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 Dr.
Martin R. Delany: A man missing from Black
History
By Dr. Conrad W. Worrill
The use of history as a tool of liberation is an
ongoing battle that the African in America
Community must come to grips with.
Far too many Africans in America reject the use
of history as a tool to understand the past, the
present, and the future. The rejection of
history, by many of us, results in the denial of
our true condition and situation as thirty
million people living in the United States.
From time to time, in reflecting on our history
and our present situation as a race, I reread a
most profound book. In fact, I suggest that all
Africans in America read this book and become
familiar with the work of this unsung hero in
our struggle, Dr. Martin R. Delany. Martin R.
Delany (a contemporary of Frederick Douglass and
co-founder with Douglass of The North Star
Newspaper) was a fearless and independent
champion for the cause of our redemption from
1840 until his death in January 1885 at the age
of 72.
Dr. Delany was known as the most prominent
advocate of Africans in America nationalism in
the 19th century. It was in his book, written in
1852, “The Condition, Elevation, Emigration, and
Destiny of the Colored People of the United
States,” that Dr. Delany’s view of the situation
of our race became widely known.
Dr. Delany was free born in Charleston, Virginia
on May 6, 1812. In an effort to improve their
situation, the Delanys moved to Chambersburg,
Pennsylvania when Martin was 10 years old. At
the age of 19, young Martin moved to Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania where he worked as a barber and
studied with an African in America minister
named Lewis Woodson. Woodson is given credit for
shaping Dr. Delany’s political thought.
It was in Pittsburgh that Dr. Delany became
exposed to the efforts of Africans in America
who were organizing against the chattel slave
system. These men were called abolitionists. Dr.
Delany began attending meetings that focused on
the abolition of slavery. These meetings and
contacts with other African in America leaders
inspired Dr. Delany to continue his
self-education on the history of our race. He
became an avid reader of world history and
philosophy, eventually emerging as one of the
most important African in America thinkers and
orators.
Africans in America knew Dr. Delany for his
opposition to the chattel slave system and for
his call for Africans in America to voluntarily
return to Africa and establish a nation. He was
a tenacious fighter for African in America
collective action and self-help throughout his
participation in the movement....
The life of Dr. Martin R. Delany should be a
required study for all Africans in America
youth. For example, how many Africans in America
are aware that Dr. Delany was among the small
group of Africans in America medical students
that attended Harvard Medical School in 1850 and
1851? Although White supremacy and racism forced
Dr. Delany to withdraw (the White medical
students strongly objected to a Black man
graduating with them feeling this would lessen
their degree), he went on to distinguish himself
as an outstanding physician specializing in
chronic diseases of women and children.
Dr. Delany was a prolific writer. He wrote the
third novel produced in this country by an
African in America entitled, Blake and the Huts
of America. Additionally, he published an
account of his trip to Africa to locate
emigration sites entitled the Official Report
of the Niger Valley Exploring Party. Dr. Delany’s final work was titled, Principia of
Ethnology: The Origin of Races and Color with an
Archaeological Compendium of Ethiopian and
Egyptian Civilization. It was in this work that
Dr. Delany revealed that the ancient Egyptians
and Ethiopians were Black, and the creators of
the world’s first civilizations, contrary to the
European conception of Egypt and Ethiopia (a
concept they still cling to today despite all of
the evidence).
The words that Dr. Delany wrote in 1852 have not
changed and are still relevant and reflective of
our condition today. In Condition and
Elevation, Dr. Delany stated, White men are
producers—we are consumers. They build houses,
and we rent them. They raise produce, and we
consume it. They manufacture clothes and wares,
and we garnish ourselves with them. They build
coaches, vessels, cars, hotels, saloons, and
other vehicles and places of accommodation, and
we deliberately wait until they have got them in
readiness, then walk in, and contend with as
much assurance for a “right” as though the whole
thing was bought by, paid for, and belonged to
us.
And finally, Dr. Delany said in this great work,
referring to the Europeans, By their literary
attainments, they are the contributors to,
authors and teachers of, literature, science,
religion, law, medicine, and all other useful
attainments that the world makes use of. We have
no reference to ancient times—we speak of modem
things.
Much of what Dr. Delany wrote and lectured about
in the 19th century concerning the condition of
Africans in America is still true 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. Read the works
of Dr. Martin R. Delany and you will find much
wisdom.
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