--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

-- NA --

Front Matter
Frontispiece

-- NA --

Title Page and Credits
PHILOSOPHY AND OPINIONS OF MARCUS GARVEY

Compiled by AMY JACQUES GARVEY

PART II

Sons and Daughters of Ethiopia!
Let nothing deter you in your duty
Toward bleeding Mother Africa.

-- A. J. G.

Truth crushed to earth shall rise again,
The eternal years of God are hers;
But Error, wounded, writhes in pain
And dies among his worshippers.

-- Bryant.

-- NA --

DEDICATED TO THE TRUE AND LOYAL MEMBERS OF The Universal Negro Improvement Association and The Friends of the Negro Race

In the Cause of African Redemption

-- NA --

A Request

Not to be read with the eye or mind of prejudice, but with a righteous desire to find the truth, and to help in the friendly and peaceful solution of a grave world problem for the betterment of humanity.

-- NA --

Errata
Page

xiv For "Geroge Aexander" read "George Alexander"

11 line 8 For "practicing" read "practising"

14 line 3 For "fagots" read "faggots"

14 line 4 For "Terrence" read "Terence"

40 line 35 For "Libera" read "Liberia"

59 line 35 For "skillful" read "skilful"

60 line 11 For "skillful" read "skilful"

64 line 10 For "Nyassaland" read "Nyasaland"

82 line 19 For "skillfully" read "skilfully"

85 line 85 For "skillfully" read "skilfully"

85 line 31 For "skillful" read "skilful"

86 line 4 For "skillful" read "skilful"

86 line 8 For "skillfully" read "skilfully"

113 line 12 For "practicing" read "practising"

147 line 30 For "Paintiff-in-Error" read "Plaintiff-in-Error"

175 line 36 For "corrollary" read "corollary"

177 line 13 An "A" should be inserted

177 line 36 For "count" read "court"

184 line 22 For "Silvertsone" read "Silverstone"

Plate facing p. 186. For "Wheatly" read "Wheatley" (twice)

192 line 37 For "McGil" read "McGill"

199 line 19 For "auxilliary" read "auxiliary"

203 lines 1, 2 and 3; 12, 22 and 26 For "Cargil" read "Cargill"

216 footnote For "Cockbourne" read "Cockburn"

218 line 6 For "skillful" read "skilful"

239 line 12 For "Napolean" read "Napoleon"

246 line 7 For "Healy" read "Healey"

252 line 25 For "skillfully" read "skilfully"

260 line 15 and line 21 For "Healy" read "Healey"

262 last line For "Healy" read "Healey"

264 line 6th from bottom For "skillful" read "skilful"

265 line 26 For "skillfully" read "skilfully"

310 line 7th from bottom For "Japenese" read "Japanese"

315 line 25 For "Who" read "who"

320 line 17 For "mullatoes" read "mulattoes"

334 line 38 For "Jessie" read "Jesse"

335 line 37 For "skillful" read "skilful"

348 line 3 For "peole" read "people"

354 line 29 For "skillfully" read "skilfully"

357 line 6th from bottom For "aggrevated" read "aggravated"

361 line 13 For "Smut's" read "Smuts"

369 line 13 For "Crichlow" read "Critchlow"

379 line 25 For "depedent" read "dependent"

-- NA --

-- [XI] --

Preface
Less than a decade ago Marcus Garvey appeared in Harlem -- that crowded section of New York city which has been termed the "Mecca" of the Negroes of the world. Coming unheralded, like John the Baptist, he brought a message which carried conviction to all open-minded listeners. For many years previous Garvey had studied the hard lot of his race everywhere on God's earth. He had witnessed their political and economic oppression and noted the sufferings and discriminations which they experienced. He had himself drunk to the dregs of this bitter cup. As to Moses of old, so to Garvey, there came a clear call to duty and leadership. As a member of a race free from the spirit of retaliation and vindictiveness, with the desire to treat all mankind as brothers without regard to differences in creed, race or country, this young man, while respecting the rights and admiring the progress of alien people, resolved to make the material, political, social and spiritual development of his blood-kin wherever found, and the fostering within them of the spirit of self-reliance, and self-determination, the sole consecrated purpose of his life, to the end that the Negro might eventually take his God-given place in the fraternity of man. Whatever successes Garvey has achieved, whatever efforts have failed of fruition, all were conceived and undertaken in the sincere and honest determination to attain for his race this great goal.

Not long ago Bishop Bratton, the white Episcopal Bishop of Mississippi, wrote a book dealing with the Negro under the title "WANTED LEADERS." The following is a statement of this friendly author. "The Negro has had, and still has, the tremendous task laid upon him of making the place which is his in life; and of taking it, not because he demanded it, but because he has successfully made that place. In general, he who has to DEMAND his place has never earned it. In general, too, he who has MADE a place has deserved it, and in the long run, it will be accorded him."

This is Garvey's philosophy in a nutshell as the unbiased and discriminating reader will discern in this collection of addresses and documents, by which the man must be judged rather than by the opinions of his adversaries or the miscarriage of any of his subsidiary undertakings. Garvey knew full well that the Negro had to make his place. Other leaders had either demanded or begged, but this new leader, the very type which the race wanted according to Bishop Bratton, came preaching to the Negro the necessity of making a place for himself which the

-- XII --
world would be compelled to recognize and therefore to accord him.

Advocating and promoting racial organization, racial solidarity and racial self-government, he stimulated in Negroes both in this country and abroad, the spirit of nationalism and the desire for a republic of their own in their ancestral homeland. Millions enlisted under the banner of Marcus Garvey shouting the slogan "Africa for the Africans."

His phenomenal success, as well as his philosophy expressed in his vivid speeches which were broadcast throughout civilization, challenged the attention of those alien nations which dominate Africa and the antagonism of jealous and hostile Negro leaders in the United States of America. Demetrius of Ephesus, when he saw his occupation as a maker of gods threatened by the preaching of St. Paul against idolatry, called a convention of his fellow silversmiths to conspire against the great Apostle whose success would result not only in the cessation of the worship of the goddess Diana but the annihilation of the craft which had brought them wealth. These evil fellows led a mob through the streets of the city, and threw Ephesus into such confusion that the municipal authorities were compelled to take action, resulting in the departure of St. Paul to other parts. The professional Negro leaders of America have duplicated in many ways the strategy of Demetrius. No invective was too violent to express their censure, sarcasm and abuse; no shaft of contempt, ridicule or vilification too sharp to hurl at Garvey; no name in the lexicon too bad to be applied to him. He was called fool, fanatic, freak, deceiver, agitator and described as black, ugly, and an emissary of the Ku Klux Klan. "Garvey must go" was their war cry, and after pursuing various subterranean devices they succeeded in bringing about his imprisonment and are still hoping for his subsequent deportation from America.

Whether Garvey be in prison or out of prison, whether Garvey be living or dead, his vision of a free Africa, in which Negroes shall enjoy nationhood in governments of their own, shall one day become a reality. The Almighty Ruler of men and nations has predestined and spoken it, and Marcus Garvey is but the herald of a free and restored Africa. Newspaper reporters of both races treated Garvey's philosophy and preachments with levity, magnifying and exaggerating his commercial reverses. They intentionally or unintentionally hailed him as the Moses of a wholesale "Back to Africa" pilgrimage, a scheme which Mr. Garvey has never advocated nor

-- XIII --
planned. It is to be noted, however, that many publicists of the white race are approaching the viewpoint of Garvey and suggesting to America that she give aid and fostering oversight to the attainment of the aims of the Negroes within her borders, who desire to enjoy liberty in a government of their own in Africa.

Marcus Garvey's place in Negro history is secure for all time, despite his misfortunes which have been brought about both by opposition from without and treachery from within the camp. This man has felt the pulse of his people, and inspired them with race consciousness and hope in their future destiny more than any other leader, past or present. The great movement of which he has been the creator will "go on forever" like Tennyson's Brook until it reaches its consummation, for it is, in reality, a spiritual movement. Whether Garvey be in the flesh or in the spirit, the soul of the movement which he has fanned into flame, and the spiritual yearnings of his legions of converts will not be extinguished. Shed of its present physical habiliments the soul will be reincarnated and "go marching on."

To his followers Marcus Garvey is more than a leader. To them he is the outstanding prophet as well as the trail-blazer of the universal freedom of a noble race. Outsiders fail to understand the psychology of the disciples of Garvey, but the writer of this Preface (who is not ashamed to acknowledge that he is an open follower of this great teacher, rather than one of the numerous Nicodemuses who are secret disciples for fear of criticism or opposition) finds the reason for our devotion in the conviction that no man has spoken to us like this man, inculcating pride and nobility of race and pointing out to a down-trodden and discouraged people their Star of Destiny. This writer deems it an honor to prepare the foreword for this volume and seizes the opportunity to plead before the bar of an enlightened and fair-minded public opinion for Marcus Garvey, a man greatly misunderstood in his plans for reformation. For, let it be known and acknowledged, Garvey is no idle dreamer, no empty visionary, no frenzied enthusiast, but rather a true reformer to whom it has been permitted to arouse his people from a condition of apathy growing out of hopelessness and through good report or ill to suffer persecution, yea martyrdom for his race and the cause of truth, justice and liberty.

It is not Garvey who is being weighed in the balance of the world's judgment, but his race, and particularly his jealous and unworthy rivals who conspired against him. The Greeks gave Socrates, the greatest of their philosophers, the cup of hemlock.

-- XIV --
The Bohemians burned John Huss, their pioneer reformer, at the stake. Luther, Savonarola and others suffered imprisonment and hardships for the truth's sake, but they were God's noblemen. So with Marcus Garvey, a man of intellectual power and penetrating vision; a man who discovered the only solution of the problem confronting the Negro people the world over; and had the courage to preach the new gospel of salvation from permanent economic and political servitude. Disgruntled leaders who delight in the fleshpots of Egypt or accept gratefully, the crumbs which fall from the political master's table, while secretly protesting against the injustices of the color-line, concentrated their attack upon Garvey for proclaiming this a white man's country with a white man's government in which the black man's place is strictly limited and clearly defined, and beyond which it has been declared he "shall not pass."

While in theory they have vehemently denied this doctrine of Garvey, they have been compelled to accept it in practice, vainly hoping for the political and social millennium in America, when they shall hold the highest offices of State and enjoy the fullest privileges of society. But because Garvey believes with all his soul, and preaches with all his fervid eloquence the doctrine of racial integrity to be secured and maintained in a Negro country and government free from the pollution of miscegenation, his rivals who claim that at all hazards they must fight on American soil for their social, political and economic rights, have heaped approbrium upon him.

Marcus Garvey in prison, with a conscience untainted from the guilt of fraud to deceive and prey upon his own people for personal gain, poor in pocket, although he has handled millions of dollars, eagerly and willingly contributed by his followers, suffers gladly with determined soul and unbroken spirit. No trace of cowardice has been found in him, even by his bitterest foes, for it is his courage to proclaim his convictions and to attempt the realization of his vision which has removed him from the sphere of his activities. Consecration of a great cause still leads to Calvary, but Calvary is not the scene of the final act of a people's redemption or of a reformer's victory. "Via Crucis" is still the path to permanent achievement, glory and honor. Garvey's work shall endure throughout the ages. His dream of "Africa for the Africans" shall surely be fulfilled.

