Ks U &. n 
 
 
 
 A frica in the World Democracy 
 
 *§' 
 
 ADDRESSES DELIVERED AT THE ANNUAL 
 MEETING OF THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION 
 FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF COLORED PEOPLE 
 JANUARY SIX, NINETEEN NINETEEN, AT 
 CARNEGIE HALL, NEW YORK CITY, BY 
 
 HORACE MEYER KALLEN 
 JAMES WELDON JOHNSON 
 
 WITH INTRODUCTORY REMARKS BY JOHN R. 
 SHILLADY, SECRETARY, N. A. A. C. P., SUM¬ 
 MARY OF ADDRESS BY DR. WILLIAM HENRY 
 SHEPPARD, AND A STATEMENT ON “1HE 
 FUTURE OF AFRICA” BY WM. E. BURGHARDT 
 Du BOIS, DIRECTOR OF PUBLICATIONS AND 
 RESEARCH, N. A. A. C. P. :: :: - 
 
 
 PRINTED BY THE 
 
 National Association for the Advancement 
 of Colored People 
 
 70 Fifth Avenue, New York 
 JANUARY, 1919 
 
 Price 10c 
 
 0 Special Rates for Larger 
 Quantities) 
 
“We Can, if We Will, Inaugurate on the Dark Continent, 
 a Great Crusade for Humanity — W. E. B. DtjBois. 
 
AFRICA IN THE WORLD DEMOCRACY 
 
 Introductory Remarks of John R. Shillady.* 
 
 We are met here as Americans in a great time of the world’s 
 history. The subject which we are to consider tonight is one 
 about which no American need make apology and concerning 
 which every American must express not only concern and interest 
 but the deepest and widest sympathy of his soul. Heretofore, 
 when men have met to talk about Africa they may have met to 
 talk about the profits that might be made from the economic 
 penetration of Africa; they may have met to consider the con¬ 
 dition of the alleged “downtrodden and benighted savages” to 
 determine whether they should carry to the Africans some re¬ 
 ligious doctrine to which the natives might be converted. 
 
 But we are met tonight to consider the condition of Africa 
 in no superior spirit, in no patronizing spirit, but in a spirit of 
 deep concern for the welfare of the black peoples of that great 
 continent. In common with all true democrats and lovers of 
 liberty everywhere, we would wish not only to safeguard that 
 welfare, but as far as may be practical, to apply the principle of 
 self determination to Africans and to throw around them the 
 protection of the united free peoples of the world, if, as we hope, 
 there may come to pass such a peace union of free peoples as was 
 the driving force of America’s spiritual participation in the world 
 conflict. 
 
 When the German armies came hurtling themselves across 
 the plains of Belgium, the whole world was startled to a new 
 realization of the menace involved in the will to power. We 
 did not then, I believe, contemplate, nor perhaps do we now 
 know or even guess what great transformations may come in the 
 early future. We do know that the old world has gone; kings 
 have tottered from their thrones; we have seen the disintegration 
 of three great empires, Germany, Austria-Hungary and Russia, 
 now seized by great forces, we know not what—but certainly 
 
 * Secretary, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Chairman of 
 the Meeting. 
 
I 
 
 4 
 
 all struggling toward the light of a fuller liberty and more com¬ 
 plete justice for all their peoples. 
 
 Irrespective of what peculiar views we may hold on political, 
 economic or social questions, we must all be at one with these 
 struggling peoples in their aspirations for justice, in their desires 
 for participation in those benefits which we believe ought to 
 come out of the terrible travail of this tremendous war. As the 
 poet has it: 
 
 “For though the laws of justice seem to sleep, 
 
 They never sleep, 
 
 But like the ocean’s flood, they creep 
 Up to the watermark of God; 
 
 And when they ebb, there is but silent slime.” 
 
 And so, Africa, we welcome you, we speak to you of new 
 hopes, we point with you to a new day, a day whose coming and 
 going we cannot measure and of whose beginning and end we are 
 not sure, feeling confident only that it shall be a day of striving, 
 a day of achievement; not one for the exercise by some men 
 of power over their fellowmen, but a day full of the promise 
 of the new world for which black and white alike have shed their 
 blood like water. As President Wilson put it in one of his last 
 addresses in this country, in New York, on September 27: “The 
 impartial justice meted out must involve no discriminations 
 between those to whom we wish to be just and those to whom 
 we do not wish to be just. It must be a justice that plays no 
 favorites and knows no standards but the equal rights of the 
 several peoples.” 
 
 President Wilson said at another time, “We shall fight for 
 the things which we have always carried nearest our hearts— 
 for democracy, for the right of those who submit to authority 
 to have a voice in their own government.” 
 
 These black peoples of Africa have had no voice in their 
 own government. Perhaps it may be that when the great Peace 
 Congress is over, they may still have but little voice in their 
 own government, but certainly, I believe it is the intention of the 
 forward looking men and women of this country and of every 
 democratic nation that they as all other peoples shall be included 
 in that real and not spurious democracy to which we. of this 
 nation at least, are committed now and forever. 
 
5 
 
 I want first to introduce Captain Napoleon Bonaparte 
 Marshall, a man and a soldier, a gentleman and true American, 
 
 one who I would wish might have been able to speak to us, 
 
 one who before the war would have been able to speak to us; 
 
 but the war has left him with clear mind and clear vision for 
 
 democracy, but with a shattered body. In him we may see 
 what the black soldier has given to make the world safe for 
 democracy. [Captain Marshall, whose physical condition made 
 it necessary for him to be supported, stood for a few moments 
 and was acclaimed by the large audience.] 
 
 This applause for Captain Marshall, I take it, is a tribute 
 also to all those brave men of color who have throughout the 
 war shown a loyalty and devotion second to none. 
 

 Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 in 2018 with funding from 
 Columbia University Libraries 
 
 https://archive.org/details/africainworldOOnati 
 
7 
 
 THE FUTURE OF AFRICA AND A LEAGUE OF 
 
 NATIONS. 
 
