alpha rank, a coefficient results amounting to .64."*

### Correlations of Alpha Standing with Other Rankings

<table><tbody><tr><td>Alpha with Ayers Index Rating for 1890</td><td>.6825</td></tr><tr><td>Alpha with Ayers Index Rating for 1910</td><td>.8251</td></tr><tr><td>Alpha with Ayers Index Rating for 1918</td><td>.7973</td></tr><tr><td>*Alpha with per cent of Literacy</td><td>.640</td></tr><tr><td>*Alpha with Average Wage for Farm Labor</td><td>.830</td></tr><tr><td>*Alpha with per cent of Urban Population</td><td>.620</td></tr></tbody></table>

The average wage for farm laborers was arranged in order by states and the rank correlated with Alpha. This comparison yielded a correlation of .83; a striking similarity in view of the fact that the Negroes tested during the war were rural farm laborers to the extent of 60 per cent of the total.

Brigham, one of the most pronounced dogmatists as to the inferiority of the Negro, who refers to his importation as the most "sinister event in the history of America," recognizes the fact that the northern Negro scored notably higher than the southern Negro in the Alpha tests. Mr. Brigham, however, would ascribe this to the fact that "The most energetic and progressive Negroes have migrated northward, leaving their duller and less accomplished fellows in the South." While this view is amusing when the opinion of the typical Southerner concerning the Negro migrant is considered, one wonders how Mr. Brigham squares the facts of southern white deficiency with his theory?

However, not to be outdone, Mr. Brigham made a comparison of northern and southern Negroes who had had the same schooling, and triumphantly announced the fact that the same discrepancy was present. A commentator in OPPORTUNITY clearly exposes the fallacy of such treatment by inquiring, "By what measuring rod

*H. A. Alexander, School and Society, Vol. XVI, No. 405.

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Range of I. Q.'s

The Effect of Social Status on the Distribution of Intelligence Quotients (Native White Children)

<table><thead><tr><th>Social Status</th><th>50 to 59.9</th><th>60 to 69.9</th><th>70 to 79.9</th><th>80 to 89.9</th><th>90 to 109.9</th><th>110 to 119.9</th><th>120 to 129.9</th><th>130 to 139.9</th><th>140 and above</th><th>Total</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>Very Superior</td><td>0</td><td>0</td><td>1</td><td>0</td><td>6</td><td>4</td><td>6</td><td>3</td><td>4</td><td>24</td></tr><tr><td>Superior</td><td>0</td><td>0</td><td>0</td><td>0</td><td>12</td><td>17</td><td>14</td><td>4</td><td>1</td><td>48</td></tr><tr><td>Average</td><td>0</td><td>1</td><td>3</td><td>2</td><td>41</td><td>16</td><td>10</td><td>2</td><td>1</td><td>76</td></tr><tr><td>Inferior</td><td>1</td><td>3</td><td>5</td><td>9</td><td>23</td><td>1</td><td>0</td><td>1</td><td>0</td><td>43</td></tr></tbody></table>

did Mr. Brigham find the wretched schools of the South to be equal to the northern schools in all particulars?"

There is but one answer to those who would base theories of racial inequalities upon the results of the Alpha Army Tests; and that is the indisputable truth that Alpha measures environment, and not native and inherent capacity. Instead of furnishing material for the racial propagandists and agitators, it should show the sad deficiency of opportunity which is the lot of every child, white or black, whose misfortune it is to be born and reared in a community backward and reactionary in cultural and educational avenues of expression.

There are others who would certify the results of other investigations as demonstrating the lack of intelligence on the part of Negroes.* Terman, in the investigation which he made while revising the original Binet scale, found that the advancement made by children coming from homes classified as Inferior, amounted to what is, at the age of 14, an equivalent of 2 years. The Negroes were in practically all cases drawn from the group classified as from Inferior homes; yet Terman states that he has found "a racial dullness in the case of Negroes, Mexicans, and Indians."

In the case of the white children, Mr. Terman states that the children of the lower classes rank lower, not because of any handicap in social experience, but because their parents are of inferior mentality as reflected by their menial and un-remunerative employments. "Common observation would itself suggest that the social class to which the family belongs depends less on chance than on the parents' native qualities of intellect and character."

Does the social environment of the typical Negro family depend on native qualities of intellect and character? Does the intellect and character of the Negro parent of Chicago determine whether his child will have the recreational facilities, the clean streets, the uncrowded neighborhood, the cultured associates, of some such locality as Hyde Park, as compared with the crowded and deadly conditions of the "black belt"? Does the intellect and character of the Negro parent of Atlanta determine whether his child will have a full day of teaching or a half one; libraries and museums to elevate the mind, or backyards and soiled alleys to learn the elements of crime and vice? Does the intellect and character of the

Negro father of the South determine whether his child shall attend a 9 months school, with well paid and well prepared teachers, or some dilapidated shack, with 3 or 4 months of mediocre teaching at the hands of an inadequately paid and careless teacher? If these conditions of environment are free and open to the Negro, without fear, favor, or the hint of prejudice as we find it even in northern schools, we may admit the plausibility of Mr. Terman's contention, while deploring it from the standpoint of democratic principles; but until that time, let no conclusions be drawn to the demerit and under-rating of a race discriminated and segregated, in opportunity and outlook.

*Miss Arlitt made a study of several hundred children of a New York neighborhood. She too attempted to compare the different race groups, taking into consideration the race level. When she came to compare the scores made by the white children of Superior homes with the scores of the Negro children from a superior social status, she was at a loss, for there were none of the latter level to warrant comparison! When compared as to social status within the white group alone, she found that "The median I. Q.'s for the four groups (Very Superior homes, Superior, Average, and Inferior) were respectively 92, 107, 118.7, and 125.9, or a difference of 33.9 points between children of inferior and superior social status, of the same race and attending the same grades in the same schools."

Of the Negro children tested by Miss Arlitt, 93 per cent were from homes classified as inferior from the standpoint of social advantages. These children made a median score of 85; and this score is the same which Terman found to be the average for the Negro children whom he tested.

In considering this question, it is well that we should bear in mind the conclusions of Miss Arlitt. She states that "No study of racial differences which fails to take into consideration the social status of the groups tested can be considered valid."

Yet, this is exactly what Terman, Brigham, and others have attempted to do in evaluating norms predicating the intellectual inferiority of various racial groups. They have forgotten, as we have intimated, that the intelligence tests, so-called, do

*Carl Brigham, A Study of American Intelligence

*Ada H. Arlitt, On the Need for Caution in Establishing Race Norms, *Journal of Applied Psychology*, Vol. V, No. 2

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not measure intelligence; they have neglected the fact that the intelligence tester, according to Colvin, must realize that "We never measure inborn intelligence; we always measure acquired intelligence, but we infer from differences in acquired intelligence, differences in native endowment when we compare individuals in a group who have had common experiences and note the differences in the attainment of these individuals."

In what way, then, have the individuals, who saw in the intelligence tests an instrument for evaluating racial difference, erred? They have assumed that the groups which they compared had a common background of experience, while a careful analysis of the fact would have shown that variation among social classes will explain the phenomena they ascribed to inherent intelligence.

There are numberless other investigations which tend to show the validity of the above conclusion. Binet, the father of tests, found that the children of the poor wards of Paris scored from one to two years below the level of the children of an aristocratic private school in Brussels; Stern found that the children of the Vorsschule, the class type of school for the children of the German higher social orders, were distinctly above the ratings made by the children attending the Volksschule in Breslau; and William F. Book, in a statewide investigation of the High Schools of Indiana, found that the poorer southern section of the state ranked very much lower than the richer and industrial north.

This is the position of the Twentieth Century prototype of Gobineau in his attempt to provide a scientific basis for the prejudices of an unreasoning race-hatred. Instead of the mountain which they loudly asserted to exist, the observed differences have dwindled into a mole hill of insignificant and ill-defined dimensions. The supremacy of the Nordic dwindles when we find a state like South Carolina, whose people can trace their stock almost entirely to England and Northern Europe, making a median mental age of 12 years; while such a state as California or Connecticut, with from 15 to 30 per cent of foreign born of South European extraction, averages a median mental age of 15. And the boasted superiority of the white over the Negro stock does not seem so impressive when the Negroes of Illinois make a score of 47.35, while the whites of at least four Southern States were making a score of 41.

Rank of White Recruits of Southern States Compared with Marks of Negro Recruits of Northern States

Southern States—Median Scores of White Recruits

<table><tr><td>Mississippi</td><td>41.25</td></tr><tr><td>Kentucky</td><td>41.50</td></tr><tr><td>Arkansas</td><td>41.55</td></tr><tr><td>Georgia</td><td>42.12</td></tr></table>

Northern States—Median Scores of Negro Recruits

<table><tr><td>Illinois</td><td>47.35</td></tr><tr><td>New York</td><td>45.02</td></tr><tr><td>Ohio</td><td>49.50</td></tr><tr><td>Pennsylvania</td><td>42.00</td></tr></table>

With these facts in mind, it is impossible for anyone to make any conclusions which do not recognize these facts:

(1) The Alpha Army Tests are very accurate measures of opportunity for experience and education.

(2) The Alpha Army Tests were proposed to select in a very short time large numbers of officers, and to segregate the mentally unfit. In this task they were reasonably successful; but, once this task completed, their usefulness is at an end save for the avowed testing of education and environment.

(3) All tests so far devised and given have shown differences in social degrees of rating; and all so-called racial difference can be resolved into social differences.

If these conclusions are kept in mind, there is no reason but that the intelligence test in time may come to be a very valuable addition to the pedagogical methodology of modern practice. As a valuable instrument of classification, and as a remedy of the classic faults of teachers' judgment, they may well bring about a revolution in the schools of tomorrow.

But for those who would make them the fetiches of an impossible race cleavage—who would make them the shibboleth which would determine the right of a race to higher avenues of expression and advancement, the words of Thomas Garth,* prominent psychologist, must be recommended: "The elements in a study of racial mental similarities or differences must be these—(1) two so-called races, R1, and R2; (2) an equal amount of educational opportunity, E, which should include social pressure and racial patterns of thought; and (3) psychological tests D, within the grasp of both racial groups. We should have as a result of our experiment, R1 E D equal to, greater than, or less than R2 E D. In this experiment the only unknown elements should be R1 and R2. If E could be made equal, the experiment could be worked."

Has any investigator yet equalized E?

*White, Indian, and Negro Work Curves, *Journal of Applied Psychology*, Vol. V, No. 1; Thomas R. Garth.

JULY, 1924

OPPORTUNITY

# The Problem of Negroes in French Colonial Africa

By PRINCE KOJO TOVALOU HOUENOU

Advocate a la Cour d'Appel and President del'Amitie Franco-Dahomeenne

(An address delivered at the Inter-Allied School of Higher Social Studies, University of Paris)

I REGRET very much at a time when France is passing through such a critical period, to be obliged to make a strong denunciation of her Colonial Policy, which today encompasses almost entirely every phase of the problem of the Negro race.

It is a second Battle of the Marne in which France is now engaged. It is being fought in peace, therefore it is pacific; it is financial, therefore economic; but it is violent—it is terrific, and we are ignorant of the outcome.

To begin with, I must completely absolve France from the policies of some of her children. We who have been reared in the Motherland—we know her, we love her, and we have unshakable confidence in her. But, I regret to say, though I say it fearlessly, that the representatives whom she sends to her colonies fail to perform their duties. More than that, they betray the interests of France and compromise her future. They betray the interests of Africa, and thereby compromise the future of a people who has the right to exist.

My sympathy, my affection, my love for France cannot be doubted; for in the critical hours of 1914, without compulsion of any sort, I assumed spontaneously the duty of all citizens and exposed my life like all Frenchmen.

Moreover, it will soon be 24 years that I have lived in France. I have lived the life of the French entirely. My childhood, my youth were passed with companions who, today, for the greater part, are asleep over there, on the battle-fields, and who have been so quickly forgotten after the Armistice.

That is to say that I have a profound and sincere attachment for France; and that if, during the period of danger, of great risk, I had military courage, today with reluctance, and in spite of the apparent unreasonableness of my intervention, I wish to have the civic courage to declare publicly that, in the Colonies, the representatives whom you send us from the Motherland betray you, compromise your future and foster such rancour, such hatred, that it would not be just and equitable that this be allowed to burst forth some day and wound mutilated France—so beautiful, so grand, so generous.

And, being aware that at the present time, when you are surrounded by enemies of all sorts, at the time when the Allies of yesterday; by the ambiguity of their attitude are raising numberless difficulties for you, the extent of which you cannot measure, you are wrong to disown and to torture simple, primitive, warmhearted and faithful human beings who have attached their fate to yours, and who wish to live your life. Since they have lost their patriarchs, the ancient,

dethroned and exiled kings, they have believed in genuinely that their Governors would be their benevolent protectors.

What bitter and cruel disillusion!

Europe has inaugurated in the Colonies an area of veritable savagery and real barbarism which is carried out with science and premeditation—with all the art and all the refinement of civilization. The unfortunate natives have mingled their destinations with yours. They are always ready to fight by your side. They are truly the moral and material capital on which you have the right to depend, and which will never fail you if you know the precise moment to break with those intermediaries who deceive you and deceive them.

The speakers who have preceded me were to have stated the problem of the Negro race and my role was to find the solution and offer practical conclusions.

By reason of the unfortunate indisposition of Mr. René Maran, Mr. Alfred Aurousseau, with his lyric fervour, has offered to speak in his place. I myself replaced Mr. Maran at the second conference. I have studied the problem of the Negro race which Europeans only have presented, because we Blacks, or Negroes, are perfectly ignorant of it.

For us, all races are as welcome as the magnificent blooms of spring. We do not understand that colour enters into intellectual or moral expositions; we do not understand that colour intervenes in economic questions; we understand nothing of the egotistic and barbarous aims sought by certain civilized people who believe that civilization can only reach its zenith by ignoring original laws, and by debasing and enslaving men who have the natural right to live, to evolve, and to attain the full expansion of their being.

I am ignorant of the problem as a whole, otherwise I should have presented it. But I shall content myself with giving you a history of its successive phases in Europe and America. I shall content myself with telling you rapidly and briefly that the problem arose at the moment of the discovery of America, when Europeans intoxicated by glory, adventure, and above all, by rapine, sought to conquer new territories which did not belong to them. They destroyed the aborigines—exterminated them! Then, terrified at the void they had created around them and being themselves incapable of labour, they turned to Africa for workmen. It was Africa that furnished contingents for penal labour—this Africa with whose unhappy history you are unacquainted, but which some day, one of her sons will outline for

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you in darts of fire,—a monument of shame for
that civilization of which you boast.

Without humanity there is no civilization!

If the monsters, full of vice, sodden with alcohol, contaminated by disease, whom you send to us, have nothing else to offer than what they have already given us, then keep them yourselves, and let us revert to our misery and our barbarity. The whole fatality that burdens Eschyllian tragedies cannot compare with the blackness of the African tragedy.

Under cover of civilization, men are hunted
like deers, plundered, robbed, killed; and these
horrors are presented afterwards in eloquent
orations as blessings. Hypocrisy and knavery
are added to crimes!

Since, regardless of the Africans, regardless of
the Negroes, much more civilized than themselves,
Europeans have presented the problem of
races, and particularly that of the Negro race,
what can be the solution?

What do we want in the Colonies—we subjects—or, by special favour and grudgingly made, citizens? We want the laws that concentrate and codify despotism repealed. There are no half-measures! A new constitution is needed in the Colonies.

When a member is gangrenous, it is necessary
to intervene quickly; remove the member by am-
putation. That's what the surgeon does. If it
happens that he hesitates, lingers, delays, the pain
is aggravated—the disease gains ground, then an
ignorant adventurer takes a scalpel and wounds
the healthy organ, while attempting to remove
the affected member.

It is thus that the Government who should aid
in the evolution of the people—for evolution
implies full liberty of movement, is driving the
natives to an ignorant, unskillful and awkward
intervention—that which, after all, is the first
stage of evolution: revolution. And, in the exer-
cise of this revolution, in the execution of these
rights of the people to act in stead and place of
technicians, regrettable incidents occur. We
must foresee and arrest all gestures that are luck-
less and fatal for the common weal.

Now, if we are not careful, unfortunate events
will occur in the Colonies.

The conclusions that we must draw from
the examination of the present conditions in the
Colonies are the following: First of all, it is
necessary that the Colonies should have the possi-
bilities of making their voices heard in the affairs
of the Government.

What I may say of the Administrators would
seem to be exaggerated, but the Governor of
the Colonies, Mr. Augagneur, Governor of Equa-
torial Africa, has often intervened at the Ministry
for the Colonies to point out the daily abuses of
the Colonial Policy, and in particular, of the
Policy called Native Policy.

This Policy is a source of perpetual vexations.
Let me illustrate: A European passing along

the highways can arrest a native and condemn
him to 15 days imprisonment for the sole reason
that he did not take off his hat to a white man.

You will say to me that these are insignificant
matters; but the arbitrariness goes much farther.
The power of the Administrator is enormous.
Contrary to that which happens in Europe, it is
the accumulation of all powers; it is the accumula-
tion of legislative and executive powers; it is the
accumulation of judicial and administrative
powers,—it is despotic power without control.

Sometimes the Administrator—often a rudi-
mentary, vicious man—indulges in all the base
fancies that cross his imagination. These acts—
and I should have wished that Mr. René
Maran whose preface to his "Batouala" has been
so much criticized—could have recounted them
to you himself; for with his clearness of vision
and moreover his realistic style, he would have
known how to depict them in their horrible
crudity. I shall not approach his realism, and
I do not wish to linger at these repulsive pic-
tures.

It is sufficient to say that even today, in the
Colonies, there are Administrators who insert
like suppositories, cartridges of dynamite in the
natives, and order them to run; then suddenly the
dynamite explodes and the natives are blown
to pieces.

This happens in the French Colonies!

You see, I regret to say these things publicly.
And there are so many others! I have assumed
a painful task. It is repugnant to me to insist.

I commenced at the opening of this con-
ference by absolving France from the acts of
her functionaries. It was necessary to do so.
I have felt the reflected indignation which passed
through the audience, and feel the same sensa-
tion of horror.

These are facts so far removed from our men-
tality that I should like to tell them as if they
were ancient legends. But I assure you that
they are exact, and that they happen, even to-
day, alas, in the Colonies.

This is why we wish—contrary to that which
you are told, either in Parliament or at the
Ministries, particularly at the Ministry of the
Colonies, which is a veritable Bastille to take—
that you should be convinced that with such a
clique so backward—more backward than the
peoples whom they pretend to civilize, there can
be no compromise. It is an imputation that is
necessary to make. It is dynamite that must be
thrown at them to save a part of humanity! And
what part of humanity? That which is as
important, as Europe, since it concerns a Con-
tinent: Africa!

It is necessary that you should no longer allow
yourself to be put to sleep by this chloroform
in strong doses—in doses in bulk—which from
time to time, in flights of oratory, members of
Parliament, and sometimes their supreme chief,
the Minister for the Colonies, administer you.

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205

These men have opportunities for information. They can draw at the sources, and, notwithstanding that, they pretend to be ignorant of what we others, who speak the African language, of what we, children of Africa, feel and suffer.

You cannot imagine how painful, how frightful it is for a man who has lived the whole period of 1914-1918, to hear his native brothers who are supposed to be ignorant of all social and political questions say, as it happened to me in Dahomey: "Belgium has been invaded—so much the better. She has received what she deserved. She has invaded us, robbed us, pillaged us, exploited us shamefully. It is the just reward of things here below." Though they had not read Gambetta, they also invoked the immutable Justice. It is strange!

In 1914, Belgium was, for me, the Martyred Virgin. She withstood the shock of invasion; she suffered horribly in body and soul. In 1921, when I found myself in my native land, I should never have dared to tarnish her glory. But before some of my Congolese brethren, groaning under the conqueror's brutal yoke, uttered in my presence the words I have just quoted. And I spare you what they sometimes say of France.

Truly, I did not want to be told so much. I reacted against it. I did not wish to understand; and suddenly I interrupted them and cried: "You have lied! It is false! You are sacrilegious to wish to impute to those noble countries crimes of which they disapprove." But I was obliged to hear the evidence.

