THIS LITTLE RECORD
IS AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED
TO THOSE WHO
STOOD BY MY SIDE
IN
LOVE, LABOR AND SACRIFICE
WHEN
THE FOUNDATIONS
WERE LAID
TABLE OF CONTENTS
| CHAPTERS | PAGE | |
|---|---|---|
| [INTRODUCTION] | [5] | |
| 1. | [THE BEGINNINGS] Launching the Liberty League. — Resolutions Passed at Liberty League Meeting. — Petition to Congress. | [9] |
| 2. | [DEMOCRACY AND RACE FRICTION.] The East St. Louis Horror. — “Arms and the Man.” — The Negro and the Labor Unions. — Lynching: Its Cause and Cure. | [14] |
| 3. | [THE NEGRO AND THE WAR.] Is Democracy Unpatriotic? — Why Is the Red Cross? — A Hint of “Our Reward.” — The Negro at the Peace Congress. — Africa and the Peace. — “They Shall Not Pass.” — A Cure for the Ku-Klux. | [25] |
| 4. | [THE NEW POLITICS.] The New Politics for the New Negro. — The Drift in Politics. — A Negro for President. — When the Tail Wags the Dog. — The Grand Old Party. | [39] |
| 5. | [THE PROBLEMS OF LEADERSHIP.] Our Professional “Friends.” — Shillady Resigns. — Our White Friends. — A Tender Point. — The Descent of Du Bois. — When the Blind Lead. — Just Crabs. | [54] |
| 6. | [THE NEW RACE-CONSCIOUSNESS.] The Negro’s Own Radicalism. — Race First versus Class First. — An Open Letter to the Socialist. Party. — “Patronize Your Own.” — The Women of Our Race. — Young Men of My Race. | [76] |
| 7. | [OUR INTERNATIONAL CONSCIOUSNESS.] The White War and the Colored World — U-need-a Biscuit. — Our Larger Duty. — Help Wanted for Hayti. — The Cracker in the Caribbean. — When Might Makes Right. — Bolshevism in Barbados. — A New International. — The Rising Tide of Color. — The White War and the Colored Races. | [96] |
| 8. | [EDUCATION AND THE RACE.] Reading for Knowledge. — Education and the Race. — The Racial Roots of Culture. — The New Knowledge for the New Negro. | [123] |
| 9. | [A FEW BOOKS.] The Negro in History and Civilization. — Darkwater. — The Rising Tide of Color Against White World Supremacy. | [135] |
| [EPILOGUE: THE BLACK MAN’S BURDEN;] A Reply to Rudyard Kipling | [145] |
INTRODUCTORY
The Great War of 1914–1918 has served to liberate many new ideas undreamt of by those who rushed humanity into that bath of blood. During that war the idea of democracy was widely advertised, especially in the English-speaking world; mainly as a convenient camouflage behind which competing imperialists masked their sordid aims. Even the dullest can now see that those who so loudly proclaimed and formulated the new democratic demands never had the slightest intention of extending either the limits or the applications of “democracy.” Ireland and India, Egypt and Russia are still the Ithuriel’s spear of the great democratic pretence. The flamboyant advertising of “democracy” has returned to plague the inventors; for the subject populations who contributed their millions in men and billions in treasure for the realization of the ideal which was flaunted before their eyes are now clamoring for their share of it. They are demanding that those who advertised democracy shall now make good. This is the main root of that great unrest which is now troubling the decrepit statesmanship of Europe and America. But the rigid lines of the old regime will not permit the granting of these new demands. Hence the new war against democracy which expresses itself in the clever but futile attempt to outlaw the demands for fuller freedom as “sedition” and “Bolshevism.”