The Roots
of
The Universal Negro
Convention
DEDICATION
TO
The mothers of the Authors, to the mother of the
Honorable Marcus Garvey, to the mother of Amy Ash-
wood, to the mother of Henrietta Vinton Davis, to the
mother of William H. Ferris, to the myriads of moth¬
ers of the brave men and noble women of the Race
of Ethiopia who have pledged and dedicated their
lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor to the
cause of liberating this oppressed Race of ours; and
who by their grim determination, their glorious deeds,
their unflinching valor, and valiant heroism have done
and are still doing all within their power to make pos¬
sible the realization of the freedom of Ethiopia, and
the Redemption of a Free, United, and Independent
Africa.
The Roots
of
The Universal Negro Convention
held in the City of sJS(ew York
oAugust ist to 31st, 1920
An historical background and review of the
causes leading up to the great Convention
of the Negro Peoples of the World
ASHTON L. SEWELL
in collaboration with
JOSEPH PINCKNEY
'Proofs read by HARCOURT A. TYNES
COPYRIGHTED
BY
ASHTON L. SEWELL
1920
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I. introduction 7
II. Africa 8
III. Abduction 10
IV. The Struggle for Existence 12
V. Freedom and its Defects 16
VI. The Voice of the People 20
VII. The Man of the Hour 22
VIII. Climbing the Heights 23
IX. The Convention 27
"The roots of the Great Convention lie buried in the rich
soils and fertile lands of Ancient Ethiopia
FOREWORD
This little booklet is a material expression of the spirit that
has been permeating the Race for the past thirty months. The
authors have felt, together with the masses of their fellow race
members, the gripping influence of that spirit and the burning de¬
sire for a realization of a free and independent existence of
Ethiopians. This booklet is the result. It is not a history of the
Race. It is not intended to be a history of the movement of which
we are all a part. It is simply intended to be a humble expres¬
sion of the sentiments felt by the authors in realizing that they
too are parts and parcels—though small—of so gigantic a move¬
ment engineered by the greatest Negro of all ages and of all
climes, Marcus Garvey.
It is sincerely hoped and confidently expected that those of
the Race who pause to look within the covers of this booklet will
reap from its pages an abundance of satisfaction for the time
spent thus. I trust that every one who with open mind and pure
heart reads the humble thoughts herein expressed will behold the
clear dawn of the new day and the bright light of the new era
which our Race is now happily approaching —an era of inde¬
pendence in thought, desires, and achievements in every field of
human labors.
Authors' Note:—This booklet is not an official publication of
the Universal Negro Improvement Association. It was not sanc¬
tioned by any of the officials of that organization. The contents of
this booklet are the expressions of the Authors who by their
sincerity and loyalty and admiration for the organization and the
cause of Negro uplift have undertaken to publish this pamphlet on
their own accord.
Ashton L. Sewell, Joseph Pinckney.
Chapter 1
INTRODUCTION
This little volume that I have tried to prepare refers to the achievements of
the Negro Race. It does not undertake to explain the ethnology, but aims to excite
the avidity of the Negro for a greater knowledge of a people of whom he is a
member.
Every country in which he is found has in some measure the consciousness of
human differences which may be more ostensible in one place than in another.
Thus history records the fact:
"When two races come in contact on the same territory one of three things
must result." Either the weaker loses his identity in the stronger by miscegenation,
or the stronger exterminates the weaker, or a decisive emigration of the one of
lesser force.
In prehistoric Ethiopia, when the gods delighted to walk on the territories over
which kings and giants ruled in reverence and mercy, we see that through the might
of these men another race came into existence by the process of amalgamation.
I return to my temporary home which is called America in which the spirit
of Momus dwelt longer than any other country of modern civilization. When the
Pilgrim fathers came to this continent, they were brought in direct contact with the
Indians. The result was almost complete extermination of the Indians. Those who
are still living are forced to retreat farther away toward the setting sun and are
fast descending the depth of racial extinction.
Shall America lose the presence of real Negro identity by miscegenation or
extermination because he lives on the same continent? America shall not lose the
real Negro type of man as the result of these processes. The process of miscegena¬
tion has been illicitly carried on in the days when the rights of women of color
were not regarded, and to-day the presence of other beings is brought into existence.
These beings are widely diffused. They stand as middlemen between the two races
sometimes showing the character of one race and traits, of the other. The high tide
of amalgamation is past. The obtrusive line of demarcation imposed by the men of
both races will serve in some measure to protect womanhood and thus render con¬
spicuous those who try to pollute racial integrity in their attempt to bring into life
the existence of a middleman.
With the steady growth of race pride and the consciousness that the Negro
must weave his own fortune, carve his own image, and shape his own destiny, he re¬
bels against the idea of losing his identity by the process of miscegenation.
The Negro will not be exterminated. Oppression did not check the increase of
the Negro population. When America was reaping her revenue from the product of
Negro labor, Negroes were fettered by the abominable system of oppression. When
lawless men incited by their odium ruthlessly inflicted death on men of darker hue,
many others came in their stead.
The lowest ebb of racial extinction is reached. Since the natural right of man
is the resistance toward oppression the Negro is in daily conflict with all the forces
that are bent on his destruction. Here I may assume that the determination of this
sanguine pursuit is somewhat curbed by the influence of the Christian world and the
voices of men who are cognizant of justice and equity. America shall not lose the
presence of the real Negro by the process of extermination. He is living under mor¬
tifying conditions which compel him to act. (See Dubois article; New Republic, Feb.
21. 1920.)
What action must he take? There is only one recourse, which must be emigra¬
tion. Not emigration from city to city or from state to state, for within the bounds
of this Western Hemisphere discontent is found in the paths of him who tries to
aspire to the height of his ambition. Heretofore men were accustomed to weave
their own fortune where they were assembled to make plans for their heritage. Men
have seldom engraved their images in a land where they are in the minority. Men
8
The Roots of the Universal Negro Convention
who live as exiles cannot shape their destiny in a land whose inhabitants are not in
accord with their idealistic aims. The self-determination of the Negro race in the
shaping of their destiny, and the providence of a peaceful settlement for posterity, call
for the redemption of their ancestral abode from which they have been taken by
force to spend a direful period in a land of misery for centuries.
Chapter II
AFRICA
The present will soon vanish into the past with the record of achievements
which history will ascribe as the accomplishments of the people of this generation.
Hitherto the historians of the world have vaguely portrayed the successes of a race
which has been in existence ever since men crawled forth from caves or since the
world was partitioned to the immediate sons of Noah.
In the march of civilization what have the people of the universe done? The
Christianizing influence propagated by human progress has almost encircled the world,
and which by the assumption of a few early writers gave the birth of Christianity to
the land of Judea and its founders, the Jewish people. The modern world has ap^
parently forgotten the sphere in which have lived the fathers of our civilization. The
world is ignorant of the source of the present flow of civilization. Whether the dis¬
tance of remote times has brought oblivion in its train, or whether present day
achievements have demanded the thought to concentrate on daily affairs and by so
doing the world neglects to regard the people who first lit the torch which for the
human family lit the path of ascendency in the march of civilization for many cen¬
turies, humanity must decide.
As we look down the ages we see the black and the white races. Their pro¬
genies inherit their traits and also the pigments by which they can be easily deter¬
mined. There are others whom I call middlemen and who sometimes have the
traits of one race or the characteristics of the other by virtue of the fact that they
were brought into life by amalgamation. I shall only treat of the black race in their
march for centuries.
The physiognomy of the Negro has changed in no marked degree since the
appearance of the black man as an inhabitant in the world. The Negro today and the
Negro of ancient days are almost identical in form and features which clearly show
the relationship of the »Negro of today to that one of the past. Since we can clearly
see our remote ancestry through ourselves as a mirror, let us survey the distance
travelled by them and explore our ancestral abode, the continent of Africa.
This vast continent with an area of twelve million square miles can be circumnavi¬
gated by passing through seas, canal, gulfs, and channels. If the navigator starts
from the straits of Gibraltar and travels east he sails into the Mediterranean Sea
from which he enters the Red Sea by passing through the Suez Canal, from the Red
Sea he passes to the Gulf of Aden by the way of the Strait of Babel Mandel and
keeping himself in close proximity to the mainland he navigates directly into the
Indian Ocean through the Mozambique Channel thence into the Atlantic Ocean back
to the Strait of Gibraltar.
The shape of this continent presents the appearance of an inverted plate.
The country is divided into two regions of a higher and lower plateau. The divid¬
ing line runs with a slight delineation to the west coast. The Sahara Desert forms a
part of the African plain. There are great mountains. The largest is the Kiliman¬
jaro, 19,321 feet in height, and which undoubtedly encloses gold and other precious
metals in its recesses. The deepest lake is Nawasha. It has an approximate depth of
6,135 feet. The lake Victoria Manza covers in her extent an area of 26,000 square
miles. The rivers of the greatest length are the Nile, the Congo, and the Niger,
which drain millions of square miles of land. (See Africa. Encyclopaedia Britannica.)
Within the limit of this volume space does not allow me to go into details, but a
glance at the. books, to which I have referred will give complete information. Before
I pass on to the other phase of my historical research, I may briefly mention some
of the productions of the African land. The great forests of this continent, with their
valuable trees of timber, yellow pine, mahagony, fir wood, etc., enclose in their shades
many and various animals. The camel or ship of the desert has its habitat in the
African forest. The giraffe, the buffalo, the wild ass, the elephant which furnishes the
The Roots of the Universal Negro Convention
§
supply of ivory to the world, and other animals are found in the confines of this
mighty grove. The birds are the ostrich which is widely dispersed; the secretary
bird, the weaver bird, the guinea fowl, the francolin, etc., are also discovered in the
African jungle. There are also numerous reptiles which are found in all forests.
(See Encyclopedia Britannica.)
The inhabitants are divided into tribes who possess various languages. The
reason of which may be due to their tribal isolation, and being forced by the neces¬
sity of a dialect they formulate a language—the one disimiliar to the other.
This was the Africa which the Portuguese discovered. This was the continent
which later writers called the dark continent. Why was it dark? Because other
nations did not know much about this region or of the resources it contained. At
this time their scant knowledge which they later amplified by explorations and other
investigations, caused the rise of the sinister propaganda to spread unworthiness as
an inherent quality of the Negro in their march with time, of their failure to aid the
progress of humanity, and a non-contributor to civilization. Can all these things
that are said about the Negro be true? Is the Negro of today a typical representa¬
tive of his ancesters many centuries ago? Let us explore beyond the beginning of
the classic period and find out from prehistoric times the standa/d of the Negro. I
shall quote the remarkable tribute which Count Yolney paid to the Negro. Through
his eulogy we may glean a few of the landmarks which the Negro has placed
in the intellectual world. This is what he said when he spoke of Thebes: "Those
piles of monuments which you see in that narrow valley watered by the Nile, pride
of the ancient kingdom of Ethiopia, are the remains of opulent cities. Behold the
wreck of her metropolis, Thebes, with her hundred palaces, the parent of cities and
monument of the caprice of destiny. There a people, now forgotten, discovered
while others were yet barbarians the elements of arts and science, a race of men now
rejected from society for their sable skin and frizzled hair founded on the study
of the laws of nature those civil and religious systems which still govern the universe."