We cry, "Justice!" "Reparation!" While we tolerate robbery, rape, brigandage and assassination. In the Colonies, it is the wholesale sabotage of all the institutions and of all the principles that are valued throughout the civilized world. These republicans, who go from France to the Colonies, reject all republican doctrines. They are new Federal lords who arrogate to themselves special privileges, and defend them jealously and fiercely against the original possessors —the rightful occupants of the land.

Let it be sufficient for me to say to you that not long ago a circular appeared forbidding the entry into Africa of the history of the French Revolution. Indeed, it is mortifying—above all, dangerous to teach in the Colonies that which free, hardy and powerful minds have conceived and realized in the period of 1789 and during the various Revolutions that have been, so to speak, the corollaries of this violent explosion. You cannot, with impunity, carry through the world these flaming torches that are the rights of man and which the French Convention has upheld uncompromisingly in the face of all despotism and of all tyranny. Men imbued with such principles must react; and I understand those Governors who had the temerity—since they are republicans—to suppress the pages of history that give to man the sense of his liberty, of his right and of his progress.

All this demonstrates that the Colonies are not yet ready to be governed according to legal methods. Privileges only are defended and not the institutions born of the Convention—the real republican and democratic institutions that France is so proud to have extolled by the world.

They cry "Reparations!" without ceasing. But what reparations will it be necessary to give to men who possess nothing, whose property rights are violated, who have no civil rights before the law, and who, in consequence, are oppressed in their economic, individual and social liberty, and annihilated from all the progress of evolution which they would like to realize in the future?

The balance sheet of colonization shows that depopulated France has lost more than half the inhabitants of her Colonies. These are facts that the chloroforming Ministers dare not communicate to the public.

The conclusions to be drawn are simple. In this matter, there can be no compromise—no half-measures. It is necessary to say this: "Absolute autonomy for the Colonies, with imperial relations to the Motherland on general questions; or otherwise total, complete assimilation without frontier—without distinction of race."

Assimilate! Or, if you avow your weakness, let them go, and give them autonomy. There is no shortage of organizing geniuses in Africa. It is feared that Colonial Deputies may invade the Chamber and form the majority since their countries are larger and therefore more peopled.

Will the number of Colonial Deputies submerge those of the Motherland? To begin, a limitation is necessary. It is necessary at first to give to the African citizens a limited number of Deputies, and accord to all, the right to designate their delegates.

How are the Deputies elected in the Colonies? Behold again, one of the manifestations of arbitrary rule—of Colonial deceit. The delegates are nominated by the Europeans established in the Colonies. They pass for the choice of the natives: Now, the natives have never had the right to these nominations since it is exacted as a preceding condition to possess French citizenship, and to enjoy civil and political rights. No native has this right. He is only a French subject. Again these Byzantine distinctions of which you are ignorant! These delegates of the Europeans—and not the Africans—these delegates of the functionaries, of the traders, they form the Superior Council of the Colonies. What derision! The criminal exploiters have, indeed, the need of advocates to defend them in the Motherland.

It is true that it has been said that the natives are incapable of taking an active interest in politics, that they are incapable of everything. I grant you this and even more. This incapacity is persistently decreed by the same functionaries who are interested in the oppression of a whole people. Inferiority? Incapacity? It is absurd. Let us not insist.

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Why are the natives not represented? Why are the sick not allowed to say of what they are suffering! for we often see peasants or uncultured men say to physicians: "Oh, it's in my arm—it's in my leg that I feel pain," and this fixes or directs the diagnosis, and permits the surgeon to operate with surety? How can you wish to care for the sick, if the patient dares not tell you—"Oh, it's in my arm—it's in my leg that I feel pain"?

It is an absolute necessity, it is urgent to accord to the natives who have no civil and political rights, the possibility of approaching the Government through their representatives, to discuss the problems whose solution must bring them a slight relief.

Complete assimilation, representation, home-rule or autonomy, these are the things we put forward as some of the conclusions for a solution of the Colonial problem.

During the conferences, we have discussed the problem of property. The native possesses nothing. Thanks to the regime of despoiling concessions, he has been expressly forbidden to own property. The land, conceded to him for the cultivation of corn, manioc and other crops, is taken away as soon as the European disembarks.

We wish to have the property of the native assured to him. It is necessary that he should have the right to exploit the land and its resources. Do not forget that the land is his own; that the blood of black men has conquered distant possessions for France; and that the sweat of Negroes has cleared, ploughed, sowed and fertilized them as it had fertilized that of ungrateful America.

Do you wish to hear the series of inconsistencies? Senegal has conquered Dahomey. Dahomey has conquered Madagascar. It was black men who conquered Guinea, the Ivory Coast, the Sudan and Morocco; and all these conquered peoples have rushed in throngs to save their conqueror at Charleroi, at the Marne, at the Yser, in Champagne, at Verdun, at Chemin des Dames, and at last, at the second Marne where they have won a decisive victory for right, justice and liberty which have been systematically denied them.

Homeless, expatriated, famished, overwhelmed by suffering and misery, under the ardent tropical sun, it behaves them to plough and water with their sweat a soil confiscated and reserved as the property of their executioners.

We, Negroes of Africa, we raise our indignant protestation against the fate of our brothers in America. Shame to those Americans who feign to be civilized, but who have not yet condemned, by law, the outrage of lynching, and who continue to torture 15 millions of our brothers! Let the so-called civilized nations stop wholesale trade of Negroes by the purchase and sale of Colonies, after having condemned the slave trade in detail! No more transfer of territories with their inhabitants, as that recently effected by Denmark!

This is the most modern, the most monstrous form of the slave trade.

Since the label of a nationality has been attached to us, we do not wish to change it with every treaty, unless it is to resume our complete independence.

We demand respect for the territorial integrity and the national independence of the rare African states, or states of African origin, which still possess their autonomy. Abyssinia, Liberia, Haiti and St. Domingo are striking proofs of the organizing and political genius of Negroes, notwithstanding the persistant sabottage by nations eager for conquest.

We claim the right to judge and to be judged, —a judicial court should be instituted, and above all, we claim the right to be educated. It is necessary to organize compulsory education in the Colonies. The education of the native is the best means of assuring his evolution and his adaptation to European civilization. It is necessary to develop Africa for the benefit of the Africans and not exclusively for the profit of the white man, and to assure freedom of commerce and industry. Behold, in short, the few conclusions—the few claims put forward by the natives of the Colonies.

The problem of the Negro race first came into being in America, by the extermination of the aboriginal Red Skins, then by the transplantation of natives of Africa to fill the void created, and at present it is confounded with the Colonial problem which is its ultimate phase and which is now shown by the absolute negation of the rights to property by Negroes, by the negation of their civil rights—since their civil personality is not recognized, by the negation of their possibilities of evolution, by deceit, by calumnies which induce the world to believe that this race is irremediably condemned to inferiority, to stagnate in ignorance, brutality, and violence—all of which is contrary not to experience, since you have never attempted, in good faith, this experience, but to that which we know—we who have lived with our fathers, our mothers, our brothers, our sisters—we who know that they are also men and women.

They have less instruction, education and adaptation to European civilization, but they have kept, more than we have, the true and solid qualities of which human worth is formed, and we benefit by their conscience, their knowledge and their experience. They have lived in simple surroundings where human sentiments bloom spontaneously. They know nothing of your complications, of your mixed conceptions of life. They understand nothing of your economic cares, of your worries, your irritations and your nervousness.

They have conserved all the simplicity, all the sweetness, all the joy of life. They are like the fish in that historic and legendary river which descends from the towering St. Gothard to the North Sea—the Rhine—river of glaucous waters, the history of which you are certainly cognizant, and whose waters

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you have often made scarlet with your blood. The
fishes of the Rhine know not whether they have
two or three countries. They live in peace. Less
wise than they, you have battled for centuries on
the two banks of this river, while the simple crea-
tures live in its depths disdainful of your quarrels.

This is what we do in Africa. We care not
whether you have two or three countries, or whether
you have none. We wish simply, that since you

have come and conquered us, that you should live
in peace with each other, and that we be not al-
ways called upon to become your cannon fodder.
We wish that you recognize our rights to citizen-
ship—the elementary rights of man—and that liv-
ing your life, suffering your sorrows, and rejoicing
in your joys, we might be called to share your des-
tiny, good or bad, but which we accept sincerely,
loyally and faithfully.

The Negro in the Field of Dentistry

By STEPHEN J. LEWIS, D.D.S.

IN the field of dentistry the talent of the Negro was more acquired than inherent. His birth-right gave him small claim to any hope of hurried accomplishment or professional recognition in the face of custom, denial, and economic limitations. Hence the historic background so essential to a well colored recital leading to his present status in the profession is lacking in that richness of color and detail which might otherwise considerably brighten the picture.

However, an historic background, after all, has
its chief worth not in the details of its items of
color or in its mass, but rather in its contrast or
blend as a medium of comparison which makes out-
standing the subject presented. A general back-
ground, which comprehends all the difficulties and
limitations and which applies reasonably to the entre
of the Negro into all scientific or professional fields,
may serve the imagination without descriptive
words, as a background in the portrayal of his ad-
vances in the dental field.

As late as 1880 there were probably fewer than
a dozen legal dental practitioners within the col-
ored group. Most of those who had entered the
profession at this time had done so largely through
suggestions or urge of white practitioners for whom
they had been employed as laboratory mechanicians,
coupled with the desire of white dentists to dis-
pose of colored patients. Hence the element of se-
lective choice of a professional career as such played
but a minor role in their entering the field of
dentistry.

As the profession itself had not then attained
a high plane and was still rated more as a craft,
with its mechanical aspects predominant, and had
surely not gained that public recognition worthy of
a scientific agency engaged in the art of healing
and health conservation, there is little wonder that
the pioneer Negro dentist made slow progress in
professional achievement.

Early Standards

There is much of romance in the careers of those
pioneers who assumed the task and to whom credit
must be given for laying the foundations for this
professional group. Most of them began practice
in those states where the requirements, even ele-

mentary, were very low and at a time when legal
regulation as to fitness was correspondingly lax.
The chief objective was largely economic. Dental
school training, where attainable, was but elemental
and it is amazing that in the face of proscription,
limitations, and a degree of scorn from without
the group, plus superstition, and fear and lack of
confidence from within the group, many of these
pioneers, through supplemental study and deter-
mination, acquired the recognition and vision which
focused sufficient attention upon their work and
the need of more Negro dentists to lead to the es-
tablishment of our two Negro dental colleges.

It is a high tribute to the breadth of view and
capabilities of this group of pioneers when it is
related that they attained sufficient recognition and
developed an efficiency which placed some of them
on the faculties of Howard and Meharry, when
these schools were founded early in the eighties.

Growth and Expansion

Statistics are not available as to the number of
Negro dental graduates prior to the first classes
from Howard and Meharry, but it is safe to assume
that they did not exceed a half-dozen. Beginning
with the first classes graduated from our two
schools, it will be seen that there was no consid-
erable Negro dental group until after 1890. This
group was located largely in the South, with a
scattering few in the growing northern centers of
Negro population such as Philadelphia, New York,
and Boston. Chicago was probably the only west-
ern city which had attracted the Negro dentist
until practically the close of the 19th century.

Months ago, when I was requested to prepare
this article, I made a direct attempt to secure re-
liable and specific data regarding the history of the
pioneer group to which I have referred. I wanted
to shade my story with an authentic and yet re-
flexive background. I had in a general way col-
lected data during the past eight years as the result
of journeys into more than twenty-five states, but
I desired to have this information authenticated
specifically, as far as possible, by members of the
profession in position to do so, some of whom are
referred to herein. Frequent requests along this
line met with no response and at first I had to

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conclude that my petition had been seriously misunderstood. It finally occurred to me that perhaps the real reason lay in the fact that the spirit of the profession had seized the dentists. A large number of these older practitioners who had freely discussed their early experiences in practice and contact with the group's genuine pioneers, gave not an item of response when I desired to commit it to record. Perhaps there may be more than an ordinary reason for this apparent refusal to talk now. However, a charitable and reasonable conclusion about their changed attitude is based perhaps upon the spirit and progress of the profession and the constant changing of scene and act in the great dental drama of progressiveness which keeps ever before the mind the accomplishments of today and the future outlook of the profession. I am not going to admit that this non-response was due to their disinterestedness in matters pertaining to the group as a whole—for this would be a charge of selfishness—or that it was due to their mistrust of my motives or inability to properly interpret their views. I console myself with the conclusion that it was based upon a desire to forget the past and its handicaps and live in the present and the future.

## Northern and Western Group

Beginning with the present century the dental group began to expand and soon gained a considerable foothold above the Mason-Dixon Line, though Philadelphia, New York, and Boston had already produced its pioneers as individuals. If reliable and accurate statistics could be presented with this article, I would be compelled to name among the pioneers,—Jackson of Philadelphia, Roberts of New York, Ramsey of Virginia, Freeman and Gwathney of Washington, Porter of Atlanta, Schooley of Ohio, Bentley of Illinois, Singleton of Nashville, and Baker of Baltimore.

I make no attempt to offer a complete pioneer list or to arrange them in the order of their

service to the profession. Suffice it to say that several of those accredited to the pioneer list, including Porter of Atlanta, Bentley of Chicago, Schooley of Cincinnati, Singleton of Nashville, and Baker of Baltimore, are still in practice. This is another evidence of the youthfulness of the dental group. That there are many others of equal length of service and equally outstanding as pioneers is unquestionably true. It is to this pioneer group to whom we owe the greatest tribute of appreciation for the standards they have maintained and it is from them that the more modernly trained, present-day practitioner gets much of his inspiration.

## Our Future Hope

By 1900 our dental group had not reached the two hundred mark, with an estimated ratio to the Negro population of one dentist to each 50,000. The increase in the next two decades has been in keeping with the growth of education among the masses and the relative elevation of standards of living, but by no means in proportion to the group needs. The 1920 census shows the same professional group-drift to the North and West as is evident in the shifting of the mass of Negro population. The dental group had grown to nearly the 1200 mark when the Fourteenth Census Report was published as of 1920, while personal tabulation covering 39 states, and including the practitioners who registered as of 1924, brings the total well up to the 1300 mark at present.

An interesting element is the fact that New York leads the list of Negro dentists as it does as a center of Negro population. As compared with Georgia, it has doubled the total of that state. A more interesting comparison is in the fact that Louisiana is given a census credit of 32 Negro dentists, while Michigan and Massachusetts have, respectively, 25 and 28. North Carolina is credited with 30, while Pennsylvania has at present over 80. Texas has 49 and is yearly losing

A Group from the Dental Section, National Dental Association.

JULY, 1924

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ground to states such as Ohio with its present 46 and Illinois with 78.

Of the 1300 Negro dentists in the country, Howard and Meharry dental colleges have furnished practically one thousand and are adding to the ranks an average of thirty each, annually. From other dental colleges in the North and West the annual supply will not exceed twenty in number. So that with the present population ratio of one Negro dentist to every 20,000 of Negro population, as compared with one white dentist to every 2070 of white population, the demand for a much larger annual increase is easily understood.

As late as 1910 the graduating classes at Howard and Meharry did not exceed 25 each. During the next decade the average increased to 32. But beginning with 1920, because of the grading up of preliminary educational requirements, plus the addition of another year to the dental course, and consequent grading up of the dental curriculum, there occurred a slight decrease in the graduate list. A due allowance must be made for a trivial loss in failures of graduates actually to enter practice through State Board failures or other causes. Thus it will be seen that the ratio to population is being lowered rather than increased.

## Re-standardization of Dental Colleges

Another element involving the normal increase is in the re-standardization of all dental colleges by the newly formed American Association of Dental Schools. Under the latest rules governing dental colleges, classes are limited in proportion to faculty, equipment, and available operating or endowment funds.

This has worked a peculiar hardship upon the Negro dental group because of the economic needs of both Howard and Meharry. Classes which numbered as high as one hundred are now limited to fifty, with a proportionate reduction in the

graduate list. Until funds are available for increasing the general equipment of these two schools, there is little hope of even holding the present ratio to the population and surely no expectation of an increase in accordance with the population growth.

A survey covering Negro matriculants in dental colleges other than Howard and Meharry, during the past four years, shows a slight increase in numbers over the preceding ten-year period but a decided decrease in ratio as compared to the population mass. This can be attributed to two very definite causes. First, the re-standardization of dental schools, based on equipment and funds for operating, has placed a numerical limitation on entrance classes in practically all dental colleges. The number of applicants in most cases far exceeds the number who can be accommodated under the newer standards and restrictions. This places the Negro matriculant at a distinct disadvantage from the start. Secondly, the growth of segregation sentiment, which has followed the World War and Negro migration, has definitely involved even our larger professional schools and annually a large percentage of Negro applicants for matriculation in "white" dental colleges are told that because of the lack of "colored" clinical material at these institutions, it will not be possible for them to comply with the graduate requirements as to operative work and they are respectfully referred to Howard or Meharry.

Thus it will be seen that for another decade, and perhaps longer, these two institutions are our main hope for dental recruits. Recent experience as regards Congressional help in this matter convinces me that the future of these two schools depends more upon the moral and financial support of their graduates and the Negro dental group as a whole than upon any other factor. This is mandatory not only for retaining the present rating and keeping the two schools apace with the

Dental Section, National Medical Association

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profession but because their funds and equipment must be increased to the point of expansion of the graduate list, which at present is surely not possible.

## Organized Effort

Due to the same surrounding conditions which faced the racial intellectual group as a whole, the Negro dentist worked silently as an individualist and to a large degree out of intimate touch with the advances of his profession. This was true until about 1890, except in very rare instances—from which date there is on record evidences of attempts to organize. These initial steps in organization among the dental group, then rapidly forming, were first evidenced in the tendency to establish local groups for the purpose of collaboration, socio-professional relationship, and study. The Negro dentist had watched, with a degree of jealousy, the formation of medical societies among Negro physicians which to a very large degree ignored him as a professional factor. In some instances he was taken into the medical society and this contact gave him a new lease on professional life. He sought something more in common with his daily office routine, however, and it was not long before the local groups of Negro dentists began to organize into larger groups. The organization of the National Medical Association, a professional group composed of physicians, dentists and pharmacists, was perhaps the first effective attempt to bring the Negro dentist into organization for mutual and cooperative advancement.

This organization, now in its twenty-ninth year and in which the dental group has its chief claim to national unity, has as its main accomplishment in relation to its Dental Section the creation of a higher respect and professional appreciation for the dentist on the part of the physician and surgeon; it also has developed, or done much towards developing, a closer cooperation between these two professional groups of medicine in combined practice as well as in combined health movements. The Dental Section of the National Medical Association has grown to be one of its most progressive and constructive departments and its annual meetings and scientific programs have contributed much towards individual as well as group advancement.

## A National Movement

The outgrowth of the formation of the Dental Section of the National Medical Association was the development of a local interest in each other among dentists. There soon began the organization of local and state societies as auxiliaries to the National. This resulted in the arousing of a professional pride in self on the part of the individual practitioner and a sort of respectful competition professionally which tended towards higher efficiency, more modernly equipped offices and a consequent demand for higher recognition in the professional field.

In 1905, through the leadership of Dr. D. A.

Ferguson of Richmond, Va., an attempt was made to form a National Association of Negro Dentists, looking to independent organization as a strictly dental group. While the effort failed, the name is possibly entitled to capitalization, for the seed was sown for the ultimate organization of the Tri-State Dental Association at Buckroe Beach, Va., in July, 1913.

This organization had as its nucleus a group of far-seeing and progressive men from Virginia, Maryland, and the District of Columbia. It grew in numbers through its annual meetings at Buckroe Beach and through its rapidly spreading influence until, in 1918, its representation by states had grown to such an extent that it ceased to be tri-state in scope and was re-organized into the present Inter-state Dental Association. Twenty-one states were represented at its annual session in 1923.

In this organization, which is at present more sectional than national,—its membership being recruited largely from the South, East, and Middle West—seems to lie the greatest hope for national unity and organized advancement for the Negro dental group as such. While in scattering instances he is admitted to the component local societies and thus becomes a member of the State and the American Dental Association, which gives him the formal if not effective recognition as a dentist sans the qualifying term “colored,” yet this is still the exception and not the rule and he must for some time look to his own group for organized help and mutual advancement professionally. He must surely look to his own group for his acknowledged professional standing and as his chief weapon in forcing recognition from without.

