An Afro-Indigenous History of the United States

Eastman likely participated in the URC for at least two reasons. First, he
needed steady income to support his growing family. By 1910, he earned
the majority of his income from lectures and book sales. Second, Eastman
certainly wanted to mingle with some of the world’s elite, hoping to
demonstrate that Indigenous peoples were human and could operate in
modernity. Finally, he had secured himself as a national figure within the
white imagination. Because of his writings, he also had recognition in
Europe. 41 Eastman noted, “Like everyone else who is more or less in the
public eye, I have a large correspondence from unknown friends” and
“among the most inspiring letters received have been from foreign
countries.” 42 In other words, Eastman was most certainly feeling himself,
and it was well deserved.
Eastman saw his attendance as a political project. In a January 27, 1911,
letter to Yavapai Apache doctor Carlos Montezuma, Eastman discussed
both his forthcoming book, The Soul of the Indian—a title resonant with Du
Bois’s The Souls of Black Folk—and his upcoming attendance at the URC.
Eastman stated that all his efforts up to that point in his life were “to show
that the Indian is capable of receiving a higher civilization much easier . . .
if properly dealt with.” 43
The objective of the Congress was to bring together like-minded people
to discuss the problems of race and colonialism. Although rooted in liberal
discourses, the organizers believed that what lay at the heart of forms of
dispossession, racism, and exploitation was ignorance. If they could get
together in one of the seats of empire in London and discuss how they were
all similar, race relations would change. Doesn’t that sound familiar today?
If we educate people—white people—about anti-racism, things will get
better? Nevertheless, Du Bois and Eastman, among other oppressed and
oppressors, believed that something had to be done. Secretariats,
representing at least thirty countries, advertised the URC. In addition, some
twenty governments were officially represented there, along with some
fifty-three nationalities.
Both Du Bois and Eastman actively promoted the Congress. Du Bois, as
co-secretary, did so in The Crisis, the official news and popular culture
organ of the NAACP. “We doubt,” he wrote, “if the Twentieth Century will
bring forth a better idea than the First Universal Races Congress held in
London, in the summer of 1911.” 44