PAGE FOUR
THE COMPASS
JANUARY, FEBRUARY, 1964
NEGRO HISTORY ... A BASIS
“When the mariner has tossed for
many days in thick weather and on
an unknown sea, he naturally avails
himself of the first pause in the
storm, the earliest glance of the sun,
to take his latitude, and ascertain
how far the elements have taken him
from his true course.”
Thus begins Daniel Webster’s re
ply of January, 1830, to South Caro
lina’s Senator Robert Y. Hayne’
eloquent defense of the theory of
states’ rights. In that beginning, Web
ster noted one of the greatest uses
of history.
Allan Nevins, in his Gateway to
History, observed that “history
actually a bridge connecting the
past with the present, and pointing
the way to the future.” He wen
to state that “mankind is always
more or less storm driven and history
is the sextant of states which, tossed
by wind and current, would be lost
in confusion if they could not fix
their position.”
“History enables bewildered bodies
of human beings to grasp their re
lationship with their past, and helps
them to chart on general lines their
forward course. And it does more
than this. By giving people a sense
of continuity in all their efforts, red-
flagging error, and chronicling im
mortal worth, it confers on them a
consciousness of unity, a realization
of the value of individual achieve
ment, and a comprehension of the
importance of planned effort as con
trasted with aimless drifting.”
In the words of Melville J. Her-
skovits, a race without a history “has
no anchor in the present.” Such
race can like Robert Frost’s “Hired
Man,” have “nothing to look back
ward to with pride and nothing to
look forward to with hope.”
Many are the people who would
deny the American Negro that
tant, that compass, that anchor, that
pride, that hope. The Negro has
history, they glibly say. His past be
gins with slavery. He must ever be
the football of today’s events. He
can look forward to death and death
alone.
'i
This is not so!
If there is one tie which binds the
American Negro with his cousin in
Africa, it is the tie of history. Only
recently have scholars begun to show
keen interest in the African past. The
they delved, the more they
found: Ghana, Melle, Songhay, Ethi
opia, Egypt, the Kingdom of the
Kongo, Zimbabwe, the list is growing
-these are becoming more than just
names. They are evidences of groups
of people developing cultures, politi
cal systems, economicies, and other
characteristics that are understandable
even in European terms.
But something happened! WHAT?
During the chronological period
known in Europe as the late Middle
Ages and Early Renaissance, there
arose in West Africa, along the banks
of the Niger River, a kingdom called
Songhay. This kingdom had absorbed
the peoples, land and cultures of
previous kingdoms, namely Ghana
and Melle (sometimes called Mali).
It reached its height under the Sonni
Alt (who died in 1492) and the Askia
(Usurper) Mohammed, who was
posed in 1542. Then followed a period
of internal disorder and decline. But
as an invasion from Morocco by
Spanish mercenaries under Juder
(called by Maurice Delafosse “the
1 of Europe”), using gunpowder,
then unknown in West Africa, which
irtually destroyed Songhay, though
the dynasty continued to rule a great
ly reduced area until the Twentieth
Century. The Battle of Tondibi, 1591,
marks a turning point in west African
history.
It was the initiation of the European
slave trade in the latter half of the
Fifteenth Century and its four
hundred years of existence which
ruined West Africa. What was
of West Africa, was true, though to
a lesser extent, of East Africa, but
with a more cruel addition. The
period of from about 1850 through
1914, saw all the evils of wars and
internicine strife, aided and abbetted
by European powers—particularly
England and Germany, and syste
matic slaughter involving in some
cases the complete annihilation of
large groups of people. Trickery,
broken promises, force—these were
some of the means used to subdue
East Africa.
Returning to the United States, an
entire race—millions! yes, millions—
were transplanted here to labor in a
strange land. Millions more died dur-
CARTER WOODSON—1875-1950
Carter G. Woodson, founder of
the Association for the Study of Negro
Life and History and Initiator of
Negro History Week, was bom De
cember 19, 1875 at New Canton
Buckingham County, Virginia. One
of a large and poor family, young
Woodson was brought up without the
ordinary comforts of life and was not
able to attend the district school dur-
HENRY O. TANNER
1859-1937
ARTIST
ing much of its five-month term be
cause his parents needed him to work
the farm. He was able, however,
largely by self instruction, to master
the fundamentals of common school
subjects by the time he was seventeen.
