The author undertakes to connect the Negro with the fundamental cause of the war in that race prejudice was its source. He shows how fortunate it was to have Negro troops as the first of the national guard to be adequately equipped for immediate service and to occupy the post of honor in guarding the White House and the national capital, by order of the President of the United States. His own appointment and his work as the Special Assistant to the Secretary of War as an official recognition of the Negroes' interest in the war are made the nucleus around which the facts of the work are organized. How the Negroes figured in the national army, how Negro soldiers and officers were trained, and how they were treated in the camps all bring to light information for which the public has long been waiting. After giving passing mention to the black soldiers in the armies of the European nations the author directs his attention to the Negro regiments overseas. Special chapters are devoted to the achievements of the 367th, 368th, 370th, 371st and 372d regiments. The behavior of the Negroes in battle is sketched in the chapter entitled the Negro as a Fighter.
While dealing primarily with actual war, the author has been careful to give adequate space to agencies which helped to make the war possible. The valuable service rendered by the Negroes in the Service of Supply constitutes one of the most interesting chapters of the book. Whereas these Negroes were actually conscripted to labor in spite of the declaration of the War Department to the contrary, they accepted their lot with the spirit of loyalty and performed one of the great tasks of the war in getting supplies to Europe and furnishing the army with them in France. Negro labor in war times, Negro women in war work, the loyalty of the Negro civilians, and the social welfare agencies are also treated. Finally the author takes up an important question: Did the Negro get a square deal? In a position to know the many problems confronting the Negroes drawn into the army, Mr. Scott has brought forward in this final chapter adequate evidence to prove that the Negro did not get a square deal.
The Heart of a Woman. By Georgia Douglas Johnson, with an introduction by William Stanley Braithwaite. The Cornhill Co., Boston, 1918. Pp. 62.
In these days of vers libre and the deliberate straining for poetic effect these lyrics of Mrs. Johnson bring with them a certain sense of relief and freshness. Also the utter absence of the material theme makes an appeal. We are all weary of the war note and are glad to return to the softer pipings of old time themes—love, friendship, longing, despair—all of which are set forth in The Heart of a Woman.
The book has artistry, but it is its sincerity which gives it its value. Here are the little sharp experiences of life mirrored poignantly, sometimes feverishly, always truly. Each lyric is an instantaneous photograph of one of the many moments in existence which affect one briefly perhaps, but indelibly. Mr. Braithwaite says in his introduction that this author engages "life at its most reserved sources whether the form or substance through which it articulates be nature, or the seasons, touch of hands or lips, love, desire or any of the emotional abstractions which sweep like fire or wind or cooling water through the blood." The ability to give a faithful and recognizable portrayal of these sources, is Mrs. Johnson's distinction.
In this work, Mrs. Johnson, although a woman of color, is dealing with life as it is regardless of the part that she may play in the great drama. Here she is a woman of that imagination that characterizes any literary person choosing this field as a means of directing the thought of the world. Several of her poems bearing on the Negro race have appeared in the Crisis. In these efforts she manifests the radical tendencies characteristic of every thinking Negro of a developed mind and sings beautifully not in the tone of the lamentations of the prophets of old but, while portraying the trials and tribulations besetting a despised and rejected people, she sings the song of hope. In reading her works the inevitable impression is that it does not yet appear what she will be. Adhering to her task with the devotion hitherto manifested, there is no reason why she should not in the near future take rank among the best writers of the world.
J. R. Fauset
A History of Suffrage in the United States. By Kirk and Porter, Ph.D. The University of Chicago Press, Chicago, Ill. Pp. 265. Price $1.25.