In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

120 | 17 “If I Were a Colored Man What Would I Do?” (1919) Louis Michel Little is known about Louis Michel. He enters the historical record as an active supporter of Marcus Garvey’s United Negro Improvement Association and a contributor to the California Eagle, the leading newspaper of Los Angeles’s African American community. A socialist-Zionist, Michel wrote this article on the need for black empowerment against the backdrop of more than two dozen race riots in cities around the country. If I were born of Negro parentage, either full blooded or only mixed in part with the blood of other races, [. . .] I would hold high my head and steady my feet and say very proudly, very happily, very plainly: It is my best fortune to be counted one of those that are not the exploiters, the commercial robbers, the arrogant persecutors, the malicious egoists, but rather one of those that are the offspring and progenitors of the downtrodden, the unjustly persecuted, the dusky skinned or lighter skinned children of the persecuted Negro people. I would deem myself glorified and hallowed not to belong to the minions of tyranny, the upholders of race prejudice and unjust racial persecution. I would thank God that I was greatly fortified in my position to be in the right, whilst my foes were in the weak position of the wrong and in the final analysis of justice and fair play would be on the losing, but my comrades with myself, on the justly vindicated and finally winning side of the future! But I would not merely think so in a meek and only prayerful mood, but like a true man. I would fight a good and strenuous fight to win my place under the sun for myself and my fellow racemen and here is a short summary of what I would do, or at least, what I would aim to accomplish. I would urge upon my people to organize for their realization of their fondest hopes and dreams to be for all times full-fledged and sovereign citizens of the United States. [. . .] “If I Were a Colored Man What Would I Do?” | 121 1. political. No candidate of any political party could get my vote on any occasion of public struggle unless I would know fully and undoubtedly whether or not he were sound and true on the race question. I would not take the word of his mouth only, he would have to come out boldly in public writings and speeches, where thousands could see, hear and gauge him in his manifestos upon the race question, how he stood, what he thought of my people, etc.; and if he failed to come out in this true, straight, undeceiving way, he would never get my vote, whether he was the blackest Republican [. . .] or the most alluring Democrat that ever smiled with a Colored man, but never did anything else. [. . .] 2. economical. I would, if I were a Colored man, try to organize my brethren and sisters into a strong union that would press for the opening of the mills and shops in this city for the Colored toilers in all branches. Delegations after delegations of strong intellectual Colored men and women should go before the manufacturing heads of these concerns, augmented and assisted by the right-minded friends of the white race and with this proper organization courageously, with word and pen, fighting a brave local battle that would in time call forth National attention, the good big fight can surely be made and won. On the other hand the 30,000 Colored inhabitants of Los Angeles could probably raise Thirty Thousand Dollars ($30,000) and start a factory of their own—first one and, perhaps later on another one, and thus prove by superabundant efforts that the virile Colored people can no more be kept down than the wandering, but hard-fighting Jew. Only progressive, even aggressive , action can win the way; cowardice and submission are the handmaids of drudgery and persecution and cannot be resorted to for freedom’s sake and justice’s glory. I would help no merchant, stand by no storekeeper, however reasonable they would sell their wares, unless [I] was fully convinced that they were real, not merely pretending friends of my race. I would organize the members of my race to do vigilant picket duty for the purpose of a strenuous boycott of every theatre or other place of amusement that would segregate and discriminate against...

Share