Being ambitious for more education.
Carter and his brother Robert Henry
moved to Huntington, West Virginia,
where they hoped to attend Douglass
High School. Forced to earn his living
as a miner in the Fayette coal fields.
Carter was able to devote only a
months annually to his schooling.
In 1895 Carter, then in his twentieth
year, entered Douglass High School
in Huntington, West Virginia, wnere
oe received nis diploma in less
two years. After an equal period of
study at Berea College (Kentucky),
ihcn famous for its acceptance of
both white and colored students, he
began teaching at Winona, Fayette
C ounty. Four years after his gradu
ation from Douglass High School.
Woodson returned as its principal.
In 1903 after completing his col
lege studies in summer vacations.
Woodson received his Litt. B. degree
from Berea College and took a
sition as supervisor of schools ii
Philippines. He learned to speak
Spanish fluently during his four years
there. Still devoting his summers to
college studies at the University of
FREDERICK DOUGLAS — 1817-1875 — STATESMAN
ing the process of transplantation. But,
even under these circumstances, the
Negro created for himself a place in
the history of mankind reminiscent
of that of another great people: the
ancient Hebrews. There was one dif
ference. The Hebrews did not sing
in captivity; the Negroes did. And
so, wrote DuBois, “by fateful chance,
the Negro folk-song—the rhythmic
cry of the slave—stands out today
not simply as the sole American
music, but as the most beautiful
pression of human experience from
this side of the seas, ... as
singular spiritual heritage of the
tion and the greatest gift of the Negro
people.”
Every American of all races should
be able to identify Crispus Attucks,
Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglass,
Booker T. Washington, W. E. B. Du
Bois, Walter White, Charles S. John
son, Roy Wilkins, Thurgood Marshall;
the list seems endless. North Caro
linians should perpetuate the memory
of John Chavis, the ante-bellum edu
cator; Lunsford Lane, a cabinet mak
er of great skill and Abolitionist,
George Moses Horton, a poet; and
Hugh Cale, who figured prominently
in the establishment of the educational
instution now known as the Elizabeth
City State College.
The Negro has made himself felt
not only as the creator of the sorrow
songs and through outstanding per
sonages but in practically every walk
of American life, at times despite
seemingly impossible odds. Everyone
should read Margaret Just Butcher’
The Negro in American Culture along
ERNEST E. JUST
1883-1941
SCIENTIST
Chicago from which he received his
B. S. degree in 1907 and his M. A.
a year later, Woodson later spent a
year in Europe and Asia including a
semester at La Sorbonne (Paris),
where he did graduate work in His
tory and learned to speak French
fluently.
After further study at Chicago,
Woodson went to Harvard, where he
specialized in history and political
science. In 1909 he accepted a po
sition as a high school teacher in
Washington, D. C. This position en
abled him to do research in the Li-
MARTIN LUTHER KING
1929-
FREEDOM S
with Wilbur J. Cash’s The Mind of
the South. A thorough reading of Mrs.
Butcher’s work, based on the re
searches of the only American Negro
to become a Rhodes Scholar, Alain
Locke, should instill in the reader
pride in the American Negro. The
book reveals that in music (even be
yond the folk-song), in literature, in
painting, sculpture and architecture,
and even in the theater, the influence
of the Negro on American life was
pervasive, decisive, stimulating; some
times subtle and seemingly negligent,
but omnipresent.
What does all this have to do with
e new freedom? Simply this!
Knowledge of these and other facts
essential if we are to understand
our present and plan our future. Our
history has not been without its trials
(Continued on Page 5 Col. 1)
MARY McLEOD BETHUNE
1875-1955
COLLEGE FOUNDER
brary of Congress for a doctoral dis-
certation. The Disruption of
ginia. Presented at Harvard, it won
him, in 1912, his Ph. D. degree.
Dr. Woodson continued to teach
(Continued on Page S Col. 2)
LANGSTON HUGHES
1902-
MAN OF LETTERS