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Hubert Henry Harrison - 9-th, 2004 - 20: 0 (Posted By: Webmaster)
THAT INDIVIDUALS of genuine worth and immense potentialities who dedicate their lives to the advancement of their fellow men are permitted to pass unrecognized and un-rewarded from the scene, while others, inferior to them in ability and altruism, receive acclaim, wealth, and distinction, is common--yet it never ceases to shock all but the confirmed cynic. Those with a sense of right and wrong, of fitness and incongruity--whether they are wise men or fools--will forever feel that this ought not to be. Shakespeare was so little regarded during his lifetime that no one bothered to record the details of his life, and today most of what is said about him is pure conjecture. Gregor Mendel, whose experiments were to revolutionize biology and agriculture, was practically unknown until sixty years after his death. Of course, there are some of genuine worth who do not die obscure and who do win gradual recognition while alive. But why are so many who we feel really ought to be up, down; and why are so many who certainly ought to be down, up? Hubert Henry Harrison is the case in point. Harrison was not only perhaps the foremost Afro-American intellect of his time, but one of America's greatest minds. No one worked more seriously and indefatigably to enlighten his fellow men; none of the Afro-American leaders of his time had a saner and more effective program-but others, unquestionably his inferiors, received the recognition that was his due. Even today only a very small proportion of the Negro intelligentsia has ever heard of him. Harrison was born in St. Croix, Virgin Islands, of apparently unmixed African descent. His birthday, April 27, was also that of Herbert Spencer, by whose philosophy he was profoundly influenced. At sixteen he made a tour of the world as a cabin boy, and at seventeen came to New York, where he worked as a hall boy in a hotel, as an elevator operator, and in similar positions. With an avid desire for learning, he spent his spare time reading and went to a public night school. He was the brightest scholar in a class composed almost wholly of white people. Professor Hendrick Karr, his instructor, said of him: Harrison is the most remarkable Negro I have ever met. In the examination for the diploma--and it was rigid--he passed perfect at one hundred per cent--the only student in his class having that rating. He will be heard from in the future if learning has anything to do with success. Shortly afterwards he took the competitive examination for the Post Office Service, and passed with ease. Unable financially to enter college, he spent his leisure hours absorbing all he could of sociology, science, psychology, literature, and the drama. Harrison remained at the Post Office for four years. The routine of sorting letters was not for a man of his caliber. But in a land so color-conscious and alive with race prejudice, what opportunities, if any, were there for a youth whose skin had been dyed so deeply black by nature? The only outlet for his talent, ambition, sympathy, and deep sense of justice seemed to lie in concentration on the problems affecting himself and his people. He saw that Negro leaders were treating their injustices as a purely racial question, and that their program was nebulous, consisting largely of complaint or advice to submit. The Negroes, these leaders would whine, had been brought to America against their will; they had supported the nation in all its crises--and just look how badly they were being treated for their pains! The remedy they suggested was work and submission, which they argued, would bring wealth. Harrison, tin the other hand, searched much more deeply. He realized that the Negro's ill-treatment transcended color differences: he knew that the black man m his time of ascendancy, had exploited the white, and would do so again if the opportunity came. Color, he argued, was only the surface expression, and underneath it lay the world-old exploitation of man by his fellow man, which manifested itself now under the guise of tribal and national relationship, now under religion, political belief, sex, color, or anything else available. His study of modern science and sociology enabled him to see that the Socialists had a clearer vision of this truth than either of the two great American political parties. Consistently also, the Socialists were advocating the improvement of the economic lot of humanity, regardless of race or color. He thereupon joined the Socialists, who were few in number, but very militant. This latter feature pleased him most. He showed such zeal that he rose rapidly to be one
