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30 We Must Make Literature to Make Public Opinion In this 1924 editorial Fortune aligns himself with others during the Harlem Renaissance, calling on African Americans “to make our own literature” and to “write the story ourselves.” We Must Make Literature to Make Public Opinion —Negro World, November 22, 1924 Announcement has been made that young Countee P. Cullen1 of New York, who is still a student in a New York school, has had accepted and published poems in four of the leading magazines for November. This is a remarkable showing, and would be for a veteran author. The magazines that have accepted his poems for November issues are The American Mercury, which publishes his prize winning poem; Harper’s Magazine, The Century and The Bookman. It will be remembered that young Mr. Cullen had won two prizes in contests for the best poetry of late, and he has now won an entrance into the highest and most exclusive magazines. It is a great gain for him and for the race. It is good to remember, as Daniel Webster2 once told a young aspirant for honors at the American bar, that there is always room on the top. And Dr. Washington, who was a philosopher of common sense, once said that if you have something others want they will not be bothered by the color of you but by the price of what you have, and that they would seek you rather than you seek them. It appears to be that way in literature. Young Mr. Cullen has just gone in and offered his poetic wares, and, having been accepted, the best publications of the nation invite him to contribute to their pages, and pay him handsomely for so doing. As in the case of Roland Hayes,3 the premier lyric songster of the race, and of Harry Burleigh,4 the premier composer of the race, Mr. Cullen has not conquered the outworks by sudden onslaught; he has had to plod upwards , as all have to who succeed. The thing is to have the knack of plodding . So many refuse to accept the drudgery of preparing themselves for the work they want to do and are offended when their work is not accepted, with all of its imperfections. The editor is not worried about your race, color or previous condition; what he considers is the work you submit to him for consideration. It has no color. If it is defective in subject and treatment he rejects it. It is your fault and not his. We must make our own way in literature.5 If we leave it to others to write about us and what we think and say and do, they will color it from their racial viewpoint, and it will not always flatter us, nor tell the unvarnished truth about us. To get that we must write story ourselves. When I write about white people I always do it from the Negro viewpoint. I can’t help it. The white man judges me by his viewpoint and I judge him by mine. I prefer my judgment to his. So would you. If he writes his viewpoint of me and I do not write mine of him, he has the advantage of me in the high court of public opinion, which, in the last analysis, rules the roost. We are fortunate at this time in having a small group of men and women who are writing from the race viewpoint what the race hopes and aspires to who have the ear of the publishers and of the public, and we owe them much, for they interpret us for those who do not know us and our hopes and aspirations. Notes 1. Countee P. Cullen (1903–1946) was an African American poet and novelist. 2. Daniel Webster (1782–1852) was a politician who was elected to the House and the Senate from New Hampshire and Massachusetts. 3. Roland Hayes (1887–1976) was an African American concert vocalist. 4. Harry T. Burleigh (1866–1949) was an African American composer and vocalist. 5. Throughout his life Fortune promoted the publication of the race’s own literature and history. Fortune actively promoted George Williams’ History of the Negro Race in America, 1619–1880 in the pages of the Globe (March 3, 10, 17 and May 12 and 19, 1883), and in his two-part article, “The Negro and His Critics,” in the Age, June 29 and July 6, 1889, he called upon the...

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