BLACK AND WHITE.

 One of the most striking features of post-war politics is the growth of the negro movement for freedom. The world is always faced by some outstanding problem such as the German, the Bolshevik, or the Asiatic menace. It is now predicted by a negro leader that when the latter problem comes up for arbitrament by the sword the way will be clear for the settlement of the negroes' quarrel with white civilisation. The statement of Marcus Garvey, the leader of a bellicose section of American blacks, that all nations should remain armed to fight for the freedom of humanity, a remark called forth by the opening of the Washington Conference, has a direct bearing on an inflammatory statement made by him at a recent African congress, when he said: "The bloodiest of all wars is yet to come, when Europe will match its strength against Asia, and that will be the negroes' opportunity to draw the sword for Africa's redemption." War, he declared, is the only method by which men can obtain salvation. Would the white man, he asked, face the combined forces of the Japanese, the Chinese, the Indians, and the Africans? The widespread publicity given to such utterances cannot but focus attention on a movement which is bound to assume very great importance in the near future. Without going into the question as to whether or no the children of Ham are worthy, if given a chance, of a higher status amongst the races of the world than they are at present allotted, it has to be confessed that in some lands they are not only denied elementary justice, but that they are subjected to intense cruelties in consequence of outbreaks of racial animosity on the part of so-called superior whites. The indignities put upon the negroes in the United States are the cause of bitter shame to the best elements amongst the whites in that land; but protests from Presidents and public and private bodies have not the slightest effect in deterring Americans of the baser sort from the perpetration of the vilest acts of terrorism against the negroes. This animosity of the whites, after a few years of comparative quiescence, has grown in intensity since the war, despite the fact that scores of thousands of negroes fought for the freedom of Europe, and presumably for America, in the American armies. The problem seems to be almost entirely psychological. Fear of the unknown plans and power of the negro, blended with racial repulsion, lies at the root of the white cruelty.

Whatever the cause, the fact to be faced is that the negroes are in revolt. The question to-day is whether the negro movement is to be kept on constitutional lines, or whether it is to be allowed to follow the paths of violence marked out for it by such leaders as Marcus Garvey. Four men stand out prominently as the world leaders of the African race. Robert Moton, a full blooded negro, is the successor of the late Booker Washington. He exhorts to patience, and is a believer in spiritual and continuous educational forces, and he expresses his ideas without resort to flamboyant appeals. Du Bois of mixed blood none of which he thanks God is Anglo Saxon, writes and speaks with vehement passion against the denial of justice to the American blacks and he predicts that they will save democracy in the United States, or know the reason why. His is the voice of violence as opposed to that of patient development. Marcus Garvey a Jamaican by birth and a journalist by training is the most bellicose of the leaders. He aims at the establishment of a Negro Republic of All Africa. If the English claim England then the negroes, he says, claim Africa, and they will shed blood for their claim. The fact that some ten other nations already own Africa is no hindrance to Garvey, who says that the negroes will get it somehow. The colours of the African State, crimson, black, and green, have already been chosen by this egregious person, who is, however, a practical man. Seven years ago he founded in New York the Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communication League. The fifteen members in July, 1914, have grown to over two millions, organised in six hundred branches, with three steamships comprising the Black Star line, owned and run by negroes for negroes. The association is establishing hospitals—with nurses wearing the Black Cross instead of the Red Cross,—and factories and co-operative laundries. Mr. Basil Matthews, writing in the magazine " Outward Bound " says that Garvey may be denounced as an inflammatory rebel, but he adds, it would be as silly to ignore his influence as it would be fatuous to overrate his power. He is the expression of forces greater than himself; the response to his appeal proves the existence of those forces. Negroes in Africa send money for Garvey's projects because they see in him and his plans the mouthpiece of their discontent and the incarnation of their hopes. Despoiled of their lands he offers them all Africa for their own.

If all the blacks took their inspiration from Du Bois and Garvey their movement might, before long, take on a very ugly phase. But there is another leader, Dr. Kwegyir Aggrey, of the four the only one African born, a man of princely Fanti blood, ex-professor and doctor of divinity, on whom are concentrated hopes for a reasonable and just solution of the negro problem. Dr. Aggrey does not hold with Garvey that the blacks can overthrow the whites. He contends that what is more likely is that the whites will overthrow themselves if their colour prejudice works continually against all Asian and African races. As against Garvey's hostility he teaches the doctrine of love and work, and as opposed to Gandhi's policy of non-co-operation, he proclaims co-operation with the whites. This policy, he claims, as a result of an African tour, made an active and vigorous appeal to British, Boer, and negro. Dr. Aggrey holds that the negro has a great gift to make to the world—the gift of meeting in-justice, ostracism, and oppression by sunny light-hearted co-operative love and work; his solution is, in effect, the attainment of the perfect love which casteth out fear from both parties. The future will show whether this optimism is justified. The ferment among the blacks the world over is evidence of mental development, and it will be well for the whites, in Australia as well as elsewhere, if they ponder the advice given by Sir Harry Johnston in a recent book, "to realise that the still backward races have travelled far in intellectuality since the middle of the nineteenth century, and that the continuance of an insulting policy towards them will join them some day in a vast league against Europe and America which will set back the millennium and perhaps even ruin humanity in general."

Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954), Saturday 3 December 1921, page 16