12 Things The Negro Must Do For Himself - Part 1

In the early 1900s, African-American author, educator, and activist Nannie Helen Burroughs published “12 Things The Negro Must Do For Himself”, which was a comprehensive list of important values and ideologies deemed necessary for Blacks to understand and implement to create success for themselves and implement as newly freed people of America.

In honor of Black History month I believe it is imperative to share Ms. Burroughs’ writing because her words are still extremely valuable and pertinent today.

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1. The Negro Must Learn To Put First Things First. The first things are: education; development of character traits, a trade, and home ownership. The Negro puts too much of his earning in clothes, in food, in show, and in having what he calls “a good time.” The Dr. Kelly Miller said, “The Negro buys what he wants and begs for what he needs.” Too true!

2. The Negro Must Stop Expecting God and White Folk To Do For Him What He Can Do For Himself. It is the “Divine Plan” that the strong shall help the weak, but even God does not do for man what man can do for himself. The Negro will have to do exactly what Jesus told the man (in John 5:8) to do – Carry his own load. “Take up your bed and walk.”

3. The Negro Must Keep Himself, His Children And His Home Clean And Make The Surroundings In Which He Lives Comfortable and Attractive.

He must learn to “run his community up”– not down. We can segregate by law, we integrate only by living. Civilization is not a matter of race, it is a matter of standards. Believe it or not, some day, some race is going to outdo the Anglo-Saxon, completely. It can be the Negro race, if the Negro gets sense enough. Civilization goes up and down that way.

4. The Negro Must Learn To Dress More Appropriately For Work And For Leisure. Knowing what to wear, how to wear it, when to wear it, and where to wear it are earmarks of common sense, culture and also an index to character.

5. The Negro Must Make His Religion An Everyday Practice And Not Just A Sunday-Go-To-Meeting Emotional Affair.

6. The Negro Must Highly Resolve To Wipe Out Mass Ignorance. The leaders of the race must teach and inspire the masses to become eager and determined to improve mentally, morally, and spiritually, and to meet the basic requirements of good citizenship. We should initiate an intensive literacy campaign in America, as well as in Africa. Ignorance, satisfied ignorance, is a millstone about the neck of the race. It is democracy’s greatest burden. Social integration is a relationship attained as a result of the cultivation of kindred social ideals, interests and standards. It is a blending process that requires time, understanding and kindred purposes to achieve. Likes alone and not laws can do it.