 Address by Prof. Horace Meyer Fallen.* 
 
 The story of the white man’s treatment of the black man 
 in Africa is a very long story; it is a very unclean story; it is 
 the recital of the greed of a few men using their fellows—not 
 only their black fellows, but their white fellows—as instruments 
 with which to enrich themselves. The great continent of Africa 
 is not particularly the white man’s interest as a white man, but 
 for the last half century various traders have been going to Africa 
 from England, from Belgium, from France and from Germany, 
 not primarily to sell to the African native what he needed to make 
 his own life richer, better, more varied, but in order to sell the 
 African native what he did not need to make the white man 
 richer. These traders, after selling the black man rum and guns 
 of the old-fashioned style that could not be shot as effectively 
 as the guns of the new-fashioned style which he kept for himself, 
 found that after a while the black man resented being exploited 
 at the hands of these traders and resisted them. x\nd when the 
 traders found that they could not handle the black men them¬ 
 selves, they invited their governments to do the job for them. 
 
 When the governments took over the job they called it 
 founding a colony. Founding a colony is “passing the buck” 
 to the government by the trader. There is, for example, the 
 horrible story of the Hereros. The Hereros are black men in 
 Africa, rather fine fellows. The Germans got into the land of 
 the Hereros. They proceeded to deal with them in precisely 
 the same way that the Belgians, eager to make money, dealt 
 with the people of the Congo. The Hereros have been practically 
 decimated, robbed, and enslaved. The Hereros have been 
 crying for liberation from the German yoke. The newspapers 
 report that they do not want to be returned to the Germans, 
 
 * Author: William James and Henri Bergson. 
 
 Creative Intelligence (with John Dewey and others'). 
 
 The Book of Job as a Greek Tragedy. 
 
 The League of Nations Today and Tomorrow. 
 
8 
 
 that they want to be under the English flag. Naturally. In 
 the handling of other people, people of a different race and blood 
 and color and faith, the English have learned a lesson both in 
 intelligence and in humanity, which is to their great credit, but 
 even the English with all their intelligence and humanity are 
 not by themselves alone competent to be the trustees of the 
 weaker peoples of the world. In point of fact, the record of all 
 European colonies—English also—in Middle Africa is an unclean 
 record. It is a blot in the history of the white trading nations. 
 And, in point of fact, Europe has gained nothing by the exploit¬ 
 ations of Middle Africa. White men do not want to go there 
 to live. The Germans have spent thousands of dollars per colonist 
 to bring Germans to Middle Africa, yet only 596 out of 269,441 
 persons went there as settlers. The Germans prefer to migrate, 
 when they migrate at all, to America. The same thing is true 
 of Belgians, the Irish and the English, who, when they do not 
 migrate to America, migrate to Australia or New Zealand or 
 Canada. 
 
 Africa cannot compete with the United States as an attx*action 
 for the surplus European population, and all the talk, that very 
 lofty talk, of founding colonies for the advantage of the surplus 
 populations of Germany or any other country is merely a little 
 more of that form of lying that is called diplomacy. In point of 
 fact, without trading companies, the interest of Europe in Middle 
 Africa would be a negligible interest. The peoples of Europe 
 have no interest in Middle Africa, but the bankers of Europe 
 have an interest in Middle Africa, and the interest of the bankers 
 of Europe is antagonistic to the interest of the inhabitants of 
 Africa and the interest of the inhabitants of Europe. 
 
 The story of this interest may be summed up as follows: 
 At first, when a man starts a new business he gets his labor cheap 
 and he makes large profits. After a while the workingmen dis¬ 
 cover that they are being exploited; they discover that they are 
 not getting a decent living, good working conditions, or an adequate 
 wage, and they learn that in order to get these conditions and 
 an adequate wage they must organize. They begin to form trades 
 unions, and when the trades unions finally become successful, 
 wages go up and the profits of the employer are correspondingly 
 reduced. After a while he reaches the point of being unwilling 
 to invest his money at home because of what he calls “the high 
 
9 
 
 cost of labor,”—as if labor were a commodity that you could 
 detach from a man and buy and sell in the open market just as 
 you could shoes, bread, or a gun. Labor is, of course, not a 
 commodity. When a man sells his labor he sells himself and 
 the high cost of labor is nothing more than the high cost of human 
 life. 
 
 Now, when capitalists find that they cannot make as much 
 money by investing their money in business at home, they begin 
 to export their capital. They send their money abroad; they 
 send it into what is called undeveloped, backward countries— 
 Turkey, Russia, Morocco, Algiers, China, Mexico, and Middle 
 Africa. In Middle Africa labor is cheap. In Middle Africa the 
 interest on an invested dollar is enormously greater than it would 
 be in the United States, certainly greater than it would be in 
 Belgium, in Germany, in England, or in France. The consequence 
 is that all over Europe financiers prefer to export their capital 
 instead of investing it at home. They export it to these “back¬ 
 ward” countries. Anything that is not like one’s self in color 
 or habits, or ways of living, is declared backward, remember, 
 even when it is not. And so the financiers and investors get 
 the advantage, in these backward and undeveloped countries, 
 of cheap labor. They profit by that cheap labor, but the com¬ 
 petition of cheap labor in Middle Africa, or in India, or China, 
 or anywhere else in the world, with labor in England, or France, 
 or Italy, or the United States, or Germany, or Belgium, is not 
 good for labor at home. It depresses industry and raises prices. 
 
 Consequently, it is to the great advantage of the masses of 
 men, it is to the great advantage of American citizens—of the 
 'plain people of whom the President of the United States has spoken 
 again and again and for whom the President of the United States 
 has spoken again and again—it is to their great advantage that 
 the conditions of life and labor of any people who must work 
 with their hands for their livelihood shall be as high as possible, 
 no matter where they live. It is to the advantage of the rank 
 and file of mankind everywhere, for this reason, that Middle 
 Africa shall be regarded as a trust, not in the hands of financiers, 
 but in the hands of the representatives of the plain people of all 
 the world. 
 
 Now, to have such a trust means to have a League of Free 
 Nations which shall make itself responsible for the well-being of 
 
10 
 
 the people of Africa, which shall delegate this responsibility to 
 a commission chosen, not in view of the amount of exploitation 
 that the Africans can be subjected to, but in view of the degree 
 of development that the African native may be encouraged to 
 undertake for himself, under the administration of such an inter¬ 
 national commission. Such a commission must be a commission, 
 first of all, of experts who understand the life and the labor and 
 the interests of the people of Middle Africa. Such a commission 
 must be a commission representing not one nation but all nations. 
 In the second place, it must be a commission having among its 
 members men who are themselves of the same race, of the same 
 blood, of the same color as the people of Africa. Such a com¬ 
 mission is indispensable for the protection, not merely of the 
 black men in Africa but of the white men in the United States 
 and in England and in Germany, and all over Europe. Both 
 the common man who is black and the common man who is white 
 must be protected against those sinister influences that have 
 caused war again and again—caused war to satisfy the greed 
 of a few men who have made themselves largely the masters of 
 states because they were the masters of the finances of states, 
 men who were using the machinery of government for their own 
 private purposes. 
 
