conference

Universal Races Congress

Date: 
26 Jul 1911
End date: 
29 Jul 1911
Event location: 

London

About: 

The Universal Races Congress, held in London over three days in June 1911, was organized by Gustave Spiller, of the Ethical Culture movement. The aim of the Congress was to discuss race relations and relations between East and West. Anthropologists, sociologists, politicians, lawyers and students all gathered. A photographic exhibition was also on display. Dr Brajendranath Seal gave the opening address on 'Meaning of Race, Tribe, Nation', and G. A. Gokhale gave a speech on 'East and West in India'.

The Congress led Dusé Mohamed, an Egyptian author, to establish The African Times and Orient Review. It is also claimed by some that the Congress was the stimulus to the foundation of the African National Congress (ANC) in South Africa in 1912.

Organizer: 
Gustave Spiller
People involved: 

Syed Ameer Ali, Thomas W. Arnold, Annie Besant, Mancherjee Merwanjee Bhownaggree, W. E. B. Du Bois, G. K. Gokhale, J. A. Hobson, Margaret Noble, Brajendranath Seal

Published works: 

Papers on Inter-Racial Problems Communicated to the First Universal Races Congress held at the University of London July 26-29, 1911, edited by G. Spiller (London: P. S. King & Son, 1911)

Reviews: 

St Nihal Singh, 'Trying to solve the problems of race', American Review of Reviews, 44.3 (Sept. 1911), pp.339-44.

Various articles in The Times.

Secondary works: 

Green, Jeffrey P., Black Edwardians: Black People in Britain 1901-1914 (Abingdon: Frank Cass, 1998)

Example: 

Papers on Inter-Racial Problems Communicated to the First Universal Races Congress held at the University of London July 26-29, 1911, edited by G. Spiller (London: P. S. King & Son, 1911), p.xiii

Extract: 

The object of the Congress will be to discuss, in the light of science and the modern conscience, the general relations subsisting between the peoples of the West and those of the East, between so-called white and so called coloured peoples, with a view to encouraging between them a fuller understanding, the most friendly feelings, and a heartier co-operation. Political issues of the hour will be subordinated to this comprehensive end, in the firm belief that, when once mutual respect is established, difficulties of every type will be sympathetically approached and readily solved.

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