When Africa awakes: The "inside story" of the stirrings and strivings of the new Negro in the Western worldHarrison, Hubert H.
History
When Africa awakes: The "inside story" of the stirrings and strivings of the new Negro in the Western world
Harrison, Hubert H.
African Americans; African Americans -- Race identity; United States -- Race relations
It may seem unusual to put into permanent form the deliverances of this
species of literature. But I venture to think that, as literature, they
will stand the test; and I am willing to assume the risks. Besides, I
feel that I owe it to my people to preserve this cross-section of their
new-found soul. It was my privilege to assist in shaping some of the
forms of the new consciousness; and to preserve for posterity a portion
of its record has seemed a duty which should not be shirked.
It was in 1916 that I first began to hammer out some of the ideas which
will be found in these pages. It was in that year that I gave up my work
as a lecturer and teacher among white people to give myself exclusively
to work among my own people. In the summer of 1917, with the financial
aid of many poor but willing hearts I brought out _The Voice_, the first
Negro journal of the new dispensation, and, for some time, the only one.
The Voice failed in March, 1919; but in the meanwhile it had managed to
make an indelible impression. Many of the writings reproduced here are
taken from its files. The others are from _The Negro World_, of which I
assumed the joint editorship in January of this year. A few appeared in
_The New Negro_, a monthly magazine which I edited for a short time.
The account of the launching of the Liberty League is given here in the
first chapter because that meeting at historic Bethel on June 12, 1917,
and the labors of tongue and pen out of which that meeting emerged were
the foundation for the mighty structures of racial propaganda which have
been raised since then. This is a fact not generally known because I
have not hankered after newspaper publicity.
It is hardly necessary to point out that the AFRICA of the title is to
be taken in its racial rather than in its geographical sense.
HUBERT H. HARRISON.
New York, August 15, 1920.
CHAPTER I. THE BEGINNINGS
_Launching the Liberty League_
(From _The Voice_ of July 4, 1917.)
The Liberty League of Negro-Americans, which was recently organized by
the Negroes of New York, presents the most startling program of any
organization of Negroes in the country today. This is nothing less than
the demand that the Negroes of the United States be given a chance to
enthuse over democracy for themselves in America before they are
expected to enthuse over democracy in Europe. The League is composed of
“Negro-Americans, loyal to their country in every respect, and obedient
to her laws.”
The League has an interesting history. It grew out of the labors of
Mr. Hubert H. Harrison, who has been on the lecture platform for years
and is well and favorably known to thousands of white New Yorkers from
Wall Street to Washington Heights.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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