The procession sweeps on. Staring you in the face; hailing from East, West, North and South are banners; held aloft by unseen hands, bearing on them--the quintessence of AMERICA'S INGRATITUDE,--these devices: "For American Negroes: JIM CROW steam and trolley cars; JIM CROW resident districts; JIM CROW amen corners; JIM CROW seats in theatres; JIM CROW corners in cemeteries." YOU MUTTER-- "Are these indignities to CONTINUE? Is God DEAD?" * * * * * COMES-- A voice. You listen! "WHEREFORE hear the word of the lord-- "THE days of thy mourning shall be ended-- "VIOLENCE shall no more be heard in the land-- "NEITHER sorrow nor crying-- "FOR the former things have passed away-- "BEHOLD I make all things new-- "ARISE, shine; for thy light has come. * * * * * HEREIN-- Lies the strength and worth of this unusual book, well and deservingly named: A History of the American Negro in the Great World War. Beyond merely recounting that story; than which there has been nothing finer or more inspiring since the long away centuries when the chivalry of the Middle Ages, in nodding plume and lance in rest, battled for the Holy Sepulchre, it brings to the Negro of America a message of cheer and reassurance. A sign, couched in flaming characters for all men to see, appealing to the spiritualized divination of the age, proclaiming that God is NOT DEAD! That a NEW day is dawning; HAS dawned for the Negro in America. A NEW liberty; broader and BETTER. A NEW Justice, unshaded by the spectre of: "Previous condition!" That the unpaid toil of thirty decades of African slavery in America is at last to be liquidated. That the dead of our people, upon behalf of this land that it might have a BIRTH, and having it might not PERISH FROM THE EARTH, did not die in vain. That, in their passage from earth, heroes--MARTYRS--in a superlative sense they were seen and marked of the Father; were accorded a place of record in the pages of the great WHITE BOOK with golden seals, in the up worlds; above the stars and beyond the flaming suns. IT IS A HISTORY-- That will be read with instruction and benefit by thousands of whites, but, and mark well this suggestion, it is one that should be OWNED AND READ BY EVERY NEGRO IN THE LAND. * * * * * TYPOGRAPHICALLY-- Mechanically; that is to say, in those features that reflect the finished artistic achievement of the Print, Picture and Binding art; as seen in the bold clear type of its text, its striking and beautiful illustrations, its illuminating title heads of division and chapter; indicating at a glance the information to follow; the whole appealing to the aesthetic; the sticklers for the rare and beautiful; not overlooking its superb binding, it is most pleasing to the sight, and worthy of the title it bears. [Illustration: signature]