The Negro can retrace his lineage to the descendants of Ham who obtained
from Noah as his share of territory the continent which was called Ethiopa. At that
time there were three principal kingdoms in Africa namely Lybia, Egypt and
Ethiopia. In Ethiopia Ham resided and by natural fortune begot a son named Cush.
Cush had many sons, the sixth of which was called Nimrod. In the forward move¬
ment of the children of Cush or Cushites we see them on the borders of the Persian
Gulf and among other nations. The Cushites in their travel eastward came to the
plain of Shinar where they attempted to build the tower of Babel whose top was to
have reached heaven in order to protect them from future flood. God confused their
language however. (See Hayne; Descendants of Ham.)
At this juncture this may be said to be the initial step of the founding of the
Great Babylon over which Nimrod ruled for many years. Nebuchadnezzar succeeded
his father and greatly amplified the city. This Babylonian city was esteemed as one
of the wonders of the world on account of its magnitude and the structure of its
buildings. "Its inhabitants were much learned in astrology, manufacturers of cloth
and embroidery." The monarch of Babylon by his conquests drained the treasuries
of the richest nations and deposited the booty into his own.
He invaded Phoenicia and the valley of the Nile from where he returned to set
up a golden image in the plains of Dura.
Nebuchadnezzar left Babylon the metropolis of the world, as Hayne said:
"Thither Egypt sent for sun dials and water clocks. It was from the capital the
ladies of the Orient received their fashions, Tyre took their weights and measures,
the Greeks took their tables on which their sciences were based, and Lybia the
lutes on which she learned to excel their teacher."
They probably laid the foundation in science and astronomy. The fact that
Egypt received her early instructions from the Cushites cannot be denied.
"The first inhabitants of Egypt belonged to a race personified in Genesis under
the name of Ham. This race has formed under the name of the Cushites the basis of
their population all along the Persian Gulf and Indian Ocean. These Cushites
founded small states which doubtless existed for long centuries before the powerful
chief Menes subdued the whole valley from the sea to the cataract of Syene, and
founded at least five thousand years before our era, the first royal race." (Ancient
History, Duruy.) Egypt got her early instructions from the Cushites, the descend¬
ants of Ham. "A part of Egypt," as Herodotus said, "is the gift of the Nile." The
10
The Boots of the Universal Negro Convention
Nile, the great river about which so many legends have sprung, courses a winding path
through territories once famous, but now historic, as the center of early civilization.
"On the banks of this ancient river the inhabitants worshipped the stars, the canopy
which they first studied and later adored. They discovered the elements of Physics
and writing in Hieroglyphics." They were driven to seek out the art by which they
could curb the overflowing of the Nile and therefore fell on the inevitable medium of
Geometry.
"Some say that they were the first makers of wine in the city, Plinthis, and
beer was first made from malt and barley." (Purchas His Pilgrimes.)
The Phoenicians learned the elements of culture from the Egyptians and these
were then given to the Greeks by Cadmus.
We have seen thus far the march of civilization. I shall now draw your at¬
tention to the religion of the Ethiopians. Without any lengthy discussion I may say
that while the other people were polytheists, the Ethiopians were a people who
worshipped the Guigbima, which signified the Lord of heaven. This was afterward
the foundation of the Jewish religion. (See Frobenius; Voice of Africa.)
I shall concisely touch on the dynasties of ancient Ethiopia. I have already
alluded to the origin of the first royal race. Though I shall not attempt to discuss
the various dynasties, it will be sufficient for me to disclose the power of the Ethio¬
pian monarch. When Kisra fled from his country he was protected by the King
Napata of Meroe, in Ethiopia. He was sent out on a campaign in the West, and
there conquered the inhabitants whom he made subordinates of the Ethiopian king.
The prosperity of the Kisra-Napata dynasty induced many artisans to come to the
east and build and decorate great houses there. Frobenius says: "This dynasty
travelled westward as priests and kings combined and ever since humanity was never
able to free themselves from the holy laws of nature whereon these dark skinned
nations travelled."
"Zerah, the Ethiopian monarch, commanded a million soldiers and made war
in the kingdom of Judea.'' (See Hayne.)
The armies of Candace, the Queen of Abysinnia, defeated the Roman soldiers
under the command of the praefect of Augustus Caesar.
The following is a story of an Ethiopian monarch:
When King Cambyses wanted to invade the country of the Ethiopians, he sent
spies who bore presents to the King, in order that they might conceal their real intent.
No sooner than they were in his presence, the monarch, who was well trained in
the art of detecting deceit, told them of their subtle device. He then held "out a bow
to them and said: "Go tell your King Cambyses that whenever the Persians can use
a bow the size of this one then they will be able to fight the Ethiopians.'' The spies
turned away astonished at the size of the bow and more so at the merciful attitude
of the King. Merciful because they were spies and invaders in the country of a
mighty people who could have deprived them of life.
The Ethiopian monarchs saw the day when Ethiopia exalted in her power and
glory. They too knew of her might and influence on their neighbors, but as tem¬
poral power was transitory then as it is now, the potency of the exalted kingdom
waned. Wars directed against them weakened their power, expulsion from Arabia
and other places crushed their influence. Then, as Gibbon says, "A long period began
when they were surrounded by the enemies of their religion, slept for nearly a thou¬
sand years, forgetful of a world by whom thev were forgotten." Here Ethiopia re¬
tired unmindful of the world, here she stopped to rock the cradle in which civiliza¬
tion was nurtured, here she slept while others carried on the work which she had
started only to be discredited when she awoke. Her myths, legends, and traditions
are many. Her kings, queens, and princes played their part which is characteristic
of mighty monarchs. Her dynasties have made a political landmark which centuries
cannot erase. Her culture passed on to other people while her sons were slumbering
under dissolution and awaiting the Portuguese pioneers to arouse them from th/sir
lethargy.
Chapter III
ABDUCTION
The 15th century was the period of exploration and discovery.
During these times, nothing could thwart the ambition of men for adventure.
But this period was not the first of its kind, for we have seen the early .darings of
The Roots of the Universal Negro Convention
11
the Phoenicians venturing in a skiff far from land with a lone star as their guide.
The Phoenicians and the Babylonians might well be styled the two earliest nations
to deal in commerce. Later the Roman galley came into existence. With her fleets,
Rome could wage war on land and sea. Still later we see the various nations with
fleets of sailboats, long before the steam vessel was invented by Robert Fulton. In
1442 Prince Henry, the Navigator, was fired with the ambition to secure new lands
for Portugal. It was not long before his cupidity was satisfied. The explorer sought
regions on the coast of Africa where he got a foothold for further exploration.
Spanish colonies were established, forts built to impede the resistance of the natives
and the encroachment of foreign powers. Thus with the confidence of security at
home and abroad, the day was not far distant when exploitation and the trade in
human lives would begin. Antam Gonzales may be well credited as the pioneer of
Negro abduction. This man, an officer of Prince Henry, was the first to take
Negroes from their continent and put them in Spain. He may also be credited as
the first exploiter, for along with the ten Negroes he brought gold dust to Spain.
By this act and novelty of the explorer, Spain was rejuvenated. The ambitions of
his companions were excited to deal in the novel enterprise of human trade. Slaves
were taken from their homeland to Seville. Here the partings of families in divers
ways without a hope of reunion, began. The children of the Spanish slaves grew
up only to be transported to the island of Hayti which was then a Spanish colony.
There some became mine workers, others were placed in positions which were of a
servile and menial nature. Through the influential Bartolome de las Casa, each
Spanish resident in Hayti received a license to import twelve Negro slaves, as
"Charles," says Robertson, "granted a patent to one of his Flemish favorites contain¬
ing exclusive right of supplying 4000 slaves annually to Hayti, Cuba, Jamaica and
Porto Rico. The favorite sold his patent to some Genoese merchants for 25,000
ducats: these merchants obtained the slaves from the Portuguese and this was the
first systematized slave trade between Africa and America.
In 1619, a Dutch vessel came up to the port of Jamestown and there un¬
loaded its human cargo of ten Negroes who served as the forerunner of the hordes
of their brethren who were about to be transplanted to a new continent. At this
period the colonists saw that Negroes were better able to work, could produce more
work than the other laborers who were then on this continent. With this knowledge
the demand for Negroes became great and the trade in human flesh was adopted.
By the inducement of European commodities, hunters of humanity appeared on the
scene. "They made forays. They set fires to villages at night and captured the in¬
habitants." Every manner by which they could capture their prey was utilized.
Thus was the terrible condition of affairs and the shocking barbarism in Africa am¬
plified by the stimulus of foreign greed. In this way natives were forced to leave
their homes, kept in camps to await the earliest slave ship to carry them to foreign
ports. The slave ship arrived; the human cargo placed on board. The slaver has no
soul. The maritime lodging caused death to many a slave. The food furnished to
the individual could merely keep soul and body together. The Encyclopaedia Britan-
nica, in the facts of the passage to the West Indies, states "12y2% died. At James¬
town, 4%% died, while in the harbor or before the sale, and % more in the seasoning.
Thus out of every lot of one hundred shipped from Africa, 17 died in about 9
weeks and not more than 50 lived to be effective laborers on the island." In order
to keep up the servile conditions of slave labor, the slaver was kept busy with his
supply of men coming from the interior of the great continent. Thus was the dis¬
paragement of men of African stock. The great upheaval of the human volcano
stimulated by foreign enticement continued to pour forth her lawful sons bearing
with them the badges of servitude to other climes. "England today with all her
philanthropy sends under the cross of St. George to convenient magazines of lawful
commerce on the coast, her Birmingham muskets, Manchester cottons, and Liverpool
lead, all of which are righteously swapped at Sierra Leone, Acra and on the Gold
coast for the Spanish and Brazilian bills on London. Yet what British merchant
does not know the traffic on which these bills are founded, and for whose support
his wares are purchased. France with her bonnet rouge and fraternity dispatches
her Rouen cottons, Marseilles brandies, flimsy taffetas and indescribable variety of
tinsel je joues. Philosophic Germany demands a slice of her looking glass and
beads; while multitudes of'our traders who would hang a slaver as a pirate do not
hesitate to supply him indirectly with tobacco, powder, cotton, "Yankee Rum and New
England notions in order to bait the trap in which he may be caught. It is the temp-
12
The Roots of the Universal Negro Convention
tation of these things I repeat that feeds the slave-making wars of Africa, and forms
the human basis of those admirable bills of exchange."—Captain Canot.
Thus in their new abodes they labored under the command of masters whose
language was unintelligible to them.
Whether in sickness or in health the Negro was considered as an animal, in¬
capable of suffering and must work for a caste and class of humanity who called
themselves superiors. Internally Africa was rent in confusion which hindered an
earlier rejuvenation of the continent. The progress of the inhabitants were further
hampered by the domination of European influence over a people whose culture laid
the basis for all succeeding nations. While the human products of the African soil
were expending their energy in the fields of foreign lands, the native land of the Africans
was being exploited of its mineral products.
