THE BEST AND THE BRIGHTEST GO NORTH!
W.E. B. DU BOISwas not the only prominent black to move North. After nearly a decade of self-imposed exile in Nicaragua and Venezuela working for the U.S. Consulate, James Weldon Johnson returned to the United States in 1914 and joined the editorial staff at the New York Age. An acclaimed composer, poet, novelist, journalist, and diplomat, Johnson was one of the most respected African Americans in the country. In addition to having composed the black national anthem “Lift Every Voice,” he had published anonymously in 1912 one of the first modern African-American novels, The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man. His move to New York underscored the change in attitude among African Americans from one of despair to one of hope. Now, it was possible to make a livable wage and go about one’s business without the constant threat of violence and overt racism. In the next six years Johnson would become a major player in the NAACP. First, in 1916, he would become field secretary, and four years later he woud be named the first African-American secretary of the organization. As secretary, Johnson became the chief operating officer and, along with Du Bois, the most influential African American fighting for civil rights.
Letters sent to the Chicago Defender requesting information on job opportunities:
Sir:
I would thank you kindly to explain to me how you get work and what term I am comeing to Chicago this spring and would like to know jest what to do would thank and appreciate a letter from you soon telling me the thing that I wont to know.
— a man from Atlanta, Georgia
I saw an advertisement in the Chicago Ledger where you would send tickets to any one desireing to come up there. I am a married man with a wife only, I am 38 years of age, and both of us have so far splendid health, and would like very much to come out there provided we could get good employment regarding the advertisement.
— a man from Savannah, Georgia
PERCENTAGE OF AFRICAN-AMERICAN POPULATION INCREASE IN MAJOR NORTHERN CITIES FROM 1910 TO 1920
DETROIT ___________________________________+611.3%
CHICAGO ________________________+148.2%
COLUMBUS, OH __________+74%
NEW YORK CITY _______+66.3%
INDIANAPOLIS ______+59%
CINCINNATTI _____+53.2%
PITTSBURGH ___+47.2%
Other prominent African Americans also arrived in the North in the early years of the decade. Madam C. J. Walker had founded one of the most successful black businesses in St. Louis, Missouri, but she moved her family and her business to New York, where she could enjoy her success and support organizations like the NAACP more directly. Around the same time, poet Claude McKay left his native Jamaica to become one of the first black editors on a white magazine, the Liberator. In addition, musician, songwriter, and publisher W. C. Handy left Memphis to open one of the first black-owned recording companies, Black Swan. Essentially, any African American who desired a better life and greater opportunity moved North.
BLACK MOSES
THREE YEARS AFTER Johnson returned to the United States, Marcus Garvey emigrated from Jamaica. He was hailed as the “Black Moses” and eventually led the largest organized mass movement in African-American history. Now Garvey is remembered primarily as the creator and most vocal proponent of the back-to-Africa movement that swept the world after World War I. He galvanized his race in a program of self-help and African nationalism through his Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA). At its height UNIA had six million members, published the largest black weekly newspaper — Negro World — created a myriad of black self-help institutions, and ran numerous businesses. Marcus Garvey proclaimed in a speech:
James Weldon Johnson
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AN EX-COLORED MAN
by James Weldon Johnson
The novel examines how impossible it is to live as a black man in a white American culture. The narrator’s white benefactor spells this out by urging the biracial narrator to pass for white, since he is not the stereotypically ignorant, Southern black laborer and, thus, cannot really be black.
My boy, you are by blood, by appearance, by education, and by tastes a white man. Now why do you want to throw your life away amidst poverty and ignorance, in the hopeless struggle, of the black people in the United States? . . . This idea of you making a Negro of yourself is nothing more than a sentiment, and you do not realize the fearful import of what you intend to do. What kind of Negro would you make now, especially in the South?
The time has come for the Negro to forget and cast behind him his hero worship and adoration of the other races, and to start out immediately to create and emulate heroes of his own. We must canonize our own martyrs, and elevate to positions of fame and honor black men and women who have made their distinct contributions to our racial history.
In contrast to Du Bois, who focused on the Talented Tenth, Garvey spoke to the “untalented ninetieth,” offering them hope for a better life. The Reverend Adam E. Clayton Powell Sr., pastor of the Abyssinian Baptist Church, was not a follower of Marcus Garvey, but he understood Garvey’s importance:
The coming of Marcus Garvey to Harlem in 1916 was more significant to the Negro than the World War, the southern exodus and the fluctuation of property values up- and down-town. Garvey, with his Black United States, Black President and Black Vice President, Black Cabinet, Black Congress, Black Army with Black Generals, Black Cross Nurses, Black Negro World, Black Star Line and a Black Religion with a Black God, had awakened a race-consciousness that made Harlem felt around the world. The cotton picker of Alabama, bending over his basket, and the poor ignorant Negro of the Mississippi Delta, crushed beneath a load of prejudice, lifted their heads and said, “Let’s go to Harlem to see this Black Moses. . . . [H]e is the only man that ever made Negroes who are black not ashamed of their color.
