In this brief work Dr. Davenport is supplying information that is woefully lacking and greatly needed in the Church and Race. The real greatness of a people is to be found in the extent and quality of its literature and art. Great literature and high art have ever eradicated the stigma of racial inferiority. All comparisons rest upon mental attitudes. The demonstration, therefore, of intellectual equality is the basis of the measurement of true greatness. The author is convinced that the Negro possesses those innate qualities that make for literary and artistic creations. The writer, himself a journalist and editor of distinction, feels that the Race is yearning for more and better self-expression--for literary and artistic emancipation.
Dr. Davenport is seriously endeavoring to gather up the literary fragments of his Church and, running these through the alembic of his genius, offer to the world a production essential and inspiring.
This effort is indeed a very worthy beginning, but its success depends upon the interest, appreciation and further effort of the Church itself. One finds in this collection a stimulus for the future and the evidence of real achievement. We commend the lofty purpose and fruitful endeavor of the writer. He rightly observes that the leaders of thought in Church and Race have not accomplished as much as they might have done in the production and publication of literature. His hope is that this volume may add stimulus in this respect. We are in the midst of a thinking and reading Church and Race. The press is already more powerful than the human voice. The Voice of the Press has become the Voice of the People. We must therefore write to be heard and to influence. Without literature the Church must inevitably lose its hold on the masses, and the masses look to the press for their education and guidance.