 At home, in America, we call that kind of business invisible 
 government; when it is found in foreign countries we call it secret 
 diplomacy. Secret diplomacy is international invisible govern¬ 
 ment. 
 
 This meeting should send a resolution to the Senate of the 
 United States saying that it demands a League of Free Nations— 
 the ideal which the President of the L T nited States has so ably 
 and fully expounded and formulated—which shall protect Middle 
 Africa and the labor of the world from exploitation. This meet¬ 
 ing should send a cable to the President of the United States 
 urging him to be relentless in his pursuit of the fundamentals of 
 the American program in the war. That program began in 1776. 
 We said then that all men were created equal and endowed with 
 inalienable rights, among them being life, liberty and the pursuit 
 of happiness—all men, regardless of creed or color, regardless of 
 the place in which they were born, and regardless of the station 
 in life into which they happen to fall. It has taken us a long and 
 difficult time to make it clear that in the United States all men 
 
11 
 
 are at least legally free and equal. It took a war to establish 
 that fact, and in Lincoln’s Gettysburg address and his Eman¬ 
 cipation Proclamation, we had necessary reaffirmation of the 
 same ideals that underlay the Declaration of Independence. To¬ 
 day, in Mr. Wilson’s address of September 27, 1918, we have 
 the same American principle applied to the world. Middle 
 Africa is an integral part of the world. It also, its people also, 
 are entitled to exactly the same consideration and care as the 
 people of Central Europe, or of Belgium, or of England, or of the 
 United States. We, American citizens, should fail in our trust 
 if we fail to call attention, now in the eleventh hour of the war, 
 to this fact, for the war is not yet won, and the war will not be 
 won if a League of Free Nations is not established. We shall 
 have lost the war, we shall in vain, have spilt the blood of pretty 
 nearly ten million men, if a League of Free Nations is not estab¬ 
 lished; we shall have abandoned not only Europe but the whole 
 world to more exploitation if a League of Free Nations is not 
 established. It is our duty here and now to do what we can to 
 impress on our representatives in the Senate and in Europe that 
 the people of the United States demand a League of Nations, 
 that the people of the United States demand as an integral part 
 of the duty of the League of Nations the protection and the 
 prosperous development of Middle Africa. In the League of 
 Nations is the hope and security of the black man in Africa no 
 less than of the white man in Eifrope. Through the League of 
 Nations will come the beginning of relief of that injustice that 
 has been the portion of the black man at the hands of the white, 
 from the outset of his cruel history. 
 

 » 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
13 
 
 AFRICA AT THE PEACE TABLE AND THE 
 DESCENDANTS OF AFRICANS IN OUR 
 AMERICAN DEMOCRACY. 
 
 Address by James Weldon Johnson.* 
 
 There has been some slight criticism of the Advancement 
 Association for the steps it has taken to bring Africa to the atten¬ 
 tion of the Peace Conference and the civilized world. There 
 are those who profess to see in such a move a danger to the cause 
 of the American Negro. I w T ish to say that these steps have 
 not been the result of any passing flash of enthusiasm; they 
 were taken after careful thought and deliberation. 
 
 As long ago as the spring of 1915, Dr. Du Boisf published in 
 The Atlantic Monthly an article entitled, “The African Roots of 
 War,” in which he showed that when we cut down through 
 the layers of international rivalries and jealousies we found that 
 the roots of the great war were in Africa. 
 
 As soon as the armistice was signed, the Association received 
 a large number of letters from organizations and individuals all 
 over the country and even from Canada, asking that some step 
 be taken to influence world opinion regarding the disposition 
 of the former German colonies in Africa. 
 
 While these letters were coming in, Dr. Du Bois was already 
 outlining and developing a program. I have here a copy of his 
 memorandum; the whole of it is too long to read. But in order 
 that you may have a fair idea of what he is bringing to the atten¬ 
 tion of the delegates at Paris and what he is striving to impress 
 upon public opinion centered there, I shall read the four para¬ 
 graphs in which the salient points are summarized: 
 
 “If the world after the war decided to reconstruct Africa in 
 accordance with the wishes of the Negro race and the best interests 
 of civilization, the process might be carried out as follows: The former 
 German colonies, with one million square miles and twelve and one- 
 half millions of inhabitants, could be internationalized. To this 
 
 * Field Secretary, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. 
 
 t Wm. E. Burghatdt Du Bois, Director of Publications and Research, National Association 
 for the Advancement of Colored People and Editor, “THE CRISIS”. 
 
14 
 
 could be added by negotiation the 800,000 square miles and nine million 
 inhabitants of Portuguese Africa. It is not impossible that Belgium 
 could be persuaded to add to such a state the 900,000 square miles 
 and nine million natives of the Congo, making an international Africa, 
 with over two and one-half million square miles of land and over 
 twenty million people. 
 
 “This re-organized Africa could be under the guidance of organized 
 civilization. The Governing International Commission should repre¬ 
 sent, not simply governments, but modern culture—science, commerce, 
 social reform, and religious philanthropy. 
 
 “With these two principles the practical policies to be followed 
 out in the government of the new states should involve a thorough 
 and complete system of modern education built upon the present 
 government, religion and customary law of the natives. There should 
 be no violent tampering with the curiously efficient African institutions 
 of local self-government through the family and the tribe; there should 
 be no attempt at sudden “conversion” by religious propaganda. 
 Obviously deleterious customs and unsanitary usages must gradually 
 be abolished and careful religious teaching given, but the general 
 government set up from without must follow the example of the best 
 colonial administrators and build on recognized established foundations 
 rather than from entirely new and theoretical plans. 
 
 “The chief effort to modernize Africa should be through schools. 
 Within ten years twenty million black children ought to be in school. 
 Within a generation young Africa should know the essential outlines 
 of modern culture and groups of bright African students should be 
 going to the world’s great universities. From the beginning the 
 actual general government should use both colored and white officials 
 and natives should be gradually worked in. Taxation and industry 
 could follow the newer ideals of industrial democracy avoiding private 
 land monopoly and poverty, promoting co-operation in production 
 and the socialization of income.” 
 
