Joel Augustus Rogers facts for kids
Joel Augustus Rogers (born September 6, 1880 – died March 26, 1966) was a Jamaican-American writer, journalist, and historian. He spent his life studying the history of Africa and people of African descent around the world.
After moving to the United States in 1906, he lived in Chicago and later in New York City. He became very interested in the history of African Americans. His research covered many areas, like history, sociology, and anthropology. He challenged old, unfair ideas about race and showed how different civilizations were connected. He also highlighted the achievements of people of African heritage, including those with mixed European backgrounds.
Rogers was one of the first people to make African and African-American history popular in the 20th century. His book World's Great Men of Color is considered one of his most important works.
Contents
Biography
Joel Augustus Rogers was born on September 6, 1880, in Negril, Jamaica. He was one of eleven children. His parents were of mixed-race background; his father was a minister and his mother was a schoolteacher. They couldn't afford a fancy education for all their children, but they taught Rogers and his siblings how important learning was. Rogers said he had a "good basic education."
Rogers moved from Jamaica to the United States in 1906. He lived in Chicago until 1921, then settled in Harlem, New York City. He became a US citizen in 1916 and lived in New York for most of his life. He was there during the Harlem Renaissance, a time when African-American art and ideas really blossomed. He became good friends with Hubert Harrison, a thinker and activist in Harlem.
While living in Chicago in the 1920s, Rogers worked as a Pullman porter and a reporter for the Chicago Enterprise. Being a Pullman porter meant he could travel a lot and meet many different kinds of people. This travel helped him learn more, as he used libraries in the cities he visited. He published his research findings himself in several books.
From "Superman" to Man
Rogers' first book, From "Superman" to Man, was published by himself in 1917. This book strongly argued against the idea that African people were not as good as others. It was a powerful statement against the lack of knowledge that causes racism.
The main story is about a debate between a Pullman porter and a white racist politician from the Southern US. Rogers used this debate to share his own ideas and to prove that stereotypes about black people and ideas of white superiority were wrong. The porter's arguments came from many different sources, both old and new, covering history, anthropology, and biology. Rogers kept developing the ideas he first shared in this book. He talked about how there's no real scientific basis for the idea of "race." He also pointed out that black history wasn't often told from a black person's point of view. And he showed how people from different backgrounds have always mixed and married throughout history.
The book also showed Rogers' thoughts on Christianity. When the Senator asks, "Then you do not support Christianity for the Negro?" The main character, Dixon, replies, "The real Christianity, yes. The usual Christianity of the white Gentile with its selfishness, no."
Rogers also had good things to say about Islam. When the Senator asked about "Mohammedism," Dixon answered:
- From what I saw in Egypt, Turkey, and other Islamic countries, I think that while its claims are simpler than Christianity, it is more kind.
- Islam is as fair to its dark-skinned followers as Christianity is unfair.
- In fact, every other religion is fairer than Christianity.
- After Mohammed, a Black man named Bilal is highly respected.
- Islam knows no other connection but religion. White, black, yellow, brown, it doesn't matter as long as you share the faith.
- Christianity—I'm mostly talking about the Anglo-Saxon kind—only likes Black people when they are happy to be servants, and only for a short time.
- Islam, with all its flaws, on the other hand, inspires them to be strong individuals.
Newspaper Career
In the 1920s, Rogers worked as a journalist for the Pittsburgh Courier and the Chicago Enterprise. He was also a sub-editor for Marcus Garvey's newspaper, the Daily Negro Times, which didn't last long.
As a newspaper reporter, Rogers covered important events, like the crowning of Emperor Haile Selassie I of Ethiopia for the New York Amsterdam News. He wrote for many other black newspapers and magazines, including Crisis, American Mercury, The Messenger Magazine, the Negro World, and Survey Graphic. He even interviewed Marcus Garvey when Garvey was in prison.
Rogers was one of the few black US war correspondents during World War II. This meant he reported on the war from the front lines.
Rogers also helped create a newspaper cartoon series called Your History. It looked like Robert Ripley's famous Believe It or Not cartoons. Each episode of Your History had several short stories about African Americans, based on Rogers' research. The series started in the Pittsburgh Courier in November 1934, with art by George L. Lee. In 1940, Samuel Milai took over the artwork and stayed with the series until it ended. In 1962, the title changed to Facts About The Negro. The series continued even after Rogers died, appearing regularly until 1971, likely with reprinted old cartoons. Two collections of these cartoons were published: Your History (1940) and Facts About The Negro (around 1960).
Death
Rogers passed away on March 26, 1966, in New York City. His wife, Helga M. Rogers, survived him.
Other Works
Rogers' work often focused on the idea of "the Great Black Man" in history. This idea showed history, especially black history, as a collection of achievements by important black people. He spent much of his life uncovering facts about people of African descent. He wanted these findings to prove wrong the racist beliefs of his time that said black people were not as good.
