BLACK PEOPLE AND THEIR PLACE IN WORLD HISTORY
by Dr. Leroy Vaughn, MD. MBA, Historian
Chapter 20TH CENTURY
Section Black Nationalism
(pages 198-201)
by Dr. Leroy Vaughn, MD. MBA, Historian
Chapter 20TH CENTURY
Section Black Nationalism
(pages 198-201)
BLACK NATIONALISM
Black Nationalism is defined as “a complex set of beliefs emphasizing the need for the cultural, political, and economic separation of African Americans from White society.” The philosophy of Black Nationalism is a direct response to racial discrimination and the overt hostility of White society toward anyone of African descent. Black Nationalist beliefs were strongest during slavery and again with Marcus Garvey at the beginning of the 20th century. Since most Black Nationalists believed that White society would never treat African Americans fairly, they demanded a territorial base either in Africa or in America, completely governed by Black men.
As the philosophy of Black Nationalism expanded, Black pride, solidarity, and self-reliance became issues just as important as the demand for a territorial base. For example, in the 18th century, Boston’s free Blacks demanded that Crispus Attucks, the first to die in the American Revolution, become a symbol of African American contributions to the Revolutionary War. Crispus Attucks Day (March 5th) was celebrated for decades before it was replaced by July 4th. During the 19th century, Paul Cuffee, the richest Black man in America, employed only African Americans to demonstrate their ability to the skeptical White world. In the 1920’s, Marcus Garvey demanded distinctly Black standards of beauty and refused any advertisements in his newspaper “The Negro World” for hair straighteners or skin whiteners. He insisted on highlighting the accomplishments of Blacks throughout the world and that Black people chose Black heroes. He even demanded that Black churches depict all religious figures as Black, including Jesus Christ.
During the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960’s, many young Blacks became impatient with its slow progress and passive non-violent philosophy and again embraced Black Nationalism. Stokely Carmichael (Kwame Ture) and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) soon had most Black youths proclaiming the slogans “Black is Beautiful” and “Black Power.” Bobby Seale and Huey Newton founded the “Black Panther Party” in 1966 and advocated militant self defense in addition to Black Nationalism. Elijah Muhammad (a former Garveyite) and Malcolm X emphasized religious justification for racially separate enterprises, especially in business. When the young Black leaders of the Civil Rights Movement looked for the “Father of Black Nationalism,” they chose a name that history had almost forgotten: Martin Robison Delany.
Martin Robinson Delany (1812-1885) was a highly intelligent, well-educated Black Nationalist with an immense and outspoken love for his people. Delany strenuously rejected the notion of Black inferiority and proposed emigration rather than the continuous submission to racial humiliation by White society. Although his father, Samuel Delany, was a slave, Martin was born free because his mother, Pati Peace Delany, was free. The Delany children mastered reading and education so quickly that West Virginian Whites became threatened and forced them to move to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 1822. In 1831, Martin completed the Reverend Lewis Woodson School for Negroes and later completed enough medical study in the offices of abolitionist medical doctors to make a comfortable living as a medical practitioner. In 1850 he became the first Black admitted to Harvard Medical School but was asked to leave after one year because Dean Oliver Holmes considered him a “distraction to education.”
Martin Delany hated slavery and while still practicing medicine, he published the “Mystery,” the first Black-owned newspaper “West of the Alleghenies.” He published his abolitionist newspaper from 1843-47 and when finances forced him to close, he joined Frederick Douglass as coeditor of the newly founded “North Star.” Delany demanded liberty for Blacks as a human right. He also exhorted Blacks to elevate themselves by becoming skilled workers and landowning farmers. Martin Delany emphasized Black self-reliance through education, independent thought, and self respect. He felt that Blacks would only gain “the world’s applause” by obtaining wealth through successful businesses.
When Congress passed the Fugitive Slave Act, Delany gave up all hope that this country would ever ameliorate the condition of his people. He moved his family to Canada and became a full time advocate for emigration to Africa. Delany organized three emigration conventions (in 1854, 1856, and 1858). In July 1859, Martin Delany sailed to western Africa and on December 27, 1859, he signed a treaty with the king of Abeokuta (Nigeria). The treaty “permitted African Americans associated with Delany to settle in unused tribal lands in exchange for sharing their skills and education with the Yoruba people.” Happy with his African treaty, Delany then sailed for Britain to obtain financial support.