Geroge Aexander McGuire,

Archbishop and Primate of the African Orthodox Church.

New York City,

October 28, 1925.

-- NA --

Table of Contents
PART I. Page
An Appeal to the Soul of White America 1
Racial Reforms and Reformers 7
The Crime of Injustice 11
World Materialism 15
Who and What Is a Negro 18
An Appeal to the Conscience of the Black Race 22
Christ, the First Great Reformer 27
The Negro's Place in World Re-organization 34
Aims and Objects of Movement, etc 37
Will Negroes Succumb to the White Man's Plan, etc 44
An Analysis of Warren G. Harding 51
An Expose of the Caste System Among Negroes 56
Africa's Wealth 63
The Negro, Communism, and His Friend 69
Capitalism and the State 72
Governing the Ideal State 74
The "Colored" or Negro Press 77
What We Believe 81
History of the Negro 82
The Internal Prejudices of Negroes 84
A Tribute to the Late Sir Isaiah Morter 90
A Speech on the Principles of the U. N. I. A. 93
A Speech Delivered at Carnegie Hall 101
A Speech on Disarmament Conference, Telegram Sent and Reply 110
A Speech Delivered at Madison Square Garden 118
The Negroes Greatest Enemy 124
Declaration of Rights of the Negroes of the World 135

PART II. Was Justice Defeated? 145
Brief for Plaintiff-in-Error 150
Testimony of Mailing Clerk 169
Decision of Circuit Court of Appeals 173
Stripping the Effect to Show Crime 178
Last Speech Before Incarceration in Tombs Prison 180
Address to Jury at Close of Trial 184

-- NA --
Statement to Press on Release From the Tombs Prison
228
First Speech After Release From the Tombs Prison 231
First Message From Atlanta Prison 237
Using the Government, etc., to Defeat Justice 240
Application for Pardon and Reply 241
A Strange Comparison 272
Salaries to Officers of U. N. I. A. & Oaths They Took 279
A Race That Steals From and Double-Crosses Itself 287
Eight Negroes vs. Marcus Garvey 293
W. E. B. Dubois -- A Hater of Dark People 310
Why I Have Not Spoken in Chicago 321
A Message From Atlanta, August, 1925 324
Statement of Conviction 331
How Alleged Crimes Are Disposed Of 336
The Ideal of Two Races 338
An Answer to the Appeal (Speech by Mr. John Powell) 339

PART III. The Plot 352
Scene Africa 355
Scene Liberia, W. Africa, etc 362
Letter From Com. Garcia to Pres. King and Reply 363
Liberian Committees Suggestions, etc 371
Petition to Liberian Senate 386
Robbing the Negro's Values 395
Scene Aboard Ship "Paris" 396
Eli Garcia's Confidential Report 399
Scene League of Nations 406
Scene Harlem 406
The Betrayal of a Struggling Race 408

-- NA --

FULL PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS Page
Amy Jacques-Garvey Frontispiece
Letter of Request for Compilation X
The Late Sir Isaiah Morter 90
Group of African Legion of U. N. I. A. 99
Black Star Line Band in Parade 111
Group of Juveniles in Convention Parade 135
Marcus Garvey Hand-cuffed to U. S. Marshalls 148
S. S. Yarmouth 184
S. S. Orien 186
S. S. Maceo 198
Group of Ladies Motor Corps of U. N. I. A. 219
Black Star Line's Office Buildings 248
River Boat Shadyside 255
S. S. Gen. G. W. Goethals 264
The Reply to Application for Pardon 271
U. N. I. A. Officials Reviewing Convention Parade, 1922 281
Archbishop George Alexander McGuire 285
Group of Black Cross Nurses of U. N. I. A. 312
Scene at Court Reception in New York 316
The Reply to Letter 330
U. N. I. A. Experts Sent to Liberia in 1921 365
U. N. I. A. Delegates and Liberian Officials in Monrovia 370
Group of Experts Sent to Liberia in 1924 388
U. N. I. A. 1924 Delegates and Native Chiefs in Monrovia 397
U. N. I. A. Delegates to League of Nations 406

-- [1] --

The Philosophy and Opinions of Marcus Garvey or Africa for the Africans
Part I
An Appeal to the Soul of White America
(Written October 2, 1923)

Blessed are the peacemakers; for they shall be called the children of God. Matt. V. 9.

Surely the soul of liberal, philanthropic, liberty-loving, white America is not dead.

It is true that the glamor of materialism has, to a great degree, destroyed the innocence and purity of the national conscience, but, still, beyond our politics, beyond our soulless industrialism, there is a deep feeling of human sympathy that touches the soul of white America, upon which the unfortunate and sorrowful can always depend for sympathy, help and action.

It is to that feeling that I appeal for four hundred million Negroes of the world, and fifteen millions of America in particular.

There is no real white man in America, who does not desire a solution of the Negro problem. Each thoughtful citizen has probably his own idea of how the vexed question of races should be settled. To some the Negro could be gotten rid of by wholesale butchery, by lynching, by economic starvation, by a return

-- 2 --
to slavery, and legalized oppression, while others would have the problem solved by seeing the race all herded together and kept somewhere among themselves; but a few -- those in whom they have an interest -- should be allowed to live around as the wards of a mistaken philanthropy; yet, none so generous as to desire to see the Negro elevated to a standard of real progress and prosperity, welded into a homogeneous whole, creating of themselves a mighty nation, with proper systems of government, civilization and culture, to mark them admissible to the fraternities of nations and races without any disadvantage.

I do not desire to offend the finer feelings and sensibilities of those white friends of the race who really believe that they are kind and considerate to us as a people; but I feel it my duty to make a real appeal to conscience and not to belief. Conscience is solid, convicting and permanently demonstrative; belief is only a matter of opinion, changeable by superior reasoning. Once the belief was that it was fit and proper to hold the Negro as a slave, and in this the bishop, priest and layman agreed. Later on, they changed their belief or opinion, but at all times, the conscience of certain people dictated to them that it was wrong and inhuman to hold human beings as slaves. It is to such a conscience in white America that I am addressing myself.

Negroes are human beings -- the peculiar and strange opinions of writers, ethnologists, philosophers, scientists and anthropologists notwithstanding. They have feelings, souls, passions, ambitions, desires, just as other men, hence they must be considered.

Has white America really considered the Negro in the light of permanent human progress? The answer is NO.

Men and women of the white race, do you know what is going to happen if you do not think and act now? One of two things. You are either going to deceive and keep the Negro in your midst until you have perfectly completed your wonderful American civilization with its progress of art, science, industry and politics, and then, jealous of your own success and achievements in those directions, and with the greater jealousy of seeing your race pure and unmixed, cast him off to die in the whirlpool of economic starvation, thus getting rid of another race that was not intelligent enough to live, or, you simply mean by the largeness of your hearts to assimilate fifteen million Negroes into the social fraternity of an American race, that will neither be white nor black! Don't be alarmed! We must prevent both consequences. No real race loving white man wants to destroy the purity of his race, and no real Negro conscious of himself, wants to die,

-- 3 --
hence there is room for an understanding, and an adjustment. And that is just what we seek.

Let white and black stop deceiving themselves. Let the white race stop thinking that all black men are dogs and not to be considered as human beings. Let foolish Negro agitators and socalled reformers, encouraged by deceptive or unthinking white associates, stop preaching and advocating the doctrine of "social equality," meaning thereby the social intermingling of both races, intermarriages, and general social co-relationship. The two extremes will get us nowhere, other than breeding hate, and encouraging discord, which will eventually end disastrously to the weaker race.

Some Negroes, in the quest of position and honor, have been admitted to the full enjoyment of their constitutional rights. Thus we have some of our men filling high and responsible government positions, others, on their own account, have established themselves in the professions, commerce and industry. This, the casual onlooker, and even the men themselves, will say carries a guarantee and hope of social equality, and permanent racial progress. But this is the mistake. There is no progress of the Negro in America that is permanent, so long as we have with us the monster evil -- prejudice.

Prejudice we shall always have between black and white, so long as the latter believes that the former is intruding upon their rights. So long as white laborers believe that black laborers are taking and holding their jobs, so long as white artisans believe that black artisans are performing the work that they should do; so long as white men and women believe that black men and women are filling the positions that they covet; so long as white political leaders and statesmen believe that black politicians and statesmen are seeking the same positions in the nation's government; so long as white men believe that black men want to associate with, and marry white women, then we will ever have prejudice, and not only prejudice, but riots, lynchings, burnings, and God to tell what next will follow!

It is this danger that drives me mad. It must be prevented. We cannot allow white and black to drift along unthinkingly toward this great gulf and danger, that is nationally ahead of us. It is because of this that I speak, and now call upon the soul of great white America to help.

It is no use putting off. The work must be done, and it must be started now.

Some people have misunderstood me. Some don't want to

-- 4 --
understand me. But I must explain myself for the good of the world and humanity.

Those of the Negro race who preach social equality, and who are working for an American race that will, in complexion, be neither white nor black, have tried to misinterpret me to the white public, and create prejudice against my work. The white public, not stopping to analyze and question the motive behind criticisms and attacks, aimed against new leaders and their movements, condemn without even giving a chance to the criticised, to be heard. Those of my own race who oppose me because I refuse to endorse their program of social arrogance and social equality, gloat over the fact that by their misrepresentation and underhand methods, they were able to have me convicted and imprisoned for crime which they calculate will so discredit me as to destroy the movement that I represent, in opposition to their program of a new American race; but we will not now consider the opposition to a program or a movement, but state the facts as they are, and let deep souled white America pass its own judgment.

In another one hundred years white America will have doubled its population; in another two hundred years it will have trebled itself. The keen student must realize that the centuries ahead will bring us an over-crowded country; opportunities, as the population grows larger, will be fewer; the competition for bread between the people of their own class will become keener, and so much more so will there be no room for two competitive races, the one strong, and the other weak. To imagine Negroes as district attorneys, judges, senators, congressmen, assemblymen, aldermen, government clerks and officials, artisans and laborers at work, while millions of white men starve, is to have before you the bloody picture of wholesale mob violence that I fear, and against which I am working.

No preaching, no praying, no presidential edict will control the passion of hungry unreasoning men of prejudice when the hour comes. It will not come, I pray, in our generation, but it is of the future that I think and for which I work.

A generation of ambitious Negro men and women, out from the best colleges, universities and institutions, capable of filling the highest and best positions in the nation, in industry, commerce, society and politics! Can you keep them back? If you do so they will agitate and throw your constitution in your faces. Can you stand before civilization and deny the truth of your constitution? What are you going to do then? You who are just will open the door of opportunity and say to all and sundry,

-- 5 --
"Enter in." But, ladies and gentlemen, what about the mob, that starving crowd of your own race? Will they stand by, suffer and starve, and allow an opposite, competitive race to prosper in the midst of their distress? If you can conjure these things up in your mind, then you have the vision of the race problem of the future in America.

