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A
Bibliography of the Negro in Africa and America (1928)
Compiled By Monroe
Work
Director
of Records and Research
Tuskegee
Normal and Industrial institute
(Sociologist 1866-1945) Introduction
By
Anselm Phelps Stokes
It is a privilege as a trustee of the Tuskegee
Institute and as President of the Phelps-Stokes Fund to write a
brief Introduction to the
Bibliography of the Negro in Africa and America.
There are, I think, four things which every reader has a
right to know before taking up a work of this character, namely,
its purpose and scope, the history of the undertaking, the
personality and career of the author, and the significance of
the work as it appears to one interested in the history,
achievements and problems of the Negro.
Purpose and Scope
The purpose of this Bibliography is to furnish an accurate
and comprehensive handbook of the titles and authors of valuable
books, pamphlets and articles from periodicals on the Negro in
Africa and America. These references also furnish sources of
information on the various problems created by his presence in
these two continents in close proximity to people of other
races. The author has not tried to include all known printed
works on the subjects named. Indeed he has eliminated more
titles than he included, so that the book is a select reference
bibliography on the Negro with more than 17,000 entries covering
the most worthwhile publications in different languages issued
before 1928.
The needs of the student of history and the other social
sciences have been kept constantly in mind. With this object in
view the material has been grouped under two main divisions,
namely, "The Negro in Africa" and "The Negro in
America," while each of these sections has been further
subdivided, so that there are in all some 74 carefully
classified chapters. It should therefore be possible for the
student with the aid of this Bibliography to fin without
difficulty the most valuable works that have been written on any
subject in connection with the development or experience of the
African or American Negro.
History of the Undertaking
This book has a history of a quarter of a century. The first
date of importance is 1904, when the author, Mr. Monroe N. Work,
was a teacher of History at the Georgia State Industrial
College in Savannah. He then became deeply interested in the
study of Africa and began to compile a bibliography on the
subject. This work was materially helped by his purchasing
several thousand cards on Africa from the Library of Congress.
A second date of significance is 1912, when Mr. Work, who had
become Director of the Department of Records and Research at
Tuskegee Institute, issued his first edition of the Negro Year
Book. This contained a "Select Bibliography of the
Negro" with 408 references. Subsequent editions have found
this feature of the Year Book increased so that the latest
edition--that for 1925-26--contains 2,875 classified references.
These bibliographies were confined almost exclusively to the
Negro in the United States. Their preparation was aided by
pamphlets on the subject published by the Library of Congress,
Atlanta University, and other institutions, but they soon
superseded them in general use.
In 1921, the undertaking took on a broader scope through
grants made by the Carnegie Corporation in aid of Mr. Work's
researches. he was now able to purchase the cards of the Library
of Congress on the American Negro in addition to those in
Africa, and to secure the necessary clerical assistance in
getting his material arranged for publication.
In 1926-27 the plan of the Bibliography took on its final
form as a result of conferences held with Mr. W.A. Slade, Chief
Bibliographer of the Library of Congress, Dr. C.T. Loram,
Commissioner of Native Affairs of the Union of South Africa, Dr.
Diedrich Westerman, Professor of African languages at the
University of Berlin, and others. As a result Tuskegee Institute
and the Phelps-stokes Fund made it possible for Mr. Work, after
completing his studies in the most important American libraries,
to visit the great collections of Europe so as to make sure that
his Bibliography on the Negro in Africa was as comprehensive, as
far as important works were concerned, as his bibliography on
the Negro in America.
Every possible facility was placed at his disposal by such
representative libraries as the British Museum, the British
Colonial Office, the Royal Colonial Institute of London, the
Colonial Institutes of Brussels and Hamburg, the Bibliotheque
Nationale of Paris, the Library of the League of Nations, and
other university, public, colonial and missionary society
libraries. Mr. Work was also able to get in personal touch with
European authorities on Africa and on Bibliography and so insure
that his book of reference should rank with other representative
publications of its kind.
The Author
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The author of this Bibliography, Monroe
Nathan West, is himself a Negro, born of slave parentage
in Iredell County, North Carolina, August 15, 1866, only
eight months after the abolition of slavery was
officially announced in the United States. Mr. Work
secured his elementary education in the public schools
of Kansas and later studied at the University of
Chicago, taking the degree of Bachelor of Philosophy in
1902 and of master of Arts in Sociology and Psychology
in 1903.From 1903 to 1908 he was professor of Pedagogy
and History at the Georgia State Industrial College,
Savannah, and from 1908 to the present [1928], a period
of 20 years, he has been Director of the Department of
Records and Research at Tuskegee. |
This
department has rendered signal service in collecting statistical
information regarding the Negro, and has published every few
years editions of the Negro Year Book, an invaluable
handbook of facts regarding the development and condition of the
Negro in the United States.
In addition to being a member of several national
sociological and economic associations, Mr. Work is a trustee of
the National Association of Teachers in Colored Schools. He has
always placed his broad knowledge of the Negro and of sources of
information regarding his history and present condition at the
disposal of other scholars. They have in turn held him in high
regard for his disinterestedness, his modesty, his capacity for
hard work, his passion for facts and his ability to find them.
He gives every one the feeling that his feet are squarely
planted on the ground and that he knows how to be entirely
impartial and objective. His training at the University of
Chicago, his effective labors in connection with the editorship
of the Negro Year Book and his work at Tuskegee
Institute, followed by his long investigations in America and
European libraries., would seem to have provided an admirable
preparation for the present undertaking. It is only fair to add
that he has been greatly assisted in all his work by his wife,
Mrs. Florence H. Work.
Significance of the Bibliography
It is difficult to overestimate the significance of this
Bibliography to all students of the Negro and of interracial
problems. During recent weeks I have personally had several
examples of its need and value. A graduate student at a southern
university wrote me asking information regarding books dealing
with the Negro and crime. Chapter XXXIV, Section 1-3, gives the
student a key to this whole difficult field. Similarly, another
correspondent wished information regarding the segregation of
the Negro in public places in American cities. Chapter XXXIII,
Section 4, gives him all essential facts regarding the racial
characteristics of the Negro, as shown both in Africa and the
United States. Chapter XXXVIII, supplemented by Chapter XXVII,
will make it possible for him to pursue his inquiries
intelligently. Scores of questions such as those mentioned can
be answered in a competent way only by the use of this work.
I believe that Mr. Work's BIBLIOGRAPHY OF THE NEGRO IN AFRICA
AND AMERICA will prove a valuable book of references for all
university, college and public libraries, and that students of
social conditions in Africa and the United States, especially
those concerned with that most complicated of all social
problems, the race problem, will find it absolutely
indispensable. Some one was sure to undertake the task of
meeting the need for this comprehensive bibliography. I, for
one, am extremely glad that an American Negro, with only a trace
of white blood, had the imagination to conceive of the work on
broad lines, the scholarly mind to follow the best bibliographic
standards in its preparation, and the persistence to carry it
through effectively in spite of the enormous labor and
difficulties involved. it is a monument of which any man or any
race may well feel proud.
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posted 9 November 2007 |
