First Universal Races Congress

First Universal Races Congress
Duration Four days
Date 1911 (1911)
Venue University of London
Location UK
Theme Anti-racism
Organised by Gustav Spiller
Participants 2,100

The First Universal Races Congress met in 1911 for four days at the University of London as an early effort at anti-racism. Speakers from a number of countries discussed race relations and how to improve them.[1] The congress, with 2,100 attendees, was conceived as a result of comments in 1906 by Felix Adler and primarily executed by Gustav Spiller. Philip Stanhope was president of the congress, and William Pember Reeves chaired its executive committee.[2]

Mission

The call for the congress included these remarks:

To discuss, in the light of science and modern conscience, the general relations subsisting between the peoples of the West and those of the East, between the so-called "white" and the so-called "colored" peoples, with a view to encouraging between them a fuller understanding, the most friendly feelings, and the heartier co-operation.… The interchange of material and other wealth between the races of mankind has of late years assumed such dimensions that the old attitude of distrust and aloofness is giving way to a genuine desire for a closer acquaintanceship. Out of this interesting situation has sprang the idea of holding a Congress where the representatives of the different races might meet each other face to face, and might, in friendly rivalry, further the cause of mutual trust and respect between the Occident and Orient, between the so-called "white" peoples and the so-called "colored" peoples.[3][4]

Work

More than 50 countries and 20 governments sent representatives, resulting in 58 papers which were categorized into five groups:[3]

Resolutions resulting from the congress were:[3]

Participants

Felix Adler was the delegate from the United States National Bureau of Education, as it was then known.[2][5] British anthropologist and ethnologist Alfred Cort Haddon wrote a paper for the journal Science about the congress.[6] Bengali humanist philosopher Brajendra Nath Seal, a proponent of Brahmo Samaj who worked in comparative religion, delivered an address entitled "Race Origin" introducing the concept of group divergence as it relates to human evolutionary genetics and the effects of reproductive isolation.[7] Writer, physician and reformer Charles Eastman, a Santee Sioux and Anglo-American who was active in politics and Native American rights, represented the American Indian at the congress.[8] Sarah J. Garnet accompanied her sister Susan McKinney Steward, who delivered her paper ("Colored American Women") to the congress.[9] The pioneering physician Frances Hoggan spoke.[10] W. E. B. Du Bois observed that the congress could clarify the state of scientific knowledge about the meaning of "race"[11] and presented his paper, "The Negro Race in the United States of America".[12] Mary White Ovington, co-founder of the NAACP, was in attendance and Mojola Agbebi, an advocate of self-governance for African churches, delivered a paper. William Sanders Scarborough was the delegate from Wilberforce University, the first African-American-owned college in the United States.[13] The head of the Bahá'í Faith, `Abdu'l-Bahá, was invited to speak; he sent representatives, a letter[14] and presentations by a number of Bahá'ís.[15] Other religious speakers included Thomas William Rhys Davids, Genchi Kato and Alfred Caldecott.[16]

After the congress, Dusé Mohamed Ali founded the African Times and Orient Review in London. Its first issue proclaimed that "the recent Universal Races Congress, convened in the Metropolis of the Anglo-Saxon world, clearly demonstrated that there was ample need for a Pan-Oriental, Pan-African journal in the seat of the British Empire".[17]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "New Historic Perspectives of the First Universal Races Congress of 1911". Radical History Review (MARIO: The Radical Historians' Organization, Inc.) 2005 (92): 99–102. Spring 2005. doi:10.1215/01636545-2005-92-99. Retrieved 25 April 2010.
  2. 1 2 Report of the Commissioner of Education made to the Secretary of the Interior for the year ..., with accompanying papers, Volume 1. United States, Bureau of Education. 1912. pp. 609–617, Chapter XXII; Report of the First Universal Races Congress, held at London, 26–29 July 1911 by Felix Adler, delegate representing the United States Bureau of Education.
  3. 1 2 3 Weatherly, Ulysses G. (1912). Small, Albion Woodbury; Faris, Ellsworth; Burgess, Ernest Watson, eds. The American Journal of Sociology, Vol 17; The First Universal Races Congress. University of Chicago Press. pp. 315–328.
  4. ↑ various (1911). Spiller, Gustov, ed. Papers on Inter-racial Problems Communicated to the First Universal Races Congress. London: in London, P. S. King & Son and Boston, The World's Peace Foundation. p. 477.
  5. ↑ Armstrong, Samuel Chapman; Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute (Va.), (1912). The Southern Workman, Volume 40. Hampton Institute. pp. 549– 551. Cite uses deprecated parameter |coauthors= (help)
  6. ↑ Haddon (1911), "The First Universal Races Congress", Science (8 September 1911) 34 (871), pp. 304–306, doi:10.1126/science.34.871.304, PMID 17807463
  7. ↑ The Evolution of the D2- Statistic of Mahalanobis by Somesh Dasguta, published in Indian J. Pure Appl. Math., 26(6) : 485–501, June 1995.
  8. ↑ Eastman, Charles; Michael Oren Fitzgerald (2007). The essential Charles Eastman (Ohiyesa): light on the Indian world. World Wisdom, Inc. pp. 202, 210. ISBN 978-1-933316-33-8.
  9. ↑ MacDonald, Meg Meneghel (2007–2009). Garnet, Sarah J. Smith Tompkins (1831–1911). Washingtone Stat: BlackPast.org. Retrieved 12 March 2010.
  10. ↑ Jones, Ken (2 January 2008). "Pioneering Physician". British Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 25 April 2010.
  11. ↑ Du Bois, W. E. B.; David L. Lewis (1995). W.E.B. Du Bois: a reader. Macmillan. pp. 44–47. ISBN 978-0-8050-3264-2.
  12. ↑ "Partial Speech by Du Bois", Anonymous. 1911. "The First Universal Race Congress in London, England." The American Missionary, vol. 45, no. 9 (September): 323–324.
  13. ↑ Garvey, Marcus; Robert A. Hill; Universal Negro Improvement Association (1983). The Marcus Garvey and Universal Negro Improvement Association Papers: 27 August 1919–31 August 1920. University of California Press. p. 320. ISBN 978-0-520-05091-4.
  14. ↑ various (1911). "various". In Spiller, G. Papers on Inter-racial Problems Communicated to the First Universal Races Congress. London: in London, P. S. King & Son and Boston, The World's Peace Foundation. p. 477. Retrieved 25 April 2010.
  15. ↑ Immediately before `Abdu'l-Bahá's journeys to the West, the entire Star of the West, vol. 2, no. 9, the main serial magazine covering the religion in the West at the time, was devoted to presentations by leading Bahá'ís at the congress. various (20 August 1911). Windust, Albert R; Buikema, Gertrude, eds. "various". Star of the West (Chicago, USA: Baha'i News Service) 02 (09): all. Retrieved 15 April 2010.
  16. ↑ Jordan, Louis Henry (2007) [1915]. Comparative Religion – Its Adjuncts and Allies. READ BOOKS. pp. 420–421. ISBN 978-1-4067-5977-8.
  17. ↑ "African and Colonial Journals: The African Times and Orient Review, 1912–1914, 1917–1918 and The African Colonizer, 1840–1841"

External links

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