For the ashes of his fathers
And the temples of his Gods?’
The Crisis (New York) September.”[365]
In a consideration of these two utterances, if it be conceded that in point of literary excellence, DuBois’s appeal is superior, yet that does not establish that in his call he better plays the part of leader than the Negro minister, first quoted, whose exhortation to his race, unlike that of DuBois, is in no way overstrained, nor pitched too high for the humblest, if possessed of rudimentary intelligence, to grasp. The detailed instructions in Wright’s publication, simple as they are, contain wisdom, the wisdom which crieth out in the streets from of old; while if the comparison instituted, by DuBois between the Northern and the Southern whites, in respect to the police and public opinion in the two sections, is true, it is passing strange, that unlike the Negro minister, he is not found advising the migration from the worse to the better section, as far as the needs of his race are concerned. If in the North, even if justice moves limpingly as he describes; yet according to him justice does move. And for the poor and oppressed what gain can out-weigh justice? But there is a graver comparison to be instituted between these calls. DuBois in his publication exclaims:
“Honor, endless and undying Honor, to every man, black or white who in Houston, East St. Louis, Washington and Chicago gave his life for Civilization and Order.”
Now whatever wrongs or supposed wrongs the Negro soldiery suffered in Houston, can it be reasonably contended that they, armed by the Federal Government and enlisting to be under its orders, in breaking away from the control of their superior officers and with weapons put in their hands for other purposes, in any way assisted civilization and order by precipitating themselves upon the white population in an attempt to shoot up the city? If he does so claim then he is worse than the Negro soldiery who so acted, or those Negroes and whites, no matter who they were, who criticised Roosevelt’s action in the Brownsville matter. No matter to what lofty station Roosevelt’s critics may have been advanced; no matter what service they may claim to have rendered peace and civilization, their weakness in that first instance induced the graver breach, for which, under President Wilson, as commander-in-chief, the Negro soldiery were courtmartialed and punished for their excesses at Houston. Yet while the perusal of DuBois’s call, as above, does not convey a positive stand for or against the Negro soldiery and is open to the criticism which appears in Pickens’s book:
“Till this day the Negro is seldom frank to the white man. He says what he does not mean; he means what he does not say,”—
apparently his view changed. As editor of The Crisis, Dr. DuBois upon the occasion of the Chicago riots as above noted honored every man, black or white, who, in either Houston or Chicago, gave his life for civilization and order; later he expressed the following, which is nothing more nor less than a justification of the behavior of the Negro soldiery at Houston:
“Six years ago December 11, at 7:17 in the morning, thirteen American Negro soldiers were murdered on the scaffold by the American government to satisfy the blood-lust of Texas, on account of the Houston riot.”[366]
Now, how does this exhibit this extremely gifted man, as a leader of his race? In the roar and blaze of the Chicago riot, in 1919 he was for “Honor, endless and undying Honor to every man black or white in Houston ... who gave his life for civilization and order”; but by the end of 1920, the executed Negro soldiers had become martyrs, murdered by the government.