Page:The Voice of the Negro 1919 - Robert T. Kerlin - 1920.djvu/13



The following work is a compilation from the colored press of America for the four months immediately succeeding the Washington riot. It is designed to show the Negro's reaction to that and like events following, and to the World War and the discussion of the Treaty. It may, in the editor's estimation, be regarded as a primary document in promoting a knowledge of the Negro, his point of view, his way of thinking upon race relations, his grievances, his aspirations, his demands. Virtually the entire Afro-American press, consisting of two dailies, a dozen magazines, and nearly three hundred weeklies, has been drawn upon. Here is the voice of the Negro, and his heart and mind. Here the Negro race speaks as it thinks on the question of questions for America — the race question. The like of this utterance, in angry protest and prayerful pleading, the entire rest of the world does not offer.

When I told a publisher that I was making this compilation he remarked that my book would make disagreeable reading. There are worse things than disagreeable reading.

Lexington, Va., January 1, 1920.