HISTORY OF THE A. M. E. REVIEW.


  The year 1884 is memorable as the year in which the A.
M. E. Church established the A. M. E. REVIEW to be the
mouthpiece of the Negro race and to be its defender from
unjust criticism.
  Among the fathers such a publication had been frequently
discussed for years, but the difficulties in the way were
many; experience was lacking; the expense was great, and
men competent by education and fitted by temperament to
be editor of a cool, comprehensive, judicial controverial
magazine, were scarce. But with each passing year the
need grew greater, for the  attacks  grew  fiercer.   The
revelations of the census of 1880 showed that the problem
of keeping the Negro satisfied with the unfair treatment
meted out to him was not in process of solution, but was
becoming aggravated; for it showed that he was growing
in numbers, growing in wealth, growing in self-respect,
growing in determination to take his full  place  as  an
American citizen. In opposition to this upspringing pur-
pose of a growing manhood there arose a class of magazine
writers who sought by a shrewd analysis of the facts and
figures of the census to prejudice the minds of thoughtful
men against the Negro's claim to fuller recognition as a
man and brother. One school attempted to prove that the
percentage of Negro increase was diminishing and that the
race was dying out; thus the problem would, in time, take
care of itself. Another proved to its own satisfaction that,
unless something was done, the Negro would soon dominate
the country. One descanted upon the wastefulness and in-
dolence of the race; the other raised an alarm at the rate
at which he was acquiring the land in the South, stating
                       (391)




			

African Methodist Episcopal Church Review, Vol. 25, Num. 4

History of the A.M.E. Review

Volume:  25
Issue Number:  04
Page Number:  391
Date:  04/1909