The Negro Genius Read online

  The Negro Genius

  By Benjamin Brawley

  Dean of Morehouse College, Atlanta, Georgia

  In his lecture on "The Poetic Principle," in leading down to his definition of poetry, Edgar Allan Poe has called attention to the three faculties, intellect, feeling, and will, and shown that poetry, that the whole realm of aesthetics in fact, is concerned primarily and solely with the second of these. Does it appeal to a sense of beauty? This is his sole test of a poem or of any work of art, the aim being neither to appeal to the intellect by satisfying the reason or inculcating truth, nor to appeal to the will by satisfying the moral sense or inculcating duty.

  This standard has often been criticized as narrow; yet it embodies a large and fundamental element of truth. If, now, we study the races that go to make up our cosmopolitan American life we shall find that the three which most distinctively represent the faculties, intellect, feeling, and will, are respectively the Anglo-Saxon, the Negro, and the Jewish. Whatever achievement has been made by the Anglo-Saxon has been primarily in the domain of pure intellect. In religion, in business, in invention, in pure scholarship, the same principle holds; and examples are found in Jonathan Edwards, J. Pierpont Morgan, Thomas A. Edison, and in such scholars as Royce and Kittredge of the Harvard of today. Similarly the outstanding race in the history of the world for emphasis on the moral or religious element of life has been the Jewish. Throughout the Old Testament the heart of Israel cries out to Jehovah, and through the law given on Sinai, the songs of the Psalmist, and the prophecies of Isaiah, the tradition of Israel has thrilled and inspired the entire human race.

  With reference now to the Negro two things are observable. One is that any distinction so far won by a member of the race in America has been almost always in some one of the arts; and the other is that any influence so far exerted by the Negro on American civilization has been primarily in the field of esthetics. A man of science like Benjamin Banneker is the exception. To prove the point we may refer to a long line of beautiful singers, to the fervid oratory of Douglass, to the sensuous poetry of Dunbar, to the picturesque style of Du Bois, to the impressionism of the paintings of Tanner, and to the elemental sculpture of Meta Warrick Fuller. Even Booker Washington, most practical of Americans, proves the point, the distinguishing qualities of his speeches being anecdote and brilliant concrete illustration.

  Everyone must have observed the radical difference in the appearance of the homes of white people and Negroes of the peasant class in the South. If the white man is not himself cultivated, and if he has not been able to give to his children the advantages of culture, his home is most likely to be a bare, blank abode with no pictures and no flowers. Such is not the case with the Negro. He is determined to have a picture, and if nothing better is obtainable he will paste a circus poster or a flaring advertisement on the walls. The instinct for beauty insists upon an outlet; and there are few homes of Negroes of the humbler class that will not have a geranium on the windowsill or a rose-bush in the garden. If, too, we look at the matter conversely, we shall find that those things which are most picturesque make to the Negro the readiest appeal. Red is his favorite color, simply because it is the most pronounced of all colors. Goethe's "Faust" can hardly be said to be a play designed primarily for the galleries. In general it might be supposed to rank with "Macbeth" or "She Stoops to Conquer" or "Richelieu." One never sees it fail, however, that in any Southern city "Faust" will fill the gallery with the so-called lower class of Negro people, who would never dream of going to see one of the other plays just mentioned; and the applause never leaves one in doubt as to the reasons for Goethe's popularity. It is the suggestiveness of the love scenes, the red costume of Mephistopheles, the electrical effects, and the rain of fire, that give the thrill desired--all pure melodrama of course. "Faust" is a good show as well as a good play.

  In some of our communities Negroes are frequently known to "get happy" in church. Now a sermon on the rule of faith or the plan of salvation is never known to awaken such ecstacy. This rather accompanies a vivid portrayal of the beauties of heaven, with its walls of jasper, the angels with palms in their hands, and (summum bonum!) the feast of milk and honey. And just here is the dilemma faced by the occupants of a great many pulpits in Negro churches. Do the Negroes want scholarly training? Very frequently the cultured preacher will be inclined to answer in the negative. Do they want rant and shouting? Such a standard fails at once to satisfy the ever-increasing intelligence of the audience itself. The trouble is that the educated Negro minister too often leaves out of account the basic psychology of his audience. That preacher who will ultimately be the most successful with the Negro congregation will be the one who to scholarship and culture can join brilliant imagination and fervid rhetorical expression. When all of these qualities are brought together in their finest proportion the effect is irresistible. Some distinguished white preachers, who to their deep spirituality have joined lively rhetorical expression, have never failed to succeed with a Negro audience as well as with an Anglo-Saxon one. Noteworthy examples within recent years have been Dr. P. S. Henson and Dr. R. S. MacArthur.

  Gathering up the threads of our discussion so far, we find that there is constant striving on the part of the Negro for beautiful or striking effect, that those things which are most picturesque make the readiest appeal to his nature, and that in the sphere of religion he receives with most appreciation those discourses which are most imaginative in quality. In short, so far as the last point is concerned, it is not too much to assert that the Negro is thrilled, not so much by the moral as by the artistic and pictorial elements in religion.

  But there is something deeper than the sensuousness of beauty that makes for the possibilities of the Negro in the realm of the arts, and that is the soul of the race. The wail of the old melodies and the plaintive quality that is ever present in the Negro voice are but the reflection of a background of tragedy. No race can rise to the greatest heights of art until it has yearned and suffered. The Russians are a case in point. Such has been their background in oppression and striving that their literature and art today are marked by an unmistakable note of power. The same future beckons to the American Negro. There is something very elemental about the heart of the race, something that finds its origin in the African forest, in the sighing of the night-wind, and in the falling of the stars. There is something grim and stern about it all too, something that speaks of the lash, of the child torn from its mother's bosom, of the dead body riddled with bullets and swinging all night from a limb by the roadside.

  What does all this mean but that the Negro is a thorough-going romanticist? The philosophy, the satires, the conventionalities of the age of reason mean little to him; but the freedom, the picturesqueness, the moodiness of Wordsworth's day mean much. In his wild, weird melodies we follow once more the wanderings of the Ancient Mariner. In the fervid picture of the New Jerusalem we see the same emphasis on the concrete as in "To a Skylark" or the "Ode to the West Wind;" and under the spell of the Negro voice at its best we once more revel in the sensuousness of "The Eve of St. Agnes."

  All of this of course does not mean that the Negro cannot rise to distinction in any sphere other than the arts, any more than it means that the Anglo-Saxon has not produced great painting and music. It does mean, however, that every race has its peculiar genius, and that, so far as we are at present able to judge, the Negro, with all of his manual labor, is destined to reach his greatest heights in the field of the artistic. But the impulse needs to be watched. Romanticism very soon becomes unhealthy. The Negro has great gifts of voice and ear and soul; but so far much of his talent has not soared above the vaudeville stage. This is due mostly largely of course to economic instability. It is the call of patriot
ism, however, that America should realize that the Negro has peculiar gifts which need all possible cultivation, and which will one day add to the glory of the country. Already his music is recognized as the most distinctive that the United States has yet produced. The possibilities of the race in literature and oratory, in sculpture and painting, are illimitable.

 

 

  Benjamin Brawley, The Negro Genius

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