There is but one solution, and that is to provide an outlet for Negro energy, ambition, and passion, away from the attractions of white opportunity and surround the race with opportunities of its own. If this is not done, and if the foundation for same is not laid now, then the consequence will be sorrowful for the weaker race, and disgraceful to our ideals of justice, and shocking to our civilization.

The Negro must have a country and a nation of his own. If you laugh at the idea, then you are selfish and wicked, for you and your children do not intend that the Negro shall discommode you in yours. If you do not want him to have a country and a nation of his own; if you do not intend to give him equal opportunities in yours. then it is plain to see that you mean that he must die, even as the Indian, to make room for your generations.

Why should the Negro die? Has he not served America and the world? Has he not borne the burden of civilization in this Western world for three hundred years? Has he not contributed of his best to America? Surely all this stands to his credit. But there will not be enough room and the one answer is "find a place." We have found a place; it is Africa, and as black men for three centuries have helped white men build America, surely generous and grateful white men will help black men build Africa.

And why shouldn't Africa and America travel down the ages as protectors of human rights and guardians of democracy? Why shouldn't black men help white men secure and establish universal peace? We can only have peace when we are just to all mankind; and for that peace, and for the reign of universal love, I now appeal to the soul of white America. Let the Negroes have a government of their own. Don't encourage them to believe that they will become social equals and leaders of the whites in America, without first on their own account proving to the world that they are capable of evolving a civilization of their own. The white race can best help the Negro by telling him the truth and not by flattering him into believing that he is as good as any white man without first proving the racial, national, constructive metal of which he is made.

Stop flattering the Negro about social equality, and tell him to go to work and build for himself. Help him in the direction of doing

-- 6 --
for himself, and let him know that self-progress brings its own reward.

I appeal to the considerate and thoughtful conscience of white America not to condemn the cry of the Universal Negro Improvement Association for a nation in Africa for Negroes, but to give us a chance to explain ourselves to the world. White America is too big, and when informed and touched, too liberal, to turn down the cry of the awakened Negro for "a place in the sun."

-- 7 --

Racial Reforms and Reformers
Who thinks of the poor but the poor? The rich and self-satisfied are too busily engaged in the enjoyment of their own pleasures, and the patronage of their own class, to halt to any great extent to give the underdogs of human society a thought that would help them rise above their condition.

The missionary work that is being done to lift the unfortunate to the height of a new social order is surrounded with hypocrisy and professionalism; hence, its usefulness is not seen or felt among those to be served.

As in the struggle to lift the unfortunate poor we have no real, honest effort; so, in the struggle of race to find a place in the affairs of the world, we get very little, if any, sympathy and encouragement from the progressive and successful.

There is a vast difference between the white and black races. The two are at extremes. One is dazzlingly prosperous and progressive; the other is abjectly poor and backward.

The fight is to lift the backward and non-progressive to the common standard of progress and civilization; but, apparently, no appreciable number of the prosperous and progressive desire this change The selfishness of class and monopoly of standing seem to dictate a prejudice of race that creates a barrier to the accepted Christian belief that all men are brothers, and a God is our common Father.

In this conflict of life each human being finds a calling. Some of us are called to be preachers, ministers of the Gospel, politicians, statesmen, industrialists, teachers, philosophers, laborers and reformers. To the reformer, above all, falls the duty or obligation of improving human society, not to the good of the selfish few, but to the benefit of the greatest number.

Persecution of Reformers

The history of the world and of the human race tells us the story of the reformer, of his trials, persecution and suffering in his efforts to reach the heart of man, in creating there a common sympathy for his brother. If it was not a Christ, it was a St. Augustine, a Luther or a Caesar, Alfred the Great, Garibaldi, Lincoln or a McSwiney. But all down the line of human progress we have met the man ready to suffer and to die to make others free while a light-hearted, selfish populace laughs at him and passes by the effort.

Twentieth century humanity and civilization have not changed much, except to their discredit, since the time of Christ, Caesar and Lincoln. Christ sought to help and save a world of human souls, and His fellows nailed Him to a cross; Caesar, in the fullness of his

-- 8 --
human love and his patriotism to Rome, fought for the elevation of his countrymen, and the ascendency of his country, but there was one to strike him even to the fall at the base of Pompey's statue; Lincoln, as stated, had a burning love for all humanity, not desiring to see half slave and half free, but all free, for the practice of which love he was shot by an assassin, and withal we have not gone far in solving the peace of the world. We are still in chaos. We are still drifting toward the universal pit of destruction, and that is why we need reformers now, those who are not afraid to suffer and die for a cause; men, despite the opposition of an organized social system, of a malicious and malignant school of oppression, who will stand up for the good of the larger humanity, and tell the world of its mistakes and blunders.

Revenge Guiding Force of Human Destruction

And it is here that we must call the attention of the white race to the wrong and injury that they are inflicting upon the rest of the world. It is all well for those who revel in their immediate power to turn a deaf ear to the cries of the suffering races, to oppress, exploit, and even murder them, but what of the consequence?

We live not by ourselves. It is either Providence, God, the First Cause or Nature -- any one you wish to call it -- that will call us to our judgment, not so much in the world to come, as in the retribution of our own lives; and when that time comes what will the white, once powerful and oppressive race say if another should be lifted to power and supported there by the Grace of Divine Authority?

History, religious and profane, have so many beautiful lessons to teach that none of us should doubt the wonders of God or Nature. In the one age or period the one race or people rule and triumph, while the other stalks under the heel of oppression -- the Jews in Egypt, the Britons in Rome, the Negroes in America -- to say nothing of the rest in Europe and Asia who have had similar experiences. What do we gather therefrom, but the spirit of revenge, a spirit that has traveled up to the twentieth century and which seems to be the guiding force of human destruction?

Why we have not gone farther in our civilization is because we are still fearful and suspicious of each other. We have done each other so many wrongs and inflicted so many injuries and injustices that we are just afraid to loosen up, believing that the other fellow's time will come. It is natural, because of sin, for the robber to protect his loot; so do we find reason for even the powerful races to still crush and grind the less fortunate. The murderer has to continue murdering so as to protect his own

-- 9 --
life, but generally there is a hangman; so in the eternal fitness of things all human power hath an end, today for me, tomorrow for thee.

Good Will to All Will Save World

Realizing all that has been written is reason why the world's greatest reformers strive to make a human race with love and sympathies, not having the one group, whether white or black, hating the other, but living in peace, good will and brotherhood without endangering the rights of either. It is such a reformation that will save the world; not the building of battleships, guns, aeroplanes or the invention of gas, but a reasonable coming together of the human groups that will rescue us from our human doom.

If the great statesmen and religious leaders of the world would only forget the selfishness of their own races, and call their conferences and give out their edicts not from the Anglo-Saxon, Teutonic, Celtic or Anglo-American point of view, but from the view of all humanity considered, then we would indeed come face to face with a new world evolving a new civilization.

Friends, white cannot prosper to the disadvantage of black. Yellow cannot prosper to the disadvantage of brown, for in so doing we but pile up confusion and remorse for our children. This is history; it tells the tales of the past, it will of the future. Then why not make the future right?

Few the reformers are who struggle for such an ideal. Here and there a white man and a woman, a yellow, brown and black man, while the great army of selfish pleasure-seekers and their slaves march on to their doom. Gandhi in prison, a George V. in his castle; a Congo native massacred; an Albert of Belgium drinking his wine; a Senegalese Negro kicked on the plantation of his master; a Poincare driving in his landau in the Champs d'Elysees; a Negro lynched in Georgia; a Wilson, Harding or Coolidge talking about a world court or league; a Chinaman shot down at Kia Chow and the Emperor of Japan drinking tea in his palace at Tokio; a Jew murdered on the borders of Eastern Europe, and His Holiness the Pope seeing no further than the Vatican, will not save the human race. But that lonely man or woman, of whatsoever race, who cries out for justice to all humanity, including Europe with its whites, Asia with its browns and yellows, Africa with its blacks, and America and the rest of the world with their mixed populations, will, even though there be persecution and injustice done to him, bring succor and aid,

-- 10 --
late though it be, to the rest of us mortals that we may see everlasting life.

Black Reform

There is a fraternity of humanitarians, unknown though it be, that is working for a true solution of our human problems. Wilberforce, Clarkston, Buxton, Lovejoy, John Brown, white though they were, had the vision of the future of men. They worked for the freedom of black humanity, therefore, in the midst of our sorrow and in the racial thought of revenge come up the spirits of such great humanitarians that silence the tongue of evil; as in the white race, so among the blacks, our beautiful spirits stand out, for wasn't there a Douglass, a Washington and even the typical Uncle Tom?

We hope that the humanitarians of today of all races will continue to work in furtherance of that ideal -- justice, liberty, freedom and true human independence, knowing thereby no color or no race.

The Negro of the world, and America in particular, needs a national homeland with opportunities and privileges like all other peoples. If we work and fight for this why should others jeer and laugh at us? Why should they say that we are "ignorant" and "benighted"? Was it ignorance to free Britain from the grasp of the invader? Was it ignorance to free America from the heel of the oppressor? Was it ignorance to liberate France from the yoke of the tyrant? Surely not. Then why is it ignorant for Negroes to work for the restoration of their country, Africa?

Broad and liberal-minded white men, although surrounded by the selfishness of a material environment, will not condemn and persecute the work of even black reform, but for justice's sake give unto each and everyone his due.

-- 11 --

The Crime of Injustice
(Written from The Tombs Prison, August 2, 1923)

There is no crime like that of injustice, and it is the cause that will ultimately bring about the ruin of the world.

Men in all ages have demonstrated against this evil, the responsibility for which has caused so many human changes. When we think of the injustice of Henry to John, we, without much difficulty, find the reason of the latter for practicing his revenge upon the former. And so, right through the affairs of the human race, we can trace the cause for the perpetuation of revenge one upon the other. But the crime is not traceable to individuals only, but to races and nations.

The history of the world will show that most, if not all, of the differences between races and nations have been caused through the infliction of injustice of the one race or nation upon the other.

In the family life the son will avenge the injury done to the father by the neighbor, and so on we go to the third, fourth and fifth generations. In the national life the free and developed nation will revenge the crime of the other when it finds itself strong enough to do so, as in the case of France now revenging Germany for the war of 1870, and so of the Germans revenging the French, or the French revenging the English, of the slave revenging his master.

Those who desire the peace of the world and the permanent settlement of all our human ills should not seek to do so by mere economic and political conferences, but first by the establishment of real justice to all men. Not the justice that is based upon the like or dislike of the individual, race or nation, but justice for justice's sake!

There are but few, if any, of the people of the world who have and practise the true sense of justice.

If we were permitted to see ourselves as we administer justice to others, we would be surprised to realize, if we believe ourselves Christians, how near we approach hell in the exhibition of our supposed good virtues.