Chapter IV
STRUGGLE FOR EXISTENCE
Far removed from the scenes of childhood they were brought to combat the
forces of nature and to take up the burden of labor on the plantations of the West¬
ern world. Their children came to inherit the same position as th°ir unfortunate
parents whose modus Vivendi extended to the offspring of their third and fourth gen¬
eration. In the cotton fields they labored giving their strength to their over-lords
who did not regard their welfare whether it be in sickness or in health.
At dawn the fields were littered with specks of human beings bending upon
the hoe or picking the snow white puff of the cotton plant. This was only an episode
of the drama of a slave's life. Ignominious tortures followed in the trail of servile
conditions and the slaver aroused by human avarice to exact even life from their
vassals to satisfy their greed for the production of cotton. "Let every man of spirit
and feeling for a movement cast his thoughts over this land of slavery; think of the
nakedness of some, the hungry yearnings of others, the flowing tears and heaving
sighs of parting relative, the wailing and woe, the bloody cut of the keen lash, and
the frightful screams that rent the very skies—and all this to gratify ambition, lust,
pride, avarice, vanity, and other depraved feelings of the human heart. The worst
is not generally known; were all the miseries, the horrors of slavery to burst at once
into view, a peal of seven-fold thunder could scarce strike greater alarm." (Swain's
address, 1830.)
"If the infernal secrets of the kidnapped, prison house, their plantations, could
be divulged, and all the tortures, scourging, rapes, maimings, barbarity, pollutions,
and massacres with which they are begrimed, black and bloody, could be unfolded,
the record would be like an ancient roll of the prophet, Ezekiel, written within ^and
without lamentations, mournings and woe." (The Picture of Slavery, Bourne.)
The following is taken from the Liberator, May 3rd, 1834:
"Yesterday about ten oclock the dwelling of Mr. Lalaurie, corner of Royal and
Hotel Streets, was discovered to be on fire, and whilst the engines were busy in ex¬
tinguishing it, it was rumored that several slaves were kept chained in some of the
apartments. The crowd rushed in to their deliverance, Mr. Cononge, judge of the
Criminal Court, demanded of Mr. and Mrs. Lalaurie where these poor creatures
were kept, which they obstinately refused to disclose. Mr. Cononge with a manly
and praiseworthy zeal rushed into the kitchen which was on fire followed by two or
three young men and brought forth a Negro woman found there chained. She was
covered with bruises and wounds from severe flogging. All the apartment was then
forced open. In a room on the ground floor, two more wjere found chained and in a
deplorable condition. Upstairs and in the garret four more were found chained,
some so weak to be unable to walk, and all covered with wounds and sores. One
mulatto boy declares himself to have been chained five months, being fed daily with
only a handful of meal, and receiving every morning the most cruel punishment."
—New Orleans Mercantile Observer.
"Upon entering one of the apartments the most appalling spectacle met their
sight. Seven slaves, more or less horribly mutilated, were seen suspended by their
neck with their limbs stretched and torn from one extremity to the other. Language
is inadequate to give a proper conception of the horror which a scene like this must
The Roots of the Universal Negro Convention
13
have inspired. We shall not attempt it, but leave it rather to your imagination to
picture what it was."—New Orleans Bee.
There was no choice given to the slave; he had to endure the decisions of his
master even if it was detrimental to him. The propositions of South Carolina laid
down as certain laws from which Strowd drew the following corollaries:
"1. The master may determine the kind, the degree, and time of labor to which
the slave shall be subjected.
"2. The master may supply the slaves with such food and clothing only both
as to quantity and quality as he may think proper or find convenient.
"3. The master may at his discretion inflict any punishment upon the person
of his slave.
"4. All the power of the master over his slave may be exercised not by him¬
self only in person but by any one whom he may depute as agent.
"5. Slaves have no legal rights of property in things real or personal; but
belong in point of law to their master.
"6. The slave being a personal chattel, is at all times liable to be sold abso¬
lutely, or mortgaged, or leased at the will of his master.
"7. He may also be sold by process of law for -the satisfaction of the debts
of a living and debts and bequests of a deceased master, at the suit of creditors or
legatees.
"8. A slave cannot be a party before a judicial tribunal in any species 'of action
against his masters no matter how atrocious may have been the injury received
from him.
"9. Slaves cannot redeem themselves nor obtain a change of masters, though
cruel treatment may have rendered such a change necessary for their personal safety.
"10. Slaves being objects of property, if injured by a third person, their owners
may bring suit, and recover damages, for the injury.
"11. Slaves can make no contract.
"12. Slavery is hereditary and perpetual."
These were the types of laws laid down which the slaves were to obey.
The master may determine the time of labor which he exacted from them whether in
sickness or in health. The condition of slaves in the eyes of their masters was never
disabled to withstand labor. Therefore he ignored the fact that humanity does not
choose the bed of affliction even in extreme poverty but when nature renders that
bed inevitable human existence depends on that resting couch. There was no couch
on which the dark skinned men could recline, no pity shown to the dusky sons of
the soil; they only remained in a state of inactivity when within the limits of a few
days they would be transported to everlasting bliss or eternal rest.
He supplied them with food and clothing. A reverend gentleman from the
north was once invited to take dinner with one of the family of a slave holder. He
accepted the invitation and went to the house at the hour set for dinner. There the
table was well set with the delicacies of slave labor and prepared by the slaves who
dare not enjoy it. The waiters were slave girls, scantily dressed, whose forms could
be seen through their garments and who by virtue of the law of progenitors could
call the slaver their father. The time for feasting was about to begin when Con¬
science aroused this stranger to refuse to partake of the products of slave labor,
and to ask for some of the hominy which was the food of the slaves. This procedure
was met with displeasure. The stranger had to hasten to a place of safety to shelter
from the wrath of the offended host. The master inflicted punishment according to
his discretion. The disastrous effect in the master's judgment can be explained in
many ways; but it is sufficient to say, there was not a slave being flogged without
bearing the cuts and gashes in his flesh. The ignominy of mankind is only told by
historical bias; but if the reality of the sufferings, tortures, and oppression of the
slave were all known, it would have struck the hardest heart to appeal for mercy
long before the early Abolitionists started on their movement. I shall not comment
on the rest of the corollaries for the reader will at once see the intent of the laws
by which the slaves were subjected. These unfortunate inhabitants of the cotton
fields were forbidden to take instruction or to be instructed. They were to be sub¬
missive to all white persons and should not exert their physical ability even though
one of inferior strength was the imposter on feminine virtue or the intruder of the
sacred rights of the family where manliness must be shown even in the hearts of the
14
The Boots of the Universal Negro Convention
basest of mankind. In religion these supposedly inferiors had to take their instruc¬
tions under the tutelage of white ministers. At this point I must turn aside for
a moment and point out the result of which is seen in our day. Here was the be¬
ginning of the forcible teaching of white man's superiority imposed on the black
man, who in bondage with no alternative accepted the false doctrine which fell with
more weight on his sons as slavery advanced in years. The aspects and magnitude
of this doleful teaching propagated by force and might, found a fruitful soil in the
illiterate man degenerated by centuries of slavery.
Still manly courage was not entirely killed. Here and there slaves resented
the aggressions of their masters, protected their families and defended themselves.
A slaver once entered the cabin of a slave whose mother he had flogged to death,
and attempted to inflict punishment on him, but fell into a combat in which the slave
killed him. Attempts of liberation in part have been made by the oppressed men.
Ca1o of Stono has been recorded as the first American Negro to inspire his fellow
men with the desire for freedom. In 1740 the fire of freedom started in the breast
of a few Negro slaves who suddenly became ambitious for a better life than that of
a servile nature. They killed the guard of a warehouse in South Carolina and
seized arms and ammunition. They elected a captain from their number and start, d
on their way killing every white person with whom they came in contact, while they
augmented their army by enrolling every Negro whom they met.
Gabriel may be said to be the second slave who planned an insurrection.
Though provided with little arms, their success was to be determined by their bold¬
ness. Demark Yesey in whom America might have seen another Touissiant L'Ouver-
ture was betrayed through the inexperience of Wm. Paul who on his own accord
tried to enroll Devany, a spineless Negro, in the ranks of men whose ideas were
liberal and far-reaching. Still later as the spirit of freedom actuated the oppressed,
unexpectedly as a flash of lightning, Nat Turner and his band passed from house to
house slaughtering all the inhabitants and enrolling Negroes in his band. The con¬
sternation of the slavers was great. The fear that another Nat Turner was in their
house caused them to suspect all domestic Negro servants. This sudden uprising was
short-lived.
For a serious delay, caused by trying to gain another recruit, was followed by
the intervention of the slavers, who dispersed the band and captured its leader.
I shall now turn to the cabin life of these unfortunate beings and will not try to
give a picture of the interior. The whole family was kept in one room. They found
solace in jests and jokes and the sincere love and affection in the family circle,
which was not infrequently broken by the sale of a son or a father. While I scanned
the papers of 180.1-1837, I saw in every issue notices advertising the sale of Negroes.
At the public or auction sales these beings were brought and changed from
one hand to the other. Here the woman saw for the l'ast time her closest companion
severed from her by the decisions of her hard-hearted over-lord. Here men came to
make the detailed scrutiny of all parts of the unfortunate women who are left to the
mercy of the highest bidder. Here mother, sister, father, brother, were sold sepa¬
rately or in group. Here, too, the beloved child was torn from the arms of a mother
and was sold, only to leave her under the painful grief which gave her relief in spells
of frequent lunacy.
The autumn of slavery was now approaching when nature by its invisible
conversion began to soften the hard hearts of those who began to see the illegal op¬
pression of humanity and the disastrous influences which were retarding progress.
Anti-slavery agitators disseminated the propaganda of the evils of slavery. This
blissful propaganda spread with good results. The minds of Northerners were pre¬
pared in order to receive the refugees from oppression if by chance the deity of
slavery fell asleep, and unknowingly lay the opportunity of freedom within the
reach of the oppressed. They fled to the North by means of the Underground Rail¬
road. Among the numbers of fugitives of slavery, a man whose' prospects would
have been blighted if the South-land had domiciled him from birth to death, came
North in the person of Frederick Douglas. He gave the evidence to the world of
the repression of mortal by the existence of human servitude. This stern figure of
servile origin who felt the pangs of slavery, who saw the cruel punishment of women
who were opposed to the illicit intercourse of their over-lords, who saw the rapists of
feminine virtue exulting in their might and competing with each other in the viola-
±}on of the home made sacred by connubial ties, who witnessed the tortures, op-
The Roots of the Universal Negro Convention
15
pressions, punishments, and cruelties of his brother, began to agitate for the freedom
of his brothers and sisters who were still in slavery. There were other characters of
importance before the days of Douglas who showed the wonderful talent that was
in existence among the slaves. Phillis Wheatley, at the age of 17, was brought to
America in 1761. She was frail in physique. Later by her genius she illuminated
the world by her poetic art which ranked on a par with that of other poets. She was a
slave bought by Mrs. Wheatley at the auction sale. Blind Tom was a celebrated
organist. Old Paul was versed in Sanskrit. These and other' personalities would have
been completely forgotten if the omnipotent had not shown them the way for ex¬
pression of their individuality. How many geniuses have suffered and died under the
yoke of slavery? How many more men could not have shone like a luminary in the
firmament? How many women and men of dark skin have perished unknown to
fame; their ambitions crushed and unheralded, death claimed them to a grave of
oblivion?