## The Inter-state Works the Year Round

The Inter-state Dental Association provides not only a medium for the annual exchange of professional ideas and viewpoints through its scientific programs, but it likewise concerns itself with the development of the individual practitioner and a higher recognition of professional merit and ethics. Clinical Study Clubs have been formed in local and state groups for research and collaborative work during the months between the annual sessions, and the reports and findings are a part of the programs for the annual sessions. Dental clinics for children of the poor and a hearty cooperation with the various State Boards of Health in Negro centers, particularly in the South, is a potential part of its ad interim work. An organized interest in the welfare and efficiency of Howard and Meharry dental schools constitutes an important phase of its constructive activities.

## Free Senior Lecture Course

Evidence of constructive, organized, professional effort is manifest in the establishment of a program which will be working throughout the year rather than one which expends all its energies in a formal annual gathering. With the writer as its author and sponsor, there was established in 1921, for

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211

the benefit of the senior classes of Howard and
Meharry dental colleges, the Inter-state Dental
Association Free Lecture Course.

This lecture course has for its chief objectives
the stimulating of high professional ideals and
ethics, a closer cooperation between practicing
dentists and the beginner or the young and inex-
perienced dental graduate; it is a sort of connecting
link between the professional as such and its chief
source of recruits.

That the annual lectures have done more to
stimulate confidence in the beginner, guide him into
ethical channels, tone up the ethics of the profes-
sional group as a whole than any other effort of
the organized group seems self-evident to those
familiar with all phases of the problems.

The annual lectures have been presented to the
senior classes of Howard and Meharry since 1921.
They are intended to emphasize the practical points
in moral and professional fitness, the selection of
location, the establishment and maintenance of
practice on a correct professional plane, and the
relation of the professional man to the community
in which he locates. These and many other prac-
tical points as "first-aids" to the dental prospect
have demonstrated the effectual growth of the
spirit of mutual help within the group.

## Allied With All Health Movements

Dentistry gained its recognition as a branch
of the healing art during the past three decades.
Its intensive progress as a scientific agency has
been amazing. In the field of preventive medicine,
public health movements, and in child welfare work
as a profession it has, during the past few years,\ broken down all public prejudices and now has a
permanent place of recognition in all national, state,
and local health programs.

To move along with any progressive movement,
one must become a part of it. To become an
integral part of any such movement, one must
literally catch the spirit underlying it. It is not
over-stating it to say that the Negro dentist is
rapidly catching the spirit of modern dentistry in
its progressive advances. Just a few years back,
the eagerness of the dental graduate to begin
practice with the one thought of a substantial
income as the sole objective was not at all un-
common. To gain his diploma with the least
expenditure of mental and physical effort and to
qualify for registration in legal practice at the
earliest possible date after graduation was his
direct aim. The thought of a more thorough
preparation through the medium of post-gradu-
ate work, hospital or clinic experience did not be-
come a vital force in the ambitions of our young
men until recent years. It is then a sign of
awakening to the need of a higher efficiency when
it is noted that a larger and increasing percentage
of the Negro dental graduates from Howard and
Meharry and even other schools are not content
with dental school diplomas alone. They have
been made to realize the newer standards of den-

tistry as a profession and are found matriculating
in increasing numbers yearly in post-graduate
courses in the institutions of higher learning and
where opportunity is offered for advancement in
the various specialty branches of the profession.
Professional fitness is the challenge of the day
as against the mere striving for economic ascend-
ency. Our younger men are catching this spirit.
They are not only demanding the best in the way
of operating office equipment, as is evidenced in
the modern aspect of the average office and the
high respect with which they are held by the sell-
ing trade as a buyer, but they are cultivating a
demand for higher service on the part of their cli-
entele and thus gaining a higher place in public
recognition for the profession.

## Dr. Roscoe C. Brown

Until the World War, but little recognition
had been given the dental profession as such by
the government officially. The contributions of the
profession to soldier-efficiency during that con-
flict, however, gave it a new place in public and
official esteem. It is a distinct recognition of the
capabilities of the persons in the dental group
when men like Dr. Roscoe C. Brown are recog-
nized for special tasks because of their general
fitness. When the U. S. Public Health Service
organized its Venereal Section for work among the
colored population, Dr. Brown, a member of the
dental profession, was placed in charge. It was
his work in organizing the bureau and its splendid
field force and the most effective national educa-
tional campaign on disease prevention which won
for him the unstinted praise not only of official
circles but likewise of his medical conferes. While
his work had but little direct relation to den-
tistry, the recognition he won and received gave
the dental group a high compliment, in that the
training and general fitness of its members bears
a direct relation to public health and is capable
of expansion in individual cases to almost any field
of preventive medicine. This recognition ac-
corded Dr. Brown was in direct contrast to pub-
lic belief and contrary to the general attitude of
the physician-group toward the capabilities of the
dental surgeon. Such instances,—and there are
many of them,—have done much to assist in plac-
ing a higher public valuation upon the service of
the dental group in general health movements and
is in keeping with the changing public and official
attitude toward dentistry.

## Demand

No hospital staff is now complete without its
consulting dental surgeon. No general public school
program is considered constructively full without
its dental examiners and clinicians. No public
welfare movement is fully comprehensive which
does not include dental clinics for the care of
the teeth of the indigent, particularly the children.
All of this has come about through the process
of educational enlightenment and has created a

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new place for dentistry in public esteem and public service.

The normal population increase, plus the results of education in the masses, has created a demand for dentistry within the group which its present dental corps finds it all but impossible to supply. In various centers the demand may be apparently over-supplied, but the ratio to the population mass remains about one to every 20,000. The migration movement is depleting the dental ranks in the South, for the Negro dentist is, in many instances, leading the hosts which seek a kindlier public sentiment and a more adequate educational outlook for the youth. If he does not precede in all instances, he is surely following his clientele to northern and western centers where he finds a fertile field for developing a higher appreciation for his service and greater hope of professional recognition. Add to this the probability of a more sympathetic environment and better educational facilities for his family, and the position of the professional man is not much different from that of the average individual migrant.

With the growth of urban Negro centers, there is a continued attraction for the Negro professional man. In increasing numbers he is locating in the big cities because of higher standards, better conditions economically and perhaps better fees. This all is reacting to the physical and economic disadvantage of the smaller groups in the smaller communities and many of these smaller fields are ripe for tapping by the beginner. The drift must eventually be away from the mass centers.

It is gratifying to note that during the past few months, and in fact during the entire past year, inquiries have been coming to me from graduates of Howard and Meharry seeking locations for practice, and in most cases they express a desire for the smaller and so-called undeveloped field. This is a favorable sign, for it indicates a slight over-saturation in certain Negro centers. A more even distribution of professional material is essential both for health and economic reasons. These smaller communities or fields offer a much larger hope for professional cooperation and a more sympathetic trend from the other racial group, with less direct competition,—and the basic opportunity to serve a direct public need, than which there can be no higher professional ideal.

## Looking Ahead

The Negro dentist is no longer content as an object of ridicule and subject of superstition. As a group he is far above the type-portrayals of Cohen and Cobb, and while in many individual instances for "economic reasons" he still caters or "submits" to the primitive demands of a large element of his clientele for "gold that glitters," he is nevertheless forging ahead with the profession of which he is a potential part and living down a tradition which has obscured his pathway and delayed the day of his genuine recognition as a scientific, professional factor. He is playing well a role of equal magnitude and exacting demands as compared with other intellectual units within the group, all of whom are silently but effectually co-ordinating in carrying the mass upward.

## The Smile of Africa*

By ERNEST PSICHARI

*Translated from the French by Edna Worthley Underwood*

(In 1908 Ernest Psichari—the little grandson of the great Renan—went to Africa. There—he tells us—that contact with the race-soul of the black man gave him a new and a different outlook on life, and changed the current of his being. He wrote here a remarkable book—the one whose name stands at the beginning of this article—and for it he was made a member of the French Academy. Then the book was "crowned" by the Academy. Only one other instance occurs to me at this moment of a first book receiving such distinguished commendation.)

Ernest Psichari—still a young man—as years count, was killed fighting for France, in the late war. He wrote another book—a book of great spirituality—called "The Centurion," telling how years of loneliness, upon the soil of Africa, awakened his soul to an understanding of spiritual facts. There are few finer examples of prose in the modern world than these two books. Translated by

I MUST confess that during the time I spent in Africa the confusion of my sensations was great. I was unable to seize easily and comprehend the sense of this venerable land.

On the fifteenth of September I disembarked with my "chef" at Matadi, in the interior of one of the estuaries of the Congo. A few days later we set sail upon the diminutive steamer "Valerie" which was to take us up the Congo and the Sangha as far as the village of Nola. I began to think then of the difficulties ahead of me—the difficulties of making for myself in Africa an African soul. Lost in the immensity of the great river, where motionless in the gold of the seunset gleam islands of roses, or farther up, still moving along between the wooded shores of the Sangha, I looked with wonder at what I saw, but I was not moved. I made up my mind then to abandon myself, without reflecting, to the charm of the brush which is full of mystery. The apparent simplicity conceals a troubling complexity of which in the beginning one is unable to take account.

*Extract from Lands of Sun and Sleep.

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The people there are different, in the depths of their distant souls—so unlike ours—they are unseizable. The landscape says new things to us—different things—which we are forced to study in order to understand. One cannot use haste in trying to pierce *intimités* so new.

I wished only a reasonable amount of penetration for myself and to be able to classify merely as an amateur my daily sensations. I wished merely to enjoy, without going any further at first, this unexpected beauty with which occasionally sadness was mingled.

The river is navigable only as far as Nola. There, on November the second, we left it in order to plunge into the forest, as far as Bania. Setting out at dawn, with the first edge of light, we reached the village of N'Gombo about mid-day.

N'Gombo has only a few dozen houses set up in a clearing of the forest. Toward the south a lofty hill is visible, bare, rock-covered, but of gracious outline, and topped with a bouquet of trees. Although its sides were steep and rough, and a storm was threatening which made the heat excessive, we made up a party to climb it, from which to see outspread that prodigious, that perpetually virgin forest, which during the slow hours of the morning we had been crossing. From the top the view was not unusual nor was it surprising. But no one could imagine anything more heartbreaking, nor a scene in which the soul so dissolves. The horizon was an outspread pillow of verdure; we could estimate with our eyes the immensity from which we had just emerged. Occasionally there were grassy hills to which masses of granite clutch, giving to the wildness a touch of gentleness. Above some of the lofty trees the clouds make pocket-forms-pouches, and in the East—a hint of rain.

The approach of a tornado is accompanied by a feeling of exhaustion. However, at this moment we are registering another feeling in addition to the exhaustion—more sharply indeed—it is confusion; it creeps under our skins and remains there. This land forces upon us a sort of animal weariness which is at the same time an inexpressible discouragement. The fatigue of marching, the being left in a land which is so tremendous in extent, and the latent electricity in the threatening storm, incline the mind to a torpid melancholy which has no dreams.

A sort of stupidity drowns us, the sort of stupidity which might follow a great amorous fatigue. We could not even guess that a landscape could make one suffer so. Down there—far away—the rain was falling. The outlines of objects are soft, just as in a bad picture. Everywhere there is silence, and this silence is dramatic.

It is the unique silence of Africa. It impresses us like a superb gesture of annihilation. Our landscapes of France do not know how to be silent. They are filled with the murmur of wings, the confused buzzing of life. Our dawns tremble with ecstacy; our twilights sing to the watchful soul.

Here the silence is something enormous, all enveloping, and despite the fact that in a certain way it forbids intimacy, it becomes the subtle, the evil charm of the country.

One has to be on one's guard against it. This prodigious peace, without even the trembling of light, this peace without pulse of life, where no caress vibrates, where no wing palpitates, where no movement dares to begin, puts a check upon the emotions of the heart, and upon the mysticism—which very likely has its origin within ourselves of which we desire to become the prey. No pity of any kind is directed toward man. Henceforth our consciousness must be reborn, must resurrect, perforce the powerful egoism of the past; we cannot know here that delightful expansion of being; that gentleness of natural things, which is the charm of our land. It would be impossible even to imagine a land more barren of metaphysical qualities than this.

The fatigue of living—which one has to battle continually—meets the fatigue of this landscape where death is dimly sensed. Being unable to commune familiarly with something that is foreign to us and unapproachable, teaches us new mental restlessness—fears. To remain too long in the presence of that which has no past will make us learn that nothing *is*, save the moment that flits by, whose wisdom gives us by degrees a stoical in-difference, and at the same time an infinite distress.

## CHAPTER II

When we entered the country of the Moundangs, where we came to spend the winter, Sama, my little black friend, fell ill. I had a sad presentiment, and I guessed that the little being who, almost without my knowing it, had entered my life, the little unknown soul—which I had met by chance upon the long road, was preparing to go away. He would go away without leaving anything of himself behind, but an ephemeral sadness which the skies of other lands would perhaps make me forget. Many others—like him—had died already and been hastily thrown into the ditch which covered them—lost in this impenetrable distance. For the country of the Logone is hard upon the people of Baya. Everything here makes them homesick for the shores of their river—the Sangha, for their forests, humid and profound, their tender valleys, their fields of manioc, and their bananas. The too dry air burns their lungs; the weariness of the long road, the food which they do not like, and which does not agree with them, destroys their health, and they go to death unprotestingly. But I felt a peculiar grief that this one—Sama—should go to death too without my knowing him, without having understood that silent mystery which was life to him. I knew that he must be buried in some lost and forgotten place, and that no one would ever know just where he went to sleep forever. Tenderness swept over my soul at the thought.

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I was indeed fond of him, this strange and charming Sama. When one passes swiftly through the country of the black men, one has the inclination to believe that they are all alike. One does not pause to consider that among them are good men, bad men; men gay or melancholy. One does not pause long enough to know that they have personalities strongly marked and original.

And when one learns to know them, one finds out that it is not knowledge at all; each has his peculiar individuality which is like no one's else, and then one is surprised at this unexpected fact. Sama is not like the others. Now that we are friends, I see it plainly. Sama has many faults. He lies; he is full of tricks and vices; and he steals. But he has, too, a native fineness all his own which more than balances his faults; a fineness which embraces distinction and tenderness. He is never vulgar and he possesses wit. His manners are noble and graceful. Sometimes I am conscious of the fact that he resembles certain friends of mine in France. But the mighty secret of his race becomes apparent then, and this little being whom I would like to have for a friend becomes distant, unseizable mentally.

Now that I know that death hovers over him, he is farther away than ever—Sama, and I grow pensive and sad that I may not divine him.

The land of the Moundangs has a sort of funereal majesty. I feel myself disabled and overpowered with weariness, with thoughts of disaster and grief. It is the spirit that disengages itself from this arid plain, from these unyielding rocks, these ascetic horizons that incline me to such thinking.

The land of the Moundangs is a page of desolation in the marvelous, outspread book of Africa. The little folds of earth unroll infinitely like the terrific, fixed waves of an eternal sea of silence.

For a delicate sensibility which has met the arranged landscapes of our occident, the expected effects of Latin lands, surroundings like these may be grateful just because of their monotony, their insignificance. Here one could be amused with the play of light across infinite distance, the capricious changes of clouds, rather than by outlines required by our aesthetic rules.

From N'Digue to Bohon, from Bohon to Lamé, from Lamé to Lere, the horizon does not cease to be perfectly round, a tranquil, a lazy, sea. The distances—however—sometimes show exquisitely varied hues.

The houses are of grey mud and windowless, one confronts only bare circular walls. Within—a labyrinth of corridors, of low rooms, sometimes round, sometimes square, with dim corners where the season's grain is piled.

On coming from the barren, inhospitable plain, one is surprised to be confronted with this peaceable, pastoral life—this life simple and childish. The master of the house tells the women to bring a jar of a liquor, heady but harmless. He takes

a few sups, then he seats himself upon the ground and pulls at his pipe filled with tobacco, which is strong and has a slightly narcotic quality. As the dusk draws on, all one can see is the great white blotch which is his blouse woven of white wool, from which emerges his shaven head, which is dignified and indifferent. Then one turns to go away—as the day declines—and the little breeze of evening freshens, while troops of cattle—noisy, lowing—hasten toward the low houses—the little houses—that sleep eternally in the sunlight, like tombs that are forgotten—

O, the sad end—as night comes—of this pitiless light! O, the land without spring and without autumn, where the harmonious return of seasons is unknown! O, the terror of never knowing the grace of the mid-seasons and the tender yielding melancholy of autumn! Accursed land—perhaps—which freezes the heart and leaves its marks of desolation upon even the brave souls that love the road! Sama will soon die of it—just as so many others have done.

He talks no more now; every once in a while he shows me his chest—so emaciated, so narrowed; he makes a little gesture of reckless abandon. At Bohon I bought a horse for him. Now, as we go on, his head rolls from right to left, and his long legs—grown so pitifully thin—dangle weakly by the horse's sides. At night—naked—he stretches out on his mat with an indifference that amazes me, because I know how he loves life and that he does not want to die. And yet now he has given up. All night long I hear him moan softly, with a voice blanched and monotonous. And now his little banjo sings to me no more.

## CHAPTER III

The tenth of February I reached Lamé, the last halt on the journey to Lere. I was coming to a place now that I knew, and I was going over pleasantly in my memory the long march that had brought me from Carnot, to the wooded banks of the Nana, then to the desolate mountains of Yade, and after that the sandy shores of Logone, and thus along a route that seemed endless to the Northeast, and the peaceful farms of the Lakas. It would not be long now before I should meet men of my own race and enjoy the physical repose which must follow these long African journeys. However, I was unable to feel content. There was an agonizing void within me, an inexplainable sadness, because the fleeting hours would soon take away with them that which had been my life during so many months, during so many dreams and memories.

Lamé is almost a city for this country where villages are only a few little cabins asleep and forgotten amid profound solitude. Far away I caught glimpses of its low grey walls of mud, dominated by the diminutive towers which mark the storing of millet which feeds them.

In the midst of the grey desert, where objects have a perfect precision, it resembles an archaic

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chateau-fortress, or a tiny, naive city of the
Orient, which are found in the old books of the
Sire de Joinville.

It seemed to me something dead, fallen into dis-
use by the weight of time, a vision perished, un-
expected and impossible, like a Biblical dream.

In the *tata* of the chief, or the public court,
opened amid the labyrinth of low houses, places
for the horses and turrets for the millet. Here
I saw an old man advancing toward me, followed
by several men who were younger, and all wearing
*gandourahs* of striking colors.

He began the recitation of a long grievance:
Once I had many women; I had more than an
hundred, and fine herds of cattle and millet in
abundance. Now I have nothing; the women are
dead. There are no more men in the village, and
no cattle in the fields.

I understand that there has been an epidemic.
However, old Lamé brings me some millet bread,
two jars of milk, eggs, chickens and mutton.

I order the eggs and milk taken to Sama.
He is indoors, stretched out on a mat, uncovered,
but dripping with perspiration. He is on his
back, with his knees drawn up and his arms
stretched out forming a cross. The sound of his
breathing is heavy and fills the chamber, which
is bare. He suffers, and I expect every breath to
be the last one.

It is tragic—this great emaciated body—gaspings
upon the mat for breath, in the violet evening,
in the dying splendor of the sun.

I speak to him.

Sama—Sama—

He turns toward me the great gentle eyes of a
gazelle and tries to smile.

I know you—he replies—my master of the
house. And I love you.

He puts one of his hands out toward me with
a gesture which is of our race, and says simply:

I am grateful to you.

It will be tonight, I think, as I leave him. Per-
haps tomorrow.

## CHAPTER IV

It was the next day.

Not far from the village there is a tree, a *uété*
which is solitary and from which the leaves hang
like black, pendant tears. There the Bayas
made Sama's grave. Then they wrapped him in
a voluminous white robe, which I had managed to
keep amid the vicissitudes of the marches. Just
as the sun was rising they bore him there, being
careful for him to face the rising sun. Then they
covered him over hastily; and there was only grey
soil for that. There was nothing to mark his
death or announce it to the passer-by. When the

sun had filled all the East with flame, the funereal
chants ceased and the Bayas went away. It was
time to go; but while a boy saddled my horse, I
waited there alone by the grave that sheltered
Sama.