 When the opportunity arose, the Advancement Association 
 sent Dr. Du Bois to France. He went in a three-fold capacity; 
 as the special correspondent of The Crisis at the Peace Con¬ 
 ference; also to collect first hand material to go into a history 
 of the Negro in the Great War; and as a representative of the 
 Association for the purpose of bringing to bear all pressure possible 
 on the delegates at the peace table in the interest of the colored 
 people of the United States and of the world. 
 
 In the latter capacity it is the intention of Dr. Du Bois to 
 call a Pan-African congress to meet in Paris and press the question 
 of the internationalization of the former German colonies. 
 
 The question will arise in the minds of some as to why the 
 demand for self-determination is not included in this program 
 
15 
 
 for the future of these colonies. It is omitted not because of doubt 
 in either the right of the natives to self-government or their 
 ability for it, but because of the very practical reason that the 
 question of the former German colonies will come up before the 
 Peace Conference in only three forms: their return to Germany, 
 their division among the Allies or their internationalization. 
 
 It is idle to hope, even in this era of making the world safe 
 for democracy, that any people will secure self-determination 
 by merely petitioning for it or even as a matter of plain justice. 
 Self-determination will be secured only by those who are in a 
 position to force it. The natives of all the colonies in Africa 
 may have self-determination whenever they are in a position 
 to force it from their overlords. The internationalization of 
 Central Africa holds the promise of being the quickest and least 
 costly step by which the natives can reach that position. 
 
 And there is no man more preeminently fitted to press this 
 matter than Dr. Du Bois—not only on account of his individual 
 ability but on account of the experience he gained and the con¬ 
 nections he formed at the great Kaces Congress which met in 
 London in 1911, to which he was a delegate. 
 
 There are several reasons that justify the National Association 
 in taking up the question of Africa, and I will give them to you 
 briefly: 
 
 In the first place, the race question in the United States is 
 a national question; the peace delegations neither of England, 
 France or Italy, would dare to broach it at the table; and it 
 is hardly probable that the American delegation will voluntarily 
 bring it up. Japan and China may possibly protest against 
 discrimination against Asiatics. But not even these two great 
 colored nations would so far violate international precedent and 
 courtesy as to bring up to the peace table a matter which will 
 be regarded as a domestic question with which only the United 
 States is concerned. 
 
 I am not now speaking of what is right and of what ought 
 to be done; I am speaking of what, according to all the probab¬ 
 ilities and in accordance with international law, precedent, courtesy 
 and international red tape, will and will not be done. I am facing 
 the cold, hard facts. 
 
 On the other hand, the question of Africa is an international 
 question; it belongs at the peace table; every nation represented 
 
16 
 
 there, from England to Liberia, can freely discuss it. Africa 
 as I have said, is at the bottom of this war and I tell you we may 
 form all the leagues of nations that can be formed, but if the 
 African question is not set tled justly, we will have wars and wars. 
 Therefore, the African question being an international question, 
 we had sense enough to know that we could bring it before this 
 international body, and perhaps by that step pursue the very 
 wisest and best means of focusing the attention of the peace 
 delegates and the entire civilized world on the question of the 
 just claims of the Negro everywhere. 
 
 There is another reason that justifies our interest in Africa, 
 which is not so practical or material as the one I have just stated, 
 but which is nevertheless vital in its effects. It will be a lamen¬ 
 table condition when the American Negro grows so narrow and 
 so self-centered in his own wrongs and sufferings that he has no 
 sympathy for the wrongs and sufferings of others, not even his 
 blood brothers in Africa. When he reaches the state where 
 he wants everybody to be interested in his condition, but has 
 no interest in the condition of others, he will have forfeited the 
 right to demand that others be interested in him. 
 
 Still another valid reason for taking up the cause of Africa 
 is the dense ignorance about that land; not only dense ignorance, 
 but criminal ignorance. There has been and still is a historical 
 conspiracy against Africa which has successfully stripped the 
 entire Negro race of all credit for what it contributed in past 
 ages to the birth and growth of civilization. 
 
 Makers of history have taught the world that from the 
 beginning of time the Negro has never been anything but a race 
 of savages and slaves. Anyone who is willing to dig out the truth 
 can learn that civilization was born in the upper valley of the 
 River Nile; that in the misty ages of the past pure black men in 
 Africa were observing the stars, were turning human speech 
 into song, were discovering religious truths and laying the founda¬ 
 tions of government, were utilizing the metals, developing agri¬ 
 culture and inventing the primitive tools; in fact, giving the 
 impulse which started man on his upward climb; while the 
 progenitors of present-day Anglo-Saxons and Teutons and Slavs 
 were hairy savages living in dark caves and crunching on raw 
 bones; savages that had not yet the faintest glimmer of a knowl¬ 
 edge either of religion or letters or government. 
 
17 
 
 Of course, the makers of history take cognizance of Egyptian 
 civilization; but at the same time they claim that the ancient 
 Egyptians were white people. This claim is made for obvious 
 reasons, but it is made in spite of the fact that the features of the 
 Sphynx and other early Egyptian monuments are as Negroid 
 as the features of the typical deck hand of a Mississippi River 
 steamboat. 
 
 And in the same manner these makers of history have claimed 
 as white other black and dark races who have accomplished 
 something. The Arabs and the Hindus and the Moors are “white 
 people.” Efforts have been made to prove even that the Zulus 
 on account of their bravery and prowess in battle are not really 
 Negroes. We can all remember how, shortly after the close of 
 the Russo-Japanese war, a number of scientifies and pseudo- 
 scientifics sought to show that the Japanese people, after all, 
 were a branch of the white race. It is a wonder that some¬ 
 body didn’t try to prove, after he licked Jim Jefferies, that Jack 
 Johnson was a white man. Perhaps in the far future, when 
 pugilism is a lost and forgotten art, some writer on the subject 
 will try to prove it. 
 
 By these methods and means the Negro has been raped of 
 all credit that is due him as a contributor to civilization. The 
 truth is: the torch of civilization was lighted on the banks of 
 the Nile, and we can trace the course of that torch, sometimes 
 flaming, sometimes flickering, and at times all but extinguished— 
 we can trace it from Egypt around the borders of the Mediter¬ 
 ranean, through Greece and Italy, and Spain, on into Northern 
 Europe. In the hands of each people that held it, the torch of 
 civilization has grown brighter and brighter, and then died down 
 until it was passed on to other hands. 
 
