Note:
Gunnar Myrdal died in 1987, less than 70 years ago.
Therefore, this work is protected by copyright,
restricting your legal rights to reproduce it.
However, you are welcome to view it on screen, as you do now.
Read more about copyright.
Full resolution (TIFF) - On this page / på denna sida - IX. Leadership and Concerted Action - 39. Negro Improvement and Protest Organizations - 2. Nationalist Movements
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
Below is the raw OCR text
from the above scanned image.
Do you see an error? Proofread the page now!
Här nedan syns maskintolkade texten från faksimilbilden ovan.
Ser du något fel? Korrekturläs sidan nu!
This page has never been proofread. / Denna sida har aldrig korrekturlästs.
Chapter 39. Improvement and Protest Organizations 813
Indian Negro doctor, heading the New York division, which had estab-
lished itself as an independent organization, explained its present-day
(January, 1940) position to an interviewer for this study:
We don’t advocate going back to Africa. That will come in time. The main
problem of the Negro is economic and that is what we must face. It’s the Negro’s
problem and he must solve it by himself. ... 1 say, if we can solve our economic
problem, then to hell with the white man and that is exactly what we propose to
do . . .
Sir, the Negro must learn to keep his business to himself. He must be wise as
a serpent and appear to be harmless as a dove. He must strike at*the right moment.
Let the European war start. Some Negroes are crying for peace. Peace, hell! Let
them kill each other as long as they want to. The longer they do that, the better off the
Negroes will be.^
This leader claimed for his own organization a membership of some 700
and referred to other small groups which carried on the original Garvey
movement.®
The Peace Movement of Ethiopia is a back-to-Africa movement of a
very different temper. It was founded at a meeting in Chicago at the end
of 1932 and has been working in support of the “repatriation” bill of
Senator Bilbo.® It is claimed that, within eight months, 400,000 names were
obtained on a petition directed to the President of the United States request-
ing that he use relief funds to settle Negroes in Africa instead of supporting
them as unemployed here. It is also claimed that a supplementary petition
contains around 2,000,000 names from all states in the Union. The leaders
of the movement are obscure.*^ The belief is strong in many quarters that
they are the agents of Senator Bilbo.
In the memorial presented to the President at the end of 1933, the
petitioners explained, among other things:
We are simple minded, sincere, lowly, law-abiding workers who have maintained
traditions of simple honesty, industry and frugality as much from choice as from
necessity. Few of us have education, but we have learned not to heed the blandish-
ments of self-seeking politicians, imposters, and the unworthy and undesirable
products of the hectic civilization that is foreign to our nature. . . . Given an oppor-
tunity in our ancestral Africa, the knowledge of farming and of simple farm
machinery and implements, which we have acquired here, would enable us to carve
a frugal but decent livelihood out of the virgin soil and favorable climate of Liberia.
. . . We are a liability now, and any cost of this project, no matter how great, would
still, we sincerely believe, be a sound investment for the American people. . . . We,
the subjoined and accompanying signatories, merely ask respectfully that we be
eliminated from an over-crowded labor market and given a helping hand in estab-
lishing such social and economic independence as we are fitted for—establishing it
where it will give no offense and where it may serve as an object lesson to tempt
those who remain.®
*See Chapter 38, Section 12.
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
