It was very good of you to mail me a copy of the Journal of Negro History.  I had seen a copy of this publication, I believe, at the library of the Institute of Jamaica.  The second number is certainly an impressive issue indicative of the changed point of view.  The so-called literature on slavery and the negro is, in the main, rather a hindrance than a help.  The expression of mere personal opinion is of exceedingly slight value in the furtherance of any good cause.  What the world needs is not mere knowledge but a better understanding of the facts and experience already available.  When a race has reached a point where it realizes its own place in history, and the value of a critical analysis of its historical experience, a measurable advance has been made towards the attainment of a genuine progress.  All values are relative.  True history concerns itself with any and all achievements and not merely with political changes or military events.  Most of the so-called historical disquisitions delivered annually before the American Historical Association fall seriously short in this respect.  Ever since Green wrote his first real history of the English people the old-time historian has lost caste among men who are seriously concerned with the urgent solution of present-day problems.  Unquestionably, a true political history is of real value, but the social history of mankind is infinitely more important.

The Journal of Negro History seems to meet the foregoing requirements for a social history of the negro race rather than a mere increase in the already voluminous so-called history of the political aspects of slavery reconstruction or reorganization during recent times.  The article on the negro soldier in the American revolution is excellent.  The prerequisite for a genuine race progress is race pride.  For this reason the past achievements of the negro in this or any other country, individually or collectively, are of the utmost teaching value.  It is a far cry, apparently, from the very recent high and well deserved promotion of a negro to a commanding position in the army, back to the days of the service rendered by negro soldiers in the Revolution, but in its final analysis it is all a chain of connected events.  Where so much has been done and is being achieved the outlook for the future must needs be encouraging.  Progress is only made by struggling, and the best results are those achieved against apparently insuperable difficulties.  Race progress and race pride are practically equivalent terms.  Individuals and races fail in proportion as they permit discouraging circumstances or conditions to control their destinies.  A true philosophy of history never fails to bring home the conviction that lasting success is attained only through the ages by persistent effort in the right direction.  The negro race has reason to be proud of its achievements, but I am sure that the future progress will rest largely upon a better understanding of the negro’s place