of the recognized leaders. His all-around knowledge; his grasp of economics:
the logic of his thought;
his fearlessness: his ability as a speaker, ail brought increasing recognition
to the part. He took an active part in promoting strikes, one of them at the
Paterson, New terser, silk mills. It is true that the exploited white workers
in those mills objected to working with Negroes, but Harrison with his wider
vision, saw that the cause of the black worker was also that of the white worker,
and he hoped to make the white workers see that some day. With Elizabeth Gurley
Flynn Bill Haywood, Morris Hilquitt and other party leaders, he labored for
the emancipation of the workingman. While the older Negro leaders were taking generally a backward or a conservative point of view or agitating along purely racial lines, Harrison continued to speak of the Negro "problem" in its universal aspect, making it one with the protest of oppressed humanity everywhere. He applied the latest scientific theories to the position of the Negro, and found much in Marx, Buckle, Spencer, Nietzsche, Schopenhauer, Lenin, Bertrand Russell. Dewey, and others to support his own ideas. At the Modern School (later located at Stetton, New Jersey) he was appointed adjunct professor of comparative religion, lecturing on the natural history of religion and expounding modern socialistic ideals and tendencies. His views on religion and birth control were often opposed by Catholics and Protestants alike, and at his open-air meetings he and his friends were obliged to defend themselves physically from mobs at times. But he fought back courageously, never hesitating to speak no matter how great the hostility of his opponents. He continued to work with the Socialists until he found that they too were becoming infected by color prejudice. Most of the original leaders were still sincere, but certain of them, tired of the struggle, were surrendering to the newer ones, who were either for barring Negroes from their ranks altogether, or for dealing with their wrongs pianissimo in the hope of attracting more adherents. The Socialists too, he felt, were becoming capitalistic-minded, at least in their attitude toward the Negro, and therefore, he was convinced, they could not be relied on to treat Negroes fairly should they ever come into power. He left them in 1917. Retiring to Harlem among his own people, tie
founded the Liberty League together with its organ, a newspaper called The
Voice. He continued his open-air addresses,
stressing the economic side of the color question, which brought him much
opposition from Negro press, pulpit, and politics. The Negro preachers,
and sometimes
their white colleagues objected to his theories on evolutions, which were
Darwinian--and would summon the police to break up his meetings. For a livelihood he sold literature. So able was he in this respect that on one occasion he disposed of 100 copies of a book on sociology at $ 1 each within an hour on Lenox Avenue in Harlem. The feat was all the more remarkable in view of the fact that the purchasers were Negroes, who, as a group, were very little inclined to buy books. Harrison also gave open-air addresses in parts of the city inhabited by white people. At Ninety-sixth Street and Broadway a large crowd of whites usually assembled to hear him, and at Wall Street, the world's money center, he had an even larger audience. Some of America's wealthiest men, attracted by his eloquence, would stop to hear his dissertations on philosophy, history, economics, and religion. One of the men who was very much influenced by Harrison was Marcus Garvey, later the most prominent of Negro agitators. Garvey's emphasis on racialism was due in no small measure to Harrison's lectures on Negro history and his utterances on racial pride, which animated and fortified Garvey's views. Harrison's slogan became "Race First"-in opposition to his earlier socialistic one of "Class First." He explained this change by saying that since the Socialists were mostly Americans who had been reared in an atmosphere of color prejudice, they habitually thought "White First," hence whenever their economic interests were involved they were usually ready to sacrifice the Negro. Thus, he reasoned, if Negroes thought in terms of "America First," or "Class First," they would be neglecting their own interests--at least until the time that the whites--socialist-minded and otherwise--underwent a real change of heart. Hence, he said, in self-defense, Negroes must think "Negro First." Harrison's views profoundly influenced the Messenger Group, headed
by A. Philip Randolph and Chandler Owen, two leaders who did more than anyone
