In 1852, Martin Robison Delany (1812–1885), born a free black man, wrote a book of strategic insight for the "elevation" of what he called colored persons in the United States.  He would go on to be the highest ranking non-white person in the Union Army during the Civil War with the rank of major as the first black line field officer in the U.S. Army.

His book was titled The Condition, Elevation, Emigration, and Destiny of the Colored People of the United States.

His advice was to abandon servile supplication for deliverance from slavery and hard circumstances and rather work without fear of, or undue deference to, white privilege in order for black people to elevate their condition, one by one.

First, we should hear Delany in his own voice and then, second, reflect on the import of his words for our racial challenges today: Critical Race Theory; reparations; and diversity, inclusion, and equity.

Delany wrote:

The colored races are highly susceptible of religion; it is a constituent principle of their nature, and an excellent trait in their character. But unfortunately for them, they carry it too far. Their hope is largely developed, and consequently, they usually stand still — hope in God, and really expect Him to do that for them, which it is necessary they should do themselves. This is their great mistake, and arises from a misconception of the character and ways of Deity.

The argument that man must pray for what he receives, is a mistake, and one that is doing the colored people especially, incalculable injury. That man must pray in order to get to Heaven, every Christian will admit — but a great truth we have yet got to learn, that he can live on earth whether he is religious or not, so that he conforms to the great law of God, regulating the things of earth; the great physical laws. It is only necessary, in order to convince our people of their error and palpable mistake in this matter, to call their attention to the fact, that there are no people more religious in this Country, than the colored people, and none so poor and miserable as they. ...

That among the slaves, there are thousands of them religious, continually raising their voices, sending up their prayers to God, invoking His aid in their behalf, asking for a speedy deliverance; but they are still in chains[.] ...

What then is the remedy, for our degradation and oppression? This appears now to be the only remaining question — the means of successful elevation in this our own native land? This depends entirely upon the application of the means of Elevation. ...

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. 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 now makes use of. ...

These are the means by which God intended man to succeed: and this discloses the secret of the white man's success with all of his wickedness, over the head of the colored man, with all of his religion. ...

Our elevation must be the result of self-efforts, and work of our own hands. No other human power can accomplish it. If we but determine it shall be so, it will be so. Let each one make the case his own, and endeavor to rival his neighbor, in honorable competition. ...

These are the proper and only means of elevating ourselves and attaining equality in this country or any other, and it is useless, utterly futile, to think about going any where, except we are determined to use these as the necessary means of developing our manhood. The means are at hand, within our reach. Are we willing to try them? Are we willing to raise ourselves superior to the condition of slaves, or continue the meanest underlings, subject to the beck and call of every creature bearing a pale complexion? ...

The degradation of the slave parent has been entailed upon the child, induced by the subtle policy of the oppressor, in regular succession handed down from father to son — a system of regular submission and servitude, menialism and dependence, until it has become almost a physiological function of our system, an actual condition of our nature. Let this no longer be so, but let us determine to equal the whites among whom we live, not by declarations and unexpressed self-opinion, for we have always had enough of that, but by actual proof in acting, doing, and carrying out practically, the measures of equality. Here is our nativity, and here have we the natural right to abide and be elevated through the measures of our own efforts.

To which I respond: be it so.

Delany, to me, argues from the determinative importance of religiosity in human living.  He rejects that religiosity that empowers a master through servile dependency and supplication and, in its place, advocates a religiosity that empowers the individual human person with the agency of self-determination and self-reliance.

I consider Delany's insight foreshadowing the 1904–1905 thesis of the brilliant and insightful German sociologist Max Weber: that the remarkable improvement in the human condition brought about by capitalist wealth creation starting around 1750 was provoked and then driven forward to remarkable success until this day by a Protestant religious ethic.

Delany's recommendations as reported above are, at their core, an affirmation of what would come to be called the Protestant Ethic of work — deferred gratification, financial savings, self-mastery, collaboration, and an individual's vigorous application of his moral sense in personal decision-making.

The convictions associated with the Protestant Ethic can be heard in Martin Luther King's insistence that his "four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character."

The Protestant Ethic inspired the inaugural address of John F. Kennedy, a Catholic: "Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country."

And so today why should we ask what others can do for us but, rather, ask ourselves what each of us can do for our society?  Isn't that just what Martin Delany would ask us to do?

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