Part 38 (1/2)

After how many prolonged minutes, the waves of noise begin to fade. And Prince Elihu begins to speak, with theatrical abruptness, his voice raised, raw, or raw-seeming, trembling with emotion; he will address the gathering for ninety minutes, nonstop, in an atmosphere ever more highly charged, and commingled with odors of hair, flesh, sweated clothing, rank animal pa.s.sion. The Negro's love of America has not been returned, my brothers and my sisters Elihu begins his chant. The Negro's love of America has not been returned. At first Millie can't make out Elihu's words, she absorbs only the man's ecstatic rage, and begins to feel a sense of helplessness and panic, as on all sides men and women murmur, moan, sob, sway their bodies in sympathy with his chant which they seem to know, words wholly alien to Millie.

What is the tragic history of America cries Prince Elihu motionless as a pillar in the bright burning circle of light but the history of BROKEN PROMISES. OF LOVE NOT RETURNED.

Of enslavement of BODY AND SPIRIT.

Of enslavement to this day by FALSE FREEDOM.

Of Negro women scorned as dirt by the white cannibal-devil BUT EVER VICTIMS OF HIS UNCONTROLLABLE l.u.s.t; and Negro men EVER THE VICTIMS OF HIS DEVIL-HATRED OF HIMSELF.

And now, by way of Prince Elihu's message, A TEARING ASIDE OF THE VEIL.

A speaking-out of that WHICH HAS ONLY BEEN WHISPERED.

And woe be to those WHO LACK COURAGE.

And woe, woe! to OUR ENEMIES.

For he who is fearful and holds back BETRAYS HIS RACE. And the sacred undeniable AFRICAN BLOOD BEATING IN HIS VEINS.

For he who shrinks from acknowledging his kins.h.i.+p with all dark-skinned peoples, and his enmity toward all whites, BETRAYS HIS RACE. AND THE SACRED UNDENIABLE AFRICAN BLOOD BEATING IN HIS VEINS.

He who withholds his soul's fullest strength, in craven wors.h.i.+p of the false G.o.ds of the white man, JESUS CHRIST and MAMMON, will not be forgiven; nor will he have a place in AFRICA GLORIFIED.

He who aspires to a BLEACHING-OUT OF THE SOUL in denying the WISDOM OF THE FLESH must come to a tragic end.

For there are numberless kinds of EVISCERATIONS, my brothers and sisters, numberless kinds of LYNCHINGS . . . CASTRATIONS . . . PUBLIC STONINGS . . . LIVE CREMATIONS . . . FLOGGING . . . TARRING . . . HANGING . . . DEATH. Numberless kinds of DEATH, my brothers and sisters, numberless kinds of DEATH.

Fed screaming through a rock grinder in Bowman, Georgia, while a gathering of the Klan and fellow whites stand by, like a Negro male named Dale Scoggins in March of 1926, O my brothers and sisters THIS IS NOT THE ONLY OUTRAGE OUR RACE MUST ENDURE: DO YOU KNOW? DO YOU KNOW? DO YOU KNOW WHAT ELIHU TELLS YOU?

For history is nearing its fiery conclusion; a second War is close at hand, to be fought by the white cannibal-devils in Europe, and very likely in America; and the long reign of DISEASE AND WICKEDNESS WILL BE OVER.

And no black man must submit to the yoke of soldiery this time: THE LIE THAT THE WORLD IS TO BE MADE SAFE FOR DEMOCRACY. For we have seen, my brothers and sisters, since 1919 we have seen, ALL THAT DEMOCRACY IS, IS WHITE PRIVILEGE, WHITE POWER, WHITE INJURY, WHITE LOATHING OF ALL DARK-SKINNED PEOPLES. For we have seen, since 1919, in the decade following the Negro soldier's return from the European War, ever more atrocities toward our race. A decade of BLOOD VENGEANCE AGAINST OUR VERY PATRIOTISM. A decade of RAGING SCORN AGAINST OUR VERY n.o.bILITY. A decade of SHAME, my brothers and sisters, SHAME THAT WE DARE NOT RISE TO STRIKE THE MURDERERS DOWN. In East St. Louis in the summer of 1919, forty Negroes ma.s.sacred by a lynch mob . . . and no justice following. In Springfield, Illinois . . . in Los Angeles and San Francisco and Seattle and Philadelphia . . . the rise of the Ku Klux Klan . . . the privilege of the white lynchers . . . BEATING AND RAPING AND MURDERING AS THEY WISH. In Texas, nine Negro veterans hanged AND BESIDE THEM THE PREGNANT WIFE OF ONE OF THE VETERANS. In Macon County, Georgia, A LIVE FETUS RIPPED FROM THE WOMB OF A NEGRO WOMAN AND TRAMPLED UNDERFOOT BY WHITE-HOODED MEN. And no justice following. In ballparks in Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi, North Florida . . . in public fairgrounds . . . squares . . . before the very courthouse . . . LIVE CREMATIONS OF NEGROES FOR THE ENTERTAINMENT OF WHITES: PUBLIC HANGINGS . . . EVISCERATIONS . . . FLOGGINGS . . . TARRING AND FEATHERING . . . CASTRATION b.l.o.o.d.y AND FOUL . . . .And no justice following. And no justice ever to follow. And the rise, my brothers and sisters, of the Klan: and the many admirers of the Klan.