And that day I was sad, weary, weak, and de-
pleted of courage. To get away now, to get
away! To reach Lere—there, it may be, I
shall be permitted to find another comrade. They
will talk about the service; they will tell stories
of the hunt, and then perhaps I may forget the
discouragements of the journey.

I walk very rapidly. Lere is far. A little
breeze, gentle and young, begins to move lightly.
A perfume, exquisite and delicate, comes from the
short grass by the way.

But still my eyes do not turn away from the
great pure line of the horizon which undulates
like the waves of a sea.

To get away, to get away! The sun begins to
slope downward slowly on my left. From time
to time we catch glimpses of dots of water-pits
—where men lean eagerly to drink. Now the sun
is very low and swimming in a mist of rosy vapor.

We descend from the last gentle undulation into
a vast plain. I sense the lake of Trené. Soon
Lere! It is almost night. We have still long to
march. It is impossible to think of anything,
so overcome are we with weariness, so worn with
hours in this implacable sun. Then a name darts
across my mind: Sama! How far away now!
How he is no more! But there in the distance
are shadows; the farms of the Moundangs.
Long herds of cattle are lowing. Then a blessed
vision; a river with sandy banks where natives are
splashing about. Some carry jugs to fill with
water. Some are bathing in water turned to gold
by a farewell ray from the sun. They look like
little figurines dancing in some ideal decoration.
No sound, only a kind of distant murmur which
comes from very far—upon the bank of the river a
large house with roof of straw.

Sleep well down there, my little Baya, whose
smile was sweet to me upon the long, weary
roads of Africa! Sleep, little soul, filled with
shadows like the valleys of your Sangha, which
you will never see again. Sleep, little friend—
whom I did not expect to meet—and who sur-
prised me like a beautiful land which one dis-
covers.

Sleep in the land of the Moundangs. Upon
the friendly mystery of your being has fallen now
the greater mystery of death.

Now may the peace of the great plains of gold
descend upon you—the great peace—in the land
of the Moundangs, down there—

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# INTER-RACIAL FORUM

BISHOP FRANCIS J. McCONNELL in "Living Together": "The rising tide of color is a good sign if it means, as it largely does, that the races which have been looked upon as non-adult are insisting upon being taken seriously."

In the Elizabeth, N. J. *Journal*: "The consciousness of race and class and creed in America is its greatest peril. The day of danger will be past only when the individual thinks of his neighbor in the terms of manhood and good citizenship instead of terms of color, creed or race."

The Asheville, N. C., *Citizen*: "In the long run it will be a thing beneficial to both races, that excessive black population is being reduced in the Southern States. That the Inter-racial Commission finds its labors far easier now than it did two years ago is one evidence that the exodus has fostered better relations between the races in the South."

The Rev. Mr. T. J. B. Harris in the Oshkosh, Wis., *Northwestern*: "The Negro has been, and is today, an industrial asset. Two hundred and fifty years of compulsory free labor in clearing the forests, building the railroads, constructing the highways, and producing the raw materials, he thus made secure the economic foundation of this republic. Under most trying conditions and circumstances he has proved himself a good citizen, never plotting anarchy or assassinating presidents or pillaging with fire or betraying his country into the hands of a foe."

Howard Snyder in the Paola, Kan., *Western Spirit*: "That the Negro needs and is determined to have schools, good wages, justice, and all those many complex things that go to make up life in civilized America, we know. And, further, we know that he is migrating to the North that he may find these things which he failed to find in the South."

T. A. Jackson in *The Plebs*, London: "When old William Hawkins and his son John sold kidnapped blacks to the Spaniards in America—

or sacked and burned their towns if they wouldn't buy as it was 'against the law'—they made no pretence of democracy or equality."

Hexter and Myerson in *Mental Hygiene*: "One of the latest developments in psychology, the intelligence tests, has in America been overrated as a means of passing judgment upon the unfortunate subjects who are tested. But this is not so important as the danger that these tests might be used—and, in fact, are being used, we believe, by certain people—not to advance science or in the scientific spirit, but for race discrimination and in the spirit of propaganda."

From the *Daily Herald*, London: "A *Daily Herald* man recently interviewed some of the Negroes who appear in Galsworthy's play, 'The Forest.' One of them spoke thus:

"Long ago Dr. Livingstone come to my country. Our King ask him: "Do you come for war?" And Dr. Livingstone say: "No, I come to cure the sores of your people."

"So he showed his medicines, and our King said: "Good! It is peace. Do what you can do."

"So Dr. Livingstone put medicine on the sore legs of my people, and bandaged them. And by the time the bandage came off, my country was part of England."

Hartman, in "Home and Community Life": "The mission of millions of human beings, remote in time and space, all working together to make the earth a better home for mankind, is surely one to stir the deepest reaches of the imagination. And this is the vision that is necessary to enable us to see within our daily round of experiences anything except routine utilitarian values."

Walter Lippman in "Public Opinion": "The general rule is—if you like a people today, you come down the branches to the trunk; if you dislike them, you insist that the separate branches are separate trunks."

Alexander, in "Nature and Human Nature": "In a true democracy all the citizens are, as it were, naturalized through the discovery of the ideal citizen."

## Who's Who

Horace M. Bond is a Doctor of Philosophy of the University of Chicago and a former teacher at Lincoln University.

Prince Kojo Tovolou Houenou is the president and founder of the Universal League for the Defense of the Negro Race and director of the publication, *Les Continents*.

* Stephen J. Lewis is president of the Dental Section of the National Medical Association.

Angelina W. Grimke is a poet and short story writer.

Edna Worthley Underwood is a linguist and author of "The Penitent."

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217

POT POURRI

The Color Line

The color line—in Art, of all places? In “Jim Crow” cars, perhaps, but in Art? So it would seem and in an instance no less distinguished than a portrait by Sir Joshua Reynolds. To paraphrase Kipling, the devil apparently gazed critically at Sir Joshua’s study of the West Indian, Francis Barber, and inquired insinuatingly, “It’s a darky, so is it Art?”

Whereupon the portrait vanished into an odor of brimstone or oil—which is much the same thing nowadays—and got lost for years. Now, losing examples of the work of the painter who is called the foremost exponent of the British school and close to the front rank of the masters is something that is not, as a rule, being done—because Reynolds values range from $5,000 to $100,000, if for no other reason. . . . What did the owner want with the daub of just a Negro? It was such an attitude that caused the identity of the artist and his sitter finally to be forgotten. So it happened that a portrait, which has been described as in Reynolds’ finest manner, was bought not long ago as the work of an unknown.

The “Portrait of Frank Barber” was found in a shop in Brighton, England, by Byrne Hackett, president of the Brick Row Book Shop. While the owner was far from rating it highly, Mr. Hackett suspected its worth. Investigating, he identified it as a Reynolds from prints and replicas which had been done in the time when its merit was acknowledged. He bought the portrait and brought it here.

Sir Joshua was a prolific painter, but much in demand. At one time his calendar contained engagements for more than 700 sittings. Nevertheless he found time to paint Barber, and he did not spare his genius on the canvas. Certainly Reynolds was sufficiently well-to-do in 1767, when he executed that portrait, to indulge a whim. But the color line was drawn in those days, too, and Barber had been a slave. A strange subject for an artist for whom royalty delighted to sit. It can be explained, however, by the association of the life of the Negro, Frank Barber, who was the body servant of Dr. Samuel Johnson and his heir. Sir Joshua Reynolds was one of the executors appointed by Dr. Johnson to administer his estate and provide therefrom a generous annuity for Barber.

The determination upon the legacy is thus described by Boswell:

> "Having no near relations, it had been for some time Johnson's intention to make a liberal provision for his faithful servant, Mr. Francis Barber, whom he looked upon as particularly under his protection and whom he had all along treated truly as a humble friend. Having asked Dr. Brocklesby what would be a proper annuity to a favorite ser-

vant, and being answered that it must depend on the circumstances of the master; and that in the case of a nobleman £50 a year was considered as an adequate reward for many years' faithful service: 'Then (said Johnson) shall I be noblissimus, for I mean to leave Frank £70 a year, and I desire you to tell him so.'"

Barber was brought from Jamaica as a slave. When later he was freed he took service with Dr. Johnson, who at one time sent him to school. It was Barber who answered the knocker and opened the door to those noted friends of Johnson's,— Reynolds, Garrick, Boswell, Mrs. Thrale, and the rest. It also was Barber who served as a buffer between Johnson and his "menagerie" of dependents.

For such long and faithful service as Barber gave Dr. Johnson an annuity was a just reward. No doubt many a master today would agree to pay one—and would throw in a portrait by a fashionable painter to boot, for the requisite number of sittings would insure a fairly long stay on the part of the posing domestic. And there would be the additional consideration that if the portrait were art, as is the Reynolds, it might fetch enough to pay the annuity.

But that is always providing that the color line be not drawn in Art!

—Fairfax Downey in the New York TRIBUNE.

Unification

Unification of the Methodist Church North with the Methodist Church South was ratified yesterday at the General Conference. Vote for adoption was almost unanimous, there being 802 for unification and 13 against. The action brings together the two sections of this denomination, which became divided at the outbreak of the Civil War.

Unification, simple as it might appear, has been complicated by the Negro question. Sentiment throughout the North has been strong for unification. Opposition in the South has been the result of feeling against the colored churches. Throughout the former Slave States colored Methodists have been prominent. Even in a state like Delaware, where the Negro question has been very nearly solved, there has been great opposition to a settlement of Methodist Church management that would permit complete franchise for the colored churches.

It is significant that Bishop McDowell, of Washington, submitted the report on unification, and that a Negro delegate from Washington seconded the motion, which had been submitted by a delegate from New York. Approval of the report was voiced on behalf of the 350,000 Negroes of the South by Rev. Charles A. Tindley of Philadelphia, chairman of the Delaware delegation.

Unification has been a living issue within the

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Methodist Church for a period of twenty-five years. In the words of a prominent white Methodist churchman a few years ago, "It is dynamite!" At first thought, it would seem that the Methodists have injected the race question into their church unnecessarily. It is difficult for a real Northerner to understand this matter. The question had apparently been adjusting itself satisfactorily. Whether this new move will arouse the antagonism of the southern white churches is a serious question. But if the spirit of Christianity is the touchstone, there will be rejoicing everywhere at the beating down of another barrier in the struggle for a united Christendom.

Troy, N. Y. RECORD.

### Frederick Douglass

The colored people of Rochester are planning a fitting celebration of Douglass Day, June 9, which this year marks the 107th birthday of the famous Negro orator, who for a long time made Rochester his home, and the twenty-fifth anniversary of the unveiling of his statue at the triangle where Central Avenue, St. Paul and Franklyn Streets come together.

Douglass was an honored Rochesterian; the whole city mourned when he died; the monument erected to his memory was paid for by the gladly given subscriptions of citizens without distinction of race or color; its unveiling was a civic holiday at which Theodore Roosevelt, then Governor of the State, was the chief guest and speaker.

It is well to point out these facts in these days when race prejudice seems to be on the ascendant and when Rochester, as well as other cities and hamlets, has branches of that futile, but unAmerican, body of fanatics who call themselves by the fantastic name of Ku Klux Klan and hold as a tenet of their creed the continued and insolent assertion by the white race of its superiority to its black and brown fellow-creatures.

It is fitting, and it should be beneficial, to recall Roosevelt's words on that occasion, for they epitomize admirably that self-respect which each race should have for itself and which should hold it back from any braggart assertion of superiority over any other race:

"The worst enemy of the colored race," said Roosevelt in his unveiling speech, "is not the white man who abuses the colored man, but the colored man who fails in his duty as a citizen. The worst enemy of the white race is not some worthless wretch, some colored man who does an infamous act against the white race; it is the white wretch who acts so as to make us ashamed of our people."

Rochester is the traditional home of liberality in social and religious thought. The fact that it was the home both of Frederick Douglass, the great colored orator who did much to turn the North against slavery, and of Susan B. Anthony, the great woman-suffrage leader, possibly has much to do with this, or was it because the atmosphere was so congenial to these free spirits that they

remained here and their movements thrived?

The country is going through a hectic period of religious and racial bigotry which is holding back the progress in religious and social thought and development that should go hand in hand with the marvelous scientific and mechanical development of the time. Perhaps it will be salutary to lay some stress on such lives as that of Douglass, and the manner in which he was regarded by the leading white people of his day. It, therefore, would seem that the occasion which will be celebrated on June 9, under the auspices of the colored people of the city, will have a significance not confined to them alone, but reaching to the whole city and to the whole country as well.

Rochester, N. Y.,

### DEMOCRAT AND CHRONICLE.

#### The Migration

The migration of the Negroes from the Southern States to the North is seemingly unabated. During the eight months ending September 1, 1923, there were 478,700 Negroes who left thirteen Southern States to find a new home above the Ohio and Potomac rivers. This migration represented 5.7 per cent of the negro population of the thirteen states concerned. It ranged from 27.3 per cent in Florida to .07 per cent in Oklahoma.

While this continued exodus is creating a temporary inconvenience in the South, it is probably destined to bless both the Negro race and the country as a whole. It will be valuable to both the Negro and the country for him to be better understood and for the entire country to obtain a first-hand knowledge of the Negro problem.

Oklahoma, Okla., OKLAHOMAN.

### Julius Rosenwald Fund

Racial antagonism gets talked about more than does mutual racial helpfulness. But the latter exists and deserves more than occasional mention.

This year nearly half a million dollars will be available for rural Negro schools from the Julius Rosenwald Fund, established for that purpose. Most of the money will be allotted to states in the South, several of which will receive amounts of $50,000 to $72,000. The Southern States receiving gifts from the fund usually add to them by State appropriations and by the contributions of interested individuals.

Education does not solve every problem of civilization, but it is a very helpful asset. The inadequacy of school facilities for Negroes in rural districts has long been productive of many evils. The Rosenwald Fund alone has now aided or established enough schools to accommodate 250,000 Negro pupils. Literacy, ability to support oneself in self-respecting fashion, and ability to participate in community affairs intelligently are some of the things those many little schools are helping to bring about among rural Negroes.

Martinez, Cal., STANDARD.

JULY, 1924

OPPORTUNITY

OUR BOOK SHELF

"Prancing Nigger"

By ROLAND FIRBANK

With an introduction by Carl Van Vechten
Brentano's, New York, Price $2.00

IT IS NOT to be marveled at that in his dash to the West Indies an artist with Roland Firbank's flair for the weirdly exotic should create out of a womb rich, bilious, shot through with the ochre of dead and unburied and slowly ripening civilizations a life that is flagrant and unadorned for its very closeness to the jungle. Indeed, the Mouth family, with which the book deals, like the characters flitting across the pages of "Batouala" could just as well be fine, lovely cattle.

Firbank is one of the few masters of the "light touch" in literature. According to Van Vechten he "might be writing with his eyelashes or the tips of his polished finger nails." After reading him the progenitor of Peter Whiffle finds "Max Beerbohm a trifle studied" and Aldous Huxley "an earnest fellow." And this divine gift is carried to a finished degree in the present volume.

To parade this book before the vigilant eyes of the Philistines (and the species is not confined to the whites) is synonymous with the act of a madman. They won't like it. (Cheer up). It goes too deeply into the bowels of life. It is too true, too accurate a presentation. To Negroes particularly its content, like its title, is a gesture of opprobrium. The dark folk it depicts, they will argue, are ofttimes referred to, without the groveling of quotes, as "niggers," "coons," "naygurs," "mulatress," etc.... The sensitive ones rebel against this sort of thing....

Furthermore, the book is not polemical. It does not rail against the British Crown Colony system in the Caribbean. It alas! is not the English "Batouala" which is still to be written....

Against that, which, briefly, is the credo of the Negro, the approach he demands, blind to the aesthetic swirl, of everyone who writes about him, it seems as if this chap Firbank sacrifices the problems of politics and economics to the tempest of such unephemeral things as languorous nights on the Malecon and flaming sunsets above Savannah La Mar.

Going to the tropics in this dream fashion he caught something of the spirit of the West Indies—its birds and flowers, dawns and sunsets, glowing, moon-flecked nights and drowsy, care-free days. The result is a work of haunting, compelling beauty.

Usually a Hearn or a Melville or a Stevenson can get into a portrait of the tropics an idea of the beauty of nature—the emerald sea, the golden sands, the pearly lakes and teeming forests. It is when they come to the problem of delving into the complex nature of the natives that most of our writers of the Kipling-Peter B. Kyne school slip and make asses of themselves.

Here, however, Firbank snorted at the prospect of such contemptuous association. He did a masterly job. And to achieve that he had to throw a great deal to the winds. Edna, the dusky concubine of the com-poser Vittorio Ruiz, old man Mouth, always "thinkin'," Miami, Baboon, and, of course, the socially climbing Mrs. Ahmaudou Mouth—are folks you cannot help but experience in any of the isles of the West Indies.

There is, in us colored people, a certain humor that is inescapable but which heretofore has been abused by those writers whose raison d'être lies largely in their vision and commercialism in exploiting the golden life-lore which some of our creative spirits are now beginning to distinguish from the "problem." In "Prancing Nigger" there is an abundance of humor, but it is not the broad, side-splitting burlesque that we know of in the writings of Irvin Cobb and Roy Cohen. It is native to us but we do not

always allow it to come into its literary birthright. It is a delicate, subtle, sophisticated, almost Rabelaisian touch with which "Prancing Nigger" is consistently shot through. Sometimes it is almost breath-taking.

Lastly, this is a book to read for its sheer beauty and enjoyment. It is regrettable, therefore, that it is as short as it is, barely 25,000 words, but, again, that too, ought to recommend it to the enlightened few for whom it is consciously designed.

Eric D. Walrond.

"The Long Walk of Samba Diouf"

By JEROME and JEAN THARAUD

Willis Steele, Translator
Duffield and Company, New York, Price $1.75

IF THE BOOK were to base its claim to recognitionin chiefly upon plot or originality of character it would, in truth, be doomed for the scrap heap of the mediocre. For the story of Samba Diouf, kidnapped and then drafted into the service of the French in the great war, has by now become the veriest commonplace. Here again we have the story of troops lost to themselves in France, discontented because of inactivity or manual labor, ill because of exposure, regiments practically annihilated at the first encounter, parents and kinsfolk who think that the soldier, in spite of small pay, should be a veritable gold mine and bring home all of Paris in a knapsack.

Samba Diouf is an African who had started out on a walk of several days to a distant village to claim an inheritance when he was kidnapped and sent to France by an enemy tribe in order that its quota might be complete. That his fellow soldiers and the folks back home are Africans make for no originality in the development of plot or in the drawing of the majority of the characters, in fact in any of them, except that of Samba Diouf himself.

In Samba, son of Diouf, we find a philosophical individual who looks out upon the world with a calm and happy detachment which the vicissitudes of his many adventures fail to disturb and which makes his rare but spicy and thoughtful comments oases in an otherwise arid desert. When informed that the Toubabs (white men) are at war, we have Samba saying: "The Toubabs are fools. God has given them riches, they are masters of us all, why then do they make war? The Toubabs are fools; to gain wealth is not worth the trouble of fighting." Later in the war, after noting the wonders of gas, aeroplane, submarine and the rest.—"You say truly, God has given the Toubabs three ways of possessing the earth: to have, to know, and to be able. No secret of the universe is unknown to them except one—the way to make a nose (how to create life)." At the end of a long stay in the hospital, when reflecting upon the friendly attitude of the nurse who had cared for him, we have him coming to this conclusion: "By my life, white women do not love the Blacks! But they have kind hearts. And what this girl has done for me she did it, in truth, for the love of God." And so he returned to his native village with only Yamina, his sweetheart, in his heart. He found her faithless but irresistible, and here again his philosophy stood him in good stead.