 The fact that dark ages fell upon Africa and her people is 
 no more of a discredit than the fact that dark ages fell upon 
 the buried empires of Asia Minor, of Asia, and of ancient Greece. 
 Races and peoples have in their turn carried this torch of civi¬ 
 lization to a certain height, and then sunk back under the weight 
 of their own exertions. 
 
 It seems that there is more truth than mythology in the story 
 of Antaeus and Hercules. Hercules in wrestling with Antaeus 
 found that each time the giant was thrown he arose stronger. 
 The secret lay in the fact that the earth was his mother, and each 
 
18 
 
 time he came in contact with her he gained renewed strength. 
 Hercules then resorted to the strategem of holding him off the 
 earth until his strength was exhausted. So with races and 
 peoples; it seems that after they have climbed to a certain height, 
 they must fall back and lie close to the earth. 
 
 And this reminds us of the truth that all things in the uni¬ 
 verse move in cycles; so who knows but that in the whirl of 
 God’s great wheel the torch may not again flame in the upper 
 valley of the Nile? 
 
 We ought to know more about Africa, and if we did we 
 would not be ashamed of it but proud of it. A knowledge of its 
 history would give the background which would enable the 
 Negro to hold up his head among the peoples of the world. 
 
 And it is only just that in the settlement to follow the war 
 provisions should be made to secure the soil of Africa and the 
 resources thereof for the benefit primarily of the natives; and for 
 the establishment of governments that may insure them self- 
 determination as rapidly as possible. 
 
 But the main interest of the Advancement Association, 
 notwithstanding its broad sympathies for all oppressed peoples, 
 is not in Africa and Africans, but in America and colored Ameri¬ 
 cans. And the Advancement Association knows enough to 
 realize that the problem of the Negro in the United States is not 
 going to be settled around the peace table at Versailles. It 
 knows that the Powers of Europe are not going to do very much, 
 even if they could, to change the laws and the disregard of laws in 
 Georgia and Alabama and Mississippi. 
 
 And so, although the Advancement Association is willing to 
 accomplish as much as is possible by bringing Africa, which is 
 an international question, before this international body, it 
 realizes that the fight for the democratic rights of the American 
 Negro must be fought at close quarters right here at home. 
 
 In fact, the fight for democracy for native Africans and 
 the fight for democracy for people of African descent in the United 
 States are not on the same plane. The truth of the matter is, 
 the question of the democratic rights of the American Negro has 
 no recognized place at the peace table. The Negro in the United 
 States is not a subject race and does not accept the status of a 
 subject race. He is a citizen of the United States, with all the 
 rights of American citizenship guaranteed him by the Constitu- 
 
19 
 
 tion. Subject races all over the world are today struggling to 
 have certain rights of citizenship written for them in the laws 
 of the nations to which they bear allegiance; therefore their 
 cases naturally go for consideration before the international 
 tribunal which is now assembling. But the American Negro is 
 contending for the fulfillment of rights already guaranteed him 
 by the Constitution and for the impartial interpretation and 
 application of existing laws. 
 
 In other w r ords, the American Negro is not asking a favor; 
 he is not asking for something that belongs to somebody else; 
 he is demanding only that which is legally his; he is laying claim 
 to that of which he is being wrongfully deprived. The question 
 as to the wisdom of writing the Negro down in the Constitution 
 as a citizen is aside from the point; what is written is written, 
 and these laws are law. And the righteousness, the morality, 
 the self-respect and the common decency of the nation are in¬ 
 volved in seeing that these laws are carried out. 
 
 This is the battle ground on which the forces of the Advance¬ 
 ment Association are entrenched, and it is on this front that we 
 intend to fight it out without hesitation, without fear and without 
 compromise until the end is achieved. 
 
 The National Association realizes that our fight is here at 
 home and must be fought at close quarters—not over there, but 
 right here. And that is the big job before us; that is the job 
 which we have been tackling for ten years, with increasing force 
 and increasing earnestness. It is a big job. There are many 
 phases of it; it is complicated; it is complex. There is an econo¬ 
 mic side. A great many people hold that all of this question is 
 economic; that it is simply a question of exploitation, just as the 
 European countries exploit natives in Africa. That is good 
 as far as it goes but it does not entirely cover this problem of 
 ours in the United States. 
 
 I cannot take up this whole question but there are two phases 
 of which I shall speak. There is a bitter race hatred and there 
 is a national apathy and indifference with which we have to 
 contend. I hardly know which is the more dangerous and which 
 works the greater damage. Bitter race hatred is limited but 
 makes up in activity for its limitation. But the apathy on this 
 question of human rights as it concerns the American Negro is 
 general, it is widespread. It is a sort of inertia, it is a thing 
 
20 
 
 difficult to move. But that is one of the jobs this Association 
 believes it has before it, and that is a job we are tackling. 
 
 To do this, we are using every rightful means that we can 
 command. This nation is indifferent; it is not thinking about 
 us as it should be made to think and as it was made to think 
 sixty years ago. The country is very much concerned about 
 democracy abroad, but not very much interested in democracy 
 at home, so far as it applies to more than ten million Negro 
 citizens. But I will tell you what we are going to do—and this 
 Association has mapped it out as one of its lines of attack. It 
 is our intention to carry on an intelligent, persistent and aggressive 
 agitation until we educate this, nation, more than educate it, 
 until we whip and sting its conscience, until we awaken it, until 
 we startle it into a realization that we know what w T e want, we 
 know what we are entitled to, and that we are determined by all 
 that is sacred to have it and be satisfied with nothing less. 
 
 We have just finished the great war for democracy. There 
 were those in my own race who thought gnd taught that all we 
 needed to do while black boys were fighting over there was to 
 buy Liberty Bonds and Thrift Stamps, to assist in Red Cross 
 drives and other activities, keep our mouths shut, and the war 
 would do the rest. I did not suffer from any such hallucination. 
 The war is over, and no miracle has happened. And no miracle 
 is going to happen. Miracles of that kind never happen. If 
 loyalty to the nation and fighting its battles could give the 
 American Negro his full rights he would have had them long ago. 
 
 Only a couple of weeks ago the newspapers recorded the 
 lynching of an honorably discharged Negro soldier in Kentucky. 
 And what was the crime for which he was lynched? He had 
 resisted arrest by a constable He did not even kill the con¬ 
 stable; he merely knocked him down and walked off, claiming 
 that a civil officer had no right to arrest a man in uniform. That 
 is an idea about the law which is common among soldiers and 
 sailors. But the mob got him and lynched him. 
 
