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Full resolution (TIFF) - On this page / på denna sida - IX. Leadership and Concerted Action - 35. The Negro Protest - 9. Negro History and Culture
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752 An American Dilemma
The articles in the Journal meet all standards of historical scholarship, at
least as much as in other historical journals.
In spite of all scholarly pretenses and accomplishments, this movement
is basically an expression of the Negro protest.^^ Its avowed purpose is to
enhance self-respect and race-respect among Negroes by substituting a belief
in race achievements for the traditional belief in race inferiority. As Red-
dick puts it, . . Negro History is quite different from the study of the
Negro. Frankly, the former differs from the latter in that Negro History
has a furfose which is built upon a jaithP^^ Propagandistic activities go on
side by side with the scholarly ones. Various devices are used to bring the
findings of historical research before the Negro public. Since 1937, the
Association has been publishing the Negro History Bulletin which is for a
wideh audience than the scholarly Journal of Negro History. Summaries
of articles from both journals in popular style are furnished Negro news-
papers. Popular pamphlets and books are sold by house-to-house agents in
the Negro community.^® Displays are prepared for various types of Negro
gatherings. Contact is made with certain types of Negro clubs. Perhaps the
most successful single device is ^^Negro History Week,”®® during which the
written and spoken word is applied with concentrated effort, especially to
Negro school children. If the teacher is Negro and at all aware of the
historical research, the Negro school child gets this new angle on the history
of the Negro throughout the year, but during Negro History Week, the
Association makes a special effort to reach all Negro children.
Just as the white American school child is taught American history from the
point of view of the American chauvinist, the Negro school child is to see it from
the point of view of the black racialist.®’
When we call the activities of the Negro History movement ^^propa-
ganda,” we do not mean to imply that there is any distortion In the facts
presented. Excellent historical research has accompanied the efforts to
publicize it. But there has been a definite distortion in the emphasis and the
perspective given the facts: mediocrities have been expanded into ^^great
men”j cultural achievements which are no better—and no worse—^than any
others are placed on a pinnacle 5
minor historical events are magnified into
crises. This seems entirely excusable, however, in view of the greater dis-
tortion and falsification of the facts in the writings of white historians. As
propaganda, “Negro history” serves the same purpose for historical periods
as the Negro newspapers serve for contemporary life: they both serve as a
counterpoison to the false and belittling treatment of the Negro in news-
papers and books written by whites.
In one phase of their activities, Negro historians have the support of
some white scientists. This is in the field of African culture, for which
anthropologists have recently manifested a new interest and a new apprecia-
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