"The Negro Problem" As Seen and Discussed by Southern White Men in Conference, at Montgomery, Alabama; With Criticisms by the Northern Press. Prepared and Compiled for the National Afro-American Council...
New York: The Alliance Publishing Co., 1900. 40pp. Original printed wrappers, stapled. Some discoloration along front wrapper, minor dust-soiling to wrappers. Thin dampstain along outer margin of first few leaves, otherwise internally clean. Very good. Item #3944
A rare report compiled by noted African-American educator, author, and businessman George Allen Mebane of North Carolina. Mebane prepared the work from a conference of white men who assembled in Alabama to discuss race relations at the turn of the 20th century. The conference attendees seemed to minimize African-American achievements, including declining illiteracy, growth in the number of Black professionals, and the increase in property ownership, and actually calls for a repeal of the 15th Amendment. Another of the more extreme suggestions at this conference, meant to deal with the "problem between the races," was deportation of African Americans, no matter the cost. Following the account of the conference are a selection of articles extracted from the northern press, which present a decidedly different perspective on the issue; one of the articles was written by noted Black journalist John Edward Bruce, otherwise known as "Bruce Grit."
Mebane compiled the present work for the National Afro-American Council, a precursor to the NAACP. The NAAC was one of the first nationally-organized civil rights organizations to last a significant amount of time, founded in 1898 in Rochester, New York and lasting for almost a decade. The council was motivated into existence due to increased violence against African Americans in the south and continued efforts at their disenfranchisement in the last decade of the 19th century. Prominent African Americans such as Booker T. Washington, W.E.B. DuBois, William Monroe Trotter, and Archibald Grimke, among others, would join the NAAC or serve as officers in the group during its lifetime. OCLC records just four physical copies of the work, at Connecticut State Library, Yale, East Carolina University, and the Birmingham-Jefferson Public Library.
Price: $1,750.00