Harlem's Socrates: Race First in Jim Crow America
Many African Americans in turn demanded democracy in America for those living under the shadow of Jim Crow. On the one hand, President Woodrow Wilson’s calls for defending democracy in Europe gave activists ammunition. They could call attention to the hypocrisy between the stated vision of democracy and the reality in the United States. On the other hand, the early twentieth century was characterized by government crackdowns on those with radical leanings, such as the trial of the Italian anarchists Sacco and Vanzetti, or the events of the first great Red Scare of 1919. Harrison reflected on this period and how his actions were limited by the political climate of World War I when he wrote: those of us who saw unpalpable truths were compelled to do one of two things: either tell the truth as we saw it and go to jail, or camouflage that truth that we had to tell.… I was well aware that Woodrow Wilson’s protestations of democracy were lying protestations, consciously and deliberately designed to deceive.… I chose to pretend that Woodrow Wilson meant what he said, because by so doing I safely held up to contempt and ridicule the undemocratic practices of his administration and the actions of his white countrymen in regard to the Negro.35 After the war it became easier to criticize the government for the call to democracy abroad, and the conspicuous absence of democracy for African Americans at home. Race First and the New Negro In Harrison’s article, “The Black Man’s Burden,” published one year after leaving the Socialist Party, he wrote about his conception of civil society, the ways in which white-supremacy affected African Americans and what blacks could do to counter it.36 His article represents a transition from class consciousness with racial overtones toward racially focused radicalism, or what Harrison termed, Race First. This method of addressing
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