The story is woven into a background which, though at times a bit dull because of an unintelligible repetition of names, is fascinating. Indeed, the background into which is woven too the native African mind and point of view on things European gives to the book the larger part of its value. The whole is treated in a light and rather easy moving manner. It runs along in that same playful and yet very wise style which we became used to in our fable and fairy-tale days and which followed us even into those exciting adventure

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stories of our early teens. All along we have the feeling not that we are reading a book, but rather that a tale is being told directly to us in an intimate and personal fashion. Indeed it is a very intimate book, and intimacy of style is the refuge of the authors who are talking about places and peoples that are foreign to them. It is as though they were definitely linking themselves and their readers into an alliance as opposed to the places and persons under discussion. It comes to this then, that in the book, story and characters aside, there is a good deal of Africa put across in an intimate style. Therefore, one ought to read "The Long Walk of Samba Diouf" if one likes things of that sort—Africa and intimacy!

Eunice R. Hunton.

## "The History of the Yorubas"

By REVEREND SAMUEL JOHNSON, Pastor of Oyo
E. P. Dutton, New York, Price $4.00

"THE History of the Yorubas," by the Reverend Samuel Johnson, a native missionary, has been edited by his brother, Dr. O. Johnson of Lagos, who tells the story of the book's adventures. The author spent twenty years gathering his material from the lips of the royal bards and participants in the sanguinary warfare which led to British intervention. In 1899 he sent his manuscript to a Missionary Society which handed it over to a publisher. When the Reverend Samuel Johnson visited England, in the following year, he was told that his book had been mysteriously lost and no trace of it was ever found. The author died in the following year, and his brother was so busy in the practice of medicine that it was several years before he was able to reassemble his brother's material. On January 2, 1916, the manuscript sailed from Lagos aboard the APPAM, which was captured by the German raider MOENE and taken to America. A year later the manuscript was heard from in America and again found its way into the hands of the editor; but its publication was delayed until the close of the war.

In many ways the adventures of this book parallel the story of Governor Bradford's Manuscript History of Plymouth Plantation, and in spirit the book is akin to the writing of the Pilgrim father, for the author sees the hand of God quite visibly at work among his people. He differs from most native converts in his love for the traditions of his race, for most new believers are so jealous that they wish to impose European civilization in toto upon their fellows, and they have to be unusually careful to avoid any appearance of eating meat offered to idols.

Reverend Samuel Johnson realized that the Yorubas had a proud tradition and he considered it a reproach that the educated men of his tribe who knew the history of Greece and Rome and of England were ignorant of their own past. He deplored the influence exerted by education in English upon his mother-tongue and he saw no reason why the Yoruban system of nomenclature should be changed for one alien to native modes of thought.

The influence of Biblical history had some slight influence upon the author's theories. He says of Lama-ruda, the first ancestor of his race, "In the name Lamaruda (or Namaruda) we can easily recognize a dialective modification of the name Nimrod." In this respect he resembles the mediaeval monkish chroniclers who discovered or perhaps invented pedigrees which showed the descent of Odin from Noah, but he does not go as far as William Apeo, the first American Indian to write a book. Mr. Apeo devoted more than a third of his autobiography to showing that the Indians were the descendants of the lost tribes of Israel.

As a young man Reverend Samuel Johnson helped to negotiate peace in the last inter-tribal war which devastated his country, a war in which both the weapons of the stone age and the most civilized methods of slaughter were utilized. Thus he saw before his own eyes an epitome of the vast progress of the hu-

man race. The author gives a detailed account of the language organization and politics of his race. His narrative shows the actual functioning of a primitive state and it is a thrilling story which shows how little human nature changes. There are incidents which remind one of Roman emperors consulting the omens, tales as grim as the sagas of Iceland, passages as naive as those of Herodotus, and chivalrous exploits which are in keeping with the pageantry of Froissart. The titles of many of the chieftains, such as the Ondese of Idesi, the Ikukisi of Kikusi, the Timu of Ede, and the Ona Ombode of Igboho might have come from the pages of Gilbert and Sullivan. The interesting parallelism of human development is shown in the fact that the chief ruler, the Alofin of Oyo, and his prime minister, the Basorun, came at one period to occupy similar roles to that of a Merriglen King and his Majordomo or that of the Mikado and the shugun in Japan.

One of the most interesting features of "The History of the Yorubas" is the light that is thrown upon the intense tribal pride of the natives. A member of one war-like clan said: "Except the white man and the Ilebus, the whole world besides are slaves; there is no market in which a white man may be sold and none where Ilebus may be sold."

The Yorubas, uncertain as to whether to admit white men to the interior of their Moslem, said: "These are the world spoilers. There is no country they enter but misfortune will follow for that place." Ogunmola the Otun replied: "The white man is a Lagos, Badagoz and Abeohuta, why should we deny him? We are not the first men, neither shall we be the last to receive him, and whatever be the consequences to others, let the same be to us also." Thereupon the omens of Ifu, the national god, were consulted and found favorable, and the missionaries were admitted. Civilization has brought both bad and good features to the Yorubas, but this book shows that it is possible for an African tribe to accept some of the fruits of civilization without selling its birthright for a mess of pottage.

Joseph Gould.

## "All God's Chillun Got Wings"

By EUGENE O'NEILL
Provincetown Playhouse, New York City

THE production of Eugene O'Neill's masterly Negro-white drama is another instance of the supreme triumph of art. In spite of the wallings of the Ku Klux Klan on the one hand and of the Very Rev. Dr. Cleveland G. Allen of Harlem on the other, it came to pass, with the result that no better study of the relations of white and colored people in the United States has ever been projected on the American stage.

To one who is anxious to preserve a neutral attitude in this matter of the struggle of the whites and blacks, it was exasperating to behold the way both parties to the fray, as it was narrowed down to this perfectly ineligible spot, showed their utter ignorance of the fundamentals of life and of necessity of art. Of course the test of a pie is in the eating and when "All God's Chillun Got Wings" came out in the *American Mercury* most of the alarmists thought they had actually tasted the thing. But they were mistaken. They had only sniffed it. That is why the play is still running and why no one has had to be bandaged and taken to the hospital in an inter-racial melee down at the Provincetown in a discussion of the points of view as represented in the play. As the Hebrew merchants say down on Broadway, Brooklyn, all you need do is go to the Provincetown and "be convinced."

It is a bit tardy perhaps to go academically into the merits of "All God's Chillun Got Wings." That has been viewed and reviewed by every legitimate and illegitimate dramatic critic in New York. It was unanimously heralded as one of the dramatic triumphs of the season. Yet, late as it is, one must be pardoned

JULY, 1924

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for saying a word about Paul Robeson, who plays the
leading male role. From the moment he came on the
stage as the hesitant, slow-moving, undecided, self-
conscious youth to the time he leaves it ultimately,
aged, melancholy, disillusioned, beaten in the pawn
of life, sound in the belief that the only thing left
for him to do is nurse this demented child-wife of
his (Mary Blair), till he spends himself in the task,
he creates the mood of one who is living a part.
For him every moment is alive. And he makes it so.

Eric D. Walrond.

Notes on a Trip with the Business Men's Party

IF Boston can be called a state of mind, Durham,
North Carolina, is a situation. Its structure as a
city is incidental, for Durham means tobacco, insurance,
and thrifty Negroes. Ubiquitous as the monstrous
sepia bull that stares out from every fourth billboard;
part of a hundred Negro communities, Durham does
not stay in North Carolina. With its bare 8000
Negroes it controls more wealth than any community ten
times its size. Somehow the city gets itself known.
The Merritts, Moores, Spauldings, Pearsons, Avery,
and Gomez are names to conjure with. The party
enters the city early. There is open country, then
suddenly the station, a diminutive conventional pat-
tern nestling in the midst of an agitated conferences
of high-powered cars. . . .

Three blocks up and the cars turn into the narrow
crammed streets of the business district. . . . Amaze-
ment. . . . The towering white front of the North
Carolina Mutual Insurance Company is in the heart of
the business district! "Ours is the second tallest build-
ing in town," one of the guides is saying. "It
could just as easily have been the tallest, but there's
no need of provoking feeling among the white people
here unnecessarily." At the corner of the block is
a Negro drug store. "How does he manage to sur-
vive out here away from the Negro section?" . .
"Oh, he lives all right. See those white people com-
ing out? They don't think anything of buying in
there." The guide points to a row of small buildings
and remarks that they are owned by Negroes but
occupied by whites. . . . The roof of the building
commands a central view of the city. . . . Millionaire
Row. . . . Durham has ten millionaires. . . . Our escort
is whetted by the dumb amazement of his audience.
"There, gentlemen, is Trinity College, endowed by the
Dukes. Once Booker T. Washington spoke out there
and the professor who introduced him said he was one
of the greatest living Americans and other things along
that same line. . . . Well, they wanted to expel the
professor and would have done it if old man Duke,
who put up the money, hadn't set his foot down. . . .
Right under you is the Post Office. We are the largest
patrons in the city, so the postmaster tells us. . . . Now
look over to the southeast. . . . That's Haiti." A
dull, low lying quarter could be seen crouching in a
blur of smoke and trees. "That's where most of the
colored people live," he said, turning toward the stairs.
"What we need are paved streets and improvements
and . . . " He disappeared through the doorway and
his voice was lost.

The machinery of this enormous institution is dis-
tributed over the six floors. The personnel from the
janitor to the president say "We," and point to parts
of the works with an air of possession. J. M. Avery,
the treasurer, will tell you that they have the data on
every important Negro business concern in the country
with precisely the same assurance that the store-room
man speaks of his charge. . . . Dr. Clyde Donnell, a
Harvard graduate, talks about risks as he toys with a
new $4000 X-ray machine. "A large part of our success
is due to our selection of risks. . . If we had the mortal-

Yet, despite its superb acting on all sides—Mary
Blair, particularly, as (Ella) the red-haired, chalky-
faced gutter snipe is effective, while Dora Cole Nor-
man as Jim's sister (Hattie) ought to at least please
those colored people who point to Jim as a weak, in-
consequent grotesque, with her snapping black eyes,
hard, relentless figure, and broad, prolonging a-s—
"All God's Chillun Got Wings" is a dull, morbid
play. But then again, like all matters of aesthetics,
that probably is a question of point of view.

ity of the Metropolitan's Industrial risks, we'd be on the
rocks. This year we are making a start on a Life Ex-
tension Institute, like the one in New York, and it's going
to be extended to the field. That will help them live out
their expectancy, and also help us." . . . W. D. Hill in
the agency branch pulls out his map drawers and tries
to speak calmly. "A few years ago we had a thou-
sand agents, but for efficiency's sake we cut these down
to 619." There is a series of low whistles. "We
operate in twelve Southern States." Then a business-
like map, dotted with black head pins, showing the com-
pany's network of agents, districts, states, sections,—
too much for rapid comprehension.

The only Negro Fire Insurance Company in the world
is located in the building and interlocked with the "Mu-
tual". . . . Gomez, the president, is a spectacle of rest-
less animation. . . .

There is a trip over the city. The rigid business
places soften into residences, the residences grow old,
then dilapidated as we approach the railroad tracks.
Across this divide the Negro section begins. A bottled
community. . . . Thrift and improvidence, decency and
crime are huddled together;—the magnificent homes of
the well-to-do and the gawky inelegance of rickety old
cottages. . . . The home office of the Royal Knights of
King David is a new three story building. The com-
pany, an amalgam of the old Negro burying society
and the new insurance principles, is forty-one years
old and has assets of $141,000. Business and homes are
on Fayetteville Street and practically all owned by
Negroes.

Two cotton mills suspend their rules and let J. M.
Avery lead the party through. In the Durham Hosiery
Company we see the other Negro half,—at work.

An acre of chattering epileptic machinery, and Ne-
gro women, in rhythmic concert, moving at a gait
of incredible speed . . . making cheap socks. Some
of them can make on piece rates a dollar and a half
a day. . . . There are Negro men pressing socks at
$1.75 a hundred dozen. . . . The white men, inspectors
of various things, do not look up. This company has
another plant named after a respected old Negro
family servant.

The Erwin Cotton Mills employ about 2000 white
workers, no Negroes. The president knew Avery when
they were both poor and struggling for a foothold.
He writes him thus: "Mr. J. M. Avery, . . . Dear
John, —etc. . ." There you have the difference between
Durham and the rest of the South. . . . "Mr!" . . .
The visitors are joined by curious townsmen who have
never been in a cotton mill. A long string of dark
faces winds through the deafening racket and con-
fusion of spindles. Here are the white mill workers
and the most interesting study in psychology of the en-
tire trip. Their faces are blank surprise. Every
eye seeks its neighbor swiftly for some clue to the
appropriate emotion. Anything could happen. They
search the face of our escort in desperate appeal. His
is the supreme calm,—self contained and unaffectedly
courteous. . . . The spell is broken; they follow the
leader in civility as they would have followed him in
insult.

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Dinner at the Mutual Building, much speech-making, and off again for Columbia, South Carolina. This is Mr. Tillman's state and the nameless glances cast into the party's chartered Pullman from little by-stations are shot through with the attitude of his supporting constituency on the race question. ... The face of Columbia is disappointing. The atmosphere seems a bit denser. We are whisked from the station and suddenly into a stretch of arid pavelessness. ... the Negro section. The first building, an alleged hotel, is perilously frail. ... A successful business is undertaking, strangely. ... Nearer the heart of the town is another block and paved. It is solidly Negro. ... Pedro de Pinna, a New York Negro, has a drug store which is cleaner and better equipped and larger than any in Harlem. ... There are two others. A clothing store shatters another myth by actually succeeding. ... Segregation has its reflexes. Un friendliness drives Negroes upon their own resources, if they are that kind of Negroes. ... This accounts for a

shoe store in Columbia, the only one encountered. ... There is no rule for race relations. ... Puzzling paradoxes discourage rationalizations. ... There are Negro churches in "white" neighborhoods. ... At Allen University we meet the quite black official of a mixed Bricklayers' and Plasterers' Union. ...

Automobiles are abundant and costly. "My one ambition now," said a local professional man, "is to drive a Lincoln." Automobiles have a strange significance. ... A resident explains: "Here there are so few things a colored man can spend his money on, he has to get his satisfaction out of his car and his house." ... Some of the homes are as magnificent as they are expressive. ... Benedict College and Allen University are separated physically by a road, but a greater distance divides their organization and sentimental relations. Allen students at a baseball game with Morehouse root for Morehouse. ... Eager youthful faces crowd both institutions and their singing is an unbelievable transport of delight.

## BULLETIN BOARD

The 55th Annual Commencement of Howard University

AT THE 55th annual commencement of Howard University in Washington, D. C., President Coolidge delivered an address. Other prominent persons who participated were the Hon. Hubert Work, Secretary of the Interior, and Col. Theodore Roosevelt, Jr., Assistant Secretary of the Navy.

Two colored men—Messrs. C. E. Rambo and J. C. Banks—have completed the four-year course at the Lynn Independent Industrial Shoemaking School, in Massachusetts. Mr. Rambo served with the Wireless Company of the 325th Field Signal Battalion. Mr. Banks was a Lieutenant connected with the 365th Infantry, 92nd Division. While Mr. Rambo plans to join the A. R. Cooper Shoe Company in Findlay, Ohio, Mr. Banks contemplates going into business in Boston.

An educational symposium with "The Negro" as its subject has been held at the Berean School in Philadelphia, Pa. Dr. Carter G. Woodson, Editor of

The Journal of Negro History, presided. The speakers were Dr. Matthew Anderson, "The Negro in Ancient History"; Charles Wesley, Professor of History at Howard University, "The Status of the Negro From the Time of His Introduction Into American Civilization Through the Reconstruction Period"; A. Philip Randolph, Editor of *The Messenger*, "The Progress of the Negro Economically"; Harry T. Burleigh, composer, "The Progress of the Negro in Music"; Charles S. Johnson, Editor of *OPPORTUNITY*, "The Subtle Internal and External Influences Which Tend to Retard the Negro's Progress"; Alain Leroy Locke, Professor of Philosophy at Howard University, "The Good Influences From Within and Without Which Encourage and Advance the Negro"; Arthur Huff Fauset, "Negro Youth Faces the Future."

On June 1, Governor Pinchot appointed Forrester B. Washington and Prince L. Edwoods—colored men—as Director and Assistant and Field Worker, respectively, of a state-wide Survey of Race Relations

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Prince Regent Ras Taffari and President Millerand

in Pennsylvania. Dr. Ellen C. Potter, Secretary of Public Welfare, introduced the appointees to State officials at a meeting in Harrisburg on June 2.

Mr. Washington is the executive secretary of the Armstrong Association of Philadelphia; he holds degrees from Tufts, Howard, and Columbia, and is a trained and experienced social worker. Mr. Edwoods is a graduate of Lincoln University and a former law student at the University of Michigan; he has been connected with Philander Smith College, Manassas Industrial School, Cheyney Training School for Teachers, and the State Employment Bureau of New York City. Practicability and participation by representative colored citizens in the preliminary organization, findings, and final recommendations are the keynotes of this survey. Another feature will be the attempt to accomplish actual benefits for the race while the investigation is going on, especially in housing and industrial problems.

A Survey of Race Relations—A Study of the Oriental on the Pacific Coast—is being made in San Francisco, with Dr. Robert E. Park, of the University of Chicago, as Research Director.

The period of exploration has been finished and that of finding and gathering data is in progress.

In October, of last year, the South Central Athletic Association was formed as a result of the First Annual Basket-ball Tournament in Wichita, Kan. The Association now includes 8 communities, with 3 leagues and 13 teams; 150 boys and men have been definitely reached and influenced by the organization. In the promotion of this accomplishment, Mr. Harold Sheppard gave gratuitously from one to three evenings a week, during the entire season, for two years; Mr. W. L. Hutcherson, who is the executive secretary of the Water Street Branch of the Y.M.C.A., has served as secretary-treasurer.

Prince Regent Ras Taffari of Abyssinia is making an official visit to France. Our picture shows him riding through the streets of Paris, to the City Hall, with President Millerand. The Prince brought with him numerous gifts for the rulers he is to visit and a palm made of elephant tusks which will be placed upon the tomb of the Unknown Soldier. Prince Taffari is heir to the throne of Abyssinia and regent in the name of his mother, who holds the title "Queen of Kings."

A "Vocational Guidance Week" has been held at West Virginia Collegiate Institute by Nu Chapter of the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority. In an address by Mrs. Sadie Merriweather Nutter, one of the founders of the Sorority, the accomplishments of women—ancient and modern—were revealed.

On the permanent honor roll in the college corridor at Boston University, there has been engraved the name of Constance T. Crocker,—a colored student.

Miss Crocker is a graduate of Public School No. 119 in New York City, and the Girls' High School of Boston, where she stood at the head of a class of 308 and was awarded the Kingston Scholarship for fine character and unusual ability; she maintained an average of A in every subject she studied for four years. This same high standard has been upheld in her three years of college life, during which time she has served as editor-in-chief of a Spanish newspaper published by the students, and vice-president of the Spanish Club. She is a member of the Delta Sigma Theta Sorority.

The honorary degree of Doctor of Laws has been conferred on Eugene Kinckle Jones, executive secretary of the National Urban League, by Virginia Union University "in recognition of his efficient public service and leadership in social work." Mr. Jones was graduated from Virginia Union University in 1906 and was awarded the Master's degree in social science from Cornell University in 1908. He is the son of the late Prof. J. E. Jones, who for 46 years was Professor of Church Policy and Homiletics at Virginia Union, and Mrs. Rosa Kinckle Jones, a teacher of music at Hartshorn College.

At the Republican convention in Cleveland, Ohio, two Negroes were seated as National Committeemen from their respective states,—Perry W. Howard of Mississippi and Henry Lincoln Johnson of Georgia.

An auxiliary to the National Negro Business League has been launched,—the National Negro Finance Corporation, with a capital stock of $1,000,000. Its object will be the promotion and expansion of Negro business enterprises. The temporary officers are R. R. Moton, of Tuskegee Institute, president; C. C. Spaulding, president of the North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company, chairman of the executive committee; W. Gomez, manager of the Bankers' Fire Insurance Company, secretary; John M. Avery, president of the Mechanics' and Farmers' Bank, treasurer. There will be a Board of Directors composed of 25 members living in various sections of the country, and offices will be located in New York City, Chicago, Durham, Memphis, Dallas, and Atlanta.

At the colored branch of the Young Women's Christian Association, in New York City, courses are offered in business, health education, sewing, dressmaking, millinery, embroidery, crochet beading, and power machine operating. Our picture shows one of the members at work at a power machine such as is used by skilled workers in garment factories.

