Atlanta Daily World

WASHINGTON- (ANP)-Negro History week, initiated by the Association for the study of Negro Life and History in 1916, will be celebrated this year in all parts of the country Feb. 9-16 with renewed significance, according to Dr. Carter G. Woodson, founder of the association which was organized in Chicago Sept. 9, 1915.

In his announcement of this year's celebration, Dr. Woodson emphasized the necessity of a feeling and acceptance of brotherhood as the only sure way of realizing democracy in the world. Dr. Woodson scorned the methods used today for the attainment of democracy. "We are holding conferences and passing resolutions and deciding by a majority what shall be done or what shall not be done without having a foundation on which we can build a new structure."

Dr. Woodson advises a study of historical events rather than current political trends as a basis for the correct approach to the problems which baffle leaders today. This is the approach he has made with reference to race relations in America. "An ordinary school boy knows," the historian says, "that the Greeks never had a democracy about which they talked and wrote so much."

The audacity of the Greeks to boast of their democracy while they held thousands of slaves has been copied by later nations. When the preamble of the Constitution of the United States was written declaring that "all men are created equal" the authors and sponsors of that document and thousands of their countrymen were slave holders. It never apparently occurred to them that there was any conflict with their pronouncements and their ownership of slaves.

The celebration of Negro History week, Dr. Woodson says, should be a means of pointing out the fallacies of modern democracy with particular respect to the Negro's interest in improved race relations in all parts of the world. Sponsors also are calling attention to this year's celebration of the centennial of the Republic of Liberia which declared its independence June 26, 1847.

Further emphasis is being placed this year on encouraging local leaders and organizations to request school boards to include books on Negro history, Negro literature, biographies and other books on the Negro and race relations as texts and supplementary reading for students in the public schools.

Teachers are urged to raise funds to buy books on the Negro and pictures of outstanding Negro leaders for the school library.

Leaders are also urged to organize a local branch of the association in the largest cities in all states and to secure important historical and sociological documents, papers, letters and other material on the Negro and race relations and forward such materials to the association headquarters at 1538 Ninth St., N. W., Washington, D. C. All activities during Negro History week in schools, colleges and churches should be reported to the association.