In London, Martin Delany was able to convince cotton dealers and philanthropists that Christian colonies in Africa could easily compete with slave cotton from the South. Delany helped found the “African Aid Society,” which agreed to lend two thirds of the money needed by the first group of settlers who were expected to leave the U.S. in June 1861. Unfortunately, before the first settlers could leave, the Civil War began, and Delany decided to cancel the first group’s departure.
After four years of bloodshed, Martin Delany was able to convince President Lincoln to allow him to recruit an all Black army with Black officers, which would terrorize the South by arming all slaves and encouraging them to fight for their own emancipation. Delany was commissioned as a Major in the Union Army, the first Black field officer, but the war ended before he could implement his plan to arm all slaves. After the war, Delany was labeled as a “race agitator” for telling freed slaves to “trust only Blacks” and “to break the peace of society and force their way by insurrection to a position he is ambitious they should attain to.”
African Methodist Episcopal Church (A. M. E.) Bishop Daniel Payne wrote that “Delany was too intensely African to be popular…had his love for humanity been as great as his love for his race, his influence might have equaled that of Fredrick Douglass.” Martin Delany’s emphasis on race pride and self-reliance and his stressing of the importance of “elevating the race” clearly makes him the “Father of Black Nationalism.”
BLACK NATIONALISM BIBLIOGRAPHY
Franklin, J. (1988) From Slavery to Freedom: A History of Negro Americans, New York: Alfred A Knopf.
Griffith, C. (1975) The African Dream: Martin R. Delany and the Emergence of Pan-African Thought.
University Park: Pennsylvania State University.
Sally, C. (1993) The Black 100, New York: Carol Publishing Group.
PHOTOGRAPHIC CREDITS
198, MARCUS GARVEY STOREFRONT WINDOW, SIGNS IN THE WINDOWS OF A MARCUS GARVEY CLUB IN THE HARLEM AREA CREATED BY GORDON PARKS. SOURCE, LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
198, MALCOLM X AND MARTIN L. KING SMILING, THE LIBRARY OF SISTER SOMAYAH KAMBUI, CRESCENT ALLIANCE SELF HELP FOR SICKLE CELL, LOS ANGELES, CA
199, MALCOLM X WITH A GUN AT THE WINDOW, ON THE LOOK OUT FOR MEMBERS OF THE NATION OF ISLAM, PHOTOGRAPH BY DON HOGAN CHARLES
200, MARTIN ROBINSON DELANY AFTER THE CIVIL WAR "1847B. MARTIN R. DELANY MOVES FROM PITTSBURGH TO ROCHESTER IN ORDER TO FOUND WITH AND WORK WITH FREDERICK DOUGLASS ON A NEW PAPER, NORTH STAR, PRINTED IN THE BASEMENT OF MEMORIAL AFRICAN METHODIST EPISCOPAL ZION CHURCH, A FLOURISHING CENTER FOR "UNDERGROUND" ACTIVITIES. SOME LOCAL CITIZENS WERE UNHAPPY THAT THEIR TOWN WAS THE SITE OF A BLACK NEWSPAPER, AND THE NEW YORK HERALD URGED THE CITIZENS OF ROCHESTER TO DUMP DOUGLASS'S PRINTING PRESS INTO LAKE ONTARIO. GRADUALLY, ROCHESTER CAME TO TAKE PRIDE IN THE NORTH STAR AND ITS BOLD EDITOR. STARTING THE NORTH STAR MARKED THE END OF HIS DEPENDENCE ON GARRISON AND OTHER WHITE ABOLITIONISTS. THE PAPER ALLOWED HIM TO DISCOVER THE PROBLEMS FACING BLACKS AROUND THE COUNTRY. DOUGLASS HAD HEATED ARGUMENTS WITH MANY OF HIS FELLOW BLACK ACTIVISTS, BUT THESE DEBATES SHOWED THAT HIS PEOPLE WERE BEGINNING TO INVOLVE THEMSELVES IN THE CENTER OF EVENTS AFFECTING THEIR POSITION IN AMERICA. [ROLLIN]," THE LIBRARY OF DR. LEROY VAUGHN, MD, MBA, HISTORIAN
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