At the Y. W. C. A. in New York City

224

OPPORTUNITY

JULY, 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; De-
grees; 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. Hay-
wood, 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

Morehouse College

ATLANTA, GA.

College, Academy, Divinity
School

AN institution famous within recent years
for its emphasis on all sides of manly de-
velopment—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

TEL.: MORNINGSIDE 4346

T. A. FRENCH, Prop.

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A LIMITED NUMBER OF PUPILS

120 WEST 134TH STREET, NEW YORK

SOCIAL WORKERS

Watch for the August Issue of
"OPPORTUNITY"

IN THE AUGUST NUMBER there
will be articles by Dr. Louis I.
Dublin, William Pickens, C. L. Peake,
Dr. W. S. Alexander, George B. Fouse,
Helen Sayre, Dr. C. V. Roman, Dr.
Charles Garvin.

Do not fail to get a copy of the August
Issue as soon as it comes off the press

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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
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the Intellectual Better-
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the same time performing a
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Business Manager

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127 East 23rd Street
New York City

## SHAW UNIVERSITY

RALEIGH, N. C.

Address

SHAW UNIVERSITY,

Raleigh, N. C.

## MEHARRY MEDICAL COLLEGE

A Class "A" College

## PAINE COLLEGE

AUGUSTA, GA.

RAY S. TOMLIN, President.

Under the Auspices of the

BOARD OF EDUCATION FOR NEGROES of the
METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH

"A School of Personality"

School for Teachers

SPECIAL INDUSTRIAL TRAINING

For further information write

One of
Home Office
Buildings

527 N. 2nd St.
Richmond, Va.

## Southern Aid Society
of Virginia, Inc.

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.

Home Offices: 527-29 N. 2nd St.
Richmond, Va.

Operating in State of Virginia and
District of Columbia

## Atlanta University

## Morehouse College

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.

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

CHARLES S. JOHNSON, Editor

NATIONAL URBAN LEAGUE

Telephone Gramercy 3978

WILLIAM H. BALDWIN
Secretary

A. S. FRISSELL
Treasurer

VOL. 2

AUGUST, 1924

No. 20

Contents

COVER. "TOIL"

By Mahouri Young

Courtesy of The Survey Graphic

EDITORIALS

226

THE CONFERENCE OF SOCIAL
WORK AT TORONTO

THE NEW CRUSADERS

"THE JESUS WAY"

FISK'S MILLION DOLLAR ENDOW-
MENT FUND

WALLS

OPPORTUNITY LITERARY CONTEST

DEMOCRACY AND EDUCATION

By William Pickens

ARTICLES

THE NEGRO AND THE COMMUNITY

By William Pickens

229

THE EFFECT OF HEALTH EDU-
CATION ON NEGRO MORTALITY

By Louis I. Dublin

232

THE NEED OF HEALTH EDUCA-
TION AMONG NEGROES

By Algernon B. Jackson

235

THE NEGRO'S PSYCHOLOGY AND
HIS HEALTH

By C. V. Roman

237

DISCUSSION

E. Franklin Frazier

Rebecca Hull Walton

239

NEGRO WORKERS IN BUFFALO

By C. L. Peake

240

NEGRO WOMEN IN INDUSTRY

By Helen B. Sayre

242

A SUCCESSFUL LIBRARY EXPERI-
MENT. Illustrated

By Thomas F. Blue

244

A SOUND NEGRO BUSINESS INSTIT-
UTION. Illustrated

247

CORRESPONDENCE

248

INTER-RACIAL FORUM

249

POT POURRI

250

BULLETIN BOARD

252

Copyright 1923

OPPORTUNITY

VOL. 2

AUGUST, 1924

No. 20

EDITORIALS

The Conference of Social
Work at Toronto

Rhode Island, the assembled social workers found no room for discussion of the special social difficulties of the Negro population. Last year, in Washington, there were three Negroes among the six speakers on this subject. At the recent meeting, in Toronto, there were nineteen places on the program devoted to this question, fourteen of which were filled by Negro speakers; Eugene Kinckle Jones, Executive Secretary of the National Urban League, was elected one of the five members of the Executive Committee of the Conference by a heavy vote, and one general evening session was given over entirely to the Negro migration. The sessions at which the difficulties of the Negroes were discussed were marked by an unusually high attendance and animated discussion. This is distinctly a step forward. The Conference seemed to have derived from its generous attitude on the question an exalted sense of spiritual freedom. This expressed itself in the spontaneous and genuine enthusiasm evoked when the name of Mr. Jones appeared among those elected to the Executive Board. These social workers, aided by the gentle fervor of such dominantly earnest characters as Mary McDowell, Jane Addams, Grace Abbott, Edith Campbell, Mary Van Kleek, and a few others, actually convinced themselves of the universality of their social preachments.

"Segregation has solved no problem," shouted William Pickens. "It is a problem factory and will continue until the end of the system. . . . Warfare between the minority race and the majority race is like the world war: everybody loses. . . . Disease germs draw no color line." They knew he was right, and as a stamp of their interest a continuation meeting was held the following day and three hundred came. If in no other sense, the Conference triumphed in loosening its inhibitions on the race question.

An encouraging feature of the Conference was the support by Negro speakers themselves of the "urge to justice" manifested among the leaders. At last, it seems, a formidable group of Negro specialists in social work is emerging. With few exceptions the time-worn technique of emotional pleading and indignant air-beating was abandoned in

favor of clear-cut and dispassionate analysis of particular situations.

The question of Negro labor, for example, no longer figured in their speculations as some vaguely uncertain hope of merely providing an opening for Negro workers. They are already in industry and attention is now on the subtler problems of orienting them to jobs with a future; of selection on some stricter basis of physical and temperamental adaptation; of providing new and wholesome "wants" and sublimating profitless and sometimes criminal impulses as a cure for excessive turnover; of apprenticeship; of collective bargaining and meeting squarely the ambiguous behavior of certain white labor groups; of directly applying the principles of industrial democracy.

The Negro population is no longer conceived as a tangent group, but in inter-acting relation with all which we know the community to be. Withholding privileges or the emoluments of service from them is vitally depriving all the individuals not merely in some negatively spiritual way but actually and measurably. If the level of Negro education is purposely low, the level of white education is held down.

The addresses and a large part of the discussion on the Negro have been made available for OPPORTUNITY readers. They contain a wealth of information and constructive planning. Those which do not appear in this issue, because of space limitations, will follow in the next.

Another Vexation for
The Psychologists

I would not be surprising if the learned intelligence probes soon discovered different races within the Negro race, to account for the amazing discrepancies between present theories and fact. In comparative measurements of white and Negro children, the Negroes always trail behind in varying degrees of deficiency. But if the Negro children of California, for example, are compared with the white children of North Carolina, by the same standard tests, this relation threatens to be sharply reversed. While a perfectly obvious test of the test, not one of the proponents of innate difference has dared try it.

The nearest approach to such a comparison is a study of the educational status of Los Angeles Negro children by Willis W. Clark, Assistant Supervisor of Schools of that city, published by the De-

AUGUST, 1924

OPPORTUNITY

227

partment of Psychology and Educational Research of Los Angeles City Schools. He sought the intelligence levels of Negro children as compared with the total population of fifteen elementary schools, basing this on the National intelligence tests. The median I. Q. for the Negroes was 104.7 and for the whites 106.0, a difference regarded as of no significance. But when the schools were divided it was found that seven of them ranked lower than the Negroes, in one case nine points lower.

This is a difference, it can be easily calculated, about four and one-half times greater than the difference registered between the whites and the Negroes. The question is, naturally, are the Negroes superior to the white children of these seven schools below them as certainly as the whites are superior to the Negroes in the eight schools above them?

More striking still, the Negro children measured an intelligence quotient 0.346 of a year above average chronological age or a median I. Q. of 104.7 as compared with but 0.18 or a median I. Q. of 101.8 for unselected white children in forty schools. Moreover, in the educational accomplishment tests these Negro children made their highest scores in arithmetic, an abstract subject which they are not expected to comprehend.

What these results indicate, if anything at all, is that such differences as can be honestly found when the environment is about the same are even less important than can be found among the children of any ordinary family. We prophesy for this study, despite its scrupulous honesty, a speedy submergence.

## The New Crusaders

IT may be possible, but there is room for doubt, that the Almighty appreciates the swaggering, intolerant religiousness of His Ku Klux children with their blind and bigoted hates conceived in the name of a Protestant Jesus; their flaming, oakum-soaked mockery of the cross; their tar and feathers and sadistic lashings; their pathologically interesting "surveys" of "Red light districts"; and even their murders,—to hasten His Kingdom on earth. It is indeed doubtful that He shares their enthusiasm to correct the errors of Creation by the Imperial Wizard's race purity chart. Already numbering millions, the growing strength of this group of white, Protestant Americans was revealed in its dark, menacing power at the Democratic Convention in New York. Like a crouching dragon goaded by the sound of its name, it snapped into sight and action, stung by the frank condemnation of Senator Oscar Underwood's platform, and through the eight days that followed, waged battle over the issue. Brave men they are and unafraid. They are on their confession "one hundred per cent Americans,—trying to bring us back to the faith of our fathers who founded the Republic." The baseless affront to friendly Japan, the intolerant and discriminatory immigration bill bear the stamp of their prowess, first steps, as it were, in the redemption of the country. Other steps include a long list of

services to the Republic which, under "unhooded" circumstances, are designated precisely and simply in the criminal statutes. And while these plenipotentiaries of the Empire maneuvered in Madison Square Garden for a firmer grip on the Nation's throat, their one hundred per cent American constituency with characteristic valor added another victory to the long list. The press reported it as follows:

"Two truck loads of hooded men attack Negro boys' camp at Naylor's Run, upper Darby, near Philadelphia. After firing several shots and burning fiery cross, they disperse."

“The Jesus Way” VASSAR College has just held a profoundly significant meeting,—an Institute for a Christian Basis of World Relations. It was significant both in its new interpretation of what they call “The Jesus Way” of life, and in its attitude toward races which are different. Northerners and Southerners, Negroes, Chinese and Indians met on a plane of exalted brotherhood, walked and talked together, and in the freedom inspired by their genuine faiths and ideals, came to know and understand each other. This, indeed, was a triumph founded more securely than the sneaking, religious intolerance of the hooded empire, or even the righteous exaltation of pious evangels of a Christianity which seals its lips and closes its eyes to the abuses of racial dominance, lynchings and proscriptions and with gloved hands keeps God's dark children out of "white" churches. It was natural with this Vassar group, supported as it was by non-political scholars and scientists, that knowing one another they should conclude that fundamental differences between races are social and cultural rather than biological; that no race is justified in building a public policy of any kind on the supposed fact of biological differences; that racial purity is of little consequence; that the test of racial superiority is the response of the race to the best stimuli the world can provide.

The success of this experiment reminds us that there are forces at work in the more tolerant-minded leaders of certain social and religious organizations which promise to prove more powerful and more enduring than the work of those supercilious protagonists of supremacy and dominance who have nothing to their credit but a history of wars and persecution.

## Fisk's Million Dollar Endowment Fund

ONE inspiriting evidence of the silent revolution of public sentiment on the question of higher education for Negroes is the announcement of Fisk University, that the million dollar mark set by the institution has been reached. We recall at the same time that the old wags oft repeated in a quiver of disgust about the black farm hand dawdling away good time trying to read French; about the obnoxious airs of "educated Negroes," their impudence and refusal to work, have somehow and somewhere lost their

228

OPPORTUNITY

AUGUST, 1924

point. There was a time not far back when only
those schools which promised, specifically or by
curriculum, to turn out manual workers could hope
for any liberal support. To meet obdurate preju-
dice some of the colleges have been forced to at-
tach meaningless manual training sections or con-
ceal their college courses behind a less fearsome
Theological Department in order to live.

Fisk University is frankly an institution for the
higher training of Negroes, and in setting the am-
bitious goal of a million dollars, it both drew upon
this changing sentiment and added to it an in-
creased momentum and strength from which the
whole movement for higher education for Negroes
may profit. What Harvard University accom-
plished in 1919, when it inaugurated its campaign
for fourteen million dollars and rescued the move-
ment for education out of the welter of post-war
distraction, Fisk University has taken a lead in ac-
complishing for Negro education, which was left
conspicuously stranded by this same distraction. It
is the first Negro college to enter the million dol-
lar class. Thus, it seems, that from the bewildering
confusion of racial bigotries in ferment, there has
been distilled a measurable improvement of senti-
ment.

A few months ago Howard University awakened
a genuine alarm with its revelation that scarcely
more than fifty Negro doctors were being gradu-
ated each year for the eleven million Negroes. The
success of the Fisk campaign emphasizes the seri-
ousness of this new recognition generally, of the
need of increased and improved facilities for the
training of professional Negroes and leaders, and
for the elevation of culture levels within the group.

## Walls

A SOCIOLOGY class in one of the large universities was tested in an unique manner for its concepts and associations with reference to Negroes. The results explain how many of the impossible phantasies about this group survive, and why myriad misunderstandings, big and little, irrational and baseless, persist. The class was made up of normal white students averaging in age about twenty-two years, of sound minds and, presumably, of sufficient intellectual curiosity to warrant at least some measure of knowledge about their very immediate neighbors. Only one question was asked, intended to determine to what extent these students participated in the cultural heritage of the Negro and to what extent they were familiar with his present day achievements in the arts. The question was: "What associations have you with the phrase—Negro art?" Here are some of the answers:

"I think of posters for a circus."

"Dialect songs and jigging."

"Banjo music—plantation melodies—dancing."

"Henry O. Tanner, Paul Lawrence Dunbar, Claude McKay, W. E. B. DuBois, Nathaniel Dett."

"Lyric poetry—Negro male quartet—Dunbar—'Uncle Tom's Cabin'."

"Superstition—What is Negro art?"

"Don't know much about it. Strikes me as something unfamiliar. I remember something about manufacture of dolls with Negro features advertised with Negro persons as illustrations."

The naivete of these students can be matched by the comment of a little white boy in one of the northern public schools. A Negro boy tripped and fell in the corridor, injuring his arm so that it bled slightly. As a teacher lifted him to his feet, the little white boy exclaimed in astonishment, "Why, Miss—, he's got red blood!"

## Opportunity Literary Contest

TO STIMULATE creative expression among Negroes and to direct attention to the rich and unexploited sources of materials for literature in Negro life, OPPORTUNITY will offer prizes for short stories, poetry, plays, essays, and personal experience sketches to the amount of

### FIVE HUNDRED DOLLARS

There will be three awards for each division. Further particulars about this contest and an announcement of the judges will appear in the September issue of this magazine. If you can write, this is your *Opportunity*.

## Democracy and Education

THERE is a promise of practical usefulness in the concept of education as a dominant social force which may be utilized by the whole of the Negro population in orienting itself to its problems. This idea was presented at one of the sessions of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People in its Philadelphia meeting, by a spokesman of the Fleur de Lis Club, an organization of Negro working men, whose interests in programs of this nature have been greatly aided by the Barnes Foundation. It amounts to a re-contenting of the whole system very much in line with the notion advanced by John Dewey in his relation of democracy to education. It is conceived that education is nothing more than a full and free development of all the capacities with which an individual is endowed, and that it is the function of educational systems, formal and informal, to point out the means of developing these capacities. The question of interests is involved inasmuch as they tend to determine the direction of this development. Negroes, whatever their status or degree of formal training, at least have a firm base of interest in their own problems, and it is suggested that these very problems can be made the means of developing their minds, of enabling them to withdraw in large measure from the paralyzing slough of emotional futility, and eventually to put many of their difficulties into solution by this method.

The idea has widespread application through its very simplicity. It proposes to make education sufficiently interesting to be attractive and through this attraction productive of further interests.

AUGUST, 1924

OPPORTUNITY

229

# The Negro and the Community

By WILLIAM PICKENS

IN the United States the Negro population is re-distributing itself. It is to be no longer a factor of a "section" but a national factor in every sense. The "race problem" is not now, if indeed it ever was, solely a problem of the South; it is a problem, and the most vital problem, of the United States of America.

I am a Southerner, and I want to confess that the chief thing the South has to teach the Nation in the matter of dealing with the Negro is *what not to do*. Now that the problem is moving out all over the Nation, a study of the southern method of dealing with the problem for three hundred years will teach the rest of us what to *avoid*.

The "race problem" has not been solved in the South; it has been developed there. Verily, then, we should not hope to solve the problem by southern methods. We must seek other methods, —in some cases the opposite methods.

If the method used by the South could ever be reduced to one word, that word would be SEGREGATION. That involves for the Negro separate and inferior schools, "Jim Crow" cars, unconstitutional disfranchisement, lynch law for court processes, refusal of admission to or inferior accommodations in all shows and cultural entertainments, in many places no public parks or public libraries, and a general denial of equal accommodations in public places and equal humanhood in the society of Man.

This system has solved no problem. This system can never solve any problem. This system is the problem factory and will continue to be until the end of the system.

We must substitute for this system "community interests" for the Negro. We must cease the abortive effort to encyst him; we cannot successfully encyst him; we must assimilate him. Blood assimilation is not necessary,—not an end to be purposed, at any rate. But there must be full assimilation in civil culture and in civil processes: in industry, in economics, in education, in politics.

The minority race and the majority race occupying the same territory are indissolubly bound to the same destiny, and they have one set of interests, even if they are not friendly. Warfare between them is like the World War: everybody loses. The best interests of the ten or fifteen million Negroes in the United States will be found in the end of every effort to be identical with the best interests of the ninety or more millions of the white races there.

I speak now from the standpoint of the ninety millions. Why should the colored people, the ten or fifteen millions, be free? Not merely for their own sakes. The failure to see the interest of all in the interest of each is a fundamental mistake and the cause of much blustering. The welfare of

colored Americans cannot be separate from the common lot. They must be free for the sake of all, themselves included. There is more freedom if they are free. We do not give them anything; we do not share with them what we have, in a way to diminish our possessions; we simply add their freedom to the sum of freedom, and we are all freer. When a man makes another man intelligent, he does not diminish his own intelligence, but fortifies and justifies it. Abraham Lincoln said: "In giving freedom to the slave, we assure freedom to the free." He might have added also: "We increase the freedom of the free." When the Negro was a slave in America, it is perfectly clear that the poor white man was not fully free; and if less clear, it is not less true that the rich white man was not free. Our conceptions of both altruism and selfishness need revision. In this little world we cannot live either absolutely for or against others. We ourselves are always included. That is the tragedy of ill-will and hate and crime. Every year we lynch many black men—and a few white men. The lynching of the whites is absolutely consequential upon the lynching of the blacks. If the colored men were not lynched, the white men certainly would not be lynched. To cheapen the lives of any group of men cheapens the lives of all men. This is a law of human psychology, of human nature; and it will not be repealed by our wishes, nor will it be merciful to our blindness.

Why should the Negro be educated? For the same reason. There will be more intelligence if the Negro is intelligent. If an intelligent man has an intelligent neighbor, each is more intelligent because the other is intelligent. How quickly our own grammar suffers deterioration when we live for a few weeks in ungrammatical circumstances. Wherever colored and white live in large numbers together, we find both groups on the same general intellectual plane. Every state today that has a large illiterate colored population has a more illiterate white population than have the states where the colored people are intelligent. Colored people's intelligence is a part of the common defense; colored people's ignorance a part of the common peril. Unselfishness is but a relative term; we are unselfish in proportion as we display a wiser selfishness,—in proportion as we comprehend the relations of ourselves to other selves. From this viewpoint of the common good, we should have as good schools and as much education for our colored children as for our white children. It certainly should take as many dollars to fit a black child to live for the best interests of a white child as it takes to fit a white child to live for the best interests of a black child.

Why should the colored population be physically well-off? For the selfsame reason. The laws of

230

OPPORTUNITY

AUGUST, 1924

disease and health, the conditions of life and death, are no respecters of persons or of races. The disease germ knows no color line. Sometimes the color line is confounded in our minds with certain other natural or artificial lines; with the economic line, the sanitation line, the pure food line, or the housing line. And because disease germs love weakness more than strength, we may force a certain color over on the side of weakness where the germ flourishes and then imagine, unless we think twice, that the germ has adopted our color line. Disease is the common enemy of all mankind; and the better the health of the ten or fifteen millions, the better the general health will be. Not for their own sakes alone, but also for the sake of the civilization of which they are a part, the colored population should have houses with sanitary plumbing, streets with sewers and lights, and regular visits by the garbage wagon.