These children were fettered both in soul and body. They were taught of the
everlasting destruction of the soul if they indulged in evil habits while they were liv¬
ing, and they feared the punishment of the body if they made any infraction on the
laws of their masters. The abolitionists were still at work. They saw the glaring
facts—that the existence of slavery caused a retrogression of a people who were
suffering within the confine of that institution. Thus by their constant agitation the
system of slavery was passing from its autumn to its winter. The liberal minded men
in that late day began to see the dire effect of slavery not in terms of oppression to
a race but to the backwardness of their country. The slave owners began to fight
all influences which tended to liberate the men whose labor was their sole support.
Irrespective of opposition, Abraham Lincoln, a Republican candidate, was nominated
for the Presidency in 1860. The way for his election was later determined by his
victory over Douglas in the debate at Freeport. At the time of his election the evil
intent to render slavery perpetual was shown by the states in which slavery ex¬
isted. The slave holders who were then the lords of their circumscribed common¬
wealth bonded themselves together and agreed that the preservation of slavery rests
only in secession and a separate Republic. Ultimately a Republic was set up and
their governmental control was in vogue. The retarding effect on the country and
the partition of the Union seriously confronted the newly elected President. Then
Lincoln came on the scene and disclosed his intent of saving the Union. In a letter
to Horace Greeley he enunciated his paramount object as that of saving the Union.
"If 1 could save the Union without freeing any slaves I would do it; if I could save
it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and
leaving others alone I would also do that. What I do about slavery and the colored
race, I do because I believe it helps to save the Union, and what I forbear I for¬
bear because I do not believe it would help to save the Union."
The Civil War raged on. The idea of a nation one and indivisible was for a
time in doubt. The best blood of the North and of the South fought with the
Army of the Potomac and the Army of Northern Virginia. Locked in a death strug¬
gle, now one side wavered, then the other. The one whose paramount object was to
save the union; the other to retain the institution of slavery.
Before I touch on the subject of freedom, I shall give the status of the slave
during this tumultuous period. J. R. Eaton, one of the transcendents of servile beings
now alive, gave the following tale. "My days that I have spent in slavery were hor¬
rifying. The things that were done cannot be told by writing nor even by speaking.
The minor details must be left out in writing and the intellect could not retain all the
things that were done. Uncle Tom's Cabin which was an exposure of the South did
not and could not tell the vile conditions as they truly were. A pair of eyes could
not see it all. When I was a boy in South Carolina, I experienced the miserable
state of affairs in which slaves existed. In 1855 I was taken from South Carolina to
Maryland by my master. In that state the condition of colored men were the same
as in South Carolina. It was not long after my residence in Maryland that the dark
clouds of slavery were dispersed by the glorious Civil War. The war was a blessing
to unfortunate mortals who were "under the yoke of oppression. The chances were
given to the oppressed whether they were prepared to live in slavery or seek free¬
dom even in the jaws of death. At the outbreak of the war many slaves enlisted.
I, through the benevolence of a kind brother, managed to escape and enlist in the
Federal Army at Washington. The propaganda of freeing the slaves was far reach¬
ing in spite of the careful manner by which the Confederates tried to keep it from
their slaves. I was brigaded in the ranks of my colored brethren who later fought
16
The Roots of the Universal Negro Convention
and lost their first battle at Fort Pillow. From this time on the slogan of our regi¬
ment was 'Remember Fort Pillow.' When we later came into combat with the
southern troops the cry of our regiment resounded o'er the field and with this as a
stimulus we swept everything before us." The earlier part of this chapter states con¬
ditions as Mr. Eaton described. "It was Frederick Douglas who told President
Lincoln that colored men would win the war; the force of the Negroes was felt
when the fate of the North was in the balance. It was then that colored men swung
victory to the side of the North and freedom to millions of ill-treated beings. We
fought for freedom and won. Today I am alive to see children of my contempo¬
raries going to school and enjoying the things that I have helped to fight for. If
the young people would take hold of opportunity and use it to their best advantages,
the Negro race would indeed be the greatest people living. I have heard of a move¬
ment which I believe to be the greatest movement of all times since our emancipa¬
tion, and that is the Black Star Line movement. The young men should invest their
money which will bring them results in later life. I did not have the chance as the
young men of to-day but it fills my heart to see the progress of the Negro for a little
more than fifty years. I am indeed an old man, 76 years of age, and have lived
through horrible and tumultuous times, but I glory in the supreme God who has en¬
abled me and my people to see the dawn of freedom; for the progress they have
made, and the brighter outlook for a splendid future. May God help them, and even
though I may be in my grave, my spirit shall always have faith and hope for a
better and glorious day for the coming generation of our dark-skinned progeny."
Chapter V
FREEDOM AND ITS DEFECTS
"We hold these truths to be self-evident—that all men are created equal, that
they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable Rights among which are
Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."—Declaration of Independence.
The new nation which came into existence on the wings of an untried theory
set about with glittering generalities, held two distinct groups of people. The one,
Anglo-Saxon by descent, religion, language and customs; the other, members of the
Negro race by descent. The former had everything in common. These latter, im¬
ported from east, west, and central Africa, had nothing which might serve as a
common bond of nationality save descent.
Now about the time the Pilgrims came to New England, there appeared off
Jamestown, Virginia, a Dutch vessel with a cargo of ten Negroes who were sold to
the colonists. Finding African labor cheap and profitable, the colonists immediately
issued a demand for more labor. England, Holland, France and Spain began a wild
scramble to ravage Africa of its aborigines, thus securing a monopoly of the slave
trade. Ships with their human cargo touched at ports in the West Indies, hoisted
sails and dumped the remainder of their load in America. The lot of slaves fell to
Zulus, Bushmen, Hottentots, now thrown together and subject to the same kind of
punishment. Their dialect, intelligible hardly to one another, lost its identity in the
language of their Anglo-Saxon masters, their differences in religion and customs were
smothered and soon forgotten in that of their new surroundings.
Up to the coining of the African on the North American continent, mankind,
during his numberless years of existence, had passed through various stages of Gov¬
ernment. May the assertion be made that the evolutionary tribal stage grew into
the powerful monarchies of the time? It is an obvious fact that the superstructure
of the monarchical form erected after the fashion of Imperial Rome had two stages
of development; it was ecclesiastical; secondly, it was civil. The ecclesiastical
oligarchy shaped after Imperial Rome, made Rome its capital, a pope, as Emperor;
bishops and archbishops as governors; its domain the empire of the Caesars. Every
man, woman and child was subject to the Pope's decrees. He was God's vicar on
earth, his power absolute, his word infallible.
This powerful state ruled with an Iron hand. Like Imperial Rome it conquered
whole races and compelled them to embrace Romanism. Like Imperial Rome it
stiffled every attempt to erect any other form. It tolerated neither Judaism nor
Mohammedanism. No other belief save Romanism was tolerattd. Freedom of action,
freedom of expression, was restricted to that as being consistent with Romanism.
The Roots of the Universal Negro Convention
17
The Civil oligarchy attained the heights of perfection in Imperial Rome. It
fell when Rome fell. Later it grew up side by side with the ecclesiastical oligarchy.
With each succeeding year aided and abetted by Ecclesiastical Rome, it grew more
powerful and, alas, divorced itself from its fellow oligarchy. Like Ecclesiastical
Rome, its strongholds were those provinces that came under the baneful influence
of Imperial Rome. Like Ecclesiastical Rome, it sought to spread its doctrines o'er
Western Europe, but lacking the organization, wealth and psychological influence
over the individual, as had Romanism, it failed. It had no eternal reward to offer,
neither had it an eternal punishment. Hence its failure.
For centuries discontent has been the evil which has carried kingdoms and
principalities on the downward path, thus to utter ruin. So it proved to be the foe
of monarchical ecclesiasticism, its satellite, and all its derivatives. The new epoch,
ushered in by a sudden religious upheaval, took an unexpected turn. Essentially a
movement of protest it developed into a radical change in religious as well as civil
affairs. Democratic, in that it was a movement of all classes regardless of caste, it
ridiculed the monarch and his doctrine of Divine Right; it lifted the people up as
the criterion of God's work; its end was humanity's.
Hand in hand with these two great religious creeds, there arose two champions.
England, breaking away from Ecclesiastical Rome, defended Protestantism. In her
earliest development, Britain had wrung from the hands of tyrants meagre rights of
liberty that the most advanced country on the continent had not yet dreamed of.
Britain championed the cause of oppressed Protestants. Watching Britain with
angry snarls, Spain, then France championed the cause of Rome. Lacking
elaborate organization to foster their cause in Britain save the King, Protestants
were persecuted and driven out of Britain. Yet, the masses were Protestants at
heart. Finding the Old World an unpleasant place in which to live, those persecuted
in Britain sought refuge in the New World. However, in spite of their persecution
at home they still looked to England as their champion. Meanwhile France, Rome
leading, pushed on in the wilderness of North America, establishing trading posts
and making alliances with Indians.
With France and England established in the New World it became a gruelling
contest in which only the fittest would survive. The fittest did survive for the
English colonies with slave labor as a military and economic asset, conquered the
sparsely settled French empire in America. We are not concerned over the lack of
Negro slavery in New France for the climatic conditions were such that African
labor could not survive the rigors and hardships of a Canadian winter. In Hayti
and Guadeloupe, in Peru and Cuba, Negroes were merely beasts of burden. Driven
beyond the point of human endurance, famished and ravaged by the tropical
fevers, Bushmen, Hottentots, Zulus, died by the thousands. Miscegenation produced
a hybrid population in many quarters, in which the blacks to whom Steward refers,
were at the bottom of this social order. In such a society, and under such a system
of Government best illustrated by Imperial France of the 18th century, freedom
was not a question of a Government cognizant of its past errors, but upon the
peculiar social unrest of the people affected, accompanied by a violent overthrow of
the form of government that had long existed. Seeing history repeat itself, bitter
experience has shown races, yea whole provinces, that to this logic of Government
protests and agitations have never produced any tangible result, save more oppression.
Thus freedom under such a form of Government was impossible; the only freedom
that has ever been wrung and which mankind may well expect to wring from such
a monarchy is an upheaval of the form which necessitates a complete change in the
Governmental organization; or, complete separation. Such were the facts that
blazoned before the eyes of the "blacks," essentially the slave element in Hayti. This
is the answer to the beneficent policy of France on the mainland of North America.
On the other hand Negro slavery had existed in every British Colony in the
New World. Thanks to the strong Puritan influence over New England, and the
nature and temperament of the colonies, slavery became extinct long ere it had
made headway. Urged on by this noble sentiment that the aim of all government
and of Christianity is humanity's, the best brains of the other colonies saw the end
of human slavery approach. The colonial Governments inspired by the God fearing
New Englanders were contented to see nature rout an evil which had now turned
out to be an economic loss. Conditions were such that an imminent extinction of
slavery seemed inevitable and the proportion of Negroes freed were one-tenth.
