CounterPunch | The July 4 meeting at which The Voice appeared came in the
wake of the vicious white supremacist attacks (Harrison called it a
“pogrom”) on the African American community of East St. Louis, Illinois
(which is twelve miles from Ferguson, Missouri). Harrison again advised
“Negroes” who faced mob violence in the South and elsewhere to “supply
themselves with rifles and fight if necessary, to defend their lives and
property.” According to the New York Times he received great
applause when he declared that “the time had come for the Negroes [to]
do what white men who were threatened did, look out for themselves, and
kill rather than submit to be killed.” He was quoted as saying: “We
intend to fight if we must . . . for the things dearest to us, for our
hearths and homes.” In his talk he encouraged “Negroes” everywhere who
did not enjoy the protection of the law to arm in self-defense, to hide
their arms, and to learn how to use their weapons. He also reportedly
called for a collection of money to buy rifles for those who could not
obtain them themselves, emphasizing that “Negroes in New York cannot
afford to lie down in the face of this” because “East St. Louis touches
us too nearly.” According to the Times, Harrison said it was
imperative to “demand justice” and to “make our voices heard.” This call
for armed self-defense and the desire to have the political voice of
the militant New Negro heard were important components of Harrison’s
militant “New Negro” activism.
The Voice featured Harrison’s outstanding writing and
editing and it included important book review and “Poetry for the
People” sections. It contributed significantly to the climate leading up
to Alain LeRoy Locke’s 1925 publication The New Negro.
Beginning in August 1919 Harrison edited The New Negro: A Monthly Magazine of a Different Sort, which
described itself as “A Magazine for the New Negro,” published “in the
interest of the New Negro Manhood Movement,” and “intended as an organ
of the international consciousness of the darker races — especially of
the Negro race.”
In early 1920 Harrison assumed “the joint editorship” of the Negro World and
served as principal editor of that globe-sweeping newspaper of Marcus
Garvey’s Universal Negro Improvement Association (which was a major
component of the “New Negro Movement”).