else to focus
the attention of the government and of thinking whites on the injustices suffered
by Negroes during the war. While the old leaders capitulated and urged the
members of the race to submit while the war was on, these two brilliant young
men spoke out fearlessly. Largely because of opposition from the War Department,
The Messenger Group received nationwide publicity; by showing that progress
toward obtaining justice lay not in barren agitation about race, or in dying
and going to a white man's heaven, but in awareness and In 1926 Harrison became a staff lecturer of the Board of Education of the City of New York. He gave a series of lectures at New York City College, making several addresses at New York University as well. Several times he was the principal speaker at the Sunrise Club, a fortnightly gathering of some of the most brilliant minds of the city. Fluent on almost any subject, he was best in topics dealing with world problems in relation to the darker races. Under average height, Harrison was sturdily built. His head attracted instant attention the more so as his forehead, which was a shade lighter in color than the rest of his face, seemed illuminated. It was unusually large and so fully rounded out in its upper portion that it seemed to bulge from pressure within. His health was excellent, though at times he suffered from vertigo while speaking and had to steady himself. Small wonder, for he spent the night in reading, even after his strenuous three-hour lectures. He would retire at daybreak, sleep for two or three hours, and start the day all over again. He made many enemies among the more conservative Negro leaders, especially those who derived support from wealthy whites. When he died, the two leading Negro magazines, The Crisis and Opportunity, ignored him, though at the same time, The Crisis gave space to the death of Tiger Flowers, Negro pugilist. Harrison was not without his faults. The life of any leader, scrutinized detail for detail, does not look like the handsome image presented by ecstatic admirers after flaws have been removed and bits retouched. As the saying goes: "No man is a hero to his valet." The process of debunking history that has been going on since World War I has spared neither Jesus nor Washington-yet who would deny their essential greatness? One of the charges made against Harrison was that he called himself a "Doctor of Science," although he had not received that degree from a university. This charge seemed to be well founded-yet the fuss stirred up about it was out of all proportion to its significance, and handicapped him seriously. It is not for this writer to dwell upon the ethical implications of the case, yet in justice to Harrison it should be pointed out that in America especially, it is common for many who can barely read or write to adopt titles such as "Doctor" or ~'Professor," and this is particularly true among the Negro clergy, where "D. D. 's" are really superabundant. Often an individual who displays a certain amount of learning is addressed by a title, and in the Southern states that of "Colonel," for instance, is a form of courtesy. Harrison first entered a university as a lecturer, which, considering the fact that he had no formal education or prestige there from, would be regarded as quite an achievement by anything but a warped mind. There is no proof that he received a degree from the University of Copenhagen, as he said, yet it is obvious that he felt this ruse necessary in order to win favor in the eyes of those who worship degrees, holding them to be symbols of genuine scholarship. The sad commentary here is not so much on Harrison as on the academic system and the picayune minds it produces. Few graduates of any university excelled Harrison in erudition, and after a thorough investigation of the matter, it seems as if Harrison was not so much a delinquent as a victim of professional jealousy on the part of those who, by all rules of common decency, should have given a handicapped colleague a boost instead of a kick. Inconsistencies in politics might be another
point against Harrison. An ardent Socialist, he turned Democrat--a considerable
change, to be sure. Yet when
a principle for which one has labored hard and long fails economically, and
when one has a wife and five young children to support, who can deny the reasonableness
of practical considerations? If Harrison expected an appreciable material increase
from his switch to the Democrats, it was not forthcoming. His enthralling oratory
should have paid him well, yet, like so many scholars, he was so thoroughly
wrapped up in his work that this aspect of the situation quite escaped him.