 I want to say to my own people that the main thing we have 
 thus far gotten out of this war was not the chance to fight in 
 France, but the right to fight more effectively here at home for 
 the things in the name of which this w r ar was waged. 
 
 I can never forget what I felt on the day that I saw New 
 York’s own black regiment, “The Buffaloes,” march up Fifth 
 
21 
 
 Avenue to receive a stand of colors to be presented by the Union 
 League Club. I remember how I thrilled at the sight of them 
 as they swung out of Madison Square into the finest street in the 
 world; how New York looked on, perhaps, with some wonder 
 that these men could march away so bravely to die to gain for 
 others a thing which they themselves were yet denied. I saw them 
 stop in front of the Union League Club, and heard a thousand voices 
 sing “The Star Spangled Banner” as New York had never heard 
 it sung. Then from the balcony of the club the Governor of the 
 State came down and presented the colors. And as he gave the 
 flag into their keeping he raised his voice, trembling with emotion, 
 and cried out, “Bring it back! Bring it back, boys! Bring it 
 back!” xAnd the answer welled up in my heart: Never you 
 fear, Mr. Governor, never you fear, gentlemen of the Union League 
 Club, they will bring it back; perhaps tattered and torn, but 
 they will bring it back. And they will bring it back as they 
 have always done whenever it has been entrusted to their hands, 
 without once letting it trail in the dust, without putting a single 
 stain of dishonor upon it. Then it will be for you, Mr. Governor, 
 for you, gentlemen of the Union League Club, for you, people of 
 America, to remove the only stains that are upon it, stains that 
 are upon it as these men carry it into battle, the stains of lynching, 
 of disfranchisement, of Jim Crowism, of injustice and oppression. 
 The record of black men on the fields of France and Flanders 
 give us the greater right to point to that flag and say to the nation, 
 “Those stains are still upon it; they dim its stars and soil its 
 stripes; wash them out! Wash them out!” 
 
 A great deal has been said about the atrocities committed 
 during this terrible war by Huns and Turks; but there are millions 
 of intelligent Americans who do not know, who are not con¬ 
 cerned with the fact that every year atrocities are committed 
 in this enlightened land that would cause envy in the heart of 
 the most benighted Turk. 
 
 Only a few days ago four Negroes were lynched in Mississippi, 
 accused of having killed a white physician. Two of them were 
 young men in their early twenties, and the other two w r ere girls 
 still in their teens, sisters they were, one of them only sixteen. 
 And this younger sister was about to become a mother. That 
 fact I learned from the account of the lynching given in the prin¬ 
 cipal white newspaper of Mississippi. 1 believe when the truth 
 
about this case is known it will show that the white man who was 
 killed was the father of the unborn babe that was lynched. 
 
 There is the case of Jim Mcllheron less than a year ago in 
 Tennessee, accused of killing two white men in a street fight, 
 and tortured with red-hot irons, then burned alive at the stake. 
 Jim Mcllheron was one of three Negroes who within nine months 
 were tortured and burned alive in the single state of Tennessee. 
 
 The records as kept by the department of research at Tuske- 
 gee Institute show that during 1918, while white and black Ameri¬ 
 cans were fighting side by side to make the world safe for demo¬ 
 cracy, white mobs here at home were lynching 58 Negroes, 5 
 of them being women. These records also show that in only 
 one-fourth of these cases was there even a charge of assault or 
 attempted assault on women. Eighteen of these lynchings 
 occurred in the State of Georgia. 
 
 I ask not only black Americans but white Americans, are 
 you not ashamed of lynching? Do you not hang your head in 
 humiliation to think that this is the only civilized country in the 
 world, no, more than that, the only spot on earth where a human 
 being may be tortured with hot irons and then burned alive. 
 The nation is today striving to lead the moral forces of the world 
 in the support of the weak against the strong; well. I'll tell you 
 it can’t do it until it conquers and crushes out this monster 
 in its own midst. 
 
 When I had the honor of going before the President of the 
 United States to plead for those colored soldiers who were con¬ 
 cerned in the Houston affair, I told him of the case of Jim Mc¬ 
 llheron, describing it in detail to him, and when I had finished 
 my recital the President said to me, “I had not heard about it,” 
 and he had not heard about it. But that is the sad commentary— 
 that in this great, free, enlightened democracy a human being 
 could be burned alive at the stake and the head of the nation 
 not even hear about it. But we are going to make them hear 
 about it, not only the head of the nation, but we are going to 
 put the raw, naked, brutal facts of this question before the con¬ 
 science of the whole nation until we make it sick. 
 
 Our President is in Europe endeavoring to establish his 
 lofty ideals and principles: The guarantee of peace, the spread 
 of democracy, the safeguarding of liberty and the protection of 
 the weak; we are praying that he will succeed, for our own wel- 
 
23 
 
 fare is involved in his success. But if he does not succeed in 
 bringing the whole world around to his enlightened views, we 
 hope he will not feel absolutely discouraged; he still has a vast 
 field in the nation over which he presides. 
 
 Talk about democracy, and human brotherhood and the 
 protection of the weak, it will all result in sheer hypocrisy, in what 
 St. Paul calls a sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal, unless we 
 apply those principles here at home. 
 
 And now, if you are ashamed of these things, there is some¬ 
 thing that you can do and that is join and support this great 
 movement. I claim that the National Association for the Advance¬ 
 ment of Colored People is the only absolutely democratic 
 movement in the United States. It is a great American move¬ 
 ment. This is not a race movement. If anyone has the idea 
 that the plan of this organization is merely a race movement, 
 he is mistaken. The platform of this organization is so broad 
 that every man, woman and child who loves justice, who loves 
 liberty, can stand upon it, regardless of race or color. And so 
 I appeal to white men and white women everywhere, North and 
 South; to my own people everywhere; to all white people who 
 love justice and to all black people who love liberty, to join the 
 ranks, the fighting ranks of this Association and help to make 
 America a democracy in deeds as well as in words. 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 V 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
25 
 
 SUMMARY OF ADDRESS OF 
 DR. WILLIAM HENRY SHEPPARD.* 
 
 An interesting feature of the meeting was an address by 
 William Henry Sheppard of Louisville, Kentucky. Dr. Sheppard 
 went as a missionary to Africa in 1890. He led the first-known 
 expedition into the forbidden land of King Lukenga, found a new 
 tribe called the Bakuka, and discovered a lake in the interior of 
 the Congo region. In 1910 this lake was named Lake Sheppard 
 by the Belgian Government. 
 