The World of Wrong

The world is full of wrong and injustice, the continuation of which will change our civilization and life beyond present recognition. We will go from Czarism, Kaiserism, Monarchism, Republicanism, Sovietism to God knows what; all for the chance of getting "justice." But, although the world in its political and social

-- 12 --
systems changes to meet the justice of man, we will find ourselves farther and farther from the ideal.

If we take the political and social systems of England we will find the people divided into many classes, each fighting against the other, under the belief that the crime of injustice is practised against it; and so also of France, Italy and America.

As we witness the struggle of injustice among the classes, so do we have it among the races. No one will gainsay the fact that the injustice of the one race to the Japanese makes them resentful, restless and revengeful, and the same injustice to the Indian and the Negro will ultimately drive them to a union of spirit that may yet develop a new civilization and a new ideal.

As Negroes, no one suffers from the infliction of injustice more than we do. It is practised against us in every walk of life -- politically, socially, industrially, educationally, commercially, judicially, and even religiously.

For three hundred years the Negro has cried out against the crime of injustice, and he is no nearer being heard today on his own account than when he first raised his voice. In the general order of things the weak suffers most from the crime of injustice. The strong man will be unjust to the weak, and the strong nation will in like manner oppress the less fortunate. The whole situation, it seems, therefore, hangs on the developed strength of the individual, race or nation. It is the realization of this that causes the Universal Negro Improvement Association to preach the propaganda of "coming together" among Negroes.

If we must have justice, we must be strong; if we must be strong, we must come together; if we must come together, we can only do so through the system of organization.

When the Britons were weak and scattered, they received no justice. When the French were weak and divided, they suffered in the same manner; but with unity, strength was developed, and with strength came national, racial justice. When we can successfully bring together the majority of the four hundred million Negroes of the world, we will have not only racial, collective and individual justice, but national justice as well.

The best that we can do is to work and pray for the hastening of the time when we, too, will have become a united and strong people able by our force of character and achievement to demand not sympathy but justice from all men, races and nations. Let us not waste time in breathless appeals to the strong while we are weak, but lend our time, energy and effort to the accumulation of strength among ourselves by which we will voluntarily attract the attention of others.

-- 13 --

Jack Johnson, Harry Wills and Firpo attract the attention of other men because they have developed their bodies and muscles to protect themselves against the attack of their rivals. England, France, Italy, Japan and America attract the attention of other nations because of their powerful military and naval strength; and so the Negro can only arrest the attention of the rest of mankind in the quest for justice, for fair play, when we can produce to the world the "real stuff" that makes man feel, if he doesn't hear.

There can be no argument against the Negro's acquisition of strength and power. This is needed, not only in our racial life but in our national life. We must have a country -- and government -- of our own. We must make our own impression upon a world of injustice and convince men by the same means or methods of reasoning as others by their strength do.

No Justice But Strength

Don't be deceived; there is no justice but strength. In other words, might is right, and if you must be heard and respected you have to accumulate nationally, in Africa, those resources that will compel unjust man to think twice before he acts.

Our consolation should be, however, that each and every race will have its day; and there is no doubt that the Negro's day is drawing near. We may not trust to the abnormal strength and progress of others to believe that the world and humanity are settled, for in the twinkling of an eye all creation can pass away, and men, races and nations be no more. In a short hour Pompeii fell, and in a shorter time still Germany was crushed beyond the hope of immediate resurrection, to say nothing of ancient Greece and Rome. What has happened in the past to other races and nations will happen again, so let us work and pray, for surely our day of triumph and authority to mete out justice will come and Africa may yet teach the higher principles of justice, love and mercy, yea, true brotherhood.

Some of us become at times drunk with our power and authority, and, in the fullness of our narrow conceit, wreak our vengeance upon others under the guise of justice. Oh, how wanton is man! Irresponsible in his conceit! Vain in the realization of his power! Even vicious to the point of vengeance! But we glory in the fact that he is only man, and in the natural course of life will pass away, the wretch, with injustice written upon his soul, like the dog, to be unwept and unmourned, in the higher spiritual sense; to be another subject of hell, perdition and the dust from which no pleasant memory springs.

Some of us think that we live only in the physical; but are we not really conscious of a higher life? If there is, and there is, then why

-- 14 --
die like the dog? Why not die like a Christ, a John the Baptist, a St. Augustine, a Caesar, even at the base of Pompey's statue, a Joan of Arc, even with the fagots around her; a Robert Emmet, with his head upon the block; a Terrence MacSwiney, in Mountjoy jail. Oh, what honor and glory we give to man for the service he renders unselfishly to his brother! With what disgust we curse the wretch who lives for self, and for those of his kind around him; yes, he who has no knowledge of truth, whose soul is filled with corruption, bribery and injustice!

Negroes, shall we not choose between right and wrong? Shall we not pattern the lives of those men, races and nations that have prospered by justice? Surely we shall, for in so doing we will have removed ourselves from the curse of a heartless, sinful, unjust world to a new temporal sphere, where man will live in peace and die in the consciousness of a new resurrection.

Such will be Africa's day, when a new light will encircle the earth, and black men lift their hands to their God and Princes come out of our country. For this we will not give up hope, but fight and struggle on, until the Angel of Peace and Love appears.

-- 15 --

World Materialism
The wonderful force of organization is today making itself felt in every branch of human effort. Whether in industry, society, politics or war it is the force of organization that tells; hence, I can advise no better step toward racial salvation than organization among us.

We have been harassed, trampled upon, and made little of, because of our unfortunate condition of disorganization. The disorganization of our race for hundreds of years made us easy prey to those who sought profit out of human slavery, and with a similar disorganization we are bound to lose out in the great scramble of life for the survival of the fittest group.

The Universal Negro Improvement Association is a movement that seeks unlimited racial union and co-operation. We desire to draw humanity closer together than we have been before, for we realize that with East pulling against West, North pulling against South, there will be nothing left to us but utter ruin.

We can well imagine ourselves as one great united people, having one aim, believing in one God and having one destiny. To see four hundred millions of us standing together as one man is the desire of those of us who lead the Universal Negro Improvement Association.

It is true that twentieth century materialism has so scattered the interests of races and nations that the realization of human ideals becomes more remote, but we dare not sink or destroy holy principles because of the wantonness and soullessness of our age. Time cannot save itself; it is for us to save and redeem Time; hence, the work that lies before us is not so much to identify ourselves with the scattered purpose and greed of others, but to create for ourselves a central ideal and make our lives conform to it in the singling out of a racial life that shall know no end.

It is unfortunate that we should find ourselves at this time the only disorganized group. Others have had the advantage of organization for centuries, so what seems to them unnecessary from a racial point of view becomes necessary to us, who have had to labor all along under the disadvantage of being scattered without a racial aim or purpose.

No race or people can well survive without an aim or purpose. We must know beforehand the progress of our existence. Our racial program of today is a united, emancipated and improved people.

We need improvement in every line -- socially, religiously, industrially, educationally and politically. We need the creation of a common standard among ourselves that will fit us for companionship and equitable competition with others.

-- 16 --

Man and God to Settle the World

The world is not in the disposition to divide the spoils of materialism, but on the contrary every group is seeking the aggrandizement of self at the expense of those who have lost or who ignore the trend of human effort in the direction of self-preservation.

The Negro, surrounded as he is, has no other alternative than going forward in the atmosphere of racial self-interest, working for the generation of the present and providing for those of our posterity. In the service of race the Universal Negro Improvement Association finds its program, and for its advocacy or promotion we offer no apology.

It is foolish for us to believe that the world can settle itself on chance. It is for man and God to settle the world. God acts indifferently and His plan and purpose is generally worked out through the agency of human action. In His directed, inspired prophecy He promised that Ethiopia's day would come, not by the world changing towards us, but by our stretching out our hands unto Him. It doesn't mean the mere physical test, but the universal and independent effort to surround ourselves with the full glory of man.

No human apologies are needed for the moving or going forward of any people, so none will expect that we will apologize for the efforts we are making to unite our race the world over, and the creating for ourselves of a political superstate wherein we will find the representation and protection that will make us secure in the selfish adjustment of a material world.

Go ahead, Negroes, and organize yourselves! You are serving your race and guaranteeing to posterity of our own an existence which otherwise will be denied them.

Ignore the traps of persuasion, advice and alien leadership. No one can be as true to you as you can be to yourself. To suggest that there is no need for Negro racial organization in a well-planned and arranged civilization like that of the twentieth century is but to, by the game of deception, lay the trap for the destruction of a people whose knowledge of life is incomplete, owing to the misunderstanding of man's purpose in creation.

Vision of New Life

With the vision of a new life the Universal Negro Improvement Association shall direct the course of the four hundred million members of our race, enemies from within and from without notwithstanding.

The campaign of abuse against your leaders and their imprisonment is but a part of the plan to harass and discourage you on the way towards destiny. But no sober-minded Negro will allow himself

-- 17 --
to be fooled by the design of the wicked. The wicked we have always had, and will ever have. The wicked and unjust have opposed reforms in every age and under all circumstances. They crucified a Christ and drove His apostles from pillar to post. They made, by their wicked acts, martyrs of those who have lived and died for a principle and an idea; so let them go on. They, too, in this age shall drink the bitter dregs of sorrow and remorse, even as succeeding generations of those who crucified Christ and persecuted His disciples have become the cursed creatures of righteousness. Let our traitors sell themselves to the propaganda of the enemy who seeks to destroy the race! They, too, like the character of old, will find no use for the bits of silver.

Let us pray for our enemies, whosoever they be! Let us all over the world pray daily for God's handling of our enemies! Pray hard and earnestly, at least twice a day, for God's dealing with our enemies. At twelve o'clock midday and twelve o'clock midnight let us in silent prayer for thirty seconds send up our supplications and appeal to God for the correction of those who oppose us even against His divine will that we should stretch out our hands unto Him.

Surely God will answer our prayers against the wicked and unjust and strengthen us for the great work that must be done in His name and to His glory. Remember, our duty is to be firm in the Faith.

Personally, I am glad to suffer for the cause. My contribution to the race and to Africa is small, but it is gladly given without any regrets. Some of us will contribute through our ability and our lives, others through service of other kind; but whatever it be, let us give it freely.

Do not falter or faint by the wayside, but let us, with confidence in ourselves and our God go forth in the call for service to our race and to Ethiopia.

-- 18 --

Who and What is a Negro?
(Written January 16, 1923)

The New York World under date of January 15, 1923, published a statement of Drs. Clark Wissler and Franz Boaz (the latter a professor of anthropology at Columbia University), confirming the statement of the French that Moroccan and Algerian troops used in the invasion of Germany were not to be classified as Negroes, because they were not of that race. How the French and these gentlemen arrive at such a conclusion is marvelous to understand, but I feel it is the old-time method of depriving the Negro of anything that would tend to make him recognized in any useful occupation or activity.

