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by Adib Rashad ~

Hubert Harrison was a multitalented African; when he was 16 he traveled
around the world as a cabin boy.  Afterwards, he settled in New York and
worked as a hotel bellman and telephone operator.  Despite his usually heavy
work schedules, he managed to attend evening school where through meticulous
study he passed the examination for the diploma at 100 percent.  He was the
only student to accomplish this goal.  Later, he worked as a clerk in the
post office; additionally, he studied history (general), science, sociology,
psychology, literature, and languages.  His studies impelled him to believe
that race prejudice was based on economic foundations; he therefore became a
socialist and a writer for Marxist magazines.  He was a socialist and
lecturer from 1912 to 1927.  He left the socialist party in 1917 because of
the racism he encountered and perceived to be increasing among some socialist
and labor leaders, and was also infecting the rank and file members.  He was
considered a magnificent orator; he lectured on many subjects pertaining to
the African struggle.  Because of his oratorical skills, he drew large crowds
in downtown New York.

After he left the socialists, he founded the Liberty League of Afro-Americans
and established "The Voice" as its organ.  He joined former socialists A.
(Asa) Philip Randolph and Chandler Owen, editors of the "Messenger" in
denouncing  World War I.  I must add that for a brief period, Harrison was
the chief editor of the "Negro World."

Mr. Harrison was one of the more prominent progressive Africans of the first
quarter of the 20th century.

In 1917, at the Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church in New York, where
the Liberty League was publicly established, he introduced Marcus Mosiah
Garvey, leader and founder of the Universal Negro Improvement Association
(UNIA).  Harrison wrote a resolution which was adopted by some 2,000 Africans
which included the following statements: "We therefore ask, first that the
similar rights of the 250,000,000 Negroes of Africa be conceded...We invite
the government's attention...to the continued violation of the 13th, 14th,
and 15th amendments, which is a denial of justice and the existence of mob
law for Negroes from Florida to New York."

Initially as a socialist, Harrison believed in the slogan "Class First." 
However, his baptism into Black Nationalism prodded him to adopt the slogan,
"Race First."  It is believed, and I am one of those who believe that it was
Harrison who encouraged Mr. Garvey to embrace the Race First slogan.
Harrison was not only a supporter of Garvey, but also the editor of his UNIA
journal, "Negro World."  However, Harrison did not concur with Black
Nationalism in its entirety.  He expressed and emphasized cultural interest
in Africa and a limited return of skilled African American scientists,
medical doctors, and teachers who could contribute to the uplift of Africa. 
Unfortunately, he later supported deportation of Garvey.
Harrison, to me, popularized street lectures in Harlem, which gave birth to
the likes of Micheaux, Adam Powell, MalcolmX, and other radicals.  They were
step ladder orators.

On another note, Harrison was one of the few Africans who boldly advocated
nonconformist thought.  He held critical views on religion, birth control,
evolution, and social progress.  He always applied logical thought to his
lectures and debates.  He had a reputation for being a clear, perceptive,
logical thinker.  Historian, Joel A. Rogers, considered Harrison "One of
America's greatest minds."  Historian and elder, John G. Jackson, always
referred to Harrison as the "Black Socrates."  William Pickens, winner of the
Henry James Ten Eyck Oratorical Prize at Yale University, wrote this about
Harrison: "Here is a plain Black man who can speak more easily, effectively,
and interestingly on a greater variety of subjects than any other man I have
ever met even in the great universities... I know nothing better to say than
that he is a walking encyclopedia of current human facts."

In addition to Harrison's other accomplishments, he wrote several other
journals and magazines.  His editorials in the "Negro World" were published
in "The Negro and the "Nation."  A collection of his writings was entitled
"When Africa Awakes: The Inside Story of the Stirrings and Strivings of the
New Negro in the Western World" (1920).

The following statements of Mr. Harrison were collected by me during my
research years; I hasten to add that these are his original words as they
appeared in various publications in the years mentioned above, and in the
publication titled "When Africa Awakes."