For the Klan, now five million strong, is America: AMERICA HOODED AND TRUTHFUL IN ITS ANONYMITY.

For the Klan shouts the truth that ALL NEGROES MAY HEAR; while the white cannibal-devil, unhooded, tells lies THAT NEGROES MAY BE DECEIVED.

In West Virginia . . . in the Carolinas . . . in Ohio (boasting more than four hundred thousand members) . . . in New York State and New Jersey and Delaware and Maryland . . . in Illinois, in Michigan, in Indiana, in Tennessee and Kentucky and Arkansas . . . the rise of the Klan . . . AMERICA HOODED AND TRUTHFUL IN ITS ANONYMITY. Five million Klansmen, my brothers and sisters, but behind them wives and children, families, fellow citizens IN SUPPORT OF THE KLAN AND THE KLAN'S AVOWAL TO DESTROY THE NEGRO. Five million Klansmen, my brothers and sisters, and not yet one million Negroes in support of Prince Elihu WHO PREACHES RACE SALVATION AND AFRICA GLORIFIED. In Beaumont, Texas, where a twenty-two-year-old Negro named Willie Shelton was tied with barbed wire and dragged from the b.u.mper of an automobile UNTIL SCREAMING IN AGONY HE DIED not five months ago to this day there is A KLANSMAN MAYOR . . . A KLANSMAN DISTRICT ATTORNEY . . . A KLANSMAN EPISCOPAL MINISTER . . . AS WELL AS MANY THOUSANDS OF KLANSMEN AMONG ALL SOCIAL CLa.s.sES . . . and no justice for Negroes: NO JUSTICE TO FOLLOW. And when Dale Scoggins was murdered in March 1926 in Bowman, Georgia, begging for his life, screaming and struggling in terror, fed in unspeakable agony through a rock grinder TO THE CHEERS AND ANIMAL DELIGHT OF MORE THAN ONE HUNDRED WHITE MEN AND A SCATTERING OF WHITE WOMEN was justice to follow: Is justice ever to follow? A KLANSMAN GOVERNOR OF GEORGIA . . . A KLANSMAN STATE ATTORNEY GENERAL . . . A KLANSMAN SUPREME COURT . . . A KLANSMAN COUNTY PROSECUTOR . . . A KLANSMAN SHERIFF: each and every one of them dedicated to NEGRO ANNIHILATION.

While Prince Elihu is dedicated to NEGRO SALVATION; and AFRICA RECLAIMED.

While Prince Elihu cries aloud the TRUTH THAT CANNOT BE DENIED: THE NEGRO'S LOVE OF AMERICA HAS NOT BEEN RETURNED.

For the Democracy of America, for all dark-skinned races, DOES NOT EXIST; AND HAS NEVER EXISTED.

And those Negroes who believe that it has, or will, ARE SELF-DECEIVED VICTIMS.

For the Communists, Socialists, and their kind, who promise equality of the races in the cla.s.s struggle, deliberately lie in declaring that THE VERY WORKINGMAN WHO BELONGS TO THE KU KLUX KLAN WILL BE YOUR BROTHER; and the Christians who preach of love, and charity, and the redemption of sin, and forgiveness of enemies, and the reward of Heaven, deliberately lie in exhorting that CHRISTIANITY IS A BLACK FAITH: FOR IT IS NOT: IT IS BUT A SNARE AND A DELUSION: THE MOST CYNICAL OF GAMES.