The custom of these anthropologists is whenever a black man, whether he be Moroccan, Algerian, Senegalese or what not, accomplishes anything of importance, he is no longer a Negro. The question, therefore, suggests itself, "Who and what is a Negro?" The answer is, "A Negro is a person of dark complexion or race, who has not accomplished anything and to whom others are not obligated for any useful service." If the Moroccans and Algerians were not needed by France at this time to augment their occupation of Germany or to save the French nation from extinction, they would have been called Negroes as usual, but now that they have rendered themselves useful to the higher appreciation of France they are no longer members of the Negro race, but can be classified among a higher type as made out by the two professors above mentioned. Whether these professors or France desire to make the Moroccans other than Negroes we are satisfied that their propaganda before has made these people to understand that their destiny is linked up with all other men of color throughout the world, and now that the hundreds of millions of darker peoples are looking toward one common union and destiny through the effort of universal cooperation, we have no fear that the Moroccans and Algerians will take care of the situation in France and Germany peculiar to the interest of Negroes throughout the world.

Let us not be flattered by white anthropologists and statesmen who, from time to time, because of our success here, there or anywhere, try to make out that we are no longer members of the Negro race. If we were Negroes when we were down under the heel of oppression then we will be Negroes when we are up and liberated from such thraldom.

The Moroccans and Algerians have a splendid opportunity of proving the real worth of the Negro in Europe, and who to tell

-- 19 --
that one day Africa will colonize Europe, even as Europe has been endeavoring to colonize the world for hundreds of years.

Negroes Robbed of Their History

The white world has always tried to rob and discredit us of our history. They tell us that Tut-Ankh-Amen, a King of Egypt, who reigned about the year 1350 B. C. (before Christ), was not a Negro, that the ancient civilization of Egypt and the Pharaohs was not of our race, but that does not make the truth unreal. Every student of history, of impartial mind, knows that the Negro once ruled the world, when white men were savages and barbarians living in caves; that thousands of Negro professors at that time taught in the universities in Alexandria, then the seat of learning; that ancient Egypt gave to the world civilization and that Greece and Rome have robbed Egypt of her arts and letters, and taken all the credit to themselves. It is not surprising, however, that white men should resort to every means to keep Negroes in ignorance of their history, it would be a great shock to their pride to admit to the world today that 3,000 years ago black men excelled in government and were the founders and teachers of art, science and literature. The power and sway we once held passed away, but now in the twentieth century we are about to see a return of it in the rebuilding of Africa; yes, a new civilization, a new culture, shall spring up from among our people, and the Nile shall once more flow through the land of science, of art, and of literature, wherein will live black men of the highest learning and the highest accomplishments.

Professor George A. Kersnor, head of the Harvard-Boston expedition to the Egyptian Soudan, returned to America early in 1923 and, after describing the genius of the Ethiopians and their high culture during the period of 750 B. C. to 350 A. D. in middle Africa, he declared the Ethiopians were not African Negroes. He described them as dark colored races . . showing a mixture of black blood. Imagine a dark colored man in middle Africa being anything else but a Negro. Some white men, whether they be professors or what not, certainly have a wide stretch of imagination. The above statements of the professors support my contention at all times that the prejudice against us as Negroes is not because of color, but because of our condition. If black men throughout the world as a race will render themselves so independent and useful as to be sought out by other race groups it will simply mean that all the problems of race will be smashed to pieces and the Negro would be regarded like anybody else -- a man to be respected and admired.

-- 20 --

The Hybrids of South Africa

More than a year ago the natives of South Africa started to press the limited white population to the wall in the demand of "Africa for the Africans." The prejudiced Boers and others were willing then to let down the color bar and admit to their ranks, socially and otherwise, the half-breed colored people whom they once classified as impossible hybrids, to be despised by both whites and natives. Now they are endeavoring to make common cause with these so-called half-breeds of South Africa, so as to strengthen their position against the threatening ascendency of the demand for a free and redeemed Africa for the blacks of the world.

In an editorial dated March 29, 1923, the Abantu-Batho of Johannesburg states among other things:

"The Cape colored people have been promised absorption by politicians, particularly those of the Dutch race. . . . Indeed we are suspicious that all this talk about absorption is a political trap which has been set to capture the colored vote in the Cape. It is the business of the politician to strengthen his position by getting as many supporters as possible. To do this, he must, of necessity, be diplomatic. That is to say, he must know how to get around the people, and the only way to get around the people is to put before them a beautiful picture of what one intends to do. There can be no doubt that to the Cape colored people the idea of their absorption by the white race presents a beautiful ideal for the attainment of which they are prepared to sacrifice everything. They cannot be blamed for this. As a distinct community they have no past, no traditions, no laws, and no language which things constitute the pride of every race of mankind. These sons of Hagar are in an awkward position. They despise the people of Hagar, because Hagar's people are despised by the people of Abraham. They are suffering because of the gulf that exists between their mothers' people and those of their fathers. . . . The difference between the treatment meted out to the colored people and the Africans does not in any way signify that the whites have more consideration for the colored people. It will be remembered that when Lord Selborne left this country in 1909, he warned the white people of South Africa against putting the Cape colored people in the same category as Africans because that would unite the two sections of the African peoples to fight for their common rights. Since then the policy has been to differentiate in the treatment of the two sections so as to make combined action impossible. Thus it is not saying too much to aver that the real object of the white

-- 21 --
race is to make the Cape colored people a buffer between the Africans and Europeans. As a buffer, the Cape colored people can never have the same rights as whites. Now the question is: What are they to do? Will they be satisfied with a position of this kind? Or will they follow the lead of our cousins in America and classify themselves as Africans? In our opinion this is the only way to the salvation of the Cape colored people. They are Africans and not Europeans. And the sooner they realize it the better."

White people will seek every opportunity to fraternize with any race in the world, even the one despised yesterday, if by so doing they can strengthen their position, whether it be in Europe, Africa or elsewhere, but it is for 400,000,000 people who have been discriminated against throughout the world to take a decided stand and for once we will agree with the American white man, that one drop of Negro blood makes a man a Negro? So that 100 per cent. Negroes and even 1 per cent. Negroes will stand together as one mighty whole to strike a universal blow for liberty and recognition in Africa.

-- 22 --

An Appeal to the Conscience of the Black Race to See Itself
It is said to be a hard and difficult task to organize and keep together large numbers of the Negro race for the common good. Many have tried to congregate us, but have failed, the reason being that our characteristics are such as to keep us more apart than together.

The evil of internal division is wrecking our existence as a people, and if we do not seriously and quickly move in the direction of a readjustment it simply means that our doom becomes imminently conclusive.

For years the Universal Negro Improvement Association has been working for the unification of our race, not on domestic-national lines only, but universally. The success which we have met in the course of our effort is rather encouraging, considering the time consumed and the environment surrounding the object of our concern.

It seems that the whole world of sentiment is against the Negro, and the difficulty of our generation is to extricate ourselves from the prejudice that hides itself beneath, as well as above, the action of an international environment.

Prejudice is conditional on many reasons, and it is apparent that the Negro supplies, consciously or unconsciously, all the reasons by which the world seems to ignore and avoid him. No one cares for a leper, for lepers are infectious persons, and all are afraid of the disease, so, because the Negro keeps himself poor, helpless and undemonstrative, it is natural also that no one wants to be of him or with him.

Progress and Humanity

Progress is the attraction that moves humanity, and to whatever people or race this "modern virtue" attaches itself, there will you find the splendor of pride and self-esteem that never fail to win the respect and admiration of all.

It is the progress of the Anglo-Saxons that singles them out for the respect of all the world. When their race had no progress or achievement to its credit, then, like all other inferior peoples, they paid the price in slavery, bondage, as well as through prejudice. We cannot forget the time when even the ancient Briton was regarded as being too dull to make a good Roman slave, yet today the influence of that race rules the world.

It is the industrial and commercial progress of America that causes Europe and the rest of the world to think appreciatively of the Anglo-American race. It is not because one hundred and

-- 23 --
ten million people live in the United States that the world is attracted to the republic with so much reverence and respect -- a reverence and respect not shown to India with its three hundred millions, or to China with its four hundred millions. Progress of and among any people will advance them in the respect and appreciation of the rest of their fellows. It is such a progress that the Negro must attach to himself if he is to rise above the prejudice of the world.

The reliance of our race upon the progress and achievements of others for a consideration in sympathy, justice and rights is like a dependence upon a broken stick, resting upon which will eventually consign you to the ground.

Self-Reliance and Respect

The Universal Negro Improvement Association teaches our race self-help and self-reliance, not only in one essential, but in all those things that contribute to human happiness and well-being. The disposition of the many to depend upon the other races for a kindly and sympathetic consideration of their needs, without making the effort to do for themselves, has been the race's standing disgrace by which we have been judged and through which we have created the strongest prejudice against ourselves.

There is no force like success, and that is why the individual makes all efforts to surround himself throughout life with the evidence of it. As of the individual, so should it be of the race and nation. The glittering success of Rockefeller makes him a power in the American nation; the success of Henry Ford suggests him as an object of universal respect, but no one knows and cares about the bum or hobo who is Rockefeller's or Ford's neighbor. So, also, is the world attracted by the glittering success of races and nations, and pays absolutely no attention to the bum or hobo race that lingers by the wayside.

The Negro must be up and doing if he will break down the prejudice of the rest of the world. Prayer alone is not going to improve our condition, nor the policy of watchful waiting. We must strike out for ourselves in the course of material achievement, and by our own effort and energy present to the world those forces by which the progress of man is judged.

A Nation and Country

The Negro needs a nation and a country of his own, where he can best show evidence of his own ability in the art of human progress. Scattered as an unmixed and unrecognized part of alien nations and civilizations is but to demonstrate his imbecility,

-- 24 --
and point him out as an unworthy derelict, fit neither for the society of Greek, Jew nor Gentile.

It is unfortunate that we should so drift apart, as a race, as not to see that we are but perpetuating our own sorrow and disgrace in failing to appreciate the first great requisite of all peoples -- organization.

Organization is a great power in directing the affairs of a race or nation toward a given goal. To properly develop the desires that are uppermost, we must first concentrate through some system or method, and there is none better than organization. Hence, the Universal Negro Improvement Association appeals to each and every Negro to throw in his lot with those of us who, through organization, are working for the universal emancipation of our race and the redemption of our common country, Africa.

No Negro, let him be American, European, West Indian or African, shall be truly respected until the race as a whole has emancipated itself, through self-achievement and progress, from universal prejudice. The Negro will have to build his own government, industry, art, science, literature and culture, before the world will stop to consider him. Until then, we are but wards of a superior race and civilization, and the outcasts of a standard social system.

The race needs workers at this time, not plagiarists, copyists and mere imitators; but men and women who are able to create, to originate and improve, and thus make an independent racial contribution to the world and civilization.

Monkey Apings of "Leaders"

The unfortunate thing about us is that we take the monkey apings of our "so-called leading men" for progress. There is no progress in aping white people and telling us that they represent the best in the race, for in that respect any dressed monkey would represent the best of its species, irrespective of the creative matter of the monkey instinct. The best in a race is not reflected through or by the action of its apes, but by its ability to create of and by itself. It is such a creation that the Universal Negro Improvement Association seeks.

