AMERICANNEGROACADEMYand the Negro Soci-
ety for Historical Research. When Ferris joined the
UNIA he did so with a controversial publication
record and respected scholarly credentials. In 1913
he authored The African Abroad, or, His Evolution in
Western Civilization, Tracing His Development Under
Caucasian Milieu.The two-volume work was the
result of Ferris’s extensive travels and studies of
African history.
In 1919 Ferris became the literary editor of
NEGRO WORLD, the official publication of the
UNIA. Under his leadership, the weekly newspaper
flourished. CARTERG. WOODSON, historian and
founder of the ASSOCIATION FOR THESTUDY OF
NEGROLIFE ANDHISTORY, said that Ferris was
largely responsible for making the colorful weekly
the most “widely circulated Negro newspaper
which has been published in the Western hemi-
sphere.” Ferris became fully immersed in the Gar-
vey movement and figured prominently in financial
ventures such as the Negro Factories Corporation
initiatives in the 1920s that led to the purchase of
laundry factories, grocery stores, and restaurants.
Ferris published several essays in the 1920s. In
1922 he published “The Negro Renaissance” and
“Negro Composers and Negro Music—Is There
Race in Music?” In 1923 “The Philosophy and
Opinions of Marcus Garvey” appeared.
Bibliography
Burkett, Randall. Black Redemption: Churchmen Speak for
the Garvey Movement.Philadelphia: Temple Univer-
sity Press, 1978.
Martin, Tony. African Fundamentalism: A Literary and
Cultural Anthology of Garvey’s Harlem Renaissance.
Dover, Mass.: Majority Press, 1991.
Rashidi, Runoko. “William Henry Ferris: The African
Abroad.” The Global African Community. Avail-
able online. URL: http://www.cwo.com/~lucumi/
ferris.html. Accessed May 20, 2005.
Fifteenth Regiment of New York
National Guard
A group of soldiers whose regiment became the
369th United States Infantry and the first African-
American regiment to see action in France during
World War I. Their story was included in Scott’s
Official History of the American Negro in the World
Wa r(1919), written by Emmett Scott, special adju-
tant to the secretary of war and longtime private
secretary of BOOKERT. WASHINGTON. The regi-
ment’s adaptability and military expertise won
them high praise from skeptical officers and mem-
bers of the Department of War.
The regiment, known as the “Fighting Fif-
teenth” and the “Hell Fighters,” embodied the
bravery and patriotism that underscored African-
American efforts to secure civil rights in postwar
America. In February 1919 the regiment returned
from France to New York. The striking parade of
the 1,300 soldiers and their 18 officers in strict for-
mation up FIFTH AVENUE and into HARLEM
marked what historian David Levering Lewis has
defined as the beginning of the New Negro Renais-
sance, the precursor of the Harlem Renaissance.Bibliography
Ellis, Mark. Race, War, and Surveillance: African Ameri-
cans and the United States Government during World
War I. Bloomington: Indiana University Press,
2001.
Little, Arthur. From Harlem to the Rhine: The Story of
New York’s Colored Volunteers.New York: Haskell
House, 1974.
Scott, Emmett. Scott’s Official History of the American
Negro in the World War.1919, reprint, New York:
Arno Press, 1969.
Schneider, Mark Robert. “We Return Fighting”: The Civil
Rights Movement in the Jazz Age.Boston: Northeast-
ern University Press, 2002.Fifth Avenue
A major New York City thoroughfare. It is immor-
talized in Harlem Renaissance history by the Febru-
ary 1919 march of the FIFTEENTHREGIMENT OF
NEWYORKNATIONALGUARD, or 369th U.S. In-
fantry, upon its victorious return from combat in
France during World War I. The 1,300-member
regiment and its 18 officers were led by Bill “Bojan-
gles” Robinson as drum major, and by JAMESREESE
EUROPE, the leader of the 369th military band.Bibliography
Anderson, Jervis. This Was Harlem: A Cultural Portrait,
1900–1950.New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux,
1982.156 Fifteenth Regiment of New York National Guard