For, only consider, in this Christian nation, in the decade following the War: the systematic reversal of government policies on the hiring of Negroes for civil service positions, public teaching positions, etc., BY SPECIFIC ORDER OF THE RACIST WOODROW WILSON. And this, after numberless speeches by Wilson and his fellow Democrats promising reform and equality of rights IF THE NEGRO WILL BUT SUPPORT THE WAR AND ENLIST IN THE ARMY (WHERE THE ARMY WOULD HAVE HIM). For the Negro's love of America has not been returned. For all white men are our enemies, then and now. FOR AMERICA, FOR US, HAS NEVER EXISTED.

Only consider: the refusal of Congress to pa.s.s a lynching law; the refusal of Congress to pa.s.s civil rights legislation; the refusal of Congress to honor the LAND AND INDEMNITY BILL sponsored by the only organization to pride itself upon being WHOLLY BLACK and WHOLLY DEVOTED TO THE RECLAMATION OF BLACK n.o.bILITY.

And the rise, in this past decade, of the KLAN.

The rise, my brothers and sisters, of THE WHITE CANNIBAL-DEVILS SWORN TO DESTROY US.

Five million Klansmen, thus ten or fifteen million Klansmen in spirit. Five million, ten and fifteen million, how many more million in the Kingdom of the d.a.m.ned: eleven Klansmen governors . . . yet more senators . . . numberless congressmen, from every district . . . mayors . . . councilmen . . . sheriffs, policemen, federal agents . . . lawyers . . . millionaire businessmen . . . clergy of the so-called Christian faith . . . school-teachers . . . workingmen: LOYAL MEMBERS OF THE KLAN SWORN TO DESTROY US.

So it is my brothers and my sisters on this historic night of 19 June 1929 upon this great occasion of the FIRST ANNUAL UNIVERSAL NEGRO CONFRATERNITY RALLY sponsored by THE WORLD NEGRO BETTERMENT & LIBERATION UNION, I, Prince Elihu, declare to you that we must unite that THE NEGRO RACE BE SAVED; and AFRICA RECLAIMED; and COLONIAL DESPOTISM OVERTHROWN; and THE WHITE CANNIBAL-DEVIL DEFEATED.

For all that we HAVE BEEN, we WILL BE AGAIN.

For the FUTURE IS OURS.

FOR HONOR IS THE SUBJECT OF OUR STORY.

FOR I SAY TO YOU MY BROTHERS AND MY SISTERS: HONOR IS THE SUBJECT OF OUR STORY.

THUS, THE FIRST Annual Universal Negro Confraternity Rally of 19 June 1929, which would also be the last such rally; and at its conclusion past 11 P.M. Millicent Stirling is too exhausted and distraught to rise from her seat, she's been crying silently for a long time, the front of her stylish silk dress is damp with tears, her black straw hat has fallen, or has been knocked, onto the floor; she has given herself up as years ago she'd given herself up to the nightmare of childbirth, a roaring in her ears, a roaring in all her veins, she's given herself up to grief, to shame, to the anguish of love, her heart is broken, this throbbing boiling pain is her heart, she will give herself up henceforth to sorrow, to middle age and eventually old age and death, she's scarcely aware of her surroundings, or even that Prince Elihu gleaming with perspiration like an oiled idol has left the stage, and the stage lights have been lowered, and the lights in the hall have been raised, she doesn't notice how she's being worriedly regarded by several of the neatly dressed young Negro ushers, for by this time most of the Garden has emptied out and Millie remains, a hunched broken figure in her seat-What's wrong ma'am? What you cryin' about ma'am? You need some help there ma'am?-but in her dove-gray silk dress and matching stockings, in her white eyelet gloves and her white, white skin, the pride of her white skin, its shame, its outrage, its horror from which there can be, so long as she lives, no salvation, she doesn't hear.

IN OLD MUIRKIRK.

Am I defeated?-I am not.

Do I smell of mortality?-I do not.

Will I return to my former triumphs?-I will. I will.

AT LAST IN a fierce-howling March 1932 Katrina dies. If Abraham Licht could blame Katrina's death on the infamous Wall Street Crash of some years previous he would, he would!

Katrina has died, and is buried in the village cemetery but Abraham Licht, an aging (yet not-old) man himself-ivory-pale filmy-floating hair grown past his ears, though papery-thin across the crown of his head, eyes sharp with suspicion and mouth quivering with irony-knows better. He knows the household will never be rid of the old woman.