Let us not try to be the best or worst of others, but let us make the effort to be the best of ourselves. Our own racial critics criticise us as dreamers and "fanatics," and call us "benighted" and "ignorant," because they lack racial backbone. They are unable to see themselves creators of their own needs. The slave instinct has not yet departed from them. They still believe that

-- 25 --
they can only live or exist through the good graces of their "masters." The good slaves have not yet thrown off their shackles; thus, to them, the Universal Negro Improvement Association is an "impossibility."

It is the slave spirit of dependence that causes our "so-called leading men" (apes) to seek the shelter, leadership, protection and patronage of the "master" in their organization and so-called advancement work. It is the spirit of feeling secured as good servants of the master, rather than as independents, why our modern Uncle Toms take pride in laboring under alien leadership and becoming surprised at the audacity of the Universal Negro Improvement Association in proclaiming for racial liberty and independence.

But the world of white and other men, deep down in their hearts, have much more respect for those of us who work for our racial salvation under the banner of the Universal Negro Improvement Association, than they could ever have in all eternity for a group of helpless apes and beggars who make a monopoly of undermining their own race and belittling themselves in the eyes of self-respecting people, by being "good boys" rather than able men.

Surely there can be no good will between apes, seasoned beggars and independent minded Negroes who will at least make an effort to do for themselves. Surely, the "dependents" and "wards" (and may I not say racial imbeciles?) will rave against and plan the destruction of movements like the Universal Negro Improvement Association that expose them to the liberal white minds of the world as not being representative of the best in the Negro, but, to the contrary, the worst. The best of a race does not live on the patronage and philanthropy of others, but makes an effort to do for itself. The best of the great white race doesn't fawn before and beg black, brown or yellow men; they go out, create for self and thus demonstrate the fitness of the race to survive; and so the white race of America and the world will be informed that the best in the Negro race is not the class of beggars who send out to other races piteous appeals annually for donations to maintain their coterie, but the groups within us that are honestly striving to do for themselves with the voluntary help and appreciation of that class of other races that is reasonable, just and liberal enough to give to each and every one a fair chance in the promotion of those ideals that tend to greater human progress and human love.

The work of the Universal Negro Improvement Association is clear and clean-cut. It is that of inspiring an unfortunate race

-- 26 --
with pride in self and with the determination of going ahead in the creation of those ideals that will lift them to the unprejudiced company of races and nations. There is no desire for hate or malice, but every wish to see all mankind linked into a common fracternity of progress and achievement that will wipe away the odor or prejudice, and elevate the human race to the height of real godly love and satisfaction.

-- 27 --

Christ the Greatest Reformer: Speech Delivered at Liberty Hall, New York, U. S. ., December 24, 1922
When man had fallen in sin from his spiritual kinship to his Creator and disgust reigned even in heaven among the angels and the Holy One, who brought out of chaos the great universe, there sprang up divine sympathy, divine love -- a sympathy and love within the Trinity caused the Son of God to vouchsafe Himself as the Redeemer of mankind, as the Redeemer of the world. He betook to Himself, with the authority of His father, the duty, the work, the labor, the sacrifice, to bring man nearer to his Creator, to bring man nearer to his God.

The angels on that first Christmas morn notified the world that the Christ was to be born. He did not of Himself come down in His spiritual image from the heaven on high, but for the purpose of drawing Himself nearer man He took on the flesh and was born of a virgin woman, and in that stable at Bethlehem; the whole world, through the message of the angels, was told of the great happening and men journeyed from far and near to see the Christ. To some, His birth was a disappointment, because He was born lowly; He was born amid poor conditions and circumstances; He was not born of the reigning household; He was born only of a carpenter, an humble laborer, and therefore to many His birth was a disappointment. The prophets foretold the birth of Christ; the prophets foretold the birth of the Redeemer, and men were looking for Him everywhere. The race to which he was to be born expected a redeemer in pomp and glory, and when He came in a manger they were disappointed; they were disgusted and they denied Him as the Christ. They said He was not the Christ; He was not the Promised One; He was not the Son of God; He was an imposter; but others who had faith believed that He was the Christ. And the lowly babe that was born to us in the sinful world 1922 years ago grew up amidst the surroundings of prejudice, amidst the surroundings of disgust and dissatisfaction to take on His work, to perform His labor as the Christ, as the redeemer of man, as the redeemer of the world.

Christ As a Living Example to Man

The man who took on flesh physical as ours, moved among us even as we go about our daily business and occupation today. They could not believe that He was the Son of God, but in Him there was that which no man knew, which no man had; in Him was a spotless soul, was a spotless character never yet known to

-- 28 --
the world beyond the Christ in all God's creation. There never came into the world a character like Jesus, pure, spotless, immaculate, divine like unto God, as God would have each of us to be. When God created man and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, when God gave to man a living soul, God expected that man would live the spiritual life of the Christ, and when man sinned, when man fell from grace, God became disgusted, God became dissatisfied. If we could see the sufferings of Christ, if we could see the patience of Christ, if we could see the very crucifixion of Christ, then we would see the creature, the being spiritual that God would have us be; and knowing ourselves as we do, we could well realize how far we are from God. For man to see his God, for man to face His judgment and become one of the elect of the High Divine, of the Holy One, is for man to live the life of the Christ, the spotless life, the holy life, the life without sin, and that is a journey that every one in the Christian world is called upon to make. If we cannot make it, we cannot expect to see our God. Man has fallen so low, man has fallen so far from his high estate as created and given him by God that even now man does not know himself except in the physical, but the physical does not make the man complete. Man is part physical as well as part spiritual; the physical life we live here to our satisfaction, the spiritual life we give to God when He calls us. And how many of us in the world today, if called for the spiritual life, will give that life as spotless as Jesus by His example taught? When we look at the world today we think of sin, we think of injustice, of iniquity, a world where man because of his strength, because of his advantage abuses the rights of his brother. When we look upon the oceans of injustice that are placed in the path of the weak, how much must we not realize the far distance that we are from God and the far distance that we are from the man Christ, who tried to teach us the life by which we should see salvation, the life that He came to redeem.

His Doctrine Rejected by the Classes

Christ brought a mission to the world. It was that of love to all mankind; that which taught man to love his brother, to be charitable, and when He taught that doctrine after He had assumed the form of manhood, what did the world do to Him? The world derided Him; the world scoffed at Him; they called Him all kinds of names. He was an imposter; He was a disturber of the public peace; He was not fit to be among good society; He was an outcast; He was a traitor to the king. That is what they said of Jesus when He went about teaching and preaching to men the way of salvation, pointing them to the

-- 29 --
light by which they would see their Heavenly Father. And even though He was the Son of God, even though He had power from on high, even though He worked miracles to prove that He was not only an ordinary man, they did not believe Him and they did not heed Him. The very people among whom He was born, the very people whom probably He loved most were the people who cried out for the destruction and the death of this man, and even though He was the Christ, the Son of God, He could not save Himself from the dissatisfied rebels of His day and of His time. He went about Jerusalem, He went about the holy places, teaching the multitude; He appealed to the masses of the people to save them from their sins, and when the masses attempted to hear Him, when the masses indicated that they would follow Him, the classes who always rule said that He was a disturber of the peace. "We cannot allow this man to travel at large, disturbing the peace of the community. This man threatens the power of the state, therefore we must imprison Him. We must place Him out of the way so that He will not teach these people this new doctrine, the doctrine of love, the doctrine of human brotherhood and the doctrine of equality."

The Character of Man

Christ was the first great reformer. Christ did not go exclusively to the classes. He devoted His life to all; the classes rejected Him because He was not born of high birth, of high parentage, because He was not born in their immediate circle, He was not born of the physical blood royal, therefore they could not follow such a man -- "His doctrine is unsound, and He is receiving the plaudits of the people; He is getting the sympathy of the crowd; can we allow it?" And the answer was no. And even the Son of God -- not man only, but the Son of God -- was sought by the classes who have always held down the masses, because of His teaching for the spiritual glory (if not the physical) of the people whom He loved.

And so while we commemorate the birth of the Christ today, we must bear in mind the sufferings He underwent, the agony He underwent for the purpose of carrying out completely His mission, -- the mission that brought Him down from heaven to earth. Christ came to save a sinful world; the world rejected him, and even at the last hour, after He had preached for years to the people; after He had aroused the suspicion and the curiosity of the masses of His time, when He was about to leave the world, He had not even twelve men who were honest enough to profess the faith; He had not made twelve faithful converts, and He was the Son of God. That proves to you the state of man's mind; that proves to you the character of

-- 30 --
man, and man has not changed much since Christ was here. If he has changed he has done so for the worse. And that brings me to the thought whether if Christ should come back to the world today in what way would He be received? If Christ were to return to the world today, born in the same lowly state, born of the same humble parentage, and attempted to preach the same redemption, He would be imprisoned, He would be executed, He would be crucified in this twentieth century even as He was crucified nineteen hundred years ago on the Mount of Calvary. Man has not changed much.

Christianity a Moving Force

But there is one lesson we can learn from the teachings of Christ. Even though man in the ages may be hard in heart and hard in soul, that which is righteous, that which is spiritually just, even though the physical man dies, the righteous cause is bound to live. Because the preaching of Jesus, the teaching of Jesus was not something physical; if it was something physical it would have died. The teaching of Jesus, the preaching of Jesus, was something spiritual, and where there is righteousness of spirit there is length of life. Jesus the man was not respected, Jesus the man was not adored, Jesus the man was not even loved by His own people, and for that they crucified Him; but the spiritual doctrines of Jesus were righteous; the doctrines of Jesus were just, and even though He died nearly nineteen hundred years ago, what has happened? After the lapse of nineteen hundred years His religion is the greatest moving force in the world today, morally and spiritually. It shows you, therefore, the power of spiritual force; it shows you, therefore, the power of a righteous cause.

Jesus, who was the first great reformer, taught us the way; after Him followed the other great reformers who shared the same fate Born, perhaps, in the same lowly station of life, feeling with the masses of people who suffered like them, they have gone out, whether it be Luther or Saint Augustine or some other great reformer, but they have all gone out and they preached their doctrine, to suffer in their time for the doctrine, to rise again on the wings of time and to flourish as the green bay tree.

Man's Kinship With His Creator

Christmas symbolizes something other than the amusement that it affords today. Christmas brings us to the realization of the fact that hundreds of years ago, when man was practically lost in his spiritual kinship with his Creator and the world probably was to be wiped away, the Son of God Himself came down from His throne on high for the purpose of saving you and saving me. We rejected Him

-- 31 --
in the past; our attitude now suggests no better consideration for Him if He should return, but with that patience, but with that love, but with that mercy, with that charity that caused Him to look down, not in revenge, but in the belief, in the hope, that some time man will change his ways -- man will get to realize his true kinship with his Creator and be what his God expected him to be.