In all these colonies some Negroes acquired education and property. Some had
the rights to vote while others became artisans and skilled workmen. Many too,
18
The Boots of the Universal Negro Convention
served with credit in the colonial militia and distinguished themselves in many a
pitched battle with the French and Indians.
The natural destruction of slavery in America received an irretrievable set¬
back. The thirteen American colonies, one by descent, religion, language and customs,
revolted, and in a series of charges drew up an indictment of the British Govern¬
ment, thus absolving themselves from any allegiance to it. Achieving independence,
preservation of their national unity became their fore-thought. Try as they might,
the slave question arose in every debate. Unable to reach an agreement as to the
status of the Negro, he was still left in involuntary servitude. The prospects of
freedom became more remote with the invention of the cotton gin and the application
of machinery in the textile industry. In spite of the suppression of the slave trade
there arose an increased demand for more labor. Unable to secure enough Negroes
by importation, propagation was fostered by illegal means. Conditions became as
horrible as had existed under a monarchical government. The Negroes toiled in the
rice fields under the lash of the overseers. The cotton fields produced many a
plaintive melody. These mournful songs expressive of the Negro's feelings, hope,
and aspirations found a champion in a sturdy New Englander. All New England,
aroused by the vehement attacks of William Lloyd Garrison championed the cause
of the Negro. The Puritan sentiment spread over the whole country. The tyranny
that had existed in the south-land, the non-respect of human rights irritated many
Northern minds. Protest meetings were held decrying slavery and its horrors. In
the Senate, now in the House, a passionate appeal for justice to the Negro could
be heard. Harsh invectives and epithets were hurled at those who held human
slavery, and Britain held up to the world as the great Emancipator, while the
greatness and magnanimity of the Negro in Hayti were expounded as the true
worth of the Negro in Freedom.
Yet the arguments of the logician could not make Southerners see the folly
of human slavery. When told that a house divided against itself cannot stand;
that the Federal Union cannot exist permanently half slave, half free states, their
reply was laughter. To substantiate these convictions the government archives were
searched and divine aid invoked. With such a background against which to work,
a new part}' whose aims were to preserve Republican ideals, took its stand. Holders
of Negro slavery became more and more despotic; and peeved at the mighty array
of logicians and orators marshalled against them, they became desperate in order to
maintain the institution of involuntary human servitude.
Here, we need not give details nor magnify the great Civil War in America
but thanks to divine aid and an absolute military necessity, Negroes in that portion
of the country which still bore arms against Federal Authority up to a certain
date, were proclaimed free. (Though declared free in the midst of a great national
calamity, victory alone clinched the verdict of the Legislature. The whole country
gave thanks, for the Puritan ideal in literature known as the root of transcendent¬
alism, became an accomplished fact. It is the first time in the history of any
Republic, that such a puzzling question had to be solved by resorting to arms.
Unlike the upheavals that occur in a monarchical empire, the scheme of freedom
was the result of Governmental machination which did not necessitate a change in
form. In fact, this act of the executive was a fitting climax to a controversy which
had the nation divided for sixty years. In the eyes of the world, it strengthened
the loosely placed and untried theories of democracy. In the eyes of oppressed
people, it made democracy their champion.
The Negro was now free, and legislations between the years 1865-1870 were
passed with the sole aim of elevating the Negroes to the full rights of citizenship,
thereby guaranteeing him full protection of the law. During this period the 14th
and 15th Amendments, now dead letters of the law, were enacted. Here, a Re¬
publican Congress made the first of its series of blunders which made freedom a
burden to both whites and blacks alike. The granting of freedom to the Negro
created its own problem within the race. It created inter-racial problems which
became more acute when legislation sought to remove natural and artificial barriers
that had existed for two and one-half centuries. Not concerning ourselves with the
intra-racial problem of the Negro, we believe that, were these his sole tmrden,
these could be easily eliminated and the perfection of racial unity or national ambi¬
tion would have developed in the same proportion as it had developed in the Anglo-
Saxon, the Frenchman, the Teuton.
Being unable to see this truth, the American Congress immediately sought to
add to his heavy load. Not realizing that the most dangerous weapon to put in the
The Roots of the Universal Negro Convention
19
hands of an ignorant man, was the ballot, it actually forced an inexpedient measure
on a class of ignorant people just out of a 250-year lease of bondage, without
regard to the capacities of that people or certain factions thereof. Though the act
whereof we speak gave the Negro* a political status, he was allowed to use it foolishly,
and was actually encouraged in his every action. The form of government estab¬
lished in the conquered territory, at first military, was speedily turned ovor to this
same illiterate mass, soldered around a few wayfarers from the north. Misled into
the belief that all Northern white men were his friends, the Negro politician made
blunder upon blunder. Through them the wrath of the white south was fostered
upon the race. But ignorant and inexperienced, they did not see that he was just
the tool of politicians; a means of securing Republican domination in the South.
This government, erected around adventurers, could not long remain secure, for cor¬
ruption, and mismanagement were seething out of every public officer. Unless we
emphasize too much the evils of his corrupt system of Government, let it be said
to the everlasting honor of the Negro Governments, that some very intelligent and
constructive legislations were enacted. Their mistakes, though many, ought not be
attributed to the Negro; but being an accessory in the crime and everpresent
at the scene of its enactment, to-day he is compelled to suffer the folly of his
illiteracy while the brain of the movement remains unscathed.
While Congress was displaying its wisdom it disfranchised those who bore
arms against the government. Such an act, unjust as it was unwise, eliminated the
entire white population of the South, who, justly or unjustly, look upon the Negro as
the cause of their sorrows. Shorn of property, their wealth gone, their social status
a thing of the past, the Southerner returned from the field of honor to find even
his personal liberty taken away. Unable to take a part in the working of the
government, he (the Southerner) was branded a traitor; his actions scrutinized;
his movements investigated. He was left in utter darkness to work out his salvation
as best he might. Hope eternal, which lingers within the breast of man, was his
only consolation.
Welded together by a common suffering, we see the Southern whites set
about with dogged tenacity to regain control of government and establish what to
their minds was the white "superiority" in the South-land. The opportunity presented
itself. The fabric of Reconstruction Government tottered and fell on the departure
of the Union troops from Southern soil. From that day on, the Negro began to.
see the folly of his mistake. Forsaken by many of its leaders the race was up
against it in the land of their birth, the only place which rightfully they could call
home. Attacked on all sides by venomous tongues and slanderous pens, his ignorance
prohibited him from intelligently defending himself.
Slavery with its 250 years of servile labor, mental servitude and moral servi¬
tude, dwarfed his mind. Unaccustomed to that freedom of speech which forms the
basic root in all English speaking communities; that freedom of will" typical of
early Puritanism, he, the Negro, could be easily intimidated. We can say on good
authority that this intimidation contributed in a large measure to the downfall of
the Negro rule in the South. Once in the saddle the whites used every available
means to deprive the Negro of the right of suffrage. Attributing his property loss,
his monetary loss and the insults and abuses to which he was subjected under the
so-called Negro domination in the South, to the race, the instrument of this domina¬
tion, the ballot, was gradually taken away. Finding that duress was but a poor
way to accomplish it they sought to evade the Constitutional amendment, by denying
him the right to vote, not because of race, color, or previous conditions of servitude,
but because he could not meet the requirement of the ignorant white trash at the
polls. Thus were grandfather clauses injected in the statutes, and property owner¬
ship a qualification to vote.
A race out of slavery could not be expected to own property but such were
the irony of fate and the deep ignorance of the early legislators. It is true that
the property of those who bore arms against the Union was confiscated and cut up
in small farms and parcelled out to the freed slaves, but this did not help to keep
him independent, for he was soon struggling in huge debts and mortgages. Lacking
any knowledge of real estate he was the victim of landsharks who grabbed his land
at the least sign of default in payment. Though the Negro might manage to keep
out of debts, though his property might be better cared for, he was the victim of
prejudice in comparison with his white neighbor. His property was undervalued.
Why? Because he was a Negro. To-day in our Northern communities the same
conditions hold true. In real estate dealings and insurance, it is a well known
20
The Roots of the Universal Negro Convention
axiom that because Negro tenants occupy a house, that house's value suffers a marked
decline in the business eye of brokerages and insurance companies. Suffering thus
from the inequalities of the value of real property it was not a difficult matter to
eliminate the mass of the Negro population from politics.
Aside from this great injustice to Negro property, his education became the
bone of contention. One result of slavery was the inevitable process of miscegenation.
The illicit cohabitation with Negro women under slavery injected a third, but not
numerous element which at first wielded great power. These mulattoes, octoroons,
and whatever the whites chose to call them were in many instances better educated
than their less fortunate brethren. It was to this element of the Negro race that
the educational opportunities were first presented. At first their attitude was one
of superiority over their less fortunate brethren. It is an historical fact that wher¬
ever these two elements have associated, there has been a tendency of the former to
assume a superior attitude. But, in this case their educational advantages were of
little avail, for after the reins of government were snatched from their hands by the
cunning whites, they were subjected to the same harsh treatment. Thrown together
in a common land, suffering a common fate with his black brother, his aspiration
crushed, he joined hands. It was a bitter lesson to learn, for it took the most
dogged and determined set of white people in the past century to teach him
(mulatto), his darker brethren, the white people of this country, yea of the entire
world, that "one drop of Negro's blood makes one a Negro where'er one goes".1
Here I shall not touch upon Negro education in the South land for we are all
acquainted with the theory of industrial education. Suffice it to say that the
illiteracy of Negro males of voting age was reduced from 88 per cent in 1870 to 52
per cent in 1900, and to 37.2 per cent in 1910.2
To the general mischief of slavery and its consequent influence upon the race
after freedom we need but quote, from A. B. Wolff. This eminent professor de¬
clares that: "Slavery was nothing if not a system of restraint. This restraint was
sometimes expressed in ignoble and brutal forms. It was sometimes expressed in
the forms of a kindly and not ungenerous paternalism. But, good or bad, it held
the race in check. It imposed its traditional limitations, it exercised a directive
and restrictive oversight. It was bondage."
Now if slavery set a mark beyond which the Negro must not rise, it surely
set one beyond which the Negro must not fall. To aid or arrest the one or the
other of these tendencies, the influence of the white population undoubtedly had its
effect. Knowing the element of good and that of bad in the white race was one
which our race could easily discern.
We cannot claim perfection for our race. But, the evil within our race
reflects of Anglo-Saxon tinge. And, the experience of everv race in bondage was
that freedom had a tendency to degenerate which was soon righted by the conservative
minds of the majority.
In conclusion, be it stated that the Negro, disfranchised, lynched, humiliated
at every turn, is now reaping the whirl-wind of the seed sown by Northern politi¬
cians. He makes the American Constitution a two-faced monster. Methods used
to disfranchise the Negro, arid to keep him out of all responsible positions, are
to-day used to eliminate members of the same race and party by the clique in
power. Fraudulent procedures and subterfuges are the mainstay of Southern
politics. But wherever there is friction, be it racial, or wherever Negro intelligence
is at stake, white men of the South line up in spite of personal or political differences.