 Dr. Sheppard is a graduate of Hampton Normal and In¬ 
 dustrial Institute and of the Stillman Theological Institute of 
 Tuscaloosa, Alabama. In recognition of his services as an ex¬ 
 plorer he was made a fellow of the Royal 'Geographical Society 
 of London. 
 
 This pioneer into Central Africa did much to bring the cause 
 of native Africans close to the hearts of his audience. In a speech 
 frequently intermingled with words and expressions in African 
 dialect he told of the lives of those far-off peoples who are not 
 naturally unkind, and who fight the invader only to protect them¬ 
 selves. If the visitor can satisfy the inhabitants of an African 
 village as to his good intentions, he is made welcome. The tribes 
 among which Dr. Sheppard had lived had reached a high state 
 of civilization. They manufactured cloth, thread, and fashioned 
 needles of iron; they made hats of cowrie shells and had 
 razors which were deftly wielded by the women who are the 
 African barbers. 
 
 Dr. Sheppard then related how one day a hostile African 
 king was reported to be close at hand with his forces. At the 
 risk of his own life the missionary travelled to the camp of this 
 invader. He was received and ushered into the chamber of the 
 king. And there he saw eighty-one right hands which had been 
 cut off and were in process of being cured! Above them waved 
 the flag of Belgium and the king on being questioned produced 
 papers from Belgian Leopold, of evil fame, asking for ivory, rub¬ 
 ber or hands of men! 
 
 Dr. Sheppard revealed these atrocities on the Congo and was 
 thereupon charged with criminal libel and was arrested and 
 
 * Dr. Sheppard’s address is reported by the Editor, owing to the fact that the stenographic 
 notes were incomplete. The substance of the address is here given. 
 
26 
 
 indicted by King Leopold II of Belgium in April. 1908. He was 
 exonerated and liberated after eight months’ imprisonment. 
 
 Dr. Sheppard insisted that the horrors of the Congo were 
 the immediate result of Leopold’s personal interest and not con¬ 
 nected with the interests of the Belgian Gpvernment. He spoke 
 of his pleasant acquaintance with Vandervelde, the noted Belgian 
 socialist, who defended him when he was indicted by the royal 
 government. 
 
 ( 
 
 
THE FUTURE OF AFRICA. 
 
 A Statement Prepared by W. E. Burghardt Du Bois and 
 Adopted by the Board of Directors of the National 
 Association for the Advancement of Colored People, 
 with an Introduction by Mary White Ovington, Chair¬ 
 man, Board of Directors of the Association, Reprinted 
 from The Crisis for January, 1919 
 
 Introduction: Mary White Ovington. 
 
 In the early days of the European war Dr. W. E. Burg¬ 
 hardt Du Bois wrote an article for the Atlantic Monthly on “The 
 African Roots of War.”* Of the many discussions of the cause 
 of the great conflict none was more timely or important. In 
 the article in question the writer points out that today, as so 
 often in the past, the wealth of Africa leads to a common lust 
 for conquest and exploitation of the native population. This 
 was displayed in its most barbarous form in the old days of the 
 Belgium Congo Free State and in the recent days of the German 
 colonies. But none of the colonial powers are without guilt since 
 all look upon the natives, not as people to be educated and en¬ 
 couraged to self-development, but as ignorant laborers to be used 
 for the production of wealth which the European appropriates 
 later to spend in his own land. This exploitation carries with it 
 intense race prejudice and results increasingly in confining the 
 black man to those places where life, for climatic, historical and 
 political reasons, is most difficult to live and most easily dominated 
 by Europe for Europe’s gain. 
 
 This is the picture of Africa today, but now, with the end 
 of the war, we look to the picture of the Africa of the future. 
 This future is being widely discussed and will be one of the most 
 important of the problems to be decided at the Peace Confer¬ 
 ence. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored 
 People stands on the following platform drawn up by Dr. Du 
 Bois: 
 
 * Reprinted by the N. A. A. C. P. 
 
28 
 
 THE FUTURE OF AFRICA—A PLATFORM. 
 
 1. The barter of colonies without regard to the wishes 
 or welfare of the inhabitants or the welfare of the world in general 
 is a custom to which this war should put an end, since it is a fruit¬ 
 ful cause of dissension among nations, a danger to the status 
 of civilized labor, a temptation to unbridled exploitation, and an 
 excuse for unspeakable atrocities committed against natives. 
 
 2. It is clear that at least one of Germany’s specific objects 
 in the present war was the extension of her African colonies 
 at the expense of France and Portugal. 
 
 3. As a result of the war, the German colonies in Africa 
 have been seized by the Allies, and the question of their disposition 
 must come before the Peace Conference. Responsible English 
 statesmen have announced that their return to Germany is 
 unthinkable. 
 
 4. However, to take German Africa from one imperial 
 master, even though a bad one, and hand it over to another, 
 even though a better one, would inevitably arouse a suspicion 
 of selfish aims on the part of the Allies and would leave after 
 the war the grave questions of future colonial possessions and 
 government. 
 
 5. While the principle of self-determination which has been 
 recognized as fundamental by the Allies cannot be wholly applied 
 to semi-civilized peoples, yet, as the English Prime Minister 
 has acknowledged, it can be partially applied. 
 
 6. The public opinion which in the case of the former Ger¬ 
 man colonies should have the decisive voice is composed of: 
 
 (a) The Chiefs and intelligent Negroes among the twelve 
 and one-half million natives of German Africa, especially those 
 trained in the government and mission schools. 
 
 (b) The twelve million civilized Negroes of the United 
 States. 
 
 (c) Educated persons of Negro descent in South America 
 and the West Indies. 
 
 (d) The independent Negro governments of Abyssinia, 
 Liberia, and Haiti. 
 
 (e) The educated classes among the Negroes of French 
 West Africa and Equatorial Africa and in British Uganda, Nigeria, 
 
Basutoland, Nyassaland, Swaziland, Sierra Leone, Gold Coast, 
 Gambia and Bechuanaland, and the four and one-half millions of 
 colored people in the Union of South Africa. 
 
 These classes comprise today the thinking classes of the 
 future Negro world and their wish should have weight in the 
 future disposition of the German colonies. 
 
 7. The first step toward ascertaining the desires, aspirations 
 and grievances of these people should be the calling together 
 of a Pan-African Congress, to meet in Paris some time during 
 the sessions of the Peace Conference. 
 