But before we reach this point we need a better understanding of self, as individuals, and may I not appeal to the strong and mighty races and nations of the world for a better and a closer consideration and understanding of the teachings of the man Christ, who went about this world in His effort to redeem fallen man? May I not say to the strong, may I not say to the powerful, that until you change your ways there will be no salvation, there will be no redemption, there will be no seeing God face to face? God is just, God is love, God is no respecter of persons; God does not uphold advantage and abuse to His own people; God created mankind to the same rights and privileges and the same opportunities, and before man can see his God, man will have to measure up in that love, in that brotherhood that He desired us to realize and know as taught to us by His Son Jesus.

Let us realize that we are our brother's keeper; let us realize that we are of one blood, created of one nation to worship God the common Father. It does not, therefore, suggest a proper understanding of our God or a proper knowledge of ourselves when in our strength we attempt to abuse and oppress the weak -- as is done to Negroes today.

The Selfishness of Mankind

The statesmen of the world cry out for peace. They are meeting in many conferences with the hope that they will have peace; but I wonder if they understand the meaning of peace. There can be no peace until that peace reflects the spirit of the message of the angels of nineteen centuries ago. The real peace actuated by love, love as the Christ came to the world to give us; love for the high and mighty, love for the meek and lowly, love for all is the only peace that will reign, is the only peace that will draw man nearer to his God.

Man is so selfish that he does not seem to realize that there is anyone else in the world but himself. The statesmen who lead America seem to believe that there is no one else in the world but the people who make up America, the statesmen who lead the British Empire (even though they cry for peace and desire peace) seem to believe that no one else lives in the world but men within the British Empire.

Up to now we have not yet got the message of the angels; up to

-- 32 --
now they have not yet fully interpreted the spirit of Christ. Christ came into the world not to save one set of humanity, otherwise He would not have been the Christ. Christ came into the world to save mankind; therefore, His love must be for all; His love could not be sectional; His love could not be partial; His love was general and universal. Therefore, before we can have peace on earth, before we can welcome the spirit of the high God; before we can get a true understanding of the spirit of the Christ, who came to us born in the lowly stable at Bethlehem, we must get to realize the brotherhood that exists, realize it in truth; realize it in fact, and practise it whether we be white, black or some other hue.

God Not Interested in the Physical Activities of Man

Realizing that Christ came to save all mankind from the fallen state, to restore man to his spiritual kinship with his God, let us practise a spirit of love, a spirit of charity, a spirit of mercy toward mankind; because in so doing we will be bringing God's kingdom down to earth. Let us live that true life, that perfect life in ourselves as spiritual beings, not forgetting that we are physical also; man must not fail to understand his dual personality.

In being charitable and sympathetic like the Christ would have us to be does not mean to say that we must ignore our physical needs. Christ was not so much interested in the physical responsibility of man; neither is God interested in the physical activities of man. That may be something strange to say at this hour when you have heard so much about religion. Christ cared so little for the physical that He offered Himself up and was satisfied to go on the cross and let the physical die. God the Father is interested in the spiritual of man, but man's physical body is for his own protection; is for his own purpose. Whatsoever you want to do with the physical God does not interfere, and I trust at this time when we are going to contemplate Christ that we will get a better understanding of Him and get a better understanding of the religion that He taught, because some of us seem to have some peculiar ideas about the religion of Jesus. Some of us seem to believe that Christ and God the Father are responsible for all our ills -- physical ills. They have nothing to do with our physical ills. I repeat, God is not and Jesus is not interested in the bodies of men. If you want to care for your body, that is the privilege and prerogative given to you by God. If you want to destroy it, that is the same privilege and prerogative He has given. If you want to commit suicide, that is your business. If you want to live, that is your business. God has given you the power; He has made you a free agent as far as the physical in life goes. All that God is interested in is the spiritual; that you

-- 33 --
cannot kill, because the moment you destroy the physical body God lays claim to the spiritual with which you are endowed. The spiritual is never yours. The spiritual is always God's, but the physical is your own property. If you want to break your physical life up, that is all your business. God does not interfere and that should be the Negro's interpretation in this twentieth century of Christ's religion. It is no use to blame God and Christ for the things that happen to us in the physical; they are not responsible; they have absolutely nothing to do with it. If one man enjoys life and another does not, God has absolutely nothing to do with the difference between the two individuals. That is to say, if one man lives in a palace across the street and enjoys life and the other fellow lives in the gutter, God has nothing to do with the difference between them. It is purely a physical regulation left to man himself.

Make your interpretation of Christianity scientific -- what it ought to be, and blame not God, blame not the white man for physical conditions for which we ourselves are to be blamed.

-- 34 --

The Negro's Place in World Reorganization: Written March 24, 1923
Gradually we are approaching the time when the Negro peoples of the world will have either to consciously, through their own organization, go forward to the point of destiny as laid out by themselves, or must sit quiescently and see themselves pushed back into the mire of economic serfdom, to be ultimately crushed by the grinding mill of exploitation and be exterminated ultimately by the strong hand of prejudice.

There is no doubt about it that we are living in the age of world reorganization out of which will come a set program for the organized races of mankind that will admit of no sympathy in human affairs, in that we are planning for the great gigantic struggle of the survival of the fittest group. It becomes each and every one engaged in this great race for place and position to use whatsoever influence possible to divert the other fellow's attention from the real object. In our own sphere in America and the western world we find that we are being camouflaged, not so much by those with whom we are competing for our economic, political existence, but by men from within our own race, either as agents of the opposition or as unconscious fools who are endeavoring to flatter us into believing that our future should rest with chance and with Providence, believing that through these agencies will come the solution of the restless problem. Such leadership is but preparing us for the time that is bound to befall us if we do not exert ourselves now toward our own creative purpose. The mission of the Universal Negro Improvement Association is to arouse the sleeping consciousness of Negroes everywhere to the point where we will, as one concerted body, act for our own preservation. By laying the foundation for such we will be able to work toward the glorious realization of an emancipated race and a constructed nation. Nationhood is the strongest security of any people and it is for that the Universal Negro Improvement Association strives at this time. With the clamor of other peoples for a similar purpose, we raise a noise even to high heaven for the admission of the Negro into the plan of autonomy.

Black Africa

On every side we hear the cry of white supremacy -- in America, Canada, Australia, Europe, and even South America. There is no white supremacy beyond the power and strength of the white man to hold himself against the others. The supremacy of any race is not permanent; it is a thing only of the time in which the race finds itself powerful. The whole world of white men is becoming nervous as

-- 35 --
touching its own future and that of other races. With the desire of self-preservation, which naturally is the first law of nature, they raise the hue and cry that the white race must be first in government and in control. What must the Negro do in the face of such a universal attitude but to align all his forces in the direction of protecting himself from the threatened disaster of race domination and ultimate extermination?

Without a desire to harm anyone, the Universal Negro Improvement Association feels that the Negro should without compromise or any apology appeal to the same spirit of racial pride and love as the great white race is doing for its own preservation, so that while others are raising the cry of a white America, a white Canada, a white Australia, we also without reservation raise the cry of a "Black Africa." The critic asks, "Is this possible?" and the four hundred million courageous Negroes of the world answer, "Yes."

Out of this very reconstruction of world affairs will come the glorious opportunity for Africa's freedom. Out of the present chaos and European confusion will come an opportunity for the Negro never enjoyed in any other age, for the expansion of himself and the consolidation of his manhood in the direction of building himself a national power in Africa.

The germ of European malice, revenge and antagonism is so deeply rooted among certain of the contending powers that in a short while we feel sure they will present to Negroes the opportunity for which we are organized.

Disablement of Germany Not Permanent

No one believes in the permanent disablement of Germany, but all thoughtful minds realize that France is but laying the foundation through revenge for a greater conflict than has as yet been seen. With such another upheaval, there is absolutely no reason why organized Negro opinion could not be felt and directed in the channel of their own independence in Africa.

To fight for African redemption does not mean that we must give up our domestic fights for political justice and industrial rights. It does not mean that we must become disloyal to any government or to any country wherein we were born. Each and every race outside of its domestic national loyalty has a loyalty to itself; therefore, it is foolish for the Negro to talk about not being interested in his own racial, political, social and industrial destiny. We can be as loyal American citizens or British subjects as the Irishman or the Jew, and yet fight for the redemption of Africa, a complete emancipation of the race.

Fighting for the establishment of Palestine does not make the

-- 36 --
American Jew disloyal; fighting for the independence of Ireland does not make the Irish-American a bad citizen. Why should fighting for the freedom of Africa make the Afro-American disloyal or a bad citizen?

The Universal Negro Improvement Association teaches loyalty to all governments outside of Africa; but when it comes to Africa, we feel that the Negro has absolutely no obligation to any one but himself

Out of the unsettled state and condition of the world will come such revolutions that will give each and every race that is oppressed the opportunity to march forward. The last world war brought the opportunity to many heretofore subject races to regain their freedom. The next world war will give Africa the opportunity for which we are preparing. We are going to have wars and rumors of wars. In another twenty or thirty years we will have a changed world, politically, and Africa will not be one of the most backward nations, but Africa shall be, I feel sure, one of the greatest commonwealths that will once more hold up the torchlight of civilization and bestow the blessings of freedom, liberty and democracy upon all mankind.

-- 37 --

Aims and Objects of Movement for Solution of Negro Problem
Generally the public is kept misinformed of the truth surrounding new movements of reform. Very seldom, if ever, reformers get the truth told about them and their movements. Because of this natural attitude, the Universal Negro Improvement Association has been greatly handicapped in its work, causing thereby one of the most liberal and helpful human movements of the twentieth century to be held up to ridicule by those who take pride in poking fun at anything not already successfully established.

The white man of America has become the natural leader of the world. He, because of his exalted position, is called upon to help in all human efforts. From nations to individuals the appeal is made to him for aid in all things affecting humanity, so, naturally, there can be no great mass movement or change without first acquainting the leader on whose sympathy and advice the world moves.

It is because of this, and more so because of a desire to be Christian friends with the white race, why I explain the aims and objects of the Universal Negro Improvement Association.

The Universal Negro Improvement Association is an organization among Negroes that is seeking to improve the condition of the race, with the view of establishing a nation in Africa where Negroes will be given the opportunity to develop by themselves, without creating the hatred and animosity that now exist in countries of the white race through Negroes rivaling them for the highest and best positions in government, politics, society and industry. The organization believes in the rights of all men, yellow, white and black. To us, the white race has a right to the peaceful possession and occupation of countries of its own and in like manner the yellow and black races have their rights. It is only by an honest and liberal consideration of such rights can the world be blessed with the peace that is sought by Christian teachers and leaders.

The Spiritual Brotherhood of Man

The following preamble to the constitution of the organization speaks for itself:

"The Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities' League is a social, friendly, humanitarian, charitable, educational, institutional, constructive, and expansive society, and is founded by persons, desiring to the utmost to work for the general uplift of the Negro peoples of the world. And the members pledge themselves to do all in their power to conserve the rights of their noble race and to respect the rights

-- 38 --
of all mankind, believing always in the Brotherhood of Man and the Fatherhood of God. The motto of the organization is: One God! One Aim! One Destiny! Therefore, let justice be done to all mankind, realizing that if the strong oppresses the weak confusion and discontent will ever mark the path of man, but with love, faith and charity toward all the reign of peace and plenty will be heralded into the world and the generation of men shall be called Blessed."