And with the same philosophy we might go right on through the whole list of human good and human evil. The more people share in the good, the greater is the good. The more people share in the evil, the greater is the evil.

Why, for example, should our colored people be morally good? Why should the colored woman and the colored home be respected and protected? For their own sake, of course, but not solely for their sake. All women, all homes and all moral institutions will share whatever we measure out to these. Nobody knows better than the enlightened white woman of America that she is essentially one with the colored woman of her community. In the last analysis there is a STANDARD FOR WOMEN, and the consideration of every class of women enters into the determination of that standard. Motherhood, childhood and home are not racial; they are human. We cannot limit their interests to racial or to artificial lines. Race is but a date in history, while these human institutions antedate history. An attempt at two moral standards results in one moral condition. That is why colored womanhood has all the sacredness of any womanhood, and that is why colored women should have all the protection deemed best for their sex. And the operation of this moral law is too obvious to need further illustration.

And why should colored people vote in the commonwealth? For their own benefit? Not exclusively. But if colored people vote, there is more democracy and truer democracy. No other man loses his vote because the Negro gains his own,—and the body politic is also a gainer. When the colored man is denied the right to vote, there is a contradiction, an anomaly, which threatens the security of the right of any man to vote. For men must quibble and be mentally dishonest in their efforts to justify the exclusion of the Negro. That weakens their own case. They say: It is not necessary that black men should vote,— which means, even to their own intellects and whether they will it or not, that it is not neces-

sary that white men or any men should vote. They say: Voting is not a natural right but a privilege to be granted or withheld,—and they fail to show by whom it is to be granted or from whom it is to be withheld, and they thereby undermine their own title to the privilege. When we cheapen the liberty of any man, we cheapen the liberty of all men, even our own.

It is as much for the sake of the preservation of the ideal of democracy among us, as for any charitable reasons, that we want or should want all our neighbors to share it. It is but a reasonable regard for the laws of the land when we treat the most unworthy criminal according to due process of law, not for his sake and not because he deserves it, but that the law might be preserved and respected for the good of all of us who live now and for the good of those who will live in the great future. The criminal who has outraged law and annihilated law in so far as he was able may not of his own worth deserve the protection of the law. But we know that if we destroy law in his case, it is really destroyed in all cases. In such event it ceases to be law and becomes caprice or favoritism, and is thenceforth as likely to entrap the innocent as the guilty. It is the same with the high ideal of democracy: it cannot live if it does not live for all of us. If it be outraged, even those who outrage it lose respect for it and lose faith in it. They make it a mockery for others and it immediately becomes a mockery for them.

Then there is the great undoubted limitation of human nature: that no man is fit to have absolute power over another man. That means that no race or group is fit to have absolute power over another race or group,—for races are but men. The majority should never have unchecked power over the minority. The contention that one man should not have absolute control over another man is not merely for the good of the one who is the object of that control, but also for the good of the one who exercises that control. Irresponsible power will warp the soul and ruin the character of any man. Inordinate power and unjust advantage undermine and break down the ideals of a race. These ideals deserve consideration. This is not altogether altruism; it is self-interest of the most enlightened kind. The same reasoning which attacked the enslavement of the Negro attacks his disfranchisement. Slavery degrades master and slave. Disfranchisement degrades oppressor and oppressed. Those who think they have well-founded "convictions" that the Negro should be disfranchised must remember that their spiritual and political progenitors thought they had well-founded convictions that the Negro should be enslaved.

Does this mean that the ballot should not be protected? It does not. The freedman's ballot is the highest expression of his freedom and should have every reasonable safeguard. But, mark you, the very first concern for its protection should be

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to guard its purity, its impartiality, its honesty, and its reality; to see that it does not degrade into a mere trick for advantage, a mere tool of oppression, a mere cloak for the tyranny of the strong. Certain restrictions might not be unreasonable: such as education enough to read a ballot, bona fide residence and an interest in the material property of the community, and freedom from crime and other forms of insanity. But no restrictions at all would be better than restrictions that are dishonest or meant to be unjustly administered. Let the qualifications be simple or severe, but if it be not impartially exacted or if the law be so administered as to entrap a certain group or party or race, the ballot ceases to be an expression of freedom and become a mere device of tyranny.

In the United States there is another consideration for the ninety millions: that if the ten or fifteen millions were allowed the exercise of their liberty and their free ballot, it would remove much cause and temptation to strife and make for peace. This would preserve and dignify the proportionate weight and importance of the ninety millions. For under the most impartial administration fifteen could not outvote ninety. Only in a few localities could groups of the minority preponderate, but the colored people have shown no disposition that should justify a fear that they would monopolize even local power. There would always be the restraining fact of the national power of the ninety millions. And there would be peace, much needed peace, for the simple price of being fair to a minority without any risk of the loss of real power on the part of the majority. It is now as if eight or ten men should prefer eternal social warfare with one man rather than to let him cast his vote and then simply outvote him; while if they chose to be fair, they could have the favorable opinion of mankind, the justification of their own consciences, internal peace, and a secure tenure of power.

The American Negro has shown little disposition to try to secure his fundamental rights by violence, but he is always less patient today than he was ten years ago, and being simply human he is ultimately capable of any human expression. Many times in history contemporaries have discounted what to later generations seemed so plain and so inevitable.

But why should this people, of all peoples have to plead for such primary justice? A people who have had a longer average residence in America than any other group save the American Indian; a people who voted in five or more states when the Constitution of the United States was adopted; a people whom we have never discounted or doubted in the day of crisis and danger, and whose outstanding characteristic, whether they were slave or free, has been loyalty. Individuals may ignore the record but history cannot delete the facts that they dared and shared all the greatest perils of the Indivisible Union—from Bunker

Hill through Valley Forge to Yorktown—on Lake Erie, under “the rocket’s red glare” at Baltimore, and in New Orleans—from Fort Wagner through Fort Pillow to Appomattox—from Santiago de Cuba through the Philippine guerillas to the capture of Aguinaldo—and from the munitions factories of 1917 on through the Argonne and Chateau Thierry to the last and most dangerous position of the whole war before the mighty fortress of Metz. Why should a people so trusted and so credited plead for what is given to foreigners and the children of foreigners, to rebels and the children of rebels, and even to the children of traitors?

On a platform of justice and equality the two larger racial groups in this country, and all the minor groups, can afford to take their stand. Men speak volubly of maintaining racial superiority or hegemony, as if indeed it were wiser to pursue racial policy than to pursue human justice. Nothing in human history indicates that a race or a nation or an individual must fear to do justice or that justice was ever poor policy for a people. But history is full of lessons that teach the folly of abandoning those wise policies and sound principles that were born of the collective experience of man. Some reason thus: We have to maintain a certain race stock; to maintain that stock we must segregate; and when segregation is inconsistent with justice, we must do injustice. But we cannot prove the soundness of this chain of reasoning. Even the first proposition is a mere assumption. For how do we know that it is the final, the best, the last and the greatest thing to maintain any of the race stocks as we know them today? All the races, as we know them, are but the resultants of former unions, combinations and crosses. If former unions have produced something so excellent, how do we know that further union may not produce something more excellent still? But one thing we do know: that we of the present generation can combine our talents without uniting our blood. If we make civilization our common contribution, we will all have more civilization. God has endowed the Human Race with more talents than He gave to any one geographical race. Our talents vary: our powers may vary. The man of five talents has five talents and the fruits of five talents; the man of two talents has two talents and the fruits of two talents. But if these two men ever get wise and make a common cause, both will enjoy the fruits of seven talents. The white American and the black American can have more civilization through cooperation than either one could have alone, whatever their respective talents may be. Segregation in public and industrial activities and life implies and breeds contempt and makes injustice inevitable. The private right of any citizen in a free country to exclude other private persons from his private domain will always be maintained; but racial segregation in public and industrial estates is indefensible, politically and economically.

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# The Effect of Health Education on Negro Mortality

By LOUIS I. DUBLIN

THE Negro in America has proved himself thoroughly capable of profiting from the public health campaign which has developed in recent years. The pessimism which prevailed twenty-five or thirty years ago with regard to the future of the Negro is no longer even remotely justified. A race, still living in many areas under primitive conditions of sanitation and often from hand to mouth, is today enjoying a life expectancy just about that of the white people of America only thirty or forty years ago. In 1920, the average expectation at birth among insured Negro lives was well over forty-one years; it is now over forty-six years. These figures are about the same as for a number of European countries before the Great War. The Negroes are only a generation behind the achievement of the white people of the country—not a serious handicap to overcome when we consider that they have had control of their destinies for only a little more than half a century and have been served by health conserving agencies for even a shorter period. The recent gains in longevity and general well-being hold out the greatest promise for the future of the Negro in America.

The facts which I have been asked to present concern close to two million Negroes who are insured in the Industrial Department of the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company. They include men, women and children at all ages; they are engaged in every conceivable occupation. They live almost altogether in the towns and cities of the country. This is important to remember, because it is especially in the cities that the health conditions among Negroes have heretofore been found very unsatisfactory. In the Registration States of the United States for the last year available, 1921, the death rate among Negroes living in the rural part was 13.8 per 1000, as contrasted with 10.6 for whites, whereas the rate in the cities was 19.7 per 1000 as against 11.8 for the whites. In other words, while the mortality in the rural parts of the country was only 30 per cent higher for the colored than for the whites, it was 67 per cent higher in the cities. The experience of the Metropolitan is accordingly among a large group of people who have in the past lived under unfavorable conditions. The Negroes of the cities would appear to have been out of their element, where they were not as yet adapted to the climatic conditions, to the prevailing industries, or to the housing which was available to them. The record which I shall unfold to you, therefore, is all the more remarkable in its continuous and measurable progress.

The detailed mortality records of the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company go back to 1911. In that year, the mortality rate was 17.5 per 1000 among insured Negroes. In 1923, the rate was

14.5, which represents a drop of 17.3 per cent, or more than one sixth. A very gratifying improvement also occurred among the colored people living in Registration cities of the United States. This amounted to 22.7 per cent between 1910 and 1921. The improvement, when translated in terms of longevity, means that the colored males insured in the Metropolitan have in the short interval of twelve years increased their life-span by nearly six years and that colored females have extended their expectation by nearly five years. Very much the same gains are found among the Negroes in the general population. That, of course, is an astounding improvement, in view of the short period in which it has occurred.

Tuberculosis has been and still is the outstanding cause of death among the colored people. One out of every six colored persons ultimately dies of tuberculosis. There has been a very remarkable improvement in this condition in recent years, however. In 1911, tuberculosis was responsible for 418 deaths for each 100,000 colored persons insured in the Metropolitan. In 1923, the rate was 246, or 41 per cent less. There was no improvement in 1923 over 1922, but before last year, the rate of decline was very rapid. Between 1918 and 1922, the rate dropped uninterruptedly from 391 per 100,000 to 246. The mortality rate among the colored policyholders from tuberculosis is beginning to look like that among the whites, only twenty years ago, when the tuberculosis campaign was begun. 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.

There can be no question that this improvement in tuberculosis is the result of great advances in the economic and social condition of the colored people. There is still, however, much for them to do and there is every reason to believe that they will do it. The colored people have, as a race, good physiques and they are learning all the time how to take better care of themselves in relation to their changing environment. In their native habitat tuberculosis was either unknown or only slightly developed. There is no reason why they should not ultimately have as low a tuberculosis death rate as any group of the population of America of similar economic condition.

Marked gains have been made by the colored people in conserving the lives of their young children. In 1911, the total mortality rate for Negro children under 15 years of age insured in the Metropolitan was 10.1 per 1000. In 1923, this figure was reduced to 5.5 which is an improvement of 45 per cent. The colored children show the greatest improvement in mortality of any age group.

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Among the children under 15, tuberculosis has been reduced by about half. The four communicable diseases of childhood, namely, measles, scarlet fever, whooping cough and diptheria, show together a decline of 33 per cent in the interval between 1911 and 1923. In connection with this, I should point out that the colored children enjoy a distinct advantage over white children in connection with respect to three of these conditions, namely, measles, scarlet fever and diptheria. The death rates for these are uniformly lower than are found among white children of the same ages. It is, therefore, gratifying to find that substantial declines in the figures are still occurring. It is entirely conceivable that as the newer therapy against diptheria, scarlet fever and measles is more widely spread over the country and affects the colored people in the same measure as it does the white, the mortality from these three conditions will be reduced to negligible proportions.

There has also been a marked decline, more than 50 per cent, in the mortality rate from diarrhea and ontoritis among young colored children. The rates for the children of the two races are no longer very far apart, those for the colored children in 1923 being even a little lower than those for the white children in 1911. This shows that colored mothers have not been slow to learn how to care for and feed their babies in accordance with the best practice of the day.

There has undoubtedly been great improvement in the sanitary conditions which surround the colored people. This is evidenced by the decline in the mortality of such conditions as typhoid fever and pneumonia, both of which reflect the sanitary character of the environment. The improvement in typhoid fever is especially noteworthy. In 1923, the rate was only 10.4 per 100,000, which represents a decline of 77.5 per cent since 1911. The last rate from typhoid fever is identical with that for whites as late as 1917. Yet, the great number of colored policyholders live in the Southern States where typhoid fever is much more prevalent than in the Northern and Western States where the large majority of the white policyholders live. The reduction in the incidence of typhoid fever among the colored people is really an amazing achievement and is indicative, as nothing else can be, of the better conditions under which they live. The improvement in pneumonia is not quite so great and yet it is significant. In 1923, the death rate from all forms of pneumonia was 137.8 per 100,000 as against a rate of 160.8 in 1911, which is a decline of 14.3 per cent. But, these last few years have been "pneumonia" years," resulting from the extensive influenza epidemics which have raged in the late winters and early springs. The improvement in pneumonia would undoubtedly have been greater but for these occurrences. It, nevertheless, has been considerable and gratifying.

If the above are encouraging items, there are those which are not quite so satisfactory. The still high mortality rate of the colored people at the present time results largely from the chronic degener

ative diseases, like cerebral hemorrhage, organic diseases of the heart, and chronic nephritis. The first two, cerebral hemorrhage and organic heart diseases, show substantial increases in their rates since 1911, and the last one, chronic nephritis, shows no improvement. Likewise, cancer and diabetes show substantial increases between 1911 and 1923. The five conditions mentioned above when combined account for 35 per cent of the total mortality of colored policyholders, and it is disconcerting that such important diseases are not on the mend but are actually getting worse. It is difficult, with our present knowledge, to say exactly what is leading to these increases, but it is generally assumed that with the exception of cancer, the death rates from the diseases mentioned reflect the type of personal hygiene which people practice. It is entirely possible also that the high rate of degenerative diseases reflects the very great prevalence of syphilitic infection among the colored people. This is really the outstanding fact in the negative side of the health picture among the colored people.

Syphilis and its sequelae are not declining but are indeed becoming more widespread and are causing more and more deaths among the colored people each year. In 1923, the death rate from syphilis, locomotor ataxia and general paralysis of the insane (the last two of which conditions are syphilitic in origin) was 38.7 per 100,000. This is almost double the rate of 1911 (20.4). It is possible, of course, that some of the increase is the result of franker and better reporting of these diseases by physicians; but I doubt very much that that is sufficient to explain so marked an increase. The fact remains that the rate for colored persons is close to four times as high as for whites. This unsatisfactory situation, of course, is not limited to the insured, but is found very generally in the colored population. In New York City, there has been an increase of practically 50 per cent from this cause in the interval between 1910 and 1923. The disease is apparently working havoc among the colored people who are congregating in the cities of the country. Possibly, the worst effect is on the new generation. The disease takes its greatest toll among infants in the first month of life and is, in fact, the principal cause of stillbirths that occur so frequently among colored women. The disease also accounts for a great many deaths later in life which are ascribed by physicians to heart and arterial diseases, as well as to other conditions, including tuberculosis. The greatest service that could today be rendered to the colored people would be to help them check the spread of this condition. The campaign against the venereal diseases has apparently not begun to be felt by the colored communities. A very profitable field for service is waiting to be opened up. Possibly, much good may also come when more emphasis is placed on the importance of the annual physical examination among colored people. This should result in disclosing many cases of syphilitic diseases at a stage when they can still be cured. Prenatal work among colored women which insists

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on a Wassermann test as a condition for the service should prove to be a powerful agency in disclosing syphilis and should lead to the treatment of large numbers of patients. The hope of the future among Negroes lies in their ability to bring the scourge of syphilis under control.

No treatment of the health situation among the colored people would be complete without reference to the very high mortality which results from homicide. The homicide rate among the colored is eight times as high as among the whites, and among males at certain ages it is fully ten times as high. In a number of cities, such as Memphis, homicide is, next to tuberculosis, the most prevalent cause of death among colored men. This is obviously not a matter which can be considered as subject to health education, but it is expected, nevertheless, that those influences which favorably affect the rates for the preventable diseases will likewise help to raise the general level of conduct among the colored people.

In bringing this discussion to a close, I must not forget to say that the last two years, 1922 and 1923, have shown significant increases in the mortality of the colored people. In 1923, the rate was actually 7.9 per cent higher than it was in 1921. We are not discouraged by this change in the tendency of the rate, because this is probably only a temporary condition. The progress of the race in increased longevity will soon be resumed. It is of interest, however, to find out what factors are operating to bring about a change in the general character of the mortality of the colored people. It has been generally assumed that the recent migration from the Southern States is an important item. In the Metropolitan's experience, there was a very marked increase in the number of colored policyholders in the States of Illinois and Michigan, largely concentrated to be sure, in the cities of Chicago and Detroit. In both these communities, the mortality rates increased very appreciably—in Chicago, 27 per cent and in Detroit, 23 per cent, 1923 over 1921. On the other hand, very marked extensions of the business occurred on the Pacific Coast. This also represents a marked migration from the Southern States, but in this area there has been no increased mortality. There is, in fact, a slight decline. The migration which centered in New York City and environs likewise brought with it no appreciable increase in mortality. The picture, therefore, is somewhat confusing. The migration is obviously not responsible for the whole increase, in view of the fact that the mortality rate even in the Southern States showed pronounced increases. Forty per cent of the total number of colored policyholders of the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company still live in the Southern and Southwestern States, and in these states, mortality in 1923 in-

creased 12.1 per cent over 1921. In some communities, like Atlanta, Charleston, and Norfolk, the increases in the mortality rate were very marked indeed, and were even more striking than in Chicago and Detroit. It would seem, therefore, altogether more reasonable to account for these increases of the past two years on the score of other conditions than the movement northward. This is strongly suggested by the fact that the influenza mortality rate among the colored more than doubled between 1921 and 1923 and the pneumonia rate increased about a third. It is possible that the extensive outbreaks of influenza in 1922 and 1923, more especially in 1923, with their accompanying mortality from pneumonia, are sufficient to explain what happened. So far as 1924, there has been a pronounced decline in the total colored mortality from that of 1923 and the figures are back to where they were in 1922, but are still higher, a little, than those in 1921.

The improvement in colored mortality, to which I have called attention, has not come about without very decided effort. In this insurance experience, the colored people have figured just as prominently as any other group of policyholders in the health campaign of the company so successfully organized under the direction of Second Vice President, Dr. Frankel. They have availed themselves of every advantage which has been offered to them. In periods of illness, they have received nursing care and have, in fact, taken advantage of public health nursing even to a greater degree than white policyholders. Public health nursing obtains its large results primarily through health teaching. In addition, they have received much help from the distribution of very simple but authoritative leaflets on personal hygiene and on the prevention of the communicable diseases. Millions of copies have been distributed among them. It is difficult to say just how much good such pamphlets have done, but there is evidence that the colored people read what is left with them, and also that they have a great deal of confidence in what the Metropolitan advises them to do. The important thing is that the colored people are showing remarkable capacity for reducing their mortality to reasonable limits. In my judgment, it is now largely a matter of extending the health and educational facilities to them in a greater measure. The colored people must learn to think more and more in terms of health as the key to their improvement in other respects. As they become more prosperous, they must learn to spend more money on facilities which bring about better health conditions. It will be very interesting to observe what the next ten years will bring about for the continued prosperity of the colored people in America.

