The Journal of Negro History, Volume 1, January 1916Various
History
The Journal of Negro History, Volume 1, January 1916
Various
African Americans -- Periodicals
"But the outstanding feature of the new magazine is just the fact of its
appearance. Launched at Chicago by a new organization, the Association for
the Study of Negro Life and History, it does not intend 'to drift into the
discussion of the Negro Problem,' but rather to 'popularize the movement of
unearthing the Negro and his contributions to civilization ... believing
that facts properly set forth will speak for themselves.'"
"This is a new and stirring note in the advance of the black man.
Comparatively few of any race have a broad or accurate knowledge of its
part. It would be absurd to expect that the Negro will carry about in his
head many details of a history from which he is separated by a tremendous
break. It is not absurd to expect that he will gradually learn that he,
too, has a heritage of something beside shame and wrong. By that knowledge
he may be uplifted as he goes about his task of building from the bottom."
_The New York Evening Post._
When men of any race begin to show pride in their own antecedents we have
one of the surest signs of prosperity and rising civilization. That is one
reason why the new JOURNAL OF NEGRO HISTORY ought to attract more than
passing attention. Hitherto the history of the Negro race has been written
chiefly by white men; now the educated Negroes of this country have decided
to search out and tell the historic achievements of their race in their own
way and from their own point of view. And, judging from the first issue of
their new publication, they are going to do it in a way that will measure
up to the standards set by the best historical publications of the day.
The opinions which the American Negro has hitherto held concerning his own
race have been largely moulded for him by others. Himself he has given us
little inkling of what his race has felt, and thought and done. Any such
situation, if long enough continued, would make him a negligible factor in
the intellectual life of mankind. But the educated leaders of the race, of
whom our colleges and universities have been turning out hundreds in recent
years, do not propose that this shall come to pass. They are going to show
the Negro that his race is more ancient than the Golden Fleece or Roman
Eagle; that Ethiopia had a history quite as illustrious as that of Nineveh
or Tyre, and that the Negro may well take pride in the rock from which he
was hewn. The few decades of slavery form but a small dark spot in the
annals of long and great achievements. That embodies a fine attitude and
one which should be thoroughly encouraged. It aims to teach the Negro that
he can do his own race the best service by cultivating those hereditary
racial traits which are worth preserving, and not by a fatuous imitation of
his white neighbors.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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