Columnist Bernie Hayes
Last month, on May 19, we celebrated the birthday of Malcolm X, but we left out another significant historical person who sought to acquire economic power and to infuse among blacks a sense of dignity and self-esteem.
We also celebrate the life, commemorate the death and observe the holiday dedicated to the late Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., but there is another Martin whom we have forgotten.
A man named Martin whom MLK quoted, Marcus Garvey admired and Malcolm revered. A Martin who was a role model for Stokely Carmichael, and whom W.E.B. Dubois emulated. Many adherents to Black Nationalism assumed the doctrine of Martin R. Delany, who was born on May 6, 1912.
Marcus Garvey’s Universal Negro Improvement Association of the 1920s was greatly inspired by Delany, and W.E.B. Du Bois was a leader of the first Pan-African Conference in London in 1900 and the architect of four Pan-African Congresses held in 1919.
The name Martin Delany (sometimes spelled “Delaney”), probably isn’t important to you. You could have gone your entire life without hearing this man’s name. He isn’t as familiar symbol of African-American determination as Malcolm X; you seldom find his likeness on T-shirts or see film clips of his speeches within music videos. Nor is his picture reverently displayed in magazine ads during Black History Month like Martin Luther King Jr.’s.
Yet he was one of the giants of American history: a hero in the American Revolution whose legacy is very still much alive.
Martin Delany was a radical pre-Civil War abolitionist, Black Nationalist, explorer of Africa and veteran of the American Civil War. His father was a slave, and all four of his grandparents had been captured in Africa and brought to America as slaves. But his mother was free, and by law this meant Delany was born free. From earliest childhood, he was told by his parents that his ancestors were African royalty. His family fled North when his mother faced prosecution for educating her children.
Martin Robinson Delany was a journalist, physician, army officer, politician and judge. He is best known for his promotion before the Civil War of a national home in Africa for African Americans. Delany helped to organize the National Emigration Convention of Colored People, held in Cleveland in August 1854, where he called for abolition and for free blacks to resettle in the Caribbean, Central or South America or East Africa. In 1858 he led an expedition to Africa’s Niger Valley, where he negotiated treaties with several tribes as a first step for resettlement of American blacks.
In one of his many books, he wrote, “Situated as we are, as mere nonentities in the midst of others, the most deserving, respectable and praiseworthy among us, in the eye of the law and its consequent enactments, being placed far beneath the most vile vagabonds while being denied the privileges granted to the pauper and vagrant; those, by the laws, declared to be nuisance; while privileges are being enjoyed by other men, privileges which from their nature necessarily elevate the female, the wife, mother, sister and daughter, and stimulate the tender youth; we colored male citizens are made the degraded vassals of the most insufferable servility, more tolerable than death itself.”
“Martin R. Delaney was known as the most prominent advocate of Black Nationalism in the 19th century, and it was in his books that his view of the situation of our race became widely known.” said Dr. Conrad Worrill, the National Chairman of the National Black United Front.
“The rejection of history by many of us results in the denial of our true condition and situation. Much of what Delaney wrote and lectured about in the 19th century is still true today concerning the condition of black people today. Our challenge is to continue his legacy by breaking the mental chains of slavery that keep us dependent on others for our history and the interpretation of world events.”
“Martin Delaney is like a lot of brilliant leaders in the black freedom movement: they never get their just recognition,” said nationally celebrated peace activist and American columnist Jamala Rogers.
“Delaney was born free in the early 1800s, and his spirit as a free man permeated all of his endeavors on behalf of his people. He valued education and Delaney’s writings reflected his strong views against slavery and he is known for efforts to look beyond America’s shores for a homeland for black folks. He is part of our legacy of uncompromising freedom fighters that resisted white domination and attempted to chart a path of dignity and justice for his people.”
Martin R. Delany died on January 24, 1885, so when people exclaim ‘we are going to honor and remember Martin, perhaps you should ask which one?
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