Whatever money he received usually drifted to him as food to a polyp attached
to the piles of a pier. Harrison's lifelong enemy, like that of most scholars,
was poverty. Destiny sent him into this world very poor. And as if this were
not enough, she gave him a critical mind, a candid tongue, a family to support:
a passion for knowledge, and on top of all that, a black skin, and sent him
to America. Surely, a more formidable string of handicaps would be hard to
conceive. In his personal contacts Harrison was kindly and good-natured, and both among the common people and the broad-minded intellectual whites he had many friends. He was happiest and at his best on a "soapbox" surrounded by admiring listeners and a heckler or two to match in a combat of wits. He would usually squelch these amid outbursts of laughter from his audience. He momentarily forgot names, but his memory was astounding. In the course of his addresses he would reel off quotations from poets great and obscure, cite passages from Spencer, Darwin, Huxley, and other scientists and scholars without an error; in jokes and anecdotes he was to the point. Unlike most persuasive speakers, he was also an able writer. At the age of twenty-four he was writing book reviews for The New York Times--a remarkable achievement for a beginner. He also contributed articles and reviews to the New York Sun, Tribune, World, and other metropolitan dailies, as well as for periodicals, including The Nation, The New Republic, and Masses. He was assistant editor of the last magazine for four years, and editor of Garvey's Negro World for another four years. Through this medium he did much to stimulate learning in various parts of the World. Every week he compiled a list of books on literature, science, drama, and learning in general as recommended reading. His best editorials and articles were published in two booklets: The Negro and the Nation and When Africa Awakes. In his last years he suffered acutely from poverty. His clothes became shabby and his shoes heavily patched, quite in contrast to the appearance of many other Negro leaders, less sincere and less capable than he. All that he owned at the time of his death were his favorite books. If the day ever dawns when mankind values truth and learning more than money and the superficial amenities of life, then men like Harrison will be at least assured of what nature freely gives to the animals in their haunts, namely, food and shelter. Then what is so glibly called civilization will really deserve its name. In the pursuit of an ideal surely no more can be demanded of one than to sacrifice literally everything, as Harrison did. Harrison had many admirers. The following arc some of the tributes paid to him while still alive: New York University Daily News: "Dr. Harrison's address on 'India's Challenge to the Powers', was enlightening, authentic, and imposing." Miss Ernestine Rose, librarian of the Harlem branch library, at which Harrison often spoke: "I appreciate very deeply Dr. Harrison's keen and intensely living mind; his wide and varied culture and his intellectual contribution to the expressed thought of his day." The New York Times (September 11, 1922): "Hubert Harrison, an eloquent and forceful speaker, broke all records at the Stock Exchange yesterday." Burton Rascoe, literary editor of the New York Tribune (June 4, 1923): "Mencken asked me to introduce him to Dr. Hubert Harrison, who sat next to me at the dinner, and very soon Dr. Harrison was the center of the most serious discussion of the evening; for Theodore Dreiser, Heywood Broun, Ludwig Lewisohn, Charles Hansen Towne came over for the pleasure of talking with the distinguished Negro." William
Pickens, winner of the Ten Eyck prize for oratory at Yale University: "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.... If you have brains you will give him
the palm as an educational lecturer.... If he were white, and I say it boldly,
he might be one of the most prominent professors of Columbia University, under
the shadow of which he is passing his days." Thousands of New Yorkers will miss the philosophy of the most brilliant street orator that this metropolis has produced in the last generation. The soul of Hubert Harrison knew neither black nor white, race nor religion. If a more universal man has been created in our day we have not met him. His fund of philosophy, ready wit, his measured and melodious utterances disarmed all those who came to Scoff, and turned them into his admiring followers. He was a potent and living example of the potential equality of the black man. Rev. Ethelred Brown: "In Hubert Harrison we had a man so human, so natural,
that because of this we forgot for a while that we stood in the presence of
an intellectual giant." It was a revelation to see Hubert Harrison mounted on the street corner ladder and surrounded by a crowd of several hundred Negroes discussing philosophy, psychology, economics, literature, astronomy or the drama, and holding his audience spellbound. His achievement should prove an inspiration to many young Negroes, for despite the handicap of poverty, he became one of the most learned men of his day, and was able to teach the wide masses of his race how to appreciate and enjoy all the finer things of life, to glance back over the Whole history of mankind, and to look forward "as far as thought can reach." 
[Marcus Garvey] |
Hubert Henry Harrison