The Knowledge We Need:

To the masses of our people we say: Read! Get the reading habit; spend your
spare time not so much in training the feet to dance, as in training the head
to think.  And, at the very outset, draw the line between books of opinion
and books of information.  Saturate your minds with the latter and you will
be forming your own opinions, which will be worth ten times more to you than
the opinions of the greatest minds on earth.  Go to school whenever you can. 
If you can't go in the day, go at night.  But always remember that the best
college is that on your bookshelf: the best education is that on the inside
of your own head.


Education and the Race/New Negro Movement:

If other men's experiences have value for the New Negro Movement, it will
seek now to profit by them and to bottom the new fervor of faith in itself
with the solid support of knowledge.  The chains snap from the limbs of the
young giant as he rises, stretches himself, and sits up to take notice.  But
let him, for future's sake, insist on taking notice.  To drop the figure of
speech, we Negroes who have shown our manhood must back it by our mind.  This
world, at present, is a white man's world--even in Africa.  We, being what we
are, want to shake loose the chains of his control from our corner of it.  We
must either accept his domination and our inferiority, or we must contend
against it.  But we go up to win; and whether we carry on that contest with
ballots, bullets or business, we can not win from the white man unless we
know at least as much as the white man knows.
For after all, knowledge is power.


Education and Culture:

Education is the name which we give to that process by which the ripened
generation brings to bear upon the rising generation the stored-up knowledge
and experience of the past and present generations to fit it for the business
of life.  If we are not to waste money and energy, our educational systems
should shape our youth for what we intend them to become.
We Negroes, in a world in which we are the under dog, must shape our youth
for living in such a world.  Shall we shape them mentally to accept the
status of underdog as their predestined lot?  Or shall we shape them into men
and women fit for a free world?  To do the former needs nothing more than
continuing as we are.  To do the latter is to shape their souls for continued
conflict with a theory and practice in which most of the white world that
surrounds them are one.


The Women of Our Race:


If any foreigner should come here from Europe, Asia or Africa and be
privileged to pass in review the various kinds of women who live in America
he would pick out as the superior of them all--the Negro woman.  It seems a
great pity that it should be left to the foreigner to "discover" the
Negro-American woman.  For her own mankind have been seeing her for
centuries, and no proper amount of esthetic appreciation of her has been
forthcoming from their side.

Consider the facts of the case.  The white women of America are charming to
look at--in the upper social classes.  But even the Negro laundress, cook, or
elevator operator far surpasses her mistress in the matter of feminine charms.
No white woman has a color as beautiful as the dark browns, light-browns,
peach-browns, or gold and bronze of the Negro woman.

Then, there is the matter of form.  The bodies and limbs of our Negro women
are, on the whole, better built and better shaped than those of any other
women on earth.  And their gait and movement would require an artist to
properly describe.

And, finally, in the matter of that indefinable something which, for want of
a better word, we call "charm"--the Negro women are far ahead of all others
in America.  They have more native grace, more winsomeness, greater beauty
and more fire and passion. 

These facts have already begun to attract attention, here and elsewhere, and
eventually, the Negro woman will come into her own.

What say you, brothers! Shall we not love her while she is among us?  Shall
we not bend the knee in worship and thank high heaven for the great good
fortune which he has given us such sisters and sweethearts, mothers and wives?
In conclusion, the above statements by Hubert Harrison merely reflects some
of his thoughts regarding a number subjects.
He was not a pompous man; nor was he self-aggrandizing; he was a man of
veracity, a man of ethics, and an open-minded race man. 

*=====
Adib Rashad (RashadM@aol.com) is an education consultant, education
program director, author, and historian. He has lived and taught in
West Africa and South East Asia.

This article was previously published by theMarcusGarveyBBS (an entity of TheBlackList)
and TheBlackList at http://lists.topica.com/lists/TheBlackList/read