The declared objects of the association are:

"To establish a Universal Confraternity among the race; to promote the spirit of pride and love; to reclaim the fallen; to administer to and assist the needy; to assist in civilizing the backward tribes of Africa; to assist in the development of Independent Negro Nations and Communities; to establish a central nation for the race; to establish Commissaries or Agencies in the principal countries and cities of the world for the representation of all Negroes; to promote a conscientious Spiritual worship among the native tribes of Africa; to establish Universities, Colleges, Academies and Schools for the racial education and culture of the people; to work for better conditions among Negroes everywhere."

Supplying a Long Felt Want

The organization of the Universal Negro Improvement Association has supplied among Negroes a long-felt want. Hitherto the other Negro movements in America, with the exception of the Tuskegee effort of Booker T. Washington, sought to teach the Negro to aspire to social equality with the whites, meaning thereby the right to inter-marry and fraternize in every social way. This has been the source of much trouble and still some Negro organizations continue to preach this dangerous "race destroying doctrine" added to a program of political agitation and aggression. The Universal Negro Improvement Association on the other hand believes in and teaches the pride and purity of race. We believe that the white race should uphold its racial pride and perpetuate itself, and that the black race should do likewise. We believe that there is room enough in the world for the various race groups to grow and develop by themselves without seeking to destroy the Creator's plan by the constant introduction of mongrel types.

The unfortunate condition of slavery, as imposed upon the Negro, and which caused the mongrelization of the race, should not be legalized and continued now to the harm and detriment of both races.

The time has really come to give the Negro a chance to develop

-- 39 --
himself to a moral-standard-man, and it is for such an opportunity that the Universal Negro Improvement Association seeks in the creation of an African nation for Negroes, where the greatest latitude would be given to work out this racial ideal.

There are hundreds of thousands of colored people in America who desire race amalgamation and miscegenation as a solution of the race problem. These people are, therefore, opposed to the race pride ideas of black and white; but the thoughtful of both races will naturally ignore the ravings of such persons and honestly work for the solution of a problem that has been forced upon us.

Liberal white America and race loving Negroes are bound to think at this time and thus evolve a program or plan by which there can be a fair and amicable settlement of the question.

We cannot put off the consideration of the matter, for time is pressing on our hands. The educated Negro is making rightful constitutional demands. The great white majority will never grant them, and thus we march on to danger if we do not now stop and adjust the matter.

The time is opportune to regulate the relationship between both races. Let the Negro have a country of his own. Help him to return to his original home, Africa, and there give him the opportunity to climb from the lowest to the highest positions in a state of his own. If not, then the nation will have to hearken to the demand of the aggressive, "social equality" organization, known as the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, of which W. E. B. DuBois is leader, which declares vehemently for social and political equality, viz.: Negroes and whites in the same hotels, homes, residential districts, public and private places, a Negro as president, members of the Cabinet, Governors of States, Mayors of cities, and leaders of society in the United States. In this agitation, DuBois is ably supported by the "Chicago Defender," a colored newspaper published in Chicago. This paper advocates Negroes in the Cabinet and Senate. All these, as everybody knows, are the Negroes' constitutional rights, but reason dictates that the masses of the white race will never stand by the ascendency of an opposite minority group to the favored positions in a government, society and industry that exist by the will of the majority, hence the demand of the DuBois group of colored leaders will only lead, ultimately, to further disturbances in riots, lynching and mob rule. The only logical solution therefore, is to supply the Negro with opportunities and environments of his own, and there point him to the fullness of his ambition.

-- 40 --

Negroes Who Seek Social Equality

The Negro who seeks the White House in America could find ample play for his ambition in Africa. The Negro who seeks the office of Secretary of State in America would have a fair chance of demonstrating his diplomacy in Africa. The Negro who seeks a seat in the Senate or of being governor of a State in America, would be provided with a glorious chance for statesmanship in Africa.

The Negro has a claim on American white sympathy that cannot be denied. The Negro has labored for 300 years in contributing to America's greatness. White America will not be unmindful, therefore, of this consideration, but will treat him kindly. Yet it is realized that all human beings have a limit to their humanity. The humanity of white America, we realize, will seek self-protection and self-preservation, and that is why the thoughtful and reasonable Negro sees no hope in America for satisfying the aggressive program of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, but advances the reasonable plan of the Universal Negro Improvement Association, that of creating in Africa a nation and government for the Negro race.

This plan when properly undertaken and prosecuted will solve the race problem in America in fifty years. Africa affords a wonderful opportunity at the present time for colonization by the Negroes of the Western world. There is Liberia, already established as an independent Negro government. Let white America assist Afro-Americans to go there and help develop the country. Then, there are the late German colonies; let white sentiment force England and France to turn them over to the American and West Indian Negroes who fought for the Allies in the World's War. Then, France, England and Belgium owe America billions of dollars which they claim they cannot afford to repay immediately. Let them compromise by turning over Sierra Leone and the Ivory Coast on the West Coast of Africa and add them to Liberia and help make Libera a state worthy of her history.

The Negroes of Africa and America are one in blood. They have sprung from the same common stock. They can work and live together and thus make their own racial contribution to the world.

Will deep thinking and liberal white America help? It is a considerate duty.

It is true that a large number of self-seeking colored agitators and so-called political leaders, who hanker after, social equality

-- 41 --
and fight for the impossible in politics and governments, will rave, but remember that the slave-holder raved, but the North said, "Let the slaves go free"; the British Parliament raved when the Colonists said, "We want a free and American nation"; the Monarchists of France raved when the people declared for a more liberal form of government.

The masses of Negroes think differently from the self-appointed leaders of the race. The majority of Negro leaders are selfish, self-appointed and not elected by the people. The people desire freedom in a land of their own, while the colored politician desires office and social equality for himself in America, and that is why we are asking white America to help the masses to realize their objective.

Ninety odd years ago a thoughtful, liberty-loving white statesman of America made the following speech in Congress:

Claims of Africa: Extract from a Speech Delivered in Congress by Mr. Burges, of Rhode Island, May 10, 1830
"1. During the last century, a mighty revolution of mind has been made in the civilized world. Its effects are gradually disclosing themselves, and gradually improving the condition of the human race. The eyes of all nations are turned on these United States, for here that great movement was commenced. Africa, like a bereaved mother, holds out her hands to America, and implores you to send back her exiled children. Does not Africa merit much at the hands of other nations? Almost 4,000 years ago, she, from the then rich store house of her genius and labor, sent out to them science, and arts and letters, laws and civilization.

2. Wars and revolutions have exhausted this ancient abundance, and spread ignorance and barbarism over her regions; and the cupidity of other nations has multiplied and aggravated these evils. The ways of Providence cannot always be seen by man. When the Almighty comes out of His cloud, light fills the universe. What a mystery, when the youthful patriarch, lost to his father, was sold into slavery. What a display of wisdom and benignity, when we are permitted to see `all the families of the earth blessed' by the event of their restoration.

3. Shall we question the great arrangements of divine wisdom; or hold parlance with the Power who has made whole countries the enduring monuments of His avenging justice? Let these people go! They are citizens of another country, send them home. Send them home instructed and civilized, and

-- 42 --
imbued with the pure principles of Christianity; so may they instruct and civilize their native land, and spread over its wide regions the glad tidings of human redemption. Secure to your country, to your age, to yourselves, the glory of paying back to Africa the mighty arrears of nations. Add another New World to the civilized regions of the globe.

Do you say your State will be depopulated; your fields left without culture. In countries equal in fertility, and under the same laws, you cannot create a void in population; as well might you make a vacuum in the atmosphere. Better, more efficient labor will come to your aid. Free men, observant of the same laws, cherishing the same union, worshipping the same God with you, will place themselves by your side. This change of moral and physical condition in our population will follow the removal of that pernicious cause, now so productive of alarming difference in political opinions; jealousies, incident to our present state, shall give place to a glorious emulation of patriotism; and, O my country! If God so please, thou shalt be united, and prosperous, and perpetual."

Help the Negro to Return Home

Surely the time has come for the Negro to look homeward. He has won civilization and Christianity at the price of slavery. The Negro who is thoughtful and serviceable, feels that God intended him to give to his brothers still in darkness, the light of his civilization. The very light element of Negroes do not want to go back to Africa. They believe that in time, through miscegenation, the American race will be of their type. This is a fallacy and in that respect the agitation of the mulatto leader, Dr. W. E. B. DuBois and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People is dangerous to both races.

The off-colored people, being children of the Negro race, should combine to re-establish the purity of their own race, rather than seek to perpetuate the abuse of both races. That is to say, all elements of the Negro race should be encouraged to get together and form themselves into a healthy whole, rather than seeking to lose their identities through miscegenation and social intercourse with the white race. These statements are made because we desire an honest solution of the problem and no flattery or deception will bring that about.

Let the white and Negro people settle down in all seriousness and in true sympathy and solve the problem. When that is done, a new day of peace and good will will be ushered in.

The natural opponents among Negroes to a program of this kind are that lazy element who believe always in following the

-- 43 --
line of least resistance, being of themselves void of initiative and the pioneering spirit to do for themselves. The professional Negro leader and the class who are agitating for social equality feel that it is too much work for them to settle down and build up a civilization of their own. They feel it is easier to seize on to the civilization of the white man and under the guise of constitutional rights fight for those things that the white man has created. Natural reason suggests that the white man will not yield them, hence such leaders are but fools for their pains. Teach the Negro to do for himself, help him the best way possible in that direction; but to encourage him into the belief that he is going to possess himself of the things that others have fought and died for, is to build up in his mind false hopes never to be realized. As for instance, Dr. W. E. B. DuBois, who has been educated by white charity, is a brilliant scholar, but he is not a hard worker. He prefers to use his higher intellectual abilities to fight for a place among white men in society, industry and in politics, rather than use that ability to work and create for his own race that which the race could be able to take credit for. He would not think of repeating for his race the work of the Pilgrim Fathers or the Colonists who laid the foundation of America, but he prefers to fight and agitate for the privilege of dancing with a white lady at a ball at the Biltmore or at the Astoria hotels in New York. That kind of leadership will destroy the Negro in America and against which the Universal Negro Improvement Association is fighting.

The Universal Negro Improvement Association is composed of all shades of Negroes -- blacks, mulattoes and yellows, who are all working honestly for the purification of their race, and for a sympathetic adjustment of the race problem.

-- 44 --

Will Negroes Succumb to the White Man's Plan of Economic Starvation?
(Written March 31, 1923.),

Every day we are discovering new evidence to bear out and support the stand taken by me, -- that it is only a question of time when the entire white race will be inflamed against the Negro and all weaker peoples not sufficiently strong and organized to hold their own in the competition of life. I have also contended tha