Not everyone admired Garvey, however. In fact, many prominent members of the Talented Tenth despised him. Ever-conscious of how the white world viewed them, they were offended by UNIA’s extravagant uniforms and the elaborate titles awarded its members, which to them seemed suggestive of minstrel shows. Garvey and his followers, however, were not concerned with how whites perceived them. Their mission was to uplift the race, not to make whites feel better about blacks. One important aspect of this mission was pride and self-respect. The uniforms, parades, and titles were effective tools in achieving these goals.
Marcus Garvey
“The time has come for the Negro to forget and cast behind him his hero worship and adoration of the other races.”
THE SINKING OF MARCUS GARVEY
PART OF GARVEY’S plan was to establish in Africa a nation of descendants of slaves. In 1919, he founded a shipping line called the Black Star Line to take African Americans back to Africa as well as allow black people on either side of the Atlantic to exchange goods and services. From its inception, this shipping line created enormous publicity, but Garvey’s experience with running such a complex business was minimal. Quickly, the line was overwhelmed by financial obligations and mismanagement, causing it to fail before a voyage was ever completed.
UNIA member in full uniform.
With support from the NAACP, the United States government indicted Garvey on charges of mail fraud stemming from Garvey’s stock promotion of the Black Star Line. The pressure from this indictment pushed Garvey into a fatal mistake. In June of 1922, Edward Young Clarke, the acting imperial wizard of the Ku Klux Klan in Atlanta, Georgia, sought out and offered Garvey and his organization financing help, exploiting the Klan’s desire to rid America of blacks. When news of this meeting became public, outrage was almost universal among blacks. Thus, Garvey’s fate was sealed. His subsequent conviction on the mail fraud charges only hastened the inevitable. After spending thirty-three months in federal prison, Garvey was deported to Jamaica and never allowed to return to America.
Black Star Line ship, Frederick Douglass.
PATRIOTISM NOW, JUSTICE LATER
JUST WHEN IT looked as if blacks were
making real progress toward equal rights, the United States went to war. In April 1917, the country entered World War I under the banner “Make the World Safe for Democracy.” Blacks responded bitterly to the implication that America was already “Safe for Democracy.” The thirty-eight blacks who were lynched the previous year offered real evidence to the contrary. Nevertheless, African Americans responded so strongly to the call to serve that, after initial reluctance, the U.S. Army formed two black divisions, the Ninety-second and the Ninety-third.
This surge of patriotism might seem surprising, but it was perhaps felt strongest by black leaders, who believed that this was the African American’s chance to prove his worth. To encourage black participation in and support of the war effort, a number of prominent African Americans came out in support of the war. No black was more vocal in his or her support than W. E. B. Du Bois, and he wrote a number of editorials in the Crisis to express his point of view.
Excerpt from “Close Ranks”
an editorial written by W. E. B. Du Bois in the Crisis
This is the crisis of the world. For all the long years to come men will point to the year 1918 as the great Day of Decision. . . . We of the colored race have no ordinary interest in the outcome. That which the German power represents today spells death to the aspirations of Negroes and all the darker races for equality, freedom, and democracy. Let us not hesitate. Let us, while this war lasts, forget our special grievances and close our ranks shoulder to shoulder with our white fellow citizens and the allied nations that are fighting for democracy. We make no ordinary sacrifice, but we make it gladly and willingly with our eyes lifted to the hills.
While blacks displayed enormous patriotism and courage, the response by the white majority was not equally enthusiastic. Southern whites were all for drafting blacks, but they were clearly against training them in their own backyard. Repeatedly, black regiments faced discrimination and hostility in Southern towns. In Camp Greene, North Carolina, YMCA canteens excluded black troops, while whites in Spartanburg, South Carolina, attacked Sergeant Noble Sissle of the 15th New York Infantry. (Sissle later became an acclaimed jazz singer, composer, and conductor.) A riot by black soldiers in response to the attack was avoided only by transplanting the troops to Europe earlier than planned.
The most serious riot involving black troops since the Brownsville riot a decade earlier broke out in Houston, Texas, on August 23, 1917. It began when two police officers trying to arrest a black woman beat and incarcerated a black soldier when he tried to intervene. A rumor that a second soldier had been shot and killed by white police quickly circulated the military base. In retaliation, more than 100 armed black soldiers from the 24th Infantry Division marched on the city. Conflicting accounts of the death toll range from thirteen to forty.
African Americans punished:
• 156 black soldiers court-martialed on the charge of mutiny
• 41 sentenced to life in prison
• 13 hanged immediately without appeal
• 6 more executed later
Whites punished: None.
“The Negroes of the entire country will regard the 13 Negro soldiers of the Twenty-fourth Infantry executed as martyrs.”