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OPPORTUNITY

The Need of Health Education Among Negroes

By ALGERNON B. JACKSON

I HAVE a habit of saying that I should much prefer seeing my boy or girl the possessor of the C. B. H. degree—clean bill of health—than an A. B. degree without the C. B. H. One is essential in order to get most out of and put most into life. The other is not. You do not have to possess a college degree to be a regular human being, but you must have health. From what I so often see I am sometimes inclined to think a degree frequently stands between certain persons and that attribute of humanness which should always be the highest concept of true education. In the light of present day thought any scholastic process which neglects to inspire the student with an appreciation and love for personal health and a regard for the health of his fellowman is nothing short of an absolute failure.

There is indeed both a need of and a desire for health education among Negroes, which is so sincerely expressed by the efforts which Negroes are putting forth to increase their efficiency along all lines toward making them more valuable and acceptable citizens. But, on the other hand, there is a very vital and definite need to educate the whites to understand that the question of health is a national rather than a racial one, which demands national consideration and treatment, or our whole scheme for human betterment breaks down. When it is considered how closely the races are brought in daily touch, it must at once become apparent that any effort intended to conserve the health of a nation must include all. If it presumes to dictate who shall be benefited and who shall not it results in little or no benefit to any one. In short, the white man must be educated to realize that his health problem cannot be solved so long as he is careless or indifferent regarding the Negro's health problem.

Up to the beginning of the World War very little care or study was given to the question of the Negro's health beyond a rather indifferent generalization which declared the race decadent and reeking with sickness and death. In face of this general notion the following note from the report of the provost marshal general must be considered at least interesting. "In the first draft, in June 1917, there were 737,628 colored registrants, or nearly eight per cent of the total registration of the country. Of the first group of 208,953 colored registrants examined under call of November 12, 1917, 36.23 per cent of them were accepted for service. Of 2,873,996 white men examined at approximately the same time, 24.75 per cent of them were accepted. In groups representing nearly an identical proportion it will be seen that in relative military fitness the Negro race outranked the whites by about twelve per cent." A still later report, Table 53, shows that for every 100 men examined physically, the ratio

of colored men found qualified for general military service was substantially higher than the ratio for white men by just five per cent, viz., 74.60 per cent as against 69.71 per cent. These reports are interesting from two standpoints. First, they show that the American Negro is not altogether the unhealthy menace we had heretofore regarded him, and in the face of these facts we owe it to him and our nation to see that he gets a human chance for that education so necessary to preserve and stabilize his health integrity.

For some time I have contended that physically the Negro is a better specimen than the white man, and now the latest anthropometric report from the Surgeon General of the United States Army proves the righteousness of this contention. In every measurement he excels except in breadth and depth of the chest. But in spite of these glowing reports the Negro still has both a higher morbidity and mortality rate than his white brother, due to no other reason than his general ignorance and indifference regarding the rules of health and self-preservation. In order to emphasize the need for a campaign of health education among Negroes, permit me to relate the following story. A dear old Negro woman called at the home of a white woman, for whom she regularly worked, to get the week's washing. The kind-hearted, intelligent white woman met her at the door and said, "No, Amanda, I shall not let you take my clothes to wash, for my children have the measles, and I don't want your children to get it." "Oh, that's all right," exclaimed the Negro washwoman, "my children's done had the measles two weeks ago!" This we can charge up to ignorance and nothing else!

No amount of intelligence can possibly save the educated from the menacing effects of the uneducated unless that intelligence is wisely used to dethrone ignorance and superstition, carrying the light of reason and well-being to all mankind, black and white alike. Just recently a book entitled "Public Health in the United States," by Dr. H. H. Moore of the United States Public Health Service, was issued by Harper and Brothers of New York. In the preface of this book, bearing the comprehensive title mentioned above, the author makes the following statement: "It is hoped that these data and facts thus compiled may be useful to members of the health committees of various civic organizations, to students in high schools, colleges and schools of social work, and to the administrative and legislative officers of local, State and Federal governments, as well as to those engaged professionally in public health activities." Of course I most naturally wanted to see what the book contained concerning the health of Negroes. Imagine my shock and surprise to find on page 20 not quite

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twelve lines on the subject and they merely men-
tioned that the death rate of the Negro is higher
than that of the whites! And this from a book
which purports and presumes to serve as a guiding
light to the many classes of persons mentioned in
the author's preface.

To thus dismiss such a subject so important to
American interests is little short of criminal, and
in my most charitable moment I find myself com-
pelled to declare the author's judgment certainly
a bit myopic. Yet, except in a very few in-
stances, this is a fair example of the attention
civic, state and national organizations are giving
to the education of themselves and to the educa-
tion of Negroes upon this very vital matter con-
cerning the health of 12,000,000 American citi-
zens. Most certainly this is the moment for all
of us to open our hearts and minds to a keener
and finer understanding concerning the health of
these our fellow-citizens, for in no way can any
one who is not himself educated carry knowledge
to that uneducated group hampered upon all sides
by social, economic, and general living restric-
tions.

Good health must be regarded as a national
asset, equally important in time of peace or war,
which is always purchasable. This is an invest-
ment which will yield perpetual dividends of com-
fort, happiness, protection, and safety. Many
philanthropic persons have seen fit to devote large
funds for preserving and protecting the health of
white Americans but comparatively nothing to be
spent in the preservation of the health of black
Americans. Here lies a wonderful virgin field for
the righteous immortalization of some good, un-
biased American to establish a foundation for
the study and improvement of health, social and
economic conditions among Negroes. Such a fund
could and would do immeasurable service to the
Negro race and to the nation. For the past fif-
teen years I have been extending this invitation
from press and rostrum, but up to this moment
there has been no response and no organized,
honest effort made to get at the bottom of the
Negro's health problem. I am hoping that on this
occasion my words will not again fall upon stony
ground, but upon some soil rich in human love
from which will spring the urge to do a real
human service for God, man and nation.

Booker T. Washington has said: "Without
health, and until we reduce the high death rate,
it will be impossible for us to have permanent
success in business, in property getting, in acquiring
education, or to show other evidences of prog-
ress. Without health and long life all else fails.
We must reduce our high death rate, dethrone
disease and enthroned health and long life. We
may differ on other subjects, but there is no
room for difference here. Let us make a strong,
long, united pull together." When he said the
above he was speaking to the Negro but these
words should fall upon the ears of our whole na-
tion. The whole-hearted methods adopted to pre-

serve the health of white Americans when com-
pared with the half-hearted methods to preserve
the health of black Americans make a jest of the
whole procedure. The Negro always receives
the by-product of expended energy in this di-
rection, yet he is expected to measure up to the
same physical standards as those who enjoy every
opportunity and privilege in the matter of con-
serving health. This bi-racial tendency which
prevails in America regarding all matters, great
and small, is not consistent with our boasted in-
telligence and foresight in our attitude toward
national health and its relation to national eco-
nomics.

However, in a great measure left to our own
initiative, guided by the light of education, we
are beating down our high morbidity and mor-
tality rate. To Dr. Booker T. Washington
and the National Negro Business League, of
which he was founder and president up unto his
death, we are indebted for the establishment of a
National Negro Health Week. More than any
other one factor, this movement has called the
attention of Negroes throughout the nation to the
value and importance of good health. Like most
things this great man did, the Health Week
was introduced to our race in a plain, practical
way, calling to their attention the most ele-
mentary principles of good health and how to at-
tain it. Negroes all over the land, both North
and South, have caught the spirit and inspiration
of that great teacher and they are making a prac-
tical application of the lessons he taught.

Just recently I sent out a rather comprehensive
health questionnaire to sixty-two Negro colleges
and universities. Thirty-one of these replied and
the data obtained has been tremendously encour-
aging and enlightening. Fourteen require a physi-
cal examination of all students upon entering,
twenty have compulsory physical education, and
all are making some attempt to emphasize health
teaching. In each, provision is made for giving
medical care to sick students, and all express a
desire to give a glad welcome to advice and finan-
cial help relative to establishing a working health
and welfare service. Most of them are struggling
along as best they can by doubling up their sci-
ence teachers to give instruction in health and
hygiene. The amounts estimated upon by all to
place their health department on a working basis
was in each instance all too low, for the aver-
age amount was set at $1000 a year. Suppose
we could divide $50,000 next year among these
thirty-one schools which are in dead earnest, and
have that amount devoted to health teaching and
student welfare service, can you not see how
far reaching the results would be?

If we are going to carry on health education
among Negroes there must be a national awaken-
ing and national interest injected into the pro-
cess. Our schools and colleges afford the finest
possible opportunity to vitalize the health idea
and make it profitable to both the individual and

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the nation, but they must have help and support or they miss the mark. That the Negro has done much within the past ten years to improve his health condition is made manifest in recent reports issued by the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company and the United States Public Health Service. These two agencies are a unit in saying that between 1912 and 1922 Negroes have increased their life span by more than five years, which is indicative of marked racial progression. Quoting from the United States Public Health Report of April 11, 1924, we read, "The colored show even more improvement than the white in expectation at birth in the past 10 years." Unquestionably this is due to education and better economic conditions; but still we have much more to do, for even our present day expectation of life is about that of whites 30 or 40 years ago. So you can see there is still much need for health education among Negroes,—in fact, we are just

beginning what is bound to be a long but profitable campaign. If a thought, an incident or a truth strikes us as important to our welfare, it arouses our interest and takes a place in our mentality, and if we are just to ourselves and our God, we at once set out to translate our interest into the most practical terms of humanity. Let us have no longer an aristocracy of snobbishness, but an aristocracy of service.

No man, whatever his motive may be, can help lift up his brother without lifting up himself. In the very act he must bend to the task, and when he arises therefrom he brings up two men, himself and his brother, and the close human touch has made both better men. All unconsciously, perhaps that altruism taught and practiced in the life of Christ has trickled down into the hearts of both, making one content and fit to save, and the other happy and fit to serve.

## The Negro's Psychology and His Health

By C. V. ROMAN

PHYSICALLY, health connotes the ability to function without fainting—to bear the stress of life without damaging strain. Its psychological connotations and spiritual implications are equally comprehensive; to will without wobbling, as well as to work without wearying—to trust without trembling as well as to fight without failing.

Biological continuity is also comprehended in the word HEALTH; for the healthy individual is not only able to live and function, but to reproduce individuals who can live and function and in their turn reproduce individuals who can thus live, function and reproduce.

THE NEGRO'S ABILITY TO THINK AND TO LIVE would be a fair explanatory amplification of our subject.

What is he thinking and how is he living? According to some critics, he thinks only of heaven and is

"Living at a poor dying rate."

Let us see.

### I.

The Negro is religious—fearfully and wonderfully religious. His song—

"My Lord calls me, He calls me by the thunder, The trumpet sounds within my soul,

I ain't got long to stay here"—

is as sincere and soulful as the Scotsman's litany—

"From ghoulies and ghosties,

And long-leggited beasties,

And things that go Boomp! in the night—

Good Lord, deliver us."

Notwithstanding superstition and ignorance, religion is a potent factor in health as well as a determining influences in psychology. The mind

"Jesus is a rock in a weary land, A shelter in the time of storm."

He will not

"Learn to chant the cold dirges of the baffled— The sullen hymns of defeat."

But

"Through the clear apocalyptic air"

he

"Hears new songs of ages yet to be."

### II.

The Negro is more devoted to personality than to principle. He believes more in people than in their professions. It is a peculiarity of Negro psychology that three centuries of injustice and oppression have not developed the hatred complex. For some unknown reason, which only God may ken, the colored man has faith in the white man.

"The hexiology of the Negro is distinctive. He has an adaptability to circumstances unsurpassed by the children of men. . . . He has received the most magnificent reward that ever fell to the lot of an oppressed people—the friendship of the world's best spirits."

The Persian dream of truthfulness, the Grecian dream of knowledge, the Jewish dream of rightousness, the Roman dream of power, and the English-speaking people's dream of fairplay will all

¹AMERICAN CIVILIZATION AND THE NEGRO— C. V. Roman; Page 228.

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fructify in the patient, persistent, kind-hearted good-nature of the American Negro.

Lord Macaulay says, "Nine-tenths of all the calamities that have befallen the human race had their origin in the union of high intelligence and with low desires."

The Negro's desires frequently rise above his intelligence. He is one of the few sons of men whom the frown of science has not made melancholy, whose soul has not been frozen by the chills of penury.

The different emphasis placed by different people upon the same evidence is one of the most striking phases of popular psychology. The Negro concedes the white man's superiority in but one thing—diabolism or dishonor—the ability to be unjust. At his psychological worst the white man thinks the Negro a beast; the Negro at his psychological worst thinks the white man a devil. If either or both be right, our civilization is gone.

### III.

The Negro often manifests that inferiority complex of oppressed peoples which forbids self-criticism. He thinks telling the truth an evasive of enmity. He ignores the law of causality and substitutes the WHINE of emotion for the WHY of reason. He dissociates himself from the confluence of things and becomes self-centered and irritable. He thinks not of humanity but of himself, forgetting that the whole includes the parts. Fear leads him to attempts at deception where frankness would be a winning policy.

This psychology grows out of his unique position. Speaking the language of democracy and equality, he has been expected to graft the virtues of freedom upon the opportunities of slavery and to fulfill the responsibilities of citizenship while maintaining the bearing of a serf. That a confusing psychological complex should result is not strange. The condition cannot continue indefinitely. Education must progress or recede. Culture must triumph or die. The Negro must become a citizen or a serf. Western civilization must evaluate men upon their cultural worth or perish. Liberty and opportunity are for all or for none. This generation can decide upon the terms of civil life,—equality of opportunity and peaceful progress, or inequality of opportunity and progressive disintegration to the elemental starting point.

Even on this program colored people are listed to talk about themselves only. Personally, I would much rather have talked upon sex hygiene, illegitimacy or crowd psychology. Whatever the motive of the powers that be, the tendency is to promote ethnic egomania in the colored group.

Moral health is the dynamic of life. Undue racial egotism means disaster. Unlimited self-determination, whether racial or individual, leads to destruction. The Negro being judged by group, too often thinks that way,—by group.

"Christianity is the only religion in the world which regards each human individual as a child of God—The Father."¹ Yet in Christian America individual evolution of character is systematically denied the Negro.

We speak English as a mother-tongue, not as an alien brogue, and are legitimate heirs to the conceptions of life embodied in that language.

It is a noteworthy incident that the date of the Negro's mastery of English is co-incident with the most vicious and heartless attempt at his repression. But tyranny does not always suppress; it sometimes rebounds and explodes. The Negro mastered English by 1850—then Fugitive Slave Law—then WAR—then Emancipation.

His mastery of English-speaking methods of thought means the appreciation of that conception of liberty and citizenship. Final possession is inevitable.

### IV.

Nature has built no more effective physiological machine than the American Negro at his physical best. Why then is his vitality the sneer of actuaries and his mortuary statistics the despair of health officers? The excessively high death rate and morbidity incidence are due to SITUATION and not to any defect in the Negro's constitution or his psychology.

The American Negro, individually and collectively, is immediately responsive to healthful surroundings. Patent medicines, garbage, bad water, sewerage defects, housing, dope-peddlers, and low dives are civic administrative sins against the Negro's health and social well-being over which he has little or no control.

The systematic exclusion of colored nurses and physicians from health departments, public hospitals, penal and eleemosynary institutions, where race distinctions are emphasized, is not only a grave injustice to the Negro but a menace to the general welfare. It is not humanly possible to be fair to one regarded as an inferior. The assumption of superiority, whether individual, social, religious or racial, always connotes injustice and cruelty. From the divine right of kings to the divine right of democracy, the evolution of society furnishes no exception to this fundamental law of psychology. Comparative racial statistics from such sources are practically valueless. A prejudiced mind cannot know, much less tell, the truth.

The Negro's mental reaction to these conditions is often one of bewilderment at the contradictory attitudes assumed by his white fellow-citizens. Charged with low aspirations and degenerative tendencies, he frequently finds his upward way deliberately barred and the downward way ostentatiously and flagrantly opened.

One of the most serious phases of race contact is forcing Negro culture into comparison with

¹ WORLD'S LIVING RELIGIONS—Hume.

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239

Caucasian squalor. Negroes able and willing to
build beautiful homes are too often compelled to
place them where they contrast with white pov-
erty and ignorance. The locations of practically
all of our colored schools and colleges illustrate
this point.

This adds social jealousy to race prejudice—a
mixture that is brewing the sociological poison
that is hampering the welfare of the nations.

V.

The Negro is as worthwhile as any racial en-
tity in our modern civilization. He has more ele-
ments of compatibility and companionship in his
psychology, and more units of strength and dura-
bility in his physical make-up than any other peo-
ple. He is not going to die out and he is not
going to be pushed out. By construction, he is an
integral part in the constitution of things—

FATE'S final factor in anthropology, the acid
test of democracy and the residuary legatee of
Providential dispensation.

I believe in one God and in one humanity. The
capacity for every emotion and every thought is
in every people. The "will to believe" is the
explanation of many of the conclusions of the
doctrinaires of racial inequality. Creeds express
thought and organizations incarnate purpose;
but the human spirit seeking a meaning for
things gives dignity and worthwhileness to life.
Poets and hymnologists are often prophets and
seers.

As I close, there rises before me the vision
painted in Walt Whitman's interrogatory poem—
"Ethiopia Saluting the Colors," and I accept his
prophetic words—

"Be not disheartened, affection shall solve the problems of freedom."

Discussion

IT WOULD be as interesting to discuss the psy-
chology of white people and Negro health as
to discuss the psychology of the latter in relation to
his own health. It has been well nigh impossible
in the South to get communities to adopt health pro-
grams when it was thought that the Negro would
share the benefits. This has been part of the psy-
chosis of the white South in which fear of the Negro
has dominated. It has only been where the menace
of unhealthy Negroes to white people has been
shown that whites have been inclined to include the
Negro in their health programs. Even in these cases
they have seemingly hesitated between the evil of
sharing the ill health of the Negro and giving him a
better physical basis of propagation.

Moreover, we must consider the question of the
extent to which the Negro has been able to control
his own health. In southern communities, as At-
lanta for instance, where a group of Negro physi-
cians would combat the spread of venereal diseases
among Negroes exclusion from practice in hospital
clinics has made them helpless in the situation.
White physicians, regarding the Negroes simply as
experimental material, have jealously prevented the
Negro physician from participating in the fruits of
their work.

On the side of the Negroes themselves there are
two psychological factors which affect their health.
In adjusting themselves to the social system of the
South, Negroes have developed a psychology diffi-
cult to describe. It may be called the
psychology of negation, or the psychol-
ogy of people in subjection. In not ap-
pearing to assert themselves in the face of
the dominant white overlord, they have developed
the psychology of the sick. For example, I have ob-
served in tramping through the rural South that
most Negroes when asked as to their health reply
that they are "right poorly." Upon investigation

physical ills are hardly ever found—they appear
simply psychologically sick. Seemingly the colored
group expects pity at least if it is a sick people.

Another psychological factor in Negro health is
his conception of the cause of illness. Many Ne-
groes in the South refer illness to purely "magical
causes." In saying they show primitive habits of
thought, I am not upholding the opinion of clas-
sical anthropologists who postulated a series of stages
of mental and social evolution. These habits of
thought are purely cultural and cannot be referred
to any character in the germ plasm. At any rate,
one could list a large number of magical causes of
illness among Negroes. In fact, I have known per-
sonally of deaths resulting from a belief in magical
causes of illness. The same applies to cures for
illness. It would be an interesting study to collect
the magical cures for diseases which Negroes use
in the South.

From what I have said, it is apparent that in
order to improve Negro health generally the white
people of the South must be taught, first, to valuate
the Negro as any other human being, and Negroes
themselves must be educated as other citizens. A
step in this direction will be the refusal of the North
to leave the race problem to the South; and to see
that any Federal aid to education will not be dis-
tributed between the whites and blacks of the South
according to the present system of distribution of
State funds.

E. FRANKLIN FRAZIER,

Atlanta, Ga.

In discussions of health conditions in the South
and the inroads that venereal diseases are making
among Negroes as reported by health experts
there is an apparent disregard of *all* the sources
of infection.