Call to the Fourth Pan-African Congress, New York (1927)
A typewritten circular calls a Fourth Pan-African Congress to New York for 21-24 August 1927 and gives three stated beliefs. The tell is the third: broad ideals ('light, freedom and self-expression for all men', 'social uplift') are named without any programme, while the sheet asks each recipient to bring others and promises that the names of 'persons of prominence' backing the call will follow.
- Date
- August 1927
- Period
- Interwar
- Made by
- Circle for Peace and Foreign Relations of the United States (executive committee chaired by Addie Waite Hunton), for the Pan-African Congress movement
- Region
- North America
- Country
- United States
- Medium
- Document
- Issuer type
- NGO
- Regime
- Coolidge Administration
- Leader
- Calvin Coolidge
- Audience
- Diaspora or minority
- Techniques
- Glittering generalities
- Source
- Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
- Source
- Wikimedia Commons (from the W. E. B. Du Bois Papers, UMass Amherst Libraries, Credo), retrieved October 2, 2026
- Rights
- Public domain (Commons page; 1927 circular, published before 1931)
Pan African Congress, 1927; W. E. B. Du Bois Papers (MS 312), UMass Amherst Libraries, via Wikimedia Commons
Text on the object
FOURTH PAN-AFRICAN CONGRESS The Circle for Peace and Foreign Relations of the United States is hereby calling a Fourth Pan-African Congress to meet in the City of New York, U. S. A., August 21, 22, 23 and 24, 1927. The Circle and those who are united in this call believe: 1. That Conference is the beginning of wisdom. 2. That the three Pan-African Congresses of 1919, 1921, 1923, held in London, Paris, Brussels and Lisbon were valuable steps in bringing together widely separated groups of men and women of Negro blood and their friends to consult on the present condition and the future of the black race and to achieve mutual understanding and acquaintanceship. 3. That such conferences undertaken in so spirit of racial exclusiveness and with no thought of agression upon the rights of others, but only with the earnest desire for light, freedom and self-expression for all men, are real steps for the social uplift of black folk, and that the day is far past when any man or group can speak for a people who are able and willing to speak for themselves. Therefore, the Circle for Peace and Foreign Relations, with the co-operation and consent of many persons of prominence whose names will be published later, invite you and your friends to be present at this congress and to take part in it and to induce as many others to attend as you may be able to. Signed for the Circle for Peace and Foreign Relations. THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE Addie Waite Hunton, chairman Dorothy R. Peterson, Secretary Menta B. Trotman Nina G. Du Bois Lottie E. Cooper Lillian A. Alexander Sadie E. Stockton Eunise Hunton Carter Minnie McA. Pickens Annie M. Dingle Room 688 Bible House, Astor Place, New York, N.Y., U.S.A. [handwritten in margin, right:] 46-1-99
Typos preserved as typed ('so spirit', 'agression'). Handwritten margin number read as '46-1-99' (rotated, approximate).