—Baltimore Afro-American
TOO MANY DEAD
WHILE AFRICAN-AMERICAN soldiers struggled against racism in the military, the black population in the rest of the country fared no better. With the intense labor shortage, African Americans were recruited by Northern industries as never before. At the same time, the arrival of cheap black labor angered the white workers who were organizing labor unions to bargain for better wages and working conditions. The newly arrived black workers threatened their livelihood. Industrialists took advantage of this natural conflict to crush unionizing efforts in their factories. The consequences, however, were grave.
As a result of industrial and railroad companies importing thousands of black laborers into East St. Louis, Illinois, one of the worst riots in U.S. history ignited. Over three days from July 1 to July 3, 1917, more than 200 blacks and 8 whites were killed, and 6,000 blacks were burned out of their homes. Because the damage was so extensive and many blacks fled the city and never returned, it will never be known exactly how many people were killed in that riot. Some estimates suggest at least 2,000 blacks were murdered.
Antilynching flag outside the NAACP offices in New York City.
WHY WE MARCH
We march because by the grace of God and the force of truth the dangerous, hampering walls of prejudice and inhuman injustices must fall.
We march because we want to make impossible a repetition of Waco, Memphis, and East St. Louis by arousing the conscience of the country, and to bring the murderers of our brothers, sisters, and innocent children to justice.
We march because we are thoroughly opposed to Jim Crow cars, segregation, discrimination, disfranchisement, lynching, and the host of evils that are forced on us. It is time that the spirit of Christ should be manifested in the making and execution of laws.
We march because we want our children to live in a better land and enjoy fairer conditions than have fallen to our lot.
Leaflet handed out at the Silent Protest Parade protesting lynching and discrimination.
Despite their desire to keep African Americans supporting the government and the war effort, W. E. B. Du Bois, James Weldon Johnson, and the officers of the NAACP could not remain passive in their response to the East St. Louis riot. On July 28, 1917, a little more than three weeks after the riot had ended, the NAACP organized a silent march. Between 10,000 and 15,000 blacks silently marched down Fifth Avenue in New York City to protest continued lynchings and discrimination in the South and elsewhere. The march not only alerted whites that blacks would no longer stand for racism but also showed fellow African Americans that black leaders could simultaneously support the war and protest injustice within the nation’s borders. The Silent Protest Parade, as it came to be known, was a success and was the first nonviolent mass protest by blacks. It would set the stage for the civil rights movement three decades later.
HEROES MARCH HOME TO THE “RED SUMMER”
DESPITE THEIR CONFLICTING feelings of patriotism and bitterness, many African Americans did more than simply step forward to serve in the war. They served above and beyond the call of duty. Of the 400,000 enlisted African-American soldiers, 200,000 served in Europe, and more than 50,000 fought on the front lines. The regimental motto of the 367th Infantry was “See It Through.” A steadiness and determination in the battlefield characterized all black soldiers who saw action. The 370th Infantry won twenty-one American Distinguished Service Crosses and sixty-eight French War Crosses. The entire 369th Infantry, the first black troops to see action, were awarded the Croix de Guerre for gallantry in battle for holding the line under continuous fire for a record-breaking 191 days. This remarkable feat led the French High Command to give the 369th its supreme mark of honor by choosing the regiment to lead all Allied forces into the Rhine. This infantry was also nicknamed the “Hell Fighters” by the French.
The admiration that African-American soldiers earned from the French was not shared by the military commanders of their own country. In fact, the U.S. War Department worked to downplay black achievements and encouraged the French to do the same. A secret document created by the American high command in August of 1918 was sent to the “French Military Mission Stationed with the American Army.” The memorandum, titled “Secret Information Concerning the Black American Troops,” warned of the dangers of treating black soldiers as equals:
African-American U.S. Army infantry troops marching northwest of Verdun, France.
I. We must prevent the rise of any pronounced degree of intimacy of French officers and black officers. We may be courteous and amiable with the last, but we cannot deal with them on the same plane as with the white American officer without deeply wounding the latter. We must not eat with them, must not shake hands or seek to talk or meet with them outside of the requirem
ents of military service.
II. We must not commend too highly the [black] American troops, particularly in the presence of [white] Americans. . . .
III. Make a point of keeping the native [civilian] population from spoiling the Negroes. [White] Americans become greatly incensed at any public expression of intimacy between white women and black men.
The War Department and many whites back home had reason to fear the return of well-trained African-American soldiers fresh from the success of battle against the fierce German army. Not only were these men confident of their abilities but they were also trained to fight back against aggression. Despite reservations by many whites across the nation, when the men of the Fifteenth Regiment of the New York National Guard marched home to Harlem on a clear February morning in 1919, thousands of blacks and whites lined Fifth Avenue to celebrate their bravery. In the New York Age, James Weldon Johnson described the event:
The Fifteenth furnished the first sight that New York has had of seasoned soldiers in marching order. There was no militia smartness about their appearance; their ‘tin hats’ were battered and rusty and the shiny newness worn off their bayonets, but they were men who had gone through the terrible hell of war and come back.
Harlem Stomp! Page 3