Now, since the Federal Government freed the slaves without reimbursing the
holders thereof, subjected the whites of the South to the humiliation of the Negro
Governments, can there be any surprise over the status of our people in the South
when betrayed by those in whom they had placed their trusts? Cannot we under¬
stand such conditions when democracy is not even accorded us here in the North?
Chapter VI
VOICE OF THE PEOPLE
Inconsistent with the laws of nature, of a free and equal birth of all men,
the shackles and burden of oppression still laid heavily on the shoulders of a de-
1 J. C. Price.
2 A. B. Wolff, reading in Social Problems.
The Roots of the Universal Negro Convention
21
graded people. Irrespective of the fatherhood of God and brotherhood of man,
those who by the divine gift of God showed the appearance of African origin were
kept in abject slavery, until the redemption of their liberty or a fugitive from the
thralldom of injustice. Amidst the gloom of servile conditions there were -signs
and portents of a better future for those who loved death rather than slavery. Im¬
pelling Sentiments arose driving them to seek better conditions, either by hostile or
peaceful gatherings. In their quest for liberty they were not unaccustomed to meet
oppositions and discouragements. These retarding influences did not check the
motive power which was revolving in the minds of freedmen to agitate for better
conditions, the cause of which gave rise to the early convention movement of the
Negro.
Retracing the forgotten years of burden and toil of a sad race and looking
in the Liberator of May 28, 1831, a call was issued for a general convention for the
people of color signed by B. Benton and Wm. Whipper. This first and earliest
convention met for the purpose of securing land in Canada and the founding of a
college in New Haven where the Negro youth could be educated. The selected
plot in the state of Connecticut was denied them by the inhabitants who feared the
demoralizing tendency of a Negro institution on the property value of the locality.
Still the conventional tide rolled down the years and broke on political shores and
fertilized the soil to ameliorate the moral growth of the citizens. Such was the
aim of the National Conference in Buffalo in the year 1843. With this steady
march of progress through the convention movement a prejudicial line was imposed.
Men in their futile attempts for recognition issued a call for an assembly which
met at Philadelphia, October 16-19 in the year 1855. The Assembly aimed to find
means of breaking down these pernicious lines of prejudice through the medium
of education. In the following year another convention was called at Illinois to
petition the government for a redress of the many grievances. They had suffered
and were suffering the unjust payment of taxes without the right to vote. Poor
mortals, they were paying school tax without the right of sending their children
to school.
In this convention certain resolutions were passed. The state of Illinois was
under the obligation to raise $1,000 for propaganda. The results of this convention
as of the other, had produced only a minor effect. In later years 'midst sadness,
gloom, disfranchisement and discrimination, the Equal Rights League was founded,
on the ideals of moral, literary and financial advancement and the enjoyment of
equal rights without regards to race or color. Conventions, conferences, assemblies
followed rapidly as the years rolled by. Still the ideals for which the former meet¬
ing convened were in part attained and not fully realized. Inhuman practices and
distortion of the human body were dealt in by desperadoes of certain sections of the
country; incursions of mob violence called for the protection of lives and liberty.
The destruction of churches by fire bugs who were determined to exterminate the
Negro and eradicate the last, vestige of the Negro religious foundation were the
causes for the state convention in Nashville, Tennessee, February, 1871.
In these early years of freedom when the world was ablaze with civilization, •
and America had her share in the light of progress, the newly emancipated people
were groping in the shadows of ignorance, and calling for schools to meet the need
of the children of a new day. This convention appealed for men to make the con¬
ditions known to the world. Sectional knowledge did not improve the situation of
the state, nor did the concocted mutually consenting States who approved the
atrocities by their quiescence thwart or minimize the influence which vitalized the
spirit of mob violence. The world must know of the treatment meted out to the
citizens of a country. By the facts some lover of humanity may voice the sentiment
of an oppressed people. America knew of the evils that were extant, but the inimical
influence which grew up during the days of the Reconstruction impeded those who
loved the fair name of their land of liberty from uttering a word of protest against
the abominable crime of lynching and other maltreatments. Years of gloom were
always confronting the Negro. The sunshine of life seemed wholly or in part
absented from his path. Through this mist and darkness he groped and called
at every turn for a ray of light. There was no light to illuminate his road; no
guide to lead him; no aim for which he was striving; no conscious destiny which he
hoped to reach. He floundered and wandered wantonly to any haven for shelter
from the storm which threatened him through the gloom of a long night.
Individually the Negro cringed; collectively they assembled to make their
grievances known through petitions. These essential but non-effective appeals were
not considered by all men. There were individuals who gladly would have aided
22
The Roots of the Universal Negro Convention
in the carrying out of laws which would remedy the grievance, yet there were others
who by nature bow only to demand when such demand is followed by force. Within
the ranks of the Negro there was no unity, therefore no force could be exerted. His
ranks have been disorganized and force was lacking since our forefathers were
driven on the vessel which bore them from their native home. Slowly the spirit of
antipathy against the dormant consciousness of racial integrity began to see the
failings of his brother man. The disastrous deeds of violence perpetrated on this
seemingly forgotten race when the world was enjoying the blessings of peace were
closing the ranks for Negro unity. Still the important part of progress which
determines the existence of a people was lacking. The autocratic principles of the
industrial unions were insurmountable barriers in his path. The Negro, void of
industrial life, was in a struggle for bread. In his haste to preserve life he
violated the principle of fraternity, thus isolating himself from his brothers in
order to retain the pittance which would prolong the life of the individual. From
every den the individual called for help. No one came to his aid. A dark cloud
was setting. At the moment when every nerve of Negro manhood was summoned
to give his last shout for help and then to die, the fragile lining of the cloud broke
and deluged the earth with blood. This deluge was the great World War, the
catastrophe which lightened the industrial burden of the Negro.
Still other atrocities were inflicted on a helpless people. Germany in her
haste to conquer the world made her way through Belgium, through rivers of
blood. Her atrocities appalled the world. Her treachery shocked humanity. She
disregarded the rights of nations and closed her eyes to the treatment of mortals.
Germany in her extreme desire for victory did not hesitate to inflict the death
penalty on Edith Cavel, the Red Cross nurse. With all these criminal offenses on
record, though inexcusable, Germany may say it was a war measure and could
not be avoided. She was at war. These things were done to the disgust of the
allies who later inflicted a severe punishment on the violater of human liberty.
America imposed a record unparalleled to any other country whether in war of in
peace. The incursions of mobs in hospitals, the incendiaries which were caused by
men whose intellect became morbid by a continued hatred of the Negro, were car¬
ried out in a land of peace and liberty. Germany astounded the world in the
shooting of the British nurse. America could not be satisfied to stand in the rear,
therefore she vied with Germany in the lynching of Mary Turner, a Negro girl,
who was soon to be a mother. Is America responsible for the East St. Louis
Massacre, or the Houston Texas Defense?
Whether or not she is responsible for these occurrences, it is evident that
she was responsible for her judicial decision. The East St. Louis tribunal could
not find the aggressors to bring them to justice; but a historic prejudicial court in
Texas immediately saw the guilt of twenty-six soldiers who were provoked by the
insults and abuses of some of the patriotic citizens of the American commonwealth.
From this number thirteen paid the death penalty on the gallows for protecting
themselves. See them to the number of thirteen dangling by their necks, soldiers of
the United States army, deprived of a soldier's death or even that usually meted
out to spies and traitors; they died the death of thieves, robbers and perjurers, in
ignominious shame!
Continuous depredations on Negro lives and property existed. The soul of
the Negro is stirred. Ten thousand men, women and children joined in a great
heartrending prayer and silent parade to invoke Governmental sympathy of fair
play for an oppressed people. Yet entreaties, protests, petitions, and invocations
were useless. What must be done? The voice of the people called for unity, one
fold and one shepherd. Amidst this kaleidoscopic cataclysm, the mass began to
question whether or not their liberty would be desired under the same govern¬
mental jurisdiction. At this time when the minds of men were not tempered with
sobriety, when established principles were disregarded and the transitional period
was inevitable, the man of the hour made his appearance on the stage of action
and began his plan that will eventually lead his people to the light of a new day.
Chapter VII
THE MAN OF THE HOUR
At every crisis in the history of races and nations there has always been a
man of the hour. Marcus Garvey is undoubtedly the man of the hour for the
Negro Race today. Out of the blackness of a night of suffering he has succeeded
The Boots of the Universal Negro Convention
23
where others have failed and has shown the clear vision of the dawn of a new
day for the Negro. If he does nothing else in this life, he has already achieved the
greatest attainment of human endeavor—the unification of the scattered millions
of black men and women into one gigantic thinking machinery. Thus he has accom¬
plished a task which will place him forever side by side with the greatest of his¬
tory's immortals. The historians of the ages to come will write beneath a golden
wreath of precious memories and bright traditions on the walls of Fams the name
of this resplendent luminary and brilliant star of the new firmament of Ethiopian
civilization. They will tell glorious and alluring tales of him, who, leading the
millions of oppressed Race out of the bondage of enslavement, through the wilderness
of racial ostracism and prejudice, dared to defy every obstacle and barrier placed
in his pathway by mortal hands and sweeping aside every obstruction and opposition
that confronted him in the path of his dogged determination to make his people
free, forged on ahead with rugged impulse toward that goal of Negro unity,
African union and independence, and Ethiopian democracy. That very spirit of
determination to do or to die in the cause of the liberty of this Race, despised and
rejected, has found a dwelling place in the hearts of us all even as it has built
forever an eternal abode in the heart and soul of Marcus Garvey—the Man of the
Hour.
Chapter VIII
CLIMBING THE HEIGHTS
The goal of progress cannot be reached without a great struggle at the ex¬
pense of energy. In the attempt of the giants to invade the sacred domain of the
Olympian Gods, a fixed and determined purpose was their ideal.
Ranulph climbed the Perce Rock in order to escape from oppression. He
cherished the great desire for freedom and determined to obtain it even at the
cost of death. Slowly he climbed. His fingers, knees, and toes were almost worn
to the bone. Thrice he halted, and thrice he attempted. He finally reached the
summit in a dazed and almost unconscious condition. The birds in the thinner air
welcomed his arrival. They chirped, and sang, and fluttered around him. As soon
as he revived he let down a rope and aided another to safety and freedom.
The natural rights of freedom to man though they are sometimes hindered and
opposed can always be obtained by energy and persistence. "Since the rights of
men are beginning to be universally understood, and freedom is the order of the
day, since revolution is marching onward with earthquake steps and thrones are
tottering and about to fall, since the fetters are everywhere falling and truth is
vanquishing error, since nations are forming leagues and people of every tribe are
shouting liberty," the Negro in this1 tumult for freedom is shouting, "Liberty now and
liberty forever."