 8. If the world after the war decided to reconstruct Africa 
 in accordance with the wishes of the Negro race and the best 
 interests of civilization, the process might be carried out as 
 follows: The former German colonies, with one million square 
 miles and twelve and one-half millions of inhabitants, could be 
 internationalized. To this could be added by negotiation the 
 800,000 square miles and nine million inhabitants of Portuguese 
 Africa. It is not impossible that Belgium could be persuaded 
 to add to such a state the 900,000 square miles and nine million 
 natives of the Congo, making an international Africa, with over 
 two and one-half million square miles of land and over twenty 
 million people. 
 
 9. This re-organized Africa could be under the guidance 
 of organized civilization. The Governing International Com¬ 
 mission should represent, not simply governments, but modern 
 culture—science, commerce, social reform and religious philan¬ 
 thropy. 
 
 10. With these two principles the practical policies to be 
 followed out in the government of the new states should involve 
 a thorough and complete system of modern education built upon 
 the present government, religion and customary law of the 
 natives. There should be no violent tampering with the curiously 
 efficient African institutions of local self-government through 
 the family and the tribe; there should be no attempt at sudden 
 “conversion” by religious propaganda. Obviously deleterious 
 customs and unsanitary usages must gradually be abolished and 
 careful religious teaching given, but the general government 
 set up from without must follow the example of the best colonial 
 administrators and build on recognized established foundations 
 rather than from entirely new and theoretical plans 
 
30 
 
 11. The chief effort to modernize Africa should be through 
 schools. Within ten years twenty million black children ought 
 to be in school. Within a generation young Africa should know 
 the essential outlines of modern culture and groups of bright 
 African students should be going to the world’s great universities. 
 From the beginning the actual general government should use 
 both colored and white officials and natives should be gradually 
 worked in. Taxation and industry could follow the newer ideals 
 of industrial democracy, avoiding private land monopoly and 
 poverty, promoting co-operation in production and the social¬ 
 ization of income. 
 
 12. Is such a state possible? Those who believe in men; 
 who know what black men have done in human history; who 
 have taken pains to follow even superficially the story of the rise 
 of the Negro in Africa, the West Indies, and the Americas of our 
 day, know that the widespread modern contempt of Negroes 
 rests upon no scientific foundation worth a moment’s attention. 
 It is nothing more than a vicious habit of mind. It could as 
 easily be overthrown as our belief in war, as our international 
 hatreds, as our old conception of the status of women, as our 
 fear of educating the masses, and as our belief in the necessity 
 of poverty. We can, if we will, inaugurate on the Dark Con¬ 
 tinent a last great crusade for humanity. With Africa redeemed, 
 Asia would be safe and Europe indeed triumphant. 
 
NATIONAL ASSOCIATION 
 
 FOR THE 
 
 ADVANCEMENT OF COLORED PEOPLE 
 
 Official Organ—THE CRISIS, published Monthly. 
 January, 1919, 165 Branches in 38 States. 
 Membership, 44,000. 
 
 NATIONAL OFFICERS 
 President 
 
 Moorfield Storey 
 
 Vice-Presidents 
 Archibald H. Grimke 
 Rev. John Haynes Holmes 
 Bishop John Hurst 
 C'apt. Arthur B. Spingarn 
 Oswald Garrison Villard 
 
 EXECUTIVE OFFICERS 
 
 Chairman of the Board, Mary White Ovington, New York 
 O. G. Villard, Treasurer 
 
 Dr. W. E. B. Du Bois, Director of Publications and Research 
 John R. Shillady, Secretary 
 James Weldon Johnson, Field Secretary 
 W alter F. White Assistant Secretary 
 
 BOARD OF DIRECTORS 
 
 Baltimore 
 
 Bishop John Hurst 
 
 New York 
 
 Paul Kennaday 
 John E. Milholland 
 Mary White Ovington 
 Capt. Arthur B. Spingarn 
 Major J. E. Spingarn' 
 Charles H. Studin 
 Oswald Garrison Villard 
 Lillian D. Wald 
 
 Boston 
 
 Joseph Prince Loud 
 Moorfield Storey 
 Butler R. Wilson 
 
 Buffalo 
 
 Mary B. Talbert 
 
 William English Walling 
 
 Chicago 
 
 Jane Addams 
 Dr. C. E. Bentley 
 
 Philadelphia 
 
 Dr. William A. Sinclair 
 
 M emphis 
 
 Springfield 
 
 Rev. G. R. Waller 
 
 R. R. Church 
 
 New Haven 
 
 George W. Crawford 
 
 St. Louis 
 
 Hon. Charles Nagel 
 
 New York 
 
 Rev. Hutchens C. Bishop 
 
 Wilberforce 
 
 Col. Chas. Young, U. S. 
 
 Dr. W. E. B. Du Bois 
 Rev. John Haynes Holmes 
 Dr. V. Morton Jones 
 Florence Kelley 
 
 Washington 
 
 Prof. Geo. AVilliam Cook 
 Archibald H. Grimke 
 Charles Edward Russell 
 
NATIONAL ASSOCIATION 
 
 FOR THE 
 
 ADVANCEMENT OF COLORED PEOPLE 
 
 1. To abolish legal injustice against Negroes. 
 
 2. To stamp out race discriminations. 
 
 3. To prevent lynchings, burnings and torturings of black people. 
 
 4. To assure to every citizen of color the common rights of American 
 
 citizenship. 
 
 President Wilson declared for woman suffrage as a rear measure. 
 Black men are not allowed to vote in many of the states of the 
 Union, despite the Fifteenth Amendment. 
 
 5. To compel equal accommodations in railroad travel, irrespective 
 
 of color. 
 
 G. To secure for colored children an equal opportunity to public school 
 education through a fair apportionment of public education funds. 
 Unless the colored child can he educated he is at a fearful dis¬ 
 advantage. An uneducated Negro population menaces national 
 well-being. This education should he of hand and brain and can 
 be adequately done for all Negro children, not the fortunate few, 
 only by public schools. 
 
 7. To emancipate in fact, as well as in name, a race of nearly 12,000,000 
 American-born citizens. 
 
 The only means we can employ are education, organization, agitation, 
 publicity—the force of an enlightened public opinion. 
 
 THE WORK IS SUPPORTED ENTIRELY BY VOLUNTARY 
 CONTRIBUTIONS AND MEMBERSHIPS. 
 
 Send contributions to 
 
 OSWALD ''GARRISON VILLARD, Treasurer. 
 
 70 Fifth Avenue, New Y t ork