Books like 100 Amazing Facts about the Negro and World's Great Men of Color described remarkable black people throughout history. They also highlighted important achievements by black people. Rogers suggested that some historical figures, who were thought to be "white" (European), like Aesop, Cleopatra, and Hannibal, were actually "black." This was many years before other historians, who are called Afrocentric (and whose ideas are mostly not accepted by other experts), tried to support some of his claims.
Rogers also commented on the partial black ancestry of some famous Europeans, such as Alexander Pushkin and Alexandre Dumas, père. Similarly, Rogers claimed that some paintings of Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, an ancestor of the British royal family, showed her with "broad nostrils and heavy lips." He thought this meant she had some "Negroid strain."
Rogers' ideas about race and color can be found in his books Nature Knows No Color-Line and World's Great Men of Color. His small book Five Negro Presidents claimed to have proof that some US presidents in the 1800s and 1900s had some black ancestry. His research in this book inspired Auset Bakhufu's book Six Black Presidents: Black Blood: White Masks USA (1993). However, neither of these ideas is widely accepted by historians. Scholar Henry Louis Gates, Jr. said that Rogers' pamphlet would "get the 'Black History Wishful Thinking Prize,' if one existed."
Rogers believed that differences between ethnic groups came from social reasons. He thought that these differences were often wrongly blamed on "physical" differences like race. He explored the topic of race in Nature Knows No Color-Line. Rogers' research looked at how populations moved and mixed throughout human history. He argued that this mixing led to a black "strain" in Europe and the Americas.
In Nature Knows No Color-Line, Rogers looked at how racial hierarchies and the "color problem" began. He said that the origins of the race problem had never been properly studied or discussed. He believed that prejudice based on color usually came from issues of power and control between two groups that looked different. He thought that color prejudice was used as an excuse for one group to dominate, control, and fight against another. Societies created myths and prejudices to help themselves, often at the expense of other groups. He wanted to show that color prejudice is not natural. He believed there is no natural dislike for darker skin by lighter-skinned people, and no natural dislike for lighter skin by darker-skinned people.
Rogers' theory about where races came from suggests that the first humans were light-skinned, but similar to black Africans. One group became the modern "white" race, and the other in Africa became black Africans. All other races are their descendants to different degrees. He believed no race was better than any other.
In his works, Rogers questioned the idea of race itself. He also looked at how racial differences started and what caused the "color problem." Rogers felt that the "color problem" was that race was used to decide social, political, and economic factors for people.
Philosophy and Viewpoint
Rogers was a very careful researcher, a smart scholar, and a clear writer. He traveled tirelessly to find knowledge, often going directly to the places he was studying. While traveling in Europe, he spent a lot of time in libraries, museums, and castles. There, he found information that helped him document African ancestry and history. He challenged the biased views of historians and anthropologists who focused only on European history.
Rogers collected what he called "the bran of history." This meant the uncollected and unexamined history of the world, and he was especially interested in the history of black people. Rogers wanted these forgotten parts of history to become part of the main story of Western history. He believed that including African history in world discussions would help bridge racial divides. His studies aimed to shed light on previously ignored areas of Africana history. They also aimed to fight against the unfair stereotypes that were given to black people.
Rogers argued that skin color did not determine how smart someone was. He also showed that Africans had contributed much more to the world than was previously recognized. He made public the stories of great black civilizations that had thrived in Africa long ago. He dedicated his studies to proving that African people had an important place in Western history. According to Rogers, many ancient African civilizations were key shapers of Western civilization and culture.
With these discoveries, Rogers also highlighted how silly racial divisions were. His belief in one race—humanity—meant he didn't believe in several different ethnic races. In this way, he was a humanist. He used history to support his ideas about humanism. His studies aimed to prove his main humanist idea: that people are one big family without racial boundaries.
Rogers paid for his own research, taught himself, and published his own books. Some critics focused on his lack of a formal education, saying it might stop him from producing academic work. Others suggested that being self-taught actually freed him from many strict academic rules and methods. As someone who taught himself, Rogers followed his research into many different subjects that more formally educated scholars might have been afraid to try. His works are full of detailed references. The fact that he documented his work so carefully, encouraging others to check his facts, showed how dedicated he was to world history and culture.
Rogers shared ideas about race that were based on anthropology and biology, rather than just social customs. He used what he found in his research to express his humanist beliefs and to show how all humans are connected. He rejected the unscientific definition of race and pursued his own ideas about humanity's interconnectedness. While his work has often been called Afrocentric and outside mainstream history, his most important contribution was his careful analysis of the idea of race.
Legacy and Honors
Rogers was a member of several professional groups, including the Paris Society of Anthropology, the American Geographical Society, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the Academy of Political Science.
See also