The various groups of people of the earth have produced their extraordinary
men. "Persia has given her Nador, the Goths their Alaric and Attila, Tartary her
Genghis Khan, England her Cromwell, France her Napoleon, Germany her Bis¬
marck, America her Washington and the Negro World has produced a man not
less formidable, with the spirit of his Ethiopian mother. Candace, his brother,
L'Ouverture, with the gift of eloquence of a Douglas, in the person of Marcus
Garvey. This man was "destined to stir men's minds and to prepare them for the
exigencies of the dawn of a new day. In the early years of the wprld war he
came to this metropolis, lonely and almost unknown. Yet he kept ever before him
the vision of Negro liberty and the ideal of an African Commonwealth. Gradually
he advanced and drew apart from the bustling world thirteen men of serious in¬
tentions to lay the first branch of the Universal Negro Improvement Association in
America. ,
In Lafayette Hall the meeting opened and adjourned. It may be called the
nursery of Negro liberty. Lafayette has helped to bring liberty and independence
to the American Republic and Lafayette Hall has sheltered the founders of Negro
Improvement. In this hall men pledged their support to a standard that was yet to
come into existence. They pledged their loyalty to the cause which indicated to
them the future hope of Negro Independence.
The association of thirteen persons was augmented and the growth gave the
thought of its incorporation in the States thus stabilizing the parent body of the
24
The Roots of the Universal Negro Convention
Universal Negro Improvement Association in New York. This association was at
first looked at as an asylum for madmen; and its founder an agitator for a Com¬
monwealth in "Modern Utopia." The Negro World was published. With this
official organ the influence of the organization was carried to those who did not
consider the serious intent of this society. The Motto: "One Aim, One God, One
Destiny," became the propelling force of this new order.
The vision of this new outlook was now beginning to be realized and Lafayette
Hall could not shelter the increasing aspirants of this new order. "The scene was
changed." The Universal Negro Improvement Association in her second step of
success began her operation in the Crescent Building.
Not many months intervened before the influx of members gave an idea for
a larger place where one could sit at ease and comfort. The tide of success bore
on her crest the loyal members of this newly found organization and deposited
them in the precinct of the Palace Casino.
There the plan was laid for the inevitable launching of the Black Star Line
which has suddenly directed the minds of the people to a greater outlook not only
in the industrial world but also in the field of commerce.
It was well that the schedule of the Negro enterprise has been worked out
as it was proposed. While the hostile world was looking on and was imposing
obstacles at every step, the internal racial indifferences were at their limits.
The revelation of this novel idea struck a cold indifferent world, a world in
which the Negro succumbed to the fate of his environment. There he lived in the
confines of individualism and resisted every effort that aimed at the unity of the
race. The initial beginning of the racial shipping industry had its flaws as all
other experimental enterprises by inexperienced pioneers.
For after the field of Negro industry has been surveyed, and after an almost
impartial estimate was conjectured, the fleet was to be built up by the donations of
the members of the race. The quota was allotted to every section of the world
where the Negro is found. The sum varied in accordance with the wealth of the
sections. This seemingly nonsensical and impossible plan for launching such a great
enterprise by voluntary contribution did not progress to any great extent before it
was transformed into a real corporation. This corporation marked the beginning of
real Negro energetic struggle for self-help and self-dependence. Obstructions and
obstacles were not wanting in the struggle of self-help. Myriads of oppositions
were brought into play. Litigations brought by concerted actions of racial traitors
as they were termed, summoned the founder of the enterprise to the bar of justice.
The legal authorities and these racial traitors in their stern opposition to the sudden
enhancement of racial amelioration, determined to stampede the progress and the
success of the all-conquering movement by their call of the originator to a tribunal.
He passed through the organized boycott with his honesty intact, and pursued
his plan with more vigor and complacency.
The press, the moulder of public opinion, in her turn was opposed to his
project.
He was bitterly attacked on all sides. His speeches were scrutinized, and
his writings were carefully read in order to find any libellous statements against
the government of the state or country. On the morning of the 26th, August, 1919,
the New York American published certain misinterpreted quotations from his
speech which he delivered at Carnegie Hall the night before.
Although this meeting was called to arouse interest in the sale of stocks for
the Black Star Line Corporation, it took the form of a declaration, given to the
world, that the Negro would recognize no leadership, but a true leadership secured
by the election of Negroes.
Thus far I have superficially stated the actions of the association in the
various halls. I shall endeavor to give the accomplished deeds in the nursery of
Negro liberty. With the birth of the association in Lafayette Hall, its march to
the Crescent Building, its pressure into the Palace Casino and by its blockade from
The Boots of the Universal Negro Convention
25
the latter it was forced to find a place of its own and this place was called Liberty
Hall.
Under the roof of this mecca of Negro Independence, deeds were done which
in times past would be called miracles. From this Hall the influence fermented the
minds of the race that men of similar skin must look to the same ideal. The ideal
of a "Free and Redeemed Africa."
Thus as an incentive for the further progress to this ideal, which if I shall
coin a suitable expression, those who were suffering from intellectual myopia could
not visualize the progress while the Black Star Line was moving at a rapid pace.
Still in the ranks of the Negro were men who were opposed to progress.
In the steady march of Negro progress there were some who could not stand
prosperity, and by their fickleness allowed themselves to be bought and became the
stern opposers of racial welfare. The loyalty which every member of a race owes
to his race was roused in the heart of few lovers of liberty. The opponents of
progress were found everywhere. They expressed themselves from the pulpit and the
press. The following may give an idea of the concocted plan which was devised to
thwart the achievement of the practical movement. "Just at this time there is an
organized campaign of villainy engineered by a few mean-hearted Negroes who
have never been of any use to the race nor to themselves except in fleecing the
people of their hard-earned pennies in all kinds of tricky ways. This campaign
is waged for the purpose of defeating the great purpose we have in view, that of
lifting our race out of the present plight. (Negro World, September 13, 1919.)
The huge task of launching a Negro fleet advanced as if it was propelled
by an almighty dynamo. It crushed many obstacles which were laid in its paths
and those that it could not crush, as Henrietta Vinton Davis said, "It went around
them."
Day by day new antagonists appeared on the scene. New reproaches hurled
in defiance of this enterprise. A new publication clothed in subtle mendacity was
circulated to prejudice the minds of those who were taking broader views in world
outlook. From the Editor's Note of the Chicago Defender, September 6, 1919, is
taken the following, after he had adversely shown the legal situation of Marcus Garvey
and District Attorney Swan: "Steamship tonnage today costs around $250,000 a ton.
In addition there are steep charges for maritime insurance, dockage, fuel, help, etc.
The possibility of such a line ever being started through the raising by popular sub¬
scription of $5.00 more or less each seems highly remote."
The attacks of orators, the insistent oppositions of the press, served only to
propagate the news to that section of the world that was not yet in receipt of the
Negro World. Every determined stand against Marcus Garvey and the Universal
Negro Improvement Association rendered the man more conspicuous in public life
and in a measure spread the influence of the work of the Association. Every op¬
posing action on the part of the Universal Negro anti-agitators caused an opposite
reaction which increased the membership of the organization and the interest of the
Black Star Line. The intended sinister influence did not gain a foothold. The
people in their quest for the truth came to the meeting in such large numbers that
the building could not accommodate them. Those who entered, returned converted
to the cause of Negro uplift. They no longer remained sophists but became willing
workers for Negro welfare.
In the light of the steady and certain progress the orators failed, the press
failed, the legal authorities could not find a plausible indictment against the man
either by his work or action, they too failed as well as the anti-agitators of the
Universal Negro Improvement Association. With the failure of all these attempts
of suppression a new method of procedure was planned.
"A new method which was to deal a death blow to the life of the movement."
One day in September, 1919, the intended fatal shots were fired.
The outcome of this sinister intention was a wounded man determined to
carry on a work for the welfare of his fellow men with utter disregard for self.
26
The Roots of the Universal Negro Convention
Though lame, he was always present to do his duty. The following Sunday
the seemingly impossible happened. A wounded man not urged on by any superior
officer as a soldier on the battle field, a man striving not for any selfish aim for
personal recognition, but a man loyal to his race entered the portal of the cradle
of liberty to give encouragement to those who were earnestly waiting. This motley
crowd of young and old people representative of all classes and groups burst out
into a frenzied uproar of jubilation at the sight of a man supported by a crutch and
apparently dead in one of the appendages of his lower extremity. Slowly he
moved to the platform amidst wild cheers; deafening shouts of welcome and ad¬
miration were sent up for the champion of Negro liberty. No figure could be more
impressive to behold, no keener sense of loyalty ever witnessed.
He gave the same impression as other men whose names are immortalized by
historians and whose deeds have been perpetrated throughout the ages. Willi the
gloom of a sombre future somewhat lightened, the machinery of the movement
began to function as never before. The motive force was running at high tide.
Nothing could prevent the floating of the Black Star Line. The Black Star Line
was boosted by the attack on the founder of the movement.
The schedule of the plan was approaching its limit. The propaganda was
swiftly spreading. From the far shores of Africa men answered the call and by
their financial support aided the cause which gave the impetus to Negro uplift.
On the evening of the 30th of October, sunset marked the doom of the
industrial oppression, and the dawn of the following day recorded the entrance of
the Negro into the commercial world. Prior to the dawn, the great shout of the
Negro celebration was heard around the world. From the rostrum of the Madison
Square Garden the Negro gave forth his decision to be self-dependent. Here he
laid the germ for a future Declaration of Independence of the Negro.
England was stirred. France looked on. "Who is Garvey these nations
asked? What does he intend to do?" In the New York World of October 31, the
headline was seen: "Negroes are sharpening their swords for the war of races."
In an English paper the writer showed how the white races would gain victory
over the Negroes by their scientific skill. In French papers the speech of Mr.
Garvey was printed. This gigantic celebration was only the forerunner of that
promised day when the Negroes of the Western Hemisphere would launch their
first boat or the flag ship of the Negro merchant fleet.
The inevitable came, the boat was launched, every breast seemed to heave a
sigh and say the "Negro has lived up to the schedule of his plan.'' Thus with the
entrance of the Negro into the field of commerce every ounce of capable brain
must necessarily be called into operation. Keen economists must be on the staff
and not those who are inexperienced and incapable.
About an hour before sunset on November 23rd the first ship named the
Frederick Douglas put out to sea with her eleven passengers and her crew for her
maiden voyage under the flag of the Red, Black and Green. Swiftly she steamed
out of the port leaving the multitude cheering and waving Godspeed to all those
on board and a "bon voyage" to the captain. She disappeared from sight as if
the good ship had crossed the bar, the horizontal bar beyond which lies untold
prosperity. It bore across the waters the message of hope to our struggling
brothers that a better future was in store for them.
The fickle mass began to possess a steady mind and took their stand for the
progress of Negro liberty. Yet there remained a portion of unbelievers who
though they had seen the things promised would not concede that the outcome of
such a task was worthy of recognition. By their fallacious arguments they tried
to lessen so noble an achievement by erroneous talks and unjust criticisms. Their
mode of reasoning was now changed. Their questioning of where is the Negro who
is able to put a ship on, the sea, has been answered.
Day by day new schemes were laid in order to thwart the further advance of
Negro uplift. Leagues and organizations came into existence, Steamship Lines un¬
heard of sprung into prominence. All these enterprises tended to distract the
minds of the individual.
The Roots of the Universal Negro Convention
27
These sudden attractions subsided for the lack of support by the people for
whom they were intended. The people relied on an organization whose plans were
well laid out and based on fundamental principles of success. They also believed
in the principle of unity in an organization. They realized that if the ranks of
the Negro still remained divided that a colossal disaster may be brought on by
defeat. They believe in closing the ranks when the order is given, if it is given
with no selfish aim but for popular welfare. They were aware that "A house
divided against itself cannot stand," for it would easily fall a prey to a dangerous
intruder.
