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_Your Negro Neighbor._ By BENJAMIN BRAWLEY. The Macmillan Company, New
York, 1918. Pp. 100. Price 60 cents.
In this book Dean Brawley does not reach the standard set in some of
his other works, but he has here some facts and suggestions which are
worth while. The book begins with an appeal to the people of the
United States in behalf of the Negroes who, despite their many
grievances, are now fighting to make the world safe for democracy
although their own country is not safe for them. In directing these
remarks to the citizens of this country the author gives in detail the
Negroes' grounds for complaint and shows how because of the unjust
treatment of the blacks in the United States this country has become
an object of suspicion in South America, where the color line is not
known.
The second chapter of the book is a statement of the Negroes' place in
history. This, however, is too brief and unscientific to be of much
value to one in quest of facts of Negro history. It seems unnecessary
here also to devote a special chapter to such isolated facts of
history in writing a book dealing with a social problem.
The chapter bearing on the Negro as an industrial factor contains
interesting material taken from statistical reports. The author
discusses such questions as the reliability of Negro laborers, the
antagonism of the labor unions, housing conditions, and the like.
Taking up the institution of lynching, Dean Brawley goes over old
ground but gives striking facts to portray this blot on the American
civilization. Then without showing any close connection between the
two the author takes up Negro education since the Civil War. Here we
see another failure to treat an important question intensively and
scientifically. He then gives a sketch of Joanna P. Moore, a
missionary of much worth, takes up certain critics and their
fallacies, asserts the possibility of the race and closes with a plea
for a moralist.
This in brief is the work recently produced by a man who is
undertaking to address the American people on almost every phase of
Negro life and history. This work, however, is merely the author's
observations or impressions of the Negroes among the whites. The very
work itself shows that Dean Brawley is undertaking too much. He is
best as a literary critic but in sociology and history his works do
not measure up to standard.
ORVILLE HOLLIDAY.
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