THE PAN-AFRICAN CONGRESS

On February 19, 1919, Dr. W. E. B. DuBois, editor of The Crisis, called a meeting known as The Pan-African Congress that held three days’ session in the Grand Hotel, Paris, France. It was attended by fifty-eight delegates representing sixteen different Negro groups, who passed resolutions of which two of the most important paragraphs are quoted below as follows:

“Whenever persons of African descent are civilized and able to meet the tests of surrounding culture, they shall be accorded the same rights as their fellow citizens: they shall not be denied on account of race or color a voice in their own Government, justice before the courts and economic and social equality according to ability and desert.

“Whenever it is proven that African natives are not receiving just treatment at the hands of any State or that any State deliberately excludes its civilized citizens or subjects of Negro descent from its body politic and cultural, it shall be the duty of the League of Nations to bring the matter to the attention of the civilized world.”

Along with Dr. DuBois, some of the other internationally known persons who attended that first Congress were Boisneuf, Deputy from Guadaloupe; Captain Boutte; Canadace, French Deputy from Guadaloupe; Mme Chapoteau; Mrs. Helen M. Curtis; Diagne, French Deputy from Senegal; Grossilliere, Deputy from Martinique; Mrs. Ida Gibbs Hunt; Mrs. Addie W. Hunton; Dr. John Hope; President King, Peace Delegate from Liberia; B. F. Seldon and Roscoe C. Simmons.

The Pan-African Congress plans to hold its second meeting in Europe in 1921 and hold sessions in four different countries as follows: in London, England on August 28th and 29th; in Brussels, Belgium on August 31st, September 1st and 2nd; in Paris, France on September 4th and 5th, and a “Special Committee to visit the Assembly of the League of Nations, Geneva, Switzerland, after September 6th.”

In brief (according to the July 1921 issue of The Crisis) the chief working plans mapped out on the practical progress of this Congress are as follows: to satisfy the urgent need of securing first-hand information “about Africa’s physical, climatic and commercial conditions, as well as the attitude of the natives and the European governments”; to thresh such newly gained knowledge and put it into the form of a statement, presenting the main social problems which face the Negros of the world; to enable the leaders of the different Negro groups the world over to become acquainted; to get in touch with and put before those persons, groups, nations and organizations of various races who either do sympathize with the peoples of Africa and their descendants or who would sympathize with them if they knew the fundamental characteristics, needs and deserts of the black man all over the globe; to have the Pan-African Congress finally evolved into one permanent body that welds the Negro people and their friends for the emancipation of the race.

“For his services in originating and conducting in Paris the Pan-African Congress”, Dr. DuBois was presented with the Spingarn Medal. And this Pan-African Congress, “in the judgment of President Hope of Morehouse College”, “made the Negro representatives from seventeen countries discover that the problems of colored people the world over are the same.” The origin and purpose of the above mentioned Spingarn Medal is explained in the following quotation:

“A few years ago Dr. J. E. Spingarn of New York decided that he would offer each year a gold medal to be awarded to the man or woman of African descent who had rendered valuable, though perhaps somewhat inconspicuous, service to his race and to modern civilization. Dr. Spingarn had very clearly in his mind the “for merit” type of decoration. This idea has always been kept before the committee on award”. (Ref. July 1920 issue of the Southern Workman).

A complete list of those who have been awarded the Spingarn Medal since 1915, when it was first presented, up to the present date is as follows:

1915, Dr. Ernest E. Just, Scholar-Scientist. 1916, Colonel Chas. Young, United States Army. 1917, Harry T. Burleigh, Singer-Composer. 1918, Wm. Stanley Braithwaite, Poet-Critic. 1919, Archibald H. Grimke, Author-Orator. 1920, Dr. W. E. B. DuBoise, Sociologist-Author. 1921, Charles E. Gilpin, Celebrated Actor.