Loyalty to a cause was the main intent of few men who adhered to the
cause, for "Loyalty is sentiment not law," and it truly shapes the integrity of men
who have the feeling for the people and not for self-aggrandizement. At the
time when that part of the loyal Negro World seemed to be enjoying a blessing of
peace, such as Jesus Christ bade the world in the version of "Pax Vobiscum" the
storm clouds were collecting to hurl lightning attacks on the Monument for Negro
Liberty. The clouds broke. The Emancipator appeared. She launched her attacks
and disappeared.
Now the last vestige of opposition apparently gone and the long fought
battle has been won, the victors are now awaiting the day of the coming Convention.
Chapter IX
THE CONVENTION
The month of August of the year nineteen-twenty will go down in the annals
of history as a month of epochal advancement and phenomenal achievement for the
African peoples of the world. For the entire month thousands of delegates chosen
by Negroes in every part of the civilized world will meet in one huge conclave at
Liberty Hall (13Sth Street, New York City). This great congregation of repre¬
sentatives of the Race from every corner of the earth, from Africa (the Mayor of
Monrovia, Liberia, arrived before this article went to the printer), from Canada,
from South and Central America, from the West Indies as well as from the other
islands of the seas, from all over the United States, in short, from every soil where
flows a drop of Negro blood, is significant of one dominant fact, namely, that now,
as never before, the entire race is realizing the impelling necessity of lending full
sway to that spirit of racial unification which is now sweeping into one massive pile
the scattered millions of men and women who form parts and parcels of the race
of Ethiopia, of the lineage of Africa.
This convention of representatives of the Race is not without purpose. It is
not without reason. The outlook of this vast assemblage is not without aims. It is
not without objects. The Universal Negro Improvement Association has called
together the thoughtful men and women of the Race for serious deliberation and
for conference touching those things which concern the future interest of the Race,
to divine plans for safeguarding and protecting the integrity of the Race; to work
out the ways and means of solving in the best and most practical manner the
gigantic problems which now, more than ever before, are confronting the entire race
of Negroes wherever they may be, and whatever part of the world they may
inhabit. The time has undoubtedly come when these problems must be met squarely.
They must be met face to face. They must be met without fear, without hesitancy,
without illusion. This is indeed the day when black men the world over must rise
ensemble to meet the tasks which have devolved upon them. The day has come
when the black man's burden must be borne by black men, by all black men, not
by petitions, ol* resolutions, or philanthropy, but by protest of united honest en¬
deavor to apply all their energy and power to create for themselves an independent
existence of their own. To meet the obligations staring the Race in its face, the
Universal Negro Improvement Association was created. The month of August,
1920, has been chosen to be the month during which the Association will hold its
first convention.
28
The Roots of the Universal Negro Convention
Perchance, the reader may desire an explanation of what the Universal Negro
Improvement Association is. Such an exposition will amply be found in the pre¬
amble to the constitution of the organization, which runs as follows:
"The Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities'
League is a social, friendly, humanitarian, charitable, educational, institutional, con¬
structive, and expansive society, and is founded by persons, desiring to the utmost
to work for the general uplift of the Negro peoples of the world. And the members
pledge themselves to do all in their power to conserve the rights of their noble race
and to respect the rights of all mankind, believing always in the Brotherhood of
Man and the Fatherhood of God. The motto of the organization is: 'One God!
One Aim! One Destiny!' Therefore, let justice be done to all mankind, realizing
that if the strong oppresses the weak confusion and discontent will ever mark the
path of man; but with love, faith, and charity towards all, the reign of peace and
plenty will be heralded into the world, and the generations of men shall be called
blessed."
Under the Constitution, the inherent membership of the organization includes
the members of the Race in every and "all communities where the people of Negro
blood and African descent are to be found."
The objects of the organization are: "to establish a Universal Confraternity
among the Race; to promote the spirit of pride and love; to reclaim the fallen; to
administer to and assist the needy; to assist in civilizing the backward tribes of
Africa; to assist in the development of Independent Negro Nations and Com¬
munities; to establish Commissionaries or Agencies in the principal countries and
cities of the world for the representation and protection of all Negroes, irrespective
of nationality; to promote a conscientious Spiritual worship among the native tribes
of Africa; to establish Universities, Colleges, Academies, and Schools for the racial
education and culture of the people; to conduct world-wide Commercial and In¬
dustrial Intercourse for the good of the people; to work for better conditions in all
Negro communities."
Now that a clear view of the organization and its objects is given, I shall
now consider the CONVENTION.
There has never been any step taken as a means of uniting the thoughts and
ideas and desires and aims of the Negro peoples of the world as the Convention
called by this Association. Never before has there been an attempt to unify the
sentiments of the Ethiopian races as far-reaching as this Convention. The voice
of every delegate will express the sentiments of the masses. There surely can be
no greater representation. There can, forsooth, be no voice of greater sound and
eloquence than the combined voices of the thousands of delegates who from the
first to the thirty-first of August will send out to the entire world a new message
of the hope and aspirations of the Race as well as the grim determination to achieve
the sacred goal of freedom and true democracy. The General Laws of the Asso¬
ciation make the following provisions regarding the Convention:
"The Convention of the Universal Negro Improvement Association and African
Communities' League shall assemble at 1 o'clock P. M. on the first day of meeting
at the headquarters building of the society set apart for that purpose After
the opening of Convention, the Convention shall meet at 10.30 A. M. and adjourn
at 10 P. M." (General Laws, Article 1, Section 1.)
"No person other than officials, officers and delegates will be allowed the
privilege of the floor in Convention." (General Laws, Article 1, Section 2.)
"No one shall be admitted to the Convention but a member of the Universal
Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League except on recom¬
mendation from a high official of the Association and League "
A provision is also made for bona fide visitors; members of the Association
may be admitted to the Visitors' Gallery on proper admittance.
Every delegate is required to pledge themselves to the best possible degree to
discharge their full duty to the organization as well as to the divisions they represent.
The lack of special qualities and interest in the uplift of the Race as well
The Roots of the Universal Negro Convention
29
as the Association constitutes a bar to being elected a delegate to the Convention.
The election of delegates is entirely within the jurisdiction of the several divisions.
Each division is entitled to send one deputy for every thousand members, except
that no division may send more than five members to the Convention. Where
divisions have no more than a thousand members, if they have not less than five
hundred members, they are entitled to send one delegate to represent them in the
Convention. In the case of divisions having less than five hundred members they
may join with the nearest division sending delegates to the Convention, and ask for
representation by the duly accredited delegates from the nearest division. The
respective divisions pay the expenses of their respective delegates. Where two
divisions have respectively less than five hundred members they may join and elect
one delegate whose expenses the joined divisions must pay jointly. Provision is
made for the mode of presentment of resolutions and motions by the delegates.
(General Laws, Article II, Sections 1-8.)
The Speaker of the Convention will arrange all motions and resolutions in the
proper order of presentation. He shall be the Chairman of the Convention, and
"prepare through his office all orders and arrangements for the convening of the
Convention." The above excerpts will give a general view of the preliminary plans
for the Convention. The internal working and mechanism of the Convention itself
is largely a matter of membership concern. One thing is clear, however, and that
is this, that at that Convention there shall undoubtedly be laid a strong platform
on which shall be built for now and all times a lasting monument of rights for the
free existence and independence and liberty of the Negro peoples of the entire
hemispheres. There is no looking or turning back. The black man is filled with
determination to link himself with his brothers in every part of the world as an
initial step of strengthening the integrity of the Race. The seed of that determined
spirit has been sown. It has taken deep root in good soil, and now we await the
fruits.
It is the desire and hope of every member of the Universal Negro Improve¬
ment Association that the Convention be as far as is within human possibility a
truly representative congregation of all the Negro peoples. Invitations have been
sent to all clubs, churches, lodges, and every organization or institution having as
its object the general uplift of the Race. As Mr. Garvey said in one of his recent
messages to the members of the Race, the times are too critical for us as a race,
there is too great a community of suffering and oppression for there not to be a
true representation of all Negroes, whatever may be their class, creed, condition, or
belief. Every deliberation will concern the entire Race. Every action will reflect
on the future welfare of every black man and woman. There can be no better or
truer expression of the underlying thought of the movement as well as motive for
the great Convention than that of the President-General, the Honorable Marcus
Garvey in his message of July 24th:
"This Association has been organizing the sentiment of the people of our Race
for the last two and a half years in every section of the globe, and the hour has
now come for the scattered sentiments of the people to be welded into one deter¬
mined action. In face of the great world upheaval we are compelled as a race to
now demonstrate our attitude. The Universal Negro Improvement Association feels
that the four hundred million Negroes ought to desire complete liberty and the
full enjoyment of all human rights. For hundreds of years we have been a scat¬
tered and despised people, insulted and ignored by all the other races of mankind.
This was made possible because of the indifference we maintained toward ourselves,
but through the Universal Negro Improvement Association we have so organized
the sentiment of the people that it is today counted an honor to be a member of
the African Race. As a people we have every good attribute as a trait of our
character. We have practiced the virtues by living up to them to the very word
and letter, and because of this attitude the world seems to have thought that we
were incompetent and unable to protect ourselves and demand our rights. Now
the world is undergoing a change; reconstructing itself from one system into the
next. We cannot but rise as four hundred' millions of people and declare to all
mankind that we are prepared to live or die free men, maintaining and defending
30
The Boots of the Universal Negro Convention
those rights that are ours in common with the rights of the other races and nations
of the world. This Convention will be a living manifestation of the strength of the
Negro of the Twentieth Century. Therefore, I am commanded to send out an open
invitation to every cultured, lettered, and progressive Negro to attend this great
Convention at Liberty Hall."
Here is amply expressed the purpose of the Convention. There is no doubt
but that the outcome of the thirty-one days of conference and deliberation will be
fraught with rich results and glorious benefits for the Negro. There is not the least
scintalla of dubious feeling but that after this great convention, the world will ex¬
perience a new respect for the rights and feelings of black men.
The oppositions to the movement have been many. The barriers have been
tremendous and of great magnitude. The obstacles have been numerous; but no
human agency has so far been able to check the spirit of determination which has
gripped the very souls of black men. No estoppel can compel the Race to desist
from its present march toward the heights of that goal of liberty and union. No
power between earth and hell can quell the storm of high endeavor and lofty
aspirations that is raging in the breast of every true-blooded Negro for the
attainment of that same existence of racial sovereignty and integrity which other
races are enjoying. No tongue however eloquent may ever convince the Race to
contrary intent or purpose. No force however great can ever swerve the teeming
masses bent upon this task for the good of this generation and the everlasting glory
of the generations to come.
When the history is written, when the historians shall have sat down to write
the story, without passion, without prejudice, without illusion, without bias, the
record will show that whatever heights of independence and liberty this oppressed
Race of ours shall have reached in the days to come, they did so through the path
hewn by the Universal Negro Improvement Association at its first convention held
during the thirty-one days of August of this year.