The recognition of the principle of human brotherhood as a practical present creed.
The recognition of the highest and best training as the monopoly of no class or race.
A belief in the dignity of labor.
United effort to realize these ideals under wise and courageous leadership.
In 1910 it had conducted important civil rights cases and had in its membership some of the ablest colored lawyers in the country, with Mr. W. Ashbie Hawkins, who has since worked with our Association, on the Baltimore Segregation acts, as its treasurer.
The Niagara Movement, hampered as it was by lack of funds and by a membership confined to one race only, continued to push slowly on, but when the larger possibilities of this new Association were clear, the members of the Niagara Movement were advised to join, as the platforms were practically identical. Many of the most prominent members of the Niagara Movement thus brought their energy and ability into the service of the Association, and eight are now serving on its Board of Directors.
Our history, after 1910, may be read in our annual reports, and in the numbers of The Crisis. We opened two offices in the Evening Post building. With Dr. DuBois came Mr. Frank M. Turner, a Wilberforce graduate, who has shown great efficiency in handling our books. In November of 1910 appeared the first number of The Crisis, with Dr. DuBois as editor, and Mary Dunlop MacLean, whose death has been the greatest loss the Association has known, as managing editor. Our propaganda work was put on a national footing, our legal work was well under way and we were in truth, a National Association, pledged to a nation-wide work for justice to the Negro race.
I remember the afternoon that The Crisis received its name. We were sitting around the conventional table that seems a necessary adjunct to every Board, and were having an informal talk regarding the new magazine. We touched the subject of poetry.
“There is a poem of Lowell’s,” I said, “that means more to me to-day than any other poem in the world—‘The Present Crisis.’”
Mr. Walling looked up. “The Crisis,” he said. “There is the name for your magazine, The Crisis.”