Part 7

Political conditions of the Negro Problem are discussed in the "Aftermath of the Civil War," by Powell Clayton; "Political History of Slavery," by J. Z. George; "Studies in South: Parties and Politics of Georgia," by C. M. Thompson; "President Lincoln's Attitude," by H. W. Wilbur; "Police Control in South Carolina," by H. M. Henry; "Slavery Early Heritage of the South"; "America's Greatest Problem," R. W. Shufeldt. Though all these are white authors, they are in an objective sense inclusive in an American Negro Bibliography.

"Negro Wit and Humor," by. M. F. Harmon; "Mexico as an Asylum for the Negro," by O. M. Donaldson; "Morals and Manners Among Negro Americans," by Dr. W. E. B. Du Bois are other titles that reflect current thought.

When we invade the realm of the magazine, the newspaper or other periodical we find a variety of topics and different, phases of the same general subject. The range discussed in the magazine intensifies popular thought to a greater degree than the reading of books by the relatively smaller number of individuals.

"Thinking White Down South," in Outlook 111:9-10, does not on its face suggest its pertinence to this question.

"My View of Segregation Laws," by Booker T. Washington, in New Republic, 51:113-14.

The Negro Exposition at Richmond is given greater prestige in the Review of Reviews (52:85-8) than elsewhere. "The Country's Attitude Towards the Negro," by Oswald G. Villard, in Nation (99:788-40), and the same publication (100:187-8); the conferring of the Spingarn medal to E. E. Just, member of this Academy; "The Education of the Mind of the Negro Child in School and Society" (1:357-60), and "The Southern Tribute to a Negro," in Dial (59:409-10).

"Segregation and the Vote" embraces more than a third of fifty titles not otherwise mentioned. The recent opinion of the United States Supreme Court dealing with what is popularly known as the Grandfather clauses of Southern constitutions and statutes, is discussed in 8 Law and Bankruptcy, 8:236-6. The Literary Digest (Vol. 15:5) gives a symposium on the subject. The Nation prophesies the end of the Negro politically in 100 years (100:443 of April 12, 1915). The Independent on the other hand (Vol. 88:3-4), sees the wrong of these clauses righted. The Outlook in 110:486-7 (June 30, 1915), gives another view.

Other ways of discrimination by which the purpose of the Fifteenth Amendment may yet be defeated will be found in "Everybody" (33:251-2). "The South and the Negro Vote" forms the title of an elaborate article in the North American Review, by J. C. Hemphill (202:213-19), while "Our Debt to the Negro" is the theme in Miss. R. 38:772. Sociological features, Homes and Housing, as a general proposition, is considered in Survey, 34:67, 158-9; Business Men, in 34:550; and Loosening of Louisiana, in 34:266-9. Titustown, a new community near Norfolk, Va., is given special notice in 34:531, and B. T. Washington, in Conference, Charities and Correction, 1914:121-7.

The Separate Coach Statutes and Their Constitutionality are discussed in Central Law Journal, 43:44 (January 15, 1915); 18 Law Notes, 182 213 (January 7, 1915); 20 Va. Law Register, 781-785 (February 15, 1915). These will tend to such race discrimination as to affect Civil Rights, and as such are treated in 50 Nat. Cor. Reg., 595.

"The Saloon as a Place of Public Amusement" is brought under review in 49 Amer. Law Review, 131. "Segregation: A Burning Question in Southern Social Adjustments," is made the subject of an article by Philip A. Bruce, the well-known Southern author, in Hibberts Journal, 13 V. 867-86. B. F. Benson, in Va. L. Reg. n. s. 330-356, treats the local segregation ordinances. Their application to rural Southern communities is the theme in Survey, 33:375-7. The constitutionality of these ordinances is briefly considered in 13 Mich. Rev., 599-600; in Harper's Weekly, 59:620, 1D. and in New Republic, November 22-29, 1915. "The Roots of the War in the Race Question" is a very illuminating article by W. E. B. Du Bois in the Atlantic Monthly for May.

Three notable books, the product of the year 1915, are deserving of special mention. They are all devoted to Negroes of the Eighteenth Century, and are the outcome of the activities, the enterprise and the research of the Twentieth Century, and that by white Americans. The titles are (1) "Phillis Wheatley (Phillis Peters) Poems and Letters: First Collected Edition," edited by Charles Fred Heartman, with an appreciation by Arthur A. Schomburg, 112 pages. Ben Day paper, 50 on Fabriano hand-made paper, and 10 on Japan vellum.

(2) "Phillis Wheatley (Phillis Peters): A Critical Attempt and a Bibliography of Her Writings," by Charles Fred Heartman; 99 copies of this were printed by the author on Alexandra Japan paper. There are 50 pages in this bibliography, from which we learn that there are 43 titles of different editions of Phillis Wheatley's poems. The forty-third is that of six broadsides relating to Phillis Wheatley, with portrait and fac-simile of her handwritings; 25 copies of this were printed for the same publisher. They consist of four pages and eight productions on eight leaves.

The last (3) item is certainly the most interesting. It flashes the name of Jupiter Hammon, a Negro belonging to Joseph Lloyd, of Queen's Village, on Long Island, now in Hartford. The title is "Jupiter Hammon: American Negro Poet. Selections From His Writings and a Bibliography." By Oscar Wegelin, with five fac-similes; 99 copies were printed for Charles Fred Heartman, New York, 1915. Jupiter Hammon was the first member of his race to write and publish poetry in this country. One of his poems was printed before Phillis Wheatley had written her first poem.

This bibliography is slightly connected with that of books issued before the present year, such as "Negro Culture in West Africa," by George W. Ellis, 290 pages; "The Haitian Revolution From 1791 to 1804," by T. G. Steward, 292 pages; "The Facts of Reconstruction," by John R. Lynch, 326 pages; "Out of the House of Bondage," by Kelly Miller, and "The Negro in American History," by John W. Cromwell, 296 pp. which have found places in some of the principal public libraries of the country.

"Redder Blood," by William M. Ashby, published by the Neale Publishing Company, is described as a novel which, written in literary English and not in the jargon known as Negro dialect; a story told for the sake of the story and not a treatise under disguise. Its author, a Negro, is a graduate of Yale College.

Transcriber's Note

Original spelling varieties have been maintained; footnotes were renumbered.